● 11.05.21

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 5/11/2021: Alpha of Wayland 1.20 and Beta 3 of FreeBSD 12.3

Posted in News Roundup at 12:47 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ TUXEDO Nano Pro is a tiny Linux PC that’s upgradeable and powered by AMD Ryzen

• AMD has been killing it these past few years. The company’s Ryzen processors have been universally praised by both reviewers and consumers alike. In both desktops and laptops, these Ryzen chips have largely put Intel to shame. AMD is undeniably the king of multi-core performance.

• Today, Linux-computer-maker TUXEDO announces an all-new AMD Ryzen-powered computer, but no, it is not a huge tower. Actually, it is a NUC-like mini PC powered by 4000 series Ryzen processors, with the top model being equipped with the Ryzen 7 4800U. Called “Nano Pro – Gen11,” it isn’t just small and powerful, but quite upgradeable too — you can change out the RAM, storage, and Wi-Fi card. And while the mini PC ships with Ubuntu by default, you can choose to also have Windows pre-installed for dual-boot.

=> ↺ System76 Blog — Robert Bunn is developing an AI to prevent preterm births

• The AI platform we’re using is PyTorch for fundamental deep learning. I use something on top of PyTorch called fast.ai, which is a good platform that’s great for prototyping and testing ideas without writing a ton of boilerplate code. AWS also has a ton of resources for deep learning.

• I use Ubuntu because I wanted to start with something I’m familiar with, but honestly, I’m thinking about switching to Pop!_OS. I’m always worried about using a new Linux operating system because if you ever want to do anything, you want to be able to search for problems. Pop!_OS obviously isn’t going to be as good a search word as Ubuntu, right? So, my problem might not appear, and I didn’t know how different it was going to be. But apparently, Pop! _OS is built on Ubuntu and is designed for the laptops you guys have. I like that it turns off the GPU when it’s not in use to save power, so I think it will be a lot more convenient to use on Pop!_OS.

=> ↺ Managing Linux containers is about to get a lot easier on Chrome OS

• Earlier this year, after roughly three years, Google finally lifted the “Beta” label from the Crostini project that brought a Linux development environment to Chromebooks. While many may feel that the Linux side of Chrome OS is only for technical users, developers, and tinkerers such as myself, the ability to install in run Linux packages can bring a lot of value to Chrome OS for even the average consumer. Applications such as GIMP can give users access to more powerful image editing tools that are relatively scant in the web-based ecosystem of Chromebooks. Still, others may be interested in Linux on Chromebooks for the possibility of native gaming via the upcoming Borealis project that will use the same container tech to bring Steam to Chrome OS.

=> ↺ How to install FNF Roblox Youtubers Mod on a Chromebook

• Today we are looking at how to install FNF Roblox Youtubers Mod on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

• If you have any questions, please contact us via a YouTube comment and we would be happy to assist you!

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Creating A “Help” Program For DTOS Using Dmenu – Invidious

• I decided to create a simple bash script to create a “help” program for DTOS. This script will list (in dmenu) some of my tutorial videos on topics such as XMonad, Doom Emacs, etc. Creating such a script should take just a few minutes, so I thought I’d do it on camera.

=> ↺ Technically Speaking (S1E09): Get into GitOps – Invidious

• What happens when your DevOps continuous delivery pipeline meets Git version control and cluster automation? In this episode, Red Hat CTO Chris Wright is joined by Stefan Prodan from Weaveworks to discuss the exciting topic of GitOps, the expanding landscape of everything-as-code- or better yet, data- and some of the tools that can help us with the automation of continuous deployment.

=> ↺ This AWESOME Linux App Should Be On Windows + macOS – Invidious

• …But it’s nice to have an exclusive! We’re back with another app spotlight, and nothing on Windows or macOS can compete with this robust tool!

=> ↺ MX Linux 21 Quick overview #Shorts – Invidious

Kernel Space

=> ↺ ksmbd: a new in-kernel SMB server (SAMBA+ blog)

=> ↺ ksmbd: a new in-kernel SMB server

• “ksmbd” is a new Linux kernel module which implements an SMB server. It’s aimed at being low overhead, low footprint, performant fileserver covering many basic usecases, running on smaller devices with limited resources being the most apparent one: OpenWRT, the Linux distribution for embedded devices, adopted ksmbd already 18 months ago while ksmbd was still being developed.

• ksmbd hit the public in November 2021 as part of the next Linux kernel version 5.15. It is not meant to replace the existing Samba fileserver “smbd”, but rather be an extension and will integrate with Samba in the future.

=> ↺ Linux kernel 5.15 is available, and it has something special for NTFS users

• The latest Linux kernel has been released and it has plenty to offer users and admins alike. But this particular release will be particularly pleasing to those who use Linux as either a file-sharing server or a device that must connect to and use NTFS-partitioned drives. On top of these headline changes, there are other new additions and improvements to be found.

• [...]

• In a word, no. Your best bet is to wait until the kernel is made available via your Linux distribution of choice. Although you can download and compile the latest kernel, it won’t be upgradable through your distribution’s package manager.

• If you use a rolling release, such as Arch or openSUSE Tumbleweed, you will receive the 5.15 kernel much sooner than if your distribution of choice is a static release. We might find kernel 5.15 land in Ubuntu 22.04, which will be released in late April 2022. So, unless you have an absolutely pressing need for these newest additions, your best bet is to hold off until your distribution maintainers include 5.15 in the official release.

Benchmarks

=> ↺ More Linux Performance Benchmark Data For Alder Lake, Comparison Data Points – Phoronix

• With the embargo lifted following this morning’s Intel Core i5 12600K + Core i9 12900K Linux review, I’ve begun uploading more public test data to OpenBenchmarking.org and making my earlier test results public. With that and initial data flowing in from others in the community, here is some more data to poke through if interested in Alder Lake on Linux.

• This page shows all of the amassed data on OpenBenchmarking.org for both the Core i5 12600K and Core i9 12900K. From there you can add in more processors for comparison from the available public data as well as input your own local pricing for seeing custom performance-per-dollar metrics. (As mentioned in today’s Alder Lake Linux review, currently CPUFreq reports bogus clock frequencies of 6.3GHz for the i5-12600K and 6.5GHz for i9-12900K… That’s carried over into this auto-collected information on OpenBenchmarking.org as well, which is why you see those numbers albeit are at stock frequencies.) There’s much more data than could be potentially conveyed in one article.

Applications

=> ↺ HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) Drivers Now Support Ubuntu 21.10 and Debian 11

• HPLIP 3.21.10 is here almost two months after HPLIP 3.21.8 and adds support for the Ubuntu 21.10 (Impish Indri), Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye”, Zorin OS 15, and Zorin OS 16 distributions. This means that you can now use your HP printer/scanner with any of these GNU/Linux distributions if you install the new HPLIP version.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How To Install Deno JavaScript Runtime on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Deno JavaScript Runtime on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Deno is a simple, modern, and secure runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript that uses V8 and is built in Rust. it has high compatibility with existing JavaScript code written with full support for ECMAScript standards.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the Deno JavaScript Runtime on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

=> ↺ Use QEMU to create a hardware dual-boot without rebooting

• After downloading an ISO image, assuming you have QEMU installed, it’s possible to boot an ISO image in a virtual machine and then install that ISO from within the virtual machine directly to a physical drive, bypassing the need to reboot. Simply pass the ISO image as the -cdrom parameter, followed by “format=raw,file=/dev/sdb” (replace /dev/sdb with the drive you want to install to) as the hard drive parameter (making absolutely certain to specify the raw format, of course). Once you boot into the ISO image with QEMU, just run the installer as if it were a virtual machine — it’ll just use the physical device as an install target. After that, you’ll be able to seamlessly boot multiple distros (or even other operating systems) at once.

=> ↺ Install LimeSurvey on Ubuntu 20.04 – Unixcop the Unix / Linux the admins deams

• LimeSurvey is an open-source online survey application, written in PHP and using MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL databases. This utility allows users without programming skills to develop, publish and collect responses to their surveys.

• The application has a friendly web interface that allows us to perform survey operations without any problems. As it is a web application, it can be installed on servers with different operating systems.

• The developers of the application believe in the open-source philosophy, so the application also follows it. This allows us to examine the source code and thus verify the security of the application.

=> ↺ Using chpasswd to change account passwords on Linux | Network World

• The chpasswd command allows admins to change account passwords by piping username and password combinations to it.

• This can be done one-account-at-a-time or by putting all of the accounts to be modified in a file and piping the file to the command.

=> ↺ Getting Started with Docker: Install Docker Engine – LinuxLinks

• Docker is a set of platform as a service (PaaS) products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers.

• A container is software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another. A Docker container image is a lightweight, standalone, secure, executable package of software that includes everything needed to run an application: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries, and settings.

• The software that hosts the containers is called Docker Engine.

• Let’s go through you the steps to install Docker Engine. We’re using the 64-bit version of Ubuntu Impish 21.10. If you encounter problems with older releases, please share in the Comments box below.

=> ↺ How to Change or Reset Forgotten Root Password in RHEL 8

• You can never really relate to the priceless beauty and performance of RHEL 8 Linux operating system distribution until you have given it a try. Its user interface is always scaling to better visual appeal, its multi-monitor handling technique is one of a kind, and its security model speaks for itself.

• The only thing that can come between an RHEL user’s full exploration of this Linux distribution is human nature. Human nature will convince us to create/set a one-of-a-kind root password on our Linux systems and be responsible for displacing the same unique password.

=> ↺ How To Install Mattermost on AlmaLinux 8 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Mattermost on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Mattermost is a secure, open-source platform for communication, collaboration, and workflow orchestration across tools and teams. Mattermost is a free Slack alternative. Mattermost is available in open source and enterprise editions. Open Source edition is free, whereas Enterprise editions require a per-user license. You can find Mattermost Pricing plans on their official website.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Mattermost on AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.

=> ↺ How to Install and Configure Memcached on Debian 11

• Memcached is an open-source and distributed memory object caching system that holds the most frequently queried data in memory. This will reduce data load time as well as provide ease of access to the database. You can use Memcached to speed up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load. It is simple, easy to deploy and can be integrated with several programming languages including PHP, Python and more.

• In this tutorial, I will show you how to install Memcached on Debian 11.

=> ↺ Setup simple CI/CD pipeline using Github and Jenkins on an AWS EC2 Linux instance

• In this article we will see the steps to implement a simple CI/CD pipeline using Jenkins. We will be using a sample Java code and we will be deploying that code onto Apache Tomcat Web-Server as a .war file. We will be using Maven as a build tool. You can find the sample Java code on my Github Repository(repo). Before we proceed, let’s understand the basics of the tools and technologies that we will be using in setting up the CI/CD pipeline.

=> ↺ How to install RVM- Ruby Version Manager on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

• RVM- Ruby Version Manager is a tool meant to use the command line for installing and managing the various ruby versions easily. Here we see the commands for installation of RVM on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal fossa.

=> ↺ How do you tell if a problem is caused by DNS?

• I was looking into problems people were having with DNS a few months ago and I noticed one common theme – a lot of people have server issues (“my server is down! or it’s slow!“), but they can’t tell if the problem is caused by DNS or not.

• So here are a few tools I use to tell if a problem I’m having is caused by DNS, as well as a few DNS debuggging stories from my life.

=> ↺ How to install the Wekan kanban server – TechRepublic

• If you (or your teammates) aren’t using a kanban board to keep yourself and your projects on task, you’re missing out. Kanban boards make managing projects incredibly easier. And the more complex a task, the better.

=> ↺ How To Download Debian CDs, DVDs and Old Versions with Jigdo Made Easy

• We know that Debian in every release is distributed in multiple volumes of CDs and DVDs which are numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on. One Debian release may amount to 20 GigaBytes total or equal to dozens of CDs or DVDs. Officially, Debian provides only CD1 and DVD1, while the rest of CD2 to CD50, DVD2 to DVD10, not provided in the Debian server and neither Debian mirrors. Although CD1 or DVD1 is sufficient to install Debian to computer, some people, like teachers and students, might want the additional CDs or DVDs for no internet access purposes. The official way to download the additional CDs or DVDs is by using a program called Jigdo. This tutorial explains how to do that simply and easily picture by picture.

=> ↺ Things To Do After Installing Fedora 35

• Fedora releases a new version in approximately every 6 months. Each now version is supported with updates for 13 months in total. The distribution is a good place to get the latest stable software and technologies consistently.

=> ↺ hings To Do After Installing Ubuntu 21.10 & 20.04

• Ubuntu releases a new version every six months. However, most of the stuff you may need to do after installing the new version are generally the same. This article will guide you through enhancing your new system. No matter what supported version of Ubuntu you use, you can follow those steps.

=> ↺ How to install Synfig Studio on Elementary OS 6.0

• Firstly we run an optional command, this command is only needed if you cant launch Flatpak applications like your default browser on your system. For some reason, we couldn’t, so if you can, you can skip the first command.

Distributions

BSD

=> ↺ FreeBSD 12.3-BETA3 Now Available

=> ↺ Wayland 1.20 Alpha Released With Upstreamed FreeBSD Support, Autotools Nuked

• With the plans to release Wayland 1.20 before Christmas, Wayland 1.20 Alpha was released on Thursday to kick off the start of the release process.

• Wayland 1.20 will arrive about ten months after Wayland 1.19 and comes at a time when most of the interesting Wayland work is happening in the compositor space or the various support libraries like wlroots and libweston or other components. Wayland 1.20 Alpha does feature upstreamed FreeBSD support that is also now receiving CI coverage for ensuring the Wayland support on this BSD remains in better shape moving forward.

=> ↺ wayland 1.19.91

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ The Power of Caring: Helping the flood victims in Germany | SUSE Communities

• This blog is a part of ‘The Power of Caring’, a series dedicated to sharing some of the inspiring stories from our team and how they leveraged SUSE’s Employee giving program ‘SUSEcares’, to make a positive impact around the world, through the act of giving.

• Our first blog features Monika Bach, Executive Assistant in the Engineering Operations team and a Women in Tech Ambassador, based in Nuremberg, who shares her experience in leading a company wide event to support Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH).

IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

=> ↺ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 emerges in beta form • The Register

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Data centre networking: SDDC

• In the previous blogs, we covered the architecture and main drivers behind software-defined networking. In this one, we discuss the impact of softwarisation on the other important data centre building blocks, culminating in software-defined data centres (SDDC). SDDC occupies a progressively larger segment of the cloud computing space, originally adopted by public cloud service providers and hyperscalers, and now finding a home with private cloud service providers, too. First, let’s consider which drivers influenced the evolution of data centres.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox 94 on POWER

• Firefox 94 is released. I have little interest in the colourizer, but I do like about:unloads and EGL support on Linux for great WebGL justice even on X11 (I don’t use the Wayland Wasteland), at least if you have an AMD/ATI card like the WX7100 Raptor sells as a BTO option. There are also various performance improvements and a fun feature where you can use a different Mozilla VPN server for each separate multi-account container, the latter probably being Firefox’s most useful capability right now. The LTO-PGO patch is unchanged from Firefox 93 and the .mozconfigs are unchanged from Firefox 90.

=> ↺ Waterfox: A Firefox fork that could teach Mozilla a lesson

=> ↺ same spying company that owns Startpage

• As Firefox’s share of the browser market continues to slide, the Waterfox Project shows some of the ways that Mozilla is failing to listen to its users – and it’s far from the only example.

• Waterfox, which has just released its fourth version, came to your correspondent’s attention after the arrival of Firefox 57, codenamed Quantum, which represented a major change in the program, complete with parts of the browser engine written in Rust.

• (The Rust language itself started out as a Mozilla project. Despite Rust’s popularity, within three years, Mozilla would also lay off members of the Rust language team.)

• The problem with Firefox Quantum is that it also dropped a very significant feature: Netscape’s XUL-based extension engine, added way back in 1997. To quote the Classic Addons Archive, dropping XUL meant losing “19,450 Firefox add-ons created by 14,274 developers over the past 15 years.” At a stroke this crippled one of Firefox’s killer features: how users could extensively customise it – unlike, say, Google Chrome.

CMS

=> ↺ The Month in WordPress: October 2021

• October 2021 brought a lot of new things to WordPress, from release updates to new versions of Gutenberg. More notably, in the latest episode of WP Briefing, Executive Director Josepha Haden reminded us about the importance of freedom in open source platforms like WordPress.

FSF

=> ↺ Activists (including the FSF) helped secure a new round of DMCA anticircumvention exemptions

• We have some good news to share. The FSF was one of several activist organizations pushing for exemptions to the anticircumvention rules under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that make breaking Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) illegal, even for ethical and legitimate purposes. We helped bring public awareness to a process that is too often only a conversation between lawyers and bureaucrats. As of late last week, there are now multiple new exemptions that will help ease some of the acute abuse DRM inflicts on users. However, the main lesson to be learned here is that we should and must keep pushing. Individual, specific exemptions are not enough. The entire anticircumvention law needs to be repealed. We want to thank the 230 individuals who co-signed their names to our comments supporting exemptions across the board. We should take this as a sign that even though it can be difficult, anti-DRM activism yields practical results.

• Section 1201 is one of the most nefarious sections of the DMCA. The provisions contained in 1201 impose legal penalties against anyone trying to circumvent the DRM on their software and devices or, in other words, anyone who tries to control that software or device themselves instead of leaving it up to its corporate overlords. Section 1201 opens up those who try to study, repair, or research restricted devices to potentially serious legal penalties. Something that doesn’t help matters is the intentionally complex series of hoops concerned citizens, researchers, and activists around the world are forced to jump through to voice objection to current anticircumvention rules, or to propose new exemptions.

• This bureaucratic nightmare is the only way to lobby for changes in Section 1201, and the fact that it has to be done every three years makes it a recurring one. Nothing abates the added terror of our being granted use anticircumvention exemptions, but being forbidden to share the tools that make this possible. It takes the hard work of hundreds to secure the anticircumvention use exemptions we already have, and even more work to eke out a few more. Yet thanks to the support of citizens, activists, and researchers around the world, the US Copyright Office has approved a few more, while at the same time demonstrating the DMCA’s serious flaws.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ an inside look into the illicit ad industry

• One day, I was chilling in IRC, when I got a PM from my friend: he had gotten an inquiry from a possible client that needed help reverse engineering a piece of obfuscated JavaScript. I said something like “sounds like fun, send it over, and I’ll see what I come up with.” The script in question was called popunder.js and did exactly what you think it does. The customer in question had started a popunder ad network, and needed help adapting this obfuscated popunder script to work with his system, which he built using a software called Revive Adserver, a fork of the last GPL version of OpenX.

• I rolled my eyes and reverse engineered the script for him, allowing him to adapt it for his ad network. The adaptation was a success, and he wired me a sum that was triple my quoted hourly rate. This, admittedly, resulted in me being very curious about his business, as at the time, I was not used to making that kind of money. Actually, I’m still not.

• A few weeks passed, and he approached me with a proposition: he needed somebody who could reverse engineer the JavaScript programs delivered by ad networks and figure out how the scripts worked. As he was paying considerably more than my advertised hourly rate, I agreed, and got to work reverse engineering the JavaScript programs he required. It was nearly a full time job, as these programs kept evolving.

• In retrospect, he probably wasn’t doing anything with the reports I wrote on each piece of JavaScript I reverse engineered, as that wasn’t the actual point of the exercise: in reality, he wanted me to become familiar with the techniques ad networks used to detect fraud, so that we could develop countermeasures. In other words, the engagement evolved into a red-team type engagement, except that we weren’t testing the ad networks for their sake, but instead ours.

=> ↺ Automated cross-platform tools for ARM developers

• IAR’s Build Tools for ARM streamline automated build and test processes in software frameworks built on Ubuntu, Red Hat or Windows

Python

=> ↺ Python’s Semi Colon Makes Absolutely No Sense – Invidious

• I like Python it’s a fun and simple language to work with but every so often I remember it supports semi colon for what seems like absolutely no reason when nobody using the language actually uses it.

=> ↺ Antoine Beaupré: A Python contextmanager gotcha

Leftovers

Hardware

=> ↺ Big RGB LED Cube You Can Build Too | Hackaday

• LED cubes are really nothing new, many of us consider the building of a good sized one almost an electronics right of passage that not so many manage to find the time or have the skill to pull off. It’s our pleasure to draw your attention to a lovely build, showing all the processes involved, the problems and the solutions found along the way.

• Building a small cube is somewhat of a trivial affair, especially without considering PWM colour mixing, however as simple maths will illustrate, as you increase the number of LEDs on each side, the total number will quickly get quite large. More LEDs need more power and increase control complexity considerably. A larger matrix like this 16 x 16 x 16 LED build, has a total of 4096. This would be a nightmare to drive with plain RGB LEDs, even with cunning multiplexing, but luckily you can buy indexable LEDs in a through-hole package similar to the ubiquitous WS2812-based SMT LEDs you see around. These are based on the PD9823 controller, which can be programmed as if they were a WS2812, at least according to this analysis. Now you can simply chain a column of LEDs, with the control signal passed from LED to nearest neighbour.

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ Antibiotic resistance is at a crisis point – government support for academia and Big Pharma to find new drugs could help defeat superbugs

• Antibiotic resistance poses one of the most important health challenges of the 21st century. And time has already run out to stop its dire consequences.

• The rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria has already led to a significant increase in human disease and death. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 2.8 million people worldwide are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, accounting for 35,000 deaths each year in the U.S. and 700,000 deaths around the globe.

• A 2019 joint report by the United Nations, World Health Organization and World Organization for Animal Health states that drug-resistant diseases could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 and force up to 24 million people into extreme poverty by 2030 if no action is taken. Superbugs are already able to evade all existing treatments – a 70-year-old woman from Nevada died in 2016 from a bacterial infection resistant to every available antibiotic in the U.S.

• I am a biochemist and microbiologist who has been researching and teaching about antibiotic development and resistance over the past 20 years. I believe that solving this crisis requires more than just proper antibiotic use by doctors and patients. It also requires mutual investment and collaboration across industries and the government.

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

=> ↺ Craig Federighi vehemently speaks out against iPhone sideloading in Web Summit keynote: ‘Sideloading is a cybercriminal’s best friend’

=> ↺ Windows 11 hit by another bug as Microsoft’s File Explorer nightmare gets worse

• Windows 11 has been hit with a new bug, and this one is yet another glitch that’s proving problematic with a core part of the operating system’s interface – namely File Explorer.

• File Explorer simply refers to the files and folders on your drive, that you regularly interact with in windows on the desktop – that’s how central it is to the Windows 11 experience, and now a new gremlin in the works is slowing down performance when the context menu is invoked.

• The context menu appears when you right click on a file or folder (or the desktop itself), giving you a bunch of further possible context-sensitive actions to take.

Security

=> ↺ Critical Linux Kernel Bug Allows Remote Takeover | Threatpost

• The bug (CVE-2021-43267) exists in a TIPC message type that allows Linux nodes to send cryptographic keys to each other.

• A critical heap-overflow security vulnerability in the Transparent Inter Process Communication (TIPC) module of the Linux kernel could allow local exploitation and remote code execution, leading to full system compromise.

=> ↺ GitLab servers are being exploited in DDoS attacks in excess of 1 Tbps

• Threat actors are exploiting a security flaw in GitLab self-hosted servers to assemble botnets and launch gigantic distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, with some in excess of 1 terabit per second (Tbps).

• The DDoS attacks, disclosed today by Damian Menscher, a Security Reliability Engineer at Google Cloud responsible for Google’s DDoS defenses, are exploiting CVE-2021-22205, a vulnerability that GitLab patched back in April 2021.

=> ↺ GitLab servers are being exploited in DDoS attacks (The Record)

• The vulnerability was fixed in April, but evidently a lot of sites have not updated.

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ Quantum Technologies and Space – ESPI Online Event

• This webinar will be a launch event of an upcoming study “Quantum technologies and space”, produced by European Patent Office (EPO) and European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). This study explores the major contemporary trends in the domain of space applications of Quantum Technologies through patent data analysis.

• EPO, ESPI and ESA currently collaborate on a series of space-themed “Patent insight reports”, a publicly available series of studies available on EPO website, which focus on exploitation of global patent filing data in order to identify major trends and technology developments in specific sub-domains of the space sector. The first study of this series, exploiting patent statistics in the domain of Cosmonautics, has been published in July 2021.

=> ↺ Immutep Granted Chinese Patent for Eftilagimod Alpha, a Soluble Lag-3 Protein, in Combination with a Chemotherapy Agent

=> ↺ CVR Medical Corp. Announces the Intention to Grant a Patent

=> ↺ considerable demise of patent quality at the EPO

• CVR Medical is pleased to announce that it has received a Communication under Rule 71(3) from the European Patent Office (the “EPO”) for its Sensor, Sensor Pad and Sensor Array for Detecting Infrasonic Acoustic Signals informing CVR of the intention to grant a patent based on the prosecuted application. This is the first allowed patent application for CVR Medical at the EPO and an integral part of the CVR IP portfolio with an early priority date of June 24, 2010. The application, which was prosecuted under application no. 11754558.2 is directed to a sensor, sensor pad and sensor array for detecting infrasonic signals in a living organism and can be used for detecting levels of stenosis, occlusion, or aneurysm in arteries. CVR Medical will issue an update on Patents and clinical developments as we move forward.

=> ↺ EU heads plastic recycling innovation

• Europe leads the world in innovation in plastic recycling and bioplastic technologies, according to a report from the European Patent Office (EPO). The 38 member states covered by the EPO accounted for 30% of patenting activity worldwide in these sectors between 2010 and 2019. This effort, seen as crucial in tackling plastic waste, was matched only by the US – also on 30%. ‘While plastics are essential to the economy, plastic pollution is threatening ecosystems all over the planet,’ says EPO President António Campinos. ‘The good news is that innovation can help us to address this challenge by enabling the transition to a fully circular model.’

=> ↺ EBA decision in G1/21 (ViCo): “In-person proceedings should be the default”

=> ↺ Epic EPO corruption was witnessed in this case

• The written decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) in G1/21 on the legality of video conferencing oral proceedings has been released. As previously reported, the EBA chose not to explicitly answer the referred question of the broader legality of mandatory ViCo oral proceedings. The EBA instead limited their order to addressing the situation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, unlike the initial EPO press release (IPKat), the detailed reasoning of the EBA does provide a view on the appropriateness of continuing with mandatory ViCo oral proceedings post-pandemic, and goes so far as to state that in-person proceedings should be the default in the absence of a state of general emergency. The full decision can be read here.

• G1/21 Case catch-up

• In order to avoid a large back-log of cases during the COVID-19 pandemic, the EPO began holding Board of Appeal oral proceedings by video conference (ViCo). The EPO went further by also laying the groundwork for the continued use of ViCo in Boards of Appeal oral proceedings post-pandemic, with the introduction of a new Rule of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (RPBA), Article 15a (IPKat). Article 15a RPBA permits a Board of Appeal to hold oral proceedings by ViCo whenever “the Board considers it appropriate to do so”.

• The EPO’s swift move to mandatory ViCo oral proceedings was controversial to say the least. It was therefore unsurprising when news broke of a new referral to the EBA on the legality of the new provision. The referral stems from appeal T1807/15 of the opposition decision to maintain EP1609239 in amended form (IPKat).

=> ↺ In the aftermath of G 1/21: The Future of Video Proceedings in the EPO

• The Enlarged Board of Appeal has now issued its long-awaited full decision in case G 1/21. Readers can access it here. The decision deserves a few comments.

=> ↺ FOSS Patents: Qualcomm executive: ‘everyone involved [in automotive patent licensing negotiation groups] should go to jail’ for cartel law violation

• Just to avoid any misunderstanding, I must clarify that Qualcomm Senior VP Fabian Gonnell didn’t demand the immediate incarceration of automotive industry executives seeking an exemption from cartel law for the purpose of operating standard-essential patent (SEP) licensing negotiation groups (LNGs). Speaking at yesterday’s IAM Auto IP Conference in Munich, Mr. Gonnell was saying that “there is nothing innovative” about LNGs, as the proposal comes down to what’s been known–and deemed illegal–for over a century as a buyers’ cartel if the net effect was collective hold out. If–in the alternative–LNGs didn’t impede bilateral license agreements, they wouldn’t make any impact. Therefore, LNGs should remain illegal, and should some fail to abide by the law as it stands, “everyone involved should go to jail.”

• This blog doesn’t always agree with Qualcomm. Prior to that conference, the last time I saw Mr. Gonnell was when he testified at the FTC v. Qualcomm trial in San Jose, and I disagreed with much of it. But on the subject of LNGs I believe one cannot reasonably disagree that they are, and should remain, illegal. I’m not talking about a couple of small IoT startups joining forces to negotiate a SEP license, but about large corporations (with all the resources to engage in good-faith licensing negotiations) orchestrating collective holdout.

• In a recent speech, EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager outlined her plans and priorities for a new era of cartel enforcement. While automotive LNGs weren’t explicitly mentioned, they share some of the key characteristics of cartel problems Mrs. Vestager touched on. In my post on the commissioner’s speech you can also find links to my three July 2021 posts on LNGs. If I had to sum up those three posts in one sentence, I would not just point to Mr. Gonnell’s “everyone involved should go to jail” remark.

=> ↺ Progress on Austria’s bill to ratify UPC Agreement’s Protocol on Provisional Application

=> ↺ Bristows

• Draft legislation enabling Austria to ratify the Protocol on the Provisional Application (PPA) of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (UPCA) is currently passing through the parliamentary process. The National Council assigned the bill to its Research, Innovation and Digitisation Committee in July and, as reported here, yesterday the Committee unanimously approved the bill. The bill now returns to the National Council for its second and third readings, and if passed will be considered adopted and Austria would be able to ratify the PPA. If Austria does ratify and deposit the instrument of ratification with the Council of the EU, sufficient countries will have ratified (or otherwise consented to be bound by the provisional application of certain UPCA provisions) for the provisional application phase to start, and final preparations for the introduction of the UPC and unitary patent system can start in earnest.

=> ↺ Pinsent Masons life sciences team grows again with six CMS hires

=> ↺ UPC Preparatory Committee’s October optimistic for the UPC becoming a reality in 2022

=> ↺ fake news about UPC

• The report of the October 2021 meeting of UPC Preparatory Committee provides some further support for the slow, but increasingly sure progress regarding the steps required for the Unified Patent Court to become a reality. First, the report confirms that the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities entered into force on 27 October 2021. This is a rather technical development but it is a forerunner for the entry into force of the Protocol on Provisional Application, which requires just one more participating country to deposit its instrument of ratification in order to come into force. That will then allow the final preparations for the United Patent Court to be completed.

Software Patents

=> ↺ Sound View Patent Narrowed After Ex Parte Reexamination

• In 2020, Unified filed an ex parte reexamination (Reexam) request against patents owned by Sound View Innovations, a non-practicing entity (NPE) that has sued various companies for their use of widely-adopted Internet technologies. In early October 2021, the Reexam of U.S. Patent 6,725,456 concluded with a “Notice of intent to issue a Reexamination Certificate” (Notice of Intent) that highlights a problematic habit of NPEs like Sound View: reading a patent broadly when accusing others of infringing and narrowly when its validity is in question. The Notice of Intent casts serious doubt on Sound View’s infringement theories and still leaves open future questions about validity. The examiner narrowed claims that Sound View has asserted repeatedly were much broader in court complaints. The Reexam (and every ex parte reexamination since 2000) can be found on Unified’s Portal here.

• Challenged claim 13 of the ’456 patent relates to a method of ensuring a particular quality of service for an application in a computer system. The claim recites a “resource reservation” and the examiner credited Sound View’s arguments that the claim required “two separate and distinct values to be associated with each resource reservation[.]” Notice of Intent, p. 6; see Office Action Response, p. 19. In particular, the examiner took the position that the resource reservation must specify both a “weight” and a “minimum amount of resources.” Id. The examiner held that specifying a minimum amount of resources in a resource reservation, which results in a weight being associated with that resource reservation, is not sufficient to read on the claim. Conversely, specifying a weight in a resource reservation, which results in a minimum amount of resources being allocated, is also not sufficient to read on the claim. Rather, as Sound View argued, allocating both a weight and a minimum amount of resources was needed according to the examiner. See Office Action Response, p. 23.

=> ↺ Proven Networks patent has all claims cancelled — Unified Patents

• On November 3, 2021, the USPTO filed a notice of intent to cancel claims 1-18 of U.S. Patent 8,018,852, owned by Proven Networks, LLC. The ‘852 patent relates to a port selection technique used in a network switching environment where there are multiple equal-cost paths between two nodes.

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