This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2017/02/01/libreoffice-5-3-officially-released/.

● 02.01.17

● Links 1/2/2017: LibreOffice 5.3 Officially Released

Posted in News Roundup at 8:14 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Desktop

=> ↺ HPI’s Latest Thin Clients Include a Linux Version

• The HP mt20 also offers a battery designed for daylong work to go with a pre-installed Linux-based OS. This thin client features the Intel Celeron 3865 Processor (1.8 GHz dual core) with Intel HD Graphics. Other operating systems available include HP ThinPro/Smart Zero Core and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise for Thin Clients.

=> ↺ If you want privacy you need to run Linux

• I recently bashed Windows for being too darn snoopy, but you know what? It’s not just Windows. Ever since Yosemite came out, Apple’s macOS has been just as untrustworthy. As for Chrome OS, Android and iOS, come on! They’re all built around cloud services; by design, they share everything you do with third-party services. What’s the answer? Desktop Linux.

=> ↺ Protecting Your Privacy With Firefox on Linux

• Privacy and security are becoming increasingly important topics. Though it’s impossible to be 100% secure, there are measures that you can take, especially on Linux, to help defend your online privacy and security when browsing the web.

• Firefox is probably your best option when selecting a browser for these purposes. Google Chrome cannot be trusted. It’s owned by Google, a company known for data collection, and it’s closed source. Chromium may be okay, but can’t be guaranteed. Only Firefox has maintained a degree of commitment to user rights.

=> ↺ Is Linux More Efficient Than Windows When it Comes to RAM Consumption?

• With lower system requirements for Linux distributors than Windows, switching to Linux is a great way to rejuvenate an old computer. This is because Linux requires less hard drive space thereby putting a lesser load on your computer’s CPU.

=> ↺ Linux: Does price matter more than freedom?

• One of the best things about Linux is that each user is free to use or modify any open source software. But one redditor recently raised the issue of the price of open source software as a big attraction for some users.

=> ↺ The Clock Ticks…Even The Silence Has An Echo…..

• I suppose System76 has to make money on their addons, but holy frickin’ cow. I’m not posting this to rage against System76, although they make it extremely easy to do so. I’m just showing you one of the many hangups we’ve had in getting enough money to operate for the next year.

Server

=> ↺ Performance made easy with Linux containers

• Software containers backed with the merits of microservices design, or Service-oriented Architecture (SoA), improves performance because a system comprising of smaller, self-sufficient code blocks is easier to code and has cleaner, well-defined dependencies on other system components. It is easier to test and problems, including those around resource utilization and memory over-consumption, are more easily identified than in a giant monolithic architecture.

• When scaling the system to serve increased load, the containerized applications replicate fast and easy. Security flaws are better isolated. Patches can be versioned independently and deployed fast. Performance monitoring is more targeted and the measurements are more reliable. You can also rewrite and “facelift” resource-intensive code pieces to meet evolving performance requirements.

=> ↺ CoreOS Drives Container Management Forward with Tectonic 1.5

• CoreOS is updating its flagship Tectonic platform with the new Tectonic 1.5 release, officially announced on Jan. 31. The new platform benefits from improvements in Kubernetes as well as innovations purpose-built by CoreOS.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ The Linux Foundation Announces the Formation of a New Project to Help Accelerate Innovation in Open Networking Automation

• The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit advancing professional open source management for mass collaboration, today announced the formation of a project that will provide a framework for real-time, policy-driven software automation of network virtual functions. The project will allow software, network, IT and cloud providers and developers to rapidly create new services in response to evolving customer requirements.

=> ↺ How The Linux Foundation Goes Beyond the Operating System to Create the Largest Shared Resource of Open-Source Technology

• The Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting the legendary 25-year-old operating system, accelerates open-source development and commercial adoption across all community-created projects. Through tools, training sessions, and networking events, the foundation helps developers scale open-source software to benefit every industry. The Linux Foundation fosters innovation by hosting projects including the Node.js framework and Cloud Foundry application layer, along with programs for containers, virtual machines, orchestration, and data plane services. With more than 95% of the top million domains running Linux, the foundation carries tremendous clout when advocating for the wide-scale adoption and professionalization of open-source development.

=> ↺ libinput and lid switch events

• I merged a patchset from James Ye today to add support for switch events to libinput, specifically: lid switch events. This feature is scheduled for libinput 1.7.

• First, what are switches and how are they different so keys? A key’s state is transient with a neutral state of “key is up”. The state itself is expected to change frequently. Switches don’t always have a defined logical neutral state and the state changes only infrequently. This requires different handling in applications and thus libinput exposes a new interface (and capability) for switches.

=> ↺ Systemd vs SysV vs Upstart — Linux Service Management Throwdown

• The world of Linux is in a perpetual flame-war, the latest longstanding controversy is the topic of system service management. We needed a modern system service manager and systemd set a bar that nothing else could meet. Now with systemd being the default, many people are up in arms about it claiming that systemd impedes on open source software and freedom of choice. Is there something more sinister going on with systemd, or is this flame-war just smoke and mirrors?

=> ↺ Linux leadership stands against Trump immigration ban

• By its very nature, open source — and its most famous creation, Linux — relies upon the open exchange of ideas. While that happens largely on a free, net-neutral internet, it also needs face-to-face meetings. President Trump’s ill-considered, anti-immigration executive order is completely contrary to the spirit of open-source software.

• Linux was started by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish citizen who immigrated to the US and became a citizen. So, it comes as no surprise that Linux’s leaders are denouncing Trump’s position.

=> ↺ American Express joins Hyperledger Project

=> ↺ American Express Joins Hyperledger Blockchain Project

=> ↺ AmEx onboard with Hyperledger Project

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Intel DRM Driver Prepping For HDMI 2.0 With Geminilake

=> ↺ It’s Looking Like The Intel Gallium3D “ILO” Driver Will Be Laid To Rest

• The Intel ILO Gallium3D driver was developed by LunarG as a sort of proving-grounds for low-level driver experiments, comparing ILO to the classic i965 Mesa driver, and more. But that ILO driver hasn’t been really touched in years, doesn’t properly support recent generations of Intel hardware, and has basically fallen into disrepair.

• [...]

• Edward O’Callaghan has now re-based his patch for dropping the ILO Gallium3D driver, per this Mesa-dev message. The work hasn’t yet hit Mesa Git, but given the lack of opposition, it will probably land soon. Removing this unmaintained Intel Gallium3D driver lightens Mesa by around 54k lines of code.

=> ↺ Mesa’s Intel Vulkan Driver Now Builds On Android

• Mesa’s “ANV” Intel Vulkan driver can now be built for Android.

=> ↺ The Features Coming For Mir 0.26: EDID, New APIs, Client-Side Vsync, Performance

=> ↺ AMD Planning For Launch-Day Vega Open-Source & AMDGPU-PRO Support

• AMD confirmed yesterday during their earnings call that they are still on track with Ryzen for Q1 and shipping Vega in Q2.

=> ↺ Mesa 13.0.4 stable released, time to update to get the latest fixes

=> ↺ Mesa 13.0.4 Released While Waiting For Mesa 17.0

=> ↺ Mesa 13.0.4 Released with RadeonSI and Intel ANV Vulkan Driver Improvements

• Collabora’s Emil Velikov is announcing today the immediate availability of the fourth maintenance update to the latest Mesa 13 stable series of the open-source graphics driver stack for Linux-based operating systems.

Applications

=> ↺ 5 of the Best Ebook Readers for Linux Users

• More and more ebooks are starting to replace physical books. This means more and more people are getting their hands on digital books, including Linux users. That’s why we’ve created this list – to help Linux users find the best ebook readers out there!

• Each of the eBook readers on this list are good in their own way. That being said, some are better than others. Which ones are the best readers to use on Linux? Let’s find out!

=> ↺ Kodi Is Not a Piracy Application

• There’s a piracy app that lets users find any TV show, movie, or song you can imagine. Streams and downloads are both easy to find, and the software is already used by hundreds of millions of people.

• The name of this dastardly program? Google Chrome.

• That’s a crazy thing to report, right? Sure, it’s strictly true that you can use Chrome to pirate movies and TV shows: just search for any movie’s name followed by the words “streaming,” “torrent,” or “download.” You’ll find a pirated option on the front page basically every time. But if a mainstream media outlet called Chrome a piracy tool, you’d ridicule them for it, and deservedly so.

• But that’s pretty much how Kodi, the open source media player, is being reported on lately, particularly in the UK. The BBC called Kodi a piracy epidemic in a headline. The Mirror pointed out that Kodi offers a “way to find illegal streams of movies and sports presented with a friendly Netflix-style user interface.” The Birmingham Mail helpfully informed readers that downloading Kodi will result in you getting a scary letter.

• Reading these headlines, you’d think Kodi is the second coming of Popcorn Time. It’s not. Kodi is merely a (very good) media player and organizer. If Kodi is a piracy app, so is Google Chrome (and, for that matter, QuickTime or VLC).

=> ↺ Linux: Is the Kodi media player a piracy app?

• They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and nowhere is that more clear than in the controversy over the open source Kodi media player. Kodi has been characterized as a “piracy app” by some in the media, but the Kodi developers beg to differ with them.

=> ↺ The best add-ons for the Kodi media player and how to install them

=> ↺ [Older] The Best Kodi Boxes of 2016

=> ↺ MythTV 0.28.1 Released

• MythTV 0.28 was released nearly one year ago while today we have the first point release for this once very active open-source DVR/PVR software for HTPCs.

=> ↺ tito 0.6.10

• tito 0.6.10 was tagged and built this morning, brought to you almost entirely by the newest tito committer skuznets.

=> ↺ Latest Shotwell Releases Enable HTTPS Encryption, Change Your Passwords Now

• Shotwell maintainer Jens Georg announced earlier the availability of two new maintenance versions of the open-source Shotwell image viewer and organizer application for GNU/Linux operating systems.

• Shotwell 0.24.5 and 0.25.4 are now available for download, and it looks like the only change is the use of consistent HTTPS (Secure HTTP) encryption for all the included publishing plugins. This will make sure that your connections to various publishing services supported by the application are kept secure at all time and no one will be able to intercept it and stole your credentials.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Vivaldi 1.7 Is Just Around the Corner, Lets You Share Things More Efficiently

• The development cycle of the Vivaldi 1.7 web browser is nearing completion, and Ruarí Ødegaard is today informing us about the availability of a new snapshot that addresses several regressions and implements a couple of new features.

• The Vivaldi developer working on the Linux port of the Chromium-based web browser is reporting that the team is closing in on the final Vivaldi 1.7, and Vivaldi Browser Snapshot 1.7.735.27 is here to focuses on addressing the most important and critical regressions to offer users a polished, stable, and reliable release.

=> ↺ Comodo extends endpoint protection to Mac and Linux

• Businesses are increasingly aware of the need to protect their endpoint systems. However, they tend to concentrate most of their efforts on Windows which can leave other platforms vulnerable.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ 8 Week Progress Update for PGP Clean Room

=> ↺ Resetting a Raspberry Pi to default using Ansible

=> ↺ How to install Drupal 8 on Fedora

=> ↺ Building your own personal cloud with Cozy

=> ↺ Bernstein Chaining of ssh and su

=> ↺ Testing new hardware with Stressant

=> ↺ How to configure Ubuntu Linux server as a Domain Controller with samba-tool

=> ↺ Scottish Country Dancing stats

=> ↺ How To Configure SSH Key-based Authentication In Linux

=> ↺ Arrive On Time With NTP — Part 3: Secure Setup

=> ↺ Free Open Source Networking and Orchestration Webinar From SDxCentral and The Linux Foundation

Games

=> ↺ Until February 6th, you can get the popular indie puzzle-platformer ‘FEZ’ for PWYW at itch.io

• Just some simple and quick news: as confirmed in the following tweet by Polytron, until February 6th you can pay-what-you-want to buy the platformer FEZ, starting 0.01 USD. Obviously you can pay more and the money will be sent to a charity called American Civil Liberties Union. This deal only applies for the itch.io store.

=> ↺ Motorsport Manager, the rather detailed simulator game now has Steam Workshop support

=> ↺ Crypt of the NecroDancer: AMPLIFIED DLC now available in Early Access

=> ↺ An interview with Simon Roth, the developer of space colony simulator ‘Maia’

• I had the pleasure of talking to Simon Roth, a developer I’ve followed for quite some time now about his game ‘Maia’ [Official Site, itch.io, Steam], about Linux and other bits.

=> ↺ Steam Beta Client updated, finally fixing the notification spam when you login and group notifications

• Valve have updated Steam and added in two really needed features. First, they won’t spam you with who’s doing what when you first login. I actually have all user notifications on Steam turned off, so it’s not an issue for me. That is one of the reasons I do this though, so by them fixing this I might be able to turn them back on.

• The second important new feature, is that they finally allow you to turn off notifications from groups. I hope they roll that out per-group in future, as some I want to be a part of, but not get notifications from and some I might. Still, it’s a first step and a good one.

=> ↺ Linux Gaming in 2016: The Good, The Bad and The Meh

• 2016 is now gone and long behind us, yet it is still helpful to look back and see how much was accomplished (and what did NOT occur as well) in that past year as we jump into 2017. As the title suggests, this is not going to be a rosy view of the world: we will highlight both progress and potential regressions/issues in the Linux Gaming Market.

=> ↺ Overdriven Reloaded, a vertical-scrolling shoot ‘em up with 4 player co-op is now on Linux

• Overdriven Reloaded [Steam], a vertical-scrolling shoot ‘em up is now on Linux. We have quite a few games like it, but this has 4 player co-op so it might just be enough to hook some in.

=> ↺ FortressCraft Evolved has a massive update with a better tutorial and a fresh new look for the worlds

• FortressCraft Evolved [Steam] is a game I often overlook, but perhaps not for much longer. It has a truly massive update with a much better tutorial and a very slick new look for the surface of worlds.

=> ↺ Oh My Giraffe! is Now Available on Ubuntu

• Of course you didn’t, because it doesn’t. But a splash of irrelevance feels like the best way to introduce you to the wonderfully cute world of Oh My Giraffe.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ KDE Plasma 5.10 Desktop to Add Spring-Loading Functionality in Folder View, More

• With KDE Plasma 5.9 out the door, the KDE development team can now concentrate on adding new features or improving existing ones for the next major version of the KDE desktop environment.

• We all know how much work was done during the short development cycle of the KDE Plasma 5.9 desktop, but KDE developer Eike Hein reports today on some of the hottest new features coming to the next KDE Plasma iteration.

• Spring-loading in Folder View is one of them, and will allow KDE Plasma users to navigate folders just by hovering with the mouse cursor above them during drag and drop. Check out the image and video attached below to see the functionality in action.

=> ↺ Where To Download The (Gorgeous) KDE Plasma 5.9 Wallpaper

=> ↺ KDE Plasma 5.9 released

=> ↺ KDE Plasma 5.9 Released, 5.10 Previewed; Steam Machines RIP

• Jonathan Riddell announced for the KDE team the arrival of Plasma 5.9, the next big update to the desktop family. This release brings some new features such as Global Menus and a new network configuration module. And if that wasn’t enough KDE for you, Eike Hein blogged of some of the goodies being cooked up for 5.10. The Register reported on a bug in Cryptkeeper that triggered its removal from Debian, other distros are waiting for upstream fixes. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols said Linux is the right choice for those who appreciate a modicum of privacy and Mairin Duffy said today to come join in the Fedora IRC chats.

=> ↺ Simple Menu Launcher Is The KDE App Launcher I’ve Been Dreaming Of

• I’ve recently started using KDE Plasma again after several years of only poking around in GNOME-based desktops, e.g. Unity, Budgie, Cinnamon, etc.

• While I wouldn’t say I’m fully orientated in K Desktop Environment land just yet I am enjoying the learning curve; playing with a desktop environment as configurable as Plasma is actually rather fun, and encountering quirks and new different workflows is a constructive challenge, making me think about why I ‘prefer’ to do things in certain ways.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Neil McGovern Named New GNOME Foundation Executive Director

• The GNOME Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Neil McGovern as its new Executive Director. McGovern officially starts work for the GNOME Foundation on February 15, 2017 and will operate from the United Kingdom.

• McGovern is an experienced leader in Free Software projects and is best known for his role as Debian Project Leader from 2014-15. He has been on the Boards of numerous organizations, including Software in the Public Interest, Inc. and the Open Rights Group.

Distributions

Arch Family

=> ↺ Arch Linux 2017.02.01 Released as the Last ISO with 32-bit Support, Download Now

• It’s the first day of the month (February), which means that we can download an up-to-date ISO image of the Arch Linux operating system in case we want to deploy it on new PCs or reinstall.

OpenSUSE/SUSE

=> ↺ GeckoLinux Plasma: for Die Hard OpenSuSE fans

• GeckoLinux is a difficult thingie to understand. It was created to ease the life of people who want to explore OpenSuSE. Neither OpenSuSE nor GeckoLinux are actually easy distributions to deal with. Maybe I am just very subjective towards OpenSuSE, but that’s my position.

=> ↺ An Everyday Linux User Review Of OpenSUSE Leap 42

• So here is the deal. If as the Everyday Linux User you are going to use openSUSE then you have to stick with it and in reality it should be the only operating system on your machine. Trying to dual boot will probably tie you up in knots.

• After you have installed it and you have the most important non-free packages installed (Google Chrome being the main one) then you are likely to find openSUSE and GNOME a joy.

• GNOME is really easy to use. It really is point and click and if you can get a handle on those keyboard shortcuts then life will be very easy indeed.

• openSUSE is stable and it won’t let you down with odd quirks that some other distributions have. It really is a case of taking that bit more time to get used to than you may have to with a Linux Mint for instance.

• The good news is that there is a lot of documentation available and most things you will try have been tried before and there is usually a straight forward guide to follow to get to where you want to be.

• All in all a positive experience.

=> ↺ openSUSE Cloud Images are Ripe for Users

• Cloud images for openSUSE Leap 42.2 are now available for Amazon Web Services (AWS EC2), Azure, Google Compute Engine and more cloud providers.

• Last week, openSUSE Leap 42.2 cloud image became available in the AWS Marketplace and within the past few weeks cloud images for Azure, Google Compute Engine and OpenStack also became available.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat CIO shares 4 tactics to make the most of your first 100 days on the job

• When you start a new CIO role, having a 100-day plan is table stakes. Having that plan-on-a-page is only part of the equation for a successful transition, though. When I recently joined Red Hat as CIO, I took several other actions that I believe can be useful for anyone beginning a new leadership role.

=> ↺ Red Hat and Boston University Collaborate to Advance Emerging Technologies and Open Source Research and Education

• Red Hat, Inc. (RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced a collaborative research and education agreement with Boston University (BU), an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research, to advance research and education on open source and emerging technologies, including cloud computing, machine learning and automation, and big data. Via the five-year agreement, Red Hat plans a broad educational and research collaboration with BU with grants totaling $5 million administered by BU’s Cloud Computing Initiative.

=> ↺ CloudLinux 5 Operating System Series to Reach End of Life on March 31, 2017

• CloudLinux’s Mykola Naugolnyi announced today that support for the CloudLinux 5 operating system series is ending next month, along with production phase support for its kernel packages.

• CloudLinux is a commercial operating system based on the freely distributed sources of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It uses a modified Linux kernel based on the OpenVZ kernel and it’s compatible with the CentOS and RHEL packages.

Finance

=> ↺ Red Hat, Inc. (RHT) Rating Lowered to Hold at Vetr Inc.

=> ↺ The Red Hat, Inc. (RHT) Receives Outperform Rating from William Blair

Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora 26 Linux to Ship with GNOME 3.24 Desktop, Support Creation of LVM RAID

• The last day of January 2017 was an important date for Fedora 26 Linux’s development cycle as it meant the deadline for submitting proposals for system-wide changes was reached.

• So we can’t help but notice that multiple such system-wide change proposals for the upcoming Fedora 26 operating system appeared on the Fedora Project mailing list, informing us about some of the most excinting new features coming this summer to Fedora Linux users.

=> ↺ GNOME 3.24, LDC 1.1 & Minimal Container Image Proposed For Fedora 26

• There are more fairly last-minute change/feature proposals for Fedora 26.

• It should come as no surprise at all, but for formalities, there is the change proposal for GNOME 3.24 in Fedora 26. As usual, Fedora sticking to the latest GNOME upstream components for their Fedora Workstation releases. GNOME 3.24 is working on many improvements including better Wayland support, updated GNOME System Settings, ownCloud integration in some components, UI improvements to Epiphany, and a whole lot more as we’ve been covering in many articles.

=> ↺ Helping new users get on IRC

• Hubs uses Freenode IRC for its chat feature. I talked quite a bit about the basics of how we think this could work (see “Fedora Hubs and Meetbot: A Recursive Tale” for all of the details.)

• One case that we have to account for is users who are new Fedora contributors who don’t already have an IRC nick or even experience with IRC. A tricky thing is that we have to get them identified with NickServ, and continue to identify them with Nickserv seamlessly and automatically, after netsplits and other events that would cause them to lose their authentication to Nickserv, without their needing to be necessarily aware that the identification process was going on. Nickserv auth is kind of an implementation detail of IRC that I don’t think users, particularly those new to and unfamiliar with IRC, need to be concerned with.

Debian Family

=> ↺ My free software activities, January 2017

• The debmans package I had so lovingly worked on last month is now officially abandoned. It turns out that another developer, Michael Stapelberg wrote his own implementation from scratch, called debiman.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Canonical Releases Snapcraft 2.26 Snap Creator Tool for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 16.10

• Canonical’s Sergio Schvezov published today, February 1, 2017, a new stable update of the Snapcraft utility that Open Source application developers can use to package their apps as Snaps.

• Snappy is Canonical’s application sandboxing and distribution framework and Snap is a universal binary format designed to allow devs to distribute their apps across multiple Linux-based operating systems without having to create a special package for each distro. Snapcraft is the tool to build the Snap packages.

• The latest version, Snapcraft 2.26, comes approximately two weeks after the release of version 2.25 and promises to introduce a bunch of new features, such as support for GUI (Graphical User Interface) in Snaps, a new plugin directory location, support for snapcraft.yaml in a Snap directory, as well as support for go-packages.

=> ↺ Canonical Releases Important OpenSSL Updates for Ubuntu to Fix 6 Vulnerabilities

• Canonical’s Marc Deslauriers announced earlier the availability of updated OpenSSL packages for all supported Ubuntu Linux operating systems, which address several vulnerabilities discovered recently.

• According to to Ubuntu Security Notice USN-3181-1, it would appear that a total of six security issues were fixed by various developers in the OpenSSL packages included in Ubuntu. These packages provide the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) cryptographic library and tools needed by various applications.

=> ↺ System76 Rolls Out A NVIDIA-Powered GPU Linux Server

=> ↺ System76 Launches Ubuntu-Powered Ibex Pro GPU Server with Up to 40K CUDA Cores

• System76, the Colorado-based computer manufacturer specializing in delivering state-of-the-art desktop, notebook, server machines with Linux-based operating systems pre-installed on them, is announcing today the launch of the Ibex Pro GPU server.

• The company, which many of you know for their powerful Ubuntu-based computers, is kicking off the new year with a brand-new GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) server dubbed Ibex Pro. The focus has been on creating an innovative and extremely powerful server that would help scientists and engineers achieve their research productivity goals on advancing machine learning algorithms, rendering 3D graphics, or simulating complex systems.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS Delayed Until February 9 Due to Serious Boot Regression

• If you were expecting to upgrade to the second point release of the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system on February 2, you’d have to wait one more week because Canonical has just delayed its launch for another week.

• Ubuntu kernel manager Leann Ogasawara is reporting today, January 31, 2017, that her team recently identified a serious boot regression on AArch64 (ARM64) hardware, and it could take a few more days for the developers to patch the issue, which will require them to push new versions of the Linux kernel and other related packages.

=> ↺ You Can Now Install Snap Apps on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

• Yup, you read that right: Ubuntu 14.04, aka the Trusty Tahr, aka the LTS before the most recent LTS.

• While most people reading this post will be doing so from a more recent version of Ubuntu than Trusty, the arrival of Snapd in the Trusty archives means even more folks can fool around with the new software deployment and package management system.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Olimex spins open source Allwinner A64 based laptop kit

• Olimex unveiled an open source, Linux-driven “Teres I” laptop with an 11.6-inch display, an Allwinner A64, 1GB RAM, 4GB eMMC, WiFi, and modular I/O boards.

• Olimex, which is known for its open spec, Allwinner A20 and A33 based OlinuXino hacker boards, has now taken on the quad-core, Cortex-A53 Allwinner A64 SoC. Yet, instead of releasing another SBC, it is delivering an entire open source laptop built around the SoC. The Teres I laptop, which will soon be available in kit form for 225 Euros ($242), is the first of several developer-oriented open source Linux laptops from Olimex based on a variety of SoCs.

=> ↺ Rugged SODIMM module runs Linux on i.MX6UL

• EMAC’s $150, SODIMM-style “SoM-iMX6U” COM runs Linux on an i.MX6UL, and offers 4GB eMMC, 4x serial ports, -40 to 85°C support, and an optional carrier.

• NXP’s low-power, IoT oriented i.MX6 UltraLite (i.MX6UL) SoC has conquered yet another computer-on-module. EMAC’s SoM-iMX6U joins other Linux-driven modules based on the single-core, 528MHz Cortex-A7 SoC such as OpenEmbed’s SOM6210.

=> ↺ COM runs Linux on tiny, power-sipping Cortex-A53 SoC

• F&S announced a tiny, wireless enabled “efus A53LS” module that runs Linux on NXP’s QorIQ LS1012A, billed as the world’s smallest 64-bit ARM SoC.

• F&S Elektronik Systeme has unveiled the efus A53LS computer-on-module, which adopts its 62 x 47mm “efus” form-factor, as found in the i.MX6UL based efus A7UL. This time, F&S has tapped what might be considered the i.MX6UL of the 64-bit ARM world: NXP’s 9.6 x 9.6mm QorIQ LS1012A.

=> ↺ Retro Gaming with RetrOrangePi 3.0

• Retro gaming consoles are quite popular now, but these deives are typically locked down, have a preset and unchangeable selection of games, and their availability may be limited. Often for less money and using a pi board, you can have much greater freedom to play the games you want from all the popular gaming consoles of years past. Setting up a pi board as a retro gaming console is easy and inexpensive, with no Linux expertise really needed, as the this brief review and set up guide for RetrOrangePi demonstrates.

=> ↺ LEDE v17.01.0-rc1 released

• The LEDE Community is proud to announce the first release candidate of the upcoming LEDE 17.01 stable version series. It incorporates thousands of commits made during the course of the last months and allows us to refine the code base for the final v17.01.0 version.

• With this release, the LEDE development team closes out an intense effort to modernize many parts of OpenWrt and incorporate many new modules, packages, and technologies.

Phones

=> ↺ Your phone is trying to control your life

• One billion of us own a smartphone, and we know how addicting it can be.

• One former Google employee says this is no accident. Indeed, it is by design. And he became troubled by the relentless efforts of app developers to keep us glued to the gadgets.

• So, Tristan Harris founded an organization called Time Well Spent. He is asking the tech industry to bring what he calls ethical design to its products.

• NewsHour special correspondent Cat Wise has more, part of our ongoing collaboration with The Atlantic.

Tizen

=> ↺ Linux based Tizen 4.0 ready for release in September 2017

• Samsung has begun accelerated development on a new version of the Tizen Operating System (OS), version 4.0, and will be developed for mobile devices, wearable tech, smart home gadgets, IoT, smart TV and beyond.

• In November 2016, Samsung announced a partnership with Microsoft that would bring Visual Studio tools .NET to Tizen and also with it Xamarin.Forms. Today, we have seen the release of the second developer preview of Tizen .NET, which included support for Tizen TV. The framework will allow C# developers to easily create and port apps to the Tizen platform.

=> ↺ Smartphone App: New RAM Cleaner app released to Tizen Store

• Our all Tizen Smartphones have a good app named Smart Manager provided by Samsung, which is used for RAM Cleaning, Data Saving, Data managing, Battery Status, security and managing storage. Here is also an app named RAM Cleaner, provided by Cong Ly Tran, that is used for cleaning RAM, showing your Battery status, check your CPU and RAM Usages Status as well as running apps etc.

Android

=> ↺ Why the Google Pixel is the best Android phone

• There’s no shortage of great Android phones out there — here at Android Central we’re often bouncing between different devices as we review new phone. But eventually you’ve got to pick one winner — the best Android phone overall. And right now, in early 2017, that’s the Google Pixel, which shares the honor with its big brother the Pixel XL.

=> ↺ Former ‘I’m a Mac’ actor Justin Long is now shilling for an Android phone

• Huawei, the largest smartphone maker in the China and third largest in the world, is looking to invade the U.S. in a very big, splashy way.

• The Chinese tech giant has enlisted actor Justin Long, who appeared in Apple’s famous “Get a Mac” TV commercials between 2006 to 2009, to star in its new Android smartphone campaign. According to Campaign US, one reason Huawei hired Long was precisely because of his previous work for Apple.

• In a new video called “The Interview,” Long plays the role of a job candidate who is being interviewed by a Mate 9 Android phone to become the director of its own commercial.

=> ↺ How to download Android Nougat 7.1.2 Beta | How to install Android Nougat 7.1.2 Beta: How to download, install and downgrade Android Nougat

=> ↺ Android Nougat 7.1 UK release date | Android N new features: When will my phone get Android Nougat? Android Nougat 7.1.2 beta available now

=> ↺ Android 7.1.2 Nougat beta available for Pixel and Nexus phones

=> ↺ The best office apps for Android

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Dedicated engineering team in South Africa deploys open source tools, save lives

• In 2006, a groundbreaking TED talk used statistics to reveal surprising insights about the developing world, including how many people in South Africa have HIV despite free and available anti-retroviral drugs.

• Gustav Praekelt, founder of Praekelt.org, heard this TED talk and began tenaciously calling a local hospital to convince them to start an SMS program that would promote anti-retrovirals. The program that resulted from those calls became txtAlert—a successful and widely recognized mobile health program that dramatically improves medical appointment adherence and creates a free channel for patients to communicate with the hospital.

=> ↺ WebP 0.6 Released With Performance/Compression Improvements, img2webp Utility

• We knew WebP 0.6 was coming and this week it’s now been officially released.

• libwebp 0.6.0 was tagged on Monday as the newest version of this WebP library. WebP 0.6 brings lossless performance and compression improvements, various performance improvements for SSE2 / NEON / MSA, the webpmux command gained a duration option, and there’s a new img2webp utility.

=> ↺ NT Concepts Gears Up for Google Earth Enterprise Open Source Initiative

=> ↺ NT Concepts Gears Up for Google Earth Enterprise Open-Source Initiative

=> ↺ Google to open source on-premises Earth Enterprise software

=> ↺ Google will open source its earth enterprise software in the near future

=> ↺ Google has open-sourced Chrome for iOS

• Since its launch, Google’s Chromium project has been a desktop-only matter, but that changed in 2015 with the addition of the Android version. Following that, only the iOS version of the browser wasn’t open-source. However, that’s changing today as Google has announced that the code for Chrome on iOS has been moved into the Chromium open-source repository.

=> ↺ Google takes iOS version of Chrome open source

=> ↺ Google open-sources Chrome for iOS

=> ↺ Google Chrome for Apple iOS is now open source

=> ↺ Google Chrome for iOS goes open-source

=> ↺ Google Makes Chrome Browser for iOS Open Source

=> ↺ Remains of the Day: Google Chrome for iOS is Now Open Source

• Today Google announced that the code behind Chrome for iOS will now be accessible as part of the Chromium project. The desktop browser has long been based on open-source code but the complexity of the iOS version kept it separate, until now. That and more in today’s news.

=> ↺ Orange, Amdocs to trial AT&T ECOMP software platform in Poland

=> ↺ Orange and Amdocs Set to Trial AT&T’s ECOMP Platform for SDN

=> ↺ Amazon’s deep learning engine is now an Apache project

• Amazon Web Services has seemingly found open source religion over the past several months, including in the field of artificial intelligence. On Monday, the cloud computing arm of Amazon announced that MXNet, its framework of choice for building deep learning systems, has been accepted into the Apache Incubator program.

=> ↺ MXNet, a Deep Learning Tool, Joins Apache’s Incubator

• The Apache Software Foundation, which incubates more than 350 open source projects and initiatives, has a long history of bringing development and resources to meaningful open source projects. In recent times, the foundation has been focusing on advancing open big data projects, as we covered here.

• Now, MXNet, Amazon Web Services’ well-known deep learning framework, has been accepted to the Apache Incubator. Joining the incubator is the first step necessary for the project to officially become part of the Apache Software Foundation. It should bring many resources to this promising, open tool.

=> ↺ OSI Board of Directors Call for Nominations

• The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is pleased to announce our 2017 election and seeks your nominations for candidates to serve on the OSI Board of Directors. This year, 2017, three (3) Individual Members seats are open, and one (1) Affiliate Member seat.

Events

=> ↺ Three Upcoming Open Source Conferences

• With Open Source 101, a single day, entry level conference, almost sold-out for its inaugural run at NC State University on Saturday, I thought now would be as good a time as any to take a look at some of the open source conferences coming up this spring.

• For tech workers, whether in the trenches or in the front office, these conferences offer a unique opportunity that’s not always found at other tech events. While many tech conferences focus on a single product or vendor, open source conferences offer a wide smorgasbord of subjects, with sessions on subjects that range from highly technical to strictly business. In addition, they’re great for networking.

=> ↺ Code for Pakistan hosts Open Source Day for Women in Karachi

• Code for Pakistan (CfP) hosted ‘Open Source Day for Women’ (OSDW) in Karachi in collaboration with Habib University.

• About 40 young women and guests participated in the workshop where they learned about open source coding, honing their technical skills and contributing to civic innovation space. Huda Baig, Code for Pakistan’s Karachi rep, co-organized the event with Syed ObaidUllah, Founding Partner, MarketLytics, a software and data analytics studio, who volunteered with CfP to launch OSDW. Talking about Open Source, Huda said,

=> ↺ UniK: Isolating Processes and Reducing Complexity

• Unikernels aren’t a new concept; the stripped-down, library-specific application machine images have been around for decades. But unikernels are enjoying a renaissance thanks to cloud computing; they offer major efficiencies in resource use and provide a tiny attack service for nefarious online activities. At CloudNativeCon in Seattle in November, Idit Levine presented the open source project UniK (pronounced “unique”) and announced new features to make unikernel creation more attractive and viable, both for cloud computing and Internet of Things devices.

=> ↺ NCSU Hosts One-Day Introduction to Open Source

• It’s something of a grand experiment and it’s being being hosted this weekend on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. What it is might be called a miniconference, but let’s not call it that. “Mini” indicates smallness, and there’s nothing small about this event, even if it is only a single day affair.

• Let’s call it a full fledged conference. The students attending will like that. It’ll make them feel important and so grown-up — which they are, actually. They’ll be able to feign weariness as they roll their eyes and tell friends they can’t meetup at the pizza pallor on Saturday because “I”m attending a conference.” Their friends will be secretly impressed, but won’t let on and will act like that’s the most natural thing in the world.

• The event is called Open Source 101.

Web Browsers

Chrome

=> ↺ Chrome/Chromium’s EXO Now Supports Hardware Cursors

• Thanks to David Reveman, there is now hardware cursor support for EXO.

OpenStack

=> ↺ OpenStack cited as open source example for telecom

• One open source model referenced by many in the telecommunications space is that of OpenStack, which is a cloud-based platform initially begun in 2010 as a project between NASA and Rackspace Hosting aimed at creating an open source cloud platform that could be operated on standard, legacy hardware.

=> ↺ Harmonic and Mirantis Create Cloud Media Processor

=> ↺ Harmonic and Mirantis Bring Cloud-Native Media Processing to OpenStack

• Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, and Mirantis, a pure-play open cloud company, today announced a new partnership that is providing media content and service providers with access to the industry’s first media processing solution for live and VOD production on OpenStack. Mirantis and Harmonic have ensured interoperability of Harmonic’s VOS(TM) Cloud media processing solution and Mirantis’ cloud platform, allowing customers to manage the entire media production and delivery workflow for broadcast and over-the-top (OTT) applications on standard IT hardware in a scalable cloud environment. The joint solution has successfully been deployed by a leading North American service provider, and is in numerous trials with other service providers worldwide.

=> ↺ OpenContrail: An Essential Tool in the OpenStack Ecosystem

• Throughout 2016, software-defined networking (SDN) rapidly evolved, and numerous players in the open source and cloud computing arenas are now helping it gain momentum. In conjunction with that trend, OpenContrail, a popular SDN platform used with the OpenStack cloud computing platform, is emerging as an essential tool around which many administrators will have to develop skillsets.

=> ↺ Mirantis and Harmonic Team on Video Delivery Solutions for OpenStack

• Mirantis, known for its focus on OpenStack, has been steadily forming partnerships that can take OpenStack deployments in new directions. For example, last year the company announced a collaboration with Google and Intel to evolve the architecture of the leading purpose-built lifecycle management tool for OpenStack, Fuel, and related OpenStack projects, to enable for use of Kubernetes as its underlying orchestration engine.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ LibreOffice 5.3 Officially Released with New User-Friendly & Flexible UI Concept

• Today, February 1, 2017, The Document Foundation, a non-profit organization established to promote and advance the development of the open-source LibreOffice office suite, announced the general availability of LibreOffice 5.3.

=> ↺ LibreOffice 5.3 Released With A Plethora Of Improvements

=> ↺ Bigger, better LibreOffice 5.3 released for the cloud

• The latest version of LibreOffice is out now for Linux, macOS, Windows, and, at long last, the cloud.

=> ↺ LibreOffice 5.3 Released, Called ‘Most Feature-Rich Release’ Ever

• LibreOffice 5.3 is now available to download, and The Document Foundation is calling it ‘one of the most feature-rich releases in the history of the application’!

Pseudo-Open Source (Openwashing)

=> ↺ Facebook Delegated Recovery Protocol Offers New Password Reset Option

=> ↺ IKEA To Launch ‘Open Source’ Furniture

=> ↺ X2CRM Introduces Location Marketing into Its Open-Source CRM Platform

BSD

=> ↺ Deciso Releases OPNsense 17.1 ‘Eclectic Eagle’, its open source security platform

Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

=> ↺ New open-source framework Fission available, build web apps with Tandem Code, and Android Nougat’s developer public beta

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ Open source textbooks can ease students’ financial strains

• Open textbooks would be an alternative to physical textbooks that are much less expensive or even free. Open textbooks are online textbooks licensed through an open copyright license and posted online by authors.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ D-Wave’s Quantum Software Goes Open Source, Now Anyone Can Develop Programs for Quantum Computers

• If you ever wanted to have a look and see what quantum computing is really all about then now is a great time to check it out. Because there’s such a mad rush for scientists to get to the end of this quantum computing race, there’s a wealth of information on the subject just oozing out of the net, waiting for people to grab hold of and make use of.

=> ↺ D-Wave open sources software tool to build foundation for a quantum computing community

• Quantum computing is complicated. Even when the technology works, there are only so many people who are even aware it’s a thing. (It is a thing: feel free to peruse our previous look at D-Wave’s tech and how it works, from the inside out).

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Pyston 0.6.1 released, and future plans

• Hello all, we’re happy to release Pyston version 0.6.1, the latest version of our high-performance Python JIT. v0.6.1 contains performance enhancements over 0.6, bringing Pyston to 95% faster than CPython on standard benchmarks.

=> ↺ Pyston Now 95% Faster Than CPython, But Dropbox Just Stopped Supporting It

• Back in 2014 Dropbox announced the Pyston project as an open-source JIT compiler to Python focusing upon maximum performance. With this newest Pyston release (v0.6.1) they are now 95% faster than CPython, but Dropbox is ending their involvement in the project.

• Pyston will remain open-source, but this is the last release Dropbox is sponsoring and their involved developers are moving on to other projects.

=> ↺ Cortex-M23 / Cortex-M33 Support Added To LLVM

• The LLVM compiler infrastructure now has official support for two more ARM processors.

• The Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 are now both supported by the LLVM compiler stack this morning.

Leftovers

=> ↺ The ‘homeless spikes’ in Manchester city centre have been REMOVED after a huge public backlash

• Homeless spikes installed in the city centre designed to stop people sleeping rough have been removed after an outcry from M.E.N. readers.

• The pointed barriers were installed in an area outside an office block in Pall Mall Court which is often used by rough sleepers.

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ EU Parliament Committee Adopts Report On Increased Medicines Access In Europe

• The European Parliament Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee has voted to adopt a draft report on measures to increase availability of medicines within the European Union, according to sources.

• The draft report proposed numerous measures to increase access to medicines, asking the parliament to study the impact that intellectual property protections actually have on promoting innovation and to increase publicly funded research to better address patient need. Direct measures to control the cost of drugs and increase competition were also requested, including regular monitoring of patent settlement agreements which may restrict entry of generics into the market, guaranteeing timely entry of generic and biosimilar drugs, and ending patent linkages.

=> ↺ Resolution On Compulsory Licences For Patented Medicines Passes In Chile

• The resolution is available here [in Spanish]. A partial unofficial translation has been posted by Knowledge Ecology International, which first issued notification of the resolution. IP-Watch also carried out an informal translation of the 5-page text.

• According to translations, the resolution directs the health minister to facilitate the acquisition of necessary drugs at prices affordable for the population, and to build the administrative procedures necessary to prioritise certain medicines which could be considered for compulsory licensing. The resolution additionally directs the Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism to review and update Chile’s existing law on compulsory licences, and to develop administrative guidelines on the granting of licences that are consistent with the right to health and life, in an effort to make the future issuance of any compulsory licence more legally certain.

=> ↺ UN High-Level Panel, Medicines Access Find Foothold At World Health Assembly In May

• World Health Organization member states seeking solutions for ensuring medicines access have been looking for ways to get a recent controversial report from the UN headquarters on the WHO agenda. The Executive Board this week heard concerns and left open the possibility that it will come up at the annual World Health Assembly in May.

=> ↺ HHS Nominee Tom Price Targeted Panel That Urged Fewer Cancer Screenings

• If the last few years are any guide, one group that may find itself in the crosshairs of Rep. Tom Price, President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is an influential panel of medical experts.

• The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, a group of mostly physician and academics from top universities, reviews medical practices to see whether they are supported by research and evidence.

Security

=> ↺ Epic Fail: Linux Encryption App, Cryptkeeper, Has Universal Password “p”

• Cryptkeeper is a popular Linux encryption application that’s used to encrypt your valuable data. But, it’s not as safe as you think. A bug has was recently discovered that allows universal decryption using a single letter password “p.” Debian developer Simon McVittie has advised the dev team to take it out of Debian altogether.

=> ↺ AppArmor – or: Working for the enemy?

• Some weeks ago, someone asked on the opensuse-wiki mailinglist if it’s acceptable to move documentation (in this case about Icecream) from the openSUSE wiki to the upstream repo on github.

=> ↺ Spotting vulnerabilities in your open source code

• ESET researchers have offered programmers a few tips for spotting vulnerable code and how to correct them before they make it into your system.

=> ↺ Linux Journal February 2017

• It doesn’t take more than a glance at the current headlines to see data security is a vital part of almost everything we do. Whether it’s concern over election hacking or user accounts being publicized after a website compromise, our data integrity is more important than ever. Although there’s little we can do individually to stop hackers from attacking websites we don’t personally control, we always can be more conscious of how we manage our data and credentials for our own accounts. As is becoming more and more common, this month, we look at a lot of security issues.

=> ↺ Latest Ubuntu Update Includes OpenSSL Fixes

• Ubuntu users are being urged to update their operating systems to address a handful of recently patched OpenSSL vulnerabilities which affect Ubuntu and its derivatives.

• Developers with Canonical, the company that oversees the Linux distribution, announced the updates on Tuesday, encouraging users to install the latest OpenSSL package versions depending on which distribution they’re running.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Here Are All The Hoaxes And Bullshit Stories That Spread After The Quebec Mosque Shooting

• As police and news media scrambled to respond, early reports claimed that two shooters had entered the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec and opened fire on worshippers. Police later confirmed they only have one suspect, 27-year-old Alexandre Bissonnette.

=> ↺ Dust Settles. Finally, The Truth About Shooting At Mosque In Quebec

• Please click on the link to the right. It traces the growth and branching of #FakeNews about the shooting. Much of that was trying to blame Muslims for shooting Muslims. Imagine if this event had been in USA with 10X the population of nut-cases. Yes, that’s where the anti-Muslim rhetoric has grown like a cancer warping minds so badly they’ll vote for a lecherous fat old guy known to rip off investors, banks and ordinary working guys while buying stuff from China and blaming China, banks, Mexicans, Muslims and global trade for the shortage of work despite full employment. Yes, that’s where ~40% of the population voted for a serial liar and chose him to be POTUS of the most powerful country on Earth. Click on the link. Read how this nonsense takes on a life of its own, baseless lies stretched so thin only hot air pumped in can keep it up.

=> ↺ Quebec: Alexandre Bissonnette charged with six murders

• Authorities in Canada have charged Alexandre Bissonnette, a French-Canadian university student known for his far-right views, over a shooting rampage on a Quebec City mosque that killed six people.

• Bissonnette faces six counts of first-degree murder and five of attempted murder, but has not been charged with any terrorism-related offences, despite Sunday’s attack being widely condemned, including by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as a “terrorist act” against Muslims.

• When asked on Tuesday why Bissonnette was not facing terrorism-related charges, Thomas Jacques, a representative of the prosecutor’s office, replied: “The charges laid correspond to the evidence available,” said.

• Prosecutors added that all of the evidence was not yet ready and Bissonnette, a 27-year-old anthropology and political science student at Laval University, was set to appear again on February 21.

=> ↺ Suspect in mosque shooting a moderate conservative turned extremist, say friends, classmates

• A shy chess-player, a bullied introvert, a moderate conservative turned far-right troll — these are the descriptions being offered of Alexandre Bissonnette since he was accused of perpetrating a deadly shooting at a Quebec City mosque.

• Bissonnette looked nervous during his brief court appearance on Monday. He didn’t say a word and shuffled in his handcuffs; before being escorted out, he was charged with 11 counts of murder and attempted murder.

=> ↺ Clinton Gang Push for War with Iran

• So what are the Clinton gang doing while Trump introduces anti-Muslim immigration discrimination? Oh, they are pushing for war with Iran, which might give pause to some who think the world would have been less awful had Hillary won.

=> ↺ Trump’s Muslim Ban Will Only Spark More Terrorist Attacks

• Donald Trump’s travel ban on refugees and visitors from seven Muslim countries entering the US makes a terrorist attack on Americans at home or abroad more rather than less likely. It does so because one of the main purposes of al-Qaeda and Isis in carrying out atrocities is to provoke an over-reaction directed against Muslim communities and states. Such communal punishments vastly increase sympathy for Salafi-jihadi movements among the 1.6 billion Muslims who make up a quarter of the world’s population.

• The Trump administration justifies its action by claiming that it is only following lessons learned from 9/11 and the destruction of the Twin Towers. But it has learned exactly the wrong lesson: the great success of Mohammed Atta and his eighteen hijackers was not on the day that they and 3,000 others died, but when President George W Bush responded by leading the US into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that are still going on.

=> ↺ America Should Look in the Mirror

• Thirteen years after invading Iraq, the consensus is that the invasion was an error. Whether the error was intentional or not, Iraq suffered more than a quarter of a million dead, a million wounded, and the destruction of infrastructure, education, economy and medical services. If this were murder, the culprit (and in this case the president of the United States) would be convicted either of murder if it was premeditated or manslaughter if it were not. Many around the world have called it a war crime.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Assange Lawyer to Justice Department: Your Move

• Julian Assange said he was willing to come to the United States. It’s not that simple.

• On January 12, WikiLeaks tweeted that founder Julian Assange, holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, would “agree to US extradition” if President Barack Obama granted clemency to convicted Army leaker Chelsea Manning. Five days later, Obama commuted Manning’s sentence, and the spotlight turned to Assange. The embattled Australian said that although he’d hoped for a full pardon for Manning, he would stand by his pledge and discuss a return to the United States with the Department of Justice.

• But the situation isn’t that simple, says Barry Pollack, Assange’s Washington, DC-based lawyer. Assange, Pollack says, is stuck in limbo because the Justice Department won’t make clear what it’s intentions are—whether it will charge him, whether he’s already been indicted, or whether there’s room to talk about a resolution.

• “I have, for quite some period of time, been trying to get the Department of Justice to engage in some sort of a dialogue about what it is they are looking for,” Pollack tells Mother Jones. “Where does Julian fit into whatever investigation they’re doing? Have they charged him? Will they charge him? Are they seeking to extradite him? And the Department of Justice has just repeatedly refused to engage or provide any information whatsoever.”

Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Climate Scientists Turn To Canadian Organizations To Save Vulnerable Data From Trump

• Scientists, and others who fear Donald Trump’s administration could spur the loss of crucial data, are turning to Canadian companies and academics to store their findings.

• Trump has called global warming a hoax, and one of his top advisors says he plans to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, according to Reuters.

• On Jan. 20, the day Trump became president of the U.S., the White House website’s page on climate change suddenly read “Page Not Found.”

• Now, a search on the site turns up no mentions of the phrase “climate change” at all.

=> ↺ Army Corps told to clear way for Dakota Access construction

• The acting secretary of the Army has instructed federal officials to issue the easement necessary to build a controversial segment of the Dakota Access pipeline, members of the North Dakota congressional delegation said Tuesday.

• “The Acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer informed us that he has directed the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with the easement needed to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said in a Tuesday night statement.

• “This will enable the company to complete the project, which can and will be built with the necessary safety features to protect the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others downstream.”

=> ↺ ‘We Should Not Be Subsidizing an Industry That Is Hurting Our Communities’

• “With one swipe of the presidential pen, the Dakota Access and Keystone pipelines were back on the agenda,” so reported CNN. But back on the agenda is not the same thing as being a done deal. Our next guest says those pipelines will not be completed. David Turnbull is campaigns director at Oil Change International. He joins us now by phone from Oakland. Welcome to CounterSpin, David Turnbull.

Finance

=> ↺ Public rejects Theresa May’s ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ threat to leave the EU with no deal

• Most British people oppose Theresa May’s “take-it-or-leave-it” threat to leave the EU with no deal and risk a damaging economic crash, a new poll has found.

• The Prime Minister is urged instead to go back and negotiate a better agreement with EU leaders if Parliament rejects the Brexit terms she strikes in a “final deal” vote expected in 2019.

• The verdict comes ahead of a likely debate next week in which the Government will be urged to concede a “meaningful” vote – one staged early enough for her to go back and seek those better terms.

=> ↺ Parties must work together to stop the UK falling off a Brexit cliff edge

• As the co-leader of a party that stands for environmental, social and economic justice, I will not support a government offering no assurances to EU nationals living in Britain, threatening the funding of our public services, and planning to end our membership of the single market and customs union.

• It has been heartening to see such cross-party cooperation on these key issues. I very much hope Labour will rethink their three-line whip on the vote tonight, and that individual MPs will put principle before party loyalty, rather than cast a vote for extreme Brexit. Whatever the outcome, however, I’ll remain open to working with MPs from all parties to amend this bill – that’s the only responsible option if we want to protect this country from the very real dangers of triggering article 50 on the terms Theresa May has so far revealed.

=> ↺ Brexit free movement restrictions would ruin Britain’s £26bn legal services industry, country’s top lawyers warn

• Britain’s £26 billion legal industry is under threat from post-Brexit restrictions to freedom of movement and exit from the single market, the country’s top lawyers have warned.

• MPs on the Justice Select Committee, who are gathering evidence on the impact of leaving the EU, were told that there would be little left to “salvage” of the successful industry if lawyers were stripped of free movement and lost the right to practise in the EU because of differing regulations.

• The legal services industry contributes £3.6 billion of Britain’s exports and trade. It was reported last year that it grew by 8 per cent in 2015, significantly faster than the rest of the economy.

=> ↺ #DeleteUber: how social media turned on Uber

• Last modified on Tuesday 31 January 2017 14.37 GMT

• There was plenty to be angry about this weekend – and many people were extremely irate about the ride-hailing company Uber.

=> ↺ Ethical Banking

• HSBC whistleblower ‘Mr Ethical’ has won his hard, drawn-out, 13-year-long battle against his former employer.

• Four million pounds in compensation is due to be split between 6,700 people who had been forced to pay unreasonable debt collection charges.

=> ↺ Leaked TISA Safe Harbor Proposal: the Right Idea in the Wrong Place

• A new leak of the Electronic Commerce chapter [PDF] of the Trade in Services Agreement from the November 2016 negotiating round has exposed a brand new U.S. government proposal on Internet intermediary safe harbors. The proposal, which the European Union is shown as opposing, is a rough analog to 47 U.S.C.§ 230, enacted as part of the Communications Decency Act (known simply as “Section 230″, or sometimes as CDA 230).

• Section 230 is one of the most important provisions of U.S. law for online platforms that host users’ speech. It provides a shield protecting online intermediaries against a range of laws that would otherwise that would otherwise hold them responsible for what their users say or do online. Although there are exceptions to this law—for example, the immunity does not protect platforms’ hosting of user-generated material that infringes copyright (which is governed by the weaker DMCA safe harbor)—Section 230 remains an invaluable catalyst to innovation and free expression online, and a major reason for the success of U.S. Internet platforms around the world.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ “United we stand, divided we fall”: letter by President Donald Tusk to the 27 EU heads of state or government on the future of the EU before the Malta summit

• In order to best prepare our discussion in Malta about the future of the European Union of 27 member states, and in light of the conversations I have had with some of you, let me put forward a few reflections that I believe most of us share.

• The challenges currently facing the European Union are more dangerous than ever before in the time since the signature of the Treaty of Rome. Today we are dealing with three threats, which have previously not occurred, at least not on such a scale.

• The first threat, an external one, is related to the new geopolitical situation in the world and around Europe. An increasingly, let us call it, assertive China, especially on the seas, Russia’s aggressive policy towards Ukraine and its neighbours, wars, terror and anarchy in the Middle East and in Africa, with radical Islam playing a major role, as well as worrying declarations by the new American administration all make our future highly unpredictable. For the first time in our history, in an increasingly multipolar external world, so many are becoming openly anti-European, or Eurosceptic at best. Particularly the change in Washington puts the European Union in a difficult situation; with the new administration seeming to put into question the last 70 years of American foreign policy.

• The second threat, an internal one, is connected with the rise in anti-EU, nationalist, increasingly xenophobic sentiment in the EU itself. National egoism is also becoming an attractive alternative to integration. In addition, centrifugal tendencies feed on mistakes made by those, for whom ideology and institutions have become more important than the interests and emotions of the people.

=> ↺ Trump A Threat To EU

• Wow! Just as I’ve been saying for a year now, Trump is recognized as a threat to world peace, just like those nasty terrorists of which he promises us he will protect us. Could it be Trump is really in league with those uppity Russians?

=> ↺ Covering Trump the Reuters Way

• In a message to staff today, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler wrote about covering President Trump the Reuters way:

• The first 12 days of the Trump presidency (yes, that’s all it’s been!) have been memorable for all – and especially challenging for us in the news business. It’s not every day that a U.S. president calls journalists “among the most dishonest human beings on earth” or that his chief strategist dubs the media “the opposition party.” It’s hardly surprising that the air is thick with questions and theories about how to cover the new Administration.

• So what is the Reuters answer? To oppose the administration? To appease it? To boycott its briefings? To use our platform to rally support for the media? All these ideas are out there, and they may be right for some news operations, but they don’t make sense for Reuters. We already know what to do because we do it every day, and we do it all over the world.

=> ↺ The Censorship Conspiracy Theories Have Begun, And Media Organistions Should Be Very Worried

• Last night, an ABC news broadcast suffered a technical glitch, and during a segment on the travel ban the feed was cut. When the channel returned to normal, it was reporting a different story.

=> ↺ No, Trump Didn’t Censor ABC News Last Night—Here’s What Really Happened

=> ↺ Green party demands travel ban for Trump to Germany

• Germany’s Green party has suggested drastic consequences for the US President after he ordered a temporary travel block for refugees and citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries.

• Donald Trump’s executive order issued on Friday suspends all refugee admissions into the United States for 120 days, bars all Syrians indefinitely, and blocks citizens of seven mostly Muslim countries for 90 days – including dual citizens.

• This impacts tens of thousands of German citizens who also hold, for example, Iranian passports – Iranian citizens cannot revoke their citizenship. The Green party told financial newspaper Handelsblatt that this would also impact the party’s vice chief of the German-American parliamentary group, Omid Nouripour, who holds both German and Iranian passports.

=> ↺ Message from Sally Yates to Justice Department lawyers before she was fired

• Act­ing Atty. Gen. Sally Yates ordered Justice De­part­ment at­tor­neys not to de­fend Pres­id­ent Trump’s ex­ec­ut­ive or­der on travel and refugees in court. Hours later, Trump fired her. Here is the memo she wrote.

=> ↺ Why psychiatrists are speaking out about Donald Trump’s mental health

• For decades, professional psychologists and psychiatrists have kept schtum with regard to their expert views on political candidates they haven’t personally assessed.

• Under ethical rules set out by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), shrinks are banned from publicising their professional diagnostic opinions.

• And yet over the course of last year’s US presidential election campaign and increasingly since the inauguration, psychiatrists have put the rule to one side and been speaking out about their concerns over the new President’s mental health.

=> ↺ Trump will use Facebook Live to announce his Supreme Court Justice nominee tonight

• President Donald Trump will announce his nominee for the Supreme Court tonight on Facebook Live at 8PM ET. The White House announced the stream today on Twitter.

• CNN reported earlier today that Trump’s top two picks for the position, Neil Gorsuch and Thomas Hardiman, have both been brought to Washington. An unnamed source told the publication that the White House is attempting to keep the nomination a secret and build suspense until the official announcement; another anonymous source said that Trump could still change his mind.

=> ↺ Trump Supreme Court nominee Gorsuch seen in the mold of Scalia

• Federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch, the U.S. Supreme Court pick of President Donald Trump, is a conservative intellectual known for backing religious rights and seen as very much in the mold of Antonin Scalia, the justice he was chosen to replace.

• Gorsuch, who has not shied away from needling liberals on occasion, is 49 and could influence the high court for decades to come in the lifetime post, if confirmed by the Republican-led Senate. He is the youngest Supreme Court nominee since Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1991 picked Clarence Thomas, who was 43 at the time.

=> ↺ Message To Dems: Block Neil Gorsuch Nomination ‘Using All Available Means’

• In accepting the nomination at the podium in the White House, Colorado federal appeals court judge Gorsuch called the late Justice Antonin Scalia “a lion of the law.” Indeed, many have noted that Gorsuch follows in Scalia’s footsteps; of all the potential justices scored on the Washington Post’s “Scalia scale,” Gorsuch scored highest.

• Democrats in Congress and progressive advocacy groups—incensed that the Republican-led Senate never acted on former President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland—have vowed to fight Trump’s pick.

=> ↺ China’s Response To Study Confirms It Uses ‘Strategic Distraction’ To Prevent Collective Action. Sound Familiar?

• When Techdirt first wrote about this work last year, it was undoubtedly interesting, and added to our knowledge of how governments flood the Internet with false information. But in the wake of the events of the last few days, during which the White House has disseminated what it calls “alternative facts,” and “collective action” has emerged as a key political response, it has acquired a heightened relevance.

=> ↺ The Emoluments Clause, Impeachment, and Trump: An Explainer

• There are mostly questions and very few answers about the Emoluments Clause. There are also legitimate concerns over conflicts of interest during the Trump administration; no president in history has come into office with as vast and complex financial holdings. Modern presidents have bypassed all of this by using blind trusts, something Trump has said he will not do. This is clearly uncharted legal and political territory.

• That said, it appears use of the Emoluments Clause to impeach Trump is another Clinton martyrdom political fantasy. Any clarification will involve extensive travel through the court system, and given the initial question of who even has standing to pursue that, nothing can happen quickly, if at all.

=> ↺ Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert Predict Trump’s Next Executive Orders (Video)

• “The Late Show” hosted a special guest Tuesday—and no, despite the dead animal on his head and the overly long red tie, it wasn’t the newly minted president.

• “I’ve got to imagine, though,” said host Stephen Colbert, “after 10 days and 20 orders, he’s got to be done right?”

• “He’s got more, he’s got more,” shouted the prodigal Jon Stewart as he dejectedly took the stage. “Trust me, he’s got more.”

=> ↺ After NY Cop Salutes Violence Against Anti-Trump Protester, His Online Post Comes Under Review

• A video posted on Jan. 22 by a pro-Trump Facebook page shows a physical altercation between anti-Trump protesters and a passerby in Washington, D.C. The pedestrian punches a protester, and about 20 seconds later, he hits the same woman in the face a second time.

• On Jan. 23, Brian Faustina, a 22-year veteran officer with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, shared the video on his Facebook wall with the text, “Grow up bitches and get a job.” Two retired Port Authority police officers joined in, saying “This needs to happen more often!” and “Thats [sic] what the [sic] all need, a little ass kicking.”

=> ↺ BBC Daily Distortion

• What makes the malice in Kuenssberg’s dealings still more evident is that she had in fact asked Corbyn a question specifically about Paris, and received a very different answer from Corbyn: “Of course you’d bring people onto the streets to prevent and ensure there is safety within our society.”

• But she broadcast neither the actual question nor the actual answer about Paris.

• The deceit, malice and deliberate bias could not be more obvious. The BBC Trust really had no choice in its finding, and it specifically noted that Kuenssberg “had not achieved due impartiality.” That is an extremely important word – it was not just a lapse in judgement, it was a clear indication that Kuenssberg is partial in her political affiliations.

=> ↺ Calling a Lie a Lie in the Age of Trump

• The U.S. mainstream media bends over backward not to call the President a liar even when it’s deserved, but Donald Trump’s falsehoods are so glaring that the L word should apply, says ethicist Daniel C. Maguire.

=> ↺ Donald Trump’s Demolition Derby

• We’re a week into the Trump administration and it’s pretty obvious what he’s up to. First, Donald Trump is running a demolition derby: He wants to demolish everything he doesn’t like, and he doesn’t like a lot, especially when it comes to government.

• Like one of those demolition drivers on a speedway, he keeps ramming his vehicle against all the others, especially government policies and programs and agencies that protect people who don’t have his wealth, power or privilege. Affordable health care for working people? Smash it. Consumer protection against predatory banks and lenders? Run over it. Rules and regulations that rein in rapacious actors in the market? Knock ‘em down. Fair pay for working people? Crush it. And on and on.

=> ↺ Federal Disobedience: Why We Must Support Federal Worker Noncooperation

• After 17 years at the US State Department, for example, TJ Lunardi decided to call it quits. Like other senior foreign service officers who, on January 25, 2017, left in what Washington Post journalist Josh Rogin characterized as an “ongoing mass exodus,” Lunardi concluded that he “simply could not serve in an executive branch” where he “would have to carry out [Trump's] orders as president.” Trump, he decided, is “a threat to our constitutional values.”

• After Trump ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on that same day to remove its climate change page from the EPA website, an anonymous Badlands National Park federal employee (or group of employees) defiantly fired off a series of tweets that blended climate change facts with “exhortations to oppose Donald Trump’s nominees.” The Twitter campaign spread to other parks, with more tweets on climate change on official social media accounts.

=> ↺ Here Is Some of the Human Misery Caused by President Trump’s Muslim Ban From Those Most Impacted

• With the sweep of his pen, President Donald Trump caused the U.S. immigration system to go into total disarray and sowed global chaos and confusion on Friday afternoon. The executive order he signed at 4:42 p.m. suspended all Syrian refugees from entering the country indefinitely, prohibited any other refugees from coming into the country for 120 days, and banned foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from visiting the country for 90 days.

• Refugees and people were caught completely off-guard by the order. They reacted with fear, disbelief, and outrage as their lives were turned upside down by the president’s discriminatory and unconstitutional Muslim ban. Some refugees and immigrants had already given away or sold all of their belongings.

=> ↺ How to Build an Autocracy

• It’s 2021, and President Donald Trump will shortly be sworn in for his second term. The 45th president has visibly aged over the past four years. He rests heavily on his daughter Ivanka’s arm during his infrequent public appearances.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Inside Amazon’s Stand-Up Comedy Specials – No Censorship, No Women

• Midway through his first stand-up comedy special for Amazon Prime Video, while discussing the notion of peculiar Uber drivers, Mumbai-based comedian Sapan Verma asks his audience about any weird experiences they may have had. After a woman narrates the time one of the Uber drivers broached the topic of her marriage, Verma weaves the story into his monologue, and continues. Bringing in the audience like this was made possible by his choice of venue.

• “I shot it at this place called The Comedy Club, in Bangalore,” Verma tells us. “I toured it for about four months, did 29 shows, and then decided. I just love that venue, because it’s very intimate.” It’s an outlook his friend and fellow comedian Kanan Gill shares. “I like things that are super intimate, the way the special is shot,” Gill says. “I don’t wanna see the audience, I don’t wanna see the venue, I just wanna see the comedian.”

=> ↺ What we learned from Barney Rosset’s My Life in Publishing and How I Fought Censorship

• Barney Rosset was the legendary publisher of New York’s Grove Press, most famous for its battles to publish uncensored versions of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer.

=> ↺ Backpage self-censorship does little to curb human trafficking advertisements, police say

• Backpage.com, a classified advertising website, has self-censored its adult advertising section, but the action has had little effect on the posting of similar illegal sex-related advertisements in other subsections of the site, police say.

• The website shuttered its adult advertising section under mounting pressure from a U.S. Senate subcommittee under the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

=> ↺ Trump is copying the Bush censorship playbook. Scientists aren’t standing for it

=> ↺ Science off to a rough start in the Trump administration

=> ↺ Scientists Plan to March Against Trump in Throngs

=> ↺ Twitter Says It’s Developing New Tools For Online Censorship

=> ↺ Twitter to release updates to stop harassment

=> ↺ Inside Twitter’s new plan to combat harassment

=> ↺ Twitter will roll out updates to tackle online harassment

=> ↺ Twitter pledges to deal with platform abuses

=> ↺ Amos Yee could remain behind bars in USA till March

=> ↺ Singapore teen submits US asylum claim and appears in court

=> ↺ Singaporean asylum seeker Amos Yee, 18, could remain in US jail until March, lawyer reveals

=> ↺ Singapore teen submits US asylum claim in immigration court

=> ↺ Human Rights Watch urges US authorities to favorably consider Amos Yee’s case of asylum

• Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch’s statement on the asylum case of Amos Yee Pang Sang in support of his asylum

• Human Rights Watch is an international human rights organization with our headquarters in New York. Our work focuses on investigating and exposing government violations of international human rights standards around the world, including in Singapore.

=> ↺ Amos Yee’s asylum bid: US court hearing on March 7

• An Immigration Court judge in Illinois has accepted Singaporean teenage blogger Amos Yee’s application for political asylum in the US, setting a date for a full hearing on March 7.

• In a 10-minute hearing on Monday, his lawyer, Ms Sandra Grossman, appeared in person before the judge while Amos appeared via video from the jail where he has been in detention since arriving in the US on Dec 16.

=> ↺ Probation report called for Amos Yee’s attacker

=> ↺ Youth pleads guilty to using criminal force on Amos Yee

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Hearing Thursday: American Fights to Continue Case Against Ethiopian Spyware

• On Thursday, February 2, at 9:30 am, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the law firms of Jones Day and Robins Kaplan will urge an appeals court to let an American continue his suit against the Ethiopian government for infecting his computer with custom spyware and monitoring his communications for weeks on end.

• With the help of EFF and the Citizen Lab, the plaintiff in this case found Ethiopian government spyware on his personal computer in Maryland several years ago. Our investigation concluded that it was part of a systemic campaign by the Ethiopian government to spy on perceived opponents.

=> ↺ Van Hollen, former NSA director discuss government, private sector collaboration

• U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and the former director of the NSA talked Wednesday in Linthicum about the importance of the government working with the private sector to improve the country’s cyber security.

=> ↺ When the NSA Thought Mind Control Would Be an Actual Military Concern

=> ↺ Told you so: Airport-style identity checks coming to train travel

• Several European countries will start requiring photo ID from passengers to ride trains, similar to airport identity checks. The requirement concerns the high-speed Thalys and Eurostar services in Europe, with the vague goal of “tightening security and tracking criminals”. Activists said this would happen when useless security theater appeared in airports – it will just spread, but people dismissed the idea at the time as preposterous, probably because it still is.

=> ↺ Trump stresses cybersecurity but postpones executive order

• U.S. President Donald Trump called on government agencies to better protect their networks, but he delayed signing an executive order to kick-start a government-wide review of cybersecurity policy.

• A draft copy of the order, leaked earlier, would give the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security 60 days to submit a list of recommendations to protect U.S. government and private networks.

• Trump had been scheduled to sign the executive order Tuesday but canceled shortly before it was due to happen.

• Instead of signing the executive order, Trump told reporters he’ll hold cabinet secretaries and agency heads “totally accountable” for the security of their networks. US. agencies “certainly” don’t have as much cybersecurity protections as they need, he said during a short briefing Tuesday.

=> ↺ Trump Orders The Cyber To Be Fixed In The Next Sixty Days

• No one likes it when a new boss takes over the office and starts acting like the entire operation can be turned around in a matter of days, if not hours. A “can do” spirit is overrated, especially when it’s possessed by someone who knows almost nothing about the day-to-day business or, indeed, anything about this sort of business in general.

• But that’s what we have going on here. Within days of taking over the job, the new President has unleashed multiple orders and directives to FIX EVERYTHING… with details to follow sometime between “shortly” and “never.” The plan to “make America great again” involves:

• Telling Americans you’re going to “fix” all of these things. Telling government agencies and officials that they’re going to fix all these things Right now ????

=> ↺ Why Are People Afraid Of Bannon’s Connections To The NSA?

• On Saturday, President Trump reshuffled the National Security Council to include his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, as a member, in one of three executive actions he took that day that sparked controversy. Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, is now a permanent member of the “principals committee” of the NSC, while the director of national intelligence and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will only attend meetings if the “issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.” The shake-up has elevated Bannon’s position even further, and his new role — which is leaving people worried over how he might be able to impact the National Security Agency — has been much discussed in the media. So, why are people afraid of Bannon’s NSA connections?

=> ↺ Not Only Is Steve Bannon Sitting In On National Security Meetings, The Usual Paper Trail Is Disappearing

=> ↺ National Security Council Changes Are Very Significant, Hayden Says

=> ↺ Editorial: When a president knows nothing, others creep in

=> ↺ Veterans of the NSA’s psychic wars

• Last week, we looked at the early days of the CIA’s foray into extrasensory espionage. Today we’ll be following up with the veterans of the NSA’s psychic wars, which they foresaw being waged well into the ’90s and beyond.

• The NSA document, dated from early 1981, calls for a number of steps to be taken, including identifying the potential for mind control.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ White Supremacist Richard Spencer Hails Trump’s ‘de-Judaification’ of Holocaust

• For Richard Spencer, the leading ideologue of the so-called “alt-right,” Donald Trump’s Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that failed to mention Jews or anti-Semitism was an important, perhaps revolutionary, step.

• Spencer dubbed it the “de-Judaification” of the Holocaust.

• [...]

• The Holocaust, in Spencer’s eyes, has become a sort of moral bludgeon — used against white nationalists like himself.

• “We can’t limit immigration, because Hitler. We can’t can’t be proud of ourselves as a Europeans, because Holocaust. White people can be Christian, but not too Christian, because Auschwitz,” he wrote.

=> ↺ Twitter Activist Security

• Many people are starting to get politically active in ways they fear might have negative repercussions for their job, career or life. It is important to realise that these fears are real, but that public overt resistance is critical for political legitimacy. This guide hopes to help reduce the personal risks to individuals while empowering their ability to act safely.

• I am not an activist, and I almost certainly don’t live in your country. These guidelines are generic with the hope that they will be useful for a larger number of people.

=> ↺ Jews in a small Texan city gave Muslims the keys to the synagogue after their mosque burnt down

• Jewish people in a small Texas city handed Muslim worshippers the keys to their synagogue after the town’s only mosque was destroyed in a fire.

• The Victoria Islamic Centre burned down on Saturday and had previously been burgled—the cause is being investigated by federal officials.

• But the town’s Muslim population will not be without a place to worship while their building is reconstructed, thanks to their Jewish neighbours.

=> ↺ FBI Routinely Hides Payments To Informants, Gives Them A Cut Of Asset Forfeiture Proceeds

• The Intercept has obtained another secret document — this one pertaining to the FBI’s confidential informant program. The sprawling web of so-called Confidential Human Sources (CHS) is examined in multiple posts at the site. (The document, unfortunately, consists of multiple photos of the source pages, so it won’t be embedded below.)

• In addition to things already known about the FBI’s aggressive pursuit of informants — including using the CBP to push incoming foreigners to act as informants by threatening to withhold travel privileges or approval of visa applications — there’s much, much more contained in the FBI’s guidelines.

• One of the interesting aspects is the government’s payment of informants. Considering the FBI has more than 15,000 informants in its network, there’s always the possibility evidence produced by CHSs could be challenged if it appears the FBI is using private individuals to bypass warrant requirements (with “private” searches) or otherwise routing around legal restrictions pertaining to its investigations.

=> ↺ Sir Nigel Rodley versus Donald Trump on torture

• It is perhaps a sign of our times that on the same day of Sir Nigel Rodley’s death, Donald Trump was discussing the use of waterboarding (a torture technique that involves strapping a person to a board and dousing his cloth-covered face with water to cause the sensation of drowning) as an interrogation technique, as well as torture more generally. “Do I feel [waterboarding] works? Absolutely, I feel it works.”

• Sir Nigel Rodley (1941-2017) spent his life trying to convince governments to respect the human right to be free from torture.

=> ↺ Billionaire Trump Adviser Peter Thiel Bought His New Zealand Citizenship, Documents Show

• In 2011, before Peter Thiel became a household name for his covert campaign against a free press or his loud support for Donald Trump, he was engaged in another covert plan: secretly securing citizenship in New Zealand, where according to a recent New Yorker article, he hopes to safely ride out the apocalypse. As part of his purchase, the new adviser to Trump’s “America First” administration swore an oath to Queen Elizabeth.

• [...]

• In his personal statement, Thiel was also sure to point out, as evidence of his philanthropy, “that I am a primary supporter of the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, non-profit group that promotes press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report news without fear of reprisals.” Just one year after typing those words, a legal campaign of fear and reprisal against the journalists and writers of the now-defunct Gawker Media began, years later revealed to have been bankrolled by Thiel (in full disclosure, I previously worked at Gawker Media during that time).

• On this basis, along with a few letters from members of the New Zealand business community (including a recipient of his money), the government recommended his application be approved on the strength of his business acumen, which it was in 2011.

• [...]

• Thiel’s current devotion to “Make America Great Again” seems to conflict not only with his pledge of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, but also with another portion of his personal statement: “I am happy to say categorically that I have found no other country that aligns more with my vision of the future than New Zealand.” Perhaps that vision of the future was one in which, sometime in the next four to eight years, an apocalyptic disaster has spread across the globe, and he and his fellow billionaires safely reside in armored bunkers. America First, indeed.

=> ↺ First They Came for the Immigrants–and NYT Said People Should Anonymously Inform on Them

• As Donald Trump issued an executive order intended to single out Muslims for immigration restrictions, many Americans searched their consciences for the right way to respond to this act of discrimination by their government. “First they came for the Communists/And I did not speak out/Because I was not a Communist,” begins the famous poem by Martin Niemoller. How can we avoid making the same mistake that the Germans made who failed to stand up against the first acts of repression by the Nazi regime?

=> ↺ ‘People Have the Right to Take to the Streets’

• A spontaneously organized rally in opposition to Trump’s proposed travel ban for people from Muslim-majority countries packed Washington Square Park here in New York January 25, just days after millions took part in women’s marches around the country, those coming the day after thousands demonstrated at Trump’s inauguration. As this administration proceeds, more and more people are feeling driven to show resistance in some visible way, including taking part in street protests, which makes the treatment of protesters by law enforcement and the courts—always critical—a front-burner concern.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Congress Prepares To Gut Net Neutrality With Bills Pretending To Save It

• As we’ve noted a few times, the Trump administration and new FCC boss Ajit Pai have made it abundantly clear net neutrality protections will be going the way of the dodo under their watch. Given the threat of activist backlash and the logistical complications of rolling back the rules via the FCC, neutrality opponents’ (like Pai) first step toward eliminating net neutrality will likely be to simply refuse to enforce them. From there, ISPs have been lobbying Congress to pass new laws that either hamstring regulatory authority, or pretend to protect net neutrality while actually doing the exact opposite.

• For example, the House last week quickly passed a trio of new bills that would not only allow Congress to roll back Obama-era regulations (including net neutrality) en masse, but would give Congress effective veto power over future regulations from a number of regulatory agencies (including the FDA, EPA, and FCC). But there’s also indications the GOP is cooking up a Communications Act rewrite with an eye toward weakening the FCC’s authority over industry giants like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T even further.

=> ↺ New York AG Sues Charter For Slow Broadband Speeds, Says Company ‘Ripping Off’ Users With Substandard Service

• For some time now, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has been taking broadband companies to task for advertising broadband speeds they consistently fail to deliver. Last year, Schneiderman’s office brought in Tim Wu, Columbia professor and the man who coined the term net neutrality, to help dig into the data. With Wu as the AG’s “senior lawyer and special adviser,” Schneiderman sent letters to NYC area broadband incumbents Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable — questioning whether they actually deliver the speeds they advertise.

DRM

=> ↺ RIP Denuvo: Resident Evil 7 Cracked In Five Days

• The Denuvo saga has been impressive on a couple of levels. The DRM software’s public cycle was notable first in that game-cracking groups, notorious for their confidence in their own abilities, initially sounded the alarm over Denuvo’s status as an anti-piracy unicorn that would never be broken and would lead to the end of software piracy. That happened in January of 2016. By August, Denuvo was being broken by other cracking groups. By the time winter rolled around, game developers, including developers of AAA titles, were pushing out quiet updates to games to remove Denuvo from their software entirely. Denuvo’s makers, meanwhile, spun this as a success story, suggesting that developers were chiefly using Denuvo to protect games during the initial release cycle and then removing it afterwards.

• But that thin thread of relevancy appears to have snapped, relegating Denuvo to the same scrap pile as every other form of DRM ever tried, now that a cracking group has successfully cracked a Denuvo-protected game in five days’ time.

Intellectual Monopolies

=> ↺ Do cake designs count as intellectual property?

• Cake hasn’t been controversial since the 1800s when French queen consort Marie Antoinette allegedly declared France’s poor, who had no bread, should eat brioche instead (in English: “let them eat cake”). But at US president Donald Trump’s inauguration celebrations on Jan. 20, cake became a matter of debate again.

=> ↺ A Case For Trade Enforcement: Colombia And Intellectual Property

=> ↺ Trump Advisor Pens Almost Totally Clueless Piece About ‘Intellectual Property Theft’

• I realize that there are much bigger issues at hand right now, but those of us who follow copyright, patent and trademark policy have been somewhat perplexed about what a Trump administration might do on that front. The issue was basically entirely ignored by Trump and his campaign during election season. And because of that, you now have lots of organizations on all sides of the debate pressing Trump to simply buy into their views of intellectual property, no matter how inane.

• However, I recently came across a piece at Business Insider, entitled “Why intellectual property theft is one of the biggest crimes threatening the US economy,” that was so clueless of the actual issues related to intellectual property, that I went to see who wrote it — only to discover that the author, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, was on Trump’s transition team (something that is not disclosed by Business Insider for unknown reasons). This does not bode well. The whole article is problematic and confused, so let’s dive in.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Digital Economy Bill Briefing to House of Lords Committee Stage

• Digital technology has transformed the way we live and opened up limitless new ways to communicate, connect, share and learn across the world. But for all the benefits, technological developments have created new threats to our human rights. We raise awareness of these threats and challenge them through public campaigns, legal actions, policy interventions and tech projects.

=> ↺ EU Adoption Of Marrakesh Treaty For Blind Readers Imminent After Years Of Delay?

• The European Parliament Legal Committee this week did not bother to further discuss the ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty on copyright exceptions for print disabled persons. Instead, Rapporteur Max Andersson declared that he favoured putting the file to a vote right away. Andersson told Intellectual Property Watch that the parliament would adopt the report in March or latest April.

=> ↺ Swedish Govt. Mulls Tougher Punishments to Tackle Pirate Sites

• Authorities in Sweden are mulling new measures to deal with evolving ‘pirate’ sites. As part of a legislative review, the government wants to assess potential legal tools, including categorizing large-scale infringement as organized crime, tougher sentences, domain seizures, and site-blocking.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

=> Techrights

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.