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● 02.23.22

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● Links 23/2/2022: OpenSSH 8.9, Levente Polyak Cemented as Arch Project Leader, Intel Acquires Linutronix

Posted in News Roundup at 3:14 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ The Best Linux Distros For Old Laptops

• A wise man once said that when a relationship gets old, you don’t throw it away. Instead, you fix it and learn to navigate that relationship in a new way.

• The same can be said about the relationships we have with our technology. If you have an old laptop lying around, don’t throw it away just yet; it can be revitalized and put to good use. All you need to do is find a lightweight Linux distribution that’s compatible with your device’s hardware and you’ll be all set. All these lightweight distros are a far better choice than Windows or macOS for old hardware. They’re even better than the most popular options like Ubuntu.

• With that in mind, here are a few lightweight Linux distros that can bring your old laptop back to life.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux 5.16.11

=> ↺ Linux 5.15.25

=> ↺ Linux 5.10.102

=> ↺ Linux 5.4.181

=> ↺ Linux 4.19.231

=> ↺ Linux 4.14.268

=> ↺ Linux 4.9.303

=> ↺ Is it time to remove reiserfs?

=> ↺ ReiserFS Proposed To Be Removed From Linux In 2022

Applications

=> ↺ Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Atlassian Jira Service Management

• Atlassian Corporation Plc is a software company founded in 2002 that develops products for software developers, project managers and other software development teams. It employs over 7,000 people and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

• Atlassian produces a range of proprietary software including software for collaboration, development, and issue tracking software for teams. Atlassian dominates several markets where it still has intense competition.

=> ↺ How to Use Emacs As a USENET Reader With Gnus

• USENET is a decentralized global messaging system. It is considered to be the first global social network with more than 100,000 groups that are talking about various topics and specializations. This makes USENET a particularly good repository of knowledge and discussion for the interested reader.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How To Install DBeaver CE On Ubuntu / AlmaLinux & Fedora | Tips On UNIX

• This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to download and install DBeaver CE on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Linux Mint 20.3, and Debian 8 via the official repository and via Flatpak also.

=> ↺ How to Install and Configure Zabbix Server 6 on Ubuntu 20.04

• Zabbix is an open-source monitoring software tool for diverse IT components, including networks, servers, virtual machines and cloud services. Zabbix provides monitoring metrics, among others network utilization, CPU load and disk space consumption. Zabbix has a rich set of features to enable users to monitor more than just hosts, offering great flexibility to administrators when it comes to choosing the most suitable option for each situation.

• Zabbix uses XML based template which contains elements to monitor. The backend of Zabbix is written in C programming and PHP is used for the web frontend. Zabbix can send you alerts to notify the different events and issues based on metrics and thresholds defined for your IT environment. It supports agent-based and agentless monitoring. But Zabbix agents installation can help you to get detailed monitoring e.g. CPU load, network, disk space utilization.

=> ↺ How to Install Zabbix Agent 6 on Rocky Linux/Alma Linux/Oracle Linux 8

• A Zabbix agent is a program that runs on a remote machine that needs to be monitored through the Zabbix server. The agent collects the data on the remote server and send back to Zabbix server when requested. Zabbix agent must be installed on all the remote systems that need to be monitor through the Zabbix server.

=> ↺ Listen to your favorite music on Linux with Juk | Opensource.com

• The KDE project doesn’t just provide a famous desktop, it generates a lot of software, from tools for video editng, photography, and illustration, to graphing calculators, email, and office work. Those are all productivity tools, but KDE is also good for relaxing. It has games and media players, and the music player I use is known simply as Juk.

=> ↺ Two DHCP servers in a libvirt network – Lukáš Zapletal

• I write provisioning software that needs to integrate with DHCP servers. Libvirt is a great Linux virtual environment for development, but by default it runs its own DHCP server (dnsmasq). That is a very good feature for spawning ad-hoc VMs which get their IPs easily. But I want also to manage some VMs with my own DHCP server. How to do this?

=> ↺ Easy VM access with routed libvirt mode – Lukáš Zapletal

• By default, libvirt comes with a virtual network called “default” that is configured with NAT. That is a very sane default configuration, VMs are accessible from the host machine directly and they can also access internet via NAT. Many people, however, want to access VMs from outside – typically when libvirt is used as a server hypervisor. You will find many blog posts explaining how to setup a bridge. Configuration of bridge is complex, you need to shut down the main connection and it is a challenge for users who only have SSH access to the machine. Only if there was a better way…

• Big news if you did not know: you don’t need a bridge to access your VMs. You can use a regular (routed) network! In this article, I will describe how it works. Spoiler alert: it is easier than bridge!

=> ↺ How I Use NFS for Sharing Folders in My Homelab Setup

• When you have several systems in your network, especially if you virtualize them like in a homelab or through your organization, having shared folders is extremely convenient and useful to make your work easier and faster.

• I, for example, have a folder that I share among different virtual machines. This way, whatever gets downloaded in one system, is immediately available on the other system.

• I have the folder located at a centralized file sharing NFS virtualized server. This folder is shared to a container that runs a torrenting app where I download files which get available at the same time to another container that can also use these same files for processing.

• Basically, I centralize my files in a location that I later share among different devices and instances for convenience and functionalities.

=> ↺ Create GUI Dialog Boxes In Bash Scripts With Whiptail – OSTechNix

• A while ago, we briefly discussed about Zenity, a simple program that allows you to create graphical (GTK+) dialog boxes in command-line and shell scripts. In this article, we are going to discuss yet another GUI utility called Whiptail that can be used to create GUI dialog boxes in Bash scripts in Linux.

• Not every script that you write needs a frontend graphical interface. But sometimes it would be better if you create a graphical interface instead of relying on interacting with the command line. In my case, if there is a long list of responses needed in the script I would choose to go with a graphical interface.

• Whiptail is a friendly GUI utility that uses a newt programming library. Whiptail offers different dialog boxes for different purposes. Depending upon your use case you can use these dialog boxes to make your script more interactive.

=> ↺ How to Install and Configure Fail2ban on Alma Linux 8

• Fail2ban is a free and open-source Intrusion Prevention System written in Python. It is used to protect your system against brute-force attacks. It continuously monitors the SSH (and other) log files for authentication attempts, after a specified number of incorrect password attempts, the client’s IP address is banned by Fail2Ban. It can be used to secure several services including, SSH, vsftpd, Apache, and Webmin. In this tutorial, I will show you how to install Fail2Ban firewall on Alma Linux 8.

=> ↺ How to Install Zulip Chat Server on Debian 11

• Zulip is an open-source chat server, similar to Microsoft Teams, Rocket Chat or Slack. It is written in Python and uses Django, PostgreSQL, and JavaScript. It integrates with over 90 third-party plugins, including Github, Jira, Stripe, Zendesk, Sentry, etc. You can expand the integrations by connecting them with Zapier and IFTTT. It comes with features like private messaging, group chats, threaded conversations, custom channels, video calls, drag-and-drop file uploads, custom emojis, Giphy integration, Image and Tweets preview and many more. Zulip comes with desktop and mobile apps for every platform, making it platform agnostic.

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install and configure Zulip Chat on a Debian 11 based server.

=> ↺ How to Install and Play With RetroArch on Linux

• Video games have taken the world by storm. From the simple game of Pong created in the 1970s to the latest AAA titles available today, the industry has continued to be a source of entertainment for decades. This steady growth has allowed the video game industry to become one of the largest in the world, with the market reaching a net worth of $90 Billion in the year 2020.

• Different games are available on different platforms. These platforms compete with each other by offering video game titles that are exclusive to their console only. While this allows for market growth and competition, not everyone has the chance to purchase every console.

• Furthermore, some consoles and video game titles are no longer in production and it would mean that one would lose the chance to play these titles. This is where emulators come in.

=> ↺ How To Install Avidemux on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Avidemux on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Avidemux is a free and open-source software application for non-linear video editing and transcoding multimedia files. It supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4, and ASF, using a variety of codecs.

• 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 Avidemux open-source video editing application on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

=> ↺ Make any device your second display on Linux

• Do you use Linux? Need an extra monitor but only have one that you can use? Good news! With Deskreen, you can turn any smartphone, tablet, or Laptop into a second screen. Here’s how it works.

=> ↺ How to use Rescuezilla to clone a Linux hard drive

• Do you need to clone a Linux hard drive? Unsure how to go about doing it? Check out the Rescuzilla live USB tool. What is Rescuezilla?

• Rescuezilla is a bootable live operating system that Linux users can use to “rescue” their system without dealing with complex, confusing options. In this guide, we’ll show you have to use Rescuezilla to clone a Linux hard drive.

• Note: you will need a USB flash drive of at least 1 GB in size to create a Rescuezilla live USB key. Additionally, you must have a source hard drive and a destination hard drive for the cloning process to work.

=> ↺ How to install the Brave nightly browser on Linux

• The people behind the Brave browser have a nightly release. The Nightly release allows users to get the latest features as soon as possible. Here’s how you can set up Brave nightly browser on Linux.

=> ↺ How To Monitor Your Linux Servers with Checkmk

• The Checkmk is one of the most used and user-friendly applications for monitoring Linux servers. It can check the server status, load, network status, applications, database, cloud server load, storage, and other IoT devices connected with your Linux server. The Checkmk tool works in a hybrid way in Linux. Once you have the tool installed on your Linux machine, you can easily access all the configuration and dashboard tabs through the web browser.

• Unlike other server monitoring tools, the Checkmk tool does not hog a huge amount of system resources on Linux. Installing and using the Checkmk tool on Linux is easy and straightforward Linux. If you’re a system administrator, you must try out this tool and enjoy all the features and plug-ins that can reduce your workload a bit.

=> ↺ How to install DaVinci Resolve 17 on Linux

• Davinci Resolve is a professional, high-end non-linear video editing tool. Best of all, it is available on Linux. So, if you require a good video editor, follow these installation instructions below to get Davinci Resolve to work on your system.

=> ↺ Network traffic analysis with tcpdump

• tcpdump is a data-network packet analyzer computer program. It allows the user to display network packets (including TCP/IP) being transmitted or received over a network. In this short article I will show how to do some packet capture for network traffic analysis with tcpdump.

=> ↺ How to Install Sublime Text 4 on AlmaLinux 8 – LinuxCapable

• Sublime Text 4 is an excellent choice as your go-to program to edit code. Sublime is known for its speed, ease of use, cross-platform, and community contribution. It natively supports many programming languages and markup tongues, but users can also expand its functionality with plugins!

• The Python API makes it easy; make sure you download from within Sublime, or they won’t show up in settings. Also, you can further customize and enhance it by installing additional features using package control and custom settings.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Sublime Text 4 on AlmaLinux 8.

=> ↺ Install ProcessWire on Ubuntu 22.04 – kifarunix.com

• Follow through this guide to install ProcessWire on Ubuntu 22.04. ProcessWire is an opensource PHP based content management system and framework.

Games

=> ↺ View Your Steam Deck Compatible Games through Steam – Boiling Steam

• We’re less than three days from the official launch of the Steam Deck (less than 51 hours left in EST) and Valve, in addition to partnering with iFixit to offer replacement parts, has now made an official tool to view the games in your Steam library as being Steam Deck Verified, Playable, unsupported, and untested. Simply go to this page, log into your Steam account, and you’ll instantly be able to see what your games are categorized under.

=> ↺ Valve adds official Steam Deck compatibility checker, 762 games Playable or Verified | GamingOnLinux

• While there’s been a few unofficial ways to check your own Steam Library for the Steam Deck, Valve has now put up the official way. Plus, we’re getting closer to a thousand Playable titles now. Things are really heating up, with only two days left until the official release on February 25!

• All you need to do is login with your Steam account and head to this page, which will give you an overview of what you can expect to work.

=> ↺ UnderRail is preparing for the Steam Deck, won’t be perfect just yet | GamingOnLinux

• Released back in 2015, UnderRail from Stygian Software is an old school turn-based isometric indie role playing game that focuses on exploration and combat. Now, they’re trying to get it looking good on a Steam Deck.

=> ↺ How to play Assassin’s Creed Unity on Linux

• Assassin’s Creed Unity is an action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released in 2014 on Windows, PS4, and Xbox One. Here’s how you can play Assassin’s Creed Unity on Linux.

=> ↺ How to play Days Gone on Linux

• Days Gone is a post-apocalyptic video game developed by Bend Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was released for PC and PS4. Here’s how to play it on your Linux gaming PC.

=> ↺ Boosting a HP Z400 Workstation with a Modern GPU (GTX 1660 Ti) – Boiling Steam

• Let’s talk about hardware today! One of my machines at home happens to be an old HP Z400 workstation. A fairly old piece of hardware (manufactured sometimes in 2009-2010) that I use mainly for productivity because it’s built like a tank and is fairly silent – and really cheap second hand. I mentioned it before on Boiling Steam, back in 2017. While pre-built, you can replace and upgrade pretty much everything in it, be it the CPU, the RAM, and the GPU. It usually comes with a Quadro Nvidia GPU, but you can certainly switch it for a more modern card. Years ago I went for a Nvidia GTX 1060 (3GB, the weakest one) GPU to enjoy some decent gaming on that machine as well – unfortunately this card, along with Pascal generations cards in general, has issues with VKD3D and I wanted to do an affordable upgrade.

=> ↺ Wordle’s Digital Predecessors: The Evolution of Online Word Games

• I’m sort of at that age in my adulthood where I’m not really a heavy gamer, but my love of word games knows no bounds. So when Wordle became a thing, I became a fast fan as well as that annoying guy on Twitter who shares his playthroughs each morning. (Never really a heavy a Words With Friends player, though I enjoyed Scrabble as much as the next guy.) But in a lot of ways, Wordle one of many obsessions of this type, and I think the real secret is that it’s a fairly simple game, with reasonable restrictions on how it’s played, that has a surprising number of layers that emerge over time. In honor of Wordle’s success, Today’s Tedium looks back at the imprint word games have left on the world of technology in the decades prior. May your brain be teased.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ KDE vs GNOME: What’s the Ultimate Linux Desktop Choice?

• When it comes to Linux, the desktop environment is a big deal.

• A desktop environment makes up the graphical user interface (GUI) along with a set of applications that you get on your Linux distribution.

• You can go through our article explaining what a desktop environment is.

• Choosing a good desktop environment can help you improve productivity, workflow, ease of use, and the overall experience.

Distributions

BSD

=> ↺ OpenSSH 8.9 released [LWN.net]

Arch Family

=> ↺ Arch Linux – News: Arch Linux Leader Election Results

• This month we held our leader election, and our current leader Levente Polyák ran unopposed. As per our election rules he is re-elected for a new term.

• Congratulations to Levente Polyak on a new term!

=> ↺ Arch Linux Leader Election Results

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Ubuntu addresses Linux kernel vulnerabilities • The Register

• Ubuntu has issued a batch of updates that cover the default as well as the AWS and KVM flavours for the current short-term release 21.10, both the original 5.04 and OEM 5.14 builds for the current 20.04 LTS release, as well as 18.04, and, surprisingly, even 16.04 and 14.04.

• While kernel releases trickle out all the time, the last two members of that list – 2016′s Xenial Xerus and 2014′s Trusty Tahr – emphasise that even very old releases in Extended Security Maintenance or ESM sometimes need a bit of TLC.

• It also might surprise some that multiple different Linux kernels are available for a single product release. Although Ubuntu pushes out a new Long-Term Support (LTS) release every even-numbered year, those get five years of bugfixes.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ OpenScan DIY 3D scanner works with Raspberry Pi, DSLR, or smartphone cameras

• OpenScan is an open-source DIY 3D scanner that relies on Photogrammetry and works with Raspberry Pi camera modules, compatible ArduCam modules, as well as DSLR cameras, or the camera from your smartphone.

• The open-source project was brought to my attention after I wrote about the Creality CR-Scan Lizard 3D scanner. The OpenScan kits include 3D printed parts such as gears, two stepper motors, a Raspberry Pi shield, and a Ringlight module to take photos of a particular object from different angles in an efficient manner.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Oppo’s first Android tablet looks like a tempting iPad Air rival | TechRadar

=> ↺ Infinix Zero 5G to get Android 12 in August – GSMArena.com news

=> ↺ Install Android 12 on Galaxy S9 [How To]

=> ↺ How to Prepare Your Android Phone to Be Stolen

=> ↺ How to record a call on your Android Phone – Geeky Gadgets

=> ↺ How to install and use Magisk modules on a rooted Android phone

=> ↺ Google Assistant Not Working on Android? Try these Fixes – Gotechtor

=> ↺ The Fastest Android Gaming Phone Features Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 And It’s Affordable Too

=> ↺ This Google update can help you free up space on your Android smartphone – Times of India

=> ↺ A hidden gem in Gboard on Android | Computerworld

=> ↺ Android game modding is here thanks to BlueStacks – Android Authority

=> ↺ The 6 best podcast apps for Android in 2022

=> ↺ Wallpaper Wednesday: Android wallpapers 2022-02-23 – Android Authority

=> ↺ Jireno Cube 4 Projector review: Carry Android TV with you | Digital Trends

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ OSI: Open source legal awareness needs to grow

=> ↺ OpenLogic

• Second: respondents seem to be exploring blockchain and NFT at a surprisingly high rate. While NFTs got the lowest score of all as “not important”, more than 20% marked both blockchain and NFT as “very important”. I’d be interested to understand why.

Events

=> ↺ Call for Papers opens for Summit in Albania – openSUSE News

• The openSUSE community has opened the call for papers for a summit that will be held in conjunction with Open Source Conference Albania (OSCAL) 2022.

• People can submit a talk for the openSUSE Summit at OSCAL 2022 from now until April 26 on events.opensuse.org.

• OSCAL will take place from June 18 and 19 in Tirana, Albania, and will gather free (libre) open source technology users, developers, academics, governmental agencies and people who share the idea that software should be free and open for people to study, develop and customize. The conference is organized by Open Labs, which is a non-profit community that promotes the importance of an open source culture in Albania since 2012.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ JavaScript devs feel language moving in right direction • The Register

• The State of JavaScript 2021 survey has arrived, a little later than planned (no jokes about language performance, please) and in the wake of a somewhat embarrassing data leak.

• 2020′s State of JavaScript report came from a survey of 23,000 developers. 2021′s was the result of just over 16,000. And although the US leads the way, its share of survey respondents dropped to 14 per cent and Russia climbed to third place behind Germany with 4 per cent.

• Sadly, the vast majority (93.2 per cent) of those who answered the gender question listed themselves as male, up on last year’s 91.1 per cent. 82.4 per cent chose to fill out the survey in English. JavaScript might be impressively diverse from a technological perspective, but the same cannot be said for the respondents to this survey.

=> ↺ Color Sensor with Arduino Uno: TCS34725 explaination, wiring and code

• To sort out the things with respect to the colors like different color balls, Arduino can interface the TCS34725 that is the cheap and best color sensor which can handle such application

• In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to interface the color sensor TCS34725 with Arduino, explaining with a wiring diagram, code, and components list.

=> ↺ Bend Your Vase Mode Prints By Hacking The GCode

• [Stefan] from CNCKitchen wanted to make some bendy tubes for a window-mountable ball run, and rather than coming up with some bent tube models, it seemed there might be a different way to achieve the desired outcome. Starting with a simple tube model designed to be quickly printed in vase mode, he wrote a Python script which read in the G-Code, and modified it allow it to be bent along a spline path.

• Vase mode works by slowly ramping up the Z-axis as the extruder follows the object outline, but the slicing process is still essentially the same, with the object sliced in a plane parallel to the bed. Whilst this non-planar method moves the Z-axis in sync with the horizontal motion (although currently limited to only one plane of distortion, which simplifies the maths a bit) it is we guess still technically a planar solution, but just an inclined plane. But we digress, non-planar in this context merely means not parallel to the bed, and we’ll roll with that.

=> ↺ Unreal Engine 5 is now available in Preview! – Unreal Engine

• This release builds upon the features exposed in last year’s Early Access offering, with improvements to performance, quality, and feature-completeness across the board.

=> ↺ Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 alpha 3

• We’re continuing on our fortnightly release schedule for alpha snapshots of Godot 4.0 – this time with 4.0 alpha 3. See past alpha releases for details (alpha 1, alpha 2).

• Be aware that during the alpha stage the engine is still not feature-complete or stable. There will likely be breaking changes between this release and the first beta release. Only the beta will mark the so-called “feature freeze”.

• As such, we do not recommend porting existing projects to this and other upcoming alpha releases unless you are prepared to do it again to fix future incompatibilities. However, if you can port some existing projects and demos to the new version, that may provide a lot of useful information about critical issues still left to fix.

• Most importantly: Make backups before opening any existing project in Godot 4.0 alpha builds. There is no easy way back once a project has been (partially) converted.

=> ↺ 10 of our favorite Jenkins plugins – Octopus Deploy

• As an open-source Continuous Integration (CI) platform, one of our favorite things about Jenkins is its strong community. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Jenkins Plugins Index.

• There are over 1800 user-created plugins in the Index, allowing you to extend Jenkins’ features and change your instance to meet your team’s needs.

Perl/Raku

=> ↺ Perl Weekly Challenge 153: Left Factorials and Factorions

=> ↺ The progress of the SPVM language 2022 | Yuki Kimoto Perl Blog – Perl Club [blogs.perl.org]

• Hi, I write the progress of the SPVM module 2022.

• SPVM is a programming language that is build on top of the Perl ecosystem and provides fast calculation and array operation to Perl.

• SPVM can be transpiled to C language, and it can be compiled to shared libraries and executable files.

• SPVM can call C/C++/Cuda libraries by writing pure C/C++/Cuda language without XS.

• I wrote SPVM from 2016. I finally implement the all features that I think they are needed for modern applications.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ Recursive dwdiff using find -exec Using find, sh

Java

=> ↺ How to create and call a method in Java

• A Java method contains a block of statements/instructions that perform some functionalities only when someone calls the method. When someone calls a java method, multiple statements executes at the backend to provide a certain output. The Java methods provide the reusability of the code, as we have to write/create a method once, and we can use it as many times as we want.

Leftovers

Hardware

=> ↺ Intel acquires Linutronix [LWN.net]

• The plan is evidently to continue to run Linutronix as an independent company rather than absorbing it into Intel.

=> ↺ Intel Acquires Linutronix

• Linutronix is comprised of a team of highly qualified and motivated employees with a wealth of experience and involvement in the ongoing development of Linux. Led by CEO Heinz Egger and CTO Thomas Gleixner, Linutronix is the architect of PREEMPT_RT (Real Time) and the leading technology provider for industrial Linux. Gleixner has been the principal maintainer of x86 architecture in the Linux kernel since 2008.

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

Security

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Top U.S. Websites Run Afoul of European Data Privacy Law

=> ↺ it’s not properly enforced either

• Leading U.S. websites have failed to abide by European data privacy law, according to research by regulatory compliance software vendor Zendata.

=> ↺ Counter Comments to the TRAI for the, “Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for Promoting Data Economy Through Establishment of Data Centres, Content Delivery Networks, and Interconnect Exchanges”

• IFF remains deeply committed to net neutrality and data privacy. On February 10th, 2022, IFF filed its main comments to TRAI’s ongoing consultation on “Regulatory Framework for Promoting Data Economy Through Establishment of Data Centres, Content Delivery Networks, and Interconnect Exchanges”. However, we were troubled by some requests made by telecom service providers and industry bodies. They called for a ‘light-touch’ regulatory framework for Content Delivery Networks as well as increased data monetization, with scant attention paid to regulatory oversight over data privacy and security. IFF has filed counter comments to rebut these suggestions and urged TRAI to develop robust mechanisms to enforce net neutrality and protect data privacy.

• [...]

• First, we called for urgency in creating a multi-stakeholder body (MSB) for the enforcement of net neutrality principles. While India has globally leading regulations on net neutrality on paper, it still lacks an institutional enforcement mechanism. In this regard, TRAI’s recommendation in 2020 to set up an MSB was not positively received by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) due to COVID-19 budget constraints. However, the expenditure curbs have since been relaxed and so budgetary cuts no longer stand in the way. The MSB will prevent Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) from abusing interconnection agreements, and keep technical forms of discrimination, like website blocking, slowing down of web services, etc. in check.

• Second, we cautioned against regulating Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) given existing market efficiency. TRAI and other global regulators have determined that the CDN market is working adequately; it is competitive and provides user benefit. There is also a lack of existing evidence (real data) on any prospective harms, specifically in the Indian market. Hence, to facilitate the growth of the local CDN industry, TRAI should commence a deeper study prior to devising regulation.

=> ↺ Bypassing Apple’s AirTag Security – Schneier on Security

• A Berlin-based company has developed an AirTag clone that bypasses Apple’s anti-stalker security systems. Source code for these AirTag clones is available online.

• So now we have several problems with the system. Apple’s anti-stalker security only works with iPhones. (Apple wrote an Android app that can detect AirTags, but how many people are going to download it?) And now non-AirTags can piggyback on Apple’s system without triggering the alarms.

=> ↺ Apple Airtags’ anti-stalker features can be bypassed – claim • The Register

• An infosec startup says it has built an Apple Airtag clone that bypasses anti-stalking protection features while running on Apple’s Find My protocol.

• Source code for the clones were published online by Berlin-based infosec startup Positive Security (not to be confused with US-sanctioned cybersecurity outfit Positive Technologies), which said its tags “successfully tracked an iPhone user… for over five days without triggering a tracking notification.”

• The user consented, added Positive’s Fabian Bräunlein in a blog post explaining his findings.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Go back to the drawing board: Kenya must scrap unconstitutional Huduma Bill 2021 – Access Now

• Civil society organizations are making their voices heard in Kenyan parliament, and the message is clear: the unconstitutional Huduma Bill 2021 must be scrapped.

• Currently sitting before parliament, the noxius draft bill that will transition the nation over to a new catch-all digital identity system stands to facilitate the violation of constitutionally guaranteed human rights including the rights to privacy, freedom from discrimination, freedom and security of the person, as well as socio-economic and citizenship rights.

• Huduma, which requires primary identification documents for registration, stands to potentially exclude people already affected by the shortfalls of the existing identification program — including border communities who are subjected to tough vetting processes to attain identification, and people at risk of statelessness.

• “The Kenyan parliament continuing to push the harmful Huduma bill through the legislative process is not only a waste of public resources, it’s telling the people of Kenya that their constitutional rights are nothing but words on paper,” said Elias Okwara, Africa Policy Manager at Access Now. “The government must withdraw this bill, and go back to the drawing board.”

=> ↺ Public petition: withdraw the Huduma Bill 2021 – Access Now

Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ “Pajamas from Spirit Land”: Searching for William James – The Public Domain Review

• After the passing of William James — philosopher, early psychologist, and investigator of psychic phenomena — mediums across the US began receiving messages from the late Harvard professor. Channelling these fragmentary voices, Alicia Puglionesi considers the relationship between communication, reputation, and survival after death.

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