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● 02.12.22

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● Links 12/2/2022: Kalendar 1.0 and EasyOS 3.4

Posted in News Roundup at 4:46 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ GNU World Order 447

• Slackware 15 has [still] been released, and in this episode, thanks to feedback from Hackerdefo and Blackernel, Klaatu lists all the ways you can install it.

=> ↺ Discover: The Best Discord Overlay For Linux – Invidious

• How discord is still missing an overlay on Linux after all these years baffles me but luckily the open source community saves the day and after a few rewrites we now have an incredibly good discord overlay with as much tweaking as you could want.

=> ↺ Make Money Selling Open Source Software? – Invidious

• One of the most common questions that I get from programmers and developers who are discovering the free and open source movements is: “Is it possible for me to make money selling open source?” Can a developer actually earn a living if there code has to be open source and publicly available?

Kernel Space

=> ↺ A Linux expert tells why she thinks the kernel is so important

• Last month, the Linux kernel turned 30. If you’re someone who’s been immersed in the Linux world since Y2K like me, it may feel a bit surreal that so much time has passed since the kernel’s inception.

• As a training architect at A Cloud Guru (ACG), I teach courses about all things Linux and specialize in hands-on, lab-based learning. Before joining ACG, I worked as a Unix systems engineer at GE and IBM as well as Technical Account Manager and customer advocate for Red Hat. I’m hugely passionate about Linux because of its importance to my career, just like to the careers of so many other engineers and Linux enthusiasts.

Applications

=> ↺ The 8 Best Free Video Converters for Linux

• Want to bulk convert videos on Linux? Install one of these eight free video converter apps to get the job done.

• There’s a common misconception among Linux users that all quality video converters and encoding software come at a premium cost.

• It might come as a surprise that you can access some of the best free and fastest video converters on open-source Linux distros. These video converters are geared toward giving their premium alternatives a run for their money.

• Let’s get cracking with the best free, open-source video converters for Linux.

=> ↺ 7 Best Free and Open Interactive Whiteboard Software

• An interactive whiteboard is an instructional tool consisting of a large interactive display in the form factor of a whiteboard. The whiteboard can be a standalone touchscreen computer used independently to perform tasks and operations, or a connectable apparatus used as a touchpad to control computers from a projector.

• The instructor can manipulate the elements on the board by using his finger as a mouse, directly on the screen. Items can be dragged, clicked and copied and the instructor can make handwritten notes, which can be transformed into text and saved.

• The hardware is used in many environments, including classrooms at all levels of education. Interactive whiteboards let teachers draw on the screen from the front of the room and save their lessons. They offer the opportunity to teach differently while using current teaching tools.

=> ↺ Kalendar 1.0 Is Out: KDE Plasma Now Has a Mature, Dedicated Calendar Client

•  Written using the Kirigami framework, Kalendar is a calendar application that uses Akonadi to sync with external services like Nextcloud, Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, Open-Xchange Groupware, Kolab Groupware, as well as the iCal and DAV calendar data exchange standards.

• Kalendar lets you add, edit and delete calendar events from local and remote accounts (see supported formats above). It uses the KDE Frameworks libraries and the KDE PIM personal information management tool to deeply integrate with your KDE Plasma desktop environment on both desktop and mobile so you won’t miss an important event.

=> ↺ Sick of QuickBooks? 5 accounting and budgeting software options

• GnuCash comes with a lot of features, too.

=> ↺ Ritesh Raj Sarraf: apt-offline 1.8.4

• apt-offline version 1.8.4 has been released.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Deploy Microk8s and the Kubernetes Dashboard for K8s Development – The New Stack

• So you want to start developing for Kubernetes, but you don’t want to have to exert the effort to deploy a full-blown Kubernetes cluster to do so. That’s a pretty common problem. And with Kubernetes retiring the support for Docker, you might find a lot of documentation on deploying a Kubernetes cluster to no longer function. On top of that, you might only have a single machine to work with (so deploying an entire cluster can be a challenge).

• What do you do? When you only have a single desktop machine, and you need to get this up fast, you can always turn to Microk8s, which is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation-certified upstream Kubernetes platform that you can run from a workstation. Microk8s is easy to get up and running, so you won’t have to waste precious time deploying multiple servers.

=> ↺ How to install Pritunl Enterprise VPN Server on Debian & Ubuntu

• Pritunl is an open source enterprise OpenVPN, IPSec, WineGuard VPN Server. It provides a reliable interconnection between multiple VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) networks like AWS, ORACLE, GCP. It is one of the most reliable VPN Servers in the world and also offers multiple layers of protection. Including 2FA, Mobile Authentication, User PIN etc. It has a simple web interface which allows creating complex gateways, site-to-site links etc. To install the Printunl server follow the tutorial below. It also receives daily updates as well.

=> ↺ How to manage your files in Zorin OS – Real Linux User

• In the world of electronic user productivity and consumption devices like mobile phones, tablets, laptops and desktop workstations, everything is about using and managing files. The operating system is based on system files, your movies and music are all files, and the content you create, like letters, presentations, drawings and administration, are stored as files. In this article as part of my free Zorin OS beginner tutorial series I will discuss how to manage your files and folder structures in Zorin OS with the included Gnome Files file manager.

=> ↺ Enlarge KiCad PCB footprint pads to 2mm for all smaller pads Using sed

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

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Unrar on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, RAR is the most popular tool for opening, extracting, uncompressing, or unraring an archive file. UNRAR does not come pre-installed natively on AlmaLinux and is not featured in its repositories.

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

=> ↺ How to choose the right Plex server: PC vs. NAS vs. Shield vs. Raspberry Pi

• You can still load discs into a dedicated player like a caveman if you want, but we live in the age of streaming. Almost every piece of media you could ever want is at your fingertips… as long as you can figure out which streaming service it’s currently on. If you care about control, you can manage your own media library with Plex, and the first step in that journey is to decide what kind of hardware will run your Plex server. You can just use your PC, but a dedicated piece of hardware like a NAS box is more efficient. What’s a movie buff to do?

=> ↺ How to install Lightworks Video Editor on your Chromebook

• As crazy as it may sound, it has been more than four years since we unearthed the container project that would eventually be responsible for bringing Linux to Chromebooks. It has also given us new tools such as Windows on Chrome OS thanks to the efforts of Parallels. When Google first announced Linux on Chromebooks and the ability to leverage the integrated GPUs on Chrome OS devices, my thoughts immediately went to video editing.

=> ↺ How To Install Linux On A Chromebook

• Linux can run alongside ChromeOS on your Chromebook, bringing a wide range of apps. Here’s the easy way to set it up.

=> ↺ Install Apache Maven on Fedora Linux 35 – LinuxCapable

• Apache Maven is an open-source tool that allows the building automation of your java projects. It can also be used for projects in C#, Ruby, etc. Its most popular usage would likely involve Java development! The maven project comes from the Apache Software Foundation, where they were previously part of the Jakarta Project before moving on their own clutches.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Apache Maven on Fedora Linux 35.

=> ↺ How to Create Jenkins Pipeline using Build Pipeline.

• In literary terms, we can say that the pipeline is a workflow with a group of events or jobs that are chained together and work in a sequence. In other words, its mechanism is similar to a pipe and every pipe has an inlet and an outlet. But what exactly is pipeline still remains a question. The answer to which is that a pipeline will consist of multiple sections of a pipe and can have multiple inlets and outlets where every section processes something and this processing in our case is done by jobs.

=> ↺ How to install Sensu Go on Ubuntu Servers

• This time you will learn how to install Sensu Go on Ubuntu Servers.

• Sensu Go is a free open-source cross platform infrastructure and application monitoring tool. It can be used to monitor servers, applications, services. It has support for email alerts and you can be easily notified by via email. It collets basic data metrics, like CPU, Memory, Disk. It has support for custom triggers on which you can setup or execute custom scripts when there is a problem. It automates the registration and de-registration of containers, server , apps etc. Lets get started with the tutorial!

=> ↺ How To Install Budgie Desktop on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 LTS – Linux Shout

• Install and use the Budgie Desktop environment on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS jammy Jellyfish or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal using the command terminal.

• The Budgie desktop environment has been in development since 2014 (originally and primarily for the rolling release distribution Solus, (formerly Evolve OS Linux). However, it is published under GPL license, hence, any Linux distro users can install it on their own systems such as Arch, Debian, Gentoo, and OpenSuse. Although, officially there is a Ubuntu flavor called Ubuntu Budgie that comes with a pre-installed Budgie desktop, however, if you already have the one with some other GUI, then here are the commands to switch it with Solus’s GUI.

=> ↺ How To Set Up Automatic Updates On Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | Itsubuntu.com

• Are you tired of manually updating your Ubuntu or missing out on the important updates like security patches and other critical updates then this Ubuntu tutorial post is for you as we will show you steps to set up automatic updates on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS? This tutorial is also valid for the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

=> ↺ How To Install Python Pip On Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | Itsubuntu.com

• Pip is the standard package-management system that is used to install and manage software packages written in Python. In short, Pip is the package installer for Python. From Ubuntu 20.04, Python 3 is included in the base system installation but you still have the option of installing Python 2 from the universe repository.

=> ↺ Apt Command In Linux Examples | Itsubuntu.com

• The apt is the package management tool or command. The functions of apt in Linux are the upgrading of the Linux (Ubuntu), installation of new software packages, removing of the packages, upgrading of existing software packages, updating of the package list index, and many more.

=> ↺ How to Install Python 3.10 on CentOS/RHEL 8 & Fedora 35/34 – TecAdmin

• The Python development team has released the latest version of Python 3.10. This includes more new features, security patches, and many other improvements. This version includes a new feature that is Parenthesized context managers. Using enclosing parentheses for continuation across multiple lines in context managers is now supported. For more details read the complete changelog.

• This tutorial will help you with the installation of Python 3.10 on all Fedora versions and CentOS/RHEL 8 Linux systems. The tutorial will compile and install Python 3.10 source code on your system.

=> ↺ How To Install Python 3.10 on Debian 11/10 – TecAdmin

• The Python development team has released the latest version of Python 3.10. This includes more new features, security patches, and many other improvements. This version includes a new feature that is “Parenthesized context managers”. Using enclosing parentheses for continuation across multiple lines in context managers is now supported. For more details read the complete changelog.

• This tutorial will help you with the installation of Python 3.10 on Debian 11/10 Linux systems. The tutorial will compile and install Python 3.10 source code on your system.

=> ↺ How to Build Docker Image with Dockerfile (Step by Step)

• Hello Techies, in our previous articles we have learned how to Install Docker on CentOS 8 / RHEL 8 and Docker on Ubuntu 20.04.There are thousand of docker images available on docker hub registry which we can easily pull and spin up container using those images.

• But there are some circumstances and use cases that we want to make some configuration or changes in the docker image and those changes should be present whenever we run container. This can be achieved by building a docker image with Dockerfile.

• Dockerfile is a text file which contains keywords and set of Linux commands which are executed automatically whenever we build the Docker Image. Creating docker image using Dockerfile is similar to template concept of virtualization world.

=> ↺ How to Install Signal Private Messenger App in Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 & Debian 11 | UbuntuHandbook

• In this post, we will learn how to build docker image with Dockerfile. It consists of keywords and Linux commands that are executed during docker build.

=> ↺ Install phpMyAdmin on Debian 11 with Nginx – Cloudbooklet

• 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 Nginx on Debian 11 and secure it.

=> ↺ How To Install Remmina On Ubuntu / Linux Mint | Tips On UNIX

• Remmina is a remote desktop client written in GTK, to use other remote desktops remotely from a tiny screen or large monitors.

• Remmina supports multiple network protocols in an integrated and consistent user interface. The protocols currently supported are X2Go, RDP, VNC, and SSH.

• This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install remmina on Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and Linux Mint 20.3.

=> ↺ Install Darktable 3.8.1 On Ubuntu / OpenSUSE / Fedora & AlmaLinux | Tips On UNIX

• This tutorial will be useful for beginners to download and install darktable 3.8.1 on Ubuntu 20.4 LTS, Fedora 35, AlmaLinux 8, RockyLinux 8, and OpenSUSE.

• darktable is an open-source photography workflow application and non-destructive raw developer.

• darktable team released a new version 3.8.1 with new features, bug fixes, and users are recommended to upgrade to the latest version.

=> ↺ How to Install iRedMail on RHEL (CentOS, RockyLinux, etc)

• Setting up a mail server can be quite tedious since you need to configure many components to have everything up and running. Luckily, there is a much easier solution – iRedMail.

• [....]

• iRedMail is an open-source email server that supports the latest IMAP, SMTP, and POP3 standards. It also supports modules such as Antispam and Antivirus to keep your inbox spam-free and virus-free.

• It is a reliable and scalable solution for businesses of any size. You can use it to send and receive emails with your employees, clients, and customers.

• You can also use iRedMail with your website to combine your online identity with your email address for a seamless user experience. iRedMail is designed with usability in mind. The interface has been simplified to help you get started without any IT background or special training.

Games

=> ↺ No Plans For Fortnite To Support Steam Deck According to Tim Sweeney

• As said by Sweeney, the company can’t handle the amount of cheating that occurs in Fortnite especially if it is in a Linux-based OS like in the Steam Deck. Adding to that, the Steam Deck’s OS is based on the Arch Linux system. If you don’t know Linux is an open-source OS and is currently the largest open source project to be used. That means cheaters who have experience with Linux can easily bypass various anti-cheat systems. They can do that if they find a loophole in the Steam Deck.

• Valve had previously announced that games that rely on Epic’s own Easy Anti-Cheat system can run on the Steam Deck. Not only that, Heroic, another open-source Linux game launcher can help in running games from the Epic Games Store. So, in a sense, Fortnite can run on the Steam Deck easily and can prevent cheating.

=> ↺ Steam Deck 3D Printer Files Released

• Valve seems to be completely dedicated to making Steam Deck as open and customizable as possible. On top of making its handheld gaming PC run a custom version of GNU/Linux, Valve has now taken things a step further still, as the company has officially released the device’s CAD files for anyone and everyone to peruse.

=> ↺ Valve’s Steam Deck Will Run Linux-Based Steam OS – But Won’t Have a Fortnite Port

• When Valve’s Steam Deck begins shipping to customers later this month, the handheld gaming PC will be running a Linux-based operating system called Steam OS. And that could give gaming on Linux a bit of a boost.

=> ↺ 520 games are now rated either Verified or Playable for Steam Deck | GamingOnLinux

• As we hit less than two weeks until the Steam Deck launch on February 25, Valve appear to be doing well on the testing front with 520 games now either fully Verified or Playable.

• Each day now a good bunch seem to trickle in together. At this rate of progress per-day, we’re perhaps going to see close to 1,000 either Verified or Playable by launch. That is, unless this is all still early testing of their processes and we might see a bigger bump closer to launch which is entirely possible. Either way, it’s already a rather nice number. The amount only tells so much though, quality over quantity of course and there’s a lot of good picks already.

=> ↺ Top 5 Predictions for Linux Gaming in 2022 – Boiling Steam

• After collecting individual predictions for Linux gaming in 2022, let’s try to look at what the combined predictions look like as well, as we typically see that combining predictions among several people provides better accuracy on average (i.e. the concept known as the wisdom of crowds).

• Note that this can only work if everyone has developed their predictions independently from each other’s, which is precisely why we did this time again. Last year we had 7 predictions that stood out, and this year we have 5 of them:

=> ↺ Lutris 0.5.10 Beta 1 is out with Origin and Ubisoft Connect integration | GamingOnLinux

• Ready to test some more awesome open source software? Lutris 0.5.10 Beta 1 is out, so this is your chance to help make the next release a polished one. What is Lutris? It’s a free and open source application that helps you manage games from Steam, GOG, Humble Store, Emulators, Wine and much more.

=> ↺ Valve says THIS performs like the Steam Deck, let’s benchmark! – Invidious

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ What Is GNOME? Here’s Everything You Need To Know – Fossbytes

• You may have seen/heard about the word GNOME when researching Linux. People often refer to it as one of the best Desktop Environments, but what exactly is it? In this article, let’s look at GNOME and its history.

=> ↺ An Open Source Journey that began at 12 – Mantoh Nasah Kuma

• I’m Victoria Martinez de la Cruz, but you can call me Vicky. First time I heard about the open source concept I was pretty young, I’d say, 12 years old. At that time it was quite common to use IRC to chat with friends and to get to know people. And it was precisely in those forums I initially heard the term. I didn’t understand it too well at the time, just knew that there were communities that would work together to deliver quality software and that such software was free to use, read and modify by anyone who wanted to do so. I started learning about different open source software, starting of course by understanding Linux and all the different tools that it constitutes.

• When I finished high school, I went to college and signed up to get my degree in Computer Science. Before graduating, I was looking for internship opportunities to get some real world working experience. That’s when I heard about the Gnome Outreach Program for Women (Gnome OPW), nowadays known as Outreachy. I submitted my application to contribute to the GNOME Vinagre project. I didn’t succeed in that opportunity but I applied again the next year, this time for both GNOME Shell and for OpenStack-a fairly new cloud computing project. That is when I started contributing with code to OpenStack.

• Like most beginners, I faced so many challenges but I got a lot of help and worked pretty hard to get to success. And it felt really good when I did, considering the amount of work I dedicated for it to happen. My first big win which I don’t take for granted was to be confident enough to pursue the career I wanted. I got several blockers in my path and managed to overcome those, and did that because I was convinced on what I wanted to achieve.

Distributions

New Releases

=> ↺ EasyOS version 3.4 released

• Version 3.4 marks a radical departure from the desktop User Interface (UI) of EasyOS, Quirky and Puppy, right back to the first puppies in 2003. They all have icons on the desktop, since around mid-2005 managed by ROX_Filer — ROX is not just a file manager, it is also capable of managing desktop icons and wallpaper. ROX-Filer has served us well over the years, in company with the JWM window manager — the latter managing windows, the system-tray and the menu.

• There have been some puppies based on other desktop managers, such as XFCE, however, most of the mainline official pups have been based on the ROX-JWM combo.

• For some time I have thought about reducing ROX-Filer to just a file manager. Also, have wondered how the UI could be implemented without desktop icons. EasyOS has desktop icons to launch apps, containers, and mount/unmount drive partitions. If they are eliminated, it means that all of that functionality would have to move into the system tray (or trays).

=> ↺ Theme details for EasyOS 3.4

• Early this morning I announced the release of EasyOS 3.4, with radical icon-free desktop. Well, radical for the mainstream EasyOS/Quirky/Puppy releases anyway.

Debian Family

=> ↺ You Can Now Install a 64-Bit Version of Raspberry Pi OS: Here’s How

• Having been in beta testing, the 64-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS (previously known as Raspbian) is now ready for a wider audience to try out. This will enable users to run 64-bit Linux applications and allocate more memory to individual processes. It also offers improved performance for CPU-intensive tasks.

• To use the 64-bit operating system, you will need a Raspberry Pi model with a 64-bit processor. We’ll reveal which models you can use and how to install the OS.

=> ↺ Lilbits: Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit brings a major speed boost, Toshiba’s impending split up, and a possible GrapheneOS smartphone

• Most recent Raspberry Pi single-board computers have 64-bit processors, but up until recently the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s custom Linux distribution designed for the small, inexpensive PCs was only available in a 32-bit version. But last week saw the official release of Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit, which is compatible with the Raspberry PI 3 and newer devices.

=> ↺ Ingo Juergensmann: Old Buildd.Net Database

• Since March/April 2000 I was deeply involved in Debian m68k and operated multiple m68k autobuilder for over a decade. In fact my Amiga 3000 named “arrakis” was the second buildd for m68k in addition to the Debian owned Amiga 3000UX named “kullervo”.

• Back in that time there was some small website running on Kullervo to display some information about the Debian autobuilder. After some time we (as m68k porters) moved that webpage away from Kullervo to my root server. Step by step this site evolved to Buildd.Net and extended to other archs and “suites” beside unstable like backports or non-volatile. The project got more and more complex and beyond my ability to do a complete necessary rewrite.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ The State of Robotics – January 2022

• What a way of starting the year! Setting milestones, helping those in need, and daring to dream. January 2022 starts with one of the biggest technological conferences — CES. So, in this piece, you will find a breakdown of three robots in our usual style. But there’s more… we also bring a story to inspire you all.

• It’s a great experience writing this blog, where every month news are abundant. Thank you all for contacting us and sharing your stories.

Devices/Embedded

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Intel Joins RISC-V International

• RISC-V International, the global open hardware standards organization, today announced that Intel Corporation has joined RISC-V International at the premier membership level. “This move demonstrates Intel’s strategic investment in open collaboration and support of the open RISC-V architecture and highlights numerous deep RISC-V member partnerships with Intel,” RISC-V said in its announcement. Bob Brennan, Vice President of Customer Solutions Engineering for Intel Foundry Services, will be joining both the RISC-V Board of Directors and Technical Steering Committee.

=> ↺ Controlling any IR device with a remote and some hacking | Arduino Blog

• All too often, people run into the issue of having many remotely controlled devices scattered around their house, with each requiring its own unique controller. The idea behind how they operate is simple: a single action corresponds to a number and pressing a button on the controller causes that number, along with some extra data, to be modulated via an infrared LED which reaches the device’s receiver. Finally, this value is decoded and the action is executed.

=> ↺ Homemade Probe For 3D Printer: $3 | Hackaday

• You have a few choices if you want to use a probe to level your 3D printer bed. Rarely, you’ll see optical or capacitive probes. More commonly, though, your probe will sense a metal print or uses a physical probe to touch the print bed. [Design Prototype Test] has long used a BLTouch which uses the latter method. However, putting it in a heated build chamber prevented it from working so he set out to make his own simple design using an Allen key.

• We’ve seen Allen key sensors before, but usually, they use a microswitch. We’ve also seen microswitches used to directly probe the bed. But, in this case, a 3D printed fan shroud uses an optical sensor to note when the Allen key hits the bed.

=> ↺ Magnetometer with Raspberry PI computers: GY-271 HMC5883L wiring and code

• When you need to keep your Raspberry PI aware on where is the North, surely an HMC5883L magnetometer is better that instructing the RPI to look at North Star 🙂

• In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to wire, configure and calibrate a magnetometer (HMC5883L) with Raspberry PI computer boards. Please note that if you want to use the Raspberry PI Pico instead, you can refer to my Magnetometer Compass with Raspberry PI Pico: GY-271 HMC5883L wiring and use with MicroPython tutorial.

=> ↺ Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS sells with metal enclosure for $35.99 – CNX Software

• Shenzhen Xunlong Software previously launched the Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS router board powered by Rockchip RK3328 quad-core processor last November for $27.99 on Aliexpress.

• As expected, albeit with some delays, the company has now introduced a metal enclosure for the Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS board transforming it into a complete router or gateway. You can get it as part of a kit for $35.99 plus shipping, or if you’ve already purchased the board previously, get the enclosure only for $9 plus shipping.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Orange Pi R1 Plus LTS sells with metal enclosure for $35.99 – CNX Software

=> ↺ Don’t use your Android 12 phone without customizing this menu – CNET

=> ↺ Google dynamic colour themes coming to more Android 12 phones : The Tribune India

=> ↺ The 7 things I hate most about using Android Auto

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 hands-on: notch your ordinary Android tablet | Android Central

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

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ Posix vs object storage: How much longer for Posix?

• Storage isn’t just storage. There is block storage, file storage and, more recently, object storage. And only two of those three are Posix-compliant.

• That’s not something most users ever need to know or understand, as long as they can access their data. But it makes a difference to designing and procuring IT infrastructure, especially with the prevalence of the cloud, which is largely based on non-Posix-compliant object storage.

=> ↺ Easily Sign Local Android Release Builds For Testing With local.properties

• Since the Android build tools already generated a debug signing key for us, we can get the convenience of debug builds for release builds if we configure the build process to sign release builds with our debug signing key. This functionality should be opt-in to avoid signing release builds intended for production with debug keys (see “WARNING” section below) so we’ll add a configuration option to enable this in the uncommitted local.properties file that Android Studio generates.

Web Browsers

=> ↺ The lights are blinking, but a part of me is broken | -ENOTTY

• Software neglect forces perfectly good hardware obsolete. I was suprised it could strike such basic devices as an ethernet switch.

• Few years ago I bought a TP-Link gigabit switch for home network. TL-SG2216 model ticked all the boxes: 16 ports, 2 SFP slots (if I ever get FTTH), VLANs, IPv6 support and remote management, 5 years warranty. Although ssh required strange dances since the beginning (ssh -oKexAlgorithms=+diffie-hellman-group1-sha1 -oCiphers=aes256-cbc -oHostKeyAlgorithms=+ssh-dss …), the HTTPS interface worked fine. Until it broke last year.

• Firefox was adamant – SSL_ERROR_NO_CYPHER_OVERLAP. Chromium threw similar tantrum: ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH. HTTPS management UI on my switch ceased to be secure enough for modern browsers. The world rushed forward, obsoleting and disabling old, unsecure algorthms and protocols. In the meantime my switch stood still. Eventually the world surpassed what was possible with TP-Link.

• From my perspective, the web UI broke. I bought a switch with HTTPS management, and this feature stopped working. So, in the last days of my warranty coverage, I reported the issue to TP-Link. Long story short, it was denied on a technicality. I should have opened the issue through the distributor who sold me the switch, not directly with TP-Link. I’ve got this information after the warranty lapsed, which ended the story.

Mozilla

=> ↺ 8 Reasons Why I Keep Coming Back to Firefox – It’s FOSS News

• Firefox is a fantastic open-source web browser. Considering it comes pre-installed with most Linux distributions, it does not take rocket science to assume that it is a popular choice among Linux users and privacy enthusiasts.

• However, nothing is ever perfect.

• Whether it is Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Brave, or any of the best browsers available for Linux. Every option has a trade-off.

Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

=> ↺ LibreOffice Calc Basics II: IF, SUMIF, COUNTIF

• In this second part, we will learn the most basic Calc formulas namely IF, SUMIF and COUNTIF after previously we learned about SUM, COUNT and AVERAGE by examples. These are kinds of formula which often used for decision making, such as making student’s grade based on score, and stuffs around that. This tutorial is part of our LibreOffice Calc learning by practices for the formulas often used in jobs. Let’s start!

=> ↺ LibreOffice 7.3 Community release

• LibreOffice 7.3 was released on 2 February 2022. Here is the official blog post about it. In addition to interoperability improvements with Microsoft’s proprietary file formats, it includes new features targeted at users migrating from Microsoft Office, to simplify the transition. Help has been improved, and change tracking includes new features.

• LibreOffice 7.3 is available natively for new Apple computers using Apple Silicon, in addition to those using Intel processors. The minimum operating system requirement for Apple computers is macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and for Microsoft Windows 7 SP1.

• I am liking using this new release, but I encountered a bug that caused my MacBook Pro (2017, running macOS 12.2 Monterey) to crash frequently. The problem is easily solved by disabling Skia graphics rendering. Go to LibreOffice > Preferences > LibreOffice > View and uncheck “Use Skia for all rendering” (as shown in the illustration below). This bug does not affect computers running Windows or Linux, and it will be fixed in version 7.3.1.

=> ↺ LibreOffice 7.3 Community is better than ever at interoperability

• The new major release of the LibreOffice 7.3 Community, based on the LibreOffice Technology platform for personal productivity on desktop, mobile and cloud, offers a lot of improvements focused on users migrating from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice or exchanging documents between the two office suites.

• There are three different kinds of interoperability improvements.

• There are performance improvements when opening large DOCX and XLSX/XLSM files, improved rendering speed of some complex documents, and new rendering speed improvements when using the Skia backend introduced with LibreOffice 7.1. Development of new features, such as the new handling of change tracking in tables and when text is moved, which have a positive impact on interoperability with Microsoft Office documents.

Education

=> ↺ The Open Library Foundation Names First Open Source Project to its Project Incubation Program

=> ↺ The Open Library Foundation Names First Open Source Project to its Project Incubation Program

• The Open Library Foundation has invited the Library Data Platform (LDP) to be the first open source project to participate in its Project Incubation Program. The program is designed to support early-stage open source projects and communities that are developing the balanced and robust mix of technology, governance, resourcing and community engagement required to be self-sustaining.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Nibble Stew: Supporting external modules in Godot game engine with Meson

• Godot’s code base is split into independent modules that can be enabled and disabled at will. However many games require custom native code and thus need to define their own modules. The simplest way to do this (which, I’m told, game developers quite often do) is to fork the upstream repo and put your your code in it. This works and is a good solution for one-off projects that write all extra code by themselves. This approach also has its downsides. The two major ones are that updating to a newer version of the engine can turn into a rebasing hell and that it is difficult to combine multiple third party modules.

• Ideally what you’d want to do is to take upstream Godot and then take a third party module for, say, physics and a second module written by completely different people that does sound effects processing, combine all three and have things just work. Typically those modules are developed in their own repositories. Thus we’d end up with the following kind of a dependency graph.

Python

=> ↺ Tutorial Teaches You To Use Neopixels With Micropython | Hackaday

• Addressable LEDs are wonderful things, with products like Neopixels making it easy to create all kinds of vibrant, blinking glowables. However, for those without a lot of electronics experience, using these devices can seem a bit daunting. [Bhavesh Kakwani] is here to help, with his tutorial on getting started with Neopixels using the MicroPython environment.

• The tutorial flows on from [Bhavesh’s] Blink example for MicroPython, and is aimed at beginners who are learning for the first time. It explains the theory behind RGB color mixing that allows one to generate all manner of colors with WS2812B-based LED strings, and how to code for the Raspberry Pi Pico to make these LEDs do one’s bidding.

Java

=> ↺ Security Experts Discuss Log4j Mitigation Before US Senate

=> ↺ this agenda

=> ↺ Apache head: No programming tool would have caught Log4j bug

• Apache Software Foundation president David Nalley told a Senate hearing Tuesday that “none of the automated tools on the market today” would have caught the Log4j vulnerability prepublication or even very recently.

=> ↺ Install NetBeans IDE on Debian 11 Bullseye – Linux Shout

• NetBeans is a development environment written entirely in Java for the programming language developed in Java, languages ​​such as C, C++, and Fortran are also supported. The architecture of the software is completely modular and can be expanded using so-called modules or plugins. In addition, there are so-called packs, which expand the IDE with larger function packages. Furthermore, NetBeans can be used as a platform for your own applications. Numerous developments and functions from NetBeans were later adopted by other IDEs, e.g. B. by Eclipse. The main focus in the development of NetBeans was on functions that make developers more productive and support them in the technologies that they actually use. The goal is an IDE “from a single source”. For programming, you also need Java SDK here.

Leftovers

Hardware

=> ↺ Simple Dev Board Module Socket | Hackaday

• When you’re building a quick prototype or a one-off project it’s nice to be able to securely mount the various modules and development boards. Sometimes these boards have mounting holes, but often they don’t. As an example from the latter category, digital music instrument maker and performer [DIYDSP] shows us how to build a simple socket to mount an STM32 Nucleo-32 module.

• The socket is built on a standard pad-per-hole piece of vector board cut to the desired size. Pairs of female pin header strips are soldered down to the board. The inner pair of headers is for the module, the outer pair is for your interconnections. The headers are connected up with short solder bridges, and [DIYDSP] recommends you extend the outer pair several pins longer than necessary. These extras can be used for additional power or ground points, or on some boards they could connect to the debug header pins. He prefers to use female sockets because that lessens the odds that an accidentally bent pin will short something out.

=> ↺ Color Dot Puzzle Will Wrinkle Your Brain | Hackaday

• 2022 is a good year for puzzles, and if you’re getting tired of Wordle, you might be after a new challenge. This color puzzle from [Sebastian Coddington] could be just what you’re looking for.

• [Sebastian] describes the 4×4 Color Dot Puzzle as a sort of combination of the ideas behind the Rubik’s Cube and the 15 puzzle. The aim is to arrange the 16 colored tiles on the board to form four single-colored 2×2 squares in the overall 4×4 board. The puzzle is 3D printed, using 6 colors of filament – black for the body of the puzzle, white for the control sticks, and yellow, green, red, and blue for the individual tiles.

=> ↺ The Real World Strikes Back | Hackaday

• My son was into “Secret Coders“, a graphic novel series wherein a pair of kids discover and thwart a plot to take over the world by learning to program in the LOGO computer language. When I told him that these “turtle bots” were originally actually real physical things, he wanted one. So we built one out of some nice geared DC motors I had lying around.

• A turtle bot has essentially three jobs: move forward in a straight line a controlled distance, turn a given number of degrees, and raise and lower a pen. If you’re already screaming “use stepper motors!” at your screen, well, you’re probably right. But I had these nice Faulhaber/Micromo geared motors with encoders that were just collecting dust in the closet, so I used ’em. And because of that, the robot stumbles on two of its three goals in life — the servo pen lifter works just fine.

=> ↺ Chromebook shipments crashed in Q4, says IDC • The Register

• Chromebook shipments collapsed in calendar Q4 as the channel – with an eye on market saturation – ordered in lower volumes and PC makers moved available components to higher-margin builds running on Windows.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Walmart ends paid COVID sick leave for employees and will allow sick vaccinated employees to breathe all over customers and other employees without a mask on. – BaronHK’s Rants

• Now 2 million more Americans are at risk of losing their job because the McDonalds Clown (Trump) that my parents voted for let COVID spiral completely out of control in 2020 when something could have been done about it, and Biden isn’t going to issue any executive action requiring large employers to keep sick leave without points for people diagnosed with COVID.

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

Pseudo-Open Source

Openwashing

=> ↺ How OpenBIM contributes to the digital transformation of the AEC industry

• The advantages of OpenBIM can be extended through open data formats allowing professionals to use their preferred software without constraint

=> ↺ How open source is shaping data storage management

• In 2016, a group of companies banded together to address a key storage management challenge that they and their customers were facing – managing a heterogenous storage footprint that was hampering the deployment of storage and data services.

• At the time, the group, comprising Dell EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Huawei, Intel and Vodafone, formed the OpenSDS (open software-defined storage) project, an open source project incubated under the Linux Foundation to build a community to address those issues in a generic and standardised way.

Security

=> ↺ How to Mitigate the PwnKit Vulnerability – The New Stack

=> ↺ the Microsoft proxy

=> ↺ push the same narrative

• On Jan. 25, the Qualys Research Team publicly disclosed a memory corruption vulnerability in PolKit (pkexec), a component included in every major Linux distribution. The exploit, known as PwnKit, is now tracked as CVE-2021-4034.

=> ↺ Wireshark 3.6.2 – Neowin

• Wireshark is a network packet analyzer. A network packet analyzer will try to capture network packets and tries to display that packet data as detailed as possible. You could think of a network packet analyzer as a measuring device used to examine what’s going on inside a network cable, just like a voltmeter is used by an electrician to examine what’s going on inside an electric cable (but at a higher level, of course). In the past, such tools were either very expensive, proprietary, or both. However, with the advent of Wireshark, all that has changed. Wireshark is perhaps one of the best open source packet analyzers available today.

=> ↺ European Union Will Pay For Finding Bugs In Open Source Software

• The European Commission’s Open Source Programme Office has decided to offer bug bounties on popular open source software. What better way of acknowledging OSS’s importance than by a state driven sponsorship?

• Open Source Software powers everything, from modern servers, to IoT, to the desktops at work and, as it seems, is at the heart of European Union systems too. While this EU bug bounty initiative is welcome, it is not something new; I covered the origins of the program in 2019, see “EU Bug Bounty – Software Security as a Civil Right”.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Analysis | Trump allies planned to seize NSA data to prove stolen election

Environment

=> ↺ Reverse Resources: Turning textile waste into raw material

• Reverse Resources is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform with a mission to help the industry use its secondary resources as new raw material and thereby reduce its dependency on virgin materials on a large scale

Finance

=> ↺ How to polish the bottom line? Microsoft makes it really hard to claim expenses, say staffers

=> ↺ Microsoft is also plundering taxpayers

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Thousands of Reno-area homes have racist covenants. New county software will help with problem

• Alexis Hill was shocked when reading through the legal documents to buy a house in Reno to find they said the property couldn’t be sold to – or even occupied by – anyone who wasn’t white.

• “We thought there’s no way we can agree to these racist covenants,” the Washoe County commissioner recalled. “We asked our Realtor if we could not sign that part, and she said no, it wasn’t allowed.”

=> ↺ Crack down on U.S. prison surveillance tech, rights groups urge

• As AI-powered tracking of phone calls in U.S. prisons and jails spreads to more states, leading digital rights groups want federal action to rein it in

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ [Repeat] The Internet Platforms We All Use Should Be Publicly Owned and Democratically Controlled

• Web3 shows how our online lives are increasingly being monetized. It’s time to take democratic control of the internet — turning the platforms we all use into free public services.

Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Amplifying Black and Diverse Histories the Focus of New Wikimedia Foundation Collaboration with African Artist – Africa.com

• The Wikimedia Foundation, the global nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, announced the launch of Wiki Unseen, a collaboration with artists aimed at expanding the visual representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in Wikimedia projects and advancing knowledge equity.

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