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● 12.05.17

● Links 5/12/2017: Qt 5.10.0 RC3, DragonFly 5.0.2 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 11:00 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Server

=> ↺ Linux – The Unbeatable Choice For Super Computers

• Supercomputers have always been the talk and if you keep yourself updated with that genre of information you must have definitely heard of the Sunway TaihuLight, the Chinese super-computing beast that has topped the charts on top500, a list of the top 500 supercomputers on the planet. Other names include Titan, IBM’s Sequoia and Tianhe. These are all supercomputers that have been on the top of the lists and guess what, they all run on Linux. Today most of the Supercomputers run Linux for speed and customisability and Linux has never failed to impress.

=> ↺ LXD Weekly Status #26

• Focus this week has been on infiniband support and more clustering related work with a number of bugfixes, cleanups and refactoring on the side.

• We’ve been doing some small tweaks and bugfixes on the LXD snap based on user feedback as more and more users are migrating to it. We’re also getting ready to push LXD 2.0.11 to a lot of our users, fixing a lot of bugs in the process and bringing some small usability tweaks too.

• The FOSDEM CFP is now closed and we’re reviewing the 45 proposals we received and carefully checking how we can fit those in the schedule. We expect to send notifications to potential speakers by the end of the week.

=> ↺ DevOps: Is It More Than Just A Name?

• The title of DevOps Engineer has consistently been gaining momentum for over five years. From the outside, it appeared it might be a corporate preference to call an individual a DevOps engineer as opposed to a System Administrator. It was thought they were virtually one and the same. As time has progressed, the nuances that differentiate the two have become apparent.

• DevOps’s existence is primarily the result of the cloud. Being able to automate a lot of the tasks done by a traditional System Administrator, the evolution of the DevOps role took shape. The previously known System Administrator was now being asked to collaborate with software development and product management to ensure efficiency in the process of releasing software.

=> ↺ CoreOS Tectonic 1.8 makes it easy to plug external services into Kubernetes

• CoreOS announced Tectonic 1.8, its latest update of the popular Kubernetes container orchestration tool. It features a new open services catalog that enables DevOps personnel to plug in external services into Kubernetes with ease.

• As Rob Szumski, Tectonic product manager at CoreOS pointed out in a company blog post announcing the new version, public clouds offer lots of benefits around ease of use, but they can end up locking you in, in some cases to a proprietary set of tools.

• This is precisely what the new Open Cloud Services catalog is designed to resolve. Instead of using those proprietary tools, you get more open choices and that should make it easier to move between clouds or a hybrid environment.

=> ↺ CoreOS adds open-source infrastructure services to its Tectonic Kubernetes platform

• Software container company CoreOS Inc. is updating its popular Tectonic platform, adding a number of open-source services that serve as alternatives to proprietary infrastructure components from public cloud companies.

• CoreOS’s Tectonic platform is essentially an enterprise-grade version of the Kubernetes container orchestration tool, which is used to manage clusters of software containers, which in turn allow applications to run on any computer platform. The company also offers the Container Linux operating system, and the Quay container registry service, which together serve as an alternative to the better-known container infrastructure offered by Docker Inc.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Linux Journal, Linux Mint 18.3, DuckDuckGo CLI, Unity Update, & Lots of Swag | This Week in Linux 16

• On this episode of This Week in Linux, we say goodbye to Linux Journal. We’ll revisit the idea of using search engines on the command line.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ AMD Raven Ridge APU Firmware Added To Linux-Firmware.Git

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 4.15 Gets a Slightly Bigger Second RC, Linus Torvalds Isn’t Worried

• The development cycle of the upcoming Linux 4.15 kernel continues with the second Release Candidate, which was announced this past weekend by Linus Torvalds.

• Linus Torvalds kicked off the development of Linux kernel 4.15 last week when he announced the first Release Candidate milestone, which contained most of the changes that will land in the final version, due for release next year. And now he announces the second RC, which is slightly bigger that than the first one.

Linux Foundation

=> ↺ LiFT Scholarship Winners: Teens and Academic Aces Learn Open Source Skills

• Four people have been named recipients of the seventh annual Linux Foundation Training (LiFT) Scholarships for 2017 in the “Academic Aces” and “Teens in Training” categories.

=> ↺ The OpenChain Project: From A to Community

• Communities form in open source all the time to address challenges. The majority of these communities are based around code, but others cover topics as diverse as design or governance. The OpenChain Project is a great example of the latter. What began three years ago as a conversation about reducing overlap, confusion, and wasted resources with respect to open source compliance is now poised to become an industry standard.

• The idea to develop an overarching standard to describe what organizations could and should do to address open source compliance efficiently gained momentum until the formal project was born. The basic idea was simple: identify key recommended processes for effective open source management. The goal was equally clear: reduce bottlenecks and risk when using third-party code to make open source license compliance simple and consistent across the supply chain. The key was to pull things together in a manner that balanced comprehensiveness, broad applicability, and real-world usability.

=> ↺ Grafana Labs to Join Cloud Native Computing Foundation to Share Expertise in Time Series Data Visualization

• Grafana Labs, the team behind Grafana – the leading open source data visualization software, has announced it has joined the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which sustains and integrates open source technologies such as Kubernetes and Prometheus.

=> ↺ Cloud Native Computing Foundation Announces JFrog as Gold Member

• The Cloud Native Computing Foundation® (CNCF®), which sustains and integrates open source technologies like Kubernetes® and Prometheus™, today announced that JFrog joined the Foundation as a Gold Member. A big proponent of open source and cloud native technologies, JFrog leverages technologies like Kubernetes to help its more than 4,000 customers build and release software in a fast, reliable, and secure manner.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Way-Cooler Is Still Around As An i3-Inspired Wayland Compositor Written In Rust

• When it comes to having an i3-compatible Wayland compositor, Sway manages to capture much of the limelight, but Way-Cooler continues to advance as an alternative compositor.

• I’ve covered the Way-Cooler compositor in the past but in 2017 haven’t had the opportunity to cover it, but over the weekend was delighted to hear that it’s still advancing. Way-Cooler is a i3-inspired tiling window manager for Wayland that offers Lua-based configuration — and to the excitement of some Phoronix readers — is written in the Rust programming language.

=> ↺ Many Vulkan Changes Hit Mesa 17.4-dev Git

• Jason Ekstrand of Intel has landed nearly 50 changes to the SPIR-V and Vulkan driver code in Mesa 17.4-dev Git.

=> ↺ Mesa 17.3-RC6 Released, Final Now Expected This Week

=> ↺ mesa 17.3.0-rc6

• The sixth release candidate for Mesa 17.3.0 is now available.

=> ↺ 2017 Has Been The First Year In A Decade Without A Major X.Org Server Update

• It’s been thirteen months since the release of X.Org Server 1.19 and there is no expedited effort to get the next major release out the door, but X.Org Server 1.20 is still expected to happen in the months ahead.

• Whether you want to argue it as Wayland beginning to take over the Linux desktop, X.Org Server becoming mature and modern enough that the six month release cadences are no longer warranted, or simply because Keith Packard hasn’t been too intimately involved with the xorg-server process now that his day job no longer involves X.Org and he’s been busy in his spare time with VR HMD improvements, the fact is this is the first time in a decade since going without an X.Org Server major release. There has been at least one X.Org Server release each year since the formation of the xorg-server code-base with v1.1 back in 2006, but that’s changed now in 2017.

Applications

=> ↺ darktable 2.4.0rc0 released

• we’re proud to announce the first release candidate for the upcoming 2.4 series of darktable, 2.4.0rc0!

• the github release is here: https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/releases/tag/release-2.4.0rc0.

• as always, please don’t use the autogenerated tarball provided by github, but only our tar.xz.

=> ↺ darktable 2.4 RAW Image Editor Promises Support for Fujifilm’s Compressed RAFs

• The developers of the darktable open-source and cross-platform RAW image editing software for GNU/Linux and macOS operating systems kicked off the development of the next major release, darktable 2.4.

• The biggest new features of the upcoming darktable 2.4 release is support for Microsoft Windows operating systems. That’s right, you can now finally install darktable on Windows OSes, though some features are still missing, such as printing support, and there are a few limitations like the need for special drivers for tethering support.

=> ↺ FAI.me build server improvements

• Only one week ago, I’ve announced the FAI.me build service for creating your own installation images.

=> ↺ Aptdaemon

• I am glad to announce aptdaemon: It is a DBus controlled and PolicyKit using package management daemon build on python-apt.

• If the above description reminds you of PackageKit you won’t be completely wrong. Aptdaemon reuses some design concepts and code from PackageKit. As the author of the PackageKit apt backend I run into some policy problems: PackageKit only allows non-interactive actions. So there is no support for debconf, CDROMs and configuration conflict handling. Nevertheless thanks to Richard Hughes for his efforts on making package management less of a pain.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Justmd – A Lightweight Cross-Platform Markdown Editor

• We have written on a couple of Markdown editors so far but not on this one, and I don’t think you have heard about it yet because it is pretty much a new project so read on.

• Justmd is a simple, lightweight, cross-platform, and electron-based application with a focus on creating and managing smart documents. Its best features include its live preview mode which comes along with synchronized scrolling as well as smart copying and pasting of images, words and HTML.

=> ↺ TeamViewer 13 Now Available For Linux As A Native 64-bit Port

• • The latest version of the TeamViewer remote control / desktop sharing / web conferencing software is now available for Linux with a number of improvements.

• TeamViewer 13 is now available for Linux, currently in preview form. Besides the iOS screen sharing with remote support, better file transfer abilities, and other key improvements, there are also a number of Linux-specific improvements too.

• This Linux build of TeamViewer 13 is now “native” for Linux in that it no longer depends upon Wine. TeamViewer 13 for Linux is also now a native 64-bit package without requiring 32-bit dependencies. Additionally, TeamViewer for Linux is now available in DEB and RPM package form.

=> ↺ Vivaldi Browser Now Available For Raspberry Pi And ARM Based Linux Hardware

• Raspberry Pi enthusiasts and those of you using ARM based Linux devices, may be interested to know that Vivaldi has this week released an experimental build of the Vivaldi browser which is now available to download for Linux on ARM devices, including the awesome Pi mini PC. In addition to the Windows, macOS and Linux (x86/x86-64), operating systems. The Vivaldi browser is now available for a range of ARM based Linux devices and is now supported by the Raspberry Pi Zero, Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 systems as well as CubieBoard, ASUS Tinker Board and more. Jon von Tetzchner, CEO at Vivaldi Technologies explains :

=> ↺ Vivaldi Web Browser Now Available For Linux ARM / Raspberry Pi

• Are you still using the Vivaldi web browser? If so, you can now use it on ARM devices like the Raspberry Pi.

• Vivaldi certainly hasn’t been generating the attention these days like it did when it was first released last year to much fanfare by former Opera users and developers. This Blink-powered browser is now available for Linux on ARM as the project’s latest news.

=> ↺ Vivaldi Web Browser Comes to the Raspberry Pi

=> ↺ Vivaldi launches browser for the Raspberry Pi

=> ↺ Vivaldi launches build for ARM-based Linux devices

=> ↺ Vivaldi browser now for ARM-based Linux devices

=> ↺ Vivaldi browser now available for Raspberry Pi and other ARM based Linux devices

=> ↺ Vivaldi now supports Linux on ARM chips, including Raspberry Pi 3

=> ↺ Vivaldi Browser Is Now Available for Raspberry Pi, Other ARM-Based Linux Devices

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Change Your Password on Raspberry Pi (Raspbian OS)

=> ↺ Using sudo to delegate permissions in Linux

=> ↺ 7 rules for avoiding documentation pitfalls

=> ↺ Install Signal Desktop to Archlinux

=> ↺ On using QubesOS MirageOS firewall

=> ↺ Improve your Bash scripts with Argbash

=> ↺ MariaDB administration commands for beginners

=> ↺ Password Protect APACHE Directory with Basic Authentication

=> ↺ Cloudforms provider creation via API

=> ↺ Install PHP 7.2 on CentOS, RHEL or Fedora

=> ↺ How to hide PHP 5/7 version when using Nginx

=> ↺ How to Run Multiple Commands on Multiple Linux Servers

=> ↺ How To Know What A Command Or Program Will Exactly Do Before Executing It

=> ↺ How to Upgrade Linux Mint 18, 18.1 or 18.2 to 18.3

=> ↺ Los Alamos Raspberry Pi Club Starting Up Thursday

=> ↺ When faster WiFi means unusable connection

=> ↺ Protecting Your Website From Application Layer DOS Attacks With mod_evasive

=> ↺ How to install keychain manager for ssh-agent on CentOS 6/7

=> ↺ 5 Tips to Improve Technical Writing for an International Audience

Games

=> ↺ Fast-paced 2D dungeon crawler ‘Wizard of Legend’ has a new trailer, releases next year

• Wizard of Legend [Official Site, Steam] is a very promising looking fast-paced 2D dungeon crawler I briefly mentioned last year, the new trailer is looking good. They’ve announced that they’ve teamed up with Humble Bundle to publish the game, although it seems they will only handle the console releases.

=> ↺ Top-down shooter ‘Geneshift’ updated to be more inviting to new players, plus more major changes

• Geneshift [Steam, Official Site], the reasonably good top-down shooter with vehicle action has been updated with a brand new menu to give a better first impression and more.

=> ↺ 2D horror game ‘Corpse Party’ is now officially available on Linux, after a short test period

• As we reported back in early November, the developer of the 2D horror Corpse Party [Steam] added a Linux version for testing.

• The developer said less than two weeks later that they had managed to solve some issues with it to release soon. Only another three weeks later and it’s now officially supported on Linux!

=> ↺ Stellaris is getting a ‘Humanoids Species Pack’ DLC this month, plus huge patch news

=> ↺ Open source game engine ‘OpenMW’ for Morrowind has been updated

• OpenMW [Official Site], the open source game engine for Morrowind has been updated again bringing in a few new features and plenty of bug fixes.

=> ↺ OpenMW 0.43 Continues Advancing Open-Source Morrowind For Linux

• OpenMW remains as the open-source game engine project re-implementing the code to power Elderscrolls III: Morrowind, the popular 2002 RPG game from Bethesda. OpenMW 0.43 is now available as the latest release.

• OpenMW 0.43 has implemented more engine functionality including rain/snow effects, AI improvements, new options, and implementing other previously missing features. There was also a lot of work on OpenMW-CS as the content development tool built by this open-source project.

=> ↺ 30 Best Linux Games On Steam You Should Play in 2017

• When it comes to Gaming, a system running on Windows platform is what anyone would recommend. It still is a superior choice for gamers with better graphics driver support and perfect hardware compatibility. But, what about the thought of gaming on a Linux system? Well, yes, of course – it is possible – maybe you thought of it at some point in time but the collection of Linux games on Steam for Linux platform wasn’t appealing at all few years back.

=> ↺ Cattails is a very sweet and relaxing game, here’s some thoughts

• Now that Cattails [Steam, Official Site], the animal simulation RPG is out in the wild I’ve managed to take a look, here’s some thoughts.

=> ↺ A lot later than expected, but the open-world pirate RPG ‘Tempest’ is now in Beta for Linux

• I covered Tempest [Steam, Official Site] a couple times in the past, with the developer saying last year it would come to Linux. This open-world pirate RPG is now here with a Beta.

=> ↺ ATOM RPG is a rough, but promising Early Access post-apocalyptic RPG

• I’ve now spent some time with the recent Early Access release of ATOM RPG [Steam, Official Site], here are my thoughts on the experience.

=> ↺ The brutal FPS ‘Apocryph’ is planned for Linux, looks quite brilliant

• Are you a fan of old-school brutal FPS games? Apocryph [Steam] is shaping up quite nicely and it seems it will release for Linux.

=> ↺ I was recently a guest on the ‘Destination Linux’ show, check it out

• The folks behind Destination Linux invited me to join their show for an episode and it was a blast, take look.

=> ↺ Godlike village simulator ‘Rise to Ruins’ new development builds adds a new furry race

• Rise to Ruins [itch.io, Steam, Official Site] is a personal favourite of mine, a godlike village simulator that’s regularly updated and it’s getting better all the time. The latest development updates are big and introduce a new furry race.

=> ↺ Sci-fi horror ‘SOMA’ now has an easier mode to give a different experience

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Chakra GNU/Linux Users Get KDE Plasma 5.11.4 Desktop, KDE Applications 17.08.3

• Originally based on Arch Linux, Chakra GNU/Linux is a rolling Linux-based operating system built on top of the latest KDE software. Once Chakra GNU/Linux is installed on your personal computer, you will receive updates forever, without the need to download a new ISO snapshot and reinstall the entire OS.

• As of December 1, 2017, Chakra GNU/Linux users can update their installations to the latest KDE Plasma 5.11.4 desktop environment, as well as both KDE Applications 17.08.3 and KDE Frameworks 5.40.0 software suites. Under the hood, the distro is now powered by Linux kernel 4.13.11 or Linux kernel 4.4.93 LTS, and systemd 235.

=> ↺ Qt 5.10.0 RC3 out

• We have released Qt 5.10.0 RC3 today. Delta to RC2 as an attachment.

=> ↺ Qt 5.10 RC3 Released, Qt 5.10 Now Expected This Week

• Mesa 17.3 isn’t the only thing running behind schedule but also out today is Qt 5.10-RC3 after this tool-kit release failed to ship last month.

• Last week marked a late 5.10 release candidate but The Qt Company expressed hope in still shipping Qt 5.10.0 on 30 November.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Top 20 GNOME Extensions You Should Be Using Right Now

• The capacity of your GNOME desktop can be enhanced with extensions. Here is a list of the best GNOME extensions to save you the trouble of finding them on your own.

=> ↺ GNOME Boxes Makes It Easier to Test Drive Linux Distros

• The next major release of GNOME Boxes is able to download popular Linux (and BSD-based) operating systems directly inside the app itself.

• Boxes is free, open-source software. It can be used to access both remote and virtual systems as it is built around QEMU, KVM, and libvirt virtualisation technologies.

• For its new ISO-toting integration Boxes makes use of libosinfo, a database of operating systems that also provides details on any virtualized environment requirements.

=> ↺ Download and install operating systems directly in GNONE Boxes

• If you are closely following the development of GNOME Boxes, you probably have read Debarshi’s announcement of this new feature that allows you to download and install Red Hat Enterprise Linux gratis directly from Boxes.

=> ↺ ColorHug Plus Update

• I’ll update the website at some point this evening, I’m not sure whether to just post all this or remove the ColorHug+ page completely. Perhaps a sad announcement, but perhaps not one that’s too unexpected considering the lack of updates in the last few months. Sorry to disappoint everybody.

Distributions

New Releases

=> ↺ 4MLinux 23 Distro Gets First Point Release, Now Powered by Linux Kernel 4.9.61

• 4MLinux 23.1 is the latest version of the independently developed GNU/Linux distribution, and it’s a minor maintenance update that bumps the kernel packages to Linux 4.9.61 LTS and upgrades the components of the 4MLinux Server bundle to Apache 2.4.29, MariaDB 10.2.10, and PHP 7.0.25.

• “This is a minor (point) release in the 4MLinux STABLE channel, which comes with the Linux kernel 4.9.61. The 4MLinux Server now includes Apache 2.4.29, MariaDB 10.2.10, and PHP 7.0.25 (see this post for more details),” said Zbigniew Konojacki in the release announcement.

=> ↺ Security-Oriented Alpine Linux 3.7 Has UEFI Support, GRUB Support in Installer

• Alpine Linux 3.7.0 comes six months after the 3.6 series, which received only two maintenance updates during its release cycle, and it’s a major release that introduces support for UEFI machines, as well as support for the GRUB bootloader in the installer.

• Many of the distro’s core components have been updated to new versions, and Alpine Linux 3.7.0 ships with the Linux 4.9.65 LTS kernel, GCC 6.4 and LLVM 5.0 compilers, Rust 1.22 and Go 1.9 programming languages, as well as Node.js 8.9 LTS, Perl 5.26, and latest PostgreSQL 10 database engine.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva Family

=> ↺ The December 2017 Issue of the PCLinuxOS Magazine

• The PCLinuxOS Magazine staff is pleased to announce the release of the December 2017 issue. With the exception of a brief period in 2009, The PCLinuxOS Magazine has been published on a monthly basis since September, 2006. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is a product of the PCLinuxOS community, published by volunteers from the community.

Arch Family

=> ↺ Arch Linux 2017.12.01 Now Available to Download as the Last ISO Snapshot in 2017

• Arch Linux 2017.12.01 is out, and it’s the last ISO snapshot of the acclaimed GNU/Linux distribution to be released in 2017. Still powered by a kernel from the Linux 4.13 series, namely version 4.13.12, Arch Linux 2017.12.01 brings all the updates that have been released during the entire month of November 2017.

• While Arch Linux is already powered by the latest Linux 4.14 LTS kernel as of December 3, 2017, unfortunately, the last ISO snapshot of 2017 is using the Linux 4.13 kernel, which reached end of life last month. This means that you’ll still have to upgrade the kernel when installing the distro using the Arch Linux 2017.12.01 ISO image.

Slackware Family

=> ↺ Welcome slackware.nl

=> ↺ VLC 2.2.8

• Last week, Robby Workman alerted me to a new release of the VLC media player by the VideoLAN team. I must confess that I had stopped following the development of my (yes, still) favorite media player. Looking a bit more closely, not only have they released version 2.2.8 without informing the world on their homepage (where they are still offering downloads for the now deprecated 2.2.6) but there’s now also a git repository called “vlc-3.0-git” and even a “vlc-4.0-dev” which seems to have been split off the 3.0 branch. I assume this is an indication – finally – that there is life beyond vlc-2.2.x and a 3.0 release is actually a possibility.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ How Kubernetes Resource Classes Promise to Change the Landscape for New Workloads

• The Colin Powell rule states that you should make a decision when you have 40 percent to 70 percent of the information necessary to make the decision. With Linux container technology like Kubernetes evolving so quickly, it’s difficult for companies to feel like they have 40 percent of the information they need, let alone 70 percent.

• Customers often approach me and others at Red Hat to help them get beyond the 40 percent mark to make a decision about Red Hat OpenShift, which is based on Kubernetes.

Finance

=> ↺ A Head-to-head Comparison of Red Hat, Inc. (RHT) and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (MDRX)

=> ↺ Investor Focus: Spotting the Signals for Red Hat Inc (RHT)

=> ↺ Is a Near-Term Bullish Trend Developing for Red Hat Inc (RHT)?

=> ↺ Investor Focus: Spotting the Signals for Red Hat Inc (RHT)

=> ↺ Red Hat (RHT) PT Raised to $135 at KeyBanc After Speaking with Management

=> ↺ Volume Moving the Tape For Red Hat Inc (RHT)

=> ↺ Red Hat Inc. (RHT) Moves Lower on Volume Spike for December 04

=> ↺ 361 Capital LLC Acquires New Position in Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT)

=> ↺ Delve into today’s share market: Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)

=> ↺ Red Hat Inc. (RHT) Dips 3.95% for December 04

=> ↺ Red Hat Releases Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes to Empower Simple, Flexible Cloud-Native Development

=> ↺ Instana Announces AI Powered Health Management Of Kubernetes Orchestrated Applications

Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora 28 Looks To Improve The Initial Setup Process

• One of many improvements being planned for next year’s Fedora Workstation 28 release is to improve the initial setup process.

• In particular, Fedora developers are looking at eliminating some of the redundancies between the Anaconda installer and the initial setup process post-install.

Debian Family

Derivatives

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi: Hands on with Raspbian Stretch plus Debian Stretch Pi desktop for PC and Mac

• The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a new version of the Raspbian GNU/Linux operating system, based on the latest Debian GNU/Linux (Stretch), for all models of Raspberry Pi and for PC and Mac systems.

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Snaps & automatic updates prove popular with email client, Mailspring

• In the latest interview with a snap developer, we spoke to Ben Gotow who is the lead maintainer of Mailspring, a free, modern email client for Linux, Windows, and macOS. Originally started and open-sourced by Nylas in California, Ben took on the project earlier this year after Nylas changed course and stopped development. Mailspring has more than 10k active users on Linux, and will offer the snap as the preferred install method beginning from this week.

=> ↺ Canonical and Rancher Labs announce joint Kubernetes Cloud Native Platform offering

• Canonical, in partnership with Rancher Labs today announce a turn-key application delivery platform built on Ubuntu, Kubernetes, and Rancher 2.0.

• The new Cloud Native Platform will make it easy for users to deploy, manage, and operate containers on Kubernetes through a single workflow management portal from dev-and-test to production environments. Users leverage a rich application catalog of docker containers and helm charts, streamlining deployments and increasing developer velocity.

• Built on Canonical’s distribution of Kubernetes and Rancher 2.0, the Cloud Native Platform will simplify enterprise usage of Kubernetes with seamless user management, access control and cluster administration.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 18.04 – New Features, Release Date & More

• We’ve all been waiting for it – the new LTS release of Ubuntu – 18.04. Learn more about new features, the release dates, and more.

=> ↺ Using SmartDNS and VPN on Ubuntu

• Last month I wrote about the awesomeness of SmartDNS‘s DNS and VPN services. A lot has happened since then in the political arena. Not least of which is the fact that we have a new President; something that was unthinkable when I wrote the piece.

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Amazon spins Ubuntu-driven “AWS DeepLens” cam and an AWS-savvy Amazon FreeRTOS

• Amazon unveiled a 4MP machine learning camera with AWS hooks that runs Ubuntu on a Cherry Trail SoC. It also launched an Amazon version of FreeRTOS.

• Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) expanded its AWS cloud ecosystem with a Linux-powered deep learning camera and a FreeRTOS variant, both of which feature built-in connections to AWS and the related AWS IoT Core platforms. The 4-megapixel, HD-ready AWS DeepLens development camera for machine learning is available for $249 pre-order, with shipments expected in April. Billed as “the world’s first video camera optimized to run machine learning models and perform inference on the device,” the WiFi-enabled camera supports a newly announced Amazon SageMaker development framework for managing the machine learning model process.

=> ↺ You Can Now Have a Single ISO Image with the Essential Ubuntu 17.10 Flavors

• Meet Linux AIO Ubuntu 17.10, a unique and bootable ISO image that contains 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the official, untouched Ubuntu 17.10, Kubuntu 17.10, Xubuntu 17.10, Lubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu MATE 17.10, and Ubuntu Budgie 17.10 releases. The ISO also contains a memory test tool and a hardware detection utility.

• If you’re wondering what you can do with the Linux AIO Ubuntu 17.10 ISO image, let us tell you that it might come in handy when you want to showcase several Ubuntu flavors to your customers before they decide which want they want to install on their computers. This way, you’ll only carry a single USB stick with you, not six.

=> ↺ You can win cool prizes just for trying System76′s Ubuntu-based ‘Pop!_OS’ Linux distro!

• There is this stereotype that Linux is not conducive to creativity, and I want you to know it is totally false. True, some photographers, videographers, and other types of artists may opt for a Mac or Windows machine, but they can be just as creative with open source and Linux. Not to mention, if you are a maker, engineer, or other type of creator, Linux is probably your best option.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Google is making a computer vision kit for Raspberry Pi

• Google is offering a new way for Raspberry Pi tinkerers to use its AI tools. It just announced the AIY Vision Kit, which includes a new circuit board and computer vision software that buyers can pair with their own Raspberry Pi computer and camera. (There’s also a cute cardboard box included, along with some supplementary accessories.) The kit costs $44.99 and will ship through Micro Center on December 31st.

=> ↺ Google made a computer vision kit so your Raspberry Pi devices can see

• At Google I/O earlier this year, Google wasn’t shy about discussing technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning and how it is committed to integrating them into its products and services. So, it’s not surprising to see the company announce AIY Vision Kit. It includes a new circuit board and computer vision software that you can connect to your tiny, low-cost Raspberry Pi computer and camera.

=> ↺ Google introduces $45 AIY Vision Kit for DIY computer vision hardware projects

• Google is launching a new hardware and software kit aimed at developers and hackers who want to build products that incorporate computer vision… on a budget.

=> ↺ VC4CL: Bringing OpenCL To The Raspberry Pi

• VC4CL is a newer effort bringing OpenCL to the Broadcom VideoCore IV GPUs as found in the Raspberry Pi boards.

• VC4CL implements OpenCL 1.2 for the VideoCore 4 graphics processor albeit the embedded profile standard. This VC4CL implementation does support the OpenCL ICD concept for dealing nicely with most Linux systems.

=> ↺ Home and building automation carrier taps Raspberry Pi CM3

• Acme’s “CM3-Home” home automation carrier board for the RPi CM3 includes opto-isolated RS485, TP-Bus/KNX, and Light-Bus/DALI links, plus Grove support.

• Italy-based Acme Systems, which has launched several Linux-friendly COMs like the Atmel SAMA5 Acqua A5 and RoadRunner, has turned to the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 Lite (CM3) as the foundation for its new CM3-Home home automation carrier board. Designed for OEM market and installation within a DIN-rail switchboard, the CM3-Home is available in a consumer-oriented, 130-Euro ($154) Lite model and a more advanced, 330-Euro ($392) “Full” version that targets commercial building automation.

=> ↺ Project ZeroPhone: the ambitious DIY Raspberry Pi phone

• The growth of open hardware is undeniable and we’ve had high-profile smartphone projects appearing such as Purism’s security- and privacy-focused Librem 5 smartphone.

• The ZeroPhone project led by Arsenijs Picugins is no less ambitious but much less expensive. As we started this interview we noted, with some irony, his apologies for the intermittent mobile connection as he’s taking a break away from his home city of Riga to enjoy the countryside of neighbouring Lithuania.

• While you’ll be able to make calls and send SMS with Picugin’s ZeroPhone, it isn’t as cutting edge as Purism’s smartphone. Instead, it sits firmly in the middle of the makery and hacking spirit that powers the big budget open hardware projects.

Tizen

=> ↺ Limited Blue Porcelain Bezel For The Frame TV Launched

=> ↺ Samsung Gear Sport now available in Spain

Android

=> ↺ Android Oreo (Go Edition) Released For Low-powered Phones

• Android Go is Google’s low-end version of its mobile operating system, primarily created for emerging markets with low-data speed. This effort has also been accompanied by the development of apps like YouTube Go and Android Go. Now, the latest version of this Android has been shipped by Google in the form of “Android Oreo (Go Edition).”

=> ↺ 7 Best Android Keyboard Apps To Enhance Your Typing: 2017 Edition

=> ↺ Google releases “Android Go” to OEMs, along with a suite of low-end Google apps

=> ↺ This is the OnePlus 5T Star Wars edition

=> ↺ Samsung W2018 Android Flip Phone With Bixby Integration and F/1.5 Camera Lens Launched

=> ↺ Android Wear hardware boss bails

=> ↺ Chrome for Android will soon get HDR video support

=> ↺ Android will flag snooping apps that don’t warn users

=> ↺ Gift Guide: Best Android phones you can buy [December 2017]

=> ↺ VLC version 2.5 brings more Material Design UI, enhancements for Android Auto & TV

=> ↺ 5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week! — Android Apps Weekly

=> ↺ Google’s December security update brings KRACK fix and other security fixes

=> ↺ Target launches a mobile wallet in its Android and iOS apps

=> ↺ Google is fixing its disastrous burger and beer emoji today with Android 8.1 release

=> ↺ Google’s lightweight OS Android Go launches as Android Oreo (Go Edition)

=> ↺ Android Oreo Go launched to bring in more Internet users

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Moscow Government Open-Sources Blockchain Voting Tool

• The government of Moscow is pushing ahead with plans to test blockchain for use in local voting initiatives.

• Last year, officials from Moscow’s government told local media that they were looking into the technology in a bid to reduce the risk of fraud when people are voting on city management issues. The possible use would come as part of its “Active Citizen” e-government project, constituting one of several areas in which blockchain is being explored (including as a basis for a new land registry system).

• Now, according to a Dec. 4 statement, officials have developed a pilot system for tracking votes via blockchain, declaring that the tech would make its ongoing Active Citizen program “more open” according to a translated statement.

=> ↺ Orange OCast software goes Open Source release

• OCast is designed to allow viewers to use a smartphone to play videos on devices including TV set-top boxes, TV sticks or TVs and control playback of the video with commands such as pause, fast forward and rewind. With the software, users can browse and explore their content libraries via their preferred interface, either the screen on their smartphone or on their tablet. Moreover, it means that with a single application they can watch content on a mobile or tablet outside or on their TV at home. Beyond video, OCast can also play and control slideshows, playlists and web apps.

=> ↺ Orange looks to tempt rivals with open sourced TV software

• Orange is making software that turns smartphones into remote controls open source as it looks to make the technology available to other operators.

• The France-based operator’s OCast software can be added to set-top boxes to enable consumers to use a smartphone to play videos, control playback and browse content libraries on their TVs.

• It said the kit was now available without licence fees to operators and developers.

• Deutsche Telekom is already testing OCast, Orange said.

=> ↺ Applying Open Source Strategies to the Data Center

• The open source story is a story about the power of collaboration in spurring innovation. Beyond software, open source allows a tech organization to deliver the most efficient piece of technology in the most efficient way possible at the time. Using an open source methodology, harnessing the power of the ecosystem, lets us deliver innovation in real time. To be clear, when we talk about innovation in this context, we are talking about innovation in delivery, which means finding new ways to reduce cost, increase speed, and make the data center more adaptive.

=> ↺ This Interview Was Conducted on an Anonymous, DIY Cell Phone Network

• Most people in the United States—and increasingly, around the world—carry the most sophisticated surveillance devices ever created in their pockets day in and day out. Although smartphones have enabled governments and corporations to track our movements and monitor our conversations with unprecedented ease, these devices are also an incredibly useful personal tool and have become an indispensable part of modern life.

• It’s a crappy trade off, but evidently one that most of us seem OK with. But Denver Gingerich, a programmer based in New York City, doesn’t see why we can’t have our smartphones and our privacy, too.

=> ↺ Sopranica: Text And Call Using This Open Source Cellular Network For Complete Anonymity

• Even without the revelations made by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and others, it was known to many that different governments across the world had been long involved in the act of mass surveillance.

• To deal with this privacy trade-off, a New York-based programmer named Denver Gingerich has worked hard to develop an open source cellular network named Sopranica. This DIY network lets one make phone calls, communicate via texts, and browser the web. All this with total privacy and anonymity.

=> ↺ 3 ways university classrooms can be more open

• Institutions of higher education stress the importance of student autonomy in academic exploration—yet the typical configuration of university courses does not take full advantage of students’ potential to become actors in their education, rather than just receivers of it. To realize this potential and make university learning more inclusive of—and meaningful for—students, professors could learn a lesson from open organizations.

=> ↺ Bitnami Launches Open Source In-Cluster Kubernetes App Environment

• Packaged server application provider Bitnami released Kubeapps, an open source and free application deployment environment that allows enterprises to discover, launch, and manage pre-packaged Kubernetes-ready applications and developer tools from within their Kubernetes cluster.

• Bitnami has contributed to previous Kubernetes projects including Helm, a Kubernetes package manager; Monocular, a search and discovery front-end for Helm Chart repositories; and Kubeless, a configuring application that runs on Kubernetes. The new product builds on these contributions and provides a simple method of deploying applications in a Kubernetes environment.

=> ↺ Nudi 6.0 to be open source

• To bridge the gap between latest technology and Nudi, Kannada Ganaka Parishat (KGP) will release Nudi 6.0 as an open source software, making the source code public for the first time.

=> ↺ Orange announces the Open Source release of its OCast software technology

• OCast is a software technology that allows you to use a smartphone to play videos on devices including TV set-top boxes, TV Sticks or TVs and control playback of the video (pause, fast forward and rewind, for example). Beyond video, OCast can also play and control slideshows, playlists and web apps.

=> ↺ Orange makes OCast TV software open source

Events

=> ↺ LISA17 Event Report

• LISA is the annual vendor-neutral meeting place for the wider system administration community. The LISA17 program will address the overlap and differences between traditional and modern IT operations and engineering, and offers a highly curated program around three topics: architecture, culture, and engineering.

=> ↺ Khmer Translation Sprint Round 2

• After two years it was really time to organize another sprint to move on in Fedoras translation to khmer. I started to organize it back in September. Normally enought time to get it done, but like often here the communication chain was broken and I didnt hear back from the event place if we can do it. So I did hear as I did ask on which date we might delay it. So now the last things had to be organized in very short time. With the consequence also have to have only a short time to make marketing for the event. But the result was not that bad, we have in Cambodia anyway the problem that for a lot of people the Saturday is a normal working day. Especially students, who have during week a normal job, going on Saturday to university. Like Kuylim Tith, he could join us for translation only on sunday. But then he translated like two years ago, a lot.

=> ↺ Extraordinary Session 3.x for the #PeruRumboGSoC2018

=> ↺ Talking at Cubaconf 2017 in Havanna, Cuba

• My first talk was on PrivacyScore.org, a Web scanner for privacy and security issues. As I’ve indicated, the conference was a bit messily organised. The person before me was talking into my slot and then there was no cable to hook my laptop up with the projector. We ended up transferring my presentation to a different machine (via pen drives instead of some fancy distributed local p2p network) in order for me to give my presentation. And then I needed to rush through my content, because we were pressed for going for lunch in time. Gnah. But I think a few people were still able to grasp the concepts and make it useful for them. My argument was that Web pages load much faster if you don’t have to load as many trackers and other external content. Also, these people don’t get updates in time, so they might rather want to visit Web sites which generally seem to care about their security. I was actually approached by a guy running StreetNet, the local DIY Internet. His idea is to run PrivacyScore against their network to see what is going on and to improve some aspects. Exciting.

=> ↺ Fedora returns to HackMIT 2017

• Every year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hosts an annual hackathon, HackMIT, for students around the world. Students gathered again for HackMIT 2017 on the weekend of September 16-17, 2017. During the weekend, students form teams with other students and work on projects to compete in various categories. Participants often release their projects under open source licenses at the end of the hackathon.

• The Fedora Project participated as a sponsor for the second year in a row. Justin W. Flory and Mike DePaulo attended as Fedora Ambassadors to represent the project and the community.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Mozilla Quietly Adds Features From Tor Browser to Firefox

• In 2017, the developers at Mozilla have quietly added several features to Firefox that originated from the Tor Project’s Tor Browser. The new features come from the Tor Uplift project, which helps Mozilla integrate patches to Firefox that are used in the Tor Browser. The Tor Uplift project patches to Firefox help increase privacy and security, and the project has been helping improve Firefox since last year.

• Around 95% of the code in the Tor Browser itself comes from Mozilla, as it is based on Mozilla’s Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR). Mozilla, which earlier this month released Firefox version 57, known as Firefox Quantum, has most recently included a feature from the Tor Browser known as First Party Isolation.

=> ↺ Mozilla talks up speech-to-text application platform

• Mozilla is on a mission… and it’s a mission designed to ‘empower’ software application developers with tools to help create more STT apps.

• STT you say?

• Yes, that would be speech-to-text applications.

SaaS/Back End

=> ↺ Intel’s Clear Containers Leads To OpenStack Kata Containers

• Kata Containers is the latest tech in the container space and is an effort hosted by the OpenStack Foundation in conjunction with many participating organizations. The underlying tech for Kata Containers originated from the Intel / Clear Linux Clear Containers project.

• Clear Containers has been around since 2015 and like the Clear Linux distribution has been about delivering a performant Linux containers experience. But it’s not been just about raw speed but also security, to which Clear Containers beefed up their security by supporting Intel VT virtualization.

Pseudo-Open Source (Openwashing)

=> ↺ Monsanto and Boundless Collaborate for Open Source GIS Contributions

=> ↺ Facebook Open Source Initiative Supported by Tieto Expertise and Services

BSD

=> ↺ DragonFly 5.0.2 released

• DragonFly version 5 has been released, including the first bootable release of HAMMER2. Version 5.0.2, the current version, came out 2017/12/04.

=> ↺ DragonFlyBSD Now Supports Up To 64TB Of RAM

• DragonFlyBSD now supports up to 64TB of physical memory.

• Up to now DragonFlyBSD has supported up to about 32TB of physical memory but as of today that’s been bumped to now support up to 64TB.

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Open-source community stresses worries on new Copyright Directive in open letter to EU

• This week, more than 80 organisations involved in open source software wrote an open letter to the Council of the EU and the European Commission expressing their concerns on the new Copyright Directive as it is currently proposed. According to the signatories, Article 13 in particular will cause irreparable damage to their fundamental rights and freedoms, their economy and competitiveness, their education and research, their innovation and competition, their creativity and their culture.

• Article 13 obliges Internet service providers that store and provide public access to large amounts of works or other subject matter uploaded by their users to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rightholders. Where such agreements do not apply, service providers must prevent the availability of the rightholders’ intellectual property on the service. To that purpose, service providers should cooperate with rightholders and implement measures such as the use of effective content recognition technologies.

Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

=> ↺ IRNAS researchers 3D print ear-shaped vasculature using open source Vitaprint 3D bioprinter

• Researchers from the Symbiolab at the Institute IRNAS in Slovenia have marked a step forwards in their 3D bioprinting research. Using the Institute IRNAS’ open source Vitaprint bioprinter platform, the team has demonstrated its ability to bioprint “freeform perfusable vessel systems in biocompatible hydrogels.”

=> ↺ JDRF Initiative Aims to Speed Development of ‘Open Source’ Artificial Pancreas Systems

• For those watching from the outside, who have heard about the benefits that open-protocol closed-loop systems provide but feel intimidated by the technological skill that’s now required, JDRF’s involvement gives hope that these advances will become more mainstream. As Finan says, “Through observing where the community has gone over the past few years, it’s become unignorable that there’s value out there to be harnessed and to be spread out so more patients can use it. So we’re just trying to figure out a way that we can do that safely and with the most efficacy.”

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Western Digital Transitions to RISC-V Open-Source Architecture for Big Data, IoT

• RiSC-V, the open-source computer core architecture, will be getting a big push from Western Digital in the coming years as the company has pledged to transitioning its own consumption of processors to RISC-V. According to the company Western Digital ships over one billion cores per year, and plans to double that number. And if all goes according to plan, they will all be based on RISC-V.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Reflecting on Haskell in 2017

• Alas, another year has come and gone. It feels like just yesterday I was writing the last reflection blog post on my flight back to Boston for Christmas. I’ve spent most of the last year traveling and working in Europe, meeting a lot of new Haskellers and putting a lot of faces to names.

• Haskell has had a great year and 2017 was defined by vast quantities of new code, including 14,000 new Haskell projects on Github . The amount of writing this year was voluminous and my list of interesting work is eight times as large as last year. At least seven new companies came into existence and many existing firms unexpectedly dropped large open source Haskell projects into the public sphere. Driven by a lot of software catastrophes, the intersection of security, software correctness and formal methods have been become quite an active area of investment and research across both industry and academia. It’s really never been an easier and more exciting time to be programming professionally in the world’s most advanced (yet usable) statically typed language.

• Per what I guess is now a tradition, I will write my end of year retrospective on my highlights of what happened in the Haskell scene in retrospect.

=> ↺ C++17 Is Now Official

• The final standard of C++17 (formerly known as “C++1z”) is now official.

• The final standard of C++17 has been published as ISO/IEC 14882:2017 and has been published on ISO.org.

• C++17 introduces a number of new language features, support for UTF-8 character literals, inline variables, fold expressions, and more. On the C++ standard library side is parallel versions of the STL algorithms, a file-system library derived from Boost, and other additions.

=> ↺ easy gopher-lua bridge

=> ↺ Increasing the number of lights in Qt 3D

• While it is possible to draw scenes with almost unlimited numbers of lights using deferred rendering in Qt 3D, the default materials in Qt 3D Extras have been limited to eight lights because they are tied to forward rendering. Although we apply a few tricks that allow you to define more than eight lights in the scene, we only select the eight closest lights when rendering.

=> ↺ Qt Company offers 3D interface authoring system

• Emanating from its development bases in Helsinki, Finland and Santa Clara, California, Qt explains that its latest product is a 3D design and development tool for major industrial use cases.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ C++17 Final Standard Is Now Official

• Earlier this year in May, we told you that C++17 standard is now feature complete and expected to ship soon. Well, if you’ve been waiting for the same, that time has finally arrived as the official standard has been published on ISO.org.

Leftovers

=> ↺ How Two Guys and an Internet Forum Built a Kickass Computer

=> ↺ Apple Forces iPhone Retailers to Spend Millions on Replacing Windows with iOS

• Apple is known as a company that uses its power for all kinds of more or less controversial decisions in its relationship with partners across the world, and a new report from South Korea points to such an example that’s impacting telecom carriers.

• ET News writes that the country’s three largest carriers, namely SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus, are being required by Apple to make the switch to a new sales system for the iPhone that would essentially come down to replacing Windows PCs with iOS.

• Apple, however, isn’t just pushing for carriers to replace PCs with iPads to sell service plans and iPhones, but to actually spend their own money for this new system. The company wants this to happen as fast as possible because it aims the new sales system to be ready by the time it opens the flagship store in Seoul in early 2018.

Science

=> ↺ Artificial intelligence isn’t as clever as we think, but that doesn’t stop it being a threat

Hardware

=> ↺ HDMI 2.1 specs and features: Everything you need to know

• We should also point out that like 3860-by-2160-pixel video being marketed as 4K (an aspect ratio of 16:9), 7680-by-4320-pixel video will be marketed as 8K. As you can see below, 5K and 10K video are mathematically and grammatically correct.

Security

=> ↺ Barclays follows UK government in axing Kaspersky products

=> ↺ GCHQ: UK Govt Must Drop Russian AV for Secret Systems

=> ↺ Security updates for Monday

=> ↺ .NET-Based Ransomware Families Encrypt Users’ Files via Open Source Repositories

• Vortex and BUGWARE are both compiled in Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) and have been packed with the so called ‘Confuser’ packer.

=> ↺ A look at two ransomware strains using open source code

=> ↺ Researchers dissect open-source ransomware programs Bugware and Vortex

• In addition to leveraging open-source code, both cryptors are also compiled in Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) and packed with the Confuser packer, the cloud security company noted in a 1 December blog post.

=> ↺ Blockchains Are Poised to End the Password Era

• The massive password heists keeping coming, and one thing is certain: the way we prove our identities online is in need of a major upgrade. A growing chorus of technologists and entrepreneurs is convinced that the key to revolutionizing digital identity can be found in the same technology that runs cryptocurrencies.

=> ↺ Microsoft Breaks Down Windows Update on Windows 7, PCs Hit with Error 80248015

• A number of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 systems are experiencing a Windows Update error that prevents them from checking for updates for an unclear reason.

• Posts on the company’s Community forums seem to indicate that the bug first appeared on December 3 and it’s a server-side issue, which means that users might not have anything to do to have this fixed. Instead, Microsoft has remained tight-lipped on the actual cause of the bug, despite the growing number of posts on the said Community thread.

• Checking for updates on the impacted systems fails with error “Windows could not search for new updates,” with some saying that an additional message reading “Windows Update cannot currently check for updates because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer,” when they click the “Get help with this error” option in Windows Update.

=> ↺ Apple’s macOS 10.13.1 Update Brings Back Critical Root Vulnerability

=> ↺ Information Commissioner warns MPs over sharing passwords

• “We’re aware of reports that MPs share logins and passwords and are making enquiries of the relevant parliamentary authorities,” said a spokesman for the Information Commissioner.

=> ↺ Three Laptop Makers Are Disabling Intel ME

• For years now, security experts warned that Intel’s Management Engine (ME) is at risk of being exploited; ME allows administrators to remotely access a computer and is present within every Intel processor since 2008. Finally – after staying quiet during the period of concern – Intel last month admitted that ME is vulnerable to exploitation. As a result, PC makers are making moves to protect users from said vulnerability. Indeed, Dell, Purism, and Linux PC vendor System76 are all disabling Intel ME on their laptops.

=> ↺ ​Computer vendors start disabling Intel Management Engine

• Hidden inside your Intel-based computer is a mystery program called Management Engine (ME). It, along with Trusted Execution Engine (TXE) and Server Platform Services (SPS), can be used to remotely manage your computer. We know little about Intel ME, except it’s based on the Minix operating system and, oh yes, ME is very insecure. Because of this, three computers vendors — Linux-specific OEMs System76 and Purism and top-tier PC builder Dell — have decided to offer computers with disabled ME.

• These ME security holes impact millions of computers. ME supports Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT). This is a powerful tool that allows admins to remotely run computers, even when the device is not booted. Let me repeat that: If your PC has power, even if it’s not running, it can be attacked. If an attacker successfully exploits these holes, the attacker can run malware that’s totally invisible to the operating system.

=> ↺ Get These Laptops With Intel ME Chip Disabled From Dell, System76, And Purism

• Intel ME chip which recently became popular is giving sleepless nights to the security community and PC users around the world.

• Why? Because the vulnerabilities in the Management Engine chip, running a closed source variant of MINIX OS, can allow attackers to take complete control of a system without the users noticing.

=> ↺ WebGoat Teaches You To Fix Web Application Flaws In Real-time

• Good day, web developers! Today, we are going to discuss about a super useful application that teaches you web application security lessons. Say hello to WebGoat, a deliberately insecure web application developed by OWASP, with the intention of teaching how to fix common web application flaws in real-time with hands-on exercises. This application can be quite useful for those who wants to learn about application security and penetration testing techniques.

• A word of caution: WebGoat is PURELY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE. It turns your system extremely vulnerable to attackers. So, I insist you to use it in a virtual machine in your local area network. Don’t connect your testing machine to Internet. If you are using it in a production environment either intentionally or unknowingly, your company will definitely fire you. You have been warned!

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ The crisis in Honduras should matter to the U.S.

• A week after voting in a bitterly contested presidential election, Hondurans still don’t know who their next president will be. The front-runners — incumbent Juan Orlando Hernández and opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla — have claimed victory. According to the country’s election commission, Hernández has a narrow lead with most of the ballots counted. But there is substantial evidence of voter irregularities and fraud, which seemed only to occur after Nasralla had established a significant lead in the vote count.

=> ↺ The President of Honduras Is Deploying U.S.-Trained Forces Against Election Protesters

• HONDURAN PRESIDENT JUAN Orlando Hernández, using the specter of rampant crime and the drug trade, won extensive support from the American government to build up highly trained state security forces. Now, those same forces are repressing democracy.

• The post-election situation in Honduras continues to deteriorate as Hernández, a conservative leader and stalwart U.S. ally in Central America, has disputed the result of last week’s vote while working to crack down on protests sweeping the nation.

=> ↺ WaPo’s One-Sided Cheerleading for Coup and Intervention in Venezuela

• The only voices allowed in the Washington Post on the subject of Venezuela over the past year have been those calling for the overthrow or sanction of its government. A review of 15 opinion pieces featured in the Post shows voices even remotely sympathetic to the government of President Nicolás Maduro are omitted entirely. For the capitol’s paper of record, Venezuela joins the status of Adolf Hitler or ISIS: a settled evil without any nuance.

=> ↺ Apparent Election Theft in Honduras

• In 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton excused a coup in Honduras to stop a possible second term by a progressive president, but the U.S. now sits by as a right-wing president steals a second term, says Rick Sterling.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Court Orders Monitoring Of Dakota Access Pipeline After Keystone XL Spill

• A federal court ordered the United States Army Corps of Engineers and Dakota Access to participate in multiple measures to monitor the oil pipeline constructed on land which under the 1851 treaty belongs to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

• The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia invoked the recent spill of 210,000 gallons of oil from the Keystone XL pipeline in Marshall County, South Dakota, to justify the need for court monitoring.

Finance

=> ↺ Feds shut down allegedly fraudulent cryptocurrency offering

• The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday announced that it was taking action against an initial coin offering (ICO) that the SEC alleges is fraudulent. The announcement represents the first enforcement action by the SEC’s recently created cyber fraud unit.

• In recent months, the SEC has been wrestling with what to do about ICOs. US securities laws impose a number of requirements on anyone who offers new investments to the public. ICOs—in which a company offers the public cryptocurrencies that could appreciate in value the way Bitcoin has—look a lot like securities offerings. But most ICOs have ignored the SEC’s requirements.

=> ↺ Tax cuts could make it harder to fight the next recession

• By deepening the national debt at a time when the economy doesn’t need help, the tax overhaul threatens to leave Congress with less wiggle room to respond when recovery from the Great Recession eventually dies.

• Normally, presidents ask Congress to borrow vast sums of money to pay for tax cuts when the economy needs to be rescued from trouble. But President Trump is on the verge of enacting a $1.5 trillion tax plan with an economy enjoying its best growth in three years.

=> ↺ Asset management startups using blockchain get their own trade body: MAMA

• An international consortium of leading asset management companies, investors, technology and service providers in the Blockchain ecosystem have formed a new industry organisation (if you consider blockchain tech to be an industry…) to “work towards a new vision for asset management using blockchain and other supporting decentralized technologies.” In other words, the asset management industry — which reached $84.9 trillion in value in 2016 and is predicted to almost double to hit $145.4 trillion in 2025 — is about to be massively disrupted by blockchain technologies, and pioneers in this space are clubbing together to promote the tech and push for common standards.

• The Multichain Asset Management Association (or MAMA for short) was recently formed at the first annual M-0 conference in Zug, Switzerland. Initiated by Melonport AG, MME Legal Tax Compliance and Bussmann Advisory with the support of the Swistzerland-based Canton of Zug Economic Affairs, MAMA’s 22+ founding members will function as a trade body. Zug has become ‘ground zero’ for the nascent crypto industry because of its legal oversight over the new financial area.

=> ↺ No dissident thoughts allowed in Singapore

• After months of investigations, Singapore police finally dropped a bombshell at the end of November: social worker and activist Jolovan Wham would be charged for organizing public assemblies without a permit, vandalism and refusing to sign police statements.

• Wham, who has spent his career as a social worker fighting for the rights of low-wage migrant workers, has been investigated multiple times by the police for various events deemed to be “illegal” under Singapore’s restrictive Public Order Act.

=> ↺ The Winklevoss twins are now Bitcoin billionaires

• Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss won $65 million from the Facebook lawsuit, and invested $11 million of their payout into Bitcoin in 2013, amassing one of the largest portfolios of Bitcoin in the world — 1 percent of the entire currency’s dollar value equivalent, said the twins at the time. Their slice of the Bitcoin pie is now worth over $1 billion after Bitcoin surged past $10,000 last week to now trade at $11,100, according to CoinDesk.

=> ↺ Housebuilders issue Brexit plea as poll shows UK reliance on EU workers

• More than one in six people working on housebuilding sites across Britain come from other EU countries, rising to half of site workers in London, according to a new report.

• A survey of 37,000 housebuilding workers across Britain shows 17.7% are from the EU. More than half of those come from Romania, with 12% from Poland and almost 10% from Ireland.

• In London, where housing demand is at its most acute, some building skills are dominated by EU workers, with more than 70% of carpenters, 63% of demolition and groundworks workers, 61% of general labourers, 54% of plasterers, painters and decorators, 44% of bricklayers and nearly 40% of roofers hailing from other EU countries.

=> ↺ Apple agrees to pay over $15 billion to Ireland in back taxes

• According to a top Irish official, Apple has agreed to to pay Ireland around $15.4 billion in back taxes.

• “We have now reached agreement with Apple in relation to the principles and operation of the escrow fund,” Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told reporters before a meeting with European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, per Reuters.

• “We expect the money will begin to be transmitted into the account from Apple across the first quarter of next year.”

=> ↺ Ireland expects Apple back tax in escrow account in first quarter, 2018: minister

• Ireland expects iPhone maker Apple to start paying up to 13 billion euros ($15.4 billion) in back taxes into an escrow account in the first quarter of 2018, the finance minister said on Monday.

• [...]

• Both Dublin and Apple have challenged the EU order.

=> ↺ A brief history of Bitcoin hacks and frauds

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Feehery: End of objective reporting

=> ↺ George Papadopoulos’ late night with the FBI

• When former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos stepped off a flight from Germany at Dulles Airport outside Washington last July, he had no inkling of the unwelcome surprise in store for him: FBI agents waiting to place him under arrest.

• For the 29-year-old Chicago native, it was going to be a long night.

• Jail records obtained by POLITICO show Papadopoulos was booked in at the Alexandria (Va.) city detention center at 1:45 a.m. the following morning.

• Despite the late arrival at the jail and the fact that Papadopoulos later agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, his Chicago-based defense lawyers Thomas Breen and Rob Stanley said in an interview that the FBI did not attempt to interrogate him right away.

=> ↺ Mueller Subpoenas Trump Deutsche Bank Records

• Special prosecutor Robert Mueller zeroed in on President Donald Trump’s business dealings with Deutsche Bank AG as his investigation into alleged Russian meddling in U.S. elections widens.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Google to hire thousands of moderators after outcry over YouTube abuse videos

• Google, which owns YouTube, announced on Monday that next year it would expand its total workforce to more than 10,000 people responsible for reviewing content that could violate its policies. The news from YouTube’s CEO, Susan Wojcicki, followed a steady stream of negative press surrounding the site’s role in spreading harassing videos, misinformation, hate speech and content that is harmful to children.

=> ↺ Apple CEO backs China’s vision of an ‘open’ Internet as censorship reaches new heights

• Reading headlines from the World Internet Conference in China, the casual reader might have come away a little confused. China was opening its doors to the global Internet, some media outlets optimistically declared, while others said Beijing was defending its system of censorship and state control.

• And perhaps most confusing of all, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook stood up and celebrated China’s vision of an open Internet.

=> ↺ Defiant artists cry foul over censorship, vow not to be silenced

• A GROUP of young Malaysian and Indonesian artists say they will not back down on their right to express themselves after their works were censored and allegedly tampered with at a major arts exhibition in Kuala Lumpur recently.

• The artists from Pusat Sekitar Seni (PSS) withdrew its participation in the Kuala Lumpur Biennale 2017 exhibition at the National Art Gallery a day before its official opening on November 23 after they claimed the show’s curator informed them that several elements in their exhibit had to be taken down.

=> ↺ How Russia-gate Rationalizes Censorship

• The Russia-gate hysteria has spread beyond simply a strategy for neutralizing Donald Trump or even removing him from office into an excuse for stifling U.S. dissent that challenges the New Cold War, reports Joe Lauria.

=> ↺ Cloudflare’s CEO has a plan to never censor hate speech again

• Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince hated cutting off service to the infamous neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer in August. And he’s determined not to do it again.

• “I’m almost a free-speech absolutist.” Prince said at an event at the New America Foundation last Wednesday. But in a subsequent interview with Ars, Prince argued that in the case of the Daily Stormer, the company didn’t have much choice.

• Cloudflare runs a popular content delivery network that specializes in protecting clients from distributed denial-of-service attacks. The Daily Stormer published a post mocking a woman who was killed during the white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia in August. That had made a lot of people angry at the Daily Stormer, attracting massive attacks on the site.

=> ↺ Home Security Company Says No One Linking To Its Website Is Allowed To Disparage It

• This isn’t even legal in this day and age, but hiding it in a bunch of words users will likely never read is a great way to fly under the federal law radar. This, of course, only lasts until someone points it out on the internet and, while linking to ADT’s site, points out the clause is stupid, the company is stupid for deploying it, and the company’s lawyers are just as stupid for suggesting it/signing off on it.

• To be fair, ADT’s stupid non-disparagement clause isn’t part of the update scriptjunkie received. The moronic “promise” it extracts from site linkers dates back to at least 2014. It predates the federal law banning these clauses, which makes its pre-2016 existence somewhat explicable. But that doesn’t explain why it hasn’t been removed to make the Terms of Use federal law-compliant.

• Considering the amount of effort it would take (next to none) to remove this from the site’s Terms of Use, its continued existence is perplexing, especially in light of ADT’s repeated promise to remove the clause. At the time of this writing, more than 16 hours have passed since ADT promised to remove it and the clause still exists on the Terms of Use page. Even more perplexing is ADT’s explanation/apology, which is actually neither.

=> ↺ Angry, Threatening Lawyer Fails To Sue As Promised, Drops His SLAPP Suit

• A couple weeks back we wrote about the somewhat odd decision making of an angry lawyer named Jason Lee Van Dyke, whom we’d also written about years ago for some spectacularly bad lawyering. This year he’s also gotten really really pissed off at three (very different) people: Ken White, Asher Langton and Talib Kweli. The first two have appeared on Techdirt many times. Ken is a criminal defense and First Amendment lawyer. Asher has an astounding ability to sniff out frauds online. And Talib is a musical genius among other things. But, Van Dyke has spent months angrily lashing out about them on the internet (well, the lashing out at Kweli was more recent).

• When we last checked in on him, he was threatening to add those three individuals — plus the Huffington Post — to a fairly obvious SLAPP suit that he had already filed in Texas against an Ohio-based publication called the Mockingbird. Lots of people had pointed out that Texas has a fairly robust anti-SLAPP law, which could lead to Van Dyke having to pay up — and Van Dyke’s response (not atypical from his earlier responses) was to lash out and threaten more lawsuits and to promise violence if he was sanctioned.

=> ↺ Facebook and Apple praise China as Beijing introduces strict new censorship, data storage laws

• Top executives at Apple Inc and Facebook Inc managed to find something to praise Beijing for at an internet conference in China this week, even as its Communist Party rulers ban Western social media and stamp on online dissent.

• China’s World Internet Conference attracted the heads of Google and Apple for the first time to hear China vow to open up its internet – just as long as it can guard cyberspace in the same way it guards its borders.

=> ↺ Cook Kisses the Ring

• Tim Cook is desperate to hold onto any remaining scraps of the China market. That’s a boon for the country’s model for the internet, and the local players who dominate.

=> ↺ Tim Cook touts privacy, security at Chinese conference promoting internet censorship

=> ↺ The CEOs of Apple and Google spoke at a conference that critics say makes them ‘complicit actors in the Chinese censorship regime’

=> ↺ Apple CEO Tim Cook Brushes Off Senators, Taunts Activists On Chinese Censorship

=> ↺ Apple CEO Tim Cook Speaks at Chinese Internet Conference, Praises Partners’ ‘Vision’ for ‘Openness’

=> ↺ Apple’s Tim Cook says Developers Have Earned $17 Billion From China App Store

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ German Government Official Wants Backdoors In Every Device Connected To The Internet

• The US Department of Justice is reviving its anti-encryption arguments despite not being given any signals from the administration or Congress that undermining encryption is something either entity desires. The same thing is happening in Germany, with Interior Secretary Thomas de Maizière continuing an anti-encryption crusade very few German government officials seem interested in joining.

=> ↺ New Orleans Police Watchdog Warns of Dangers of Expanded Surveillance

• In a stern warning to the New Orleans City Council, the city’s top police watchdog has criticized a plan to expand surveillance without also expanding oversight. The Office of Independent Police Monitor (OIPM) warned that the city is on a path that may lead to abuse, racial discrimination, and fiscal waste.

=> ↺ Court Recognizes First Amendment Right to Anonymity Even After Speakers Lose Lawsuits

• Anonymous online speakers may be able to keep their identities secret even after they lose lawsuits brought against them, a federal appellate court ruled last week.

• The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Signature Management Team, LLC v. John Doe is a victory for online speakers because it recognized that the First Amendment’s protections for anonymous speech do not end once a party suing the anonymous speaker prevails. Instead, the court ruled that revealing anonymous speakers’ identities has far-reaching consequences that must be weighed against opposing parties’ and the general public’s rights to learn speakers’ names once they’ve been found to have violated the law. This is good news, because many vulnerable speakers will self-censor unless they have the ability to speak anonymously and thereby avoid retaliation for their whistleblowing or unpopular views.

• The ruling, however, is not all good news for anonymous speech. The test announced by the court sets unmasking as the default rule post-judgment, placing the burden on the anonymous party to argue against unmasking. Additionally, the court expanded the competing First Amendment right of access to judicial proceedings and records—which EFF strongly supports—to a novel right to learn the identity of an anonymous litigant—which we do not support.

=> ↺ Top EU Privacy Campaigner Says He Wants Lots Of Money For ‘None Of Your Business’

• In the long-term, it has even more ambitious plans. For example, widening the scope of the noyb organization from privacy to other digital rights such as net neutrality, or related consumer rights, and to set up national NGOs in countries that currently lack local initiatives. Of course, this all requires money. Noyb estimates that it needs a minimum of €250,000 in the start-up period of 2018, while the regular operating costs will be around €500,000 per year. It is hoping a combination of sponsorship and crowdfunding will provide those amounts.

• Raising money will probably be the organization’s biggest challenge. After all, Schrems has shown more than once that he can take on the biggest Internet companies and win. As with those victories, it’s important to note that the legal framework that noyb intends to use may be purely European, but the global nature of the Internet and the companies that serve it means the impacts of any successful legal actions are likely to be felt worldwide.

=> ↺ Nadine Dorries admits to unlawful data privacy in her offices

• Reacting to Nadine Dorries’ admission on Twitter that she routinely gives access to her personal Parliamentary accounts to interns, Jim Killock said:

• “On the face of it, Nadine Dorries is admitting to breaching basic data protection laws, making sure her constituents’ emails and correspondence is kept confidential and secure. She should not be sharing her log in with interns.

• “More worryingly, it appears this practices of MPs sharing their log ins may be rather widespread. If so, we need to know.

=> ↺ NSA, DOJ Still Aren’t Letting Defendants Know They’re Using Section 702 Evidence Against Them

• The NSA has never taken its evidentiary obligations seriously. The agency is supposed to inform the court and defendants if surveillance-derived evidence is being used against them. (And it’s actually supposed to hand over the evidence as well.)

• This just doesn’t happen. The NSA encourages parallel construction to obscure the true source of evidence used in court cases. The FBI’s access to Section 702 collections makes this much easier. It allows the FBI to present NSA evidence as its own, heading off any scrutiny of the NSA’s programs and collection methods.

• The NSA was always supposed to hand over this information. It’s been mandatory for years. But it doesn’t. After it was reported the NSA has misled none other than the Supreme Court of the United States about its fulfillment of evidentiary obligations, the agency briefly began complying with the law. It issued five notices in the span of a year (2013-2014) before going dark again.

=> ↺ Four Aadhaar linking deadlines you should not miss

=> ↺ Facebook launches a version of Messenger for young children

• Now Facebook is creating a pipeline for children to become regular users of its products, starting as young as six years old, by claiming to offer an alternative better than what it exists today.

=> ↺ You thought targeted Facebook ads were bad for privacy? Wait until you see cross-screen addressable ads…

• Addressable TV employs the same techniques that allowed Cambridge Analytica to target Facebook users with pinpoint precision. A company analyzes viewer data gathered from digital set-top boxes to build up a detailed profile of each household. It can then combine that information with data that it buys from other sources about people living at the address where the set-top box is located. Putting this all together, data analysis companies try to work out what kind of ads will work best for each household. Because the TV transmission is based on set-top boxes, it is then possible to send tailored ads to single households – what is called “one-to-one” advertising in the industry – rather than to everyone watching a broadcast, as in traditional TV advertising.

=> ↺ Contactless ticketing set to explode over next 5 years

• The number of mobile users adopting NFC ticketing will exceed 375 million by 2022, up from an estimated 122 million globally in 2017, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Flash mob by Muslim girls irks social media moral cops

• It seems three burqa clad girls who participated in a flash mob organised as part of the AIDS day awareness programme of health department in Malappuram, are latest victims of the ‘Moral police’ attack in social media platforms.

=> ↺ A Dubious Arrest, a Compromised Prosecutor, a Tainted Plea: How One Murder Case Exposes a Broken System

• The case of Demetrius Smith reads like a preposterous legal thriller: dubious arrests, two lying prostitutes, prosecutorial fouls and a judge who backpedaled out of a deal.

• It also delivers a primer on why defendants often agree to virtually inescapable plea deals for crimes they didn’t commit.

• ProPublica has spent the past year exploring wrongful convictions and the tools prosecutors use to avoid admitting mistakes, including an arcane deal known as an Alford plea that allows defendants to maintain their innocence while still pleading guilty. Earlier this year, we examined a dozen such cases in Baltimore.

=> ↺ Why America Fails at Gathering Hate Crime Statistics

• In the early hours of June 5, 2015, Gary Bravo was leaving Sammy T’s in downtown Huntsville, Alabama. The club was hosting a gay night because the last of the city’s few gay bars had closed and some downtown bars were picking up the slack.

• As Bravo walked out with two co-workers, they encountered a group of young men. One grabbed Bravo’s friend, and Bravo intervened. The next thing he remembers, someone spun him around, and he was on the ground being punched and kicked while his attackers shouted homophobic slurs. Faggot. Cocksucker.

• “A couple more hits and I would have ended up being brain dead,” he recalled.

=> ↺ Malta: Suspects Arrested over Murder of Anti-Corruption Journalist

• In Malta, police have arrested at least eight people in connection with the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who died in October when a powerful bomb planted in her car exploded near her home. Police will have 48 hours to question the suspects before either charging or releasing them. Galizia was known for her work exposing corruption, tax evasion and organized crime.

=> ↺ Sikh youth immolates self at Delhi railway station while passersby film incident

• A 20-something youth set himself afire at a railway station in Delhi, his charred body remained at the platform for over three hours- and all the passersby did was videotape the whole incident.

=> ↺ Are Rhode Island Police Implementing Illegal Traffic Ticket Quotas?

• Nobody likes getting pulled over by the police, but when even the police officers making the stops are doing it against their will, something is seriously wrong.

• Welcome to the world of traffic ticket quotas.

• Before Thanksgiving, amid news reports that some police departments in the state were requiring, or strongly recommending, that their officers issue a certain number of traffic tickets each time they were on patrol, the ACLU of Rhode Island warned departments that they faced legal action if they continued the practice. Rhode Island is one of a number of states that has a statute prohibiting law enforcement from implementing ticket quotas as well as arrest quotas.

=> ↺ Judge Hands Back $92,000 Taken From Musician By Cops For Failing To Buckle His Seatbelt

• With all apologies to Parhamovich — who got screwed by the civil asset forfeiture system — Wyoming law enforcement couldn’t have asked for a better mark to come passing through their state. Parhamovich disavowed ownership of the money and signed a waiver stating the same thing. That’s a perfect storm of complicity.

• But while we’re still being fair, most Americans aren’t aware law enforcement officers regularly engage in pretextual traffic stops for the sole purpose of warrantless searches and seizures. According to the musician, the cops made it sound like cash was just another form of illegal contraband.

=> ↺ Security Researcher Held In Jail For 8 Months Because He Wrote An Angry Blog Post, Released For Now

• Over the past month or so we’ve written a few times about security research Justin Shafer. As you may recall, he first came to our attention, when the Justice Department decided to subpoena the identities of five Twitter users because Shafer had tweeted a smiley emoji at them. No, really. I’m not exaggerating. That’s literally what happened. Shafer saw some Twitter users discussing a case totally unrelated to his own, tweeted an emoji, and the DOJ is demanding the identity of those he tweeted the emoji at.

• [...]

• Of course, immediately after that it also talks about how he can use a computer, but all usage will be monitored. It’s a bit confusing, but it appears that he can use his own computer in very limited ways, if it has monitoring software, but cannot use other computers. And he’s barred from social media (Facebook, Twitter). He’s allowed to blog, if the blog posts “comply” with the rest of the release conditions — including not “providing identifying information” on the people he’s accused of “cyber stalking” or encouraging or inviting “others to contact or harass such persons.” And, generally speaking, it’s probably a good idea for him to refrain from such activity whether or not it was a condition of getting freed.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Democrat asks why FCC is hiding ISPs’ answers to net neutrality complaints

• With a vote to eliminate net neutrality rules scheduled for December 14, the Federal Communications Commission apparently still hasn’t released thousands of documents containing the responses ISPs made to net neutrality complaints.

• The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request in May of this year for tens of thousands of net neutrality complaints that Internet users filed against their ISPs and for the ISPs’ responses to those complaints. The FCC initially stalled in releasing all of the complaints, saying it would be too “burdensome” for FCC staff. The commission eventually complied with some portions of the request and released more than 60,000 pages worth of consumer complaints.

=> ↺ New York AG Provides Tool To Help You Check If Your Name Was Used To Support Killing Net Neutrality

• So we’ve noted several times now how the FCC’s open comment period for its Orwell-inspired “Restoring Internet Freedom” net neutrality proceeding was simply awash in all manner of fraud. From bots that filled the comment proceeding with bogus support from fake or even dead people, to fake DDoS attacks intended to downplay the wash of angry users that flooded to the agency’s website in protest. All of this stuff is more than likely to pop up in the inevitable lawsuits that are filed in the new year after the net neutrality repeal formally hits the federal register.

=> ↺ Ajit Pai Attacked Hollywood & Silicon Valley Because Even Republicans Are Against His Net Neutrality Plan

• We were mystified last week when FCC chair Ajit Pai decided to attack both Hollywood and Silicon Valley because some (not all) people in both communities have spoken out against his plans to gut net neutrality. The attacks were weird on multiple levels. Regarding Hollywood, the comments were strangely personal — picking out a list of entertainers, often taking their comments out of context, and attacking them in very personal ways. It was, to say the least, unbecoming of an FCC chair to directly pick on entertainers for voicing their opinions. The attacks on Silicon Valley were… even stranger. First, he claimed that the demand to keep net neutrality was really a ploy by the largest internet companies (i.e. Google & Facebook) to keep their dominant position. But that ignores the fact that without net neutrality, they’re well positioned to further entrench their position. More importantly, it totally ignores the fact that neither Google nor Facebook have been strong advocates of net neutrality (and, in many cases, have pushed back against net neutrality).

=> ↺ FCC won’t delay vote, says net neutrality supporters are “desperate”

• The Federal Communications Commission will move ahead with its vote to kill net neutrality rules next week despite an unresolved court case that could strip away even more consumer protections.

• FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says that net neutrality rules aren’t needed because the Federal Trade Commission can protect consumers from broadband providers. But a pending court case involving AT&T could strip the FTC of its regulatory authority over AT&T and similar ISPs.

• A few dozen consumer advocacy groups and the City of New York urged Pai to delay the net neutrality-killing vote in a letter today. If the FCC eliminates its rules and the court case goes AT&T’s way, there would be a “‘regulatory gap’ that would leave consumers utterly unprotected,” the letter said.

=> ↺ The F.C.C. Wants to Let Telecoms Cash In on the Internet

• The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission wants to let Comcast, Verizon and other broadband companies turn the internet into a latter-day version of cable TV, in which they decide what customers can watch and how much they pay for that content.

=> ↺ Charter brags about big speed boost—after saying Title II stalled investment

• Charter Communications is really excited to tell you about all its new broadband network investments.

• “Increasing Flagship Broadband Speeds; Giving Customers More For Less,” is the title of the company’s latest announcement on this topic. The second-largest cable company in the US has increased its standard download speed from 60Mbps to 100Mbps—”at no extra cost to our customers”—while providing speeds of 200Mbps or 1Gbps in some markets. Gigabit service is available in “Oahu, Hawaii with additional markets to be launched in the weeks ahead,” Charter said.

DRM

=> ↺ Suppressing The Concerns Over HDCP Content Protection For Intel’s Linux DRM Driver

• Last week I wrote about a Google engineer working on HDCP content protection support for Intel’s Direct Rendering Manager driver on Linux that is also obviously open-source. Understandably, that raised concerns by free software purists not wanting to potentially lock-down their system in any manner to playback protected content on their systems.

• HDCP / content protection / Digital Rights Management remains a very polarized topic for Linux users as can be seen by looking at the 65+ comments to last week’s article about the Intel i915 Direct Rendering Manager driver bits for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection.

• One user and developer concerned about the possibility of HDCP restricting their rights had inquired on the Intel graphics mailing list. He was seeking to have a Kconfig switch for this HDCP code so it wouldn’t even be compiled into their distribution’s kernel.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ ResearchGate CEO denies scraping accounts from rival site to generate sign-ups

• Ijad Madisch, co-founder and CEO of ResearchGate – the so-called Facebook for scientists – shot down an accusation about a questionable way it may have acquired users in the past. The question was raised by a panel moderator, TechCrunch’s Mike Butcher, at the Disrupt Berlin 2017 conference this morning.

• According to Butcher’s multiple sources, ResearchGate had scraped rival Academia.edu in order to spam their users in an effort to get them to sign up to ResearchGate.

=> ↺ Why is it so difficult to the make the case against counterfeiting (or does it just seem so)?

• Moral arguments, equating counterfeiting with stealing, do not seem to go very far with swathes of certain populations (have you had a talk about counterfeiting with a millennial lately?). Criminalizing counterfeiting, and the penal sanctions that go with it, may carry some weight, especially against the middlemen who import and then distribute the counterfeit goods. But the criminal sanction reaches only a small number of offenders. So what strategic measures are left? The United States Chamber of Commerce has chosen to appeal to consumer self-interest, as witnessed in a recent piece written by Kasie Brill, executive director of the Global Brand Council for the U.S. Chamber’s Global Innovation Property Center (GIPC) (“Count Out Counterfeits this Holiday Season: Top Ten Tips to #ShopSafe “).

=> ↺ Coalition Against Piracy Wants Singapore to Block Streaming Piracy Software

• The recently-formed Coalition Against Piracy, which counts Disney, Fox, Sony, HBO, NBCUniversal, BBC Worldwide and the Premier League among its members, is demanding greater action against illicit streaming. The powerful group has called on the government in Singapore to not only block ‘pirate’ streaming software but also unlicensed streams from entering the country.

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