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● 02.11.22

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● Links 12/2/2022: GNU Guile 3.0.8 and postmarketOS 21.12 Service Pack 2

Posted in News Roundup at 9:40 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ SimulaVR Is Launching Pre-Orders for Linux on Your Face

The Simula One headset from SimulaVR is about to go up for preorder. If you’re willing to spend the large sum required to lock one in, you can save yourself a bit of money in the long run. Either way, this isn’t a budget-friendly VR headset, but one designed for enthusiasts.

On the SimulaVR website, the company describes the primary way it intends its headset to be used. It says, “The Simula One is an office-focused, standalone VR headset built on top of Linux Desktop. It provides comparable functionality to any Linux laptop or PC, but with the power of VR.”

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ A new wave of Linux applications

With the start of the new year, we can see a new trend delineating Linux software. Phosh with its newbord libadwaita, KDE’s Kirigami and Maui Shell show that – like it or not – the era of convergent Linux applications has just started.

After all, even laptop screens are not too big once one starts tiling windows, and a single codebase between mobile and desktop apps would not only enable higher maintainability and a wider user base, but having windows adapting flawlessly to tiny squares on the screen sounds tempting even for those who do not plan on using the penguin OS on touchscreen-based devices just yet.

Furthermore, the variety of projects that are enabling convergence on their applications is growing at a fast rate, with KDE, GNOME, Nitrux, Elementary and Jingling among others shifting their interest on mobile-ready and touch-friendly applications for the future of Linux.

The striking results that so many new Linux application seem to naturally accomplish, and an increase reverting the reported lack of new FOSS apps of the past years, are finally going against the stereotype of ugliness of free software interfaces with state-of-the-art usability, clear and modern UX lines combined with a fully featured experience, no matter the size of the screens. This is the result of a rare, although indirect, collaboration between Linux desktops, with leading UX designers dedicating to improving the usability of Linux software to its finest details: GNOME’s dedicated UX team, alongside designers like Sophie Herold, KDE’s Niccolò Venerandi, Danielle Foré and others are tracing new guidelines for software that goes on par, if not often beyond, commercial software.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Analysis Paralysis | Self-Hosted 64

Sometimes we get a bit carried away; we dial it back and share some self-hosting long-timer insights.

Plus the networked way to Retro game, and more.

=> ↺ Added colors to my multimonitor Linux setup – Invidious

=> ↺ Hackaday Podcast 155: Dual Integrating Spheres, More Magnetic Switches, PlottyBot, Red Hair In Your Wafers | Hackaday

This week Hackaday Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Managing Editor Tom Nardi take a close look at two pairs of projects that demonstrate the wildly different approaches that hackers can take while still arriving at the same conclusion. We’ll also examine the brilliant mechanism that the James Webb Space Telescope uses to adjust its mirrors, and marvel over a particularly well-developed bot that can do your handwriting for you. The finer points of living off home-grown algae will be discussed, and by the end of the show, you’ll learn the one weird trick to stopping chip fabs in their tracks.

Kernel Space

Applications

=> ↺ 5 Better USENET Readers for Linux

USENET is a massively decentralized information distribution system. It was first developed in the early 1980s and over the years grew to become one of the largest messaging networks in the world. At its peak, USENET facilitated over 100,000 newsgroups that discuss just about anything.

Because of the decentralized nature of USENET, there are multiple ways of accessing the network. One such way is through Google Groups. While that may be appealing to some, accessing USENET through Google might not always be the best solution for everyone. This article will showcase five better alternatives for browsing USENET in Linux.

=> ↺ 8 Best Transcription Software for Linux

Transcription software sometimes may be irreplaceable when the story comes to finding out exactly what has been said in the recordings, clarifying not very clear points, and making short summaries of the recordings used. These matters may be required for different business, employment, personal, and other purposes. Transcription is helpful. Making that for Windows or macOS is some kind of standard thing. The other case is to find software that is compatible with the Linux OS as it has specifics that make it totally different from other OS. If you are looking for the best available options for Linux OS, look through this list.

Having good suggestions at hand is always a good point. Below you can find credible samples of voice-to-text software that is compatible with Linux. Are you interested in the criteria applied to preselect these samples and suggest you those? The most important points to pay attention to while arranging independent searches will precede the list of suggestions. These criteria were used to identify options available specifically for Linux that are worth testing and using for your audio transcription purposes.

=> ↺ Darktable 3.8.1 Released with Spanish & Dutch Languages, Dozens of Bug-fixes | UbuntuHandbook

Free open-source photography software and raw editor Darktable released version 3.8.1 hours ago with various bug-fixes for the previous 3.8 and few new features.

The new release contains mainly 55 bug-fixes, including issues for SVG rendering, tag exporting, printing, tagging module and more.

There are also a few new features in the release, such as Spanish and Dutch languages support, speed up the retouch’s heal tool by using better parallelism, and added new variable $(DARKTABLE_VERSION). For more, see the project releases page.

=> ↺ Top 5 Tools for Taking and Editing Screenshots on Linux 2021

Many times, you feel that you need to capture the screen or part of it to show it to others or save it for yourself. On Android, iOS, and even Windows, you only need to click a button to complete. Linux does not have a built-in screenshot function.

However, this is not the reason why Linux users are deprived of the ability to take screenshots. There are many software applications and tools for taking and editing screenshots on the Internet, which can be downloaded to your system for free. Although the built-in screenshot programs on other operating systems usually only allow you to take screenshots, the programs available for download on Linux usually provide you with more features than simply taking screenshots. The additional functions of these tools bring greater comfort to users, thereby achieving efficient performance.

Let’s see what the top 5 tools for taking and editing screenshots on Linux in 2021 have in store for you:

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ [Older] How To Use Thunderbolt 3/4 on Ubuntu

When purchasing any laptop, you need to take a keen look at all the ports available since they connect your system to other devices in the digital world.

When Apple released the new style MacBook Pro in 2015, people were amazed. This machine ditched all the available ports on the previous releases and replaced them with only Thunderbolt 3 and a headphone socket.

Standard ports like the charging socket, display ports (HDMI), USB, and SD card reader, which you will most likely find on most laptops, were all removed and are now supported by the Thunderbolt 3 port.

=> ↺ How to install Kapacitor on Ubuntu 20.04. – NextGenTips

Kapacitor is an open-source data processing framework that makes it easy to create alerts, run ETL jobs and detect anomalies. It provides real-time streaming of data. It helps reduce pressure from the InfluxDB database. In today’s topic, we will learn how to install, start, and configure Kapacitor 1.6 on Ubuntu 20.04 distribution.

=> ↺ FFmpeg Tips and Tricks | dt.iki.fi

=> ↺ Linux Terminal Shortcuts

You can not enjoy the full range of control and benefits, Linux operating system has to offer without the Command-Line interface or terminal. But the terminal is manual and can be difficult to use, especially if you have transitioned from another operating system.

In this article, you will learn terminal shortcuts that are convenient and will boost your work efficiency in the terminal by leaps and bounds.

Note: All the commands in this article are written in capital for formatting sake so you do not need press shift while executing them. For example, Ctrl+C is equivalent to ctrl+c.

=> ↺ Rsync Command In Linux With Examples [Updated]

rsync is an open-source utility that stands for remote sync. rsync is free to use file transfer tool and synchronization tool that provides fast incremental file transfer. The rsync daemon can now handle a client address with an implied “%scope” suffix. Rysnc is also used as an incremental backup tool in Linux.

=> ↺ foursixnine’s lair – Remove file from the last commit in git

If the answer to any of the above is yes, here’s how to do it without pain (Tanking into account, that you want to do that on the last commit; If you need to do it in the middle of a rebase, see the previous post or combine this trick with a rebase (edit a commit with a rebase…).

=> ↺ Touch Command in Linux – ByteXD

Creating files is one of the most common things we do. Every now and then, you may also need to modify file timestamps. The touch command in Linux is a two-in-one solution for creating new files and changing file timestamps of older files.

In this article, we will discuss the touch command in Linux and how it can create, modify, or change the timestamps of a file.

=> ↺ How To Install TeamViewer on Debian 11 – idroot

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install TeamViewer on Debian 11. For those of you who didn’t know, TeamViewer is an all-in-one remote desktop application that provides remote access to other users’ PCs and smart devices over the internet. It makes it possible to remotely access another user’s desktop and provide technical support or even stay connected with family and friends. By using remote desktops we can execute tasks remotely, thus saving on infrastructure costs such as travel. By not having to go physically, we save time and costs, something beneficial for everything.

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 TeamViewer remote desktop on a Debian 11 (Bullseye).

=> ↺ How to install OpenMandriva Lx 4.3 – Invidious

In this video, I am going to show how to install OpenMandriva Lx 4.3.

=> ↺ Install phpMyAdmin on Debian 11 with Apache

PhpMyAdmin is a web-based application for interacting with MySQL database server. This tool provides you with a user interface to make MySQL operations so you don’t have to use the command line interface.

In this guide you are going to learn how to install phpMyAdmin with Apache on Debian 11 and secure it.

=> ↺ How to Kill Zombie Processes in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – VITUX

A zombie or a defunct process in Linux is a process that has been completed, but its entry still remains in the process table due to lack of correspondence between the parent and child processes. Usually, a parent process keeps a check on the status of its child processes through the wait() function. When the child process has finished, the wait function signals the parent to completely exit the process from the memory. However, if the parent fails to call the wait function for any of its children, the child process remains alive in the system as a dead or zombie process. These zombie processes might accumulate, in large numbers, on your system and affect its performance. In that case, you might have to kill these zombies manually through the ways and commands described in this tutorial.

=> ↺ How To Recursively Change The File’s Permissions In Linux [CHMOD Linux]

Firstly, Let’s have a basic idea about the file permissions in Linux based operating system. Linux File Permission and Linux File Ownership are interrelated and go together. In Linux, the Owner of the files or directories can be categorized into User, Group, and Other. And in Linux, every file or directory has different types of file permissions defined for the various type of owners. In simple terms, You can find the read permission, write permission and execute permission. Linux File Permission is very specific and strict.

=> ↺ How to Install and Configure VNC on Debian 10/11 – ByteXD

VNC (Virtual Network Computing) is a protocol that enables one to access the graphical desktop of a remote PC over a network connection. In addition, it allows sending keyboard and mouse signals to the remote PC, thus making tasks like managing files, applying configurations, and installing software much more accessible. Previously, we did a post on how to install VNC on Ubuntu.

In this post we will give you a step-by-step guide on how to install VNC on Debian 10 or Debian 11.

=> ↺ How to Browse the Gopher Network on Linux

While the web rules the modern internet, there was another hypertext protocol that was briefly popular in the early 1990s called Gopher. While it was overtaken by the World Wide Web, it still has a small but active user community that is worth exploring today.

So how can you access Gopher on your Linux device? Let’s find out.

=> ↺ How to Share Data Between Docker Containers – The New Stack

Let’s talk Docker. After all, without Docker, your entry into the world of containers might be a bit of a challenge. Imagine, your first steps with containerized deployments being centered completely on Kubernetes. That could quickly overwhelm the newly-minted.

What I want to specifically talk about is sharing data between containers within the realm of Docker.

=> ↺ How to Set Variables In Your GitLab CI Pipelines – CloudSavvy IT

GitLab CI’s Variables system lets you inject data into your CI job environments. You can use variables to supply config values, create reusable pipelines, and avoid hardcoding sensitive information into your .gitlab-ci.yml files.

In this guide we’ll look at how you can set and use variables within your own CI system. There are several options available depending on where you want values to be surfaced and how regularly you’ll want to change them.

=> ↺ How to install and run SketchUp Make 2017 in Linux – Guide

This is a very important tutorial. It brings closure to a five-year-old technical problem that I’ve had. As it happens, I tried running SketchUp in Linux thrice, through WINE. In 2010 and 2016, this effort yielded good results. In 2017, it was a failure. Now, finally, I was able to overcome the problem.

SketchUp Make 2017 is the last free offline edition of this lovely 3D program line. Since, if you want to do some nice design, you can either pay for the Pro version or use the rather limited in-browser free edition. This makes the 2017 version highly valuable to me, but I had struggled getting it running properly in Linux for a while now. Let’s amend that.

=> ↺ How to install Java 17 on Rocky Linux 8 / Alma Linux 8

Tutorial showing how to install and configure SketchUp Make 2017 in Linux, including WINE 6.x setup from the upstream repository, dotNET and VC2015 redistributable dependencies, some other tips and tricks, and more

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ WineHQ – Wine Announcement – The Wine development release 7.2 is now available.

=> ↺ Wine 7.2 spilled out with the beginnings of a WMA decoder | GamingOnLinux

The dedicated team building up the Windows compatibility layer Wine have release a new development version with Wine 7.2 now available. This is the compatibility layer that allows you to run games and applications developed for Windows – on Linux (plus also macOS and BSD). It’s a major part of what makes up Steam Play Proton. Once a year or so, a new stable release is made.

Games

=> ↺ Sci-fi building and crew management sim Space Haven Alpha 14 is out | GamingOnLinux

Space Haven from Bugbyte Ltd. continues building up towards something truly special with it blending together spaceship building, exploration and crew management. Alpha 14 is out now with lots of new goodies.

[...]

Additionally, Space Haven was just recently rated as “Playable” for the Steam Deck. For it to get up to “Verified” it would need better gamepad support and not needing you to manually invoke the on-screen keyboard.

=> ↺ CitySlicker is an upcoming high-end case for the Steam Deck | GamingOnLinux

With the Steam Deck releasing on February 25, we’re starting to see more of a build-up around it from all areas. Not just games but accessories now too like the CitySlicker carrying case from WaterField Designs.

=> ↺ XCOM 2 gets a Free Weekend plus a MASSIVE discount | GamingOnLinux

XCOM 2 is still to this day one of my absolute favourite strategy games, and now you can experience it free for a whole weekend and get it cheap if you want to continue with it. This is celebrating six years since XCOM 2 first released, which came with a Linux port from Feral Interactive.

=> ↺ Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG released for Linux plus gamepad support | GamingOnLinux

Another native Linux build arrives. This time we have Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG from Dark Crystal Games. Not only have they released it for Linux, they’ve also now hooked up gamepad support and so it should end up working quite nicely on the Steam Deck.

=> ↺ Valve releases Steam Deck shell CAD files | GamingOnLinux

Helping to build a huge community around the upcoming Steam Deck handheld, Valve has helpfully releases the CAD files for the external shell.

As Valve said on Twitter it’s “Good news for all the tinkerers, modders, accessory manufacturers, or folks who just want to 3D print a Steam Deck to see how it feels: We’ve published CAD files of the external shell for download”, to which amusingly dbrand replied with “So… no C&D then?” (C&D being Cease and Desist) since they announced their Project Killswitch case.

=> ↺ Valve’s next release is EXCLUSIVE to the Nintendo Switch. And I think it’s brilliant. – Invidious

Or at least… could be brilliant. So why is Valve RISKING their best franchise on the Nintendo Switch? I think it has to do with providing an apples-to-apples comparison between the Switch and the Steam Deck.

=> ↺ Run Windows Software On Linux With Bottles – OSTechNix

The most common reason to dual boot Linux with Windows OS is Games! Linux is great, but it sucks on Games support. Not just games, some propriety software from Adobe and Microsoft still lacks Linux support. Thankfully, there are a few software exists to run Windows applications and games on Linux. Some notable applications are CrossOver, PlayonLinux, Lutris, and Wine etc. In this guide, we will discuss about yet another similar application called Bottles, which allows us to run Windows software on Linux.

=> ↺ Come get a good look at the Euro Truck Simulator 2 – Heart of Russia DLC | GamingOnLinux

Euro Truck Simulator 2 – Heart of Russia is the next big expansion for the incredibly popular trucking sim from SCS Software. The team previously showed off plenty of shots from it, however this is our first proper look at it and SCS certainly aren’t holding back now with a 20 minute preview of trucking from Vyazma to Kaluga.

=> ↺ Roma Invicta is a like an indie Total War out now | GamingOnLinux

Like the idea of Total War games but find them complicated or want something similar that takes a bit less time? Roma Invicta is a new indie release that looks promising.

“In Roma Invicta you have the honor of conquering ancient Gaul with your Roman legions. The game combines action oriented real-time battles with turn-based strategy on the campaign map where you raise, supply and move your armies.

=> ↺ Mask of the Rose from Failbetter Games has a demo up now | GamingOnLinux

Another title that was funded via Kickstarter, it’s good to see official Linux support has not only stuck around but available so early on with a Demo available for play-testing right now.

=> ↺ There’s 22 New Games Validated Every Day for the Steam Deck on Average – Boiling Steam

The verification dance continues for the Steam Deck. We are now very close to 500 titles (485) after another burst of new titles since yesterday. We now have 485 titles in total that should work on the Steam Deck, split in two categories…

=> ↺ Getting the Most Battery Life on the Steam Deck with GameScope

While we already know that capping the maximum framerate to 30 FPS while running a game on the Steam Deck ensures more optimal battery life, YouTuber The Phawx has demonstrated a way to increase battery life even further, thanks to the use of GameScope.

=> ↺ Portal Series Coming to Nintendo Switch… But Why? – Boiling Steam

So on Wednesday I had watched the Nintendo Direct. Of course, since I’m a Nintendo fan, I wanted to see what the company had planned for its upcoming games. But what took me by surprise — and the reason why I’m talking about it here on Boiling Steam — was the trailer for the Portal series. Those games are coming to the Nintendo Switch this year, titled Portal: Companion Collection. I was pretty sure this is the first time Valve has ever worked with Nintendo to put their games onto their platform, and sure enough, I found out later that it indeed is.

Now, just to be clear, Valve has prior experience in developing for the console market. They’ve brought Portal 2 to the PS3, The Orange Box to Xbox 360/PS3, Left 4 Dead series to Xbox 360, and CS:GO to Xbox 360/PS3 (although, a lot of these ports were outsourced to other companies). However, it’s an experience that Gabe Newell didn’t like, as he called developing for consoles “walled gardens” and noted that the graphics for consoles “are essentially derivative of the PC.”

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ KDE Apps Update February 2022

Our web browser Falkon has been quickly gathering new features, and this month saw the 3.2 release.

It adds in-screen capture functionality so you can easily grab a screenshot, it now comes with a inbuilt PDF viewer, and downloads can be paused and resumed.

Best of all, you can Download themes from the KDE Store. Who wants to make customize there browser?

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Felix Häcker: #30 Fragmented

Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from February 04 to February 11.

Distributions

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

=> ↺ OpenMandriva Rock repositories upgraded to OM Lx 4.3 – OpenMandriva

The long awaited OM Lx 4.3 release is here. This means users of OpenMandriva Rock/OM Lx 4.2 need to do the distribution upgrade or “distro-sync” to OM Lx 4.3.

Upgrading from OpenMandriva Lx 4.2

Upgrading an existing Rock/OM Lx 4.2 system is detailed here: Upgrading OM Lx 4.2 system to OM Lx 4.3 There is more to this than one command.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ openSUSE Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2022/06

As we are used to by now, Tumbleweed keeps on rolling at a steady pace. Once again, we managed to publish 5 snapshots during the week (0203x 0204, 0205, 0206, and 0207); 0208 was not created (delays in build time, too much load) and 0209 was discarded due to failures around vagrant dependencies.

IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

=> ↺ The Lagrange Gemini client is in Fedora

I’m happy to announce that Lagrange, probably the most beautiful looking Gemini client, is now available on Fedora and EPEL.

=> ↺ Fedora Community Blog: Friday’s Fedora Facts: 2022-06

Here’s your weekly Fedora report. Read what happened this week and what’s coming up. Your contributions are welcome (see the end of the post)!

I have weekly office hours on Wednesdays in the morning and afternoon (US/Eastern time) in #fedora-meeting-1. Drop by if you have any questions or comments about the schedule, Changes, elections, or anything else. See the upcoming meetings for more information.

=> ↺ 3 reasons you should get that IT certification | Enable Sysadmin

Sometimes human beings do difficult things just because we thrive when there is a good challenge. This is why we climb mountains, play guitars, surf (in real waves), run marathons, and the like. OK, some do it professionally, but to take on major challenges, you really need to enjoy the activity for its own sake, not just when it leads to victory.

[...]

For independent software vendors (ISVs), consulting firms, and similar companies, showcasing how many certified professionals are in their ranks is strategically important. These credentials inspire customers to trust them by indicating a level of knowledge.

If these organizations want to develop or maintain a partnership with a major well-established software company, there may even be a contractual obligation for their professionals to be certified. Therefore, if you work for these types of companies, you can directly benefit from your employer’s and its partners’ requirements.

Indirectly, if you are well prepared, confident, and have skills valued by your company’s competitors, certification can help you make your case when negotiating career options.

=> ↺ IBM Emeritus Irving Wladawsky-Berger: The Promise & Peril of Human-Like Artificial Intelligence

In his 1950 seminal paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Alan Turing proposed what’s famously known as the Turing test, – a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from that of a human. If a human at a keyboard couldn’t tell whether they were interacting with a machine or a human, the machine is considered to have passed the Turing test. “Ever since, creating intelligence that matches human intelligence has implicitly or explicitly been the goal of thousands of researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs,” wrote Erik Brynjolfsson, – Stanford professor and Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, – in a recent article, The Turing Trap: The Promise & Peril of Human-Like Artificial Intelligence.

“The benefits of human-like artificial intelligence (HLAI) include soaring productivity, increased leisure, and perhaps most profoundly, a better understanding of our own minds. But not all types of AI are human-like – in fact, many of the most powerful systems are very different from humans – and an excessive focus on developing and deploying HLAI can lead us into a trap. … On the one hand, it is a path to unprecedented wealth, increased leisure, robust intelligence, and even a better understanding of ourselves. On the other hand, if HLAI leads machines to automate rather than augment human labor, it creates the risk of concentrating wealth and power. And with that concentration comes the peril of being trapped in an equilibrium where those without power have no way to improve their outcomes, a situation I call the Turing Trap.”

Over the past decade, powerful AI systems have matched or surpassed human levels of performance in a number of tasks such as image and speech recognition, applications like skin cancer classification and breast cancer detection, and complex games like Jeopardy and Go. These AI breakthroughs are generally referred to as soft, narrow or specialized AI, inspired by, but not aiming to mimic the human brain. They’ve been generally based on machine learning, that is, on the analysis of vast amounts of information using powerful computers and sophisticated algorithms, whose results exhibit qualities that we associate with human intelligence.

=> ↺ Meeting-free days: 11 productivity tips from IT leaders | The Enterprisers Project

Many employees (and executives) have hit their limit when it comes to sitting through endless meetings, virtual or otherwise. Even my calendar has started to warn me how much time I’m spending in meetings on an average day. We may joke around about how overwhelmed we are, but the consequences are no laughing matter. Wasted time spent in unnecessary meetings is killing creativity and inspiration for many of us.

=> ↺ Handling difficult workplace conversations: 7 tips

Does the mere thought of addressing a challenging work situation with one of your employees fill you with anxiety and distract you from other work?

If so, you’re not alone. According to workplace resource firm Bravely, at least 70 percent of employees are avoiding difficult conversations with their boss, colleagues, or direct reports. And workplace health is suffering as a result.

=> ↺ CentOS Community Newsletter, February 2022

CentOS hosted its annual FOSDEM Dojo. This Dojo was once again virtual. If you missed the Dojo, or you just want to watch it again, all of the videos (and some of the slides) are available on the Dojo wiki page.

Also, Aleksandra Fedorova gave a talk at FOSDEM called CentOS Stream: stable and continuous. This excellent talk went into details of how CentOS is actually built.

Devices/Embedded

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Best Android apps to get Free Fire diamonds for free in India (February 2022)

=> ↺ The android threat disrupting airwaves | TechRadar

=> ↺ Android 13 adding “Tap to Transfer” feature – 9to5Google

=> ↺ Android app deals of the day: Solar 2, Skit Premium, Default App Manager, more – 9to5Toys

=> ↺ Why You Should Upgrade Your Android Phone Every Two Years – Review Geek

=> ↺ Google confirms dynamic color themes coming to more Android 12 phones

One of Android 12’s marquee new features is the Material You dynamic theming. It is still a Pixel exclusive but now Google reveals it’s coming to a growing list of Android devices.

Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, OnePlus, vivo, Realme and Tecno phones will get the new option soon but no concrete timeline was provided. Google also showcased a preview of various Android phones running Gmail with the new color theming option.

=> ↺ How to Type Morse Code in Gboard App

Morse code is the language of two distinct signals, which are combined in a variety of ways to signify every letter in English. That means that Morse code allows you to type entire sentences using only two buttons. Gboard has made this process even simpler. You can use the app to type in Morse code if for some medical or other reason you are unable to type on the regular Gboard.

=> ↺ postmarketOS // v21.12 Service Pack 2

The second service pack for the v21.12 release brings many more improvements from edge to the stable release, with the notable changes detailed below.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ 7 Ways to Speed Up Firefox Browser in Linux Desktop

Firefox browser is the default browser for most modern Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Mint, and Fedora. Initially, its performance might be impressive, however, with the passage of time, you might notice that your browser is not as fast and responsive as it once was. A sluggish browser can be quite frustrating as it tends to eat into your precious time as you wait for it to load your tabs and respond to input.

FSF

=> ↺ This year, take some time to reflect on why you love free software

Valentine’s Day is a day to reflect upon our relationships with our loved ones, but we ask you to take a moment on this day to reflect on something else — your relationship with technology.

Valentine’s Day is a day to reflect upon our relationships with our loved ones, but we ask you to take a moment on this day to reflect on something else — your relationship with technology. Software is so pervasive in our lives that it deserves some extra attention. There are millions of people in the world, who, on a daily basis, are working to give users free (as in freedom) options. I Love Free Software Day, started by Free Software Foundation Eurpoe (FSFE), is a day to reflect upon our appreciation of free software. It is also a day to help a friend or family member learn more about the benefits of choosing user freedom.

This year, to celebrate, we wanted to share some responses we have heard from the broader community about how they came to learn about free software and their reasons for loving it. Please read their responses, and consider sharing your own story via the Freedom Ladder page on the LibrePlanet wiki, as well as on social media. Let’s celebrate together, and take a few steps toward educating others!

GNU Projects

=> ↺ GNU Guile 3.0.8 released

We are delighted to announce the release of GNU Guile 3.0.8. This release adds support for cross-module inlining: allowing small functions and constants defined in one module to be inlined into their uses in other modules. Guile 3.0.8 also fixes a number of bugs.

For full details, see the NEWS entry. See the release note for signatures, download links, and all the rest. Onwards and upwards!

=> ↺ 4 essential plugins to improve GIMP – LinuxStoney

The open source project focused on photo retouching GIMP , is one of the best known programs of its kind in the world. In fact, for many users, this software solution is one of the most direct competitors for the popular Adobe Photoshop.

Among the many reasons for all this, we can highlight the enormous functionality that this application offers us when working with our images. In addition, it has been developed in such a way that it will be extremely useful for both novice users and professionals. All this without having to pay a single euro, unlike what happens with the aforementioned Adobe application.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ diaspora* version 0.7.16.0 released with security fixes!

It’s been a bit silent as we’re still focussing our efforts on the next major release. Today, we’re releasing an unscheduled update which includes some urgent security fixes, so please update soon. Over the past 10 months, we have managed to collect 108 commits made by 9 contributors for this minor release.

=> ↺ JSON-LD is ideal for Cloud Native technologies – Ariadne’s Space

Frequently I have been told by developers that it is impossible to have extensible JSON documents underpinning their projects, because there may be collisions later. For those of us who are unaware of more capable graph serializations such as JSON-LD and Turtle, this seems like a reasonable position. Accordingly, I would like to introduce you all to JSON-LD, using a practical real-world deployment as an example, as well as how one might use JSON-LD to extend something like OCI container manifests.

You might feel compelled to look up JSON-LD on Google before continuing with reading this. My suggestion is to not do that, because the JSON-LD website is really aimed towards web developers, and this explanation will hopefully explain how a systems engineer can make use of JSON-LD graphs in practical terms. And, if it doesn’t, feel free to DM me on Twitter or something.

=> ↺ Qt Creator 7 Beta released

We are happy to announce the release of Qt Creator 7 Beta!

Perl/Raku

=> ↺ Rakudo compiler, Release #153 (2022.02)

On behalf of the Rakudo development team, I’m very happy to announce the February 2022 release of Rakudo #153. Rakudo is an implementation of the Raku1 language.

The source tarball for this release is available from https://rakudo.org/files/rakudo. Pre-compiled archives will be available shortly.

=> ↺ My Favorite Warnings: regexp

As you would expect, this category gets you warnings about possibly-problematic regular expression constructions.

[...]

The above list is far from exhaustive. There are diagnostics for superfluous quantifiers (on zero-width assertions) and greediness specifications (on fixed-width items), since regular expressions are already “A fair jaw-cracker” without the unnecessary cruft. In addition, there are diagnostics for invalid or meaningless uses of the /c, /g, and /p modifiers.

Within the scope of a use re ‘strict’; pragma, additional diagnostics are possible. This pragma was the subject of last week’s blog, My Favorite Modules: re, which was written as background for this blog entry.

Note that use re ‘strict’; is documented as experimental, with the warning that even the interface to the functionality may change. Too bad, because I would kind of like to enable some of the additional diagnostics:http://blogs.perl.org/users/tom_wyant/2022/02/my-favorite-warnings-regexp.html

=> ↺ Tame your text with Perl | Opensource.com

Although its popularity has been tempered by languages like Python, Lua, and Go, Perl was one of the primary utilitarian languages on Unix and Linux for 30 years. It remains an important and powerful component in many open source systems today. If you haven’t used Perl much, then you may be surprised by how helpful it can be for many tasks. This is especially true if you deal with large amounts of text in your day-to-day work.

If you need a language that allows you to search and manipulate large volumes of text quickly and easily, Perl is tough to beat. In fact, doing exactly that is what Larry Walls originally built the language for.

If you’re brand new to Perl, you can read this quick Perl intro to get a feel for the basics.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ Bash Comments – ByteXD

Comments are used in programming languages as well as in Bash script for writing descriptions. Often you want to describe the actions you have performed or commands you have used. So that it can remind you what and why you have performed this action when you open the script later.

This is similar to taking notes of the steps you take and about the things involved in any process. The description you provide can also be helpful for others in understanding your script, in case you hand over your script to them. This is very useful to explain your script when you are working on a large project or big team.

In this tutorial, you will learn what are the types of comments and how to use them in Bash script along with suitable examples.

Rust

=> ↺ CTCFT 2022-02-21 Agenda | Inside Rust Blog

For this month’s CTCFT meeting, the theme is “planning for 2022″. We’ll hear about the results of the 2021 Rust survey, and updates happening in the Async Working Group and the Compiler Team.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Your smartphone should be like your stove | Stop at Zona-M

Thanks heaven, there are still people who have the undisputably right attitude that everyone should have towards their smartphones. People who think of smartphones

“in much the same way I think of refrigerators or stoves. It’s an appliance, something I need but feel no attachment to, and as long as it keeps fulfilling that need, I don’t want to spend money replacing it for no real reason.”

In a sane world, such people should be the boring norm, the ones who never make the news. Instead they do (for example, here) because one of the richest companies on Earth is forcing them to dump a perfectly good phone. Says Aaron Gordon, and I am sure many millions of people could tell almost identical stories…

Science

=> ↺ Tiny TV Celebrates The Forgotten Tech Of CRTs | Hackaday

For those of us who grew up before the Internet, the center of pretty much every house was the TV. It was the shrine before which we all worshipped, gathering together at the appointed times to receive the shared wisdom of mass entertainment. In retrospect, it really wasn’t that much. But it’s what we had.

Content aside, one thing all these glowing boxes had in common was that which did the glowing — the cathode ray tube (CRT). Celebrating the marvel of engineering that the CRT represents is the idea behind [Matt Evan]’s tiny desktop TV. The design centers around a 1.5″ CRT that once served as a viewfinder on a 1980s-vintage Sony camcorder. [Matt] salvaged the tube and the two PCB assemblies that drive it, mounting everything in a custom-built acrylic case, the better to show off the bulky but beautiful tube.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Vaccines hesitancy is also due to paywalls | Stop at Zona-M

I am not qualified to discuss vaccines. But I am pretty sure that one of the reasons why there is “vaccines hesitance” in this moment, and a larger “rejection of science” in general, is exactly the fact that too much qualified information and reporting are behind paywalls these days.

=> ↺ Is Mistr a trustworthy source of anti-HIV PrEP medication?

Until they fully disclose how it is funded and what they do with your information, I wouldn’t touch it. They don’t seem to claim anywhere on their website that they’re a charity, and we know that billionaire investors invest into some creepy things, including suicide crisis lines, because data is worth money.

Worse, they make no guarantees that teenagers who use Mistr won’t be outed as LGBT (the target of the PrEP campaign) to their parents if insurance statements start coming in showing that they paid for PrEP medication, and any parent can get on the internet and figure out that these are HIV drugs and then that leaves the teenager with some tough questions from their parents which they wouldn’t have to answer if they went to the health department or Planned Parenthood.

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

Security

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

Security updates have been issued by Debian (cryptsetup), Fedora (firefox, java-1.8.0-openjdk, microcode_ctl, python-django, rlwrap, and vim), openSUSE (kernel), and SUSE (kernel and ldb, samba).

=> ↺ Reproducible Builds (diffoscope): diffoscope 204 released

The diffoscope maintainers are pleased to announce the release of diffoscope version 204. This version includes the following changes:

=> ↺ Announcing Istio 1.12.3

This release contains bug fixes to improve robustness. This release note describes what’s different between Istio 1.12.2 and Istio 1.12.3.

=> ↺ On the Irish Health Services Executive Hack

=> ↺ as usual

A detailed report of the 2021 ransomware attack against Ireland’s Health Services Executive lists some really bad security practices:

=> ↺ CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog

CISA has added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence that threat actors are actively exploiting the vulnerability 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.

=> ↺ Apple Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products | CISA

Apple has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple products. An attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. Some of these vulnerabilities have been detected in exploits in the wild.

CISA encourages users and administrators to review the Apple security pages for the following products and apply the necessary updates.

Environment

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Ocean heat waves trigger ‘squid bloom’ along Pacific coast, scientists say | The Seattle Times

Marine heat waves driven by climate change have fueled a dramatic increase in market squid along the Washington and Oregon coast over the past two decades, new research shows.

Market squid from central California to northern Washington saw a fivefold increase over the past 22 years, according to a report published by the American Fisheries Society last month. But the largest swells were seen in Washington and Oregon, where models showed each state respectively saw a 39-fold and 25-fold increase in population density of squid during the examined time frame.

Finance

=> ↺ Watching the World Bank must become easier

In a way, this whole story is not news at all. “Who watches the Watchmen” has been a problem since the beginning of history, maybe THE beginning of history. Me, I have no skills to evaluate the whole story, figure out if that report is wrong, or if its solutions are the best possible ones.

Still, there is one point here that really is of very general interest, and very easy to grasp:

the digitization of data has made it immensely easier to distribute them to all the real experts with the actual skills and knowledge to figure out if something is done properly or not.

In this case, I have no idea of which specific data the World Bank should make accessible to the general public, or even to experts. The only thing I am sure of, and the only thing that everybody should demand, is that such data should become immediately, constantly, automatically available to all the experts who could evaluate them, not just those chosen by the World Bank.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ satire Totally not sockpuppets give Midland Funding collection agency five star reviews on Google.

There’s a collection agency called Midland Funding that buys all kinds of delinquent mortgage, credit card, and hospital bill accounts. Oddly, they have a bunch of five star reviews on Google.

Who the hell gives a collection agency that’s calling them at work and their boss is threatening to fire them, and is threatening to sue and garnish them and rings their phone off the hook five stars on Google?

Nobody. But with the magic touch of PR firms, anyone can look good online, including these people. It’s a tactic that Microsoft uses all the time. Walmart has done it before too.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ “Partner” is not a legitimate way to refer to gay people in the United States. Some people do it anyway and claim ignorance, after you correct them. – BaronHK’s Rants

Matthew Garrett is back again. This time to let everyone know that he’s completely unaware of the term “partner” as an anti-gay microaggression in the United States, where he lives.

When I pointed out on #Techrights IRC that the term “partner” is corrupted in US English and has a long history of being used as a derisive way of referring to gay people, usually by right-wingers and Fundamentalist Christians, Mr. Garrett took to Twitter to act as if he had no idea what I was talking about, and then his friends (Maybe from Microsoft, as usual? Who knows. Didn’t check. He has some though.) joined in the chorus of not being able to find any taint associated with the usage of “partner”.

It’s true that in some dictionaries, you won’t find the taint that LGBT people know when someone says “your partner”, especially now that you can get married and they know damned well that you are.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ IFF provides inputs to United Nations on Internet Shutdowns

On 16th December 2021, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (‘OHCHR’) released a call for submissions. OHCHR sought inputs from civil society to support a report on internet shutdowns. We have responded to the call for submissions. In our submission, we have summarized the legal basis of internet shutdowns in India, provided research on instances of mandated disruption of communication, explained the social, economic and political impact of these disruptions while commending the initiatives introduced by the Government of India to improve internet connectivity.

Monopolies

=> ↺ I (Finally) Fired Google

While I have been working for many years to remove all aspects of Google from my personal life, it was only this past week that I replaced the final piece. As of this week I have finally fired Google. It wasn’t easy, and in this post I’ll tell my story of how tightly Google was integrated in my life, the lengths I had to go to remove them, and what took so long.

It’s probably worth starting with how someone like myself who values privacy got so locked into Google to begin with. It all starts with work. I haven’t always worked at Purism, and much of my employment history has been at startups. Where large, old, established companies might be locked into Microsoft’s ecosystem, the startups I worked for opted for Google Apps. Everything from shared calendars, email, file sharing and the rest were handled by Google’s cloud and employees all carried Android phones that tightly integrated into that environment.

=> ↺ Eyes on Trade: WTO vs. Policy Space: New Report Shows Trade Organization Rarely Allows Countries to Use Exceptions

Melanie Foley Welcome everyone to today’s event releasing the new report from Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, titled WTO General Exceptions – Trade Laws Faulty Ivory Tower. My name is Melanie Foley, I’m the international campaigns director at Global Trade…

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