𝕿𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 Bulletin for Wednesday, September 22, 2021 ┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅┅ Generated Thu 23 Sep 02:40:03 BST 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 Gemini index for the day: gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2021/09/22/ ╒═══════════════════ 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐁𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐒 ════════════════════════════════════╕ Previous bulletins in IPFS (past 21 days, in chronological order): QmSqRsSaXYEhkCyiyX1JjT7EvRcR9y8SJru8vSVjuiWdEx QmWeVT3WPnEgrznV9jLtoyGa5UDHpbqvCDpFqwuPKnej6m QmbaP7TZ7mUw8pw3WX69cx9hqp8d55jJqWB83KGsmqW96k QmVBf9Bmz3JivTW38Gq44pXRkh6W4noQBtoFameFgXZ8DU QmWGNG7373TNKDtEYo1q57qkgigkeBH51AH8LfDuQhET94 Qmd1j5aPQfEXy7BPbGLFEauDF57nERBXCoCyByfVV29jwD QmQArT4hGt9DGbzeQe46houAtDEoRgo6yuyQNTYhu4fUWa QmRQrMxBHfwwYFakm7kaFrHCGe51siakxNU6w9Z1SnmmSD QmcMxMu1mpdqgj3DsyKreqYUhQWgSSuXM2hkpD8u5qhFQx QmUnQ1KgLk5TqpmioRpKSTQMgTjk8uPKTKhNxDBwtV545z QmUPLCS39mA6XaZmdzwh1WbF8ry8hiVAzuaf4P9A1AmKbd QmNdAU6bFwZMUbnvK1m3e7aSwoHNFY97JdqWjpMVzvVT6V QmSDxEDkdmunKoZmMNVwhKaEKpJYVPqrdqPnbEGhNadE9g QmU3Cc6hMhpsNzFQ82J5uqhtgrCrh67mKLmWhYadentK2o QmQacCjdmHDTi18CHZHhTZoQaq1qFiasj5iWoMZ8Fehf5q QmPWMxYuC9jpqYMEsNWeqP6frZMUpZi99XXbWkJNBJUKoi QmVJRjPH1YsZzKy3abfyBSCWdBy7Pfm7cEB8d1g1cQQyfd QmNUSEXDbUxbW6m6ooyVZNdN7ZyhMjh1q1VNUXyw4WUQ3i QmXigVXDZA7wuFXWn1ieyB6Z3Vz1jBDVuLsbFcmJW29g7k QmPEfsYcyS2TDHQVY6rC6oShWGQQA9zzKSLEsWg34fRiPT QmZvjyhZs3sJdozDCTLX1fbmAMdwoGgJqcPT97hYdb4eS8 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⦿ IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 21, 2021 | Techrights ⦿ Socially- or Corporate- or Centrally-Controlled Surveillance, Censorship and Throttling is Not Media | Techrights ䷼ Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login): http://techrights.org/2021/09/22/irc-log-210921/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/09/22/twitter-throttling/#comments ䷞ Followed by Daily Links (assorted news picks curated and categorised): http://techrights.org/2021/09/22/gnome-41-is-released/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/09/22/new-maui-report/#comments http://techrights.org/2021/09/22/novprog-3-2-0/#comments ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 52 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/09/22/irc-log-210921/#comments Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2021/09/22/irc-log-210921/ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 09.22.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ IRC_Proceedings:_Tuesday,_September_21,_2021⠀✐ Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:27 am by Needs Sunlight Also available via the Gemini protocol at: * gemini://gemini.techrights.org/tr_text_version/irc-log-techrights- 210921.txt * gemini://gemini.techrights.org/tr_text_version/irc-log-210921.txt * gemini://gemini.techrights.org/tr_text_version/irc-log-social-210921.txt * gemini://gemini.techrights.org/tr_text_version/irc-log-techbytes- 210921.txt Over HTTP: 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇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  QmSBcgGdLPDimXr7sdfpb5ybS4KWykFrFs5pnks4BnHHVe #boycottnovell 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #boycottnovell  Qmb1sKhwwuzMzEYciJA5buJpKdt12ydLbYfxE8BBFzTSVj (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for #boycottnovell-  QmS2kfW7JKrFS63CqAqAJEHzcThupcGYS24uzzaYBmfxrC social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #boycottnovell-  QmRAjRGzG4MeN3RRur73XL7s73uJgfU29AZTrvgrXwYkhg social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ (full IRC log as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for  QmPHTgug2h6CXzyG1gCSHp6iYNEa1mdtHEuebpCWyuDRdR #techbytes 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #techbytes  Qmbtz6ykrcs58c7uYVCPKJCKjtAKS2L2SMNRNXECiS2Bnt (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ as plain/ASCII text) IRC log for  QmSqcPx1AVmiHMocNDJUWcP5HwbahCo8BNBTHpULLnWVgz #techrights 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈ (full IRC log as HTML) IRC log for #techrights  QmTSpJ1zeGzHQYMnVz4tvsh3f2csWvqhtBGiRHiXGHyNdE (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈ as plain/ASCII text) 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇IPFS logo⦈ § Bulletin for Yesterday⠀➾ Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmZvjyhZs3sJdozDCTLX1fbmAMdwoGgJqcPT97hYdb4eS8 ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 181 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ (ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/09/22/twitter-throttling/#comments Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2021/09/22/twitter-throttling/ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 09.22.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ Socially-_or_Corporate-_or_Centrally-Controlled_Surveillance,_Censorship_and Throttling_is_Not_Media⠀✐ Posted in Deception, Site_News at 7:09 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz Video_download_link | md5sum ea7d35a3c92713cba617790959ad7af7 http://techrights.org/videos/twitter-clobbers-users.webm Summary: The 'social_control_media' situation is getting out of hand; in YouTube, for example, there’s a broad revolt against strict editorial control by Google and in Twitter it seems like ordinary users aren’t shown so much to people who actually “follow” them AS we noted earlier this month, Twitter_seems_to_be_'hiding'_ordinary_accounts, maybe in favour of “bigger” and “high-profile” accounts like celebrities and infamous demagogues, in effect transforming the platform into mainstream media without non-conformist views (for better “engagement”, even if that means more misinformation and suppression of free speech). “I know for sure that it’s definitely not the same as before as I see the same in other accounts, starting at almost the exact same time.”I admit upfront that I do not understand the nature of the change and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. Users need to communicate with one another and may have to work ‘in reverse’ or sort of reverse-engineer what they’re doing in Twitter, the company; they’re not transparent and definitely not upfront about it, so we need to assess the outcome and try to figure out what algorithms are used to arrive at it. I know for sure that it’s definitely not the same as before as I see the same in other accounts, starting at almost the exact same time. Google did the same_in_YouTube months ago, hence we compared YouTube’s changes to Twitter’s. The video above shows some related evidence, based on my personal account, which I stopped using last year (it’s just passively reposting what I publish elsewhere). In order to better understand what’s going on we kindly ask readers to check if they were similarly affected about 3 weeks ago. The patterns observed can help draw some conclusions, or at least form a better understanding. We want the hard facts. As we noted last year (in relation to Twitter becoming strictly JavaScript-only), there’s almost no press coverage at all about what goes on at Twitter on a technical level. Astoundingly enough, nobody deems it worthy of reporting. “The patterns observed can help draw some conclusions, or at least form a better understanding.”Either way, social control media if not the World Wide Web as a whole is a monopolyover information; sure, anyone can in theory participate, but not everyone gets the same visibility (some get actively blocked, shadowbanned, deplatformed and so on). █ ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 252 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 09.22.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ Links_22/9/2021:_Mesa_21.2.2,_GNOME_41_Released⠀✐ Posted in News_Roundup at 11:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈ § Contents⠀➾ * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * § GNU/Linux⠀➾ o ⚓ JingPad_Review:_A_Real_Linux_Tab_for_True_Linux_Fans⠀⇛ JingOS is in alpha stage of development at the moment. Most of the issues I have encountered in this review should be addressed in the future OTA updates, as their roadmap suggests. The final stable version of JingPad should be available by March 2022. JingPad as a device comes on the pricey side but it also gives you a high-end gadget. 2K AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB UMCP storage and other stuff you get only in high-end devices. The sound from the speakers is decent. o § Desktop/Laptop⠀➾ # ⚓ Windowsfx_11,_a_whole_Linux_flavored_like_Windows_11_and without_the_need_for_TPM_–_itsfoss.net⠀⇛ Windowsfx 11 is the new version of another of the GNU / Linux distributions that try to bring the free system closer to Windows users using the fantastic possibilities of visual and interface customization of Linux. Windowsfx already had custom versions of Windows 7 and Windows 10 and before Microsoft publishes the final version of Windows 11 they already have the one dedicated to the new system. And it offers what is expected. Windowsfx 11 Preview for x86 adapts the user interface to what Windows 11 offers, the general visual appearance and icons, a new start menu or the default centered start panel, as well as using Wine 6 to run Windows applications. o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾ # ⚓ Linux_overview_|_Manjaro_21.1.3_GNOME_Edition_overview_– Invidious⠀⇛ In this video, I am going to show an overview of Manjaro 21.1.3 GNOME Edition and some of the applications pre-installed. # ⚓ Enterprise_Linux_Security_Episode_04_–_Supply_Chain_Attacks –_Invidious⠀⇛ # ⚓ mintCast_370_–_New_Wanderers⠀⇛ 1:35 The News 30:19 Security Update 38:58 Bi-Weekly Wanderings 50:36 Announcements & Outro First up in the news Linux Mint gets a new website, A new point release, Firefox snaps back, Gnome and Plasma get updates, and much more In security, no encrypted chats are safe Then in our Wanderings, we hear from the old AND new crew # ⚓ Space_for_Theming_|_LINUX_Unplugged_424⠀⇛ A serious problem is brewing in Desktop Linux that hasn’t impacted end users yet, but will soon. We break down why distribution makers are getting upset and explain what’s next. Plus, an update on Matrix and the recent upgrades we made to our server. o § Kernel Space⠀➾ # ⚓ Linux_Kernel_5.13_Reaches_End_of_Life,_Users_Urged_to Upgrade_to_Linux_Kernel_5.14⠀⇛ Released on June 27th, 2021, Linux kernel 5.13 was one of the bigger releases in the Linux 5.x series with over 16,000 commits contributed by more than 2000 developers. It introduced initial FreeSync HDMI support for AMD GPUs, initial support for Apple’s M1 processor, and support for the Landlock security module. On September 18th, 2021, renowned Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman published what appeared to be the last maintenance update to the Linux kernel 5.13 series, Linux 5.13.19, saying that the branch is now end-of-life and urging everyone to upgrade to the latest Linux 5.14 kernel series. # ⚓ Aya_Makes_It_Easy_To_Write_Rust-Based_eBPF_Programs_For_The Linux_Kernel⠀⇛ Aya was presented during this week’s Linux Plumbers Conference for improving the eBPF developer experience by allowing Rust programs to easily run within the kernel. Aya is the first Rust-native eBPF library that is similar in nature to libbpf but entirely written in the Rust programming language, popular for its memory safety and concurrency features, among other reasons this programming language is becoming very popular for systems programming. # § Graphics Stack⠀➾ # ⚓ Mesa_21.2.2⠀⇛ Hi list, I'd like to announce Mesa 21.2.2, which is now available for consumption. This release is a bit late, and very large. We've got a ton of work going into panfrost, getting it closer to being conformant (it is conformant on 21.3!), as well as fixes for ir3, croccus, nir, utils, llvmpipe, gallivm, zink, glsl, v3d, vc4, intel, mesa, aco, iris, radv, and even osmesa. We'll hopefully be back on schedule after this. Cheers, Dylan # ⚓ Mesa_21.2.2_Released_“Late_&_Very_Large”_–_Phoronix⠀⇛ Mesa point releases generally come every two weeks but for the past month have fallen off the wagon. Mesa 21.2.1 came in mid-August and on Tuesday was finally succeeded by Mesa 21.2.2 as a “late and very large” update. Given the month of fixes that accumulated to this collection of primarily OpenGL and Vulkan open-source drivers, there is a lot in store. Mesa 21.2.2 highlights include: - RadeonSI and RADV fixes corruption issues on Navi 1x GPUs by disabling delta color compression stores for displayable DCC. # ⚓ X.Org_Server_21.1_RC1_Released_With_VRR_Support_For Modesetting_Driver,_Other_Features_–_Phoronix⠀⇛ More than three years after X.Org Server 1.20 was released, it’s set to finally be succeeded soon by X.Org Server 21.1 under its new versioning scheme. Out today is the X.org Server 21.1 release candidate. X.Org Server 21.1 is finally coming to light after being organized by new X.Org Server release manager volunteer Povilas Kanapickas. Even this new 21.1 release planning is running a few weeks late due to lingering changes to be moved. Rather than RC1 at the end of August, it’s now coming at the end of September, but in any case it’s looking like the official xorg-server 21.1.0 release will be out this year. # ⚓ xorg-server_21.0.99.901⠀⇛ This is the first release candidate of Xorg 21.1.0 release. # ⚓ AMDGPU_Linux_Driver_To_Overhaul_Its_Approach_To Device_Enumeration_–_Phoronix⠀⇛ AMD’s open-source Linux graphics driver engineers are working to overhaul how the initial driver loading with device enumeration happens to ultimately make it more robust. In the process though PCI IDs become less important and in turn less of an avenue for exposing possible indicators of new graphics cards. A set of 66 patches were sent out today that alter more than two thousand lines of code. The change is ultimately more about having the device enumeration and discovery of supported IP/hardware blocks rather than being tied explicitly to PCI device IDs. All recent AMD GPUs do contain an “IP discovery table” for noting the different graphics, video encode/decode, and other blocks on the hardware — the AMDGPU kernel driver would basically use that for determining its code paths and what is supported, etc. # ⚓ Peter_Hutterer:_An_Xorg_release_without_Xwayland⠀⇛ And it’s a release without Xwayland. And… wait, what? Let’s unwind this a bit, and ideally you should come away with a better understanding of Xorg vs Xwayland, and possibly even Wayland itself. Heads up: if you are familiar with X, the below is simplified to the point it hurts. Sorry about that, but as an X developer you’re probably good at coping with pain. Let’s go back to the 1980s, when fashion was weird and there were still reasons to be optimistic about the future. Because this is a thought exercise, we go back with full hindsight 20/20 vision and, ideally, the winning Lotto numbers in case we have some time for some self-indulgence. o § Benchmarks⠀➾ # ⚓ An_Early_Look_At_The_AMD_P-State_CPPC_Driver_Performance vs._ACPI_CPUFreq⠀⇛ Earlier this month AMD posted their initial public patches for the AMD P-State CPU frequency scaling driver that leverages ACPI CPPC for ultimately aiming to provide better power efficiency and more responsive CPU frequency scaling / performance state decisions on Zen 3 (and Zen 2 eventually) processors. This is part of the effort around AMD and Valve collaborating for better Linux efficiency especially with the AMD-powered Steam Deck. This amd_pstate driver remains a work-in-progress and so far was just sent out in initial patch form earlier this month and not yet queued up for mainlining, etc. It will likely take a few rounds of review before being merged especially with not all Zen 2/3 CPUs/APUs are yet supported among other items still settling with this new driver. o § Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ Which_local_Backup_Tool_is_the_best_on_Linux?⠀⇛ There are several backup utilities available for Linux. Some of them are based on bash scripts and others are properly crafted open-source software. The problem comes when nothing is available in a default installation. I am a Debian user and I have some preferences to use certain backup utilities to keep my data safe. In this guide, I will help you to figure out which backup tool is the best for Linux. Let it be whatever distribution, we are looking for software with a graphical user interface. # ⚓ Chat_Bubbles_on_Element_and_Several_Matrix_Apps⠀⇛ This simple comparison wants to help everyone adopt alternative messaging technology, Matrix, with suitable user interface to them. We call Matrix Apps to instant messengers like Element, Fluffy, Nheko, Schildi and Spectral as they are created based upon the said technology. We will start by setting up criteria first that includes chat bubbles, then going through these messengers one by one, and you will see their pictures here along with a little comments from me. I hope you can pick up the messenger with UI you love the most from here. # ⚓ Ktube_Media_Downloader_lets_you_download_YouTube_videos easily_on_Linux⠀⇛ I always like to tell people about how I have been using Linux as my primary operating system for over ten years. I love Linux, I understand it, it’s free and above all, it fits my workflow in a way Microsoft’s Windows (with all its goodness) probably never will. That also means I love and am a command-line ninja but I also know one thing, a lot of people out there fear and hate the command line. # ⚓ Monero_P2Pool_V1.0_Is_Released⠀⇛ The latest version of P2Pool, a decentralized Monero mining pool has released. This is the first official release, signaling an invitation for more users to try out the new software. o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ How_To_Install_PyCharm_on_AlmaLinux_8_–_idroot⠀⇛ In this tutorial, we will show you how to install PyCharm on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, PyCharm is an integrated development platform used for programming purposes for Python language. It is an interesting alternative with a wide range of Python functions that support beginners, however, even experienced web developers can use it for efficient troubleshooting to carry out targeted fine-tuning. PyCharm is compatible with macOS, Windows, and Linux systems. This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by- step installation of PyCharm IDE on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux. # ⚓ How_To_Install_Go_on_Debian_11_–_idroot⠀⇛ In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Go on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, Go is an open-source programming language that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software. It’s statically typed and produces compiled machine code binaries. Go language is a compiled language. This is popular amongst developers as it means you do not need to compile the source code to create an executable file. 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 Go programming language on a Debian 11 (Bullseye). # ⚓ Install_PowerShell_on_Fedora_Linux [Ed: Red Hat shilling Microsoft]⠀⇛ PowerShell (also written pwsh) is a powerful open source command-line and object-oriented shell developed and maintained by Microsoft. It is syntactically verbose and intuitive for the user. This article is a guide on how to install PowerShell on the host and inside a Podman or Toolbox container. # ⚓ How_to_Download_and_Install_Apache_JMeter_on_Ubuntu_20.04⠀⇛ pache JMeter is a desktop application to perform load testing and measuring the performance of a variety of services. It is completely free and open-source. JMeter is an Apache project and written in Java. Apache JMeter may be used to test performance on static and dynamic resources. It started as a way to test web servers but developed to a lot more protocols like SOAP, FTP, Mail servers, or Database servers. JMeter can be used to simulate a heavy load on a server, group of servers, network, or object. In this tutorial, we learn how to install Apache JMeter on Ubuntu 20.04. You can follow the same steps for other Linux distributions. # ⚓ How_to_Find_Files_Modified_in_Last_24_Hours_in_Linux⠀⇛ A Linux operating system administrator or veteran user understands and relates to the implications of unmet file management routines and objectives. File management improves the overall workflow such that each user’s actions are associated with specific file changes or modifications. # ⚓ How_to_Install_Cawbird_(Twitter_desktop_client)_on_Ubuntu 20.04_Linux⠀⇛ I think there is no doubt that Twitter is one of the most influential social networks in existence. And now in Ubuntu 20.04, we can have a simple and efficient desktop client. So today you will learn how to install Cawbird on Ubuntu 20.04 a modern, simple but effective desktop Twitter client. # ⚓ How_to_Install_Docker_and_Docker_Compose_on_Debian_11⠀⇛ Docker is a free and open-source platform to develop, ship, and run applications in the containerized environment. It allows you to separate your application from your infrastructure. This will make it easier, simpler, and safer to build, deploy and manage containers. Docker is designed to set up a local development environment. If you want to create more than one container for your application you should use Docker compose. Docker-compose is a tool used to define and share multi-container applications. With Docker compose, you can use the YAML file to define all services and run them at once using the simple command. # ⚓ How_to_Install_Plex_Media_Server_on_Debian_11_Bullseye_– LinuxCapable⠀⇛ Plex Media Server is software to store all your digital media content and access via a client application such as your TV, NVIDIA Shield, Roku, Mobile App, and many more platforms. Plex Media Server organizes your files and content into categories. It’s extremely popular with people storing TV Shows and Movie Libraries, and if your connection is good enough, share it with your friends and family. Over time Plex Media Server has grown much and now supports many platforms. In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Plex Media Server on Debian 11 Bullseye. # ⚓ How_to_copy_or_clone_permissions_from_one_file_to_another on_Linux_–_Unixcop⠀⇛ Suppose that you have just created a new file and want it to have the same permissions and ownership of an older file. Need to copy or clone the older file ownership and permissions to the new file you created? In this small guide we will learn how to clone the user, group ownership and permissions on a file from another file on Linux operating system # ⚓ Install_drivers_for_XP-Pen_tablet_on_Linux_–_LinuxH2O⠀⇛ In this quick guide, you will see how to setup up and install the XP-Pen tablet and its drivers on Linux operating system. This guide is for all the distributions and it doesn’t matter which one you may be using Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, or any other for that matter. XP-Pen company is very popular, they have a global presence and goodwill for their awesome tablets. People from many professions rely on these little technical devices, whether you do the digital drawing, designing, editing or maybe you teach, these tablets are just ideal for your workflow. The user experience feels like you are writing on paper with a pen. The tablets come with very good levels of pressure sensitivity. The company provides support for all the operating systems (Even Linux ) and it’s very easy to set up which you will see later in the article. Your tablet also comes with a year of warranty and dedicated customer support for any of your needs. # ⚓ How_to_Check_CPU_and_HDD_Temperature_in_Ubuntu_and_Other Linux⠀⇛ Wondering how you can check the CPU and HDD temperature in Ubuntu and other Linux on your desktop or laptops? Here’s a quick guide. o § Games⠀➾ # ⚓ See_the_new_showcase_of_AMD’s_FidelityFX_Super_Resolution_ (FSR)_on_PS3_emulator_RPCS3_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Last month, PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 became the first emulator to implement AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and there’s a new showcase video to show it off. [...] Nice to see the power of open source at work here. Thanks to many different contributors working on RPCS3 it’s really come along nicely. Also thanks to AMD creating FSR and making it open source too. # ⚓ Bud_Spencer_&_Terence_Hill_–_Slaps_And_Beans_2_will_be coming_to_Linux_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ The developers of Bud Spencer & Terence Hill – Slaps And Beans 2 have announced that their beat ‘em up sequel will be coming to Linux officially. It’s the long-awaited follow-up to the original from 2017 and it’s currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Speaking in an update posted on September 20, the team announced “Following numerous requests and after a technical evaluation, we decided to add the Linux operating system among the platforms included in the base goal.”. # ⚓ 2D_side-scrolling_action_rogue-lite_Helvetii_shows_off_new trailer_with_a_demo_due_soon_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Helvetii is an action rogue-lite set in ancient Gaul that was crowdfunded on Kickstarter back in 2019. Team KwaKwa have a new trailer to show the progress and a demo is due soon. The developer emailed to mention the demo will go live next week, ready for Steam Next Fest and it will support Linux out of the box along with being supported for the full release. # ⚓ Pros_and_Cons_of_Gamification_in_the_Workplace⠀⇛ Many companies, open source communities, and even software applications incorporate elements of game playing, such as badges, rewards, and competition, to make tasks more fun and engaging. Such gamification in the workplace first took off more than a decade ago, writes Katy Milkman in a recent Wired article. # ⚓ Dream_Cats_NFT:_don’t_buy_them_–_David_Revoy⠀⇛ Here is another NFT story (and not a sequel to the last one was in March after someone uploaded my “Yin and Yang of world hunger” on OpenSea…) Today, it is about the official release of the “Dream Cats” catalog on OpenSea by ROPLAK, a derivative of my 2016 Creative Commons Attribution Catavatar generator. It was announced yesterday in this post on Twitter, and the OpenSea catalog page linked counts already over 10K items and already sold 4.2 ETH, so, around 10 000 Euros in two days… o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾ # § GNOME Desktop/GTK⠀➾ # ⚓ GNOME_40_comes_to_Debian_12_“Bookworm”_GNU_Linux, Download_for_Testing⠀⇛ After the freeze and release phase of Debian 11, the developers are back to work, Gnome 40.4 is already in testing (Debian 12 Bookworm). Download and check out. # ⚓ GNOME_41_released_with_performance_enhanced,_new power_modes,_store_improvements_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Another 6 months of development later and GNOME 41 is out with plenty of enhancements for GNOME desktop fans. “The most notable changes this in release include an improved Software app, new multitasking settings, and enhanced power management features. With these changes, GNOME is smarter, more flexible, and offers a richer and more engaging experience than ever before.” – GNOME Team You will find new selectable power modes between Balanced (the default), Performance and Power Save which can be easily changed using the System Status menu. Meanwhile GNOME Software went through a small overhaul and they say almost every part of it has been improved. Performance is another key point and focus, with many efficiency improvements making it in so it will all feel more responsive (on Wayland). There’s also improvements for multitouch, GTK 4 has a new OpenGL renderer which “provides faster rendering and reduced power consumption” and the window manager Mutter got cleaned up for “long-term maintainability and efficiency” # ⚓ GNOME_41_released!⠀⇛ The GNOME Project is proud to announce the release of GNOME 41. Highlights in this release include improvements to the Software app, new multitasking settings and enhanced power management. Beyond that, there is a new Connections application, a refreshed Music application, performance improvements from the compositor to the toolkit, and much more. To learn more about the changes in GNOME 41, you can read the release notes: https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/ 41.0/ GNOME 41 will be available shortly in many distributions. If you want to try it today, you can look for the imminent Fedora 35 beta or the openSUSE nightly live images which both include GNOME 41. https://www.gnome.org/getting-gnome/ https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/ GNOME:/Medias/images/iso/ We are also providing our own installer images for debugging and testing features. These images are meant for installation in a vm and require GNOME Boxes with UEFI support. We suggest getting Boxes from flathub. https://download.gnome.org/gnomeos/41.0/ gnome_os_installer_41.0.iso If you are interested in building applications for GNOME 41, look for the GNOME 41 Flatpak SDK, which is available in the www.flathub.org repository. This six-month effort wouldn't have been possible without the whole GNOME community, made of contributors and friends from all around the world: developers, designers, documentation writers, usability and accessibility specialists, translators, maintainers, students, system administrators, companies, artists, testers and last, but not least, our users. GNOME would not exist without all of you. Thank you to everyone! Our next release, GNOME 42, is planned for March 2022. Until then, enjoy GNOME 41. The GNOME Release Team # ⚓ GNOME_41_Released_With_Wayland_Improvements,_More Performance_Tuning⠀⇛ GNOME 41 is out as the latest half-year update to this open-source desktop environment. # ⚓ GNOME_41_Released._This_is_What’s_New.⠀⇛ GNOME team announced the release of GNOME 41 with some exceptional changes and updates. We wrap up the release in this post. # ⚓ GNOME_41_Desktop_Environment_Officially_Released, This_Is_What’s_New⠀⇛ Six months in development, GNOME 41 is here as a hefty update and the first major release after GNOME 40 with new features like a new power mode setting in the Power settings panel of the GNOME Control Center called Performance, which will be available on hardware that supports this feature. The Performance mode increases CPU performance to allow your apps and activities to run faster. Also new in the GNOME Control Center is a Multitasking settings panel that gives you control over window management and workspace multitasking options like the Activities hot corner, Active Screen Edges, the ability to show workspaces on all displays, choose between dynamic or fixed workspaces, and restrict app switching to the current workspace when using the Super+Tab keyboard shortcut. # ⚓ GNOME_41_Released_with_New_Settings,_Power_Savings, and_More⠀⇛ As with most GNOME desktop updates, GNOME 41 is packed with an assortment of new features, user interface tweaks, and performance improvements. GNOME says that “[…] with these changes, GNOME is smarter, more flexible, and offers a richer and more engaging experience than ever before.” Source code for the latest release is available to download from the GNOME website from today. However, most Linux users will want to wait for their distro maintainers to package it up and push it out to them. On rolling release Linux distros (like Arch) this will be relatively soon. On fixed- release distros (like Ubuntu) it’ll be …sometime in the future. o § Distributions⠀➾ # § IBM/Red Hat/Fedora⠀➾ # ⚓ Automating_the_implementation_of_system-wide_crypto policies_with_RHEL_System_Roles⠀⇛ Having properly configured and consistent cryptography settings across your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) environment is a key part of system security. RHEL System Roles are a collection of Ansible roles and modules that are included in RHEL to help provide consistent workflows and streamline the execution of manual tasks. The crypto_policies RHEL System Role can help you quickly and easily implement system-wide crypto policies across your RHEL environment. The crypto_policies role can also be used to check the current status of system-wide crypto policies in your environment. In this post, we show you how you can utilize the crypto-policies RHEL System Role to automate the configuration across your RHEL environment. # ⚓ Red_Hat_offers_various_free_fundamentals_and_just-in- time_learning_opportunities⠀⇛ It is no secret that organizations value candidates who demonstrate a commitment to staying abreast of new technologies and industry trends. A recent IDC whitepaper sponsored by Red Hat, “The Business Value of Red Hat Training,” revealed that trained IT staff see greater productivity, risk mitigation and a reduction in IT infrastructure costs. When it comes to team onboarding, job readiness increased by 76% when new team members had already completed Red Hat training prior to joining, and by more than half (55%) in cases where they were trained as part of the onboarding process. Clearly, training and certification increases marketability of job candidates in a competitive employment landscape. Unfortunately, barriers persist in accessing quality training, as it can often present as cost-prohibitive for individuals who may not have educational opportunities sponsored by their employer. Red Hat Training and Certification is dedicated to making open source learning accessible to those who are interested in upskilling and improving their technical expertise and professional skills. # ⚓ Try_out_our_new_API_developer_playground: Accelerating_technology_exploration_and_app_development with_Developer_Playground_on_IBM_API_Hub_–_IBM Developer⠀⇛ In February, we introduced the IBM API Hub as a way for developers to access trusted, secure API-enabled services and data. With access to these APIs, developers were able to more quickly build the solutions they needed. Since the introduction of the API Hub, we’ve heard from our developer community: Being able to discover and learn about APIs and try out their endpoints is good. Being able to easily play with the APIs within a free playground environment would be even better. # ⚓ No-cost_IBM_Semeru_Runtime_Certified_Edition_11_now available_for_all_Java_developers_and_deployments⠀⇛ Following on from our recent introduction of the no-cost IBM Semeru Runtimes to develop and run Java applications, IBM is announcing the availability of IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition 11, previously known as IBM SDK, Java Technology Edition, 11. IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition includes the same OpenJDK class libraries and Eclipse OpenJ9 Java Virtual Machine as the Open Edition, and provides 100-percent compatibility. The Certified Edition has an IBM license, is Java TCK (Technology Compatibility Kit)-certified, and is available at no cost for you to write, build, and deploy Java applications in development or for production environments. It is available on Linux and AIX platforms for long-term support (LTS) Java releases, starting with Java 11. With the release of IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition, we are providing flexibility to IBM customers and Java users with the choice of licenses to use a Java runtime that is low and efficient in memory consumption, offers great performance, and is optimized for cloud and container-based deployments. If you prefer an IBM-licensed version with TCK certification, you can use the Certified Edition. If you prefer an open source (GPLv2 plus Classpath Exception) licensed version without need for TCK certification, you can use the Open Edition. # ⚓ Thoth_prescriptions_for_resolving_Python dependencies⠀⇛ Python offers a wealth of programming libraries, which often invoke functions from other libraries in complex hierarchies. While these libraries make it possible to develop powerful applications quickly, the ever- changing library versions often introduce conflicts that cause runtime or build-time issues. Thoth, an open source project developed within the Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (AICoE), is dedicated to alleviating this problem in Python programs. This article looks at Thoth prescriptions, a mechanism that you can use to avoid clashing library versions in your Python applications. # ⚓ IT_hiring:_4_ways_to_keep_it_human_|_The_Enterprisers Project⠀⇛ Companies have been using technology to recruit and hire employees for many years, but COVID has made digital recruiting indispensable. It is the only option when in- person interaction is limited, and it enables recruiters to search more broadly and efficiently as remote work becomes more standard. Meanwhile, today’s red-hot job market is forcing organizations to be even more proactive and specific in finding the people they need to meet near-term business objectives, address cultural diversity, and prepare for long-term success. Furthermore, we have entered a new phase of digital recruiting by using artificial intelligence to find and assess candidates before a human even enters the process. The result is that the hiring process is quickly becoming almost entirely digital. From recruiting to interviewing to onboarding, a company and a prospective or new employee may never see each other in person. # § Debian Family⠀➾ # ⚓ Testing_KDE_Plasma_5.23_Beta_on_Debian⠀⇛ For KDE’s 25th birthday, Plasma 5.23 will be released on October 12th. A few days ago a beta version was released with many improvements compared to its predecessor. As expected, these affect Wayland, among other things, but also the Breeze theme, the kickoff start menu and the system settings. As a solid basis, Plasma 5.23 relies on Qt 5.15 and KDE Frameworks 5.86 and brings with it the current edition of KDE Gear, the former KDE Applications. The announcement expressly states that this is beta software that should not be used productively. # § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾ # ⚓ Ubuntu_Touch_OTA-19_Release⠀⇛ Ubuntu Touch is the privacy and freedom- respecting mobile operating system by UBports. Today we are happy to announce the release of Ubuntu Touch OTA-19, our neighteenth stable update to the system! OTA- 19 will become available for the following supported Ubuntu Touch devices over the next week… # ⚓ Lilbits:_Ubuntu_Touch_OTA-19,_LineageOS_for_the_Pixel 5a,_and_VLC_for_Android⠀⇛ The UBPorts team has released their 19th build of Ubuntu Touch, a mobile port of the popular desktop Linux distribution. Builds are officially available for dozens of phones including older devices from Google, OnePlus, Samsung, and Sony and newer devices from Fairphone, Volla, and others. # ⚓ Ubuntu_Touch_OTA-19_Brings_in_Support_for_New_Devices With_Multiple_Bug_Fixes⠀⇛ Ubuntu Touch is an open-source OS for mobile devices that respects user privacy, unlike Google’s Android for privacy-focused users. The UBports community has released yet another update of Ubuntu Touch that is based on Ubuntu 16.04. This release supports many new devices and contains significant updates on certain phones, along with numerous bug fixes. # ⚓ Ubuntu_Touch_OTA-19_Released_–_Still_Based_On_Ubuntu 16.04⠀⇛ UBports on Tuesday released Ubuntu Touch OTA- 19 as the latest refinement to this Ubuntu Linux spin for smartphones and tablets. Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 continues to remain based on the aging Ubuntu 16.04 LTS codebase. The effort to transition to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS remains ongoing but isn’t yet complete given all the fundamental changes involved in jumping forward by four years for its Ubuntu release and all of the underlying package changes. # ⚓ Canonical_announces_new_point_releases_–_Ubuntu 20.04.3_and_18.04.6⠀⇛ Canonical have released both the third point release of Ubuntu 20.04 Long-Term Support (LTS) as Ubuntu 20.04.3 and an unexpected six point release of Ubuntu 18.04 Long-Term Support (LTS) as Ubuntu 18.04.6 as a result of GRUB2 Secure Boot Bypass 2021. I’ve respun the desktop ISOs using my ‘isorespin.sh‘ script and created ISOs suitable for Intel Atom and Intel Apollo Lake devices: # ⚓ Ubuntu_14.04_and_Ubunu_16.04_Support_Has_Been Extended_to_10_Years⠀⇛ Canonical has announced that Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) have had their lifespan extended to 10 years. There was good news today for all Ubuntu lovers looking jittery at their aging Ubuntu boxes. Ubuntu 14.04 users will receive operating system updates until April 2024, and Ubuntu 16.04 until April 2026. According to Canonical, this lifecycle extension enables organizations to balance their infrastructure upgrade costs, by giving them additional time to implement their upgrade plan. # ⚓ Canonical_extends_support_for_Ubuntu_14.04_and_16.04 to_10_years_from_launch⠀⇛ Ubuntu is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions. Not only do a lot of people who are dipping their toes into Linux for the first time use Ubuntu, but it is also used by smaller businesses for their backend infrastructure. These SMBs usually rely on LTS (Long Term Support) releases of Ubuntu, which are released once every 2 years and are supported for 5 years from their launch. Canonical has now announced that it has extended support for Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04 to a total of 10 years from their launch. Canonical has announced a lifecycle extension for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS “Trusty Tahr” and 16.04 LTS “Xenial Xerus”. The original commitment was for 5 years from launch, which marked April 30 2019 and April 29 2021 as the EOL dates for the releases, respectively. Now, 14.04 will be supported until April 2024, while 16.06 will be supported until April 2026. Note that the EOL for Ubuntu 18.04 “Bionic Beaver” and Ubuntu 20.04 “Focal Fossa” remains unchanged at April 2028 and April 2030 respectively. # ⚓ Canonical_extends_Ubuntu_14.04_LTS_and_16.04_LTS support_to_10_years⠀⇛ Canonical has announced the extension of support for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS versions to 10 years . This means that paying users will benefit from something that was already implemented in subsequent LTS releases of the system: 18.04 and 20.04. LTS versions of Ubuntu made available for free offer up to five years of support. Those five years refer mainly to servers, while on desktop the regular support is served for three years and in the remaining two they focus on security updates. However, in exchange for paying Canonical, the lifespan of an installation of an LTS version can be extended after the free support period has expired. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS have been maintained for an additional five years through the paid service Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) or Extended Security Maintenance. What Canonical has done has been to retroactively extend what it has implemented for the 18.04 LTS and 20.04 LTS versions. In other words, Canonical has added 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS to the 10-year release cycles by expanding ESM support . o § Devices/Embedded⠀➾ # ⚓ $25_“Raspberry_Pi_3_mini”_board_comes_with_a_camera interface,_USB_&_I/Os_headers⠀⇛ TPCast-VR, aka “Raspberry Pi 3 mini”, is a compact board based on Broadcom BCM2837 quad-core Cortex- A53 processor, and that should come as part of Element14’s Raspberry Pi customization program, just like the custom Raspberry Pi 3 SBC with eMMC flash designed for laundry gateways that I noticed a few months ago. The board was initially integrated into the power box of the TPCAST Wireless Adaptor for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets, but eventually found its way into other applications notably FPV drones, and it’s now sold separately, as we’ll see further below. # ⚓ PiKVM_v3_Raspberry_Pi_HAT_offers_KVM_over_IP_on_the_cheap_ (Crowdfunding)⠀⇛ # ⚓ Retro_TV_Shows_off_Family_Memories_with_Raspberry_Pi⠀⇛ Fascinated by the look and feel of vintage electronics, [Democracity] decided to turn an old Sony Micro TV into a digital picture frame that would cycle through old family photos in style. You’d think the modern IPS widescreen display would stick out like a sore thumb, but thanks to the clever application of a 1/16″ black acrylic bezel and the original glass still installed in the front panel, the new hardware blends in exceptionally well. Driving the new display is a Raspberry Pi 4, which might sound overkill, but considering the front-end is being provided by DAKboard through Chromium, we can understand the desire for some extra horsepower and RAM. If it were us we’d probably have gone with a less powerful board and a few Python scripts, and of course there are a few turn-key open source solutions out there, though we’ll admit that this is probably faster and easier to setup. # § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾ # ⚓ Mecanum_Omnidirectional_Robot_Car_using_the_Quantum Integration_System⠀⇛ In this project, we’re going to be building a wireless robot car that uses mecanum wheels to enable omnidirectional movement. If you haven’t heard of mecanum wheels before, they’re tireless wheels with a series of rubberized rollers around the circumference. # ⚓ Keeping_things_creative:_Real-world_learning_from_a remote_perspective⠀⇛ Teaching students complex concepts from a remote distance is something that many educators have had to get to grips with over the last 18 months. Especially where engineering is concerned. Keeping things hands-on and with a strong connection to real-world scenarios is vitally important for students to progress. We recently discovered this MathWorks mechatronics article by Mojtaba Azadi at the San Francisco State University. Azadi was able to create several different types of drawing robots using the Arduino Education Engineering Kit. Aiming to foster independent confidence and strengthen the skills and abilities of students, this project is perfect for those teaching outside of the classroom setting or when running courses online. # § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ Indian_antitrust_regulators_accuse_Google_of_abusing Android’s_dominance_|_Android_Central⠀⇛ # ⚓ Google_Maps_for_Android_Auto_suddenly_remembers_that some_countries_drive_on_the_left⠀⇛ # ⚓ Samsung_One_UI_4.0_(Android_12)_update_tracker: Eligible_devices_&_more⠀⇛ # ⚓ Android_12_Incorporates_AI_and_Machine_Learning_for Privacy⠀⇛ # ⚓ Unknown_Android_Function:_This_is_how_you_unlock_your smartphone_very_easily⠀⇛ # ⚓ Google_experiments_with_choice-defying_Android_search box_•_The_Register⠀⇛ # ⚓ Radix_to_launch_a_new_version_of_its_Android_TV Manager_at_MWC_LA_2021⠀⇛ # ⚓ Top_10_Best_Song_Identifier_Apps_To_Find_Your Favorite_Songs⠀⇛ # ⚓ VLC_media_player_revitalizes_its_Android_Auto_app_in latest_update⠀⇛ # ⚓ Google_Maps_can_adjust_Android_Auto_UI_for_right-hand drive_–_9to5Google⠀⇛ # ⚓ One_UI_4.0_Beta:_Top_new_features_in_Android_12_ [Video]_–_9to5Google⠀⇛ # ⚓ Android_12_in_Samsung_Galaxy;_Top_features_for_you_to know_|_PINKVILLA⠀⇛ # ⚓ Redmi_Smart_TV_32,_Smart_TV_43_With_Dolby_Audio, Android_TV_11_Launched_in_India:_Price,_Specifications |_Technology_News⠀⇛ # ⚓ Best_Android_app_deals_of_the_day:_Dead_Cells,_and more_–_9to5Toys⠀⇛ # ⚓ Top_9_Best_Money-Making_Android_Apps_–_2021⠀⇛ # ⚓ Stadia_Android_voice_chat_may_launch_soon,_per support_doc_–_9to5Google⠀⇛ # ⚓ iPhone_13_—_here’s_where_Android_phones_still_win_| Tom’s_Guide⠀⇛ # ⚓ Unknown_Android_Function:_This_is_how_you_unlock_your smartphone_very_easily⠀⇛ o § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾ # § Events⠀➾ # ⚓ LibreOffice_Conference_2021:_How-to_for participants⠀⇛ The online LibreOffice Conference 2021 starts tomorrow! Here’s how to take part… # § Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra⠀➾ # ⚓ My_favorite_LibreOffice_productivity_tips⠀⇛ LibreOffice is my productivity application of choice. It’s one of the most potent reasons for recommending Linux distributions to educators and students, whether PK-12 or higher education. Now that the school year is upon us, I thought I would recommend some LibreOffice shortcuts and tips that might save you valuable time. I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts. Here are the most common shortcuts that apply to all LibreOffice applications. There are lots of document formats out there, and LibreOffice supports a good number of them. By default, LibreOffice saves documents to the Open Document Format, an open source standard that stores stylesheets and data in a ZIP container labeled as ODT for text documents, ODS for spreadsheets, and ODP for presentations. It’s a flexible format and is maintained by the LibreOffice community as well as the Document Foundation. # § CMS⠀➾ # ⚓ 17_Best_Open-source_Headless_eCommerce_Solutions⠀⇛ A headless software is a program that can work and performs without a user interface. A headless Linux and a headless Google Chrome can perform seamlessly and smoothly without the need to run its GUI. Likewise, a headless web system is a functional web app but without a user interface. Developers often use a headless web app as a base to build mobile, desktop, web, and IoT apps. # § FSF⠀➾ # § GNU Projects⠀➾ # ⚓ GIMP_2.10.28_Released_with_bug_fixes_and_more⠀⇛ GIMP 2.10.28 is the new stable version of the most popular free software image editor and if you notice something strange in its numbering, you have noticed. About what? Now we explain it to you, but go ahead that this is a most bland update, as welcome as it may be. In summary, if the previous stable version of the application was GIMP 2.10.24 and only pairs are considered this way, the normal thing is that this one that concerns us now would be 20.10.26 and not 20.10.28, but… «A compilation error just after tagging the version ”, they explain in the official announcement , so“ GIMP 2.10.28 is the same without that error ”. And not only that: “We recommend not compiling it as GIMP 2.10.26”, they add. # ⚓ Better_Support_&_Performance_For_OpenACC Kernels_Is_Coming_To_GCC⠀⇛ While the GNU Compiler Collection has supported OpenACC for a few years now as this parallel programming standard popular with GPUs/accelerators, the current implementation has been found to be inadequate for many real-world HPC workloads leveraging OpenACC. Fortunately, Siemens has been working to improve GCC’s OpenACC kernels support. GCC’s existing OpenACC kernels construct has been found to be “unable to cope with many language constructs found in real HPC codes which generally leads to very bad performance.” Fortunately, improvements are on the way and could potentially be mainlined in time for next year’s GCC 12 stable release. # § Programming/Development⠀➾ # § Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh⠀➾ # ⚓ Bash_While_And_Until_Loop_Explained_With Examples_–_OSTechNix⠀⇛ This is a continuation article in bash loop wherein the previous article we have explained about for loop. In this article, we will take a look at two more bash loops namely, while and until loop. The while loop is mostly used when you have to read the contents of the file and further process it. Reading and writing to a file are common operations when you write bash scripts. We will see how to read files using a while loop. # ⚓ Bash_Scripting_–_For_Loop_Explained_With Examples_–_OSTechNix⠀⇛ In Bash shell scripting, Loops are useful for automating repetitive tasks. When you have to repeat a task N number of times in your script, loops should be used. There are three types of loops supported in bash. # ⚓ 2_Bash_commands_to_change_strings_in_multiple files_at_once_|_Enable_Sysadmin⠀⇛ Think about some situations when you need to change strings in text files in your Linux hosts. Depending on the case, you will simply change the file directly in your favorite text editor. * § Leftovers⠀➾ o ⚓ Best_Free_Alternatives_to_Microsoft_Bing [Ed: Well, hardly anyone even uses this junk from Microsoft and the first 3 entries violate privacy, including DDG and Startpage. LinuxLinks spreads Microsoft misinformation about “embracing” Open Source by naming proprietary things like GitHub and Visual Studio Code (both proprietary). Very disappointing.]⠀⇛ Microsoft’s stance for decades was that community creation and sharing of communal code (later to be known as free and open source software) represented a direct attack on their business. Their battle with Linux stretches back many years. Back in 2001, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously tarnished Linux “a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches”. Microsoft also initiated its “Get the Facts” marketing campaign from mid-2003, which specifically criticized Linux server usage, total cost of ownership, security, indemnification and reliability. The campaign was widely criticized for spreading misinformation. o § Education⠀➾ # ⚓ Taliban_deny_claims_girls_will_be_banned_from_school_—_but don’t_say_when_they’ll_be_allowed_in⠀⇛ Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN)The Taliban have denied claims that Afghan women would be banned from secondary schools after calling on boys, but not girls, to resume education, claiming they needed to set up a “secure transportation system” for female students before allowing them back into classrooms. The Taliban Ministry of Education ordered male students and teachers from the 6th to the 12th grade to report to their schools on Saturday. The announcement, issued on Friday, did not mention female students at all, sowing fears that girls would once again be excluded from secondary education. o § Integrity/Availability⠀➾ # § Proprietary⠀➾ # § Pseudo-Open Source⠀➾ # § Privatisation/Privateering⠀➾ # § Linux Foundation⠀➾ # ⚓ Here’s_All_You_Need_to_Know_About Open_Source_Job_Market_in_2021⠀⇛ The open-source job industry is one of the biggest out there. However, the pandemic affected various sectors in a lot of ways. The Linux Foundation teamed up with edX to survey several professionals and hiring managers to gain insights on open-source job skill demands, the hottest skills, and the state of the industry. Here, let me mention some key highlights of the report. # § Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub)⠀➾ # ⚓ Patch_origin_trust_vs_GitHub’s_URL hierarchy⠀⇛ Attentive readers may have noticed something a bit weird with the GitHub patch links in my last article. I shared links to two patches for Ruby’s Rake build system which I also said hadn’t yet been accepted into Rake. Yet, the patches looked like they came directly from the Rake project’s official code repository at https://github.com/ruby/rake/. So, how did I get a patch URL that’s indistinguishable from commits/patches that are part of a project? [...] You could trick someone through social engineering to deploy a malicious patch that appears to legitimately have originated from a target project. All it would take to get a legitimate-looking URL is to open and close a pull request in the project. It’s not unheard of that large deployments receive an early heads up about critical security patches. The malicious source code and intent would then be public, but a quick “oops, that was stupid — honest mistake” comment on the pull request could be enough to defuse suspicions. # § Security⠀➾ # ⚓ Database_containing_106m_Thailand_travelers’ details_leaked_•_The_Register⠀⇛ A database containing personal information on 106 million international travelers to Thailand was exposed to the public internet this year, a Brit biz claimed this week. Bob Diachenko, head of cybersecurity research at product-comparison website Comparitech, said the Elasticsearch data store contained visitors’ full names, passport numbers, arrival dates, visa types, residency status, and more. It was indexed by search engine Censys on August 20, and spotted by Diachenko two days later. There were no credentials in the database, which is said to have held records dating back a decade. “There are many people who would prefer their travel history and residency status not be publicized, so for them there are obvious privacy issues,” wrote Comparitech editor Paul Bischoff on the company’s blog. # ⚓ Break_out_your_emergency_change_process_and patch_this_ransomware-friendly_bug_ASAP,_says VMware⠀⇛ VMware has disclosed a critical bug in its flagship vSphere and vCenter products and urged users to drop everything and patch it. The virtualization giant also offered a workaround. # ⚓ Reproducible_Builds_(diffoscope):_diffoscope 185_released⠀⇛ The diffoscope maintainers are pleased to announce the release of diffoscope version 185. This version includes the following changes: [ Mattia Rizzolo ] * Fix the autopkgtest in order to fix testing migration: the androguard Python module is not in the python3- androguard Debian package * Ignore a warning in the tests from the h5py package that doesn't concern diffoscope. [ Chris Lamb ] * Bump Standards-Version to 4.6.0. § Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation⠀➾ * ⚓ Linux_malware_using_subsystem_to_attack_Windows_host!_–_Invidious [Ed: Microsoft-connected media has weaponised Microsoft's attack on GNU/Linux (WSL is an attack) to FUD "Linux"]⠀⇛ So, the Windows Subsystem for Linux has been attacked to deliver malware against the host machine. § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾ * ⚓ The_government_of_Mexico_should_halt_the_Unique_Digital_Identity_Card⠀⇛ “For years, authorities in Mexico have been building the foundations to control the population,” said Gaspar Pisanu, Latin America Policy Manager at Access Now. “It’s unbelievable that global news is broadcasting the Taliban’s seizure of biometric data in Afghanistan, at the same time local news is reporting on the government’s push for a biometric CUID.” Biometric data is neither the only nor the most effective way to legally identify a person. By including the CUID as part of Mexico’s National Population Registry, it opens up space for abuse and misuse, and error, such as intrinsic recognition inaccuracies, technology hoaxes or deceptions, information leaks, and social exclusion. These threats are only heightened by Mexico’s continued embrace of digital authoritarianism that includes ramping up deployment of surveillance tech, creating a massive mobile phone biometric database, and proposing “fake news” laws to enable censorship. * ⚓ Exclusive_Data:_An_Inside_Look_at_the_Spy_Tech_That_Followed_Kids_Home for_Remote_Learning_—_and_Now_Won’t_Leave_|_The_74⠀⇛ A week after the pandemic forced Minneapolis students to attend classes online, the city school district’s top security chief got an urgent email, its subject line in all caps, alerting him to potential trouble. Just 12 seconds later, he got a second ping. And two minutes after that, a third. In each instance, the emails […] § Defence/Aggression⠀➾ * ⚓ MoD_apologises_after_Afghan_interpreters’_data_exposed_•_The_Register⠀⇛ The UK’s Ministry of Defence has launched an internal investigation after committing the classic CC-instead-of-BCC email error – but with the names and contact details of Afghan interpreters trapped in the Taliban-controlled nation. The horrendous data breach took place yesterday, with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace promising an immediate investigation, according to the BBC. Included in the breach were profile pictures associated with some email accounts, according to the state-owned broadcaster. The initial email was followed up by a second message urging people who had received the first one to delete it – a way of drawing close attention to an otherwise routine missive. * ⚓ EU_joins_outcry_over_execution_of_nine_men_by_Yemen’s_Houthis⠀⇛ The European Union joined a chorus of international criticism on Monday over the execution of nine men by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen following their conviction for involvement in the killing of the group’s top civilian leader. Saleh al-Samad, who held the post of president in the Houthi- controlled administration which runs most of northern Yemen, was killed in April 2018 by a Saudi-led coalition air strike in the port city of Hodeidah on Yemen’s west coast. A Houthi court found the nine men, including one who was a minor when he was arrested, guilty of spying and sharing sensitive information with the Saudi-led coalition. They were executed on Saturday by firing squad. § Finance⠀➾ * ⚓ SEC_takes_action_in_cannabis_crowdfunding_case_•_The_Register⠀⇛ US financial watchdogs have launched legal action against a cannabis-related investment scheme said to be the first case involving crowdfunding regulation. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against three people – named as Robert Shumake Jr, Willard Jackson, and Nicole Birch – and Texan firm 420 Real Estate in the Eastern District court in Michigan, claiming the trio had been involved in selling nearly $2m in unregistered securities through two crowdfunding schemes. § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾ * ⚓ Governments_hold_upper_hand_online⠀⇛ Governments around the world are finding it easier than ever to make the internet, and the companies that run it, knuckle under. Driving the news: Russia Friday forced Apple and Google to remove an app that supporters of dissident leader Alexei Navalny had created to coordinate opposition votes in Russian elections. * ⚓ Apple,_Google_raise_new_concerns_by_yanking_Russian_app⠀⇛ Big Tech companies that operate around the globe have long promised to obey local laws and to protect civil rights while doing business. But when Apple and Google capitulated to Russian demands and removed a political-opposition app from their local app stores, it raised worries that two of the world’s most successful companies are more comfortable bowing to undemocratic edicts — and maintaining a steady flow of profits — than upholding the rights of their users. The app in question, called Smart Voting, was a tool for organizing opposition to Russia President Vladimir Putin ahead of elections held over the weekend. The ban levied last week by a pair of the world’s richest and most powerful companies galled supporters of free elections and free expression. § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾ * ⚓ Now_America’s_financial_watchdog_probes_‘frat_house’_Activision Blizzard⠀⇛ The SEC has launched an investigation into Activision Blizzard, and has subpoenaed several current and former employees, including CEO Bobby Kotick, the California games giant confirmed on Tuesday. Activision has been hit with separate lawsuits from its home state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the federal government’s National Labor Relations Board. That first one, filed in July, accused the company of fostering a “frat boy” culture that led to lower pay for female employees, sex and race discrimination, and sexual harassment. Staff publicly spoke out against the Activision on social media and urged executives to enforce new policies, such as being transparent about salaries. They claim in the second lawsuit that they were intimidated by bosses, and attempts at forming a union were thwarted. § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾ * ⚓ Social_media_giants_have_released_the_second_round_of_‘Compliance Reports’._We’ve_analysed_the_data.⠀⇛ Google, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter have released their second round of reports in compliance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (the 2021 IT Rules). The reports highlight some interesting facts and figures, including the launching of a first of its kind self-regulation model called the Digital Trust and Safety Partnership (DTSP) by a coalition consisting of Discord, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, Shopify, Twitter and Vimeo, and a massive number of automated takedowns. * ⚓ 3.4_billion_people_live_within_range_of_a_mobile_network_but_lack_a device_to_make_the_connection [Ed: What is this joke? Surveillance remorse? Do you think people who don't carry around tracking devices are handicapped?]⠀⇛ § Monopolies⠀➾ * § Patents⠀➾ o ⚓ 10x_Genomics_Signs_Global_Patent_Cross_License_Agreement_with Bio-Rad⠀⇛ 10x Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: TXG) today announced that it has entered into a global settlement and cross-license agreement with Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: BIO and BIOb). The agreement resolves all outstanding litigation and other proceedings between the two companies across all jurisdictions around the world, and dismissing all infringement claims with prejudice. The agreement grants each company a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing license to develop products and services related to single cell analysis. The term of the agreement is for the life of the licensed patents. The cross license excludes products related to spatial analysis and In Situ analysis. It also excludes digital PCR products in the case of 10x Genomics. Both companies have agreed that each company’s patents are owned by each respective company. o ⚓ ToolGen_Files_Reply_to_CVC_Opposition_to_ToolGen_Substantive Motion_No._1 [Ed: Again, patents on life and nature promoted, in effect turning the law into laughing stock]⠀⇛ On July 15th, Junior Party the University of California/ Berkeley, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, “CVC”) filed its opposition to Senior Party ToolGen’s Substantive Motion No. 1 for benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/837,481, filed June 20, 2013 (“P3″ or “ToolGen P3″), or alternatively, International Application No. PCT/ KR2013/009488, filed Oct. 23, 2013 (“PCT”), in Interference No. 106,127. On August 27th ToolGen filed its Reply. ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 2326 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 09.22.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ Links_22/9/2021:_Google_‘Upstream_First’_in_Linux_and_New_Maui_Report⠀✐ Posted in News_Roundup at 4:26 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈ § Contents⠀➾ * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * § GNU/Linux⠀➾ o § Desktop/Laptop⠀➾ # ⚓ Windows_11_will_be_the_new_Vista_(or_Windows_8)⠀⇛ I’ve been using Windows 10 in production for about two years now – testing it since even before the official release. Early on, my impression was that it was comparable to Windows 7. Okay. Nothing too special, new or revolutionary. Over time, this impression has changed. With subsequent semi-annual releases, I encountered issues I’ve never had in Windows before, mostly various system errors and bugs that speak of low quality and bad design. Then, Windows 10 would occasionally undo some of my tweaks and options, wasting my time, and forcing me to tighten the screws ever more. All in all, my outlook isn’t bright or happy. Bored and exhausted by the nonsense would be the best word. Now, Windows 11 is coming. As I’ve done many times in the past, I logged into my Insiders account and started testing, to see what awaits me. Right away, I found the experience quite dejecting. My early impression of Windows 11 Dev Build was mediocre at best, and it progressively got worse with each update. Different from Windows 10, though. What happened was, I found myself reliving 2011, when I tested Windows 8 and came to pretty much the same conclusions. To wit, this is what I think will unfold. # ⚓ Just_when_Linux_was_getting_good…Windows_11_happened._– Invidious⠀⇛ Just as the Linux desktop is making serious headway, we’ve got a new shiny OS from Redmond. What can Windows 11 learn from desktop Linux – and what are the alternatives to Windows 11. Also, what are the main shortfalls still facing Linux on the desktop? # ⚓ Ignore_The_Naysayers._Desktop_Linux_Is_A_Huge_Success!_ (#shorts)_–_Invidious⠀⇛ One of the most common things people say about Linux is that “Linux is a success on servers but a failure on the dekstop.” But if you really think about it, the success of Linux on servers, in enterprise and on mobile; it actually means that Linux is a success on the desktop as well. Let me explain… o § Kernel Space⠀➾ # ⚓ AMD_Ryzen_processors_are_getting_a_performance_boost_on Linux⠀⇛ Chip giant AMD has shared details about a new driver that promises to improve the performance of its Zen-based processors on Linux. According to reports, the new driver is the result of a joint collaboration between AMD and Valve, with the two companies toiling to enhance performance and power efficiency reportedly in preparation for the launch of the Steam Deck, Valve’s Zen 2-based take on portable gaming. # ⚓ AMD’s_crusty_Linux_CPU_driver_is_getting_an_update_ahead_of Steam_Deck⠀⇛ The release of the Steam Deck is only a few months away, and AMD is working to ensure the portable’s Ryzen CPU shines bright. In light of this, an AMD developer has revealed that these efforts include replacing the processor’s ageing ACPI Linux driver to solve Proton related issues. During the recent X.Org Developers Conference, AMD’s software engineer, Ray Huang shared the company’s plans to replace its Linux ACPI CPUFreq driver used on all Intel and AMD processors. The developer also disclosed that the driver isn’t currently playing nice with games using Valve’s Proton compatibility layer, which could prove detrimental to the Steam Deck’s stability. Naturally, this is something that AMD and Valve want to avoid, as it could hamper the Steam Deck’s ability to provide a seamless portable gaming PC experience. # ⚓ Linux_5.14.7⠀⇛ I’m announcing the release of the 5.14.7 kernel. All users of the 5.14 kernel series must upgrade. The updated 5.14.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/ stable/linux-stable.git linux-5.14.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/ linux-s… thanks, greg k-h # ⚓ Linux_5.10.68⠀⇛ # ⚓ Linux_5.4.148⠀⇛ # ⚓ Linux_4.19.207⠀⇛ # ⚓ Linux_4.14.247⠀⇛ # ⚓ Linux_4.9.283⠀⇛ # ⚓ Linux_4.4.284⠀⇛ # ⚓ Google_Finally_Shifting_To_“Upstream_First”_Linux_Kernel Approach_For_Android_Features⠀⇛ Google’s Android had been notorious for all of its downstream patches carried by the mobile operating system as well as various vendor/device kernel trees while in recent years more of that code has been upstreamed. Google has also been shifting to the Android Generic Kernel Image (GKI) as the basis for all their product kernels to further reduce the fragmentation. Looking ahead, Google is now talking of an “upstream first” approach for pushing new kernel features. Google’s Todd Kjos talked today during Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC2021) around their Generic Kernel Image initiative. With Android 12 and their Linux 5.10 based GKI image they have further cut down the fragmentation to the extent that it’s “nearly eliminated”. With the Android 12 GKI, most of the vendor/OEM kernel features have now either been upstreamed into the Linux kernel, isolated to vendor modules/hooks, or merged into the Android Common Kernel. # ⚓ Google_Finally_Shifting_To_‘Upstream_First’_Linux_Kernel Approach_For_Android_Feature⠀⇛ # ⚓ Clang-format_for_Xen_Coding_Style_Checking_Scheduled_–_Xen Project⠀⇛ At the moment there is no tool that would allow to format patches in Xen. The idea of Xen-checker is to use the clang-format approach as a base for Xen ‘checkpatch’ process. The new tool consists of modified .clang-format configuration file to automate Xen patches format checking and reformatting. The tool can be used as a pre-commit hook to check and format every patch automatically. Some features are missing in the clang configurator, so new clang-format options have been proposed for more flexible code formatting. Also, the purpose of the topic is to start the discussion about the existing rules for Xen code formatting to eliminate possible inaccuracies in the work of the Xen checker. This will make it easier to adhere to the unanimous decision. # § Graphics Stack⠀➾ # ⚓ More_than_three_years_after_last_release,_X.Org Server_21.1.0_RC1_appears [Ed: By Microsoft Tim]⠀⇛ More than three years after X.Org Server 1.20, released in May 2018, a release candidate for 21.1.0 has been posted. The Linux display server remains widely used despite the introduction of Wayland, first released in 2012 and intended to replace X. The future of the software, in terms of significant new releases, was in doubt when project owner Adam Jackson declared the project “abandoned” last year, but Lithuanian developer Povilas Kanapickas (who formerly worked on the Unity game engine) stepped up and said: “There are new features in the Xorg DDX that I would like to see released, so I’m volunteering to do the releasing work.” # ⚓ Mesa_Merge_Pending_For_Vulkan_Ray-Tracing_On_Older AMD_GPUs_–_Phoronix⠀⇛ Merged yesterday for Mesa 21.3 was open- source Vulkan ray-tracing for AMD RDNA2 / RX 6000 series GPUs with the RADV driver. Opened today now is a merge request that would provide Vulkan ray-tracing with RADV to pre- RDNA2 GPUs on this driver going back to the likes of Polaris, granted the performance is another story. Joshua Ashton known for his work on DXVK and other Direct3D-on-Vulkan efforts for Valve has opened the merge request to enable RADV Vulkan ray-tracing for older generations of AMD GPUs. o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ How_to_Install_Glances_System_Monitor_on_Linux_Mint_20_– LinuxCapable⠀⇛ Glances System Monitor is free, an open-source command-line tool for process monitoring, system resources such as CPU, Disk I/O, File System, Load Average, Memory, Network Interfaces and processes. Glances are built with Python language. Glances support cross-platform monitoring, which can be used in conjunction with a web-based interface. One of the excellent features Glances supports is the ability to set thresholds in the program. You can set careful, warning, and critical in the configuration file, which will then relay information in colors that can show alerts to systems resources bottlenecks, system resources issues, and much more. Glances, by default, comes with a pre-set list of colors, but you can modify and add additional configs. # ⚓ How_To_Install_OpenLDAP_on_Ubuntu_20.04_–_idroot⠀⇛ In this tutorial, we will show you how to install OpenLDAP on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, OpenLDAP (lightweight directory access protocol) provides user authentication and enables you to set up user accounts that provide the user access to each computer in your network without having to set up a local user account on each computer. OpenLDAP is the free and open-source implementation of LDAP. 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 the step-by-step installation of the OpenLDAP on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint. # ⚓ Add_storage_with_LVM_|_Opensource.com⠀⇛ Logical Volume Manager (LVM) allows for a layer of abstraction between the operating system and the hardware. Normally, your OS looks for disks (/dev/ sda, /dev/sdb, and so on) and partitions within those disks (/dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1, and so on). In LVM, a virtual layer is created between the operating system and the disks. Instead of one drive holding some number of partitions, LVM creates a unified storage pool (called a Volume Group) that spans any number of physical drives (called Physical Volumes). Using the storage available in a Volume Group, LVM provides what appear to be disks and partitions to your OS. And the operating system is completely unaware that it’s being “tricked.” # ⚓ Turn_Your_Old_PC_into_an_Access_Point [Ed: Old article reposted]⠀⇛ Got some older computer equipment lying around? Don’t throw away those old PCs just yet. Whether you’re cleaning out or upgrading the computers in the office or at home, you should be able to find something to do with them. As we’ll discuss, you can use them for experimentation, routing, security, file or Internet serving, and more. Use these five suggestions to make one of the projects your late- night endeavor on the weekend or your new project at work. # ⚓ How_to_back_up_Linux_apps_and_files_on_your_Chromebook_– TechRepublic⠀⇛ If you’ve made the jump and installed Linux support on your Chromebook, you’ve probably already started installing apps and working with files and data. That being the case, you might be curious as to how you back up those apps and data. In some cases, you’ll be saving data within the Linux filesystem hierarchy (and not on either your local or cloud storage, via Chrome OS. Fortunately, the Chrome OS developers thought of this, so you don’t have to bother with locating that data and running commands to back it all up. o § Games⠀➾ # ⚓ Fantasy_city-builder_Songs_of_Syx_added_in_reproduction_and riots⠀⇛ The very promising Early Access fantasy city- builder Songs of Syx has expanded in multiple ways in the latest update and you’re going to need to prepare for a lot more people. With major new systems appearing including reproduction, so your people will now pair up with a procreation room and do the deed. After which you’re left with a bunch of children running around, eating food and taking up your time. Thankfully there’s also now an education system to give them something to do until they grow up and get to work. A new happiness system was also introduced so you need to keep people happy or they will riot and ruin everything. That plus a whole lot more. # ⚓ Humble_releases_a_Tropico_20th_Anniversary_Bundle_| GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Become El Presidente for cheaps as the latest Humble Bundle has arrived with the Tropico 20th Anniversary Bundle letting you build up your collection. As usual the amount of games you get depends on how much you pay, with this one split across three different tiers. Here’s our usual breakdown of how they work on Linux. o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾ # § K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt⠀➾ # ⚓ Maui_Report_–_15⠀⇛ Maui 2 was released a month ago, and since then new features, bug fixes, and improvements have been made to the Maui set of apps and frameworks; the following blog post will cover some of the changes and highlights from the last or so months of development. What’s new? Among many bug fixes that will be listed below for each individual app, some of the highlights include better support for client- side decorations aka CSD. Clip, the video player, is now working again on Android; MauiKit Controls now provide improved contextual menu actions and a lighter tab bar styling. Index, the file manager, can now also preview PDF documents, adding up to support for previews of text, video, audio and fonts file types; and translucency support is now embedded into MauiKit itself. # § GNOME Desktop/GTK⠀➾ # ⚓ GNOME_41_Linux_desktop_environment_arrives⠀⇛ There are many great desktop environments for Linux, such as Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, and MATE to name a few. With that said, only one can be the best, and that is obviously GNOME. I mean, look, there’s a reason Canonical chose it as the default DE for Ubuntu — it is just that good. If you are a GNOME fan, I have some extremely exciting news. You see, as of today, GNOME 41 is officially here! There are many new changes, such as enhanced multitasking settings and the inclusion of a new remote desktop client called “Connections.” Most importantly, however, the developers promise GNOME 41 includes noticeable performance improvements, particularly for those using Wayland. # ⚓ GNOME_41_released⠀⇛ # ⚓ GNOME_41_–_The_first_step_towards_a_GNOME_Platform?_– Invidious⠀⇛ GNOME 41 has just been released. While it doesn’t bring as many visual changes as GNOME 40 did, there are still loads of stuff to talk about, especially if you consider that GNOME is now taking steps to become a platform, not just a desktop, so stick around till the end to hear my thoughts on this. o § Distributions⠀➾ # ⚓ Privacy-focused_Linux_Distributions_to_Secure_Your_Online Presence_in_2021⠀⇛ Linux distros are usually more secure than their Windows and Mac counterparts. Linux Operating Systems being open-source leaves very less scope of unauthorized access to its core. However, with the advancement of technologies, incidents of attacks are not rare. Are you in a fix with the coming reports of Linux systems targeted malware attacks? Worried about your online presence? Then maybe it’s time to go for a secure, privacy-focused Linux distro. This article presents a guide to 3 privacy-oriented Linux distributions that respect your privacy online. # § Reviews⠀➾ # ⚓ Windowsfx_is_the_Linux_distribution_Windows_users have_been_looking_for⠀⇛ Over the past 20 or so years, there always seems to be that one distribution everyone claims is the best to help Windows users transition to Linux. Most often those distributions are nothing more than Linux with a desktop that looks like Windows. Sometimes they do a decent job of mimicking Windows and sometimes not. But every so often something special pops up, a distribution that goes well beyond that extra mile to make Windows users feel right at home with Linux. Such is the case with Windowsfx. This Linux distribution is far from just a UI tweak to resemble another OS, it’s perfectly tuned for Windows users. It looks like Windows 11, and it behaves like Windows 11… only it’s Linux. For certain users, Windowsfx will be the absolute best of both worlds. # § PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family⠀➾ # ⚓ The_3_Best_Alternatives_to_Mandriva_Linux⠀⇛ Mandriva Linux has been discontinued for a long time now. Check out these three alternatives to relive the pure Mandriva experience. Mandriva Linux is a fusion of Brazilian distribution Conectiva Linux and French distribution Mandrake Linux. It is developed by Mandriva S.A.; however, the company has not released any new version since 2011. Although the distro has not been updated for a long time and considering the features it offered, it’s a little difficult to undermine its existence. Mandriva might not exist any longer, but its memories are still functional in the form of different Linux distros, discussed below. # § SUSE/OpenSUSE⠀➾ # ⚓ Overcoming_the_Challenges_of_Embracing_Linux:_a Different_Perspective⠀⇛ After months of working at SUSE, my Jungle Green t-shirt was finally recognized at a store. “SUSE?” the gentleman asked, pointing at the large white letters. “Yes, I work there!” I responded, thrilled that I had the opportunity to engage in our mutual love of the chameleon, Geeko, “But I don’t work on the technology, I’m in Program Management.” “Well, let me ask you this – what is the operating system on your computer at home?” he asked, inquiring to my level of SUSE-ness. “Just the basic… Microsoft,” I responded. He continued, “I have a virtual machine with Slackware 1.0 I’m running, and I’ve been trying to get my hands on something old, openSUSE older than 5.3.” I breathed a sigh of relief when our conversation was cut short and he ran off to help another customer. Slackware? Virtual Machine? All terms I had just enough exposure to know what category they belonged in, yet not enough to carry a conversation. Despite the embarrassment, I knew I wasn’t alone. A 2020 study by the AnitaB.org Institute found that women make up 28.8% of the tech workforce. When considering open source technology, this number further shrinks down to the single digits. Nonetheless, the number of women becoming cloud native practitioners is growing. Recently, Lynne Chamberlain, CEO of SUSE Rancher Government Solutions, and Denise Schannon, Director of Engineering, joined special host Katie Gamanji for a special feature of OCTOpod in which they discussed their contributions to Linux, challenges they have faced and shared inspiring stories on how they’ve overcome those challenges to get to where they are today. # § Debian Family⠀➾ # ⚓ EmmaDE4:_Linux_distribution_of_the_Emmabuntüs collective_is_now_based_on_Bullseye [Ed: Translated from German]⠀⇛ Access to functioning hardware and – if possible free – operating system is often not a matter of course for socially disadvantaged people. The French Emmbuntüs collective from the Emmaus movement wants to help those in need to digitally participate – with a Linux distribution that also runs stably on older, donated computers. The most recent result of these efforts has been available since yesterday, Monday. EmmaDE4 1.00 (“Emmabuntüs Debian Edition”) is based on Debian 11, which was released last month, and deliberately relies even more on free software than the previous versions. Designers from the Debian community have contributed a new theme and a revised logo. The documentation for the installation and presentation of EmmaDE has been extensively updated; the latter also includes one Overview of the goals of the Emmabuntüs project. # ⚓ nodejs_compiled_in_OpenEmbedded⠀⇛ I posted a couple of days ago about another attempt to compile Chromium. Learnt a lot from that. One thing, is that need the ‘nodejs’ package in the host OS. # ⚓ Ian_Jackson:_Tricky_compatibility_issue_–_Rust’s_io:: ErrorKind⠀⇛ This post is about some changes recently made to Rust’s ErrorKind, which aims to categorise OS errors in a portable way. [...] The Rust programming language tries to make it straightforward to write portable code. Portable error handling is always a bit tricky. One of Rust’s facilities in this area is std::io::ErrorKind which is an enum which tries to categorise (and, sometimes, enumerate) OS errors. The idea is that a program can check the error kind, and handle the error accordingly. That these ErrorKinds are part of the Rust standard library means that to get this right, you don’t need to delve down and get the actual underlying operating system error number, and write separate code for each platform you want to support. You can check whether the error is ErrorKind::NotFound (or whatever). Because ErrorKind is so important in many Rust APIs, some code which isn’t really doing an OS call can still have to provide an ErrorKind. For this purpose, Rust provides a special category ErrorKind::Other, which doesn’t correspond to any particular OS error. # ⚓ Norbert_Preining:_TeX_Live_2021_for_Debian⠀⇛ The release of TeX Live 2021 is already half a year away, but due to the delay of waiting for Debian/Bullseye release, we haven’t updated TeX Live in Debian for quite some time. But the waiting is over, today I uploaded the first packages of TeX Live 2021 to unstable. # § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾ # ⚓ Ubuntu-on-a-phone_folks_UBports_emit_OTA-19,_warn some_devices_face_the_chop_in_future⠀⇛ Ubuntu Touch was Canonical’s attempt at a mobile version of its OS, subsequently ditched by the Linux outfit and now maintained by UBports, which has just released the latest update, OTA-19. OTA-18 dropped in July and the company warned that 19 would arrive before Ubuntu Touch was dragged to the 20.04 version of the operating system on which it is based. For now, Ubuntu Touch remains based on 16.04 and, like the previous update, 19 remains relatively light on features even as the device list grows. While 28 devices were supported by OTA-18, 39 are on the list for OTA-19 (including some extra OnePlus and Xiaomi kit) although the PinePhone and PineTab remain missing in action. New features include the blessed relief of the keyboard not automatically popping up in the messaging app while a critical media-hub bug, which stopped devices sleeping when two pieces of audio were played in rapid succession, thus resulting in a swiftly drained battery, was among the fixes. # ⚓ Canonical_extends_Ubuntu_14.04_and_16.04_life_cycle to_10_years⠀⇛ Canonical, the publisher of the Linux Ubuntu operating system, announced Tuesday that it’s extending the end-of-life dates for its Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr and 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus OSes from eight to 10 years. The company said the extension will allow organizations to balance infrastructure upgrade costs by giving them additional time to implement their plans. The extended security maintenance of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS provides customers security updates and kernel patches from Canonical. o § Devices/Embedded⠀➾ # ⚓ DIY_Spotify_Box_features_custom-designed_Allwinner_V3s SBC⠀⇛ The Spotify Box is a small DIY device based on an Allwinner V3s single-core Cortex-A7 camera SoC and a wooden enclosure designed to play Spotify songs, and not much else… The device serves as a bridge between the official Spotify app and your home audio system connected through the RCA jacks of the box. and allowing you to connect your smartphone to your audio setup and stream music throughout your house. # ⚓ Building_A_Custom_Linux_Single_Board_Computer_Just_To_Play Spotify⠀⇛ Housed inside a tidy little wooden enclosure of his own creation, the Spotify Box can turn any amplifier into a remote-controlled Spotify player via Spotify Connect. Pick the songs on your smartphone, and they’ll play from the Spotify Box as simple as that. The project is based on the Allwinner V3S, a system-on-chip with a 1.2GHz ARM-Cortex-A7 core, 64MB of DDR2 RAM, and an Ethernet transceiver for good measure. There’s also a high-quality audio codec built in, making it perfect for this application. It’s thrown onto a four-layer PCB of [Evan’s] own design, and paired with a Wi-Fi and BlueTooth transceiver, RJ-45 and RCA jacks, a push- button and some LEDs. There’s also an SD card for storage. With a custom Linux install brewed up using Buildroot, [Evan] was able to get a barebones system running Spotifyd while communicating with the network. With that done, it was as simple as hooking up the Spotify Box to an amp and grooving out to some tunes. # ⚓ i.MX8M_Nano_based_mini-PC_features_Wirepas_mesh networking⠀⇛ SolidRun’s $221-and-up “SolidSense N8 IoT Compact” mini-PC runs Linux on an i.MX8M Nano Solo with GbE, WiFi/BT, USB, and a choice of LTE or PoE. You also get a choice of RS485 with CAN or BLE 5.0 with Wirepas Massive. The SolidSense N8 IoT Compact embedded system follows SolidRun’s i.MX6-based SolidSense N6 Edge Gateway, which similarly offers a bundle of the Wirepas wireless mesh software from Tampere, Finland based Wirepas. The wireless mesh software, which is now called Wirepas Massive, is pre- installed along with software defined radios (SDRs) on two of the four i.MX8M Nano based SolidSense N8 models. Applications include IoT tasks such as automation, asset tracking, security, and smart buildings. # ⚓ Astro_Pi_Mk_II,_the_New_Raspberry_Pi_Hardware_Headed_to_the Space_Station⠀⇛ While Izzy and Ed are still going strong, the ESA has decided it’s about time these veteran Raspberries finally get the retirement they’re due. Set to make the journey to the ISS in December aboard a SpaceX Cargo Dragon, the new Astro Pi MK II hardware looks quite similar to the original 2015 version at first glance. But a peek inside its 6063-grade aluminium flight case reveals plenty of new and improved gear, including a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 8 GB RAM. The beefier hardware will no doubt be appreciated by students looking to push the envelope. While the majority of Python programs submitted to the Astro Pi program did little more than poll the current reading from the unit’s temperature or humidity sensors and scroll messages for the astronauts on the Astro Pi’s LED matrix, some of the more advanced projects were aimed at performing legitimate space research. From using the onboard camera to image the Earth and make weather predictions to attempting to map the planet’s magnetic field, code submitted from teams of older students will certainly benefit from the improved computational performance and expanded RAM of the newest Pi. As with the original Astro Pi, the ESA and the Raspberry Pi Foundation have shared plenty of technical details about these space-rated Linux boxes. After all, students are expected to develop and test their code on essentially the same hardware down here on Earth before it gets beamed up to the orbiting computers. So let’s take a quick look at the new hardware inside Astro Pi MK II, and what sort of research it should enable for students in 2022 and beyond. # ⚓ Home_Automation_Terminal_With_Cyberpunk_Style⠀⇛ The OLKB-Terminal designed by [Jeff Eberl] doesn’t have a battery, can’t fold up (even if it seems like it could), and is only portable in the sense that you can literally pick it up and move it somewhere else. So arguably it’s not really a cyberdeck per se, but it certainly does look the part. If you need to be furiously typing out lines of code in a dimly lit near-future hacker’s den, this should do you nicely. [Jeff] has provided everything you’d need to recreate this slick little machine on your own, though he does warn that some of the hardware decisions were based simply on what he had on-hand at the time, and that better or cheaper options may exist. So for example if you don’t want to use the Raspberry Pi 4, you can easily swap it out for some other single-board computer. Though if you want to change something better integrated, like the LCD panel, it will probably require modifications to the 3D printed components. # ⚓ 4_most_popular_IoT_Linux_distros:_Which_is_best_for_you?⠀⇛ Linux is the operating system of choice for Internet of Things device manufacturers looking to fit their resource-constrained embedded devices with lightweight software systems. As an open- source project, Linux offers a stable, low-cost, secure, and up-to-date platform that can be run on a variety of microprocessor architectures, powering a range of devices from IoT sensors at the low end to powerful supercomputers. # ⚓ Nvidia_cosies_up_to_Open_Robotics_for_hardware-accelerated ROS⠀⇛ Nvidia has linked up with Open Robotics to drive new artificial intelligence capabilities in the Robot Operating System (ROS). The non-exclusive agreement will see Open Robotics extending ROS 2, the latest version of the open- source robotics framework, to better support Nvidia hardware – and in particular its Jetson range, low- power parts which combine Arm cores with the company’s own GPU and deep-learning accelerator cores to drive edge and embedded artificial intelligence applications. “Our users have been building and simulating robots with Nvidia hardware for years, and we want to make sure that ROS 2 and Ignition work well on those platforms,” Brian Gerkey, Open Robotics’ chief exec, told The Register. # ⚓ UP_Xtreme_i11_Edge_Compute_Enabling_Kit_supports_5G,_WiFi 6,_Myriad_X_AI_accelerator_cards_–_CNX_Software⠀⇛ The computer is compatible with Microsoft Windows 10 full version, Yocto project 3.0/3.1 using Linux 5.4, and Ubuntu 20.04 with Linux 5.8, as well as Intel OpenVINO toolkit 2021 R1 with support for TensorFlow and Caffe AI frameworks. Ubuntu and OpenVINO are also part of the Intel Software Foundation Kit that may be installed on the device upon request, and also includes MRAA and UPM I/ O and sensor libraries, Docker, k3s Kubernetes, AWS Greengrass, and more. # § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾ # ⚓ This_robotic_bartender_serves_up_drinks_using_a_Nano RP2040_Connect_and_the_Arduino_Cloud_|_Arduino_Blog⠀⇛ Mixing up perfect, custom cocktails often requires months or even years of training, in addition to having to know a plethora of recipes. But Jithin Sanal wanted to pour his favorite drinks without spending the extra time and effort, so he concocted a robotic cocktail mixer to perform this task for him. It operates by using a series of ingredient reservoirs, pumps, an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, and a few relays to dispense a precise quantity of the desired ingredient into a container. Sanal also designed and fabricated his own circuit board to connect each component together in a circuit. Rather than having a bunch of physical buttons on the front of the robotic cocktail mixer, Sanal instead opted to use the Arduino Cloud with five virtual ones that each correspond to a single drink. When a button is pressed, a function is executed on the Nano RP2040 Connect that activates the correct pumps in the specified order for a certain duration. By utilizing this method, users can be confident their drink is perfectly made every single time. More drinks can be added to the system simply by adding another button within the IoT Cloud and creating the associated function in the RP2040’s code. # § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ Free_apps!_How_to_get_paid_Android_apps_free_on Google_Play_Store_|_HT_Tech⠀⇛ # ⚓ Teclast_T40_Plus_Tablet_Review:_Is_This_Low-Cost Android_Tablet_Worth_The_Audio_and_Camera Compromises?⠀⇛ # ⚓ Realme_UI_3.0_based_on_Android_12:_Release_time announced⠀⇛ # ⚓ Android_12′s_wallpaper_theming_system_will_go_open source_in_Android_12.1⠀⇛ # ⚓ Google_TV_in-app_remote_arrives_on_Android,_doesn’t work_–_9to5Google⠀⇛ o § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾ # § Web Browsers⠀➾ # § Chromium⠀➾ # ⚓ An_update_on_Memory_Safety_in_Chrome_ [LWN.net]⠀⇛ The Google security blog provides an overview of what is being done to address memory-safety problems in the Chrome browser. # ⚓ Chrome_94_Released_for_Android,_macOS,_Windows, Linux:_What’s_New_|_Technology_News⠀⇛ Chrome 94 stable update has been released by Google for Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows operating systems. The update will be rolled out over the coming weeks and it brings new security features, new functionality, and bug fixes. Google Chrome 94 stable is the first version of Chrome of the new four-week release cycle. Previously, Chrome update was released every six weeks. Its features include HTTPS-First mode that makes users browsing more secure. Also, Google said that 19 different security issues were fixed in the Chrome 94 version. The update for Google Chrome was announced through a blog post on September 21. Chrome 94 introduces HTTPS-First mode. It is available in Chrome for desktop systems and for Android. HTTPS is a more secure version of HTTP and many websites support it. With the latest update, the browser will also show a full-page warning when the user loads a site that doesn’t support HTTPS. This ensures privacy when using public Wi-Fi. Google says this was previously planned for Chrome 92. # ⚓ Google_emits_Chrome_94_with_‘Idle_Detection’ API_to_detect_user_inactivity_amid_opposition⠀⇛ Google has released Chrome 94 for desktop and Android, complete with an “Idle Detection” API to detect user inactivity, despite privacy concerns expressed by Mozilla and Apple. New and changed features in Chrome 94 are listed here and include the removal of the AppCache feature, described as a “security and stability liability”, and something which has “imposed a tax on all of Chrome’s significant architectural efforts.” There is also a new VirtualKeyboard API with more control over its shape and an event fired when it covers page content; more efficient low-level access to media encoders and decoders; and a new JavaScript Self Profiling API which enables developers to collect JavaScript performance profiles from end users. # § Mozilla⠀➾ # ⚓ Firefox_Add-on_Reviews:_YouTube_your way—browser_extensions_put_you_in_charge_of_your video_experience⠀⇛ YouTube wants you to experience YouTube in very prescribed ways. But with the right browser extension, you’re free to alter YouTube to taste. Change the way the site looks, behaves, and delivers your favorite videos. [...] Though its primary function is to automatically play all YouTube videos in their highest possible resolution, YouTube High Definition has a few other fine features to offer. # ⚓ Location_history:_How_your_location_is_tracked and_how_you_can_limit_sharing_it⠀⇛ In real estate, the age old mantra is “location, location, location,” meaning that location drives value. That’s true even when it comes to data collection in the online world, too — your location history is valuable, authentic information. In all likelihood, you’re leaving a breadcrumb trail of location data every day, but there are a few things you can do to clean that up and keep more of your goings-on to yourself. [...] For some apps, location helps them function better, like navigating with a GPS or following a map. Location history can also be useful for retracing your steps to past places, like finding your way back to that tiny shop in Florence where you picked up beautiful stationery two years ago. On the other hand, marketing companies use location data for marketing and advertising purposes. They can also use location to conduct “geomarketing,” which is targeting you with promotions based on where you are. Near a certain restaurant while you’re out doing errands at midday? You might see an ad for it on your phone just as you’re thinking about lunch. Location can also be used to grant or deny access to certain content. In some parts of the world, content on the internet is “geo-blocked” or geographically-restricted based on your IP address, which is kind of like a mailing address, associated with your online activity. Geo-blocking can happen due to things like copyright restrictions, limited licensing rights or even government control. # § FSF⠀➾ # § Licensing/Legal⠀➾ # ⚓ Enforcement_of_the_GNU_GPL_with_Till_Jaeger⠀⇛ With our 12th episode of the Software Freedom Podcast we dig into the history and the beginning of enforcing Free Software licences, especially the GNU General Public Licence (GNU GPL). Together with Till Jaeger, who has been working alongside Harald Welte for enforcing the GNU GPL in the first court cases in Germany, we talk about the long way we have come since those early days. Our guest, Till Jaeger, discusses with our host, Matthias Kirschner, how the decision to go to court and stand up for the rights of copyleft licences came about. Till and Matthias tell an exciting story about those first steps on this new legal ground. They also highlight the short term and long term impacts of the first court decision in favour of Free Software. For example, how more and more information about licensing and especially using a Free Software licence became available and publicly known. But also how workshops, like the FSFE’s yearly Legal and Licensing Workshop were created for those interested in using and being compliant to Free Software licences. Discover together with us the changes that have come from those first steps to the acceptance of Free Software in companies. Till has been involved with Free Software licensing for a long time and provides a deep and well rounded insight into the history of enforcing the GNU GPL. To give this episode a perfect ending, Matthias and Till also talk about some of the most common misunderstandings of Free Software licensing. This is the perfect episode for everyone to get an insight into one of the most important events in the history of enforcing Free Software licences. # § Programming/Development⠀➾ # ⚓ Jakub_Kadlčík:_Building_RHEL_packages_with_Tito⠀⇛ Are you a Fedora packager and consider Tito to be a valuable asset in your toolbox? Do you know it can be used for maintaining RHEL packages as well? Or any downstream packaging? I didn’t. This article explains how it can be done. # ⚓ linuxium.com.au:_New_release_of_‘isorespin.sh’⠀⇛ Following news of the GRUB2 Secure Boot Bypass 2021 and as a result of Google’s security changes on Google Drive together with the first daily build’s from Canonical of Ubuntu 21.10 (impish) and point releases for 20.04.3 and 18.04.6 I’ve updated my ‘isorespin.sh‘ script and respun some ISOs suitable for Intel Atom and Intel Apollo Lake devices. # ⚓ PHP_maintains_an_enormous_lead_in_server-side programming_languages⠀⇛ The venerable web programming language PHP is a source of frequent complaints and frustration, but according to a report W3Techs released today, it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon. W3Techs’ web server survey looks for technologies in use by sites in Alexa’s top 10 million list; today’s report includes a year-on-year chart beginning with January 2010, running all the way through 2021. The survey only includes top sites not out of elitism, but as one part of its effort to avoid data-skewing returns from domain- parking services and spammers, which would otherwise dominate legitimate websites through sheer volume. Within that dataset, the story told is clear. Apart from PHP—which held a 72.5 percent share in 2010 and holds a 78.9 percent share as of today—only one other server-side language ever broke a 10 percent share. That one competitor is ASP.NET, which held an impressive 24.4 percent share in 2010 but was down to 9.3 percent in January and 8.3 percent this month. Amongst the small fry, the only truly impressive growth to be seen is in Ruby—which at 5.2 percent this month is still seeing continued uninterrupted growth in W3Techs’ survey. This might come as a shock if you’re mostly familiar with Ruby on Rails, which itself remains viable but seems to be on the decline in popularity. # ⚓ PHP_Holds_Impressive_Lead_Among_Server-Side Languages⠀⇛ This share constitutes an enormous lead over PHP’s rivals, with only one other server-side language ever reaching a 10 percent share. As Jim Salter reports, ASP.NET held a 24 percent share in 2010 but usage has now declined to 8.3 percent. # ⚓ 10_Best_Open_Source_Linux_Code_Editors [Ed: Very bad list. The first two in the list are Microsoft and even proprietary software with surveillance or 'telemetry' that spies on coders]⠀⇛ Coding is part of every developer’s life and IDE (Integrated Development Environment) makes this job easier for them. IDEs come with tons of handy features and support programming of various languages within the same environment. Furthermore, IDEs provide users with plug-ins for adding the extra capability to the program and auto-complete tags and classes to make programming faster. Users can also utilize the pre-provided piece of code in their programs. IDEs make coding faster and easier and hence today we’re here to discuss the 10 best Code Editors (IDEs) available for Linux. * § Leftovers⠀➾ o § Hardware⠀➾ # ⚓ An_Entirely_Frivolous_Way_To_Measure_Data_|_Hackaday⠀⇛ [lexie] is a librarian, and librarians live in the real world. They’re not concerned with vague digital notions about the size of data, but practical notions of space. Thus, she created a tool to answer an important question: how long do your shelves need to be if you’re storing all your information on 3.5″ floppy disks? It’s a great question, and one we find ourselves asking, well, pretty much never. [lexie]’s tool is also built using modern web technologies, and 3.5″ floppy disks were never really used for bulk storage, either. It just makes the whole thing all the more frivolous, and that makes it more fun. # ⚓ Mobile_mobile_museum_looks_to_chart_the_history_of_portable phones⠀⇛ A very-literally-mobile museum boasting over 2,000 exhibits is to go online and on the streets this year to show off the evolution of the mobile phone from 1984 to the present day – and its founders are looking for donations to fill a few gaps in the collection. “I’ve been collecting phones for more than 25 years. Over the last three decades the mobile phone has become part of the fabric of society and the design diversity, from early transportable phones to the latest smartphones with flexible displays, is something to behold,” museum founder Ben Wood explained in a prepared statement. “When the online museum launches later this year, we want it to be a rich learning resource and a way to inspire young people to go on to create incredible mobile innovations of their own in the future.” o § Integrity/Availability⠀➾ # § Proprietary⠀➾ # § Pseudo-Open Source⠀➾ # § Privatisation/Privateering⠀➾ # § Linux Foundation⠀➾ # ⚓ Speedy_PaSh_shell_compiler_finds new_home_at_the_Linux_Foundation⠀⇛ The Linux Foundation has adopted the PaSh Project, which offers a Linux-based compiler for automatically parallelizing POSIX shell scripts to optimize programs and speed execution, especially on multiprocessor systems. The PaSh compiler, which is designed for parallelizing and thereby speeding up POSIX shell scripts, has a new home with the Linux Foundation. PaSh appears to be a major advance for a shell script language that has been around for almost a quarter century and is used across the technology spectrum in utility programs such as Bash. PaSh is designed to “improve upon and accelerate the execution of shell scripts in the face of new web crawling, indexing and natural language processing changes,” stated Nikos Vasilakis, Technical Steering Committee chair and MIT researcher. # ⚓ The_Linux_Foundation’s_Open Networking_and_Edge_(ONE)_Summit Expands_Programming_with_Keynote_and Mini_Summit_by_the_US_Government, Enabling_Secure,_Open,_and Programmable_5G_Networks⠀⇛ The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, along with co-hosts LF Edge, LF Networking, and Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), today announced additional programming for ONE Summit contributed by the United States government. New programming includes a keynote address by Dr. Dan Massey, Project Leader, Operate through DoD 5G to NextG Initiative, as well as a US GOV OPS Mini Summit. “We are honored to have such a broad and distinguished swath of experts participating in ONE Summit,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “The latest additions to our program bring an even more diverse perspective on the future of 5G, and how initiatives like the 5G Super Blue Print can be consumed by both governments and enterprises.” # § Security⠀➾ # ⚓ Security_updates_for_Wednesday⠀⇛ Security updates have been issued by Debian (grilo), Fedora (curl, firefox, mingw-python-pillow, python-pillow, python2-pillow, and webkit2gtk3), openSUSE (chromium, grafana-piechart- panel, kernel, libcroco, php-composer, and xen), Oracle (curl, kernel, and nss and nspr), Red Hat (nodejs:12), Slackware (alpine), SUSE (ghostscript, grafana-piechart-panel, kernel, and xen), and Ubuntu (linux, linux-hwe, linux-hwe-5.11, linux-hwe-5.4, linux- raspi, linux-raspi-5.4, and linux- raspi2). # ⚓ FBI_held_back_ransomware_decryption_key_from businesses_to_run_operation_targeting_hackers [Ed: Microsoft Windows TCO]⠀⇛ The FBI refrained for almost three weeks from helping to unlock the computers of hundreds of businesses and institutions hobbled by a major ransomware attack this summer, even though the bureau had secretly obtained the digital key needed to do so, according to several current and former U.S. officials. # ⚓ FBI_Had_REvil’s_Kaseya_Ransomware_Decryption Key_for_Weeks:_Report⠀⇛ After the Kaseya attack, the feds somehow came into possession of a decryption key but waited nearly a month before delivering it into the hands of businesses. # ⚓ FBI_Had_the_REvil_Decryption_Key_–_Schneier_on Security [Ed: Those "trade-offs" should include removing Windows altogether]⠀⇛ Fighting ransomware is filled with security trade-offs. This is one I had not previously considered. # ⚓ Ransomware_Attacks_Have_Gone_Stratospheric: Report [Ed: Overlooks the fact that many target Windows in particular; instead it focuses on "UNIX" and "Linux", which seems strange. What's the motivation? Meanwhile, mainstream media barely even mentions "Windows" when only Windows is impacted.]⠀⇛ Positive Technologies on Wednesday released a report that indicates ransomware attacks have reached “stratospheric levels.” # ⚓ CISA,_FBI,_and_NSA_Release_Joint_Cybersecurity Advisory_on_Conti_Ransomware [Ed: These are some of the world culprits, putting back doors in everything]⠀⇛ CISA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency (NSA) have released a joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) alerting organizations of increased Conti ransomware attacks. Malicious cyber actors use Conti ransomware to steal sensitive files from domestic and international organizations, encrypt the targeted organizations’ servers and workstations, and demand a ransom payment from the victims. # ⚓ Ransomware_Attacks_Now_Account_For_69%_Of_All Attacks_Involving_Malware:_Report⠀⇛ # ⚓ Google_Releases_Security_Updates_for_Chrome_| CISA [Ed: Proprietary software]⠀⇛ Google has released Chrome version 94.0.4606.54 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This version addresses vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit to take control of an affected system. # ⚓ Microsoft_Exchange_Autodiscover_protocol_found leaking_hundreds_of_thousands_of_credentials⠀⇛ A flaw in Microsoft’s Autodiscover protocol, used to configure Exchange clients like Outlook, can cause user credentials to leak to miscreants in certain circumstances. The upshot is that your Exchange- connected email client may give away your username and password to a stranger, if the flaw is successfully exploited. In a report scheduled to be published on Wednesday, security firm Guardicore said it has identified a design blunder that leaks web requests to Autodiscover domains that are outside the user’s domain but within the same top-level domain (TLD). Exchange’s Autodiscover protocol, specifically the version based on POX XML, provides a way for client applications to obtain the configuration data necessary to communicate with the Exchange server. It gets invoked, for example, when adding a new Exchange account to Outlook. After a user supplies a name, email address, and password, Outlook tries to use Autodiscover to set up the client. o § Defence/Aggression⠀➾ # ⚓ Navigating_without_GPS_is_one_thing_–_so_let’s_jam_it_and see_what_happens_to_our_warship⠀⇛ Learning to fix your position without GPS is one thing. Actively jamming it to induce a deliberate system failure aboard your own ship is quite something else, as we found on Monday. The Register is currently embedded aboard HMS Severn, the Royal Navy’s navigation training ship. Yesterday afternoon we witnessed the practical effects of jamming GPS. These were much less than the apocalyptic effects some excitable parts of the media would have you believe. A couple of alarms went off, Severn’s bridge crew cancelled them, and everyone continued as normal. “If you lose GPS,” said Commander Philip Harper, “it’s not like you lose your position straightaway. It’s likely to inject some velocities as it goes.” o § Finance⠀➾ # ⚓ Thatcher-era_ICL_mainframe_fingered_for_failure_to_pay_out over_£1bn_in_UK_pensions⠀⇛ UK spending watchdog the National Audit Office has found that a 34-year-old computer system was one of the causes of a scandal which led to more than £1bn of state pensions not being paid. In a report published today, the NAO said that contributing to systematic errors were processes which relied on systems with “limited automation” and required “the use of multiple systems and interpretation of complex rules.” “Where caseworkers identify that future action may be needed on a claim they must manually set a prompt on the IT system,” the report said. o § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾ # ⚓ Ronald_Deibert_Wins_Shaughnessy_Cohen_Prize_for_Political Writing_–_The_Citizen_Lab⠀⇛ Citizen Lab founder and director, Ronald Deibert, has won the prestigious 2021 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for his book RESET: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society (House of Anansi Press). Established in honour of the late MP from Windsor, Ontario, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing is delivered annually for an “exceptional book of literary nonfiction that captures a political subject of relevance to Canadian readers.” Delivered by the Writers’ Trust of Canada, the award was announced at the digital edition of Politics and the Pen gala on September 22, 2021. “It was a great honour to be invited to deliver the 2020 CBC Massey lectures, for which I wrote RESET. To receive the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize from the Writer’s Trust is a wonderful surprise and truly humbling. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all of the other shortlisted authors. I hope this award helps underscore how important it is for all of us to reclaim the Internet for civil society and work collectively towards a sustainable, secure, and mutually-beneficial public sphere.” – Ronald Deibert o § Digital Restrictions (DRM)⠀➾ # ⚓ Firmware_Find_Hints_At_Subscription_Plan_for_reMarkable Tablet⠀⇛ To their credit, at least reMarkable is being upfront by admitting a subscription model is being considered. It also sounds like existing users will be grandfathered in when it goes live, which should come as some comfort to current owners. But for prospective buyers, this could literally change everything. It’s bad enough that cloud synchronization of documents would potentially be time-limited, though we’ll admit there’s some justification in that the company is obviously incurring costs by hosting these files. Limiting features based on subscription tier on the other hand is simply a step too far, especially on a device that the user purchased outright. We’ve already seen the first tentative steps towards developing a free and open source operating system for the reMarkable tablet, and this news is only going to redouble the efforts of those who wish to liberate this very promising piece of hardware from the overbearing software it ships with. What worries us is how the company is likely to respond to such projects if they’ve found themselves in a situation where recurring charges have become necessary to balance the books. We’ve already seen a motorcycle airbag that will only deploy if the wearer has paid up for the year, so is a tablet that won’t let you install additional applications unless you’ve sprung for the premium membership really that far fetched? Sadly, we all know the answer. ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 4179 ╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕ ⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 09.22.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧ Gemini_version_available_♊︎ ✐ Links_22/9/2021:_Panfrost’s_OpenGL_ES_3.1_Conformanc_and_NovProg_3.2.0⠀✐ Posted in News_Roundup at 6:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈ § Contents⠀➾ * GNU/Linux o Distributions o Devices/Embedded * Free_Software/Open_Source * Leftovers * § GNU/Linux⠀➾ o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾ # ⚓ EPIK_Fail_Of_A_Domain_Registrar_&_Web_Host_–_Invidious⠀⇛ Recently Epik had a major data leak and with this came all of their customer data along with internal systems and even unrelated WHOIS data and the response from Epik has been absolutely horrible. o § Kernel Space⠀➾ # ⚓ AMD_Developer_Discusses_New_Linux_CPPC_Drivers_For_Ryzen, Steam_Deck⠀⇛ In preparation for the Steam Deck launch in the coming months, AMD and Valve have been hard at work building a new CPU driver that will enhance the performance and power efficiency of Ryzen-based processors on the Linux platform. One of AMD’s developers, Ray Huang, shared details of the new driver in a presentation last Friday at the X.Org Developers Conference (XDC2021). You can check out the video below for full details. According to the presentation, the new CPU driver started development when Valve found problems with the current ACPI CPUFreq driver being used today on all Intel and AMD Processors running a Linux OS. The developer found performance problems with games using its Proton compatibility layer, that was caused by incorrect sysfs calls to Wine from the CPUFreq driver. This is particularly worrying because Valve needs this problem fixed if it wants the Steam Deck to run games smoothly with its custom Zen 2 SoC and Linux-based SteamOS. Once Valve contacted AMD about the matter, AMD also found other issues pertaining to the older ACPI driver, which were causing problems with Ryzen’s performance and power efficiency on Linux. # ⚓ Linus_Torvalds_Has_Revealed_the_Date_of_Linux’s_Real Birthday⠀⇛ Many people in the Linux community is celebrating Linux’s birthday on August 25, but is that the right date? Here’s the answer. We all know the story. In 1988, a young Finnish man entered the Helsinki University to study Computer Science. His name was Linus Benedict Torvalds. On August 25, 1991, after five months of development, the 21-year-old Linus Torvalds made his now- legendary announcement via mail to a Minix newsgroup. [...] For those who don’t know, Torvalds originally named his kernel “FREAX” – a mix of “free”, “freak” and and “x” (as an allusion to Unix). One can see that while Torvalds may be a great programmer and leader, he really should leave the process of naming projects to other people. # § Graphics Stack⠀➾ # ⚓ Panfrost_achieves_OpenGL_ES_3.1_conformance_on_Mali- G52⠀⇛ The open source Panfrost driver for Mali GPUs has now achieved official conformance on Mali-G52 for OpenGL ES 3.1, as seen on the Khronos adopters list. This important milestone is a step forward for the open source driver, as it now certifies Panfrost for use in commercial products containing Mali G52 and paves the way for further conformance submissions on other Mali GPUs. Conformance requires passing tens of thousands of OpenGL integration tests in a single run. Over the summer, we wrote hundreds of patches to fix failing tests. While no amount of testing can guarantee the absence of bugs, passing conformance gets us close. To ensure we remain conformant, we’ve upgraded our continuous integration infrastructure to run more tests before every merge. Ideally, we could re-run the complete conformance suite for every commit, but that’s infeasible when a single run takes 11 hours on commercial hardware. Nevertheless, with multiple devices, tuned test configurations, and multithreading, we can run 99.5% of the tests in our 10 minute pre- merge budget. This ensures to a high degree of confidence that Panfrost only becomes more stable each release without regressions. I would like to extend a warm thanks to Emma Anholt for developing the infrastructure required for this feat. # ⚓ Rosenzweig:_Panfrost_achieves_OpenGL_ES_3.1 conformance_on_Mali-G52⠀⇛ Alyssa Rosenzweig reports that the open- source Panfrost driver for Mali GPUs has achieved official conformance on Mali-G52 for OpenGL ES 3.1. o § Applications⠀➾ # ⚓ NovProg_3.2.0_released⠀⇛ Added setting words written for current day Added support for Qt 6 Refactored code Removed XPM icon Translation updates: Dutch, Lithuanian o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾ # ⚓ Attempt_to_install_Fedora_WKS_35_Beta_as_KVM_Guest⠀⇛ # ⚓ How_to_install_Natron_on_Linux_Lite_5.4_–_Invidious⠀⇛ In this video, we are looking at how to install Natron on Linux Lite 5.4. # ⚓ How_to_install_Super_Mario_127_on_a_Chromebook⠀⇛ Today we are looking at how to install Super Mario 127 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. If you have any questions, please contact us via a YouTube comment and we would be happy to assist you! o § Games⠀➾ # ⚓ The_wonderful_adventure_If_On_A_Winter’s_Night,_Four Travelers_is_now_on_Steam⠀⇛ If On A Winter’s Night, Four Travelers is a free point and click adventure that has hopped over from itch.io to Steam and it’s well worth grabbing as it’s free. Presented with some gorgeous pixel-art, it’s quite a treat and it won’t take you too long to get through with it being about 2-3 hours long so you can breeze through it with a coffee in an afternoon. A narrative-focused game giving you multiple perspectives with a horror theme, and it was something of a breakout hit when it appeared on itch with tens of thousands of downloads. # ⚓ Star-Twine_is_a_strategy_game_where_you_control_light_from a_dying_star_now_on_Linux_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Ten years after release Star-Twine from SPARSE// GameDev (Spring Falls) has come to Linux thanks to work from game porter and FNA developer Ethan Lee. Created originally by Eric Billingsley, who was lead programmer on Cuphead and is currently level designer for the upcoming release TUNIC. # ⚓ Operation_Riptide_is_live_for_Counter-Strike:_Global Offensive_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Operation Riptide is the 11th “season” for Valve’s free to play shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It brings with it new maps, an overhauled mission system, new ways to play various modes and more content to unlock like new agents, weapon collections, stickers and patches. # ⚓ Proton_Experimental_adds_more_game-specific_fixes_in_the latest_update_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛ Continuing to roll in more fixes, Proton Experimental has another update that’s small but it has some needed improvements. If you don’t know what Steam Play Proton is be sure to check our dedicated page. Following on from the update released on September 17 that got DEATHLOOP working across AMD GPUs and later NVIDIA GPUs there’s a small fix in this version of Proton Experimental for a “sporadic” lockup when starting the game. Want to pick up a copy of DEATHLOOP to try it? You can buy it from Humble Store and Steam. o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾ # § GNOME Desktop/GTK⠀➾ # ⚓ Emmanuele_Bassi:_Properties,_introspection,_and_you⠀⇛ It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a GObject class in possession of a property, must be in want of an accessor function. The main issue with that statement is that it’s really hard to pair the GObject property with the accessor functions that set the property’s value, and retrieve it. From a documentation perspective, tools might not establish any relation (gtk-doc), or they might require some additional annotation to do so (gi-docgen); but at the introspection level there’s nothing in the XML or the binary data that lets you go from a property name to a setter, or a getter, function. At least, until now. GObject-introspection 1.70, released alongside GLib 2.70 and GNOME 41, introduced various annotations for both properties and methods that let you go from one to the other; additionally, new API was added to libgirepository to allow bindings to dynamic languages to establish that relation at run time. o § Distributions⠀➾ # § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾ # ⚓ Ubuntu_14.04_&_16.04_lifespan_extended_to_10_years⠀⇛ Canonical has this week announced it is extending the lifespan of its Ubuntu 14.04 an Ubuntu 16.04 Linux operating systems by 10 years meaning that Ubuntu 14.04 first released back in 2014 will now be supported until April 2024 and similarly with Ubuntu 16.04 the OS will be supported until April 2026. Only a few years ago the company would offer five years of support but starting with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Canonical has been offering a massive 10 years worth of support through an Extended Security Maintenance program. “Continue to receive security updates for the Ubuntu base OS, critical software packages and infrastructure components with Extended Security Maintenance (ESM). ESM provides five additional years of security maintenance, enabling an organization’s continuous vulnerability management. # ⚓ Canonical_gives_administrators_the_chance_to_drag their_feet_a_bit_more_on_Ubuntu_upgrades⠀⇛ There was good news today for administrators looking nervously at their aging Ubuntu boxes. A few more years of support is now on offer as Canonical brings 14.04 and 16.04 LTS into the 10-year fold. Users still running on 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr), released back in April 2014, now have until April 2024 (up from 2022) to make the move to something more recent. 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), which dropped into Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) in April this year, has had this extended from April 2024 to April 2026. Ubuntu has been quietly updating its support and blog posts to reflect the change. The extension is a welcome one for enterprises, who might be reluctant to fiddle with that one server that has been plugging along happily for years without intervention, and should give administrators a little more breathing space. That is, assuming that somebody has coughed up for ESM, which requires an Ubuntu Advantage subscription (free for personal users or Ubuntu Community members, but otherwise requiring the spending of cold hard cash.) # ⚓ Canonical_extends_Ubuntu_14.04_LTS_and_16.04_LTS lifespans⠀⇛ Canonical, the creator of the Ubuntu operating system, has announced that Ubuntu 14.04 LTS ‘Trusty Tahr’ and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS ‘Xenial Xerus’ have had their lifespan extended and will now get ten years of life each. With the new extensions in place, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will be supported until April 2024 (instead of April 2022) and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will be supported until April 2026 (instead of April 2024). This puts them in line with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS which already have ten years of support. According to Canonical, the extension will give organisations time to balance their infrastructure upgrade costs by giving them more time to enact their upgrade plans. The news will act as a bit of a reprieve for companies that have been hit by the coronavirus over the year and a half. # ⚓ Canonical_extends_lifecycle_for_Ubuntu_LTS_releases⠀⇛ In a relief to any small and medium businesses (SMBs) running their infrastructure on Long Term Support (LTS) releases of Ubuntu, Canonical has announced it will extend the lifecycle of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS release by a couple of years, Canonical reasons that the extended lifecycle, which now sees the distros supported for a total of ten years, will give SMBs the leeway they need to balance their infrastructure upgrade costs, especially as businesses emerge from the pandemic. “Each industry sector has its own deployment lifecycle and adopts technology at a different pace. We are bringing an operating system lifecycle that lets organizations manage their infrastructure on their terms,” said Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos, Product Manager at Canonical. # ⚓ Ubuntu_Touch_OTA-19_Released_for_Supported_Ubuntu Phones,_This_Is_What’s_New⠀⇛ Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 adds support for Halium 7.1 and 5.1 devices, such as Samsung S3 Neo+ (GT-I9301I) and Google Nexus 6P, to access the gyroscope and magnetic field sensors, along with an initial and very basic implementation of a compass. In addition, this update improves the messaging app to offer users a more focused way of reading incoming messages by no longer popping up the keyboard automatically. Also, Ubuntu Touch OTA-19 comes with the 16.04.7 App framework to add compatibility for platforms that don’t offer direct access to QtWebEngine. o § Devices/Embedded⠀➾ # § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾ # ⚓ Automatically_tune_your_guitar_with_Raspberry_Pi Pico⠀⇛ # ⚓ Bringing_The_Quake_Flicker_To_Life_With_A_Hacked Light_|_Hackaday⠀⇛ If you ever feel a pang of shame because you’ve been reusing the same snippets of code in your projects for years, don’t. Even the big names do it, as evidenced by the fact that code written to govern flickering lights back in 1996 for Quake is still being used in AAA titles like 2020’s Half-Life: Alyx. In honor of this iconic example of digital buck- passing, [Rodrigo Feliciano] thought he’d port the code in question over to the Arduino and recreate the effect in real-life. Since the Quake engine has been released under the GPLv2, it’s easy to pull up the relevant section of the code to see how the lighting was configured. Interestingly, lighting patterns were implemented as strings, where the letters from a to z referenced how bright the light should appear. So for example, a strobe light that goes between minimum and maximum brightness would be written as “aaaaaaaazzzzzzzz”, while a flickering light could be represented with the string “nmonqnmomnmomomno“. # ⚓ Mini_Wireless_Thermal_Printers_Get_Arduino_Library_ (and_MacOS_App)_|_Hackaday⠀⇛ [Larry Bank]’s Arduino library to print text and graphics on BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) thermal printers has some excellent features, and makes sending wireless print jobs to a number of common models about as easy as can be. These printers are small, inexpensive, and wireless. That’s a great mix that makes them attractive for projects that would benefit from printing out a hardcopy. o § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾ # ⚓ Cycles_X_Merged_Into_Blender_3.0_With_NVIDIA_CUDA/OptiX Support,_AMD_HIP_Pending⠀⇛ Cycles X as a modernizing of Blender’s Cycles rendering engine has now landed in the latest development code for Blender 3.0. Cycles X brings big performance improvements but does eliminate OpenCL support in the process. Cycles X was one of the reasons for the delay in the Blender 3.0 release to allow time for this Cycles overhaul to land. As of yesterday, the Cycles-X branch was merged into the Blender 3.0 code-base as a major renderer update. # § Web Browsers⠀➾ # § Mozilla⠀➾ # ⚓ V3_onion_services_usage⠀⇛ With the deprecation of V2 onion services right around the corner, it is a good time to talk about V3 onion services. # ⚓ Location_history:_How_your_location_is_tracked and_how_you_can_limit_sharing_it⠀⇛ In real estate, the age old mantra is “location, location, location,” meaning that location drives value. That’s true even when it comes to data collection in the online world, too — your location history is valuable, authentic information. In all likelihood, you’re leaving a breadcrumb trail of location data every day, but there are a few things you can do to clean that up and keep more of your goings-on to yourself. [...] For some apps, location helps them function better, like navigating with a GPS or following a map. Location history can also be useful for retracing your steps to past places, like finding your way back to that tiny shop in Florence where you picked up beautiful stationery two years ago. On the other hand, marketing companies use location data for marketing and advertising purposes. They can also use location to conduct “geomarketing,” which is targeting you with promotions based on where you are. Near a certain restaurant while you’re out doing errands at midday? You might see an ad for it on your phone just as you’re thinking about lunch. Location can also be used to grant or deny access to certain content. In some parts of the world, content on the internet is “geo-blocked” or geographically-restricted based on your IP address, which is kind of like a mailing address, associated with your online activity. Geo-blocking can happen due to things like copyright restrictions, limited licensing rights or even government control. # ⚓ These_Weeks_in_Firefox:_Issue_100⠀⇛ Fixed more than one bug Ava Katushka Itiel Michael Kohler [:mkohler] # § FSF⠀➾ # § GNU Projects⠀➾ # ⚓ Oracle’s_Next-Generation_GNU_Profiler_“gprofng” Is_Looking_Great_For_Developers⠀⇛ Oracle engineers have been working on “gprofng” as a next-generation GNU Profiler that can analyze production binaries. Oracle talked up Gprofng today during the GNU Tools Track as part of Linux Plumbers Conference 2021. Gprofng stems from Oracle Developer Studio’s Performance Analyzer and this new tool currently supports profiling C, C++, Java, and Scala code. Unlike the original gprof, gprofng is able to profile production binaries that do not need to be built with any special options or still have the source code available. Unmodified executable can be easily analyzed and a wealth of information provided. # § Programming/Development⠀➾ # § Perl/Raku⠀➾ # ⚓ Everyone’s_a_(Perl)_critic,_and_you_can_be too!⠀⇛ The perlcritic tool is often your first defense against ​“awk­ward, hard to read, error-​prone, or uncon­ven­tion­al con­structs in your code,” per its descrip­tion. It’s part of a class of pro­grams his­tor­i­cal­ly known as lin­ters, so- ​called because like a clothes dry­er machine’s lint trap, they ​“detect small errors with big effects.” (Another such lin­ter is perltidy, which I’ve ref­er­enced in the past.) # § Python⠀➾ # ⚓ Structural_pattern_matching_in_Python_3.10⠀⇛ In the meantime, I thought I’d get to know the feature better by writing up my thoughts and some code examples in article form. As you can gather, I’m rather biased, but I’ll try to present the positives as well as just criticism. The pattern matching feature has no fewer than three PEPs (Python Enhancement Proposals) to describe it: [...] * § Leftovers⠀➾ o ⚓ Searching_for_Solutions_to_Alaska’s_High_Rate_of_Deadly_Air Crashes⠀⇛ More than five decades ago, a flight carrying Doug Groothuis’ father crashed while taking off from the northernmost community in Alaska. Labor leader Harold Groothuis was killed, as were the plane’s pilot and five other passengers. Doug Groothuis, who was 11 at the time, remembers being in his bedroom that November 1968 night and watching Walter Cronkite mention his father by name in a CBS Evening News report on the fatal accident in Barrow, now known as Utqiagvik. o § Hardware⠀➾ # ⚓ Keebin’_with_Kristina:_the_One_with_the_Grabbity_Gloves⠀⇛ early models blocked the user’s view of the results. The paper advances in a gentle arc via electromagnet as you fill up the page. Later versions used a mechanical escapement. The Malling-Hansen Writing Ball was the first commercially-sold typewriter, beating Scholes & Glidden’s Remington I (featuring the QWERTY layout) to market by a few years. The Ball was invented by the reverend Rasmus Hans Malling Johan Hansen, a teacher and director at an institute for the deaf and mute in Copenhagen. o § Health/Nutrition⠀➾ # ⚓ The_False_Premise_of_Healthcare_Hotspotting⠀⇛ On January 4, CNBC reported on a Freakonomics radio episode from November 2020 in which Whole Foods CEO John Mackey graced the world with his very astute and novel big idea for twenty-first-century health reform: I mean, honestly, we talk about health care. The best solution is not to need health care. The best solution is to change the way people eat, the way they live, lifestyles and diet. There’s no reason why people shouldn’t be healthy and have a longer life span. # ⚓ How_Caffeine_Addiction_Changed_History⠀⇛ # ⚓ Why_Do_Europeans_Live_Longer_Than_Americans?⠀⇛ # ⚓ Cost_Disease_Socialism:_the_Niskanen_Center’s_Unnecessary Fight⠀⇛ # ⚓ Republicans_Urge_Defiance_of_Biden_Mandates⠀⇛ Republicans say don’t comply When government tries to deny The freedom you’ve got To not take the shot, No matter how many folks die. # ⚓ Global_People’s_Summit_on_Food_Systems_Kicks_Off_to Challenge_‘Corporate_Agenda’_of_UN_Meeting⠀⇛ Decrying the “corporate agenda” of the upcoming United Nations Food Systems Summit, thousands of farmworkers and food sovereignty advocates on Tuesday launched a three-day counter-mobilization “to expose and oppose the control of big corporations over food and agriculture.” “Corporations are out to further consolidate their control of land, seeds, agricultural inputs, and markets by embedding themselves even deeper into policymaking processes of the U.N. and its member states.”—Sarojeni Rengam PAN Asia Pacific # ⚓ COVID_Has_Now_Claimed_More_Lives_Than_the_1918_Flu_Pandemic in_the_US⠀⇛ # ⚓ As_the_Pandemic_Continues,_College_Students_Return_to_a Different_Campus⠀⇛ Colleges and universities nationwide have reopened for in-person learning and students are grappling with an environment very different from the one they left. The administrative response to Covid has varied coast to coast, with some institutions mandating vaccinations, others requiring masks indoors, and still others simply offering recommendations. All students are dealing with new classroom guidelines and procedures, while many are experiencing on-campus life for the first time. To better understand the changes, we asked a range of students to tell us how Covid is impacting their college experience, including student organizing efforts for equity and justice. # ⚓ Vaccine_Equity_Coalition_Warns_‘Pathetic_Trickles_of Charity’_Won’t_End_Pandemic⠀⇛ Ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s global coronavirus summit later this week, the People’s Vaccine Alliance is warning rich countries that mere pledges to donate additional doses to poor nations will not be enough to close the massive—and widening—inoculation gap that has left billions of people without access to lifesaving shots. “With up to 10,000 people dying every day, nothing short of redistributing the rights to produce the vaccines will be enough.” # ⚓ Big_Pharma_Greed_‘Literally_Killing_Americans,’_Sanders Says_Outside_Drug_Lobby_HQ⠀⇛ Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and progressive healthcare campaigners from across the U.S. rallied at the headquarters of Big Pharma’s top lobbying group on Tuesday to denounce the industry’s ongoing effort to tank Democrats’ prescription drug-pricing reforms, including a plan to let Medicare negotiate soaring medicine costs. “We cannot continue to allow the drug companies to charge us any price they want. We are saying enough is enough.”—Sen. Bernie Sanders # ⚓ Campaign_Slams_Vaccine_Makers_for_Fueling_‘Unprecedented’ Human_Rights_Crisis⠀⇛ As part of the launch of a global campaign to hold governments and Big Pharma accountable for enduring vaccine inequality, Amnesty International on Tuesday published a report detailing how six pharmaceutical companies are driving an “unprecedented health and human rights crisis” by refusing to waive intellectual property protections and share vaccine technology with the Global South. “Profits should never come before lives.”—Agnès Callamard, AI # ⚓ UN_Chief_Tells_World_Leaders_To_Their_Faces_That_Vaccine Apartheid_Is_‘An_Obscenity’⠀⇛ “The world must wake up. We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes.”—U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres Such vaccine apartheid “is a moral indictment of the state of our world,” he said, demanding that vaccine doses reach at least 70% of the world’s population by the middle of 2022—a plan that he said is entirely possible through cooperation between pharmaceutical companies, the World Health Organization, and other stakeholders. # ⚓ Journalists_in_Europe,_US_Face_Harassment_over_Pandemic Coverage⠀⇛ Anti-media sentiment was on the rise before the pandemic, according to press freedom analysts. But it has intensified in part due to pressure from extremist and populist groups energized against public health mandates and vaccines, said Attila Mong, a correspondent in Berlin for the advocacy group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). # ⚓ Here’s_why_Amazon_is_lobbying_the_government_to_legalize marijuana⠀⇛ The company’s effort began in June, when it said it would no longer screen prospective employees for marijuana use for positions not regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Amazon made the changes given data that shows certain cannabis policies disproportionately affect people of color, and due to a swath of states updating their own marijuana laws. o § Integrity/Availability⠀➾ # § Proprietary⠀➾ # ⚓ Why_EFF_Flew_a_Plane_Over_Apple’s_Headquarters⠀⇛ The delay may well be a diversionary tactic. Every September, Apple holds one of its big product announcement events, where Apple executives detail the new devices and features coming out. Apple likely didn’t want concerns about the phone-scanning features to steal the spotlight.  But we can’t let Apple’s disastrous phone- scanning idea fade into the background, only to be announced with minimal changes down the road. To make sure Apple is listening to our concerns, EFF turned to an old-school messaging system: aerial advertising.   # ⚓ Tim_Cook_Faces_Surprising_Employee_Unrest_at_Apple⠀⇛ Over the past month, more than 500 people who said they were current and former Apple employees have submitted accounts of verbal abuse, sexual harassment, retaliation and discrimination at work, among other issues, to an employee-activist group that calls itself #AppleToo, said Cher Scarlett and Janneke Parrish, two Apple employees who help lead the group. The group has begun posting some of the anonymous stories online and has been encouraging colleagues to contact state and federal labor officials with their complaints. Their issues, as well as those of eight current and former employees who spoke to The Times, vary; among them are workplace conditions, unequal pay and the company’s business practices. A common theme is that Apple’s secrecy has created a culture that discourages employees from speaking out about their workplace concerns — not with co-workers, not with the press and not on social media. Complaints about problematic managers or colleagues are frequently dismissed, and workers are afraid to criticize how the company does business, the employees who spoke to The Times said. # ⚓ FBI_withheld_decryption_key_for_Kaseya_ransomware attack_for_three_weeks:_report [iophk: Windows TCO]⠀⇛ The FBI allegedly withheld the release of a decryption key for almost three weeks that could have assisted groups crippled by the massive ransomware attack on IT group Kaseya earlier this year to unlock their networks. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the FBI and other federal agencies made the decision to not give Kaseya the key while it pursued an operation to knock REvil, the cybercriminal group behind the attack, offline. Websites used by REvil went dark prior to the FBI’s planned operation. # § Pseudo-Open Source⠀➾ # § Privatisation/Privateering⠀➾ # § Linux Foundation⠀➾ # ⚓ Linux_Foundation:_Companies_are struggling_to_find_open-source talent⠀⇛ The Linux Foundation and edX have released the 2021 Open Source Jobs report which reveals the struggle companies are having in finding talent. # ⚓ Linux_Foundation_says_companies_are desperate_for_open_source_talent⠀⇛ The Linux Foundation released its 2021 Open Source Jobs Report this month, which aims to inform both sides of the IT hiring process about current trends. The report accurately foreshadows many of its conclusions in the first paragraph, saying “the talent gap that existed before the pandemic has worsened due to an acceleration of cloud- native adoption as remote work has gone mainstream.” In other words: job- shopping Kubernetes and AWS experts are in luck. The Foundation surveyed roughly 200 hiring managers and 750 open source professionals to find out which skills—and HR- friendly resume bullet points—are in the greatest demand. According to the report, college-degree requirements are trending down, but IT-certification requirements and/or preferences are trending up—and for the first time, “cloud-native” skills (such as Kubernetes management) are in higher demand than traditional Linux skills. The hiring priority shift from traditional Linux to “cloud-native” skill sets implies that it’s becoming more possible to live and breathe containers without necessarily understanding what’s inside them—but you can’t have Kubernetes, Docker, or similar computing stacks without a traditional operating system beneath them. In theory, any traditional operating system could become the foundation of a cloud-native stack—but in practice, Linux is overwhelmingly what clouds are made of. # § Security⠀➾ # ⚓ Apache_Ranger_response_to_incorrect_analyst report_on_Cloud_data_security⠀⇛ A recent industry analyst report by GigaOm and sponsored by Immuta comparing Apache Ranger to Immuta paints an incorrect picture on the complexities of using Apache Ranger. We believe the report contains a number of errors and inconsistencies. Unfortunately the Apache Ranger Project Management Committee (PMC) was not contacted by the analyst firm during preparation of the report. We have attempted to contact the authors and members of the research team several times, requesting the opportunity to review the inaccuracies and have them corrected. Despite our many attempts to rectify the misinformation, no-one from the analyst firm responded. For the benefit of existing and potential users of Apache Ranger, it is important for Apache Ranger PMC to respond to this report with facts. # ⚓ VMware_Releases_Security_Updates⠀⇛ VMware has released security updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in vCenter Server and Cloud Foundation. A remote attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. # ⚓ NETGEAR_Releases_Security_Updates_for_RCE Vulnerability⠀⇛ NETGEAR has released security updates to address a remote code execution vulnerability—CVE-2021-40847—in multiple NETGEAR routers. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system. # ⚓ ‘Shadow_Code’_Creates_Risk_for_99%_of Websites⠀⇛ Shadow code — third-party scripts and libraries often added to web applications without security validation — pose risks to websites and jeopardize compliance with privacy regulations, according to new research released Tuesday. Third-party code leaves organizations vulnerable to digital skimming and Magecart attacks, the researchers also noted. # ⚓ Suex_to_be_you:_Feds_sanction_cryptocurrency exchange_for_handling_payments_from_8+_ransomware variants⠀⇛ The US Treasury on Tuesday sanctioned virtual cryptocurrency exchange Suex OTC for handling financial transactions for ransomware operators, an intervention that’s part of a broad US government effort to disrupt online extortion and related cyber-crime. Suex is registered in the Czech Republic but operates out of offices in Russia. According to the US Treasury, more than 40 per cent of the firm’s known transaction history involves illicit entities, and that it handled payments from at least eight ransomware variants. # ⚓ Lumen_Technologies’_Black_Lotus_Labs_Proves Linux_Executable_Files_Can_Be_Used_as_Stealth Windows_Loaders [Ed: This is a Windows issue, not a "Linux" issue]⠀⇛ # ⚓ World-Class_Cyber_Protection_Available_for Rocky_Linux_Users⠀⇛ # § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾ # ⚓ Stop_Military_Surveillance_Drones_from Coming_Home⠀⇛ So Congress should do the right thing and enact Representative Ayanna Pressley’s amendment, Moratorium on Transfer of Controlled Property to Enforcement Agencies, to H.R. 4350, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (NDAA22). It would greatly curtail the amount of dangerous military equipment, including surveillance drones, that could be transferred to local and state law enforcement agencies through the Department of Defense’s “1033 program.” It has already placed $7.4 billion in military equipment with police departments since 1990.  The program includes both “controlled” property, such as weapons and vehicles, and “uncontrolled” property, such as first aid kits and tents. Pressley’s amendment would prevent the transfer of all “controlled” property, which includes “unmanned aerial vehicles,” or drones. It also includes: Manned aircraft, Wheeled armored vehicles, Command and control vehicles, specialized firearms and ammunition under .50 caliber, Breaching apparatus, and Riot batons and shields.  Even without the Department of Defense landing drones into our communities, police use of these autonomous flying robots is rapidly expanding. Some police departments are so eager to get their hands on drones that they’ve claimed they need them to help fight COVID-19. The Chicago Police Department even launched a massive drone program using only off-the-books money taken through civil asset forfeiture. # ⚓ HTTPS_Is_Actually_Everywhere⠀⇛ The goal of HTTPS Everywhere was always to become redundant. That would mean we’d achieved our larger goal: a world where HTTPS is so broadly available and accessible that users no longer need an extra browser extension to get it. Now that world is closer than ever, with mainstream browsers offering native support for an HTTPS-only mode. With these simple settings available, EFF is preparing to deprecate the HTTPS Everywhere web extension as we look to new frontiers of secure protocols like SSL/TLS. After the end of this year, the extension will be in “maintenance mode.” for 2022. We know many different kinds of users have this tool installed, and want to give our partners and users the needed time to transition. We will continue to inform users that there are native HTTPS-only browser options before the extension is fully sunset. Some browsers like Brave have for years used HTTPS redirects provided by HTTPS Everywhere’s Ruleset list. But even with innovative browsers raising the bar for user privacy and security, other browsers like Chrome still hold a considerable share of the browser market. The addition of a native setting to turn on HTTPS in these browsers impacts millions of people. # ⚓ UK_Leads_the_Charge_Against_End-to-End Encryption,_Calls_on_Tech_Companies_to “Nerd_Harder”⠀⇛ More generally, the UK is working on what was originally called the “Online Harms Bill”, now rebranded as the “Online Safety Bill“, which aims to regulate online content and speech, and to force digital platforms to police their users more stringently. A key element of this new Bill is strengthening child safety online. That’s obviously a laudable goal, but one of the main ideas for doing this is weakening end-to-end encryption. In this, the UK government has been aided by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), a charity that has been “looking out for children for 130 years” according to its own description. Unfortunately, it shares the view of many governments that end-to- end encryption is an obstacle to achieving that goal. Recently, the NSPCC published not one, but two documents that implicitly seek to undermine support for strong and effective end-to-end encryption. In its discussion paper on the topic, the NSPCC calls for “a balanced settlement that reflects the full complexity of the issues”: # ⚓ The_Battle_for_Digital_Privacy_Is Reshaping_the_Internet⠀⇛ The developments may seem like technical tinkering, but they were connected to something bigger: an intensifying battle over the future of the [Internet]. The struggle has entangled tech titans, upended Madison Avenue and disrupted small businesses. And it heralds a profound shift in how people’s personal information may be used online, with sweeping implications for the ways that businesses make money digitally. At the center of the tussle is what has been the [Internet]’s lifeblood: advertising. # ⚓ Justice_Department_investigating_Zoom’s China_ties_over_Five9_deal⠀⇛ The Justice Department cited “the foreign relationships and ownership” as a potential national security risk in a letter regarding the partnership with Five9, an American customer service company. As a result, Zoom’s $15 billion deal remains on hold. o § Defence/Aggression⠀➾ # ⚓ What_Are_the_Prospects_for_Peace?_An_Interview_with_Mark Skidmore⠀⇛ Mark Skidmore is a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Betty and David Morris Chair in State and Local Government Finance and Policy, at Michigan State University. In 2017 Professor Skidmore and his team of graduates students discovered $21 trillion unaccounted for in the U.S. federal budget starting in 1998, continuing until the end of fiscal year 2015. We are extremely honored that he took the time to talk to us and share his views. His responses below are exactly as he provided. The questions here are not philosophical or abstract. They focus on the realities of the international power struggle unfolding in real time. They directly address the role of the U.S. in the escalating tensions and its capacity to reduce them. We also probe the role of everyday citizens in affecting the relationship the U.S. now has and will have with the rest of the world community. # ⚓ “We_Are_Troy_Davis”:_10_Years_After_Georgia_Execution_That Galvanized_Anti-Death_Penalty_Movement⠀⇛ Tuesday marks 10 years since the state of Georgia executed Troy Anthony Davis for a crime many believe he did not commit. He was put to death despite major doubts about evidence used to convict him of killing Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, including the recantation of seven of the nine non-police witnesses at his trial. As the world watched to see whether Davis’s final appeal for a stay of execution would be granted by the U.S. Supreme Court, Democracy Now! was the only news outlet to continuously broadcast live from the prison grounds in Jackson, Georgia. We revisit parts of our six-hour special report, featuring interviews with Davis’s supporters and family members who held an all-day vigil and those who witnessed his death by lethal injection, and speak with two people who were there when Davis was executed: Kimberly Davis, Troy Davis’s sister and an anti-death penalty activist, and Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP. “We know that Troy Davis did make a mark on the world,” says Kimberly Davis. “We want to continue to fight until we demolish the death penalty, one state at a time.” # ⚓ Anguished_Lyricism:_the_Poetry_of_the_Tortured⠀⇛ The so-called interrogation techniques (EIT) that the CIA were taught to use by a pair of psychologists, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who they paid more than $80m of taxpayer money, could include any or all of the following: Damn, talk about your cures for writer’s block. They’ll have you back to trills and flourishes in no time. # ⚓ The_Rally_for_the_Capitol_Mob_Fizzled,_But_This_May_Be_the Calm_Before_the_Storm⠀⇛ # ⚓ Michael_Roberts_on_American_Imperialism_and_Marx’s_Law_of Profitability⠀⇛ # ⚓ When_It_Comes_to_Letting_Down_Allies,_Trumpism_and_Bidenism Have_Much_in_Common⠀⇛ Bidenism is turning out to be not so very different from Trumpism. Joe Biden carried out to the letter Donald Trump’s ruthless deal with the Taliban, agreed in February 2020, to abandon the Afghan government, which had been excluded from negotiations about its fate. European allies of the US learned little about the American pull-out plan from Kabul airport, even as it was under way. Now Biden has followed up his unilateralism in Afghanistan with his surprise announcing of an agreement for the US, along with Britain, to help Australia build nuclear-powered submarines to deploy against China in the years ahead. By arbitrarily cutting out the French from their $66bn contract to supply diesel-powered submarines, Biden behaved  in the true Trump tradition of causing greater outrage to an ally than dismay to a potential enemy. # ⚓ The_US_Military,_Post-Afghanistan⠀⇛ When that vast complex, which President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about six decades ago, comes to my mind, I can’t help thinking of a song from the last years of the then seemingly endless Cold War. (How typical, by the way, that when the Soviet Union finally imploded in 1991, it barely affected Pentagon funding.) “The future’s so bright (I gotta wear shades)” was that 1986 song’s title. And I always wonder whether that future could indeed be nuclear-war bright, given our military’s affection for such weaponry. I once heard the saying, “The [nuclear] triad is not the Trinity,” which resonated with me given my Catholic upbringing. Still, it’s apparently holy enough at the Pentagon or why would the high command there already be planning to fund the so- called modernization of the American nuclear arsenal to the tune of at least $1.7 trillion over the next 30 years? Given this nation’s actual needs, that figure blows me away (though not literally, I hope). # ⚓ Rep._Ro_Khanna_on_Border_Guards_Whipping_Haitians,_U.S. Drone_Strikes,_Afghanistan_&_Ending_Iraq_War⠀⇛ We speak with California Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna about border guards whipping Haitians, U.S. immigration policy, raising the refugee cap, investigating the full 20 years of the War in Afghanistan and bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq. # ⚓ Democrats_Share_Blame_for_Afghanistan⠀⇛ I am sympathetic to any and all criticism of our intervention in Afghanistan. I was an early critic of the war and got beaten up for my stance by media allies of the Bush administration. But the very same liberals who now pretend they’re against the Afghan disaster stood by when it mattered and did nothing to defend war critics because Democrats—political leaders and voters alike—went far beyond tacit consent. They were actively complicit with the Republicans’ war, at the time of the invasion and throughout the decades-long occupation of Afghanistan. Now the deadbeat dads of defeat are trying to stick the GOP with sole paternity. This is a ridiculous attempt to rewrite history, one that damages Democratic credibility among the party’s progressive base, which includes many antiwar voters, and risks the possibility that they will make the same mistake again in the future. # ⚓ The_Other_Cold_War⠀⇛ The Cold War was also a war on the cold. The United States and the Soviet Union considered the ability to successfully mine the resource-rich lands of their respective Arctic regions nearly as important as the ability to send a man (or a dog) into space. One would assume that the Russians had a natural advantage there, having decisively wielded the cold against prior foes. When the unusually early Russian winter of 1941 forced German soldiers to retreat, it was said that Hitler had not learned Napoleon’s “lesson.” In the winter of 1812, tens of thousands of French soldiers died of hypothermia or starvation as the Grande Armée withdrew from Moscow. In the midst of the Crimean War, Nicholas I would say that Russia could always depend on “Generals January and February.” But we all have our limits. # ⚓ Corporate_America_Cashed_In_on_the_Post-9/11_Pentagon Spending_Surge⠀⇛ # ⚓ Opinion_|_Family_Member_of_Civilians_Killed_by_US_Drone Strike_Demands_Justice⠀⇛ There are stories that seem to leap from the pages of the Old Testament directly into our newsfeeds. These stories slow down the frenetic pace of news consumption, forcing us to ponder what it means to exist in a world where such brokenness is possible—and sanctioned in the name of national security. # ⚓ Opinion_|_How_Corporate_Profiteers_Won_the_War_on_Terror⠀⇛ The costs and consequences of America’s twenty- first-century wars have by now been well-documented — a staggering $8 trillion in expenditures and more than 380,000 civilian deaths, as calculated by Brown University’s Costs of War project. The question of who has benefited most from such an orgy of military spending has, unfortunately, received far less attention. # ⚓ Progressive_Democrats_Fight_to_Limit_Defense_Spending⠀⇛ The United States may have completed its military withdrawal from Afghanistan last month, but Washington remains as committed as ever to expanding American empire. The House is poised to pass a military budget this week that’s even bigger than President Joe Biden requested, but left- leaning lawmakers are putting up a fight. # ⚓ Eric_Schmidt_Cashes_in_on_Artificial_Intelligence_Arms Race⠀⇛ # ⚓ It’s_Time_to_Break_Up_the_Military-Industrial_Complex⠀⇛ Two days after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, the House Armed Services Committee voted to set the Pentagon’s 2022 budget. Given that US officials claim to be winding down decades-long wars, even maintaining current levels of military spending would seem a mystifying choice. But the committee didn’t just vote to maintain current spending levels. It voted to increase them by a whopping $24 billion. # ⚓ Since_9/11,_FBI_Has_Destroyed_People_Based_On_Their_Race, Religion,_Or_Country_Of_Origin⠀⇛ # ⚓ Chinese_Government_Decides_It’s_Done_Fucking_Around,_Forces Hong_Kong_To_Engage_In_‘Patriot-Only’_Elections⠀⇛ Hong Kong is now just China. The last pretense of the region being anything but another Chinese province has been washed away. # ⚓ U.K._Police_Charge_3rd_Man_in_Effort_to_Kill_Russian Dissident_Skripal⠀⇛ # ⚓ UK_police_identify_GRU_general_as_third_suspect_in Salisbury_Novichok_attack⠀⇛ Detectives in the UK have identified a third suspect in the Novichok poisoning attempt on Sergey and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, England in May 2018. Metropolitan police named the third suspect as Denis Sergeev, identifying him as a member of the Russian military intelligence service, the GRU. # ⚓ JEDI_contract_might_be_no_more,_but_case_should_live_on, says_Oracle:_DoD_only_wants_Amazon,_Microsoft_for_new_cloud deal [Ed: More nepotism, misuse, waste and corruption around taxpayers' money, bailout/subsidy to companies for no good reason; privatising governments and militaries...]⠀⇛ Oracle has asked the US Supreme court not to dismiss its case over the $10bn Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, despite the US Department of Defense officially axing the $10bn procurement deal. “Cases do not become moot simply because a defendant issues a press release claiming to have ceased its misconduct,” thundered Oracle in a supplemental brief [PDF] in its action against the DoD, Oracle America, Inc. vs United States, et al, filed last week. “The government asserts that the Department of Defense mooted this case by cancelling JEDI, the procurement contract that Oracle has challenged,” complained Big Red. o § Environment⠀➾ # ⚓ Top_Ad_and_PR_Firms_Exposed_for_Helping_Big_Oil_Greenwash Their_Climate_Destruction⠀⇛ On the heels of congressional Democrats calling the heads of fossil fuel companies and industry lobbying groups to testify about their role in spreading climate disinformation, campaigners published a report Tuesday exposing the contributions of major advertising and public relations firms. “There is no room for ad and PR professionals to continue promoting companies that are doing so much damage to our future.”—Duncan Meisel, Clean Creatives # ⚓ Biden’s_Global_Climate_Finance_Pledge_Likened_to_‘Throwing Droplets_at_a_Fire’⠀⇛ President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he intends to work with Congress to double U.S. climate aid to developing countries, a commitment that environmentalists said is a step in the right direction but still woefully inadequate to the scale of the planetary crisis. “Biden’s climate finance pledge today is extraordinarily insufficient.” # ⚓ #UprootTheSystem:_Climate_Movement_Readies_Another_Global Strike⠀⇛ Young climate activists including Greta Thunberg are gearing up for another global strike on Friday when they’ll demand that world leaders “uproot the system” to create a just future for all. “Time and time again the leaders today show that they do not care about the future, at least their actions don’t reflect it,” Thunberg said at a press conference Monday. # ⚓ Ghost_forests_creep_up_U.S._East_Coast⠀⇛ It’s a term that points to the visceral changes of the landscape — going from lush green to a pale white — and the destruction of the area’s crucial role as a biodome and coastal buffer. These once- thriving forests are a direct result of climate change as the trees are suffocated by saltwater intrusion sparked by sea level rise and an uptick of hurricanes and superstorms. # ⚓ Judge_dismisses_Greenpeace_lawsuit_against_Walmart⠀⇛ “Walmart sells more products packaged in throwaway plastic than almost any other polluter in the world. Big brands know their customers are growing concerned about plastic pollution, but instead of addressing real solutions they have opted for greenwashing,” he said in a statement. # ⚓ Opinion_|_How_‘Build_Back_Better’_Could_Undermine_Climate Action⠀⇛ Not that we needed the reminder, but the United Nations just pointed out that our current emissions reduction goals are inadequate when compared to what is necessary to address the actual scale of the climate crisis. The infrastructure proposal known as the Build Back Better Act is being touted as our best chance to get strong climate action under the Biden administration. Unfortunately, the fossil fuel industry and their allies in Congress are actively working to undermine what needs to be done. # § Energy⠀➾ # ⚓ Critics_Say_Big_Oil_Would_Benefit_From_Bipartisan Bill’s_Taxpayer-Funded_Cleanup⠀⇛ If enacted, a bipartisan infrastructure bill’s plan to plug abandoned oil and gas wells would force taxpayers—rather than polluters—to pay for cleaning up messes caused by drilling, according to policy experts, who warned Tuesday that congressional lawmakers’ proposal amounts to another multibillion-dollar subsidy for the planet-wrecking fossil fuel industry. “Concerned parties seem to agree on the scale of the crisis: millions of wells sit untended across the U.S., leaking toxins that pose public health problems along with the potent greenhouse gas methane, which contributes to the climate emergency,” The Guardian reported. # ⚓ New_information_on_the_impacts_of_teleworking_and_new transport_services_on_greenhouse_gas_emissions⠀⇛ The three studies are part of the implementation of the Roadmap for Fossil-Free Transport, the aim of which is to help achieve the Finnish government’s pledge to halve greenhouse gas emissions from domestic transport by 2030. The studies were completed under the co-ordination of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. According to the studies, teleworking could, on an annual basis, reduce emissions by up to 0.125 megatonnes, transport services by 0.080 megatonnes, and combined transport by 0.018–0.030 megatonnes by 2030. The results obtained in the various studies partly overlap, so the combined CO2 reduction potential of teleworking and transport services is not necessarily the sum of these results. # ⚓ [Old] Electricity_in_the_United_States_is_produced_ (generated)_with_diverse_energy_sources_and technologies⠀⇛ Natural gas was the largest source—about 40%—of U.S. electricity generation in 2020. Natural gas is used in steam turbines and gas turbines to generate electricity. Coal was the third-largest energy source for U.S. electricity generation in 2020—about 19%. Nearly all coal-fired power plants use steam turbines. A few coal-fired power plants convert coal to a gas for use in a gas turbine to generate electricity. # § Wildlife/Nature⠀➾ # ⚓ Opinion_|_Avoiding_Real_Change:_The_Myth_of_Green Capitalism⠀⇛ Heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires are devastating communities around the world, and they will only grow more severe. While climate-change deniers remain powerful, the need for urgent action is now recognized well beyond activist circles. Governments, international organizations, and even business and finance are bowing to the inevitable—or so it seems. o § Finance⠀➾ # ⚓ Billions_of_People_Globally_Who_Need_the_Most_Help_Can Benefit_from_Changes_in_Economic_Policy⠀⇛ In the United States, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to zero, and has created more than 3.6 trillion dollars since the pandemic began. Fiscal policy was also unprecedented, with a federal budget deficit of 15 percent of GDP last year, and projected at 13.4 percent for 2021. That is how we got increased unemployment benefits, an expanded child tax credit, unprecedented stimulus checks, expanded food stamps, and more, substantially lowering the US poverty rate. But billions of people live in low- and middle- income countries that do not have the same options. Since poverty is much more severe there, this is vastly more a matter of life and death. In June, the World Food Program estimated an increase of 121 million people who have become “acutely food insecure or at high risk” since the pandemic began. This is an “unprecedented” 81 percent increase; it could kill millions of people, especially children. Malnutrition in children significantly increases preventable deaths from other causes. # ⚓ What_Gives_with_Newspapers’_Graphic_Artists?⠀⇛ Granted a sea of type from the old pre-TV days won’t work well in today’s visual culture. But there is still the factor of balance to be weighed. Take, for example, one of our nation’s most serious newspapers – the New York Times. Editors used to value the front-page sections of the Sunday Times and use this space for the most important articles and features. Now editors favor graphic artists and have pushed the articles into reduced space or off the front pages of sections entirely. The readers are losing news content. # ⚓ Report:_McConnell’s_Refusal_to_Raise_Debt_Ceiling_Could Cost_6_Million_Jobs⠀⇛ # ⚓ House_Bill_Would_Blow_Up_the_Massive_IRAs_of_the Superwealthy⠀⇛ Legislation currently making its way through Congress would take a sledgehammer to the massive individual retirement accounts built up tax-free by a select group of the ultrawealthy. The proposal, which is part of the infrastructure and tax package advancing in the House, targets the jaw-dropping IRAs accumulated by multimillionaires and billionaires such as tech investor Peter Thiel, which were first reported by ProPublica earlier this year. Those accounts — Thiel’s alone was worth $5 billion in 2019 — have allowed some super- wealthy Americans to turn their Roth IRAs, tools meant to incentivize middle-class retirement saving, into supersized tax shelters. # ⚓ Mirror_Crowdfund:_Our_New_Paper_On_NFTs_And_New Scarcities⠀⇛ Over the last year or so there has been tremendous hype around the concept of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). In my experience so far, people tend to fall into one of three camps surrounding NFTs. There are the “true believers”, who are obsessed with the space and believe it is going to change everything about creativity and culture (and, according to some, “ownership”). There are the skeptics, who insist that it’s a scam or the new tulip-craze bubble, and that NFTs are helping to burn down the planet with wasted energy usage. Finally, there’s a very large camp of people who insist that they just don’t understand NFTs at all and have completely blocked out the possibility that they could matter. I’ve been following the whole concept for a while now and I put myself in a weird place, potentially straddling multiple camps. I think there is a lot of nonsense in the space, and jargon meant more to confuse than to help — but at the same time, I think there really is something interesting in the potential of NFTs, though the real value may be in a different place than even NFT-boosters believe. # ⚓ Was_Occupy_Wall_Street_More_Anarchist_or_Socialist?⠀⇛ It feels most apt to mark the 10th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street by reviving a debate that is resistant to resolution, open to endless disagreement, and primed for messy expressions of political ideology. How very Occupy!1 # ⚓ Reset_Labor_Markets_With_a_Local_Half-Time_Job_Guarantee⠀⇛ In the wake of the Covid recession, state and local governments have the chance to remake local labor markets—and public assistance—by adopting a policy guaranteeing half-time employment at $15 an hour for every resident. # ⚓ Press_Response_to_‘Tax_the_Rich’_Dress_Proves_AOC’s_Point⠀⇛ It’s like Lenin said: There are decades when nothing happens, and there are dresses where decades happen. # ⚓ Cori_Bush_Introduces_Bill_to_Circumvent_Supreme_Court_Ban on_Eviction_Moratorium⠀⇛ # ⚓ Bush_and_Warren_Lead_New_Bill_to_Protect_Renters_Nationwide From_Eviction⠀⇛ With millions of people across the United States facing lapsed eviction moratoria, joblessness, and expired unemployment benefits as the coronavirus pandemic drags on, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush and Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday unveiled a bill to help keep renters in their homes. The pair led dozens of lawmakers in introducing the Keeping Renters Safe Act of 2021 (pdf), which would clarify that the head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the statutory authority to implement an eviction moratorium in the interest of public health, and call on him to do so in response to the current emergency. o § AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾ # ⚓ Arizona_Senate_Poised_to_Report_That_Biden_Beat_Trump_in State’s_2020_Election⠀⇛ “The way some of these political RINOs [Republicans In Name Only] are doing this is they’re trying to argue that the [election] report should only be allowed to go and address the original construct of the report, the original assignment of the audit, and leave out other things that have been found,” Byrne told Creative Destruction Media’s L. Todd Wood. “The political class is going to try to come in and water this down,” Byrne said. “The Republican political class, the RINOs, the nobodies… They are going to try to water this down. I am sure they all have been promised federal judgeships or sacks of cash under a streetlight if they can get this killed at this late date or watered down. And I think the public of Arizona should go ballistic.” # ⚓ Memo_Uncovered_Showing_Trump’s_6-Step_Plan_for_Pence_to Overturn_the_Election⠀⇛ # ⚓ Progressives_Urge_Biden_Admin_to_Overrule_Senate Parliamentarian_to_Move_Agenda⠀⇛ # ⚓ Opinion_|_Like_FDR,_Biden_Should_Welcome_Special_Interests Hatred⠀⇛ President Joe Biden and his agenda are appropriately inspiring comparisons to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. Biden himself has welcomed the comparisons, even traveling to Warm Springs, Ga., FDR’s famous getaway, to give a speech just one week before the 2020 election. # ⚓ Civil_Rights_Activists_Prepare_for_Sit-Ins_If_Manchin_Won’t Budge_on_Filibuster⠀⇛ # ⚓ “We_Need_to_Deliver”:_Anger_Grows_at_Sens._Manchin,_Sinema over_Obstruction_of_Democratic_Priorities⠀⇛ Democrats are still divided over President Biden’s sweeping $3.5 trillion spending plan to expand the social safety net, increase taxes on the rich and corporations, improve worker rights and combat the climate crisis. Senate Democrats are hoping to use the budget reconciliation process to pass the bill, but this will only work if the entire Democratic caucus backs the deal, and conservative Democrats have balked at the price tag. Progressive Democrats in the House, meanwhile, say they won’t vote for a separate $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the Senate unless the reconciliation bill is part of the package. “We want to pass the full agenda that President Biden has set forth,” says Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressmember from California. “This is what President Biden campaigned on, and we need to deliver.” Khanna also discusses U.S. immigration policy, raising the refugee cap, investigating the full 20 years of the War in Afghanistan and bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq. # ⚓ Sunrise_Movement_Targets_Kyrsten_Sinema_for_Obstructing Build_Back_Better_Act⠀⇛ Hours after 13 Sunrise Movement activists were arrested at the Students March on Congress for Climate Action in Washington, D.C., members of the youth-led environmental group rallied for a Monday evening protest outside Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s Phoenix office to demand that the Arizona Democrat support at least a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that funds robust measures to combat the climate emergency. “While Sen. Sinema caters to fossil fuel executives in D.C., young Arizonans are outside her office demanding she listen to them as they face record drought and extreme heatwaves killing their communities.”—Varshini Prakash, Sunrise Movement # ⚓ NDP_Expected_to_Wield_Power_in_Canadian_Parliament_as Trudeau_Maintains_Minority_Govt⠀⇛ “In this pandemic, people got more help because we were there, we were able to increase the supports to people. If people want more help, more New Democrats will make it happen.”—Jagmeet Singh, NDP # ⚓ The_Oversight_Board_wants_answers_about_Facebook’s celebrity_moderation_program⠀⇛ Cross-check (sometimes referred to as XCheck) is supposed to add an extra level of scrutiny to high- profile moderation calls that could cause controversy for Facebook. But the Journal claims it covered a huge swathe of 5.8 million people in 2020, and only 10 percent of the posts sent to the program got reviewed by Facebook’s second layer of specialized moderators. According to the report, users included in the program include Senator Elizabeth Warren, conservative commentator Candace Owens, and former President Donald Trump. o § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾ # ⚓ Techdirt_Podcast_Episode_298:_The_Impact_Of ‘Shadowbanning’⠀⇛ The concept of “shadowbanning” comes up a lot in content moderation discussions — often from people who are spreading nonsense. But various means of deprioritizing content have been employed by platforms for many years. This week, we’re joined by Dr. Carolina Are, a researcher who recently released a paper on the subject, especially how it relates to nudity and censorship on Instagram. This week, she joins us on the podcast to discuss shadowbanning, how it works, and the impact it has. # ⚓ Now_Josh_Hawley_Is_Threatening_Google_Over_1st_Amendment Protected_Expression⠀⇛ What is it with annoying grandstanding Senators of both parties and their incorrect beliefs that they can bully private companies over 1st Amendment protected expression? Last week we wrote about Senator Elizabeth Warren’s bogus threats sent to Amazon regarding the fact that Amazon is selling books with “misinformation” in them. Right as that was happening, it seems that Senator Josh Hawley decided to do something somewhat similar, in “demanding answers” from Google regarding Google’s decision to reject ads from an anti-abortion organization. # ⚓ Lithuania_says_throw_away_Chinese_phones_due_to_censorship concerns⠀⇛ Flagship phones sold in Europe by China’s smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as “Free Tibet”, “Long live Taiwan independence” or “democracy movement”, Lithuania’s state-run cybersecurity body said on Tuesday. The capability in Xiaomi’s Mi 10T 5G phone software had been turned off for the “European Union region”, but can be turned on remotely at any time, the Defence Ministry’s National Cyber Security Centre said in the report. # ⚓ Lithuania_says_throw_away_Chinese_phones_due_to_censorship concerns⠀⇛ Flagship phones sold in Europe by China’s smartphone giant Xiaomi Corp have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as “Free Tibet”, “Long live Taiwan independence” or “democracy movement”, Lithuania’s state-run cybersecurity body said on Tuesday. # ⚓ Lithuania_says_throw_away_Chinese_phones_due_to_censorship concerns⠀⇛ “Our recommendation is to not buy new Chinese phones, and to get rid of those already purchased as fast as reasonably possible,” Defence Deputy Minister Margiris Abukevicius told reporters in introducing the report. o § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾ # ⚓ Videos_Show_“Unfathomable_Cruelty”_of_Border_Patrol_Against Haitians_at_Border⠀⇛ # ⚓ Most_Americans_Want_“Roe_v._Wade”_to_Remain_Intact,_New Poll_Finds⠀⇛ # ⚓ DOJ_Now_Investigating_Florida_Sheriff’s_Office_For_Using_A Federal_Grant_To_Fund_Its_‘Predictive_Policing’_Harassment Programs⠀⇛ The Pasco County (FL) Sheriff’s Office believes in “intelligence-led policing.” This is its formal slang for harassing residents until (in the office’s own words) “they sue or move.” The Sheriff’s Office turns anyone with a criminal background into a suspect-for-life. Deputies visit residences and residents on the “intelligence-led” shit list multiple times a month, demanding answers to questions they have no business asking. When residents fail to comply, nuisance (in every sense of the word) citations are issued for things like uncut grass or missing mailbox numbers. # ⚓ UN_Officials_‘Disturbed’_by_US_Mass_Expulsion_of_Haitian Asylum-Seekers⠀⇛ As the Biden administration continues deporting thousands of Haitian asylum-seekers, United Nations refugee and human rights officials Tuesday called on the U.S. to respect the legal right of people fleeing violence and natural disasters to seek asylum in the United States. “No matter who you are, regardless of your migration status, everyone has the same rights, and… the right to have the same protection.”—Marta Hurtado, OHCHR # ⚓ Womb_With_a_View⠀⇛ # ⚓ Opinion_|_Treatment_of_Haiti_Refugees_Must_Reflect_Our Deepest_Sense_of_Humanity⠀⇛ In one of the largest, fastest, most abrupt mass expulsions of refugees in modern U.S. history, the United States has begun flying some 12,000 Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to Haiti. Invoking executive authority asserted by Donald Trump, the Biden administration is enforcing the Donald Trump immigration policy when it comes to Haitians. # ⚓ Man_Who_Shot_Rodney_King_Beating_Video_Dead_From_COVID⠀⇛ George Holliday — the man who filmed Rodney King’s beating at the hands of the LAPD in the ’90s, which eventually triggered the L.A. Riot — has died after contracting COVID-19. # ⚓ As_lawsuits_pile_up,_Activision_Blizzard_loses_its_chief legal_officer⠀⇛ And Activision Blizzard is under investigation by the EEOC and the SEC — all within the last four months. Hunt’s departure is the latest in a string of high- profile employees leaving amidst the company’s ever-growing legal issues. o § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾ # ⚓ ISPs_Already_Fighting_FCC_Plan_To_End_Anti-Competitive Landlord_Broadband_Deals⠀⇛ Earlier this month we noted how the FCC announced it would be taking a closer look at the dodgy deals big ISPs make with landlords to hamstring broadband competition. While the FCC passed rules in 2008 outlawing strict exclusivity agreements, big ISPs have, for years, tap-danced around the loose wording of the restrictions, often by simply calling what they’re doing… something else. ISPs also still do stuff like charging door fees just to access the building (making it tougher on less wealthy, small ISPs), or striking deals that ban any competitors from even advertising in the building. o § Monopolies⠀➾ # § Patents⠀➾ # ⚓ Court_of_Appeal_says_AI_cannot_be_patent_inventor_• The_Register⠀⇛ # ⚓ Pride_in_Patent_Ownership_Act [Ed: This is clearly a misnomer as patents are not “Ownership” but a temporarily monopoly; Tillis_is_clearly_shilling_for his_paymaster_here]⠀⇛ A bipartisan pair of Senators have proposed the “Pride in Patent Ownership Act.” The premise is that if you own a patent, you should be proud to own the patent — and actually record your ownership interest. The bill pushes this pride by requiring patent owners to record their ownership with the kicker that those who fail to record lose their right to punitive damages for any infringement that occurs prior to recordation. # ⚓ AI_inventor_claims_rejected_in_Court_of_Appeal_patent ruling [Ed: How patent litigation giants/profiteers react to a sensible decision; if ruled on improperly, would that open up to insects applying for patents as supposed 'inventors'?]⠀⇛ AI systems cannot own or transfer patent rights under UK law currently, the Court of Appeal in London has ruled. The case before the Court of Appeal concerned an appeal raised by Dr. Stephen Thaler, who has been seeking to patent inventions that he claims were derived from an AI machine called ‘DABUS’. The Court of Appeal found that only a person can be an inventor, and that as Dr Thaler accepts that he is not the inventor, he has no entitlement to the patent. However, there was a split in the judgment, with two of the three ruling judges – both leading authorities on UK patent law – in disagreement on the topic. This means that the UK Supreme Court is likely to be asked to rule on the core question of whether an AI system can be named as an inventor under UK law, and it could further expedite a change to UK legislation, specialists in patent litigation at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law, have said. [...] In the High Court ruling, Mr Justice Marcus Smith held that the Patents Act 1977 provides that a person making a patent application must be a ‘person’ with legal personality, whether a human or corporation, and that a patent can only be granted to such a ‘person’ with legal personality. He determined that, because the inventor is by default the person entitled to the patent rights, it followed that existing legislation requires the ‘inventor’ to be a person with legal personality. The judge further held that, because patent rights are property rights, a machine is incapable in law of holding and transferring patent rights since it lacks the legal personality necessary to assign the rights to property or even hold those rights in the first place. # ⚓ Small_Changes_to_Tech-Background_Requirement_to become_a_Patent_Attorney⠀⇛ All of us who represent clients in patent cases before the USPTO share a common background. We all have a background in science or technology and we have all passed the registration exam (and paid the accompanying fees). [...] One problem: It seems that every year I have a law student who has a science or engineering degree that does not qualify in the list of appropriate Category A degrees (bioengineering; or a PhD in Chemistry). In addition, that student might not satisfy Category B either because of the stringent requirement of two in-sequence lab courses in either chemistry or physics. At times, my students have taken concurrent science class while in law school to make sure they qualify; others have taken the requirement as a sign that patent law is not the right field for them. # § Trademarks⠀➾ # ⚓ North_Carolina_Sued_By_Flying_Dog_Brewery_Over Regulatory_Body_Refusing_To_Allow_Sales_Due_To ‘Offensive’_Label⠀⇛ Normally, when we talk about beer in these pages, we’re typically talking trademark infringement issues. Because of the creative way those in the exploding craft brewing industry have gone about naming their brews and designing their labels, far too often this results in disputes between parties over what is too similar to what, or who’s design is too close to another’s. While this specific story doesn’t involve trademark law or disputes, it does still exist due to the creative practice of labeling. # § Copyrights⠀➾ # ⚓ RLSLOG:_Pirate_Release_Blog_Pioneer_Throws_in_the Towel_After_15_Years⠀⇛ After being founded in 2006, RLSLOG grew to become the largest and most recognized pirate ‘release blog’ on the Internet. In the years that followed RLSLOG weathered many legal storms and even referrals to the USTR, but today the founder of RLSLOG confirms that after 15 years, the site has thrown in the towel. # ⚓ Appeals_Court_Revives_Canadian_Reverse_Class_Action Against_BitTorrent_Pirates⠀⇛ Canada’s Federal Court of Appeals has revived a reverse class-action lawsuit from Voltage Pictures, which plans to go after alleged BitTorrent pirates. The lower court rejected this approach, as it would not suitable for file-sharing cases, but in a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals sees things differently. ╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ ¶ Lines in total: 6719 ➮ Generation completed at 02:40, i.e. 32 seconds to (re)generate ⟲