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● 03.14.18

● Links 14/3/2018: IPFire 2.19 – Core Update 119, Tails 3.6

Posted in News Roundup at 6:17 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Airbus ditches Microsoft, flies off to Google

• The “decision that will shape our company” was confirmed by Airbus CEO Tom Enders in a memo to staff – seen by The Register – who said the business is gearing up for the next phase of “digital transformation”.

• “We need technology that actively supports our new ways of working, modern digital tools that allow us to be fully collaborative, to work across our many different team, across border and time zones – to truly be one.”

• With this in mind, “Airbus has decided to take a major transformative step by moving from the Microsoft Office environment to Google Suite,” Enders said.

• “Choosing G-Suite is a strategic choice, a clean break with the past while assuring business continuity. Let’s embark together on this journey towards a truly collaborative enterprise,” he said.

• For anyone living under a rock for years, G-Suite is a line of web-based computing, productivity and collaboration tools that were initially launched under the Google Apps for Your Domain brand in 2006.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Intel Open-Sources Sound Firmware, Pushing For More Open Firmware

• Imad Sousou, Intel’s GM of the Open-Source Technology Center, had some interesting remarks to make during his keynote today as part of this week’s Embedded Linux Conference in Portland.

• First up, they have two new open-source project announcements: ACRN and Sound Open Firmware (SOF).

• Sound Open Firmware has us most excited with Intel’s focus now on opening up more of their firmware, beginning with audio. Sound Open Firmware includes an open-source audio DSP firmware and SDK. The SOF stack works on all Intel hardware platforms and can assist in debugging audio/DSP issues.

Linux Foundation

=> ↺ SDN Trends: The Business Benefits and Emerging SD-WAN Technology

=> ↺ Speak at Automotive Linux Summit & OS Summit Japan — 4 Days Left to Submit a Proposal

• Automotive Linux Summit (ALS) connects the developers, vendors, and users driving innovation in Automotive Linux. Co-located with Open Source Summit Japan, ALS will gather over 1,000 attendees from global companies leading and accelerating the development and adoption of a fully open software stack for the connected vehicle.

=> ↺ The Linux Foundation Welcomes Sound Open Firmware Project

• The Linux Foundation announced today that Sound Open Firmware (SOF) has become a Linux Foundation project. With significant engineering and code contributions from Intel® Corporation, SOF includes a digital signal processing (DSP) firmware and an SDK that together provide infrastructure and development tools for developers working on audio or signal processing. Intel and Google support SOF and invite others to join them in advancing the project.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ A Primer on Nvidia-Docker — Where Containers Meet GPUs

• GPUs are critical for training deep learning models and neural networks. Though it may not be needed for simple models based on linear regression and logistic regression, complex models designed around convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks heavily rely on GPUs. Especially computer vision-related models based on frameworks such as Caffe2 and TensorFlow have a dependency on GPU.

• In supervised machine learning, a set of features and labels are used to train a model. Deep learning algorithms don’t even need explicit features to evolve trained models. They pretty much “learn” from existing datasets designated for training, testing, and evaluation.

Applications

=> ↺ AMP – A Vi/Vim Inspired Text Editor for Linux Terminal

• Amp is a lightweight, fully-featured Vi/Vim inspired text editor for your Linux terminal, written in Rust. It provides the core interaction model of Vi/Vim in a simplified way, and puts together the fundamental features required for a modern text editor.

• It is a zero-configuration, no-plugins and terminal-based user interface that combines extremely well with terminal emulators such as tmux and Alacritty. Amp also supports a modal, keyboard-driven interface inspired by Vim that makes navigating and editing text fast.

=> ↺ GCompris Qt 0.90

=> ↺ Terminus – A Web Technology Based Modern Terminal

• Terminus is a cross-platform, open source, web technology based Terminal for modern age. It is heavily inspired from Hyper, a beautiful terminal built on web technologies. Unlike the traditional terminals, Terminus ships with some cool features by default. It is fully customizable with multiple app themes and color schemes for the terminal. We can spawn or hide Terminus using a global hotkey. It keeps the current directory in all newly opened tabs. You can also extend the functionality of Terminus by installing plugins.

=> ↺ PyCharm – Python IDE Full Review

• Pycharm is a Python Integrated Development Environment for Professional Developers and also anyone who can code in python or even learning how to code in python. There are two versions, a paid professional version or a community edition which is free for use. Though not all features in the professional version are included in the community edition. Alright, let’s dig into it.

=> ↺ Rcpp 0.12.16: A small update

=> ↺ Here’s curl 7.59.0

• We ship curl 7.59.0 exactly 49 days since the previous release (a week shorter than planned because of reasons).

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 Beta From Ubuntu 17.10

=> ↺ How to Show Installed Package Size on Ubuntu/Debian

=> ↺ Install GoAccess Apache Log Analyzer Tool on Ubuntu 16.04

=> ↺ What is a KJAR?

=> ↺ Harden your JBoss EAP 7.1 Deployments with the Java Security Manager

=> ↺ Introduction to Eclipse Vert.x – My First Vert.x Application

=> ↺ Harden your JBoss EAP 7.1 Deployments with the Java Security Manager

=> ↺ Replacing a lost Yubikey

=> ↺ Multiversion Testing With Tox

=> ↺ Test drive of AppSwitch, the “network stack from the future”

=> ↺ Protecting Code Integrity with PGP — Part 5: Moving Subkeys to a Hardware Device

=> ↺ How to measure particulate matter with a Raspberry Pi

=> ↺ Install and configure Roundcube Webmail

=> ↺ How to Clear Package Cache in Arch Linux

=> ↺ Gentoo Linux: A work-around to be able to Resume from Suspend to RAM when using the NVIDIA closed-source driver

=> ↺ Latency in Digital Audio

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ Citra, the work in progress Nintendo 3DS emulator now has a much improved OpenGL renderer

• For those who love emulation, you might want to know about Citra [Official Site], a work in progress Nintendo 3DS emulator that we’ve never written about here before. It seems they’ve been hard at work too!

• Unlike the Dolphin emulator for the GameCube and the Wii, Citra is not currently moving towards Vulkan. Instead, they’ve poured a lot of work into their current OpenGL renderer to improve performance and fix rendering issues and from what they’ve shown, it’s getting quite impressive.

Games

=> ↺ Life is Strange: Before the Storm Is Coming to Linux and Mac This Spring

• UK-based video games publisher Feral Interactive announced today that it would port the standalone adventure story Life is Strange: Before the Storm to the Linux and macOS platforms this spring.

• Feral Interactive already brought Linux gamers the episodic graphic adventure video game Life Is Strange developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix, and they now plan to bring the new, three-part standalone story Life is Strange: Before the Storm, which is developed by Deck Nine.

=> ↺ Life is Strange: Before the Storm is officially coming to Linux, port from Feral Interactive

• Life is Strange: Before the Storm [Steam], the standalone story adventure set three years before the original is officially heading to Linux! Feral Interactive have today announced that it will arrive sometime this Spring.

• Feral Interactive ported the original Life is Strange episodes to Linux, so I’m not surprised they’re teaming up again to bring Before the Storm to Linux. I think they did a very good job of the port before and I certainly enjoyed it a lot. Life is Strange: Before the Storm – Deluxe Edition for Linux will include all three episodes along with the bonus episode, “Farewell”.

=> ↺ Feral Bringing Life is Strange: Before the Storm To Linux

• hile still working on A Total War Saga: THRONES OF BRITANNIA and Rise of The Tomb Raider to Linux this spring, Feral Interactive has now confirmed another port coming to Linux (and macOS).

• This spring Feral will also be delivering Life is Strange: Before the Storm to Linux and macOS. This adventure story game is being ported to Linux/macOS by Feral while they haven’t yet announced the system requirements nor confirming yet if it will be an OpenGL or Vulkan port.

=> ↺ Unreal Engine 4.19 Brings Resonance Audio, AR Improvements & Better Landscape Rendering

• As a nice Pi Day surprise and a week ahead of the Game Developers’ Conference (GDC 18) is a new Unreal Engine 4 release from Epic Games.

• Unreal Engine 4.19 has over one hundred improvements compared to UE 4.18 and a wealth of fixes. Among the highlights of Unreal Engine 4.19 include temporal upsampling support, a unified AR framework, physical light units, sequencer improvements, HTC VIVE Pro VR headset support, landscape rendering optimizations, an experimental proxy LOD system, experimental material layering support, and more.

=> ↺ Slime Rancher’s big Mochi’s Megabucks update is out, fixes Linux blackscreen issues

• Slime Rancher [GOG, Steam], the game about running around sucking up cute (and some not so cute) slimes and running a farm is easily one of the sweetest games available on Linux and the Mochi’s Megabucks update is rather good.

• Firstly, you no longer need to tweak anything to get around the old Unity3D bug where on Linux you would get a blackscreen, as they’ve updated Unity for this release and it works perfectly now!

=> ↺ Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour is being pirated with permission from the developer

• According to TorrentFreak, Serious Sam’s Bogus Detour [Steam] is being pirated by Voksi, one of the people known for cracking Denuvo.

=> ↺ KING Art have remastered their ‘whodunit’ adventure The Raven – Legacy of a Master Thief and it’s out now

=> ↺ 5 open source card and board games for Linux

• Gaming has traditionally been one of Linux’s weak points. That has changed somewhat in recent years thanks to Steam, GOG, and other efforts to bring commercial games to multiple operating systems, but many of those games are not open source. Sure, the games can be played on an open source operating system, but that is not good enough for an open source purist.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME 3.28 Released, These Are The Best New Features

• We’ve dived head first in to change logs, wiki pages, app roadmaps, and code commits to put together the following list of the top GNOME 3.28 features and improvements.

• Now, GNOME 3.28 isn’t a huge update — the GNOME 3.26 release we got in September 2017 had more visual changes for the average joe to get excited about than this one does — but there’s still 6 months worth of welcome improvements and new features on offer here.

=> ↺ Introducing GNOME 3.28: “Chongqing”

• GNOME 3.28 is the latest version of GNOME 3, and is the result of 6 months’ hard work by the GNOME community. It contains major new features, as well as many smaller improvements and bug fixes. In total, the release incorporates 25832 changes, made by approximately 838 contributors.

• 3.28 has been named “Chongqing” in recognition of the team behind GNOME.Asia 2017. GNOME.Asia is GNOME’s official annual summit in Asia, which is only possible thanks to the hard work of local volunteers. This year’s event was held in Chongqing, China, and we’d like to thank everyone who contributed to its success.

=> ↺ GNOME 3.28 Desktop Environment Officially Released, Here’s What’s New

=> ↺ GNOME 3.28 ‘Chongqing’ Linux and BSD desktop environment is here

=> ↺ GNOME 3.28 Desktop Officially Released

Distributions

Reviews

=> ↺ MATE 1.20 review – Are you all right, mate?

• Overall, MATE 1.20 is a nice desktop environment. It has its legacy quirks, especially when it comes to panel management and overall cross-integration between programs. But it can be styled and tamed and used with flair and elegance. However, you do feel that it’s aged in some areas, and that those areas remain neglected. Modern does not mean better, but some aspects of the 2018 computing model are superior to what we had a decade ago. The same way some aspects of MATE (Gnome 2) remain better than the touchesque flat-fest we have today.

• Xfce seems to have weathered these changes more successfully, but then it also had no identity crisis, no betrayal, and it benefits from more overall focus and attention. MATE not only had to fight Gnome 3, it also has Cinnamon to take into account. Those aside, if you do want an old-school, no-nonsense desktop environment, MATE is a good choice. Perhaps not the best one, but it will serve you loyally without any bells and whistles. Just be ready for an odd ghost of the past striking at you now and then.

• Remember, once upon a time, I didn’t like Xfce, like not at all, and look where it’s now. So MATE has survived the rite of passage, and it’s evolving steadily. The next step should be pro looks, tight integration and some acknowledgment of modernity, on a system level, and perhaps it could become the desktop environment that Gnome 3 should have been in the first place. There’s still hope. Keep an eye, and let’s see what happens. I guess that would be all.

=> ↺ Linux Mint 18.3 KDE Edition Review – For The Record

• Linux Mint 18.3 KDE Edition Review. Linux Mint and KDE haven’t always been on my list of favorite things. That said, Linux Mint 18.3 KDE Edition really surprised me – there is a lot to like! Great pulseaudio settings, an improved package manager, plus a whole lot more!

New Releases

=> ↺ IPFire 2.19 – Core Update 119 released

• This is the release announcement for IPFire 2.19 – Core Update 119. It updates the toolchain of the distribution and fixes a number of smaller bug and security issues. Therefore this update is another one of a series of general housekeeping updates to make IPFire better, faster and of course more secure!

=> ↺ NuTyX 10.1 available with cards 2.4.0

• The NuTyX team is please to annonce the 10.1 release of NuTyX.

• NuTyX 9.0 comes with kernel lts 4.14.26 (4.9.87 in 32bits), glibc 2.27, gcc 7.3.0, binutils 2.30, python 3.6.4, xorg-server 1.19.6, qt 5.10.1, plasma 5.12.3 (in 64bits) , kf5 5.43.0 (in 64bits), gnome 3.26.1 (in 64bits), mate 1.20.0, xfce4 4.12.3, firefox 58.0.2, etc….

• Six news ISOs are available in 32 bits and 64 bits. Sizes are respectively 296 MB, 613 MB and 1.6G available on the new download page.

• They have been a lot of upstream updates related to security.

=> ↺ LibreELEC (Krypton) 8.2.4 MR

• Team LibreELEC celebrates its second birthday (and international Pi-Day) with the release of LibreELEC (Krypton) v8.2.4 which brings minor bug-fixes and new firmware to support the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ hardware announced this morning.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Next DevNation Live: Camel Riders in the Cloud, March 15th, 12pm EDT

=> ↺ 2.5 Year Warning: EPEL-6 will be archived in January 2021.

=> ↺ What OpenShift Online/Dedicated Customers Should Know About the Recent Kubernetes Bugs

• Yesterday, the Kubernetes Product Security team released information about two significant bugs in Kubernetes, which were assigned CVE-2017-1002101 and CVE-2017-1002102. OpenShift is built upon Kubernetes and as such these bugs were also present in both OpenShift Online and OpenShift Dedicated. Red Hat, along with Google and other members of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, worked to create and coordinate the release of security fixes for these affected products.

• In response to these security errata, at the time the embargo was lifted, the OpenShift SRE team worked around the clock, across three geographic regions (NASA, APAC, and EMEA) to remediate the bug on all affected clusters.

Finance

=> ↺ Stock Chatter: Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT), Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE:RCL) Quant & Returns in Focus

=> ↺ Signals from Technical Perspective – Red Hat Inc (NYSE: RHT)

=> ↺ How to Trade these Stock After an unavoidable Selloff: MuleSoft, Inc. (MULE), Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)

=> ↺ Is The Stock Risky? (Beta Analysis) – Red Hat Inc (NYSE: RHT)

=> ↺ Analysts See $0.59 EPS for Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)

=> ↺ Market Focus: Shares Pushing Higher 21.37% Over the Last Month: Red Hat Inc (RHT)

Fedora

=> ↺ 3 security videos from DevConf.cz 2018

• The recent DevConf.cz conference in Brno, Czechia is an annual event run by and for open source developers and enthusiasts. Hundreds of speakers showed off countless technologies and features advancing the state of open source in Linux and far beyond. A perennially popular subject at open source conferences is security. Below is a selection of videos from the many outstanding sessions where presenters covered security topics.

=> ↺ Nullcon 2018

• guys 2018 is a security conference which takes place in India. For me it was the second time I attended and it was again a very nice experience.

• Jörg’s Audit +++ took place on Wednesday and Thursday including the option to do the OPSE certification. The training session is not so much about technical skills but more about the soft skills. It should help managers to understand the work which security testers are doing and help security testers to do their work in a proper way.

• [...]

• As Nullcon is a security conference you see a lot of Windows related topic. But from my point of view it would be a perfect place to talk about about the measures the Linux community is taking to make the world a more secure place.

=> ↺ Chemnitzer Linux Tage 2018

• As usual was the Fedora Project present at the Chemnitzer Linux Tage 2018. For CLT this was kind of their 20th birthday.

• Instead of showing how you can use Fedora to do 3D printing, we went with two Fedora Demo stations. CLT is still attracting new Linux users and it’s nice to show them a running Fedora installation.

=> ↺ Fedora 27 : ‘No Space Left on Device’ errors .

Debian Family

=> ↺ FAI.me build service now supports creation of VM disk images

• You can define a disk image size, select a language, set a user and root password, select a Debian distribution and enable backports just by one click. It’s possible to add your public key for access to the root account without a password. This can also be done by just specifying your GitHub account. Several disk formats are supports, like raw (compressed with xz or zstd), qcow2, vdi, vhdx and vmdk. And you can add your own list of packages, you want to have inside this OS. After a few minutes the disk image is created and you will get a download link, including a log the the creation process and a link to the FAI configuration that was used to create your customized image.

=> ↺ aput – simple upload script for a flat artifactory Debian repository

Derivatives

=> ↺ Neptune 5.0 Linux OS Released with KDE Plasma 5.12 LTS, Based on Debian Stretch

• The developers of the Debian-based Neptune GNU/Linux distribution announced the release of the Neptune 5.0 “Refresh” operating system, based on the stable Debian GNU/Linux 9 “Stretch” series.

• Powered by the long-term supported Linux 4.14 kernel ported from Debian Stretch’s Backports repository, Neptune 5.0 uses the latest KDE Plasma 5.12 desktop environment along with the KDE Applications 17.12 and KDE Frameworks 5.43.0 software suites. It also promises new ways to run the latest software versions.

=> ↺ With this operating system you can have privacy and anonymity

• With the popularity of social media, it would seem as though people are not all that concerned with their privacy. Some like to share updates about pretty much anything they do, and while no one really cares about what anyone else had for lunch, the point is if you want to know what someone is up to, you may just have to look online.

• Just because people aren’t bashful about their lives does not mean they want everything they do online to be recorded, yet with the way browsers and operating systems are set up, there is a record of a lot of what we do. Unless you are a programmer, you may not see much of a way around it.

• But there is a way, actually. An operating system that is designed to start on almost any computer from a DVD or USB drive exists and, best of all, it is free.

=> ↺ Tails 3.6 Anonymous OS Released with Linux Kernel 4.15, Latest Tor Updates

• The Tails Project announced today the release and immediate availability of the Tails 3.6 amnesic incognito live system, also known as the Anonymous OS used by ex-CIA employee Edward Snowden to stay hidden online.

• Powered by the latest Linux 4.15 kernel with patches for the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities, and featuring the latest Tor Browser and Tor client/server implementation, Tails 3.6 is here with up-to-date components like Electrum 3.0.6 and Mozilla Thunderbird 52.6.0, as well as new features and improvements.

=> ↺ Univention Corporate Server 4.3: Simpler, Faster, and More User-Friendly Administration

• Univention is proud to present the latest Univention Corporate Server (UCS) release. Version 4.3 of the established Open Source software now allows administrators to customize the portal pages which can be set up in UCS to suit the specific requirements of their organization very simply via the drag and drop feature. In addition, they are also able to make the more than 90 enterprise applications in UCS’ integrated App Center available to users. The users access these applications via the portal pages and, insofar as the respective application permits, only need to log in once thanks to the single sign-on mechanism. Univention has also considerably improved the data import performance. In this way, UCS 4.3 allows smaller companies to administrate heterogeneous IT environments with ease and fulfills the requirements of larger organizations with tens of thousands of users at the same time.

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ 18.04 beta is as good a time as any to see which Ubuntu flavour tickles your Budgie, MATE

• The first beta of Ubuntu 18.04 is here. The finished article, due next month, will be a long-term support release and, for those who stick with LTS, the first time many see the new GNOME-based Ubuntu.

• This beta, however, does not include the main GNOME-based release. Instead this is more a community release with most of the Ubuntu flavours participating. This particular test build is slightly more noteworthy than usual since, thanks to the havoc wreaked by Spectre and Meltdown, which limited the use of many distros’ build systems, it is really the first milestone for most of the flavours. It also came a couple of days late, which is unusual for an Ubuntu beta.

• As the Xubuntu developers note: “The ISO Tracker has seen little activity for the last few development cycles. We know we have some excited users already using and testing 18.04. But without testing results being recorded anywhere, we have to assume that nobody is testing the daily images and milestones. And this has major implications for both the 18.04 release and the project as a whole.”

=> ↺ Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Beta 1 Released

• Many of the popular flavours of the famous Ubuntu Linux system such as Kubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu MATE and Xubuntu, have released beta downloads for the upcoming Long-Term Support release of Ubuntu 18.04.

• Typically, the Ubuntu team releases an LTS edition of the OS, every two years, which will carry major security updates and patches, as well as full support, for five years.

=> ↺ EzeeLinux Show 18.12 | A BIG THANK YOU, First Look At Ubuntu 18.04

=> ↺ LXD weekly status #38

=> ↺ Lets Snap The World

• I am a long-time Ubuntu user and community contributor. I love how open-source communities generally work, sure there are hiccups, like companies mandating decisions that aren’t popular amongst the community. The idea of I being able to fix an issue and getting that released to hundreds of thousands of people is just priceless for me.

• For the long time, I have distinguished some issues in Linux on the desktop that I want fixed. Biggest is always having the latest version of the software I use. Think of Android for example, you always get the latest version of the app, directly from the developers with no package maintainer in between. That’s the ideal scenario but for us currently on Linux it may not be possible in all cases because of the fragmentation we have.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ SMARC module features hexa-core i.MX8 QuadMax

• iWave unveiled a rugged, wireless enabled SMARC module with 4GB LPDDR4 and dual GbE controllers that runs Linux or Android on NXP’s i.MX8 QuadMax SoC with 2x Cortex-A72, 4x -A53, 2x -M4F, and 2x GPU cores.

• iWave has posted specs for an 82 x 50mm, industrial temperature “iW-RainboW-G27M” SMARC 2.0 module that builds on NXP’s i.MX8 QuadMax system-on-chip. The i.MX8 QuadMax was announced in Oct. 2016 as the higher end model of an automotive focused i.MX8 Quad family.

=> ↺ Arduino Create expands to run Arduino on BeagleBone and Raspberry Pi

• Arduino announced an expansion of its Arduino Create development platform for deploying Arduino sketches on Linux systems to support Arm boards like the the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone in addition to Intel boards like the UP Squared.

• In November, Arduino announced a version of its Arduino Create toolkit that supports Intel-based systems running Linux, with specific support for a new UP Squared IoT Grove Development Kit. Today at the Embedded Linux Conference in Portland, where Arduino co-founder and CTO Massimo Banzi is a keynote speaker, Arduino announced an expansion of Arduino Create to support Arm boards. The platform provides optimized support for the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone boards.

=> ↺ i.MX8M SBC on pre-order for $165

• Boundary Devices has launched a $165 “Nitrogen8M” SBC that runs Linux or Android on a quad-core i.MX8M with GbE, WiFi, BT, HDMI 2.0, mini-PCIe, MIPI-DSI and -CSI, 4x USB 3.0, and optional -40 to 85°C support.

• Boundary Devices has updated its Nitrogen line of NXP i.MX based SBCs with a Nitrogen8M model that runs Android, Yocto, Ubuntu, Buildroot, or Debian based Linux on NXP’s i.MX8M. Available on pre-order starting at $165 with 2GB RAM, the SBC will ship this Spring.

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi 3 gets rev’d to B+ with 1.4GHz, WiFi-ac, and GbE with PoE

• The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ has gone on sale for $35, boosting the Model B’s quad -A53 SoC to 1.4GHz, speeding the WiFi to precertified, dual-band 802.11ac, and adding USB-based GbE with PoE support.

• Two years after the arrival of the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, which brought wireless and 64-bit ARMv8 computing to what was already the most popular Linux hacking platform of all time, Raspberry Pi Trading and the Raspberry Pi Foundation have delivered a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ with a faster processor, WiFi, and Ethernet.

=> ↺ Meet the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

• Raspberry Pi just celebrated its sixth birthday—that’s six years since the launch of the original Raspberry Pi. Since then, it has released various new models, including the Pi 2, Pi 3, and Pi Zero. So far, 9 million Raspberry Pi 3s have been sold—and over 18 million Pis in total—and those numbers are likely to grow following today’s announcement of the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+.

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi 3B+ Launches With Faster CPU, Dual-Band 802.11ac, Faster Ethernet

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi OS Raspbian Updated with Support for the New Raspberry Pi 3 B+ SBC

• The Raspberry Pi Foundation released today a new build of its Debian-based Raspbian operating system for Raspberry Pi single-board computer with dozens of improvements, updated components, and other enhancements.

• Probably the most important feature of the new Raspbian release, which is powered by the Linux 4.9.80 LTS kernel, is support for the recently launched Raspberry Pi 3 B+ single-board computer that Raspberry Pi Foundation unveiled this morning in celebration of the Pi Day.

• However, Wi-Fi is disabled by default for the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ model due to the wireless regulatory domain not being set. To set the domain, you need to set the ‘country=’ attribute in the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file to a country code closer to ISO 3166 alpha2.

=> ↺ Happy Pi Day: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Support Comes to the LibreELEC Embedded OS

• After Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Rasbian, LibreELEC is the second Linux-based operating system to receive support for the recently launched Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ single-board computer announced today.

• In celebration of the project’s second anniversary, as well as of the international Pi Day, the team announced today the release and immediate availability for download of the fourth maintenance update to the LibreELEC 8.2 “Krypton” operating system series.

=> ↺ New Raspberry Pi 3 Model Has Faster CPU, Better Networking

• Delicious news for all you makers out there: a brand new Raspberry Pi is available to buy.

• The new Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ is an improved version of the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.

• It features a faster ARM A53 processor and improved networking capabilities through the addition of Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.2 LS BLE and dual band Wi-Fi.

• While the addition of Gigabit ethernet is a big bonus (yay) the “downside” is that it’s still shared over USB 2.0 (boo). If you connect a data-intensive USB peripheral like an external hard drive the bandwidth available may be reduced accordingly depending on what you’re doing.

=> ↺ New Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ now on-sale, more power and faster networking

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ Launched: Offers More Power, Faster Networking

=> ↺ Raspberry PI 3 model B+ Released: Complete specs and pricing

=> ↺ Arduino Create Platform Can Now Program Linux Internet of Things Devices

• The official Arduino development team has today revealed at the Embedded Linux Conference 2018 expansion of a number of architectures supported by its Arduino Create platform for the development of Internet of Things applications. The latest release allows Arduino Create users can manage and program a wide range of popular Linux single-board computers such as the awesome Raspberry Pi which has today received a new addition to its range in the form of the Raspberry Pi 3+, AAEON UP² and BeagleBone as if they were regular Arduino development boards.

=> ↺ An introduction to RISC-V

• LWN has covered the open RISC-V (“risk five”) processor architecture before, most recently in this article. As the ecosystem and tools around RISC-V have started coming together, a more detailed look is in order. In a series of two articles, I will look at what RISC-V is and follow up with an article on how we can now port Linux distributions to run on it.

• The words “Free and Open RISC Instruction Set Architecture” are emblazoned across the web site of the RISC-V Foundation along with the logos of some possibly surprising companies: Google, hard disk manufacturer Western Digital, and notable ARM licensees Samsung and NVIDIA. An instruction set architecture (ISA) is a specification for the instructions or machine code that you feed to a processor and how you encode those instructions into a binary form, along with many other precise details about how a family of processors works. Modern ISAs are huge and complex specifications. Perhaps the most famous ISA is Intel’s x86 — that specification runs to ten volumes.

• More importantly, ISAs are covered by aggressive copyright, patent, and trademark rules. Want to independently implement an x86-compatible processor? Almost certainly you simply cannot do that without making arrangements with Intel — something the company rarely does. Want to create your own ARM processor? You will need to pay licensing fees to Arm Holdings up front and again for every core you ship.

• In contrast, open ISAs, of which RISC-V is only one of the newest, have permissive licenses. RISC-V’s specifications, covering user-space instructions and the privileged instructions are licensed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0). Furthermore, researchers have determined that all RISC-V instructions have prior art and are now patent-free. (Note this is different from saying that implementations will be open or patent-free — almost certainly the highest end chips will be closed and implementations patented). There are also several “cores” — code that compiles to Verilog and can be programmed into an FPGA or (with a great deal more effort) made into a custom chip — licensed under the three-clause BSD.

Android

=> ↺ Essential Phone Users Are Finally Getting the Android 8.1 Oreo Update

=> ↺ How to Get Missing Apps from Your Android Phone to Your Wear Watch

=> ↺ Which Mobile Devices Are Compatible With ‘Fortnite’ On iOS And Android?

=> ↺ How to stream March Madness 2018 live on Chromecast, Android, Chrome OS, and Android TV

=> ↺ Job: Android Engineer — Ride Report

=> ↺ Android P: everything you need to know about Google’s new mobile OS

=> ↺ New Blockchain-Powered Android Console Brings Tabletop Gaming To Life

=> ↺ Hands on: Vu Android TV review

=> ↺ Android P is a perfect example of why OS updates still matter

=> ↺ Imgur’s Snapchat-style GIF collections come to Android

=> ↺ Android Oreo 8.1 is finally available for Essential Phones

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Adelaide Uni open sources venerable Ludwig editor

• The University of Adelaide will release the source code of the Ludwig editor, originally developed for use on VAX minicomputers.

• Ludwig’ source code will be published on GitHub under the MIT Open Source Licence, the university announced today.

• DEC’s first VAX system, the VAX-11/78, was unveiled in 1977. Adelaide Uni purchased three of the minicomputers in 1979.

• The computers supported interaction through video terminals and replaced punch-card-driven systems that only offered batch processing and printed output,

=> ↺ 4 reasons enterprise open source works best

• The vast and growing network of enterprise open source solutions can play a key role in modernizing government’s IT infrastructures to be fast, functional and future-oriented. Sourcing technology from the top performers in a community of contributors can liberate IT managers from the bureaucratic ceilings established through proprietary contracts.

• With a commitment to the open software solutions community, the public sector can save money while building the IT infrastructures of today and tomorrow.

=> ↺ New Raspberry Pi 3B+, Infection Monkey, Samba Password Bug, Facebook’s Profilo and More

• Facebook open-sourced Profilo yesterday, “a scalable, mobile-first performance tracing library for Android”. Profilo eases the mobile testing challenges faced by app developers trying to ensure their apps perform across various operating systems, bandwidths and other variables, and allows developers to “understand app performance in the wild”.

=> ↺ Open Source Data Management for All

• We found that several of our readers had heard of iRODS and knew it was associated with a scientific computing base, but few understood what the technology was and were not aware that there was a consortium. To dispel any confusion, we spoke with Jason Coposky, executive director of the iRODS Consortium about both the technology itself and the group’s role in making data management and storage easier.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Making WebAssembly better for Rust & for all languages

• One big 2018 goal for the Rust community is to become a web language. By targeting WebAssembly, Rust can run on the web just like JavaScript. But what does this mean? Does it mean that Rust is trying to replace JavaScript?

• The answer to that question is no. We don’t expect Rust WebAssembly apps to be written completely in Rust. In fact, we expect the bulk of application code will still be JS, even in most Rust WebAssembly applications.

• This is because JS is a good choice for most things. It’s quick and easy to get up and running with JavaScript. On top of that, there’s a vibrant ecosystem full of JavaScript developers who have created incredibly innovative approaches to different problems on the web.

=> ↺ March Add(on)ness: Video Download Helper (1) Vs Cookie AD (4)

• Video DownloadHelper is the easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites.

• Video DownloadHelper is a strong contender, giving users the ability to snag videos from virtually any site. The add-on automatically finds videos on a webpage. What users do with those videos is nobody’s business and anyone’s guess.

• Fun Fact: 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and almost 5 billion videos are watched on Youtube every single day. If you tried to download all of them, your computer would explode.

=> ↺ This Week In Rust: This Week in Rust 225

=> ↺ The new Firefox lets you stop websites from asking to send you notifications

• The Mozilla Foundation released a new version of Firefox this week—release number 59. It treads further down the performance improvement path that November’s Quantum release began, but its most interesting feature is a quality-of-life one: Firefox 59 users can prevent some websites from popping up requests to send notifications to your device or from requesting to use your camera unexpectedly.

=> ↺ Things Gateway, Part 7 – IKEA TRÅDFRI

• In this series of postings, I’ve been setting up, configuring, and playing with IoT devices through the experimental Things Gateway from Mozilla. I’ve covered the generic Zigbee and Z-Wave devices, the Philips Hue devices, and the TP-Link WiFi devices. Today, I add IKEA TRÅDFRI to this circus.

• Of course, in this series, I’ve also been doing a bit of editorializing. I was critical of the TP-Link devices because their security model requires the end user to just trust them. I’m critical of the IKEA TRÅDFRI for a physical safety reason. What does the word TRÅDFRI mean? I’m assuming it is a Swedish word that means “severe blood loss from slashed wrists” because that is what is likely to happen when opening the package. The clamshell plastic that entombs their products is difficult to open with anything short of a chainsaw. My kitchen scissors wouldn’t do the job and I had to resort to garden pruning shears and that left dangerously sharp pieces that drew blood. Be careful.

=> ↺ Firefox Performance Update #3

• Hi! I’ve got another slew of Firefox performance work to report today.

• Special thanks to the folks who submitted things through this form to let me know about performance work that’s taken place recently! If you’ve seen something fixed lately that’ll likely have a positive impact on Firefox performance, let me know about it!

=> ↺ Mozilla sends more snooping Web APIs to smartphone Siberia

• irefox has revealed it will bin more privacy-invasive APIs, deprecating access to the light sensor, device proximity sensor, and user proximity detection.

• The APIs in question have all been criticised for their invasive potential. For example, devicelight offered potential vectors for snooping on user browsing habits or even passwords.

• The other two APIs are deviceproximity and userproximity. As of Firefox 62, these will become user-controlled flags (and for users at the bleeding edge, the deprecation is implemented in the nightly build).

=> ↺ Firefox 59 for Android Adds HLS Playback Support, Improves Private Browsing Mode

• Mozilla released today the Firefox 59 web browser for Google’s Android mobile operating system bringing support for websites that use the HTTP Live Streaming protocol for video playback, and improved Private Browsing mode, and more.

BSD

=> ↺ LLVM Clang 6.0 vs. 5.0 Compiler Performance On Intel/AMD Linux

• Since last week’s big release of LLVM 6.0 along with Clang 6.0, I have been carrying out some fresh compiler benchmarks of the previous Clang 5.0 to this new stable release that switches to C++14 by default, among many other changes to LLVM itself and this C/C++ compiler front-end.

• For your compiler benchmark viewing pleasure today are results of LLVM Clang 5.0 vs. 6.0 on four distinctly different systems: two Intel, two AMD, for getting a glimpse at how the Clang 6.0 compiler performance is looking at this time. For those wondering how Clang 6.0 is stacking up compared to the soon-to-be-released GCC 8.1 compiler, those benchmarks will come when GCC 8.1 is officially available.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ GRUB Now Supports Multiple Early Initrd Images

• GNU’s GRUB bootloader has picked up another feature ahead of the GRUB 2.04 release expected later this year.

• It’s been almost one year since the GRUB 2.02 release while GRUB 2.04 continues being developed with new features and the latest addition landed just minutes ago.

• This new addition to the GRUB 2.04 code-base is adding support for multiple, shared, early initrd images. These multiple early initrd images will be loaded prior to the proper initrd image — with support for the Linux distribution specifying early initrd images and a separate hook for the user to specify any early images too.

Licensing/Legal

=> ↺ What legal remedies exist for breach of GPL software?

• Last April, a federal court in California handed down a decision in Artifex Software, Inc. v. Hancom, Inc., 2017 WL 1477373 (N.D. Cal. 2017), adding a new perspective to the forms of remedies available for breach of the General Public License (GPL). Sadly, this case reignited the decades-old license/contract debate due to some misinterpretations under which the court ruled the GPL to be a contract. Before looking at the remedy developments, it’s worth reviewing why the license debate even exists.

Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

=> ↺ Global Automotive Navigation Systems Market 2018-2022 – Increased Support for Open Source and Standard Platforms

=> ↺ Five Questions with Orta Therox

• Everyone in the Artsy Engineering team has different relationships to Open Source. Some people just work in the open — with little thought applied to the larger community aspects of it — because it’s how we work. Others embrace the ability to showcase their work to help provide a more holistic understanding of the process.

• Not all projects we work on are open source, so not all engineers work in the open. We made the conscious choice to keep some projects private: it’s Open Source by Default, not Open Source by Mandate.

=> ↺ SpaceChain, Arch Aim to Archive Human Knowledge in Space

• SpaceChain on Monday announced that it has entered a partnership with the Arch Mission Foundation to use open source technology to launch an ambitious project involving the storage of large data sets in spacecraft and on other planets.

• Arch Mission will load large quantities of data onto SpaceChain’s satellite vehicles with the eventual aim of storing data on other planets.

• “The goal of archiving and preserving knowledge of future generations will advance archiving science and human knowledge by itself,” SpaceChain cofounder Zheng Zuo said. “The ambitious goal of disseminating this knowledge throughout the solar system is finally achievable today, thanks to greatly reduced launch costs through new space launch providers.”

• [...]

• The partnership would allow SpaceChain’s long-term goal of storing data archives throughout the solar system come to fruition.

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ Two UMD courses will have free online textbook access in the fall

• BSCI201 and 202, introductory courses in human anatomy and physiology, will use a free, open-source textbook from OpenStax beginning in the fall, said biology professor Sara Lombardi.

• To make the switch, university lecturers for the courses received a $1,500 grant from the Maryland Open Source Textbook initiative, which offers grants to encourage faculty to utilize open educational resources. The grants were announced March 6.

• The initiative — which was established in 2013 as part of the system’s William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation — saved students more than $500,000 through these grants from spring 2014 to spring 2017, according to the initiative’s spring 2018 update.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ OpenFlow is the Past as ONF Announces Stratum Project to Redefine SDN

• On March 12, the ONF announced the formation of the Stratum project with the audacious goal to redefine the SDN landscape in a fundamental way. Code for the Stratum project is initially coming from Google, from technology it uses for SDN within its own environments.

• Among the vendors that are backing the ONF Stratum project are Google, Tencent, China Unicom, NTT, Turk Telekom, Big Switch Networks, VMware, Broadcom, Cavium, Mellanox and Xilinx.

Leftovers

=> ↺ IBM thinks Notes and Domino can rise again

• Since announcing that HCL would take over development of IBM’s collaborationware, the two companies have conducted a long listening tour that saw them stage 22 meatspace meetings and four online forums. The results of that consultation, which reached 2,000 people, plus lab work already conducted by IBM and HCL, were recently presented to the faithful.

Science

=> ↺ Sir John Sulston, Human Genome Project Leader, Remembered For Words On IP And Health R&D

• Nobel Prize winner Sir John Sulston passed away on 6 March at the age of 75, and was widely remembered in the press and scientific circles, celebrating his research, his wisdom, and his leadership of the landmark Human Genome Project. Intellectual Property Watch recalls his visionary warning and advice a decade ago about the intellectual property system, investment, and science that is still valuable today.

=> ↺ Media Ignore Critical Link Between Natural Disasters and Climate Change

• Since the 2016 presidential election, the establishment media’s coverage of natural disasters has failed to connect the disasters with the scientific issue of climate change. Lisa Hymas’ December 2017 Guardian article exposed the media’s lack of climate change coverage. Although much climate change research reveals a link between extreme weather and climate change, “only 42% of Americans believe that climate change will pose a serious threat to them during their lifetimes,” Hymas reported. Although recent natural disasters highlight the effects of climate change this subject has received little attention in establishment news coverage.

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ To Make Healthcare More Affordable, Fight Drug Patent Abuse with a Fury

• Drug prices tend to drop precipitously the moment the drug market opens to generic and biosimilar competition—typically by up to 80%. Drug patents are the linchpin of when that moment occurs.

• This is because since the 1980s, the timing of market entry for generic and biosimilar drugs has essentially depended on judicial determinations of patent infringement, validity, and enforceability, pursuant to the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act (better known as the “Hatch-Waxman Act”), and more recently, the Biologic Price Competition and Innovation Act (“BPCIA”).

• If we are really going to have an informed discussion about drug pricing, therefore, we had better do it by talking about drug patents—and how to police them, effectively.

=> ↺ Measuring the Toll of the Opioid Epidemic Is Tougher Than it Seems

• As the opioid epidemic rages across the country, data tracking its evolution often lags far behind.

• A few months ago, I set out to compile data on opioid prescribing, overdoses and deaths, as well as treatment options.

• It was more difficult than I expected: Much of the data was out of date, some was hard to find and some data contradicted other data, making conclusions difficult. I put the datasets I could find into a tipsheet, which I shared last week at the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting conference in Chicago.

• When Bruce Greenstein took over as chief technology officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in mid-2017, he, too, was taken aback by the hurdles to finding complete, current information — particularly on overdose deaths.

Security

=> ↺ An important Samba 4 security release

• Anybody running Samba 4 servers probably wants to take a look at this alert and upgrade their systems.

=> ↺ Samba 4.7.6, 4.6.14 and 4.5.16 Security Releases Available for Download

=> ↺ Samba 4 Updates Issued For Correcting Two Security Vulnerabilities, One Nasty

=> ↺ Samba critical flaws: Patch now but older open instances have ‘far worse issues’

=> ↺ AMD Secure Processor & Ryzen Chipsets Reportedly Vulnerable To Exploit

• Just two months after the big Spectre and Meltdown CPU vulnerabilities were disclosed, Israeli security researchers have published 13 security vulnerabilities claiming to affect AMD Ryzen and EPYC product lines.

• These vulnerabilities are being called “AMDFLAWS” and the vulnerabilities have names like MASTERKEY, RYZENFALL, FALLOUT, CHIMERA, and the PSP PRIVILEGE escalation amounting to 13 vulnerabilities in total.

=> ↺ Numerous vulnerabilities in AMD processors

• A company called CTS has disclosed a long series of vulnerabilities in AMD processors. “The chipset is a central component on Ryzen and Ryzen Pro workstations: it links the processor with hardware devices such as WiFi and network cards, making it an ideal target for malicious actors. The Ryzen chipset is currently being shipped with exploitable backdoors that could let attackers inject malicious code into the chip, providing them with a safe haven to operate from.” See the associated white paper for more details.

=> ↺ Israeli firm dumps AMD flaws with 24 hours notice

• Security researchers from a previously unknown Israeli company, CTS Labs, have disclosed 13 flaws in AMD processors. All can be taken advantage of only by an attacker who has already gained admin privileges within the system in question.

=> ↺ “Backdoor” Found In AMD CPUs, Researchers Discover 13 Critical Vulnerabilities In RYZEN And EPYC

=> ↺ Security updates for Wednesday

=> ↺ Reproducible Builds: Weekly report #150

=> ↺ ACME v2 and Wildcard Certificate Support is Live

• We’re pleased to announce that ACMEv2 and wildcard certificate support is live! With today’s new features we’re continuing to break down barriers for HTTPS adoption across the Web by making it even easier for every website to get and manage certificates.

• ACMEv2 is an updated version of our ACME protocol which has gone through the IETF standards process, taking into account feedback from industry experts and other organizations that might want to use the ACME protocol for certificate issuance and management some day.

• Wildcard certificates allow you to secure all subdomains of a domain with a single certificate. Wildcard certificates can make certificate management easier in some cases, and we want to address those cases in order to help get the Web to 100% HTTPS. We still recommend non-wildcard certificates for most use cases.

=> ↺ An overview of online ad fraud

• I have researched various aspects of the online advertisement industry for a while, and one of the fascinating topics that I have come across which I didn’t know too much about before is ad fraud. You may have heard that this is a huge problem as this topic hits the news often, and after learning more about it, I think of it as one of the major threats to the health of the Web, so it’s important for us to be more familiar with the problem.

• People have done a lot of research on the topic but most of the material uses the jargon of the ad industry so they may be inaccessible to those who aren’t familiar with it (I’m learning my way through it myself!) and also you’d need to study a lot to put a broad picture of what’s wrong together, so I decided to summarize what I have learned so far, expressed in simple terms avoiding jargon, in the hopes that it’s helpful. Needless to say, none of this should be taken as official Mozilla policy, but rather this is a hopefully objective summary plus some of my opinions after doing this research at the end.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Mass Killing of Civilians by UN-Backed National Police of Haiti

• On the morning of November 13, 2017, a joint anti-gang operation between the National Police of Haiti (PHN), who were trained under occupation by UN and US officials, and the newly-formed United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH) ended in the mass killing of at least nine innocent civilians at Maranatha College in Port-au-Prince. Some reports indicate up to 14 civilians and two police officers were killed.

• The United Nations issued a statement days later, condemning the violence and calling for a prompt investigation. However, the statement did not publicly acknowledge the UN’s own role in the operation, and distanced the organization from the civilian casualties. As Jake Johnston of the Intercept reported, it was not until late December that a UN spokesperson confirmed that the MINUJUSTH, the UN police, had helped to plan the raid.

• UN spokesperson Sophie Boutaud de la Combe wrote in an email to the Intercept that the UN had conducted an internal inquiry following the raid which absolved the UN. The inquiry found that UN police did not enter Maranatha College where the alleged killings took place, nor did UN police fire their weapons. Instead, according to the inquiry, UN police only “secured the perimeter” of the school. The post-operation “unilateral initiative” of some PHN members was, according to the UN inquiry, without UN authorization.

=> ↺ Ex-GCHQ boss: All the ways to go after Russia. Why pick cyberwar?

• Hannigan damped down talk in the UK media that cyber attacks against Russia might form part of the response to poisoning of Russian-born double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the medieval cathedral city of Salisbury in southern England last week.

• He cited UK government statements to explain this was either a state-run operation or that Russia had lost control of a chemical weapons agent. This follows Russia’s highly contentious annexation of Crimea back in 2014.

=> ↺ Assange: UK Foreign Office Gears Up for Propaganda War Against Russia

• Following allegations by UK authorities that Russia was responsible for the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in the British city of Salisbury, the UK Foreign Office is preparing a smear campaign against the country.

• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday took to Twitter to comment on the UK Foreign Office’s video about Russia, saying it is waging a “propaganda” war against Moscow.

• The UK Foreign Office released a video with a list of the world events in which Russia in their opinion is engaged. In this video, the Foreign Office says that Russia is relevant to the Litvinenko case, to Georgia’s sovereignty, Crimea’s reunification, the cyber-attack on Germany’s parliament, interfering in Montenegro elections, as well as airspace violations.

Finance

=> ↺ International Finance Corporation, a Branch of World Bank, on Trial

• Farmers in Honduras are suing a branch of the World Bank for attacks and killings that the corporation has allegedly helped fund since the early 1990s. These violent acts targeted members and supporters of the local farming community in the Bajo Aguán valley region of Honduras, as reported by Claire Provost for the Guardian in March 2017.

• As the Guardian reported, according to a 132-page legal complaint filed by the plaintiffs, the farmers are seeking compensation for the role that the IMF branch known as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) played in the alleged “murder, torture, assault, battery, trespass, unjust enrichment and other acts of aggression” that resulted from the IFC’s support of the agribusiness corporation Dinant, the primary executor of the violence.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Porn site age checks are delayed to make sure officials ‘get it right’

• Privacy campaigners have claimed a victory after the government said it would delay the introduction of mandatory age checks for pornographic websites “to get the implementation of the policy right”.

• All pornography sites had been expected to introduce age verification measures by April, but the policy will not be enforced until later in the year.

• The delay is officially to give the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) regulator time to launch a public consultation on its draft guidance this month.

=> ↺ Musicians and journalists are teaming up to fight press censorship

• Reporters Without Borders Germany have launched their new project, ‘The Uncensored Playlist‘, which aims to fight censorship by pairing musicians with journalists in countries with strict censorship laws.

• Described as “a digital loophole to evade censorship,” ‘The Uncensored Playlist’ was launched on Monday, March 12th, which is also known as the World Day Against Cyber Censorship.

• “Online press censorship is on the rise globally,” a press release for the project reads. “Meaning that in a large number of countries, people are unable to access many independent blogs and news sites, denying them their right to free information.”

=> ↺ Controversial Stations Of The Cross Exhibition Set To Open Without Censorship

• A sculpture by the ‘Street” artist Ryan Callanan, who goes under the pseudonym of RYCA has been moved by church officials at St Stephens Walbrook ahead of an annual Stations of the Cross exhibition, opening Thursday. Complaints from several parishioners at the church designed by Christopher Wren in 1672, prompted the rehanging of the exhibition.

• The life-size white imperial stormtrooper from the original 1977 Star Wars film hung on a wooden cross titled ‘Crucified Stormtrooper’ is for sale priced at £12,000. Callanan has worked with the bands Kasabian and Fatboy Slim.

=> ↺ Is Censorship Coming Back to Tunisia? Court Order Bans ‘Blue Whale’ Online Game

• A Tunisian court has ordered authorities to censor two online games that allegedly lead teenagers down a path to suicide. The issue has raised public concerns about self-harm — but also about arbitrary internet censorship.

• The ruling calls on the Tunisian Internet Agency (known by its French acronym ATI) to block access to the Blue Whale Challenge and Mariam games, even though ATI has no legal mandate to block online content.

• The Blue Whale Challenge is a decentralized online game where players are instructed to carry out specific tasks that include self-harm. After fifty days — in some documented cases — they are told to commit suicide. Mariam is a Saudi-developed horror-game that revolves around a lost girl, whom players help guide back home.

=> ↺ EU: More Censorship to “Protect” You

• There appears to be a huge disconnect here between the EU’s professed concern for keeping Europeans safe — as expressed in the one-hour rule — and the EU’s actual refusal to keep Europeans safe in the offline world. The result is that Europeans, manipulated by an untransparent, unaccountable body, will not be kept safe either online or off. And what if the content in question, as has already occurred, may be trying to warn the public about terrorism?

=> ↺ ActiveWatch: Ruling party wants to reinstate political censorship in Romania

• A recent statement by Romanian ruling party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea has triggered worry among media watch organization ActiveWatch members, who warn of his intention to reinstate political censorship in Romania.

• Dragnea, who made the statement at the party’s most recent congress last weekend, plans to reintroduce slander in the Criminal Code, targeting those who criticize Romania abroad by “lying”.

• The ActiveWatch NGO warns that reporting to EU institutions on corruption or anti-democratic policies from Romanian officials would in fact mean defending the country, not slandering. European justice protects every citizen’s right to criticize the governing power in their country, ActiveWatch reminds. Romania’s Constitution also forbids censorship of any kind.

=> ↺ The Chinese reporter’s eye-roll that turned a fawning question into an unmissable TV moment

=> ↺ The Lianghui “Question-Asking Bitch” Incident: Eye-Rolling Journalist Goes Viral on Weibo

=> ↺ A Reporter Rolled Her Eyes, and China’s Internet Broke

=> ↺ Chinese reporter’s viral eye roll gets censored on social media

=> ↺ The eye roll that highlights the depth of China’s censorship

=> ↺ Chinese reporter’s spectacular eye-roll sparks viral memes and censorship

=> ↺ Fox News sued by parents of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich

=> ↺ Parents of Slain Democratic Staffer Sue Fox News Over Story

=> ↺ Slain DNC Staffer Seth Rich’s Family Sues Fox News Over Conspiracy Story

=> ↺ Parents of Seth Rich Sue Fox News Over Retracted Story Connecting Son to WikiLeaks

=> ↺ Seth Rich parents sue Fox News and say network used death as ‘political football’

=> ↺ Seth Rich lawsuit: Fox News sued over WikiLeaks-DNC claims

=> ↺ Seth Rich’s parents sue Fox News over ‘harm’ caused by ‘lies, misrepresentations and half-truths’ in retracted story that they claim fueled conspiracy theories about his death

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Help Us Cure Online Publishing of Its Addiction to Personal Data

• A perfect example of this non-thinking is a recent Business Insider piece that says “Europe’s new privacy laws are going to make the web virtually unsurfable” because the GDPR and ePrivacy (the next legal shoe to drop in the EU) “will require tech companies to get consent from any user for any information they gather on you and for every cookie they drop, each time they use them”, thus turning the web “into an endless mass of click-to-consent forms”.

• Speaking of endless, the same piece says, “News sites—like Business Insider—typically allow a dozen or more cookies to be ‘dropped’ into the web browser of any user who visits.” That means a future visitor to Business Insider will need to click “agree” before each of those dozen or more cookies get injected into the visitor’s browser.

=> ↺ Appellate Court Issues Encouraging Border Search Opinion

• EFF filed an amicus brief last year in the case, arguing that the Supreme Court’s decision in Riley v. California (2014) supports the conclusion that border agents need a probable cause warrant before searching electronic devices because of the unprecedented and significant privacy interests travelers have in their digital data. In Riley, the Supreme Court followed similar reasoning and held that police must obtain a warrant to search the cell phone of an arrestee.

• In U.S. v. Molina-Isidoro, although the Fifth Circuit declined to decide whether the Fourth Amendment requires border agents to get a warrant before searching travelers’ electronic devices, one judge invoked prior case law that could help us establish this privacy protection.

• Ms. Molina-Isidoro attempted to enter the country at the port of entry at El Paso, TX. An x-ray of her suitcase led border agents to find methamphetamine. They then manually searched her cell phone and looked at her Uber and WhatsApp applications. The government sought to use her correspondence in WhatsApp in her prosecution, so she moved to suppress this evidence, arguing that it was obtained in violation of the Constitution because the border agents didn’t have a warrant.

• Unfortunately for Molina-Isidoro, the Fifth Circuit ruled that the WhatsApp messages may be used in her prosecution. But the court avoided the main constitutional question: whether the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant to search an electronic device at the border. Instead, the court held that the border agents acted in “good faith”—an independent basis to deny Molina-Isidoro’s motion to suppress, even if the agents had violated the Fourth Amendment.

=> ↺ The Cloud Act Is a Dangerous Piece of Legislation

• The under-the-radar bill threatens the civil liberties and human rights of global activists and US citizens alike.

• Despite its fluffy sounding name, the recently introduced CLOUD Act is far from harmless. It threatens activists abroad, individuals here in the U.S., and would empower Attorney General Sessions in new disturbing ways. And, now, some members of Congress may be working behind the scenes to sneak it into a gargantuan spending bill that Congress will shortly consider.

• This is why the ACLU and over 20 other privacy and human rights organizations have joined together to oppose the bill. Make no mistake, the CLOUD Act represents a dramatic change in our law, and its effects will be felt across the globe.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ This Mural Quotes Trump’s ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape, and Now the Owner Is Facing Jail Time

• Forcing people to get government approval for artistic expression is a violation of the First Amendment.

• Last fall, Neal Morris, a property owner in New Orleans, commissioned a mural on his warehouse that depicted President Trump’s comments from the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. The mural displayed Trump’s comments verbatim but replaced some of the words with cartoon pictograms.

• Morris expected that the mural, installed on his own property by a local street artist, might stir controversy. But what he didn’t expect was a threatening letter from the city’s Department of Safety and Permits demanding that he take it down or face jail time. The letter accused Morris of a zoning violation and warned that failure to comply would yield “a maximum fine or jail time for each and every day the violation continues plus court costs.”

• That’s right. A resident of an American city could face jail time for a mural that depicts comments the president of the United States actually said — on tape. All this because Morris failed to navigate a confusing bureaucratic process requiring artists and their patrons to get government approval and a permit before installing a mural, even on their own property.

=> ↺ Inadequate Coverage is Costly: Deafening Silence on Puerto Rican Crisis

• How the US responds to natural disasters is increasingly dependent on what we see in the news. In times of disaster, fair and thorough coverage is necessary to support recovery. According to Gabriela Thorne of the Nation, “lack of media coverage makes it hard to get as many donations,” leaving those with less air-time to face a slower, more difficult recovery. This is especially true in territories like Puerto Rico. Months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans still struggle to re-establish normal daily living. Donations are still necessary for their recovery effort, yet establishment news coverage has moved on to other, more sensational topics.

=> ↺ “She Tortured Just for the Sake of Torture”: CIA Whistleblower on Trump’s New CIA Pick Gina Haspel

• Former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou personally knew CIA director nominee Gina Haspel when he worked at the CIA. But their careers have taken very different paths over the past decade. Haspel, who was directly involved in torture at a secret CIA prison in Thailand, has been promoted to head the agency. Kiriakou, who blew the whistle on the torture program, ended up being jailed for 23 months. For more, we speak with John Kiriakou, who spent 14 years at the CIA as an analyst and case officer.

=> ↺ The First Woman Picked to Lead CIA, But Not the First War Criminal

• Ray was interviewed Tuesday about Gina Haspel, just nominated to be CIA director. He found it bizarre to discuss the exploits of the current CIA deputy director/war criminal Haspel, who in 2002 ran the secret prison where “terrorist suspect,” Abu Zubaydah, was waterboarded 83 times.

• Such crimes were documented by a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation, based on original CIA cables and other documents — a four year-long effort, a redacted Executive Summary of which was released in Dec. 2014. It revealed a number of heinous torture techniques used on kidnapped “detainees” and — equally important — gave the lie to claims by top CIA officials that useful intelligence was acquired by the torture.

=> ↺ Trump Administration Wants To Start Sending Secret Service Agents To Polling Stations

• This appears to be the result of Trump’s continued insistence he would have won the popular vote if there hadn’t been so many illegal votes. Of course, the administration has produced no evidence this happened in the last election. The only story that surfaced as a result of this post-election scrutiny was one involving someone who voted twice… for Trump.

• Needless to say, state officials overseeing elections are horrified. The intrusion of the law enforcement branch that works closest with the president would give elections the appearance that Secret Service agents are there to prevent voters from voting for the wrong person. Given Trump’s antipathy towards anyone that isn’t white with a red hat, dispatched agents would certainly deter those not matching the chosen description from exercising their rights.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Research Shows That Published Versions Of Papers In Costly Academic Titles Add Almost Nothing To The Freely-Available Preprints They Are Based On

• The open access movement believes that academic publications should be freely available to all, not least because most of the research is paid for by the public purse. Open access supporters see the high cost of many academic journals, whose subscriptions often run into thousands of dollars per year, as unsustainable for cash-strapped libraries, and unaffordable for researchers in emerging economies. The high profit margins of leading academic publishers — typically 30-40% — seem even more outrageous when you take into account the fact that publishers get almost everything done for free. They don’t pay the authors of the papers they publish, and rely on the unpaid efforts of public-spirited academics to carry out crucial editorial functions like choosing and reviewing submissions.

=> ↺ US Copyright Royalty Board Boosts Songwriters’ Streaming Pay Nearly 50%

• Variety reports: The Copyright Royalty Board has ruled to increase songwriter rates for interactive streaming by nearly 50% over the next five years, in a ruling issued early Saturday. Equally important, the CRB simplified and strengthened the manner in which songwriters are paid mechanical royalties, modifying terms in a way that offers a foothold in the free-market.

• The ruling, in favor of the National Music Publishers’ Association and the Nashville Songwriters’ Association International, amounts to what NMPA president and CEO David Israelite calls “the biggest rate increase granted in CRB history,” with Amazon, Apple, Google, Pandora and Spotify compelled to pay more for the use of music.

=> ↺ Game Developer Embraces Modding Community So Much They Made Their Work An Official Release

• For game developers and publishers, there are lots of ways to react to the modding community that so often creates new and interesting aspects to their games. Some companies look to shut these modding communities down completely, some threaten them over supposed copyright violations, and some developers choose to embrace the modding community and let mods extend the life of their games to ridiculous lengths.

• But few studios have gone as far to embrace modders as developer 1C, makers of IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover. The flight-sim game, released way back in 2011, burst onto the gaming market with decidedly luke-warm reviews. Most of the critiques and public commentary surrounding the game could be best summarized as: “meh.” But a modding community sprung up around the game, calling itself Team Fusion, and developed a litany of mods for IL-2. Rather than looking at these mods as some sort of threat, 1C instead worked with Team Fusion and developed an official re-release of the game incorporating their work.

=> ↺ Playboy Wants to Know Who Downloaded Their Playmate Images From Imgur

• Playboy’s initial attempt to hold the popular blog Boing Boing liable for copyright infringement failed last month. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s completely over. The publisher has requested personal information on the people who uploaded the infringing centerfold footage on YouTube and Imgur, to determine what steps to take next. Interestingly, Imgur ‘downloaders’ are targeted too, which technically includes everyone who viewed the images.

=> ↺ Pirate Site Admins Receive Suspended Sentences, Still Face €60m Damages Claim

• Four men behind one of France’s most successful pirate sites have been handed suspended sentences by the Rennes Criminal Court. Aged between 29 and 36 years old, the former Liberty Land administrators were arrested back in 2011 following a SACEM investigation. The quartet still face a massive 60 million euro damages claim.

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