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● 01.11.22

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● Links 11/1/2022: Minted Mozilla and Xwayland 22.1 Schedule

Posted in News Roundup at 12:04 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Server/Kubernetes

=> ↺ What Are Finalizers In Kubernetes? How to Handle Object Deletions – CloudSavvy IT

• Kubernetes object deletions aren’t as straightforward as they seem on the surface. Deleting an object is an involved process that includes conditional checks to determine whether safe removal is possible. This is achieved by API objects called Finalizers.

• In this article, we’ll look at what Finalizers are, how they’re managed, and challenges they can cause when you want to delete an object. Having a better understanding of the deletion process can help you debug problems where resources don’t seem to terminate in a timely manner.

=> ↺ Kubernetes for Finservs – Unlocking success in digital transformations

• The global health crisis has accelerated the digital transformation within the financial services industry. A McKinsey report highlights that “In a competitive environment of rising cost pressures, where rapid action and response is imperative, financial institutions must modernise their technology function to support expanded digitisation of both the front and back ends of their businesses.”

• To serve the on-demand customer, financial institutions must become agile digital enterprises focused on delivering innovative products, services, and customer experiences. Containerisation and Kubernetes have a key role to play in enabling financial institutions to meet the needs of customers at speed and scale.

=> ↺ Meet Our Contributors – APAC (India region)

• Welcome to the first episode of the APAC edition of the “Meet Our Contributors” blog post series.

• In this post, we’ll introduce you to five amazing folks from the India region who have been actively contributing to the upstream Kubernetes projects in a variety of ways, as well as being the leaders or maintainers of numerous community initiatives.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ So Many Linux Terminal Commands Do The Same Thing – Invidious

• So many terminal commands can do the same thing. For example, I often use the ‘wc’ program to get a line count of terminal output. You see me do this on distro reviews to get the number of installed packages for that distro. Well, many people like to point out that I don’t have to use ‘wc’ to get a line count. I could actually use at least half a dozen other standard core utilities to get a line count.

=> ↺ Annotate On Your Linux Desktop With Gromit MPX – Invidious

• I’ve wanted a to annotate the screen while I record videos for a while and I’ve finally found something to do the job and that’s Gromit MPX, expect to see it in future videos

=> ↺ Linux Mint 20.3 MATE

• Today we are looking at Linux Mint 20.3, MATE edition. It is based on Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Kernel 5.4 (but you can easily upgrade it to 5.13), MATE 1.26, and uses about 1GB of ram when idling. Enjoy!

=> ↺ Linux Mint 20.3 MATE Run Through – Invidious

• In this video, we are looking at Linux Mint 20.3, the MATE edition.

=> ↺ Linux in the Ham Shack Episode #447: A Whiff of Ozone

• Hello and welcome to the first short-topics episode of 2022. In this episode, the hosts discuss a new appointment at the ARRL, an inexpensive four-band QRP transceiver, a new direction for Solus, the new release of Pipewire, three popular video rendering projects, WSJT-X, WFView and much more. Thank you for listening and have a fantastic week.

=> ↺ Saving Podcasting from Centralization | LINUX Unplugged 440

• A new initiative uses open source to keep podcasting decentralized and add new features.

• We chatted with Dave Jones behind the Podcast Index.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ GNU Linux-libre 5.16 Brings More Firmware Cleansing, Deblobbing – Phoronix

• Following yesterday’s release of Linux 5.16, the GNU folks have released GNU Linux-libre 5.16-gnu as their downstream that removes/disables any code depending upon non-open-source firmware/microcode binaries, the ability to load proprietary kernel modules, and other cleaning in the name of free software.

=> ↺ Linux kernel 5.16 now available with Nintendo Switch controller drivers

• The Linux kernel is at the heart of countless devices and operating systems, including Android phones and tablets, Chromebooks, desktop Linux distributions, and much more. New versions are usually released every few months, and now version 5.16 is available to try out.

• Linus Torvalds, the creator and lead maintainer of the Linux kernel, wrote on the kernel mailing list (via omg! ubuntu!), “Not a lot here since [v5.16 release candidate 8], 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.”

• Perhaps the most important change in this release is a new kernel system called ‘futex2,’ short for ‘fast user mutex.’ It allows applications to create mutexes, semaphores, conditional variables, and other fast-performing synchronization mechanisms. This new feature could improve performance of games running in the Wine compatibility layer (as well as native Linux games), but Wine hasn’t implemented this yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 5.16 Delivers Gaming Boost, Nintendo Joy-Con Drivers + More – OMG! Ubuntu!

• The Linux Kernel just received its major update of the year — and if you’re a gamer, it’s a corker!

• Linus Torvalds announced the availability of Linux kernel 5.16 exactly where he always announces it: the Linux kernel mailing list.

• The Linux 5.16 release was delayed by week or so due to the appearance of a red-suited bearded fellow, something Torvalds notes in his announcement where he quips: “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 what’s new?

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 5.16 Release Improves Gaming & Adds Support for New-Gen Hardware – It’s FOSS News

• Linux Kernel 5.16 is an interesting release for both gamers and desktop users.

• The changes introduced aren’t massive, but useful upgrades for users with the latest hardware and looking to get better performance in terms of gaming.

• Linux Kernel 5.16: What’s New?

• The support for the latest generation hardware from team red (AMD) and team blue (Intel) are some major additions to this release. You will notice improvements for the CPU and GPU as well.

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 5.16 Released, Speeds up Wine Games

• Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux kernel 5.16. The release offers plenty of new hardware support and features to get excited about.

• As expected Linus Torvalds announced Linux kernel 5.16 to stable in providing the latest features, hardware support, and other improvements ahead of the new 2022 Linux distribution releases, so let’s see what’s new.

• Playing video games on Linux can sometimes be a difficult process. Of course, gaming platforms such as Steam, allow users to play Windows games on Linux with the help of the projects like Proton. However, there is another option – Wine. With that said, the latest version of the Linux kernel brings a new system call, futex_waitv(), which results in better gaming performance while playing both native Linux games or Windows games on Wine.

• Looking at the CPUs, the biggest addition is that Intel’s Advanced Matrix Extensions support is now finally stable. This new extension introduces a unique and performant approach to matrix operations that are frequently used to demonstrate the high-performance capabilities of GPUs.

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 5.16 is out now bringing the futex2 work to help Linux Gaming | GamingOnLinux

• Linus Torvalds has announced the release of Linux Kernel 5.16, bringing with it the usual assortment of new hardware support and improvements everywhere. Plus, there’s something big for Linux gaming fans.

• The one many have no doubt been waiting for is the inclusion of Collabora’s work on FUTEX2 with futex_waitv(). This is supposed to help Linux gaming with Proton / Wine and also Native Linux gaming too. As Collabora developer André Almeida previously described it: “The use case of this syscall is to allow low level locking libraries to wait for multiple locks at the same time. This is specially useful for emulating Windows’ WaitForMultipleObjects. A futex_waitv()-based solution has been used for some time at Proton’s Wine (a compatibility layer to run Windows games on Linux). Compared to a solution that uses eventfd(), futex was able to reduce CPU utilization for games, and even increase frames per second for some games. This happens because eventfd doesn’t scale very well for a huge number of read, write and poll calls compared to futex. Native game engines will benefit of this as well, given that this wait pattern is common for games.”.

=> ↺ Linux 5.17 EDAC Driver Brings Support For New AMD Zen CPUs, RDDR5 / LRDDR5 Memory – Phoronix

• With the Linux 5.17 kernel merge window formally open today, among the early pull requests sent out this morning were the Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) driver updates which is notable this time in preparation for next-generation AMD EPYC server hardware.

• The most exciting EDAC work for this next kernel cycle is preparation for next-generation AMD Zen processors as well as adding support for DDR5 system memory to this kernel code that deals with ECC and other error detection/correction handling. The DDR5 support within the scope of EDAC is both for Registered DDR5 and Load-Reduced DDR5 memory. This EDAC work I previously reported on last month while the news today is that it’s been submitted for debuting in Linux 5.17.

=> ↺ The Intel/AMD Laptop & Tablet Support Improvements For Linux 5.17 – Phoronix

• The x86 platform drivers area of the kernel remains very active in recent times thanks to the continued investments by Red Hat as well as growing IHV interest from the likes of Lenovo while also still having many contributions flow in from the likes of AMD and Intel. With Linux 5.17 are a number of driver additions and improvements for benefiting various x86 laptops and tablets.

=> ↺ USI Stylus, LetSketch Tablet Driver, Better Apple Magic Device Support In Linux 5.17 – Phoronix

• The HID subsystem changes are rather exciting this time around of the new feature material for Linux 5.17.

• First up, there is USI stylus/pen support with Linux 5.17. USI is the Universal Stylus Initiative for supported styluses/pens that would work across devices supporting the standard. Google has been backing USI for Chromebooks and other major IHVs/ISVs have been backing USI for much more convenient stylus support across devices. Intel worked out the USI standards support for the Linux kernel.

=> ↺ The Networking Changes For Linux 5.17 Are Very Exciting – Phoronix

• The Linux networking subsystem updates for the in-development 5.17 kernel are quite exciting as usual given how prolific Linux is from large servers in the cloud to running on enterprise networking gear down to Linux on small IoT hardware. Not only is there a lot of hardware driver action as usual but also some key performance/latency optimizations.

• On the performance optimization front, there is a significant latency optimization for AF_UNIX sockets.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Xwayland 22.1 schedule

=> ↺ XWayland 22.1 Planned For Release Next Month

• It’s been almost one year already since the last XWayland standalone feature release separate from the X.Org Server codebase itself while now the next feature installment will soon be out.

• Olivier Fourdan of Red Hat has laid out plans for releasing XWayland 22.1. He is stepping up to manage this next feature release and is looking at getting this release out around Valentine’s Day.

Applications

=> ↺ Bittorrent client qBittorrent 4.4.0 released with v2 torrent support – gHacks Tech News

• The developers of qBittorrent, a popular cross-platform Bittorrent client, have released qBittorrent 4.4.0 to the public.

• The new version introduces support for a Qt6 build for Windows 10 and newer, which promises better HiDPI compatibility according to the developers. The qBittorrent 4.4.x release branch could be the last to support Qt5, and that would also mean that it would be the last branch to support Microsoft’s Windows 7 and 8 operating systems. Releases will continue until at least Summer 2022.

• [...]

• An AppImage is offered for qBittorrent on Linux. It “uses the latest versions of Qt6, libtorrent, boost, openssl” and is created on Ubuntu 20.04. The developers note that it is not tested well at this point.

=> ↺ Extension Manager: Search And Install GNOME Shell Extensions Without Using A Web Browser – Linux Uprising Blog

• Extension Manager is a new, unofficial application to browse and install GNOME Shell extensions from your desktop, without having to use a web browser.

• Besides allowing users to search and install extensions from extensions.gnome.org, the tool can also enable or disable extensions (and display a list of installed extensions), access the extension settings, and uninstall extensions.

• The application is very new, having its first (0.1.0) release only a couple of days ago, so it’s still lacking in features.

• Extension Manager does not currently support updating extensions or translations. Also, only the first 10 results are displayed when performing a search, and there’s no option to sort the search results (e.g. by popularity, recency, etc., like on the GNOME Extensions website). Extension screenshots and comments are also not available right now.

=> ↺ PostgreSQL: pgsodium 2.0.0: Modern cryptography for PostgreSQL

• pgsodium 2.0.0 is a postgres extension that uses the libsodium library to provide high-performance, modern cryptography support for PostgreSQL 10+.

=> ↺ xxd from vim replaces busybox xxd

• Buxybox has the ‘xxd’ utility, but a couple of times recently I found it to be inadequate. A few days ago was compiling a package, which failed due to xxd not supporting the “-i” option. So, yet another busybox applet has to get replaced with the full utility.

• The full xxd is in the vim package. Vim is a text-mode text editor, with quite a good imitation of a GUI. It has it’s fans. Vim is available via the package manager, but I noticed something…

• The vim package is compiled in OpenEmbedded, and for some unknown reason the executable is packaged as /usr/bin/vim.vim — very odd, and it breaks everything, as there are symlinks, for example /usr/bin/gvim, that point to the non-existent /usr/bin/vim

=> ↺ Support for Istio 1.10 has ended

• As previously announced, support for Istio 1.10 has now officially ended.

• At this point we will no longer back-port fixes for security issues and critical bugs to 1.10, so we heartily encourage you to upgrade to the latest version of Istio (1.12.1) if you haven’t already.

=> ↺ FlowTrack develops employee monitoring software for Linux, Stealth Mode

• FlowTrack has announced its brand-new addition, a real-time employee monitoring software for Linux users.

• This software is touted to be the flagship solution for monitoring the internet and computer activities of employees all across the world.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Can You Run a Virtual Machine on a Smartphone? How Does It Work?

• Offering great convenience and security, virtual machines are a popular staple for those who like to tinker and experiment on different operating systems. As personal computers become more and more capable, the market for virtual machines grew with it. Today, PCs can run several operating systems simultaneously.

• The current generation of smartphones has become capable devices. Users can edit videos, play complex games at high resolutions, stream and watch 4K videos, and emulate software meant for computers. This begs the question—can you run a virtual machine on a smartphone?

=> ↺ 4 Ways to Install Discord client on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 LTS – Linux Shout

• This tutorial will help you to learn the commands and steps to install Discord client on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy JellyFish or Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa using the terminal.

=> ↺ Iptables vs Nftables on Centos/RHEL 8

• nftables will eventually replace iptables as the Linux kernel packet classification framework, more comply referred to as ‘the firewall.’ However, both are still present and will be for a while. So which one should you choose? Iptables vs Nftables, the answer is nftables, at least in the long run.

=> ↺ How to install Linux Mint 20.3 “Una” – Invidious

• In this video, I am going to show how to install Linux Mint 20.3 “Una”.

=> ↺ How to Setup MySQL Replication in RHEL/Centos – Unixcop the Unix / Linux the admins deams

• In this article, I will demonstrate how to setup MySQL replication between Master and Slave database servers. This will use two servers, one of which will replicate data from the other (Master to Slave). Use this setup if you want enhanced reliability and performance out of your systems configuration.

=> ↺ How to Switch Between Users in Linux

• Linux is a multi-user operating system. Whether it’s using the superuser account to execute administrative tasks or modifying the current user’s access to a certain directory, you’ll have to move between users at some point.

• Linux has several options for dealing with such difficulties. The obvious solution is to log out and log in as the desired user. But you have a couple of different options available through which you can switch users without logging out of the current user.

• In this article, you will learn about all the different ways to switch between users in the Linux system.

=> ↺ How to Use the for Loop in a Linux Bash Shell Script

• Looping is an inherent art, which can make your work simpler and help you automate repetitive tasks with relative ease.

• Imagine a situation wherein you need to update a series of numbers or text, and instead of doing it manually, you have the system do it for you. This is the power of looping and the benefits it brings to the table for you.

• Loops, as a function, are available in almost every programming language; Linux’s Bash is no exception to this rule.

• Here’s a guide explaining how you can use the for loop in a shell script.

=> ↺ How to configure EC2 for Session Manager – Kernel Talks

• Ok this must be a very basic post for most of you and there is a readily available AWS doc for it, but I am just cutting it short to list down steps for achieving the objective quickly. You should go through the official AWS doc to understand all aspects of it but if you are on the clock then just follow along and get it set up in no time.

=> ↺ Getting Started with OpenSSH Key Management – Invidious

=> ↺ How to Install and configure PostgreSQL with phpPgAdmin on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – Unixcop the Unix / Linux the admins deams

• In this article, we will learn how to Install and configure PostgreSQL with phpPgAdmin on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

• PostgreSQL is powerful object-relational database systems. It is a free and open-source database management system. PhpPgAdmin is a fully managed web-based administration tool for the PostgreSQL database server.

=> ↺ How to Install a DEB File in Linux

• So, you finally installed Linux and when downloading your favorite app you got a file with the “.deb” extension. Now what? In this article, let’s look at the two ways you can easily install apps using DEB files on Linux.

=> ↺ How to Install OPcache on Debian

• In this guide, we will walk you through the installation of the Zend OPcache in Debian-based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Mint.

• OpCache is an advanced caching module that operates similarly to other caching solutions. By keeping your site’s pre-compiled PHP pages in shared memory, it substantially improves PHP performance and, by extension, your website. This avoids the need for PHP to load these pages every time the server receives a request.

• In this guide, we will We’ll be using Ubuntu 20.04 in this post, and we’ll show you how to install and enable the module on both Apache and Nginx web servers. If you need help setting a server, please refer to one of our other guides.

=> ↺ How To Install Chromium Browser on AlmaLinux 8 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Chromium Browser on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all users to experience the web. The Chromium codebase is widely used, and Microsoft Edge, Opera, and many other browsers are based on the code. The key difference between Chromium and Chrome is that Chromium is open-source.

• 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 Chromium Browser on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.

=> ↺ Store Kannel DLR to MySQL/MariaDB – Unixcop the Unix / Linux the admins deams

• In our earlier article on Kannel we have learned about how to install Kannel. So, in that configuration, we store SMS Delivery Report (DLR) in memory of the bearerbox process. In that way, if bearerbox crashes or we take the process down, but there are still DLRs open, it may cause problem for SMS Users.

• So, to avoid this situation, we can use external DLR storage like MySQL database.In the previous article we used two kannel boxes: bearerbox and smsbox. To store DLR in MySQL database we will use another Kannel program: sqlbox. All communication between bearerbox and smsbox will be done via sqlbox. In operation, sqlbox will act like bearerbox for smsbox and smsbox for bearerbox.

• Communication between different processes can be illustrated as below

=> ↺ How To Setup a Counter Strike: Global Offensive Server on CentOS 8

• Counter-Strikes first option is a feature called “Official Matchmaking.” This selects a Steam-owned server near you where you can play against players from all over the world. It can be entertaining because there are so many different enemy skill levels and play styles to choose from. You, on the other hand, have no influence over who joins the server or what rules and settings are in place. When you want to organise matches based on your preferences or host private games where you only play against your pals, this is an issue. The solution to this problem is to set up your own Counter-Strike: Global Offensive dedicated server. Apart from that, having your own location where you can relax and have fun is also a feasible business option.

• With hundreds of thousands of active players, there are bound to be a few who want their own server, which you can either build for them and rent, or simply host their matches. As there is unlimited potential, you will definitely find other methods to monetize it.

• In this article, I’ll show you how to setup a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive server on Centos/RHEL based systems.

=> ↺ How to Install and Set Up Sublime Text on Linux

• Sublime Text is a source code editor that supports various markup and programming languages. It offers features like command palette, goto anything, auto-completion, snippets, and plugins, among others, and works on all major platforms, including Linux, macOS, and Windows.

• If you, too, are a Sublime Text user and your recent switch to Linux has you missing the editor, or you’re just getting started with programming and wish to try out a new code editor, you’ll want to get Sublime Text running on your Linux machine.

• To make things easier, here’s a guide with step-by-step instructions to install Sublime Text on Linux.

=> ↺ How to Switch Between Users in Linux

• Linux is a multi-user operating system. Whether it’s using the superuser account to execute administrative tasks or modifying the current user’s access to a certain directory, you’ll have to move between users at some point.

• Linux has several options for dealing with such difficulties. The obvious solution is to log out and log in as the desired user. But you have a couple of different options available through which you can switch users without logging out of the current user.

• In this article, you will learn about all the different ways to switch between users in the Linux system.

Games

=> ↺ Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea DLC is out now | GamingOnLinux

• Ready for another run? Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea DLC is out now and brings with it plenty of new enemies to hack and slash your way through.

=> ↺ If you ever doubted for a second that Linux was better than Windows… – Invidious

• All the proof you need is right here. Microsoft doesn’t care about producing a functional operating system, they only care about spying on you. Linux, on the other hand, won’t screw you over with broken updates or surveillance capitalism.

=> ↺ Steam Deck Developer Kit Impressions – Boiling Steam

• We had a chance to have a quick Q&A with a developer, who asked to remain anonymous, with hands-on access to the developer kit of the Steam Deck. Because of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), they couldn’t comment on every question that we had—instead, they could only “talk about the hardware, and the overall experience to some degree.” That being said, here’s some valuable info that you might find interesting concerning the Steam Deck, which is scheduled to start shipping next month!

• The first thing they mentioned was that they’re “not convinced that even with all the improvements to SteamOS 3.0 between August and October that it would have been ready by December. Yes, there’s a semiconductor shortage but I’m thinking it’s not the real reason for the delay.” So, the shipping delay could potentially be tied to the SteamOS experience needing more polish rather than (just) the chip shortage we all thought it was connected to.

=> ↺ The latest Humble Bundle brings a few scary looking treats, plus an indie hits sale | GamingOnLinux

• Need a few new games to add to your collection? Perhaps readying up for the Steam Deck that should be launching next month? The Humble Dead of Winter Bundle is live – as is a nice sale on indie games.

• For the game bundle, none of them are native Linux games but most work really well with Steam Play Proton.

=> ↺ Pixel-art turn-based RPG fans – check out the demo for Of Blades & Tails | GamingOnLinux

• Interested in checking out a fresh upcoming pixel-art turn-based RPG? Of Blades & Tails looks pretty great and there’s now a demo available to try.

• The developer explains that it’s inspired by Diablo, Tales of Maj’Eyal and Stoneshard but there’s no permadeath so you don’t need to worry about any brutal difficulty here. That’s not to say it will be easy but it will regularly give you a save so that’s nice. On top of that the lore is inspired by the classic point & click adventure Inherit the Earth.

=> ↺ Check out the original Half-Life with Ray Tracing | GamingOnLinux

• Want to play with some real-time path tracing in Half-Life? Well, a modder is doing just that and has released a small teaser to show it off.

• The work is actually based on an existing effort, which will bring Vulkan Ray Tracing into Xash3D FWGS, a game engine that’s compatible with classic Valve games designed for modding. The modder going by sultim_t, mentions their work will see the source code released when the mod is ready. They said it will provide hardware accelerated ray tracing with the possibility to “calculate global illumination, reflections, refractions, soft shadows and other visual effects with interactive framerates”.

=> ↺ Upcoming GZDoom-powered FPS Selaco shows off the ‘AI Response System’ | GamingOnLinux

• As if I could get any more excited? Selaco just looks simply incredible in the footage we’ve seen previously, this new GZDoom-powered FPS is going to kick-ass.

• One of the big features is the FEAR-inspired AI system, where the enemies actually work together properly to take you down. They’re aware of each other, use different tactics depending on the situation and so on. It does sound exciting and the latest video shows it off a little more. Oh, you also get to flip things for cover which is clearly awesome.

=> ↺ Building a Retro Linux Gaming Computer – Part 8: Shovelware with a Penguin | GamingOnLinux

• After completing all of the boxed Quake games for Linux, I was left with indecision. So if I could not settle on a single game to play, why not try one hundred? 100 Great Linux Games is a software compilation put out by Canadian publisher Global Star Software. Made for a time of slow internet speeds and limited storage, these kinds of retail collections allowed users to explore hundreds of freeware and shareware titles from the comfort of a single CD-ROM.

• Even at their height at around the turn of the millennium the true value of these sets was disputed, with the moniker “shovelware” often being used to mock the tendency of these compilations to value quantity over quality. It also feels an especially odd fit for Linux, where having a wide variety of free software packaged alongside the operating system was already the norm dating back to the earliest Linux distributions.

=> ↺ Steam Deck’s support for Epic’s ‘Easy Anti-Cheat’ isn’t easy, says ‘Warhammer: Vermintide 2’ dev

• The problem is actually wider than just Steam Deck, affecting any Linux based system, and dates back to September 2021, when Epic Games announced its Easy Anti-Cheat service would be available for Mac and Linux. At the time, it said that “support for the Wine and Proton compatibility layers on Linux is included”.

• Simply put, Wine and Proton are compatibility layers for Linux systems, allowing users to run Windows-based software. Valve’s Steam Deck will run on its own SteamOS, and use Proton to enable games to run.

Distributions

BSD

=> ↺ DragonFlyBSD 6.2 Released With AMD Graphics Driver, Better HAMMER2, NVMM Hypervisor

• DragonFlyBSD 6.2 is now available as the latest version of this popular BSD open-source operating system.

• Exciting with DragonFlyBSD 6.2 is finally having modern AMD Radeon graphics support via the “AMDGPU” DRM kernel driver ported over from the Linux kernel. DragonFlyBSD 6.2 has a port of the AMDGPU Linux driver but it’s based on the Linux 4.19 state compared to upstream 5.16, which means RDNA2, Aldebaran, and other latest-generation bits haven’t landed nor any of the recent optimizations and features. DragonFlyBSD along with the BSDs at large continue to be quite behind Linux when it comes to the GPU driver support. Likewise, with DragonFlyBSD 6.2 there is working support for Intel Whiskey Lake Gen9 graphics.

=> ↺ Year in Review: personal (and GPG) | [bobulate]

• So I plan on plugging away at Calamares, at FreeBSD, at making a healthy balanced dinner for my family every evening, at playing badminton when it’s possible, and just getting on with things.

IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

=> ↺ CentOS Hyperscale SIG Quarterly Report for 2021Q4

• This report covers work that happened between October 2nd and December 31st. For previous work, see the 2021Q3 report.

=> ↺ Hyperscalers Have Been Making CentOS 9 Stream More Attractive With New Features – Phoronix

• While many were upset by CentOS Linux 8 going premature EOL at the end of last year, for those that made the move to CentOS Stream there continues to be a love of moment in part by the recently establisher Hyperscale SIG. For CentOS Stream 9, the big hyperscalers have been working on some interesting additions/backporting to the platform.

• Established one year ago with backing from the likes of Twitter and Facebook was the CentOS Hyperscale SIG. Engineers from these big tech companies have been working to provide optional back-ports and other new features atop CentOS (Stream) for what otherwise isn’t readily available on that enterprise-aged software platform.

=> ↺ The Red Hat ecosystem: Then vs. now

• Once upon a time, the Red Hat ecosystem was oriented around one platform: Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

• Those days are gone.

• While RHEL remains one pillar of Red Hat’s offerings, the Red Hat ecosystem evolved to include a variety of other products and services through acquisitions and new development. Concurrently, key facets of the relationship between Red Hat, Linux and open source have changed in important ways.

• Let’s examine the state of the Red Hat ecosystem in the 2020s and its relationship to the larger software market. We’ll look at the major products and services Red Hat offers — and how those services interact with third-party tools and software, such as Linux distributions based on RHEL.

=> ↺ The GDB developer’s GNU Debugger tutorial, Part 2: All about debuginfo

• In the first article of this series, Getting started with the debugger, I introduced the GNU Debugger (GDB) and walked you through its common startup options and processes. As I promised in Part 1, this article introduces the debugging information that is used to describe compiled code.

=> ↺ Node.js at Red Hat: 2021 year in review | Red Hat Developer

• As we start the new year, it’s a good time to look back on what the Red Hat Node.js team accomplished in 2021. Time goes by quickly, and it’s easy to forget the work we’ve done and the useful assets that we’ve put together.

• The team is involved in a variety of projects: working on the upstream Node.js releases, keeping the V8 JavaScript engine running on Power and s390 platforms, publishing content to help Node.js developers learn and adopt Node.js, and creating guidance for enterprise Node.js deployments on Red Hat OpenShift and other settings. Through our wide-ranging work, we have the opportunity to collaborate with many people from across the community and ecosystem. Here are some of the highlights from the past year.

=> ↺ Create fast, easy, and repeatable containers with Podman and shell scripts

• Podman is a daemon-less container engine for developing, managing, and running Open Container Initiative (OCI)-compliant containers and container images. It follows industry standards to provide a robust container-management tool that you can also integrate into Kubernetes and other services as needed.

• [...]

• Containers don’t have to be strange concepts to a Linux user. Integrated into the operating system, they’re powerful tools for the busy sysadmin. In my next article, I’ll demonstrate how Podman provides tools to see information about running pods.

=> ↺ How Red Hat’s helping customers with high performance computing, container technology and more

• Things are ramping for our customers in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA). In this month’s customer success stories, we’ll share how customers in Belgium, Norway and Slovenia have counted Red Hat technologies to work better and faster as we enter the new year.

• Let’s see how Red Hat, along with our partner ecosystem, is helping customers keep up with competition and prepare to enter new markets with high performance computing, container technology and more.

=> ↺ Hybrid cloud: 4 trends to watch in 2022 | The Enterprisers Project

• If you’re pressed for time, here’s a one-word executive summary of where hybrid cloud is headed in 2022: Everywhere.

• That declaration requires only modest exaggeration. Roughly half (48 percent) of respondents in O’Reilly’s 2021 Cloud Adoption Survey plan to migrate 50 percent or more of their applications to a cloud in the coming year. The same survey found a healthy mix of public cloud (67 percent), private cloud (45 percent), and traditional on-premises infrastructure (55 percent) already in use.

• Meanwhile, 38 percent of the organizations included in Red Hat’s 2021 Global Tech Outlook already had a hybrid cloud or multi-cloud strategy in place. The report shows clear growth ahead in 2022, and more organizations plan to use three or more clouds than ever.

=> ↺ Hybrid work: 5 ways to make it work for you

• In the past, going to work meant heading to a traditional office. Today, it might mean settling in at your kitchen table, traveling to a customer site, setting up at a hotel, or connecting at any number of other places. As the pandemic has proven, work can happen just about anywhere – but staying engaged and productive in all environments isn’t always easy.

• Here are five things you can do to help you stay focused and on-task, wherever you happen to be.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Linux Mint 20.3 is out with theme adjustments, Document Manager, Dark Mode | GamingOnLinux

• Another brand new distribution release with Linux Mint 20.3 now officially available following the Beta release in December 2021. Not much has changed since the Beta, other than ensuring any nasty bugs didn’t slip through to provide a pretty good desktop experience for both new and experienced users who want the simple life.

• [...]

• Linux Mint 20.3 will receive security updates until 2025, with the distribution moving over to a newer Ubuntu package base later this year.

=> ↺ Linux Mint 20.3 Now Available

• Users of the popular Linux Mint distribution can celebrate the new year with a new release. The developers have made the latest version, 20.3 available for download. This latest iteration is based on Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS and although it doesn’t have any game-changing new features, it does offer a lot of subtle UI tweaks and a very helpful document manager app.

• As for the polish, the default Mint theme doesn’t lean so much on the color green and includes larger title bars, bigger controls, and rounded corners. A number of the default apps also default to a dark theme.

=> ↺ Linux Mint 20.3 released promising security updates until 2025

• Linux Mint has released version 20.3, codenamed ‘Una,’ as a long-term support version that will receive security updates until 2025.

• Long-term support releases are for those who favor stability over bleeding-edge software and experimental features, so Linux Mint 20.3 is ideal for those who want to keep the same system without significant changes for years.

• Mint is one of the most popular and widely used Linux distributions available today, using a Ubuntu base along with a desktop environment called ‘Cinnamon’ that will be more familiar to Windows users.

• The reason why Mint is so popular mainly has to do with the complete out-of-the-box experience it offers, coming with proprietary format codecs, closed-source GPU drivers, and a variety of helpful multimedia apps pre-installed.

• These features allow users to start using the Linux distribution without installing too many other packages.

=> ↺ Ubuntu underage girl: child sex or child prostitution?

• In the Ubuntu underage girl scandal, the Ubuntu employee, who is also a Mozilla tech speaker, has frequently been in a position of power over women. Women know they have to please these men if they want free trips. Let’s see some examples.

=> ↺ Still the top: Linux Mint 20.3 is the best Linux desktop

• As always, I like Mint’s default Gnome-2-based Cinnamon desktop. But Mint gives you a choice of many fully supported interfaces, including MATE, a Gnome-2 fork, and the ultra-lightweight Xfce. Most desktop users will be pleased with Cinnamon or MATE. But if you have older low-powered systems, Xfce is an excellent choice.

• Even PCs built in the 2000s can run Mint; if your PC has a 64-bit AMD/Intel processor, it can run Mint. The full version of Linux Mint requires a mere 2GB of RAM, but you can run it with a mere 1GB.

• This is not Windows — where running on 4GB is just asking for trouble.

• You’ll also need at least 20GB of disk space, but Mint recommends 100GB. Finally, you’ll need a graphics card and monitor that supports a 1024×768 resolution. In other words, you can pretty much run Mint on any PC built in the last decade.

• Updating to Linux Mint 20.3 from Mint 20.x is simple. You can also easily install Mint on a Windows PC and other computers.

• In my case, I updated to Linux Mint 20.3 from Mint 20.2 on my 2020 Dell Precision 3451. This model, which came with Ubuntu 20.04, is powered by an Intel 8-core 3GHz i7-9700 CPU. It also includes 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. This is far more computer than Mint needs.

• I don’t recommend installing Mint 20.3 on your main PC — unless you’re an expert. It’s always better to be sure everything works well on a test box before upgrading a production machine to a new operating system, be it Linux, Windows, or anything else.

• This latest version of Mint is a long-term support (LTS) release (it will be supported until summer 2025). Under the hood, you’ll find the Linux kernel 5.4.0-92 and Linux firmware 1.187. For its foundation, Mint is still based on Ubuntu 20.04. Looking ahead, Mint has no plans to move off of Ubuntu 20.04 until 2023. Unlike Fedora, Linux Mint is not a cutting-edge distribution. It prioritizes stability over experimentation.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Rock 5 SBC features octa-core RK3588, 16GB RAM, and triple displays

• Radxa has opened pre-orders for a “Rock 5 Model B” SBC with the octa-core Cortex-A76/-A55 Rockchip RK3588 with 4GB ($79) to 16GB ($139) RAM plus 2.5GbE, 4x USB, HDMI-in, 2x M.2, and triple displays with 2x HDMI 2.1 and Type-C/DP.

• Radxa has unveiled the first board built around Rockchip’s powerful RK3588. The open-spec, Pico-ITX sized Rock 5 Model B (Rock 5B) SBC has opened for pre-orders, with $50 discounts available over the standard 4GB LPDDR4x ($129), 8GB ($149), and 16GB ($189) prices via a coupon program at Ameridroid and Allnet China, resulting in $79, $99, or $139 prices. Shipments are expected in Q2 2022.

=> ↺ Low Cost Haptic VR Gloves Work With Hacked Steam Games | Hackaday

• [IraqiGeek aka Lucas VRTech] has made some significant progress with building force-feedback type haptic gloves for use with steam VR games. The idea is pretty straightforward; the end of the finger is attached to a cable, which is pulled from inside a sprung-loaded spool: the kind used for hanging ID cards on.

• The spool body can rotate, but a peg protruding from it engages with the arm of a co-located servo motor. This produces a programmable stop position. But it is a hard stop, and it is not possible with the current hardware to detect precisely when the stop is reached, nor is it possible to control the force it is pushing with. Such features are not difficult to achieve, its just a matter of a little more development with some custom mechatronics.

=> ↺ PsyLink is a low-cost, non-invasive EMG interface based on the Nano 33 BLE Sense

• Non-invasive EMG interfaces have the potential to solve many problems that afflict those who suffer from a disability or simply want a more efficient way to perform a task. This is what led one maker, who goes by the name “Hut,” to create their own open source device called PsyLink. It works by measuring the minute electrical impulses that cause muscles to contract and then sending them for further processing and inferencing via a machine learning model.

• PsyLink’s initial prototype was based around the Nano 33 BLE Sense due to its large number of ADC pins and potential for Bluetooth connectivity. The device features a pair of aluminum foil pads attached to some wires, although this was later changed out for studs embedded within a more secure sleeve. Signals are read from the electrodes and sent through a series of filters made from op-amps and eventually to an analog multiplexer. After that, the signal is digitized by the onboard ADC and transmitted over Bluetooth Low Energy where it is then displayed in a custom desktop application.

=> ↺ ’80s-style home computer made from scratch using an Arduino Due | Arduino Blog

• As a continuation from his previous Arduino BASIC interpreter project, Stefan Lenz wanted to take things a step further by recreating a home computer from the 1980s with an Arduino Due board and just a few other components. His system combines a 7″ 800 by 480px TFT screen with an SD card reader acting as the disk, along with a PS/2 port for connecting a keyboard.

• He began by mounting the TFT display shield to the Arduino by slotting it in place and inserting an SD card to function as the external disk since floppy drives have long since disappeared and would be far too unwieldy. After soldering some additional wires to the SPI and I2C bus pins, a level shifter was attached to two digital pins that serve as the data and clock lines for the external PS/2 port.

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi Pico Gets A Tiny Keyboard On Its Back | Hackaday

• With hackers and makers building custom computing devices that don’t necessarily follow conventional design paradigms, there’s been a growing demand for smaller and smaller keyboards. Many of the cyberdecks we’ve seen over the last couple of years have used so-called 60% or even 40% keyboards, and there’s been a trend towards repurposing BlackBerry keyboards for wearables and other pocket-sized gadgets. But what if you need something even smaller?

• Enter this incredibly diminutive keyboard created by [TEC.IST]. With 59 keys crammed into an area scarcely larger than three US pennies, it may well be the smallest keyboard ever made. The PCB has been designed to mount directly onto the back of a Raspberry Pi Pico, which is running some CircuitPython code to read the switch matrix and act as a standard USB Human Interface Device. The board design files as well as the source code for the Pico have been released on the project’s Hackaday.io page, giving you everything you need to spin up your own teeny tiny input device.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ BeOS rebuild Haiku has a new feature that runs Windows apps • The Register

• The Haiku operating system has an experimental new feature, WINE. Originally a Linux subsystem, WINE can run unmodified Windows programs on other operating systems.

• Edward FitzGerald translated only 158 of the more than 1,200 quatrains attributed to the Persian Astronomer-Poet Omar Khayyám so there are probably more experimental operating systems out there than there are of Omar’s rubāʿiyāt in English. Very, very few such OSes ever amount to much – a few demos, some sketchy code on GitHub, and that’s the end.

• Haiku is different. An open-source reimplementation of former Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée’s BeOS, the project started in 2001 and took until 2018 to make it to its first beta version. But since then, the pace has picked up a little, with Beta 2 in 2020 and Beta 3 in 2021.

=> ↺ The Apache Weekly News Round-up: week ending 7 January 2022

• Welcome, 2022! We hope that you have had a festive holiday season and are excited to kick off the new year. Here’s what happened over the past week

=> ↺ Open 3D Engine: Amazon’s Old Clothes Or A Game Engine To Truly Get Excited About? | Hackaday

• Recently Amazon announced that they would be open sourcing the 3D engine and related behind their Amazon Lumberyard game tooling effort. As Lumberyard is based on CryEngine 3.8 (~2015 vintage), this raises the question of whether this new open source engine – creatively named Open 3D Engine (O3DE) – is an open source version of a CryTek engine, and what this brings to those of us who like to tinker with 2D, 3D games and similar.

• When reading through the marketing materials, one might be forgiven for thinking that O3DE is the best thing since sliced 3D bread, and is Amazon’s benevolent gift to the unwashed masses to free them from the chains imposed on them by proprietary engines like Unity and Unreal Engine. A closer look reveals however that O3DE is Lumberyard, but with many parts of Lumberyard replaced, including the renderer still in the process of being rewritten from the old CryEngine code.

=> ↺ Libre Arts – Looking back at 2021, looking forward at 2022

• Let’s have a closer look at main events of 2021 and what’s coming for us in 2022. Obligatory disclaimer: I only talk about projects that I track more or less closely. There are many more great projects out there, and I’d love to hear your thoughts about those!

• [...]

• The other reason is that, with a project like GIMP, it’s hard to do just one thing. The team is constantly bombarded with requests that are mostly doable once you have a team of 10 to 20 full-time developers, which is light years away from where GIMP is now. Which results in a lot of running around between under-the-hood work, UX fixes, featurettes, better file formats support etc. So you give everyone a little of what they want but you end up delaying an actual release because the big stuff still needs to happen.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Linux Mint Sells Out for Mozilla Money

=> ↺ Linux Mint sells out for Mozilla money — Google becomes default search in Firefox

• The Linux Mint developers explain, “For Mozilla, the goal is to make Firefox work the same way across all platforms to ease maintenance and simplify development and bug fixing. With these changes Firefox will give the same experience in Linux Mint as it does in other operating systems. For us, this change means a tremendous simplification in terms of maintenance and development. We used to build Firefox ourselves using Ubuntu’s packaging (which is set to be discontinued as Ubuntu is moving towards snap). We now package the Mozilla version of Firefox instead.”

=> ↺ Linux Mint strikes deal with Mozilla to keep Firefox as default web browser

• Linux Mint has been one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions for years, combining an Ubuntu base with different desktop environments and built-in applications. Linux Mint 20.3 was just released last week with several new features, and now the operating system is partnering with Mozilla to keep Firefox as the default web browser.

• Linut Mint is based on Ubuntu and uses Ubuntu’s package repositories, but Canonical (the company behind the operating system) switched Firefox to a ‘Snap’ container package for last year’s Ubuntu 21.10 update. Even though Snap packages are generally more secure than non-containerized Linux software, and it leads to easier distribution across many different Linux distributions, not everyone likes Snap packages. The Linux Mint project in particular has fought against Snap, citing a lack of transparency from Canonical and the centralized nature — no one can run a Snap-powered app store except for Canonical.

=> ↺ Linux Mint is reverting Firefox to Mozilla config after partnership signed

• Mozilla and Linux Mint have signed a partnership that will see the Linux distribution dump its customisation of the web browser, in favour of rolling out the defaults chosen by Mozilla.

• “In the past Linux Mint used its own default settings and configured Firefox in a specific way. Most of this configuration is abandoned to go back to Mozilla defaults,” distribution founder Clement Lefebvre wrote.

• Among the change will be the default start page no longer pointing to a page controlled by Mint; search engines switching from Linux Mint search partners including Yahoo and DuckDuckGo to Mozilla search partners including Google, Amazon, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Ebay; and patches from Mint upstream distributions Debian and Ubuntu being dropped.

• The relationship between Mozilla and Mint is commercial and technical, with hopes that Mint users will be able to update the browser from within Firefox, similar to how Windows users do, rather than needing to use the distribution’s package manager.

=> ↺ Linux Mint signs a partnership with Mozilla

• Mozilla is one of the Open Source greatest champions of all time. It played a unique role throughout history in the promotion of Free Software and greatly contributed to the success of Linux.

• In the 90’s Netscape Navigator was the most popular Web browser but it quickly lost its lead to Internet Explorer which came bundled with Microsoft Windows. The Web was changing rapidly, Explorer was dominant (it reached 95% user share in 2003) to the point where most websites no longer cared about compatibility with other browsers or operating systems and we got in a situation where Microsoft de-facto dictated Web standards.

=> ↺ Linux Mint Announces Major New Partnership with Mozilla

• Announced today, the commercial tie-up means Firefox will continue to remain Linux Mint’s default web browser but, crucially, no longer ship with Mint-specific customisations.

• Don’t panic unnecessarily; Mint say Firefox will continue to be distributed as a .deb package through the official Linux Mint repositories.

=> ↺ Mozilla partners with The Markup to launch Rally study into Facebook’s tracking and data collection practices

• Browser maker Mozilla today announced a partnership with The Markup, the non-profit newsroom that investigates how technology is reshaping society, on a research project to provide insights into and data about a space that’s opaque to policymakers, researchers and users themselves. By joining Mozilla and The Markup’s “Facebook Pixel Hunt” in Firefox, people can help Rally and The Markup unravel how Facebook’s tracking infrastructure massively collects data about people online – data that is used to target ads, tailor content recommendations and spread misinformation – all by simply browsing the web.

• The Markup is the newest partner for Rally, the privacy-first data-sharing platform that was created by Mozilla in 2021 to take back control from platforms that are not transparent about how they use people’s data and make it very difficult for independent outside research to take place. Rally is a novel way for people to help answer systemic questions by contributing their own browsing behavior data, putting it to work as part of a collective effort to solve societal problems that start online and that we have not been able to investigate this way before.

=> ↺ Adwaita Fan? Check Out This Epic Theme for Firefox – OMG! Ubuntu!

• Do you want a Firefox theme that makes the browser better integrate with the vanilla GNOME desktop?

• If you do, check out the Firefox GNOME Theme on GitHub. It’s an all-in-one transformation pack that works with modern versions of the browser. When applied it makes Firefox look and feel like a regular GTK app adhering to GNOME’s Adwaita theme.

• We’re talking the same gradients, colours, and button shapes as Adwaita, and it supports Adwaita’s standard light look as well as it’s dark mode.

=> ↺ Digital Checklist: How to Start 2022 Right

=> ↺ this page

=> ↺ she is not alone

• For most, the New Year marks a time to reflect, reset and re-prioritize. While learning a new language, creating a budget or starting up a new hobby have become staples of our New Years’ Resolutions, as our lives increasingly shift online, it’s important we also use this opportunity to reassess our digital habits. Whether you received a new device this holiday season or just want to make sure you’re protecting yourself online, there’s no better time to partake in some New Year’s cyber cleaning.

• To get 2022 off to a strong start, here’s a helpful and easy checklist to help you tidy up your browsing, tighten your security and ensure your online health isn’t left at the wayside.

Funding

=> ↺ Funding software supply chains – staktrace.com

• An author of popular free software packages intentionally inserted infinite loops into his code to break downstream users, as a form of protest. It’s not the first time this sort of thing has happened, and it won’t be the last. In this particular case I would say that both primary parties are in the wrong.

• To the author: if you make your software freely available, obviously people are going to use it without paying for it. Why would you expect anything else?

• To the users: if you use some random piece of software in your code without verifying it and just keep blindly updating it, obviously stuff like this is going to happen. Why would you expect anything else?

• To me it seems like there’s no strongly defined interface here, on either side. So you have to be prepared to accept any kind of behavior from the other party. What’s surprising is that this doesn’t happen more frequently.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Don’t mix URL parsers | daniel.haxx.se

• There is still no common or standard URL syntax format in sight. A string that you think looks like a URL passed to one URL parser might be considered fine, but passed to a second parser it might be rejected or get interpreted differently. I believe the state of URLs in the wild has never before been this poor.

Perl/Raku

=> ↺ Is Perl dead? @Randal L. Schwartz on Dart and Flutter @Code Maven – Invidious

=> ↺ TWC 146: 10K Prime and CW Trees | Bruce Gray [blogs.perl.org]

• In which we leap tall primes in a single bound, mis-take a tree, test percussion, and find the limits of a Curious Module.

• Task 1: 10001st Prime Number – One-liners (expanded) in Raku and Perl.

• Task 2: Curious Fraction Tree – Solutions in Raku and Perl (with 200+ tests), and another Perl solution using a CPAN module.

Rust

=> ↺ December of Rust 2021, Part 1: A Little Computer | The Mad Scientist Review

• In the beginning of December I read Andrei Ciobanu’s Writing a simple 16-bit VM in less than 125 lines of C. Now, I’ve been interested in virtual machines and emulators for a long time, and I work tangential to VMs as part of my day job as a JavaScript engine developer for Igalia. I found this post really interesting because, well, it does what it says on the tin: A simple VM in less than 125 lines of C.

• Readers of this blog, if I have any left at this point, might remember that in December 2020 I did a series of posts solving that year’s Advent of Code puzzles in order to try to teach myself how to write programs in the Rust programming language. I did say last year that if I were to do these puzzles again, I would do them at a slower pace and wouldn’t blog about them. Indeed, I started again this year, but it just wasn’t as interesting, having already gone through the progression from easy to hard puzzles and now having some idea already of the kinds of twists that they like to do in between the first and second halves of each puzzle.

=> ↺ Blink An LED On A PIC32 With Rust, Easily | Hackaday

• [Harry Gill] has you covered with his primer on programming a PIC32 with Rust, which will have you blinking an LED in no time. [Harry] admits that when he got started, his microcontroller programming skills were a bit rusty, so don’t let yourself think setting this up is beyond your abilities. If you have a working knowledge of the basics of microcontroller programming, you’ll be fine. [Harry] had to jump through a few hoops to get the right tools working, but thoughtfully documented the necessary steps, and provides a bare minimum hardware list.

Java

=> ↺ Lesson from Log4j: Open-source software improvements need help from feds

Leftovers

=> ↺ Mining And Refining: Copper, The Metal That Built Technology | Hackaday

• It’s hard to reckon exactly when in history humans became a technological species. Part of that is because the definition of technology is somewhat subjective; if you think making a stick pointy enough to grub roots from the dirt or to poke enough holes in an animal to convince it to let you eat it is technology, then our engineered world goes back a long, long way indeed.

• But something about pointy sticks just doesn’t seem transformative enough, in the sense of fundamentally changing a naturally occurring material, to really count as a technological line in the sand. To cross that line, it really seems like the use of metals should be part of the package. Even if that’s the case, our technological history still goes pretty far back. And copper ends up being one of the metals that started it all, about 11,000 years ago, when our ancestors discovered natural deposits of the soft, reddish metal and began learning how to fashion it into the tools and implements that lifted us out of the Stone Age.

• Our world literally cannot run without copper, forming as it does not only the electric-motor muscles of civilization, but also the wires and cables that form the power and data grids that stitch us together. Ironically, we are just as dependent on copper now as we were when it was the only metal we could make tools from, and perhaps more so. We’ll take a look at what’s involved in extracting and purifying copper, and see how the methods we today use are not entirely different from those developed over seven millennia ago.

=> ↺ Peek Behind The Curtain Of This Robotic Mouse | Hackaday

• At first glance, this little animatronic mouse might seem like a fairly simple affair. A door opens, our rodent friend pops its head out, looks around, and goes back in. But just like in The Wizard of Oz, a strategically placed curtain is hiding the impressive array of gadgetry that makes the trick possible.

• Creator [Will Donaldson] has put together a fantastic write-up of just what went into creating this little fellow, and we think you’ll be surprised at just how serious the mechanics involved are. Take for example the rig that provides horizontal motion with a NEMA 17 stepper motor mated to a 200 mm leadscrew and dual 8 mm rail assembly that would like right at home as part of a 3D printer.

=> ↺ Powering Up An Original Apple I After Three Decades In A Museum | Hackaday

• The Apple I is the stuff of legend. Designed and marketed in 1976 by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, it was the very first product released by what would become today’s multi-trillion-dollar manufacturer of iPhones and iMacs. With about 60 original ones known to exist today, prices at auction are commonly in the $300,000 range, while confirmed working ones are even more valuable.

• The Heinz Nixdorf Museumsforum (HNF), a computer museum in the German city of Paderborn, is fortunate enough to have an original Apple I in its collection. Although it has been there since 1996, it was always on static display and had never been powered on. In fact, it was unknown whether it would even work, and with it being the most valuable exhibit in the entire museum, simply firing it up would be a seriously risky project.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Even Symptom-Free, People With Omicron Much More Likely to Spread COVID: Studies

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

=> ↺ Microsoft: powerdir bug gives access to protected macOS user data

=> ↺ CISA Adds 15 Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

• CISA has added 15 new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence that threat actors are actively exploiting the vulnerabilities listed in the table below. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors of all types and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise.

=> ↺ One More Trip Around the Sun

• Replace my reliance on iPad and Apple Pencil. Would be nice to use a small screen tablet on my Fedora instead. Just plug it when I need it, run GIMP or Aseprite in the same time it takes me with Procreate and Pixaki.

=> ↺ Avira is adding a crypto miner to its products as well

• Et Tu, Avira? Ashwin reported last week that Norton was adding a new component, called Norton Crypto, to its security products. Norton Crypto is a crypto currency miner that will run when the system is detected as idle. It appears that Avira is doing the same.

=> ↺ Microsoft acknowledges that the KB5008212 update breaks Outlook search in Windows 10

• Microsoft has acknowledged an issue following the installation of the KB5008212 update. The problem causes email searching in Outlook to break, and no fix is currently available.

• To let people know about the issue, and to provide details of a workaround, Microsoft has published a support document entitled “Outlook Search not showing recent emails after Windows update KB5008212″.

Security

=> ↺ US Police Warn of Parking Meters with Phishing QR Codes

• In a hurry to park your car? Don’t want to fumble around in your pocket to find cash for the parking meter, and don’t have the correct payment app installed on your phone?

• Well, think carefully before rushing to scan the payment QR code stuck on the side of the meter – it may well be an attempt by fraudsters to phish your financial information.

• Police are warning that they have discovered bogus QR codes stuck onto public parking meters across Austin, Texas – a city where parking meters don’t display QR codes, and only accept payment via coins, cards or a smartphone app.

=> ↺ Fake QR Codes on Parking Meters – Schneier on Security

• The City of Austin is warning about QR codes stuck to parking meters that take people to fraudulent payment sites.

=> ↺ Apache Software Foundation Security Report: 2021 : The Apache Software Foundation Blog

• Synopsis: This report explores the state of security across all of The Apache Software Foundation projects for the calendar year 2021. We review key metrics, specific vulnerabilities, and the most common ways users of ASF projects were affected by security issues.

• [...]

• The security committee of The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) oversees and coordinates the handling of vulnerabilities across all of the 350+ Apache projects. Established in 2002 and composed of all volunteers, we have a consistent process for how issues are handled, and this process includes how our projects must disclose security issues.

• Anyone finding security issues in any Apache project can report them to security@apache.org where they are recorded and passed on to the relevant dedicated security teams or private project management committees (PMC) to handle. The security committee monitors all the issues reported across all the projects and keeps track of the issues throughout the vulnerability lifecycle.

• The security committee is responsible for ensuring that issues are dealt with properly and actively reminds projects of their outstanding issues and responsibilities. As a board committee, we have the ability to take action including blocking their future releases or, worst case, archiving a project if such projects are unresponsive to handling their security issues. This, along with the Apache License v2,0, are key parts of the ASF’s general oversight function around official releases, allowing the ASF to protect individual developers and giving users confidence to deploy and rely on ASF software.

• The oversight into all security reports, along with tools we have developed, gives us the ability to easily create metrics on the issues. Our last report covered the metrics for 2020.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation

=> ↺ Linux version of AvosLocker ransomware targets VMware ESXi servers

• AvosLocker is the latest ransomware gang that has added support for encrypting Linux systems to its recent malware variants, specifically targeting VMware ESXi virtual machines.

• While we couldn’t find what targets were attacked using this AvosLocker ransomware Linux variant, BleepingComputer knows of at least one victim that got hit with a $1 million ransom demand.

• Several months ago, the AvosLocker gang was also seen advertising its latest ransomware variants, the Windows Avos2 and AvosLinux, while making a point of warning affiliates not to attack post-soviet/CIS targets.

• “Out new variants (avos2 / avoslinux) have the best of both worlds to offer: high performance & high amount of encryption compared to its competitors,” the gang said.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Google and Facebook fined for cookies practices

• The CNIL, France’s data regulator, fined Meta (Facebook) and Google for violating the GDPR for a total of 210M€.

• [...]

• Interestingly, the French regulator issued the fine to 2 Irish companies. Usually, the rule has been that the regulator of the nation where the company is located is going to be the one issuing the fines. The CNIL reason behind those fines is that French people are being affected. This fact completely turns the table around. If the legitimacy of CNIL’s standing is proved, the balance of power between the European data regulators might completely change. Since the majority of big companies are located in Ireland, the Irish data regulator (DPC) should be the one issuing the majority of fines. Though, many say that the DPC is not issuing enough fines because Ireland wants to keep good relationships with the companies located in the country. Fines such as this one could change the paradigm to one where any country will be able to fine any company. At that point, it will be apparent if some countries have been more strict than others in the past and, in a way, make it a plain field since the company’s incorporation country will not grant it additional or reduced liabilities.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ #KeepItOn: people in Kazakhstan have the right to internet access

• The government of Kazakhstan has no right to implement ongoing, arbitrary internet shutdowns and blockings as part of its intensifying campaign of state-sponsored violence against the population. Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition are calling for open, accessible internet across the country, and a commitment from authorities to ensure it is upheld moving forward — including during protests and times of unrest.

• “By manipulating internet access — shutting it off one day, allowing limited access the next — the government of Kazakhstan is exerting its authority over the country,” said Anastasiya Zhyrmont, Eastern Europe & Central Asia Regional Outreach Coordinator at Access Now. “That’s not how things are allowed to work. Governments should empower people through access to information and communication, not threaten to ‘shoot to kill,’ then disconnect a population exercising its right to protest.”

• On January 2, 2022, as people protested the government’s changes to liquefied petroleum gas price caps in the city of Zhanaozen, individuals began reporting difficulty in accessing the internet. Since then, government-mandated internet blockings and shutdowns have been imposed in other regions, and range from targeted attacks on social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal, to complete nation-wide internet shutdowns of varying time frames in different regions on January 4, 5, 6, and 7. Reports indicate that the internet is accessible today, Monday, January 10.

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