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● 01.10.22

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● Links 10/1/2022: DragonFly BSD 6.2 and Mint/Firefox Collaboration

Posted in News Roundup at 1:48 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: January 9th, 2022

• This week has been really great, a strong start for the Linux and Open Source ecosystem in 2022. We finally got the Linux Mint 20.3 release, which was promised to us on Christmas 2021 but it didn’t happen, we got a new Ubuntu Touch OTA update for our Linux phones, and we got a brand new Linux kernel to play with.

• On top of that, there were new releases of the Ubuntu Deepin Remix, KaOS Linux, Clonezilla Live, and GeckoLinux distributions, as well as new updates for fans of the KDE Plasma desktop environment. Also, System76 teased us with a new Linux laptop and I show newcomers how to upgrade their Linux Mint installations.

Server

=> ↺ 10 Best Udemy Linux Learning Courses in 2022

• Linux, the family of open-source computers based on the Linux kernel is the most popular operating system in the world. The kernel is at the core of billions of computers ranging from heavy-duty servers, satellites, cars, and mining computers to smartphones, washing machines, palmtops, and IoT devices.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Josh Bressers: Episode 305 – Norton, Ethereum, NFT, and Apes

• Josh and Kurt talk about Norton creating an Ethereum mining pool. This is almost certainly a bad idea, we explain why. We then discuss the reality of NFTs and the case of stolen apes. NFTs can be very confusing. The whole world of cryptocurrency is very confusing for normal people. None of this is new, there have always been con artists, there will always be con artists.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 5.16 Released! What’s New?

• Linux Kernel 5.16 is finally here, and while it doesn’t bring lots of features or improvements, there are a handful of features that might matter to Linux gamers and desktop users. Here’s everything new in the Linux Kernel 5.16.

• One of the release highlights is the improvements in the performance of Intel and AMD CPUs and GPUs. Apart from that, ARM platforms like the Raspberry Pi have also been improved. The AMD, Intel CPU, and GPU claims were tested by our good friends at Phoronix, and the results showed great improvements.

=> ↺ Linux 5.16 Release – Main Changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

• Not a lot here since -rc8, which is not unexpected. We had that extra week due to the holidays, and it’s not like we had lots of last-minute things that needed to be sorted out.

• So this mainly contains some driver fixes (mainly networking and rdma), a cgroup credential use fix, a few core networking fixes, a couple of last-minute reverts, and some other random noise. The appended shortlog is so small that you might as well scroll through it.

• This obviously means that the merge window for 5.17 opens tomorrow, and I’m happy to say I already have several pending early pull requests. I wish I had even more, because this merge window is going to be somewhat painful due to unfortunate travel for family reasons. So I’ll be doing most of it on the road on a laptop – something I generally try to avoid.

Applications

=> ↺ HandBrake 1.5 Open-Source Video Transcoder Released with Better Flatpak Support

• Coming six months after HandBrake 1.4, the HandBrake 1.5 update is here to further improve support for the Flatpak universal binary format by updating the dependencies to the Freedesktop Platform 21.08 and GNOME 41 stack, updating the Intel QSV Flatpak plugin to use Intel MediaSDK 21.3.5, and fixing several potential race conditions in the Flatpak build process.

• This means that the next time you’re updating or installing HandBrake as a Flatpak on your GNU/Linux distribution, you’ll notice more stability and better compatibility with recent GNU/Linux technologies.

=> ↺ QPrompt is a Free and Open Source Teleprompter for Video Creators

• These days, all sorts of people are creating video contents. From the professional YouTubers to school teachers, creating video content has become part of various job profiles.

• From screen recorders to video editors, there are various tools that help create good videos. Teleprompter is also one such tool.

• A teleprompter runs visual cues or even complete text so that a speaker can take hints while speaking. You might have seen news readers using the teleprompter.

• There are dedicated teleprompter software that can be run on computer or mobile device.

=> ↺ Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Autodesk Flame

• Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software company that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. It bills itself as a “… leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software”.

• The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, who was a joint developer of the first versions of AutoCAD, the company’s best known software application. Autodesk is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, it has over 11,000 employees, and is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Make Spotify’s Desktop App Look Great with Custom Themes

• Do you think the official Spotify for Linux client would look better with a major restyle? So did the devs behind customisation tool Spicetify, which can do just that.

• I last showcased a “hacky” way to use custom Spotify skins back in 2016 using the Spotio project. That effort is long dormant but several similarly-minded methods have emerged in the years since, enabled by comprehensive CLI tool Spicetify (via Diolinux).

• Now, I’ve put “hacky” in quotes there as while these efforts aren’t “one click” solutions that most users will feel comfortable applying, they’re not exactly difficult or exotic to achieve, either. It’s also not exclusive to Linux; you can use the exact same themes on Windows and macOS systems too.

=> ↺ Fork, exec, wait and exit system call explained in Linux – VITUX

• The sequence of instructions and data that can be executed a single time, multiple time,s or concurrently are called programs. And the process is the execution of such programs. So those processes can run many programs. In the same process, the operating system can load different programs. Reused process states like current directories, privileges, file handles, etc are inherited by the new programs. Such things are done at the same level with the syscalls like fork(), exec(), wait() and exit().

• In this article, we are going to discuss the Linux syscalls fork(), exec(), wait() and exit() in detail with examples and the use cases.

=> ↺ How to Install Apache Tomcat 10 with Nginx on Rocky Linux 8

• Tomcat is an open-source web server for Java-based applications. It is used for deploying Java Servlet and JSP applications. Java servlets are small programs defining how a server handles requests and responses. Tomcat acts as an open-source implementation of the Java Servlet, JavaServer Pages, Java Expression Language, and Java WebSocket technologies.

• There are multiple versions of Tomcat available. We will discuss the installation of Tomcat 10 for our tutorial. If you want to install Tomcat 9, the instructions will be the same. If there are any changes, they will be specified in the tutorial.

• For our tutorial, we will install Tomcat 10 along with the Nginx server to act as a reverse proxy and protect it using SSL. There is a Tomcat 10.1.x version which is the latest alpha version of Tomcat, but we will not be installing that.

=> ↺ How to Create XFS File System in Linux (Step by Step)

• XFS is a 64-bit journaling file system and used where high performance is required. XFS file system is available in most of the linux distribution like Ubuntu, Debian and RHEL. In RHEL based distributions XFS is the default file system.

• In guide, we will learn how to create XFS file system from the scratch step by step and then also learn how to mount and use it. For managing file system in Linux, we need a user with sudo privileges. For the demonstration purpose, I have attached 10 GB (/dev/sdb) disk to my linux system. I would be creating XFS file system on it.

• Let’s deep dive into the steps,

=> ↺ How To Install Linux Kernel 5.15 on Debian 11 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Linux Kernel 5.15 on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, Linux Kernel 5.15 has been released on Halloween, on October 31st, 2021 with lots of new interesting new features. The Linux 5.15 kernel release further improves the support for AMD CPUs and GPUs, Intel’s 12th Gen CPUs, and brings new features like NTFS3, KSMBD (CIFS/SMB3), and further Apple M1 support, amongst many other changes and additions.

• 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 GoAccess web log analyzer on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

=> ↺ How to Install Git on CentOS 9 Stream – LinuxCapable

• Git is a mature, actively maintained open source project initially developed in 2005 by Linus Torvalds, the famous Linux operating system kernel creator. Git is designed for developers that need a pretty straightforward version control system. Most software is collaborative efforts and sometimes can have hundreds of people with commits working on software development projects. It is essential to track these commits customarily done in branches in most projects before being merged into the master for release. It is easy to review and track down any incorrect commits and revert, leading to a much easier development if anything goes wrong.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Git on CentOS 9 Stream Server or Desktop in various methods.

=> ↺ How to Install Discord on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS – LinuxCapable

• Discord is a free voice, video, and text chat app used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends. Users communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media, and files in private chats or as part of communities called “servers.” Discord is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux Distros.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Discord client on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish using three different methods.

=> ↺ How to Install Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) on Fedora 35 – LinuxCapable

• The Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) is known to be one of the most excellent aesthetic-looking desktop environments created by the developers of Deepin Linux. It is often regarded too as the most beautiful desktop on Linux. For users of Fedora, this can be easily installed and be an optional choice for those that like to hop between desktops.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) on Fedora 35 Workstation.

=> ↺ How to Install and Configure Memcached on Rocky Linux/Alma Linux 8 – Citizix

• In this guide we will learn how to install and configure Memcached in RHEL 8 based systems like Rocky Linux and Alma Linux 8.

• Memcached is an open source, distributed memory object caching system. The system caches data and objects in memory to minimize the frequency with which an external database or API must be accessed. This alleviates database load and speeds up dynamic Web applications. It offers a mature, scalable, open-source solution for delivering sub-millisecond response times making it useful as a cache or session store. Memcached is a popular choice for powering real-time applications in Web, Mobile Apps, Gaming, Ad-Tech, and E-Commerce.

• Unlike databases that store data on disk or SSDs, Memcached keeps its data in memory. By eliminating the need to access disks, in-memory key-value stores such as Memcached avoid seek time delays and can access data in microseconds. Memcached is also distributed, meaning that it is easy to scale out by adding new nodes. And since Memcached is multithreaded, you can easily scale up compute capacity. As a result of its speed and scalability as well as its simple design, efficient memory management, and API support for most popular languages Memcached is a popular choice for high-performance, large-scale caching use cases.

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

• In this guide, we will learn how to install and configure Elasticsearch on Debian 11.

• Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analytics engine built on Apache Lucene. It provides a distributed, multitenant-capable full-text search engine with an HTTP web interface and schema-free JSON documents. Elasticsearch has quickly become the most popular search engine and is commonly used for log analytics, full-text search, security intelligence, business analytics, and operational intelligence use cases.

=> ↺ How To Install Linux Kernel 5.16 In Ubuntu / Linux Mint | Tips On UNIX

• Linus Torvalds announced the Linux Kernel 5.16 after a few weeks of development and is available for general usage with driver fixes, a few core networking fixes, and some random issues.

=> ↺ How to Set Up a Reverse Proxy With Apache – CloudSavvy IT

• Apache is a versatile web server which offers a full complement of supporting features, some of them via extensions. In this article, we’ll use the mod_proxy module to configure Apache in a reverse proxy role.

• While Apache might not be your first choice as a reverse proxy, with more modern alternatives like NGINX tending to steal attention, mod_proxy is useful for servers which are already running Apache and now need to route traffic to another service. You can set up an Apache virtual host to pass on requests for a given domain to a separate web server.

• We’re using Apache 2.4 with a Debian-based system for the purposes of this guide. We’ll also assume the servers you want to proxy traffic to are already network-accessible from your Apache host. This article focuses on enabling proxying based on a unique virtual host but mod_proxy is also configurable globally, as part of your Apache server config, or at the directory-level via .htaccess files.

=> ↺ How to Install vsftpd FTP Server and Secure it with TLS on Debian 11

• File Transfer Protocol or FTP is a very old and one of the most well-known network protocols. It is not secure compared to SFTP or SCP these days but is still the first choice of many users for transferring files between a server and a client. FTP is known as insecure because it transfers data along with user credentials without any type of encryption.

• We have a wild range of open-source FTP servers available nowadays like FTPD, VSFTPD, PROFTPD, and pureftpd. Among all of them, VSFTPD is a very secure, fast, and most wildly used protocol for transferring files between two systems.

• VSFTPD is also known as “Very Secure File Transfer Protocol Daemon” with support of SSL, IPv6, explicit and implicit FTPS.

• In this guide, We will show you How to Install vsftpd FTP Server on Debian 11.

=> ↺ How to Install and Use Cockpit in Rocky Linux

• Server management does not have to feel like rocket science thanks to Cockpit’s contributive footprints. This server management software makes it flexibly easy for anyone to manage their Linux servers either locally or remotely.

• Through a web browser interface, Cockpit yields real-time information regarding your server machine status. Such system information includes but is not limited to system running processes, networking, system storage, applications, file system statistics, and CPU load.

• Cockpit also gives you superuser control like remote shutdown or remote reboot of your server machine. Moreover, Cockpit only gains control of your server resources once you are signed in to its web interface and begin interacting with its web-based control panel.

=> ↺ How to manage Bash history

• BASH (Bourne Again SHell) is the default shell in practically all Linux-based operating systems. All the commands we write in the terminal are interpreted by the shell, and become part of its history. In this tutorial we see where the shell history is saved, and how to manage it using the “history” built-in command and some environment variables.

=> ↺ How to install and configure Squid Proxy on Debian 11

• In this guide we will learn how to install and configure Squid Proxy server on a Debian 11 server.

• Squid is a caching proxy for the Web supporting HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and more. It reduces bandwidth and improves response times by caching and reusing frequently-requested web pages. Squid has extensive access controls and makes a great server accelerator. It runs on most available operating systems.

• Squids reverse proxy is a service that sits between the Internet and the webserver (usually within a private network) that redirects inbound client requests to a server where data is stored for easier retrieval. If the caching server (proxy) does not have the cached data, it then forwards the request on to the web server where the data is actually stored. This type of caching allows for the collection of data and reproducing the original data values stored in a different location to provide for easier access.

• A reverse proxy typically provides an additional layer of control to smooth the flow of inbound network traffic between your clients and the web server.

=> ↺ How to update Node JS on Ubuntu 18.04

• In this short tutorial, you will discover three ways to update NodeJs on Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04.

=> ↺ How to update a disconnected Red Hat Satellite Server

• Red Hat Satellite now features the ability to export content to a disconnected Satellite server with full and incremental updates.

=> ↺ Install Deepin Desktop Environment (UbuntuDDE) on POP OS

• In this tutorial, we learn the steps to install popular Deepin Dekstop- DEE on POP_OS 20.04 LTS or 21.04 Linux using the command terminal.

• Deepin is one of the most beautiful Linux distro based on the Debian operating system. However, there are many people who refrain themselves from using either because of its origin or slow repository. Hence, one of the best ways to experience its beauty is by installing the Deepin Desktop GUI on our existing POP_OS operating systems.

• Moreover, installing a new operating system is also cumbersome if you have already have set up applications you required on it. In such as scenario, installing an extra GUI apart from the default one will be a good idea.

=> ↺ Install Gitlab on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal fossa Linux – Linux Shout

• Tutorial to learn commands for installing and uninstalling Deepin DDE desktop on POP OS using the PPA with the help of UbuntuDDE repository

=> ↺ Install Spotify On Ubuntu / Fedora & Manjaro | Tips On UNIX

• Spotify is one of the world’s largest music streaming service providers.

• This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install Spotify in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.10, Fedora 35, and Manjaro Linux.

=> ↺ How to add or implement counter in bash scripting – TREND OCEANS

• The counter is very common in programming to trace the number of cycles that have been executed by loop functions.

• In this article, you will see how to add or implement a counter in bash scripting.

=> ↺ How to install Docker CE on Rocky Linux 8

• Hello, friends. In this post, you will learn how to install Docker CE on Rocky Linux 8. The process is simple, and we will be able to install the latest stable version of the tool.

• Docker is a technology that allows us to deploy applications and operating systems in containers that are distributed in images.

• Many blogs have commented on Docker, including ours. That is why this technology is so popular and so widely used worldwide.

• As we know, CentOS 8 came to an end on December 31 of last year, so we have to migrate to alternatives such as Rocky Linux or Alma Linux.

• So let’s go for it.

=> ↺ How to use Terraform AWS EC2 user_data – aws_instance

• In this guide we will learn how to provision an EC2 instance with user_data when launching the instance using terraform.

• AWS user_data is the set of commands/data you can provide to an instance at launch time. For example if you are launching an ec2 instance and want to have docker installed on the newly launched ec2, than you can provide set of bash commands in the user_data field of aws ec2 config page.

• We can do this level of customization during the image build time with packer as well.

=> ↺ 15 apt Command Examples in Ubuntu / Debian Linux

• Apt is a command line package management utility for Ubuntu and Debian Linux. Apt is used to install, remove, update and upgrade Debian packages from command line in Ubuntu and Debian systems. Apt (Advanced package tool) overcomes the issues and bugs that were noticed in apt-get command. To use apt command user must have sudo privileges.

• In this post, we will cover 15 apt command examples in Ubuntu / Debian Linux. Let’s dive into the examples.

=> ↺ How to upgrade Linux Kernel to 5.16 Release

• Linux Kernel 5.16: What’s New?

• Linux latest kernel was finally introduced with an interesting update for a gamer, raspberry pie, and desktop users.

• With the latest release, many new generation Intel and AMD hardware support were added along with the CPU and GPU devices.

=> ↺ How to Install Linux Kernel 5.16 on Ubuntu or Linux Mint

•  Linux kernel 5.16 is now available so here’s a tutorial on how to install it on your Ubuntu or Linux Mint distributions, or a similar derivative.

• Linux kernel 5.16 is a great release of Linux gamers and AMD users. It brings the long-anticipated FUTEX2 implementation from Collabora for a faster gaming experience when playing both native Linux games and Windows games via Wine.

=> ↺ Date command usage in Linux

• At first, the date command may seem like a simple utility to you, but once you try to execute the date command with different utilities, you will realize the real power.

• A date command can be handy in bash scripting, backup, and the limation is your imagination.

• In this article, you will see the basic to advanced usage of the date command in Linux.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Review: The Common Desktop Environment (CDE) on a modern Linux distribution

• Once upon a time, in a long ago age called the 1990s, I attended a class on operating systems. It was my first hands-on exposure to UNIX-like operating systems and the course focused on Solaris. One feature which was relatively new to Solaris at the time was the Common Desktop Environment (CDE).

• CDE took an approach to the desktop concept I had not experienced before. Windows, at the time, focused on launching applications from its Start menu and then tracking open windows with a task manager; and macOS was mostly driven by a global menu at the time. CDE took a different approach which seemed designed to truly reflect the concept of a literal work desk. A panel along the bottom of the display contained drawers and toggle buttons. Programs and files could be accessed by opening the drawers and placing work items on the desktop. (It might be more proper to say “desktops” since CDE offered four virtual desktops by default.) Items on the desktop could be minimized or moved off to the corner of the desk when not being used.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ 5 Tiny Yet Useful Features GNOME Should Totally Add

• Here are some feature suggestions to improve the GNOME experience for the average desktop Linux user.

Distributions

BSD

=> ↺ DragonFly BSD 6.2

• DragonFly version 6.2 is the next step in the 6.x release series. This version has hardware support for type-2 hypervisors with NVMM, an amdgpu driver, the experimental ability to remote-mount HAMMER2 volumes, and many other changes.

• The details of all commits between the 6.0 and 6.2 releases are available in the associated commit messages for 6.2.1. 6.2.0 was not released.

Arch Family

=> ↺ Manjaro 21.2 Qonos Plasma – Very nice, high five

• Manjaro 21.2 Qonos Plasma is a pretty darn good distro. Let’s start with the negatives. A few small bugs here and there, the system menu needs to be resizable, the package management is under-developed, and the battery life is only solid+, but not more than that. Everything else? Well, quite nicely done.

• I have to say that Qonos Plasma is one of the more cohesive distros I’ve tried in a while, and the level of consistency with the Gnome edition is quite admirable. The system delivers beauty, speed, a good arsenal of programs, decent defaults, even more decent configurability thanks to the Plasma desktop, elegance, and stability. If not for the rolling nature of this distro, I might even consider doing some risky production-level experimentation. We ain’t there yet. But. But. Manjaro is constantly improving, and so, who knows what might happen a year or two from now. All in all, quite recommended and more than worth your time and testing.

Debian Family

=> ↺ In practice, Debian (and Ubuntu) have fixed minimum system UIDs and GIDs

• Unfortunately, in practice the start of the range for both system UIDs and GIDs is fixed. This comes about through two things combined together. First, a certain number of system logins and groups are created early in system installation, well before you can normally customize the system. These early system logins and groups will use the standard starting point for system UIDs and GIDs (currently 100 for both), and so be assigned low UIDs and GIDs. This includes things like the ‘systemd-network’ login and the ‘systemd-journal’ group.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ It might be time to consider running Ubuntu on your smartphone

• The UBports Foundation has rolled out an update for mobile operating system Ubuntu Touch that eliminates a long-standing pain point.

• Ubuntu Touch OTA-21, the latest version of the Linux-based OS, delivers a fix for problems with the set-up and synchronization of Google accounts, first encountered by users more than two years ago. Now, however, users should be able to sync their Google calendar and contacts without any issues.

• Other changes include a sleek new “Greeter” screen, which is displayed when the smartphone or tablet is about to be unlocked, and an upgrade that allows MMS content to be retrieved when in 2G network mode.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Portable PI Powered Music Player | Hackaday

• There was a brief time in the early 2000s when we carried cellphones, wallets, keys, and a bespoke digital media player loaded with a small selection of our music libraries. Devices like iPods, Zunes, Sandisk Sansa, and iRiver. Then as cell phones gained more storage and processing power, the two devices became one, and audio players slipped to obscurity as sports accessories. Perhaps in that vein, [BalderDragonSlayer] made his own Raspberry Pi-powered media player.

• The device was cobbled together using a Raspberry Pi Zero, an Adafruit OLED bonnet, a LiPo charger, and a cheap USB DAC. The interface software is written in python, which has all your usual player controls, using the directional joystick and two pushbuttons on the bonnet. DietPi is a slimmed-down Linux that offers an impressively fast boot time, which is why it was picked for this project. The case was a simple project case with some holes dremeled into the face for the screen and buttons.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

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

=> ↺ Do not install this fake Flash Player Android app even if a friend urges you to – PhoneArena

=> ↺ New Android warning: Delete this text message NOW or pay a heavy price | Express.co.uk

=> ↺ Nebula Streaming Service Gets An Android TV App

=> ↺ Gmail app hits 10 billion installs on Android, only slightly higher than your unread emails

=> ↺ Samsung One UI 4.0 (Android 12) update tracker: Eligible devices & more

=> ↺ iQOO Z5 gets Android-12 based Funtouch beta update – GSMArena.com news

=> ↺ Vu 75 QLED Premium TV With Android 11, Dolby Vision Support Launched in India: Price, Specifications | Technology News

=> ↺ LG Android 11 update (LG UX 10) list of eligible devices & release date

=> ↺ (Updated) The Most Exciting Games You can Pre-Register for on Android Right Now – Droid Gamers

=> ↺ How To Find and Solve Which Android Apps Consuming Most Memory

=> ↺ How to Grant Permissions Using ADB in Android

=> ↺ OnePlus Nord N200 5G delivers an even more affordable Android experience at $210 – 9to5Toys

=> ↺ Gmail Becomes Fourth App to Hit 10 Billion Installs on Android | Technology News

=> ↺ Speed boost your phone in 2 minutes with this Android lifehack | NextPit

=> ↺ 15 new Android games from the last two weeks: The best, worst, and everything in between (12/26/21-1/9/22)

=> ↺ Lenovo Tab P12 Pro Android tablet from $630 – Geeky Gadgets

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ Why we built an open source testing framework

• If you’ve ever wanted to join an open source community and contribute or start an open source project of your own, then read on to find out about our fun and awesome open source project we created from scratch at Red Hat. I’m a Software Quality Engineering Manager in the OpenStack Networking group, and together with a team of engineers both from my team and from R&D, we collaborated to create the Tobiko open source testing framework.

• Sometimes, you just have to start a new open source project.

• Our starting point was good. We already had an official open source testing framework called Tempest, which strived for complete coverage of the OpenStack API and common scenarios that simulate a working cloud.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Mozilla pauses donations using cryptocurrencies after community fallout

• The Mozilla Foundation faced community disapproval after previously indicating that it will allow people to donate using various cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Dogecoin through BitPay.

• The foundation takes pride in its non-profit status and its commitment to privacy. However, the organisation was scolded by the founder of Mozilla, Jamie Zawinski, who uncandidly expressed his grave distaste for the donation policy by bashing the ‘decision to partner with planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters’.

=> ↺ Firefox 96 Is Now Available for Download, Here’s What’s New

•  Firefox 96 is here as the first release of the open-source web browser in 2022, bringing a handful of modest performance and security improvements to make your web browsing experience more stable, reliable, and secure.

• For example, the new Firefox release significantly reduces the main thread load, significantly improves noise-suppression and auto-gain-control, and slightly improves echo-cancellation to provide users with a better overall experience.

=> ↺ Linux Mint Devs Announce Partnership with Mozilla to Improve Firefox in Linux Mint

• According to Clement Lefebvre, this is both a commercial or a technical partnership in an attempt to improve the Firefox web browser in Linux Mint. Firefox will still be distributed as a .deb package in Linux Mint, but starting with the Firefox 96 release, it will receive better support for rounded corners for its own window decorations.

• But, what’s most important is the fact that the default Firefox configuration in Linux Mint will change due to this partnership to provide users with a configuration almost identical to the version of the web browser distributed by Mozilla.

Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

=> ↺ Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! The LibreOffice Draw Guide 7.2 has arrived!

•  Anyone who wants to quickly acquire knowledge about LibreOffice Draw and is new to drawing software, or may be familiar with another office suite, will find this user guide very useful. It introduces the main features of LibreOffice Draw. Although Draw is a vector graphics drawing tool, it can also perform some operations on raster graphics (pixels) such as photographs.

• Using Draw, a wide variety of graphical images can be created quickly. Some of the drawing functions are: layer management, snap functions and grid-point system, dimensions and measurement display, connectors for making organization charts, 3D functions that enable small 3D drawings to be created (with texture and lighting effects), drawing and page-style integration, and Bézier curves.

Education

=> ↺ 80 years and one phone call later, WWII veteran, POW finally receives his high school diploma

• Officials at East Sac County School District in Iowa sprang into action, searching for old copies of Auburn High School diplomas, seals and other graduation materials.

• Roughly two-and-a-half hours after his conversation with Gooding, Litterer had everything he needed, including a pilot who agreed to fly him to Texas.

FSF

GNU Projects

=> ↺ GNU Linux-Libre 5.16 Kernel Released for Those Seeking 100% Freedom for Their PCs

• Based on the Linux 5.16 kernel series, the GNU Linux-libre 5.16 kernel is here to introduced an analogous firmware_reject_builtin function for the new firmware_request_builtin call in Linux kernel 5.16, as well as to unify the various separate shell functions used by the cleanup scripts to disable request_firmware and the _nowarn variant, and extended them to also clean up the _builtin variant.

• In addition, the GNU Linux-libre 5.16 kernel removes blob names from various new drivers added in Linux kernel 5.16, including the mt7921s and rtw89 (8852a) Wi-Fi drivers, the ili210x touchscreen driver, the i.MX dsp remoteproc driver, qdsp6 audio driver, and the devicetree files for AArch64 (ARM64) qcom variants.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Open source developer corrupts widely-used libraries, affecting tons of projects

• A developer appears to have purposefully corrupted a pair of open-source libraries on GitHub and software registry npm — “faker.js” and “colors.js” — that thousands of users depend on, rendering any project that contains these libraries useless, as reported by Bleeping Computer. While it looks like color.js has been updated to a working version, faker.js still appears to be affected, but the issue can be worked around by downgrading to a previous version (5.5.3).

=> ↺ Blockchain and how does it work?

• In his 1982 dissertation “Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups,” cryptographer David Chaum presented a blockchain-like system for the first time. Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta presented more work on a cryptographically protected chain of blocks in 1991.

• However, blockchain saw its use in 2009.

• Satoshi Nakamoto created the first successful and popular implementation of Blockchain technology in 2009 by creating the first digital cryptocurrency called Bitcoin.

=> ↺ Dirk Eddelbuettel: Rblpapi 0.3.13: Some Fixes and Documentation

• A new version, now at 0.3.13, of the Rblpapi package just arrived at CRAN. Rblpapi provides a direct interface between R and the Bloomberg Terminal via the C++ API provided by Bloomberg (but note that a valid Bloomberg license and installation is required).

• This is the thirteenth release since the package first appeared on CRAN in 2016. It comprises the PRs from three different contributors (with special thanks once again to Michael Kerber), and extends test and documentation, and extends two function interfaces to control explicitly whether returned lists of length one should be simplified.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Portability is not sufficient for portability

• Before looking into portable software, let’s first examine portability from a hardware perspective. When you ask most people what they consider a “portable computer”, they’ll probably think of laptops or possibly even a modern smartphone. But what about this: [...]

=> ↺ Dagen H, the day Sweden switched sides of the road, 1967

• Initially, the usage of American cars (with drivers positioned on the left side of the vehicle) in left-hand traffic was advantageous to early drivers. It allowed them to negotiate the tight squeezes past oncoming traffic by paying close attention to the underdeveloped left shoulders of the country’s old roads.

• By the 1950s and 1960s, increased auto traffic and more developed roads created dangerous overtaking situations due to the mismatch of left-hand roads and American-style left-side drive.

• Therefore, the Swedes implemented a switch in the name of logic, safety, and consistency with their Scandinavian and continental counterparts.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Mailer and Me

Science

=> ↺ Even NASA Seems Surprised by Its New Space Telescope

• NASA had never attempted such a complicated deployment before, and there were hundreds of ways that the process could go wrong. If an important part became stuck—really, truly stuck—NASA would have to face the painful reality of abandoning its brand-new, $10 billion mission. Over the past two weeks, Webb’s stewards have worked nearly nonstop, trading 12-hour shifts, checking and rechecking data as hundreds of little mechanisms clicked into action.

• And this afternoon, one final piece slid into place. The deployment, the scariest part of the mission—the one that astronomers and engineers have dreaded for years—is over. Rigby was in the mission-operations room at the Space Telescope Science Institute, in Baltimore, when they called it. Webb, once compact and curled up, has finally become a real space telescope.

=> ↺ NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope deployment complete as mirror unfolds

• The team behind the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope successfully finished unfolding the instrument’s distinctive golden mirror on Saturday, meaning the telescope is now fully deployed and is one step closer to sending back data about the universe’s first galaxies.

Hardware

=> ↺ Macropopsicle Melts On Your Desk, Not In Your Mouth | Hackaday

• We all know by now that macropads are super cool shortcut machines. And what’s cooler than a popsicle? Well, this cute little thing, which goes by the name of Macropopsicle.

• The freezer’s open if you want your own Macropopsicle. There’s not much more to this tasty and practical desktop treat than an adafruit QT Py, a couple of Cherry MX-style switches, some wires, and a handful of printed parts. One cool thing about this design is that all the pieces print with little to no supports, and many of them snap together.

=> ↺ Fail Of The Week: 3D Printed Parts That Burn Like NASA’s Rocket Fuel | Hackaday

• [Integza] is on a mission to find as many ways as possible to build rockets and other engines using 3D printing and other accessible manufacturing techniques. He had an a great idea – is it possible to 3D print a solid fuelled rocket, (video, embedded below) specifically can you 3D print the rocket grain itself? By using the resin as a fuel and mixing in a potent oxidiser (ammonium perchlorate specifically – thanks for the tip NASA!) he has some, erm, mixed success.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ CDC’s Revised Quarantine Guidelines Worry Overburdened Health Care Workers

=> ↺ Instead of More Support, Schools Have Upped Demands on Teachers During Pandemic

=> ↺ Census 1921 – 100-year-old secrets revealed

• Pages from the 1921 Census – made available for the first time – reveal glimpses of some of the lives of the 38 million people living in England and Wales on the evening of 19 June that year. At the time, the country was recovering from the shocks of World War One and the Spanish flu pandemic.

=> ↺ Employee of vaccination centre “violently assaulted”

• On Friday, an employee of the vaccination centre in Munster (Haut-Rhin) was “violently attacked” by three people, the Haut-Rhin district and the Grand Est regional health agency (ARS) announced on Saturday.

• The prosecutor of the Republic of Colmar, Catherine Sorita-Minard, announced on Saturday that she had opened an investigation for “violence with a weapon and premeditation” and that the investigation had been entrusted to the Gendarmerie of Colmar, which will now investigate the attackers and possible motives.

=> ↺ Exclusive poll: Overwhelming majority says the U.S. faces a mental health crisis

• Shelli Avenevoli, deputy director for the National Institute of Mental Health, said mental health is top of mind for people. Even if someone isn’t experiencing problems themselves, they know someone who is, she said.

=> ↺ Hundreds of US hospitals are breaking the law on price transparency

• According to the requirement, all hospitals that accept Medicare must publish a machine-readable file listing all their services and prices, including all discounts, as well as a user-friendly file with at least 300 services (or as many as they offer) with their prices and discount. Nearly all of the 6,090 hospitals in the US fall under the law.

• Prior to the rule, which was initially introduced in 2019, then strengthened last year after some legal challenges, hospitals were able to keep their prices secret. Patients had no way to know how much a specific service was going to cost beforehand, and couldn’t shop around for lower rates for scheduled services.

=> ↺ Old tattoo colours prohibited as of 5 January

• As of this year, the new EU regulation, entitled REACH, has prohibited the use of around 4,000 substances due to concerns about them leading to cancer or causing allergies. This means that most tattoo colours are now off limits, with red and green pigments following soon.

=> ↺ Hold That Anti-Fogging Spray: Duke University Researchers Find Forever Chemicals in Commonly Used Eyeglass Product

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

=> ↺ The Story of Adobe

• Adobe is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and the company has never been performing better. After successfully moving from the perpetual licensing model of software to SaaS, the company is worth $243 billion. Many of the products that made Adobe famous are still used today like PDF and Photoshop. Adobe’s story is fascinating: run ins with Steve Jobs, snagging a distribution deal of a hot new piece of software called Photoshop, and even a kidnapping.

Security

=> ↺ Security updates for Monday [LWN.net]

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (ghostscript and roundcube), Fedora (gegl04, mbedtls, and mediawiki), openSUSE (kubevirt, virt-api-container, virt-controller-container, virt-handler-container, virt-launcher-container, virt-operator-container), SUSE (kubevirt, virt-api-container, virt-controller-container, virt-handler-container, virt-launcher-container, virt-operator-container and libvirt), and Ubuntu (apache2).

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Opinion | Congress Must Pass Federal Data Privacy Law to Protect Democracy

• January 6, 2021 will be remembered as one of the darkest days for democracy in modern U.S. history, and the attack’s anniversary coincides with the kickoff of an election year. Some lawmakers responded to January 6 by attempting to reduce online free speech by modifying Section 230. However, this misguided approach would fail to address radicalization and hate online, undermine human rights, and further solidify Big Tech’s domination of the internet. In this election year, lawmakers must stop the true threat to democracy: mass surveillance.

=> ↺ Alec Baldwin says in Instagram video he is complying with cell phone search warrant

• “This is a process,” the actor said, adding part of the process involves investigators from another state having to go through the state he lives in to make a request for his phone.

• “They have to specify what exactly they want. They can’t just go through your phone and take, you know, your photos or your love letters to your wife or what have you,” Baldwin said in a video shot in the driver’s seat of a parked car.

=> ↺ Sports Illustrated swimsuit model says she was tracked for hours with AirTag

• Nader, 26, detailed the incident in an Instagram post on Thursday. Nader said that she left her coat on the back of a chair, which is when someone could have placed the AirTag in her pocket. After that, she says the person stalked her for five hours as she went bar-hopping in New York City.

• She was only alerted to the stalking when a notification appeared on her iPhone that said an unknown accessory was moving with her. She discovered the AirTag in her coat after she got home.

=> ↺ Model shares warning, says a stranger was tracking her with an Apple AirTag

• “Once I was already on my walk home, halfway home, I got the notification that was like ‘Someone’s tracking you and has been for a while,’” she explained in her Instagram story. “So I freaked out, obviously and then, of course my phone died.”

=> ↺ I tracked my kid with Apple’s Airtags to test its privacy features

• I clipped a keychain with one of Apple’s tiny new Bluetooth trackers, AirTags, onto my son’s book bag and waved goodbye to him on the school bus. I watched on my iPhone’s Find My app as the bus stopped at a light a few blocks down from our street.

• But then the tiny “key” icon on the app stopped moving. The item was “last detected” seven minutes ago at a busy intersection less than a mile away. Traffic, maybe? Five more minutes passed with no update. Is there an issue with the app? After another 10 minutes, my heart started to race; still nothing.

• Finally, the tracker was detected four miles away in front of his school. Relieved, I decided more information in this case was worse; I’d go back to just tracking my keys. Apple later told me the delay was due to the tracker needing to communicate with Bluetooth on other iOS devices in the Find My network along the bus route before the AirTag’s location could be updated to iCloud and the app.

• Still, my experiment highlighted how easily these trackers could be used to track another person. After all, I knew the moment he arrived at school and when he got back on the bus to head home.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Biden Urged to ‘Engage Diplomatically’ With Russia to ‘Avert a Military Conflict’ Over Ukraine

• Ahead of highly anticipated talks scheduled to begin Monday, a diverse coalition of organizations sent a letter to the White House urging U.S. President Joe Biden to “engage diplomatically” with Russia to prevent an armed confrontation resulting from rising tensions involving Ukraine.

• “We urge you to continue to pursue diplomatic progress, to promote de-escalation, and to seek negotiated solutions to disputes that avoid war.”

=> ↺ Opinion | Nuclear-Armed Nations—Including the US—Must End Their Hypocrisy

• In an open letter to President Biden over 1,000 physicians, health professionals and concerned citizens have called on the president to take bold action toward the complete elimination of nuclear weapons in anticipation of his administration’s Nuclear Posture Review expected to be released in the next month.

=> ↺ ’20 Years of US Torture and Counting’: Report Details Post-9/11 Abuse at Gitmo and Beyond

• A report released Sunday, nearly 20 years after the first prisoners arrived at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, details “systematic abuses carried out by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and U.S. military” since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

• “Thus far, Biden administration actions raise sobering questions about its commitment to ending the so-called ‘War on Terror.’”

=> ↺ Nigeria motorbike gang attack: Death toll rises to 200

• Known locally as bandits, these gangs are sophisticated networks of criminals who operate across large swathes of territory, often stealing animals, kidnapping for ransom and killing those who confront them.

• This week, the government officially labelled bandits as terrorists, allowing security forces to impose tougher sanctions on the groups and their supporters.

=> ↺ Democrats quietly explore barring Trump from office over Jan. 6

• Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the Civil War, says that officeholders who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same” are disqualified from future office.

Environment

Energy

=> ↺ More government funding for solar R&D

• Arena’s latest $40 million R&D funding round is intended to support projects that align with the agency’s Solar 30 30 30 target of 30% module efficiency and 30 cents per installed watt at utility scale by 2030.

=> ↺ Celebrities push cryptocurrencies, but their fans carry all the risk

• “[Cryptocurrency] is orders of magnitude riskier than anything in the stock market,” said Eshwar Venugopal, a finance professor at the University of Central Florida, principally because of the lack of financial transparency and legal accountability that come with regulated securities. He likened investing in [cryptocurrency] to being an angel investor in an early-stage startup knowing your investment could go to zero. For [cryptocurrency] investors, “the risk is from lack of information, misinformation, and speculation,” he said.

=> ↺ Finance minister: US, Estonia can collaborate on crypto currency monitoring

• A bill soon to be put before the Riigikogu will, if it passes, increase the transparency of virtual currency transactions, including those using crypto currencies like Bitcoin, as well as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), reducing the anonymity of [cryptocurrency] asset transactions, the finance ministry says, adding this will enable more effective monitoring of a sector which, the minister says, is rapidly growing.

Overpopulation

=> ↺ Air pollution: Delhi’s smog problem is rooted in India’s water crisis

• But then comes winter. Pollution in any city mixes vertically in the atmosphere, and the height at which this happens shrinks by more than half in the winter, raising the concentration of pollution. Two new sources also enter the mix. By the end of October, when the rains have ceased, the winds begin to blow in from the northwest, carrying fumes from burning fields. Then there is the Diwali, the popular festival lights, where millions burst fire crackers to celebrate.

=> ↺ ‘Zero Day’ for California water? Not yet, but unprecedented water restrictions send a sharp warning

• Based on water conditions each year, the state Department of Water Resources makes an initial allocation by Dec. 1 to help these state water contractors plan. As the year progresses, the state can adjust the allocation based on additional rain or snow and the amount of water in storage reservoirs. In 2010, for example, the allocation started at 5% and was raised to 50% by June. In 2014, the allocation started at 5%, dropped to 0% and then finished at 5%.

• This year is the lowest initial allocation on record. According to the state Department of Water Resources, “unprecedented drought conditions” and “reservoirs at or near historic lows” led to this year’s headline-producing 0% allocation.

=> ↺ Is it ‘Zero Day’ for California Water?

• On Dec. 1, 2021, California triggered headlines heard around the world when officials announced how much water suppliers would be getting from the State Water Project. “California water districts to get 0% of requested supplies in an unprecedented decision,” one headline proclaimed. “No state water for California farms,” read another.

=> ↺ California adopts drought rules outlawing water wasting, with fines of up to $500

• In an effort to discourage wasteful water practices such as hosing off driveways or allowing irrigation water to run down streets, California water officials have imposed new drought rules for cities and towns throughout the state.

• The regulations, adopted Tuesday by the State Water Resources Control Board, prohibit overwatering yards, washing cars without a shutoff nozzle, hosing down sidewalks or watering grass within 48 hours after rainfall.

=> ↺ California adopts water restrictions as drought drags on

• The action comes as Californians have failed to meet Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call for a voluntary 15% reduction in water use compared to last year. Between July and November, the state’s water usage went down just 6%.

Finance

=> ↺ Manchin Accused of “Bad-Faith Negotiating” for Spurning His Own BBB Counteroffer

=> ↺ Finland’s biggest bank reports cyberattack

• “This morning we discovered that the login page of the op.fi service had been the target of a cyberattack that caused a disruption. As a result, we shifted the entire service to a maintenance state and investigated the matter,” Teemu Ylhäisi, Chief Information Security Officer of the OP Financial Group, told the Finnish news agency STT.

=> ↺ As Job Gains Slow, the Fed and Congress Apply the Wrong Medicine

• Employers added only 199,000 jobs in December. That’s the fewest new jobs added in any month last year. In November, employers added 249,000. The average for 2021 was 537,000 jobs per month. Note also that the December survey was done in mid-December, before the latest surge in the Omicron variant of Covid caused millions of people to stay home.

=> ↺ Opinion | Think Big to Overcome Losing Big to Corporatism

• The progressive citizen groups, that in the ’60s and ’70s, drove through Congress the key environmental, worker, and consumer legislation, since unmatched, must feel nostalgic. Those were the years when legislation throwing cruel companies on the defensive was signed by arch-corporatist, President Richard Nixon, because he read the political tea leaves.

=> ↺ Amazon Cuts Paid Leave for Workers With Covid-19 After CDC Updates Guidance

=> ↺ Amazon just halved paid COVID leave for U.S. workers

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Cheney’s Inferno Comes to Capitol Hill

• Now as I write this today, on January 6, I can see video of the Democratic members of Congress gathered to honor the officers who tried to stem the attack on the Capitol last year – an attack fomented by a man who, unlike Cheney and Bush, failed in his effort to subvert an election. I see Dick Cheney there, with his daughter Liz, the only sitting Republican to show up. I see solemn Democratic grandees lining up to shake Dick Cheney’s hand, to welcome him warmly. A glance at media feeds shows me a great gaggle of “liberal” voices praising Cheney for “supporting democracy,” engaging in their usual orgiastic spasms at the sight of any display of bipartisanship.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Taliban arrest Afghan professor after criticism

• A prominent Afghan university professor and open critic of the Taliban’s hardline regime has been arrested in Kabul, with his daughter on Sunday saying she now fears for his safety.

• Professor Faizullah Jalal was arrested by the Taliban on Saturday after repeatedly speaking out on television against the country’s new rulers, who stormed back to power in August.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ When Revolutionary Moments Arise Again — and They Will — What Will We Do?

=> ↺ Columbia University Student Workers Triumph in Campaign for First Union Contract

=> ↺ NYC Enacts Law Allowing Over 800,000 Immigrants to Vote in Local Elections

• A New York City law granting more than 800,000 lawful permanent residents the right to vote in local elections took effect Sunday after the recently elected mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, declined to veto it.

• “We build a stronger democracy when we include the voices of immigrants.”

=> ↺ Ongoing Backlash Against CRT Ignores Black Children’s Experience of Racism

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ EPO Launches Consultation On Grace Periods

=> ↺ knows nothing about grace

=> ↺ Canada’s patent dispute over cherry tree plant moves to trial

=> ↺ ‘owns’

• The Canadian government will be able to pursue its allegations of plant patent infringement against two US fruit companies at trial, a federal court in Washington has determined.

=> ↺ Review Of EPO Antibody Decisions January 2021 – December 2021

=> ↺ life and nature themselves are inventions and humans can monopolise both

=> ↺ EPO Board Of Appeal Finds “No Legal Basis” For Requirement To Adapt The Description To Conform To The Claims

=> ↺ As if they care about what’s legal and what’s not legal

• As applicants and representatives will be well-aware, the EPO has, for a very long time, required that the description of a patent application be amended prior to grant to ensure that it “conforms” to the allowed claims. Traditionally such amendments took the form of amending the “summary of the invention” or similar introductory portion of the application to recite the wording of the allowed independent claims, or to make explicit reference to those claims. Such amendments, whilst occasionally tedious, became an accepted part of practice at the EPO and had no noticeable impact on the scope of protection.

• However, in the past year or so, we have seen a significant “tightening-up” of the EPO’s approach to description amendments which has become, in many cases, extremely burdensome and raised concerns about the interpretation of the resulting granted patents. This process started with the issuance of internal guidance to EPO examiners regarding the amendments, that guidance being largely codified in the 2021 edition of the EPO’s Guidelines for Examination as reported here. Most relevantly, the Guidelines specified that embodiments which do not fall under the scope of the claims should be deleted or “prominently stated” as not being covered by the claims. The revised Guidelines also indicated that it was “not sufficient to use generic statements such as “embodiments not falling under the scope of the appended claims are to be considered merely as examples suitable for understanding the invention” without indicating which parts of the description are no longer covered” and that “merely changing the wording “invention” to “disclosure” and/or the wording “embodiment” to “example”, “aspect” or similar is not sufficient … it has to be explicitly specified that this part of the description does not describe part of the claimed invention.”

Trademarks

=> ↺ Muratbey v EUIPO – The twists and turns of protecting the appearance of cheese – Carpmaels & Ransford – Law Firm

=> ↺ Corrupt EUIPO

• Registered Community designs can be used to protect the appearance of products throughout the European Union. In order to be valid, these registrations must have individual character, i.e. they must be sufficiently different from existing designs. The legal test is that they must produce an overall impression on the informed user that differs from the overall impression produced on the informed user by any existing design.

• In Muratbey Gida Sanayí ve Tícaret AŞ v EUIPO (Case T‑662/20), the General Court considered an appeal against a decision of the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s Board of Appeal. The decision had invalidated Muratbey’s registration for a cheese with a helical shape for lacking individual character compared to an existing design.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Subpoenas Targeted Over 35,000 Cloudflare Customer Domain Names in Six Months

• Cloudflare doesn’t remove anything in response to DMCA takedown notices unless it stores the content permanently on its network. However, the company will hand over the personal details of customers to copyright holders who obtain a DMCA subpoena. During the first half of 2021, civil subpoenas targeted hundreds of customers linked to more than 35,000 domains.

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