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● 05.08.22

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● Links 08/05/2022: Nextcloud Hub 24 and Tor 0.4.7

Posted in News Roundup at 3:58 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ This Week in Linux 197: Firefox 100, WINE Bottles, Tails 5.0, Unity Desktop, Ubuntu and more Linux news! – TuxDigital

• On this episode of This Week in Linux: Mozilla Firefox 100, Bottles 2022.5.2, Tails 5.0, Deb-Get for 3rd-Party Software, Unity 7.6 For Testing, Trinity Desktop R14.0.12, Open Media Vault 6, GCC 12.1, Ubuntu Christian Edition 22.04 and an Unofficial SteamOS 3. All that and much more on Your Weekly Source for Linux GNews!

Applications

=> ↺ A Critique of Lagrange

• This is not a full review of Lagrange, but rather discussing one specific aspect of it. My intention here is to start a conversation.

=> ↺ Nextcloud Hub 24 automates data export and import – LinuxStoney

• Nextcloud Hub 24 is the latest from “the world’s most widespread collaboration platform, used by tens of millions of private users, governments, and Fortune 500 companies alike to reclaim data sovereignty and privacy.” This is how the project introduces the new version of it, the first to see the light this year 2022.

• Without much fanfare, however, Nextcloud Hub 24 is the new version of the old Nextcloud , renamed Nextcloud Hub a few versions ago to reflect its status as an application suite, something that serves more than one thing – it serves many, in fact – although its basic function as Dropbox to free and self-managed software does not change, because everything continues to revolve around that.

=> ↺ Tor 0.4.7 Stable Version Released – LinuxStoney

• The release of the Tor 0.4.7.7 toolkit used to organize the work of the anonymous Tor network is presented. Tor 0.4.7.7 is recognized as the first stable release of the 0.4.7 branch, which has been in development for the past ten months. The 0.4.7 branch will be maintained as part of the regular maintenance cycle – updates will be discontinued 9 months later or 3 months after the release of the 0.4.8.x branch.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Converting strings to objects with jq

• In preparing some data for another upcoming blog post, I needed to convert a list of fully qualified GitHub repository names into a JSON array of single-property objects (to reflect the style of JSON output from GitHub’s gh CLI). I achieved this with a short jq filter. Here’s how, recorded here, with my working thoughts, mostly for my outboard memory.

=> ↺ Some thoughts on jq and statelessness

• I came across a great article via lobsters recently: Introducing zq: an Easier (and Faster) Alternative to jq. I posted some brief thoughts on it over on the lobsters thread, and in the spirit of “owning your own words”, I thought I’d write them up here too.

• I do like articles like this, that show and lay out the thinking behind the conclusion, and along the way, impart knowledge about the topic at hand. Especially when they’re on a subject I’m eager to learn more about.

• While reading the article a couple of things struck me.

=> ↺ Touch Command in Ubuntu 22.04

• Touch command in Ubuntu 22.04 serves various purposes such as generating files or sets of files, altering the modification or access times of files, etc. Moreover this command can be used to classify files based on their timestamps without causing any changes to the files. Besides this you can set the date and time of modification of a file according to your desire using the touch command.

• In this blog we have elaborated the usage of a touch command in Ubuntu 22.04 by demonstrating some basic and advanced examples of this command. Without any further ado let’s get started.

=> ↺ Deploy your own personalized wiki: Bookstack on Docker

• Bookstack is an Opensource self-hosted wiki service which can handle any of your guides, references, flowcharts, Has built in integration of diagrams.net which you can use to create aesthetic diagrams.

=> ↺ Configure Apache2 to use SSL Client Authentication

• SSL Client Authentication is a process by which a server checks client provided certificate to make an SSL connection. If the client certificate is trusted, then a successful SSL connection is made with server. Else client is denied access to the website.

• This is useful when you want only specific clients/people to access your website even by keeping your website public. You can add the SSL Client Authentication in location block as well for Apache to restrict specific paths to allow only SSL Authorized users.

• Here are the steps to configure this on Apache server

=> ↺ Add-Apt-Repository Without User Input Prompt

• In Linux OS, a number of packages are installed by default. However, these packages are never enough. You may need several packages over time. The Linux distribution Ubuntu uses apt for installing, updating, and removing the packages. The apt keeps the repositories in the single sources.list file under the /etc/apt/ directory. It also keeps the repositories in separate (.list) files under the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory. To add a repository in Ubuntu, you need to either edit these files or you can use the add-apt-repository.

=> ↺ How to Install and Use Webmin in Ubuntu 22.04

• Webmin is a web-based interface for Linux-based systems administration. It permits you to operate a server from the console or remotely, eliminating the requirement to change Linux/Unix configuration files manually. You can also utilize the Webmin interface for configuring operating system internals such as disc quotas, services or configuration files, and open source applications like MySQL, PHP, DNS, Apache, or Tomcat.

• This write-up will discuss the procedure to install and use Webmin in Ubuntu 22.04. So, let’s start!

=> ↺ How to find the IP address of the Raspberry Pi operating system

• The Raspberry Pi operating system is also a type of Debian-based Linux distribution so the commands of the command-line interface are almost the same so we can find out the IP address of the Raspberry Pi similarly we find in any other Debian based distribution..

• In this write-up, we will find out about the methods by which we can find out the IP address of the Raspberry Pi operating system, but before proceeding towards these methods, we will explore what the IP address is.

=> ↺ How to install and use veracrypt on Ubuntu 22.04

• VeraCrypt is an open-source data encryption utility to encrypt a drive or the whole system storage. VeraCrypt is the descendent of the obsolete encryption utility named TrueCrypt.

• VeraCrypt is derived from the source code of TrueCrypt. However, it overcomes the limitations of TrueCrypt. For instance, VeraCrypt is equipped with various encryption algorithms such as AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), Camelia, Kuznyechik, Serpent, and Twofish. Additionally, VeraCrypt provides support to combine various algorithms from the above-mentioned algorithms.

=> ↺ How to install Android Studio on Ubuntu 22.04

• Android studio is one of the many tools available that are used for android development. This is a cross-platform tool that works on many operating systems and has numerous built-in features and comes with multiple layouts for generating eye catchy GUI. These features were one reason why this tool replaced the formerly popular tool Eclipse IDE.

• You can install Android Studio on Ubuntu 22.04 using two methods which are either using android-studio repository or Snap. Both of these methods have been discussed here in detail.

=> ↺ How to Install Apache on Ubuntu 22.04

• Apache web server is developed by “Robert McCool”. This open-source web server is responsible for accepting the HTTP requests from the users and providing the requested information in the form of web pages and files. It is mainly utilized by programmers for code testing. Apache also offers a secure file-sharing feature that permits users to store their important files in its root directory and share them with other users.

• This write-up will discuss the method to install Apache on Ubuntu 22.04. So, let’s start!

=> ↺ How to Install Discord on Ubuntu 22.04

• Discord is a social application that is used by millions of people to text, video, and voice chat with their friends and social communities. Discord is free and can be utilized on multiple devices. Users can exchange messages, and share media and files either in private chat or in groups called servers. This app was originally developed for the gamers to chat meanwhile playing games.

• This app is cross-platform compatible and can be used on Windows, Linux Distros, or Mac OS. In this blog, we will teach various ways with which you can install discord on Ubuntu 22.04.

=> ↺ How to Check and Update Java Version on Ubuntu 22.04?

• Java is a general-purpose client-side programming language that serves several functionalities like android application development, game development, web applications development, and many other software products. To build any application, first, we have to install Java on our computer systems. However, some applications are not capable to run on java’s outdated version. So, it’s essential to know which Java version is installed on our operating system and if our machine is running an outdated version of java, then how to update it.

• This post will explain how to check and upgrade the Java version on Ubuntu 22.04. So, let’s begin!

=> ↺ Install the latest PHP on Ubuntu 22.04

• PHP, which is a scripting language, was designed for building websites. This language can be used on many platforms such Linux, Windows, Mac OS, and Unix. The latest version of PHP which is version 8.1 was released on 25th November, 2021 and serves as an extension of PHP version 8.0. This version introduces many features which were not present in the previous one such as enums, read-only properties, never return type, fibers, etc.

• Here we have summed up steps using which you can with great ease install the latest version of PHP in Ubuntu 22.04.

=> ↺ How to Install VLC Media Player on Ubuntu 22.04

• VLC media player is open-source and free software that works on every platform such as Windows, Mac OS, Linux, etc and is capable of playing all types of multimedia files and audio CDs, DVDs, VCDs, etc. It is a streaming media server that was founded by the VideoLAN project.

• Since we mentioned that it can work on any platform, therefore, if you are a Linux user and wondering how to install the VLC media player on Ubuntu 22.04 then you are at the perfect place. Here we have summed up the ways with which you can install VLC on Ubuntu 22.04.

=> ↺ How to Install Ubuntu 22.04 on VirtualBox

• The Canonical developers are about to release their latest version of Ubuntu in April 2022 which will be referred to as Ubuntu 22.04. The beta version of the system has been released and we performed certain steps to install this version on the VirtualBox. Installation of the other stable versions will be similar to the one discussed here.

• Therefore, if you wish to learn the installation procedure of Ubuntu 22.04 on VirtualBox then read the article till the end.

=> ↺ How to Create New User on Ubuntu 22.04

• The cloud server originally contains a user named system, however, if you wish to create a new user on your system to perform system administrative actions then you can generate one using two possible ways. Both of these methods have been discussed here in this blog.

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ Wine Staging 7.8 Released with Improved Alt+Tab Handling for Unity Games – LinuxStoney

• published release of the Wine Staging 7.8 , within which extended builds of Wine are formed, including patches that are not fully ready or risky, not yet suitable for acceptance into the main Wine branch. Compared to Wine, Wine Staging provides 550 additional patches.

• codebase Wine 7.8. 3 patches related to the processing of key states and the refinement of the get/set_key_state functions have been transferred to the main Wine package. updated Four patches : winex11-_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW , user32-Mouse_Message_Hwnd , user32-rawinput-mouse and api-iteration-tokens .

Distributions

Arch Family

=> ↺ So I Installed Arch on My Work Mac

• Ever since I went back to the office I’ve been using a 2018 Mac Mini for work. It’s been… usable. I’ve at least been able to get everything done that I needed to.

• Recently though we started a big server migration. It’s much needed since we’re in need of more hardware and are still on Ubuntu 16, but working on that migration has been the back-breaking straw for me with MacOS. I’ve just had to deal too much with tooling issues, painful package management, uncomfortable workflows despite my best customization efforts, and lots of other tiny things that have piled up which I won’t bore anyone with.

Devices/Embedded

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Probabilistic Fault Tolerance

• In our 2003 SOSP “Best Paper” Preserving Peer Replicas By Rate-Limited Sampled Voting (also here, expanded version here) we introduced a number of concepts. The most important was consensus based on sampling the electorate at random, in contrast to the traditional Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT), which at every step solicits votes from the entire electorate. The advantages of this mechanism are so significant that, a decade and a half later, it was re-discovered and improved upon in the context of a blockchain protocol. Below the fold I explain our original consensus system, and describe how the basic idea has been adopted and enhanced.

=> ↺ What is MQTT and how to use it with Raspberry Pi

• The Raspberry Pi is a multi-purpose small size device which has the power to become people’s ideal choice in every aspect. It has started to set its mark into the Internet of Things (IoT) world and has quickly become an excellent source to bring people into the whole new world. When we talk about IoT, the only thing that comes to our mind is the communication of devices over the internet but on the other side some people will also need an answer about how a Raspberry device will be used for communication purposes.

• If you are the one among those people who don’t have any knowledge then you should follow this guide which will teach you how you may utilize your Raspberry Pi device for communication purposes with the help of a Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol. Before proceeding towards its use with Raspberry Pi, it is important for you to acquire the basic understanding of MQTT.

=> ↺ What is Raspberry Pi Cluster

• The Raspberry Pi is an excellent little tool that people can have in their pockets. The device has an exceptional feature that drives everyone to go hard on it and performs high computational tasks. Handling complex tasks would be hard for a single Raspberry Pi device, even with 8GB RAM.

• If you are considering purchasing more Raspberry Pi devices, you will still leave with the unanswered question of how to boost the Raspberry Pi performance. In that situation, cluster technology will come into the business and in this article, we will show you how the Raspberry Pi cluster will help you boost your device performance.

=> ↺ What is piwheels and how it works on Raspberry Pi

• Python wheels are the standard package managing system to download Python packages on Linux based operating systems. The wheels are hosted on a web server platform with the name PyPi and this allows the Linux users to access these wheels pretty easily. However, the Raspberry Pi users don’t have a supported architecture to download Python packages and the packages need to be built from source in order to make it prepare for your Raspberry Pi OS. The installation of these packages requires a lot of time and this excessive execution time is due to the compilation of source codes.

• If you are looking for a way to speed up your Python packages installation, you should look into this article. It provides a detailed guideline for speeding up your package’s installation using Raspberry Pi wheels called as Piwheels.

• Before going into the detail how Piwheels works on Raspberry Pi let’s first discuss what are Piwheels.

=> ↺ What are different methods to monitor the temperature of the Raspberry Pi 4

• The Raspberry Pi 4 is a single board computer which means it has a processor or a CPU to process the commands and also has the RAM with other peripheral devices that a computer has like a keyboard. When we use the Raspberry Pi 4 to process different tasks it raises the temperature of the CPU of the Raspberry Pi. Temperature rise can damage the CPU. In this write-up, we will find out the methods by which we can monitor the temperature of the Raspberry Pi 4 and protect it from overheating.

=> ↺ Best Raspberry Pi Starter Kits in 2022

• The Raspberry Pi device has gained remarkable success in the present era and it’s no surprise that this device will become a valuable tool for people of all ages. The importance of this device among the children and students has increased a lot because they are getting enough learning opportunities from this device. It’s not just a machine to run different operating systems or games on it, but it has some extraordinary features as well.

=> ↺ How to make digital counter using 7 segment with Arduino Uno

• A 7-segment display can be used to display a limited amount of data having numeric values and alphabets. Such types of displays are mostly used in banks, hospitals, super markets for displaying token numbers and counter numbers. So, we have also created a digital counter using the 7-segment display with Arduino Uno.

=> ↺ What are the causes of Arduino freeze

• When working on a project using Arduino students come across a lot of problems and these problems can be either related to the Arduino code or to the Arduino board itself. Sometimes due to errors in the Arduino code that the compiler is unable to recognize or hardware problems the Arduino boards freeze completely and do not show any output. So, we have addressed some of the issues that cause the Arduino to freeze.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Web Browsers

=> ↺ How To Build an Absurdly Backwards Compatible Website

• It feels like so much of the web is composed of clickbait, ads, popups, and a toxic amount of JavaScript that you need a modern computer just to get any value out of it. Remember when low-power computers were created for people who were “just browsing the [Internet]?”

• Half of the sites on the [Internet] are so overloaded with tracking scripts, ads, third-party “analytics” platforms, and other junk that they simply crash in the face of sub-par hardware; and don’t even get me started on what they do to “retro” computers.

• If the modern web hasn’t been created with aging hardware in mind, what does that mean for the proliferation of e-waste? Is it really so necessary to update your computer every 2-5 years? And, what if you didn’t? What if you couldn’t afford to?

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Fig Terminal Auto-complete Review

• At first Fig presents itself as just an auto-complete tool and, don’t get me wrong, if that is all you are looking for, it does a great job. However there is clearly a much larger ambition with this product to expand the idea of terminal auto-completion into making CLIs much more approachable, baking documentation into the terminal and then allowing you to share that among your entire team for public or private tools. While at present the idea is just starting to become fleshed out, there is a lot of promise here.

• So while Fig is a useful tool today, the promise of where Fig could go is really exciting to me. I’m going to focus mostly on what the product is now, but felt I needed to mention the obvious hooks they are building into the application and the overall framework they are constructing.

Python

=> ↺ Password Generator

• With the continuous advent of Technology and the great amount of data floating around, the security data is of prime importance today. This is done by the usage of passwords which keep our data safe and secure from the world and the internet.

• However, an easy password can be hacked very easily, and our data can become vulnerable to misuse. To prevent this from happening, it is extremely important to use strong passwords.

• In this article, we will learn to create a ‘PASSWORD GENERATOR’ in python using GUI to generate strong passwords using Python Tkinter Module. This application will generate a random password: with a combination of letters, numerical values, and some special characters. The user will mention the length of the password based on the requirement and accordingly, we will get our password.

• By the end of this article, you will get a clear understanding of the working of the application and the logic behind the code.

=> ↺ Dice Rolling Simulator – Python

• Dice is a cube-shaped object used in games like ludo, snakes and ladders, bunko and Yahtzee, etc. The cube when spun faces up with a random number ranging from 1-to 6.

• A dice rolling simulator is a digital computer model that works like normal dice and shows a random number. It is developed using a software program that can be coded in any programming language.

• In this article, we will be coding a dice-rolling simulator using python language with GUI using the Tkinter library.

• We will start by importing the modules and then proceed with the remaining part.

=> ↺ Pandas Rolling Groupby

• The Python programming language provides Pandas library which has many methods that perform simple to complex functions. Pandas in Python make data analysis very simple and easy. Moreover, it is a very exceptional language for performing data investigation while providing an incredible environment of information-driven python bundles.

• In this article, we will discuss the pandas rolling groupby function in Python. Here, we will demonstrate some useful examples that will help you learn about the Pandas rolling groupby function and how to use that function in python code. So, let us begin with the definition of the rolling function.

=> ↺ Factorial in Python NumPy

• We’ll show you how to employ the NumPy factorial function, also known as np.math.factorial, in this article. We’ll also go through the syntax of the np.math.factorial function, how it works, and how to apply it. In addition, we’ll show you how to compute factorials element-wise on NumPy arrays using a different function, scipy.special.factorial. However, it is preferable if you read the entire tutorial to find all the guidelines. That way, everything will probably make more sense.

=> ↺ Currency Converter Using Gui In Python

• A ‘Currency converter’ is an app or tool that enables you to quickly convert any amount from one currency to another, anytime and anywhere. Creating this app in Python language is an immensely fun and interesting task.

• We will have two tabs in this application. One is going to be our currency tab where we mention our home/base currency and the currency we want to convert our amount into, along with the rate of conversion. In the second tab, we define the amount we want to convert and then we get our desired result.

• Via this article, you will get a clear understanding of the logic behind the code and working of this application.

=> ↺ Use of the ‘if name == main’ Statement in Python

• Some special variables are set when any Python script executes. The name variable is one of them. The Python file is saved with the ‘.py’ extension and each Python file is called a module. The classes, functions, and variables are defined by the module. The name variable is set to main if the Python interpreter runs a module in the main program. The name variable is set to the module’s name if the Python file is importing the module from another module. The ‘if name == main’ statement is used to check if the module is imported or not. Different uses of this statement have been shown in this tutorial.

=> ↺ Use of the init() Function in Python

• Python supports both structured and object-oriented programming. The class and object are used to implement object-oriented programming. The class defines the properties of the object. The constructor method is used in object-oriented programming to declare, initialize and manipulate the object, and this method is called automatically when an object of the class is created. The init() function works like the constructor method in Python and it is declared inside the class.

=> ↺ Use of Python kwargs

• Two types of arguments can be passed to the Python function. These are args (Non-keyword arguments) and **kwargs (Keyword arguments). The wildcard characters, ‘’ and ‘**’ are used when the number of arguments is not defined. The **kwargs is used in the function to pass keyword-based variable-length arguments in the function. Different uses of kwargs in the Python function have been shown in this tutorial.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ Bash notes 3

• Another Exercism Bash track exercise, another opportunity to learn from the community solutions. This time I came across a few nice Bash language features that I’d probably known about but forgotten due to lack of practice.

• The exercise in question is Atbash Cipher and the features that I wanted to share with you are from user Victor Guthrie’s solution.

=> ↺ Bash notes 2

• I looked at a couple of more solutions to another Exercism exercise in the Bash track – Scrabble Score. I was reminded of one particular feature of the case statement, and another solution was rather splendid in its approach and it reminded me a little of some functional programming techniques, or perhaps MapReduce.

=> ↺ Bash notes

• Here are a few things I learned, or re-learned, while reading through a neat solution to a Bash track exercise in Exercism.

• I completed a very basic solution to the Proverb exercise in the Bash track on Exercism and proceeded to look at some of the solutions others had submitted. A beautifully simple and succinct solution from user Glenn Jackman had the most stars, and I wanted to share a few things I learned from it.

=> ↺ 5 Types of Expansions on Linux

• Bash has a special mechanism called expansion, which gives us much convenience. So we can use some notations to write a short command that will be expanded into something complex before being executed.

=> ↺ Unix command line conventions over time

• This blog post documents my understanding of how the conventions for Unix command line syntax have evolved over time. It’s not properly sourced, and may well be quite wrong. I’ve not been using Unix until 1989, so I wasn’t there for the early years. Maybe someone has written a proper essay on this, with citations. I’m too lazy to dig them up.

=> ↺ Bash Declare –a for Arrays

• Arrays are the must-haves in any programming language. In Bash, we also declare the arrays but with different syntax. Within this article today, we will be discussing the declare “-a” option method to declare arrays in the Bash program. Let’s start with the examples now. We need a Bash file to create some Bash code examples in it. So, we have tried the Bash “touch” instruction to create one with the name “array.sh” having a Bash extension. This file needs to be opened in the “Gnu Nano” editor of the Ubuntu 20.04 system.

=> ↺ Bash String Operators

• As we already know that the Bash string values are the group of words or characters. To manipulate string variables and values, Bash provides us with many functions and operators. If you are new to Bash programming and string manipulation, then this simple article is meant for your help. Within this guide today, we will be utilizing and discussing some of the most-used string Bash operators specially designed for string manipulation in Bash programming.

• Let’s get started with some of the examples to see the working of these operators. Start with the Bash file creation as we have to code in Bash. The “touch” instruction can be a plus to use here in Ubuntu 20.04. We prefer to use the Gnu Nano editor to open the Bash file and create code in it. You can use the text editor or vim editor as well.

Java

=> ↺ What does % percentage sign mean in Java

• There are multiple arithmetic operators in java such as +, -, /, and so on. Another useful arithmetic operator in java is % which divides the two values and consequently returns the remainder of these values. In java, there are multiple use cases of % for example it can be used to check wheater a number is even or odd, it can be used to check if the number is palindrome or not, and so on.

=> ↺ What is a constructor in Java

• Classes are the core concept of OOP(object-oriented programming). Java offers the concept of constructors that is directly associated with the classes as constructors hold exactly the same name as the class name. In java, the prime objective of constructors is to initialize the class objects. A java class can have several constructors, but their definition must be different in terms of parameters.

Leftovers

=> ↺ The Stars, From the Ground Up: While Supplies Last (Part 1)

• An Urbit meetup is being held in Kansas City, MO this weekend. It began yesterday evening and continues through today. Many users from all over the Midwest, and some employees at Tlon, are in attendance, many from the St. Louis area. This is the first Urbit meetup I’ve ever attended, though I was only able to join yesterday, and I felt like a little kid going to Walt Disney World. While I was there, though, I overheard a spirited (but not heated) discussion about the nature of planets in the network.

=> ↺ Here’s Why You Might Get Arrested For Renting From Hertz

• A judge cleared 17 cases against Hertz to move forward last week, joining more than about half of the 230 that are also currently pending. Other claims will be decided at a later date.

• Francis Alexander Malofiy, the Pennsylvania-based lead attorney for the claimants, indicated to USA Today that “230 is not the majority. … It’s the tip of the iceberg,” and “you’re talking 20,000 people who were stuck in the criminal justice system because they had a dispute or an issue with their rental, or that (Hertz) couldn’t find their car.”

• According to court documents, the current group of claimants has spent a total of 2,742 days in jail or prison because of false arrests.

=> ↺ Column: Renting a car from Hertz? You could wind up in jail

• Their experiences may be the tip of a large iceberg. Hertz acknowledges that it files some 3,500 theft reports per year on customers; lawyers for the claimants say that figure applies to customers who rented their vehicles legally and for which the company has payment information, such as a credit or debit card number, on file.

• Lawyers for the claimants say that although it’s not unheard of for other car rental companies to report vehicles stolen, Hertz appears to have systemic problems keeping track of rental extensions and payments.

=> ↺ After Hertz car rentals lead to some arrests, know what to do when you rent a car

• When talking to rental company, document everything

• Document any conversations with rental company employees.

• For example, if you call to extend your rental or report an issue, write down the time of the call, who you spoke with and what was said.

• “If there is something important that is said verbally, try and write it down,” Bland said. If there is a dispute, your phone records matched up with what you wrote down at that time could be helpful evidence.

• [...]

• Bland recommends keeping the paperwork and receipts from your rental for at least a year, although three years is the statute of limitations in most places for the kind of tort case that may arise from a rental car dispute.

=> ↺ Hertz Customer Thrown in Jail for Rental Car ‘Theft’ a Year After He Returned It: Report

• In a statement, Hertz said these situations are “very rare” and “happen only after exhaustive attempts to reach the customer.” That doesn’t seem to be the case here. The man’s attorney says, “Hertz refuses to correct a police report when they’ve learned payments [were] made, when they’ve learned the car’s been returned or when they’ve learned there’s inaccuracies.” So according to him, it’s a case of Hertz’s incompetence.

=> ↺ New Hampshire man arrested aboard cruise ship is latest to be accused of stealing Hertz rental car: “Most horrific experience of my life”

• “Hertz refuses to correct a police report when they’ve learned payments [were] made, when they’ve learned the car’s been returned or when they’ve learned there’s inaccuracies,” he said.

• Malofiy sent a letter to the company over the weekend, asking Hertz to help get Doucette out of jail. He said unless something changes, Doucette will be in jail for a minimum of 10 days because he is awaiting extradition to Arizona.

=> ↺ US Senators Call for Investigation of Hertz Stolen Vehicle Reports

• The issue, which is being investigated by several US senators, including Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, came to light during Hertz’s bankruptcy proceedings in Delaware courts. Documents allege that the company has filed police reports for approximately 3,300 vehicles per year for four years, though it’s unclear how many of those could be considered to have resulted in improper arrests.

=> ↺ Al-Qaida chief blames US for Ukraine invasion in new video

• Al-Zawahri’s whereabouts are unknown. He is wanted by the FBI and there is a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.

=> ↺ I’m behind.

• I feel like I’m frequently 3-4 years behind on most mainstream media.

Education

=> ↺ Are corporate interests taking over US higher education?

• Individually, such challenges aren’t necessarily new. But the numbers and types and spread are being taken by experienced advocates of higher education as heralding a worrisome shift in a battleground where they’re winning some victories yet look increasingly outmanoeuvred over the long run.

• On the one hand, it’s getting easier for activists in academia and beyond to identify a particular company or industry or market behaviour they consider objectionable, and organise effective protest actions, including boycotts, without suffering major financial repercussions.

Hardware

=> ↺ Web Emulator For The Kenbak-1 Computer (If You’ve Heard Of It)

• Ever heard of the KENBAK-1? Recognized as the first personal computer, created by John Blankenbaker and sold in 1971 in comparatively small numbers, it’s now a piece of history. But don’t let that stop you if you are curious, because of course there is an emulator on the web.

=> ↺ Reflecting On A Queueing Prism Leads To Unexpected Results

• Computers are difficult enough to reason about when there’s just a single thread doing one task. There are dozens of cores in today’s modern processor world, and your program might try to take advantage of using more than just one. Things happening concurrently makes the number of states and interactions explode in to a mess we as humans are likely going to have trouble understanding. So, like [Hillel], you might turn to the computer to try and model those interactions.

=> ↺ Mods Make A Stock Keyboard Your Own

• Trust me, you don’t have to build your own keyboard from the deskpad up to be happy or feel like one of the cool kids. Sure, it doesn’t hurt, but not everyone is able to or even wants to start from next to nothing. Take [Roger] for example. [Roger] started with a stock mechanical keeb — the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (UHK) — which can be outfitted with magnetic add-on modules such as a thumb key cluster, trackball, trackpoint, and touch pad, and made it his own.

=> ↺ APPLE2IDIOT Expansion Card Lets Your Apple II (Sort Of) Access The Internet

• [Nathanial Hendler]’s Apple2Idiot expansion card for the Apple II family of computers is a nifty mix of modern and vintage, and provides a clever means of allowing the host computer to (indirectly) access the internet over WiFi while keeping things simple from the host computer’s perspective.

=> ↺ Bee Motion Combines ESP32 With PIR Sensor And USB-C

• There’s no shortage of ESP32 development boards out there, with many of them offering some “killer app” feature which may or may not align with whatever it is you’re trying to do. But if you’ve got a project that could benefit from the pairing of a powerful WiFi-enabled microcontroller and a passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor, the Bee Motion created by [Paul Price] is certainly worth a close look.

=> ↺ Learning Obsolete Technology

• Tom Nardi and I were talking about his trip to the Vintage Computer Festival on the podcast, and he admitted to not having been a retrocomputer aficionado before his first trip. But he ended up keying some binary machine code into some collection of archaic silicon, and he got it. In the same episode, the sound of the week was a Strowger switch — the old electromechanical “brain” of telephone switching centers of old. The sample I used was from Sam of Look Mum No Computer on YouTube, who got one for his museum and thinks it’s just awesome.

=> ↺ This Spherical Lamp’s Pieces Ship Flat, Thanks To Math

• [Nervous System] sells a variety of unique products, and we really appreciate the effort they put into sharing elements of their design and manufacturing processes. This time, it’s details of the work that went into designing a luxury lamp shade that caught our eye.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Head Of FDA Says Misinformation Is Now The Leading Cause Of Death

• Califf’s position could mean the FDA takes a stronger stance on COVID misinformation, although it isn’t clear what form that’ll take. Still, it’s a welcome breath of fresh air after poor official health messaging during the pandemic left Americans across the political spectrum suspicious.

=> ↺ FDA Commissioner Califf sounds the alarm on health misinformation

• But the issue that keeps him up at night, he said, is the proliferation of false and misleading health information, particularly online — and the distrust in institutions, data and expertise that it has wrought.

• “I believe that misinformation is now our leading cause of death,” he said, naming ongoing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, the number of people taking Ivermectin and the prevalence of vaping as examples of the problem. “Historically, the FDA has been relatively quiet and puts out definitive information through guidance or labels or regulatory actions … that would be transmitted to consumers and patients through trusted intermediaries. But the world has changed at this point.”

• All this, he argued, had fueled the drop in life expectancy in the U.S. compared to other wealthy nations, and he urged reporters to avoid clickbait, lean into fact checking, make sure the headline matches the copy and take other steps to responsibly convey news about COVID-19 and other pressing health concerns.

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

=> ↺ Obsolescence Is a State of Mind

• Sometime near the end of this year, every Apple computer in my home will be rendered obsolete and insecure. To be more accurate, every Apple computer released prior to 2013 will suffer the same fate, thanks to the impending death of macOS Catalina.

• Why do I have so many “old” Apple computers, you ask? Because Apple builds exceptionally durable machines, and I don’t see the need to add perfectly good hardware to the gigantic pile of e-waste filling up our landfills. So, come November(ish), these computers will get no more updates, no more security patches, and no more support. Consumers get to make the choice between buying a new machine, or replacing the operating system (I bet you can guess what my choice was).

=> ↺ Google Is Shutting Down YouTube Go In August — What to Know

• YouTube Go, an app providing offline video access, will be shutting down in August. Designed with users with intermittent [Internet] access in mind, YouTube Go received more than 500 million downloads in its six years of life.

=> ↺ Facebook Is Abruptly Shutting Down Podcasts — Less Than One Year After Launch

• Parent company Meta confirmed to Bloomberg that it will wind down its podcasting unit in June. Soundbites and its general audio hub will also get the ax, per the report. Live Audio Rooms will be folded into the Facebook Live offering.

• According to Meta, this move is to help the company “focus on the most meaningful experiences.” Facebook Podcasts launched as an attempt to rival Spotify’s growing relevance in the space. As Spotify has flourished with new podcasts, growing from one million to four million in just a year – Facebook has languished.

=> ↺ The real reason that the first version of Windows NT was called 3.1

• Real reason: MS had a deal in place with Novell to include some handling of Novell Netware client drive mappings. Novell gave MS a little bit of Novell’s client source code, so that Novell shares looked like other network shares, meaning peer-to-peer file shares in Windows for Workgroups.

=> ↺ What is the simplest malware in the world?

• During a malware analysis class I taught recently, one of the students asked me what was “the simplest malware in the world”. Of course, the answer to this question would depend heavily on one’s definitions of ‘simplest’ and ‘malware’, as well as on a target hardware architecture and its operating system (and potentially additional software and other factors), but I thought that it was conceptually interesting enough to devote today’s diary to.

• If we were to discuss simplicity only in the terms of overall size of the code, and define ‘malware’ (with small help from NIST[1]), as a “program, that is intended to compromise the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of the victim’s data, applications, or operating system or to otherwise annoy or hinder the victim”, then the simplest malware overall would probably be a single instruction of the “Halt and Catch Fire” type[2] for any platform, on which instructions capable (by design or due to a bug) of stopping CPU operations were available and could be executed on their own. Or – to be exact – the simplest malware would probably be such a code on a platform, on which the instruction would be shortest (which would probably come to a single byte). However, this is purely theoretical answer from a historical standpoint.

• If we were move beyond this case and focus only on code that can run on modern operating systems and current hardware platforms, the situation becomes much more complex. And although I spent some time thinking about what the smallest malware might be, and I do have a potential answer, I’m not completely certain it is the correct one. If you can think of a smaller example of a working malicious code, let us know in the comments.

=> ↺ UK’s National Health Service infected by massive phishing campaign

• The U.K.’s National Health Service has been infected by a massive phishing campaign that resulted in hundreds of accounts on Microsoft 365 being compromised.

• Detailed today by researchers by email security firm INKY Technology Corp., the phishing campaign was first detected in October, then escalated in March. The campaign used compromised NHS accounts to send phishing emails to unsuspecting third parties.

Security

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Your Phone May Soon Replace Many of Your Passwords

• Apple, Google and Microsoft announced this week they will soon support an approach to authentication that avoids passwords altogether, and instead requires users to merely unlock their smartphones to sign in to websites or online services. Experts say the changes should help defeat many types of phishing attacks and ease the overall password burden on Internet users, but caution that a true passwordless future may still be years away for most websites.

=> ↺ Secret surveillance, mining customer data: How retailers help bag shoplifting kingpins

• Since 2020, an increasing number of states have launched organized retail crime task forces that pair corporate investigators with police and prosecutors. State attorneys general have created teams in Florida, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Illinois. Plans are in the works in Connecticut and Michigan.

• But the rise of retail investigators raises civil liberties and privacy concerns, experts say.

• These corporate cops use many of the same tactics as law enforcement officers — they surveil and question suspected shoplifters, run license plate searches, and collect large amounts of personal data. But constitutional restrictions that bind the actions of police and federal agents don’t apply to retail investigators, allowing them to do things like question people without reading them their Miranda rights.

=> ↺ I Hate My Smartphone

• Without a smartphone, it was impossible to do basic things like pay for parking, view a restaurant menu, drop my kids off at school, or pick my kids up from school. It is now taken as a given that everyone has an iPhone or Android phone, and while you can choose not to have one, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that you will be able to effectively participate in modern society without one.

• Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the existence of smartphones. They are truly valuable tools that have the ability to improve the lives of many people in many different ways. What bothers me is the general lack of choice in the matter.

=> ↺ Chat control: EU Commission presents mass surveillance plan on May 11

• Next week on Wednesday (May 11), the EU Commission will present an EU draft law on mandatory chat control to the public for the first time. Similar to Apple’s highly controversial “SpyPhone” plans, the Commission wants to oblige all providers of email, chat and messaging services to search for suspicious messages in a fully automated way and forward them to the police in the fight against “child pornography”. This will require them to monitor and scan the communications of citizens en masse – even if they are still securely encrypted end-to-end so far.

=> ↺ Where anonymity on Twitter is a matter of life or death

• Activists and free speech advocates in several countries suggested that Musk needs a more nuanced understanding of what free speech is, and needs to be transparent about how authentication decisions will be made.

=> ↺ Risks of the Passport Single Signon Protocol

• Some improvement is possible in Passport without violating the system’s goals of supporting unmodified browsers. Rotating the keys used to encrypt cookies would significantly increase the difficulty of retrieving cookie contents, as would using the master key to generate encryption keys instead of encrypting all cookies with the same key. Requiring SSL for all transactions would eliminate the possibility of forged redirects (at the cost of significantly increased load on merchant servers). Replacing password-based authentication with a challenge-response scheme (such as HTTP digest authentication) would make it impossible for an attacker to reuse passwords to impersonate a user.

• In the end, Passport’s risks may be inevitable for a system with its requirements. We believe that until fundamental changes are made to underlying protocols (through standards such as DNSSEC and IPSec), efforts such as Passport must be viewed with suspicion.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Opinion | Who’s Cashing in on the War in Ukraine? Fossil Fuel Firms and Agricultural Traders

• As Russia continues to inflict untold suffering and devastation in Ukraine, many around the world are profiting amid the horrific bloodshed.

=> ↺ Opinion | General Dynamics Shuts Out Critics, ‘Radical Skeptics’

• On May 4th, General Dynamics held its annual shareholder meeting. This meeting took place virtually, possibly in response to last year when shareholders were able to directly engage with the General Dynamics Board and ask how they justify the destruction and death their weapons cause.

=> ↺ Opinion | Amid War and Devastation, Ukrainians Track Russian Eco Crimes

• On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. The assault, by what’s widely considered the second-most powerful military in the world, was on six fronts across air, land, and sea, spanning 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) across the Ukrainian border.

=> ↺ Georgia officials rule that Marjorie Taylor Greene can remain on the ballot

• The plaintiffs had asked the state to disqualify Greene, citing a provision in the Constitution that forbids members of Congress who support an insurrection from serving in office.

• Later on Friday, Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, who had final say, announced that he would follow the judge’s recommendation.

• [...]

• Greene testified under oath last month, answering a slew of questions about the days leading up to Jan. 6 with “I don’t recall” or “I don’t remember.”

=> ↺ Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in US should be confronted and defeated

• Led by the Muslim Brotherhood, these organizations bully anyone who stands against the Islamist ideology and manipulate our system and government using the magical term “Islamophobia.” We ought to remember that they are proud of being anti-Semitic and anti-American and that they sympathize with radical groups, and act accordingly.

=> ↺ Jihadist Attack Kills 11 Egypt Troops: Army

• Eleven Egyptian soldiers were killed on Saturday attempting to thwart a “terrorist” attack on the Suez Canal zone abutting the Sinai peninsula, a hotbed of jihadist activity, the army said.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Meet the YouTube Scuba Divers Solving Cold Cases — And Racking Up Views

• When Sides pivoted from treasure hunting to searching for missing persons, he saw his views spike. In mid-2021, he gave up his day job as a mobile wheel repairman and went full-time into YouTube, supplementing his ad revenue with merchandise sales, donations, and paid subscriptions. When he found Foster and Bechtel in late 2021, he says his followers tripled. (He now has about 360,000.) His audience has changed, too. Whereas it was once fellow divers and treasure hunters, most people today come for updates or breakthroughs on cases. “The missing-persons community watching these videos are super supportive,” he says.

• Divers like Sides take their roles as amateur investigators seriously. If Sides finds a car belonging to a missing person, he says, he calls the authorities instead of a tow truck, and he gets out of their way when they arrive. “Police will take over, and we become spectators,” he says. His interactions with law enforcement have been mainly positive so far, though according to other divers who spoke with Rolling Stone, encounters can be rocky. In one instance in 2020, AWP was waiting with the family of missing 17-year-old Nicholas Allen when the cops arrived to pull out the teen’s car. The cops can be heard on the AWP video acting dismissively toward the family, saying there’s “no guarantee” their child’s body was in there. “No, but at least it’s my car, and I asked you guys — I begged you guys to check,” the mother says. Allen’s body was recovered, and the sheriff’s office later issued an apology for acting insensitively toward the family.

Finance

=> ↺ Banks Fueling Global Warming is Business as Usual

=> ↺ The Solution to Homelessness Is Not Death

• The problem with the homeless is they don’t have anywhere to go. Shoo them out of doorways and they move to the parks. Chase them from the parks and they move to the freeways. Give them bus tickets to other towns and those towns try to send them right back. Give them housing? Don’t be ridiculous; this is America!

=> ↺ Sanders Says ‘No Corporation That Breaks the Law Should Get a Federal Contract’

• Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday reiterated his call for the Biden administration to prohibit all union-busting corporations from receiving federal contracts, citing the National Labor Relations Board’s fresh complaints against Starbucks and Amazon over their attempts to crush worker organizing.

• “This is what oligarchy and corporate greed are all about,” Sanders, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, tweeted Friday. “Two large and profitable corporations, owned by billionaires, spend millions to illegally deny their workers the right to organize. No corporation that breaks the law should get a federal contract.”

=> ↺ Workers Say NLRB Complaint “Fully Unmasks Starbucks’ Facade as a Progressive Company”

• A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board filed a sweeping complaint Friday alleging that Starbucks violated federal law more than 200 times in its campaign to prevent employees in Buffalo, New York from forming a union.

• “Starbucks has been saying that no union-busting ever occurred in Buffalo. Today, the NLRB sets the record straight.”

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Lula Launches Campaign to Unseat Far-Right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro

• Speaking to a crowd of supporters and allies gathered in São Paulo on Saturday, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva officially launched his campaign to unseat far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose three-year tenure has accelerated the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and intensified the nation’s myriad human rights crises.

• “Everything that we did is being destroyed by this government,” said Lula, a globally renowned leftist who served as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010 and departed office with a striking 83% approval rating. Extreme poverty fell sharply during Lula’s presidency, owing in large part to his implementation and expansion of safety-net programs that included cash transfers and unemployment insurance.

=> ↺ Some Off-Beat Points on Thursday’s Elections

• The Labour Party’s national projected vote share is 35%, which is the same as the Labour Party’s national projected vote share in 2018 under Corbyn. The “Starmer surge” is a lie, broadcast by the media to perpetuate the myth that a more radical Labour Party would be uniquely unelectable. Tory switching to Lib Dems, Greens or sitting at home helped Labour, but hardly represents Starmer enthusiasm.

=> ↺ Bill Gates Says It Was A Bad Idea To Pal Around With Jeffrey Epstein

• In a BBC interview released yesterday, the former world’s richest man and Microsoft co-founder responded to comments by ex-wife Melinda French Gates. In March, she called Gates out for his relationship with Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died while in prison in 2019. Gates met with Epstein multiple times in 2011 — after his sex crime conviction in 2008, notably — and stayed late into the night at his home on at least one occasion, according The Week.

=> ↺ Final Supreme Court ruling clears path for decision on Kim Dotcom extradition

• A ruling by New Zealand’s highest court has cleared the path for a decision to be made on whether Kim Dotcom and his co-accused should be extradited to the United States, marking the end of a legal battle spanning nearly a decade.

• A final decision on whether the men will be extradited now sits with Justice Minister Kris Faafoi.

• But a law professor says that decision can be contested in the courts, and it may be several more years before an outcome is known

=> ↺ Empathy ‘critical’ to role, says retiring Supreme Court judge

• The judges don’t always agree either.

• “There are quite a lot of 3-2 decisions. We try to agree if we can, we try to iron out differences that aren’t consequential and come up, if possible, with a text that we can all sign off on.”

• Some of the cases he has sat on include Kim Dotcom’s extradition, the ban on prisoners’ right to vote, and an attempt by Kawerau siege shooter Rhys Warren to have his conviction overturned on the basis of Māori sovereignty.

=> ↺ Kim Dotcom set to father sixth child, first with new wife Liz

• Kim Dotcom married Elizabeth Donnelly on January 20, 2018 – the anniversary date of the raid during which he was arrested in 2012.

• The arrests were on behalf of the FBI, which was carrying out a worldwide operation targeting Megaupload. At the time, activity on the site comprised 4 per cent of the globe’s [Internet] traffic.

• Even though Dotcom was facing claims of criminal copyright violation – something later found to not be a crime in New Zealand – the police used the heavily-armed anti-terrorist Special Tactics Group in a helicopter assault on his Coatesville mansion.

=> ↺ New Footage Shows Just How Crazy The Kim Dotcom Raid Was

• New footage has come out of the raid on Kim’s home, which was conducted in January under warrants that have since been ruled illegal. The scale of the raid is pretty remarkable, with two helicopters, four police vehicles, police dogs and officers armed with semi-automatic Colt Commando 5.56 guns. Kim alleges that he was assaulted during the raid, though officers deny it.

=> ↺ Dotcom wins settlement from police over the 2012 dawn raid which saw him arrested

• The settlement came after a damages claim was filed with the High Court over what was considered an “unreasonable” use of force when the anti-terrorism Special Tactics Group raided his $30 million mansion in January 2012.

• The raid was part of a worldwide FBI operation to take down Dotcom’s Megaupload file-sharing website which was claimed to be at the centre of a massive criminal copyright operation.

=> ↺ Social Media Slowdown Tests Investors’ Loyalty

• But now things are shifting. Usage on social media platforms hasn’t necessarily slowed over time, but other factors such as supply-chain disruptions, conflict in Ukraine, inflation and higher interest rates are causing reduced advertising budgets and spending.

• In the near term, these issues appear to be far from abating, which means a harder operating environment for the companies that rely so heavily on advertising to fuel their top line. Investors also seemed to realize that putting their money in Twitter, Snap and Meta doesn’t yield the sky-high returns they once did.

=> ↺ Facebook Deliberately Caused Havoc in Australia to Influence New Law, Whistleblowers Say

• The goal, according to the whistleblowers and documents, was to exert maximum negotiating leverage over the Australian Parliament, which was voting on the first law in the world that would require platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay news outlets for content.

• Despite saying it was targeting only news outlets, the company deployed an algorithm for deciding what pages to take down that it knew was certain to affect more than publishers, according to the documents and people familiar with the matter.

Misinformation/Disinformation

=> ↺ 7 persistent claims about abortion, fact-checked

• Below, seven popular claims surrounding abortion get fact-checked.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ ADL CEO Misrepresents Report on Antisemitism to Attack Palestinian Groups

=> ↺ Opinion: For comedians, safety is a growing concern

• Comedy can often challenge our views, or cement them. Jokes can make us grimace and squirm as we laugh…or don’t. These days, anyone who objects to a routine can tweet a response, put a little scowling face on Facebook or post a 5000-word essay on Medium.

• People in an audience can boo. Or just walk out, without committing assault.

=> ↺ ‘Fake news’ law forced many Russian journalists abroad. Those who remain must weigh truth against safety

• For most of March, the Friday edition of Novaya Gazeta, which until it suspended operation last week, was one of Russia’s last remaining independent news outlets still based within the country, featured a blank two-page spread.

• There was no text; no pictures; just an explanation.

• Because the paper wasn’t allowed to publish anything about what is currently happening in Ukraine other than the Russian government’s official version, Novaya Gazeta would rather not publish anything at all, the explanation read.

=> ↺ The real cost of [Internet] shutdowns in South Asia

• The World Wide Web turned 33 last month, so I spent some time reading the arguments in favor of declaring the [Internet] a basic human right. The ideas seem fantastical to me, sitting in South Asia, where the internet increasingly feels like the personal estate of governments that decide to shut off access whenever it suits them.

Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Why has Julian Assange lost in the High Court, where Lauri Love won, and what could this mean for Journalism?

• This article is not about Julian Assange as a person, nor about his political or social attitudes, nor previous criminal allegations. Rather this article is about the consequences of US imperialism and the future of any journalism that intends to hold the decreasingly hegemonic superpower of the United States to account for crimes so vast that one can scarcely keep track of even just those that it has not managed to conceal.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Overturning “Roe” Would Immediately Activate Abortion Penalties in 13 States

=> ↺ Opinion | For My Body and the Choice of Millions, I’m Going to Fight Like Hell

• The personal, as they say, is political. And there’s nothing more personal than the right to control your own body.

=> ↺ Opinion | The Right-Wing Supreme Court Is About to Unleash Hardship, Suffering, and Chaos for Millions

• The draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization infamously decides that pregnant females’ 49-year-old right to obtain an abortion no longer will be constitutionally protected. Writing for the five-justice majority, Justice Samuel Alito offers two reasons for this conclusion: The Constitution does not explicitly protect the right to abortion, and the right to obtain an abortion is neither “deeply rooted in [our] history and tradition” nor “essential to our Nation’s ‘scheme of ordered liberty.’”   

=> ↺ Taliban order women to wear full veil as they reintroduce burqa mandate

• Mariam Solaimankhil, a member of parliament under the ousted Afghan republic, said: “If you ever believed that the Taliban have changed, you’re an idiot.”

=> ↺ Taliban orders all Afghan women to wear burqa

• “We have been verbally instructed to stop issuing licences to women drivers … but not directed to stop women from driving in the city,” said Jan Agha Achakzai, the head of Herat’s Traffic Management Institute that oversees driving schools.

=> ↺ Taliban leader orders women to wear all-covering burqa in public: Decree

• “Those women who are not too old or young must cover their face, except the eyes, as per sharia directives, in order to avoid provocation when meeting men who are not mahram (adult close male relatives),” the decree said.

• It added that if women had no important work outside it was “better they stay at home.”

• During their first regime between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban imposed similar restrictions on women.

=> ↺ Taliban chief orders all Afghan women to wear burqa in public

• Akhundzada’s decree also said that if women had no important work outside it was “better they stay at home”.

=> ↺ Afghanistan’s Taliban Orders Women To Wear Burqa Coverings In Public

• Failure to comply will result in a woman’s father or closest male relative being reprimanded, or imprisoned, or fired from government jobs, the decree said.

=> ↺ Afghanistan’s Taliban order women to cover up head to toe

• The decree, which calls for women to only show their eyes and recommends they wear the head-to-toe burqa, evoked similar restrictions on women during the Taliban’s previous rule between 1996 and 2001.

=> ↺ Taliban require women to wear burqa in new decree

• The Taliban on Saturday ordered that all Afghan women must wear a full-body covering, including the face, a return to restrictions first implemented in the 1990s.

=> ↺ Labor regulators find merit in accusations by unions at Amazon and Starbucks.

• In a sign that federal labor officials are closely scrutinizing management behavior during union campaigns, the National Labor Relations Board said Friday that it had found merit in accusations that Amazon and Starbucks had violated labor law.

=> ↺ Amazon Abruptly Fires Senior Managers Tied to Unionized Warehouse

• The firings, which occurred outside the company’s typical employee review cycle, were seen by the managers and other people who work at the facility as a response to the victory by the Amazon Labor Union, three of the people said. Workers at the warehouse voted by a wide margin to form the first union at the company in the United States, in one of the biggest victories for organized labor in at least a generation.

=> ↺ Daunte Wright’s mother was detained after recording a traffic stop

• The officer then pulled her out of her vehicle, took her phone and placed it on the roof of her car before leading her toward a grassy median while holding her arm behind her back. Wright said the officer grabbed her so forcefully that he injured her wrist.

• Wright told him her name and said “you guys killed my son. I’m going to videotape them,” gesturing to the other officers. The officer told Wright he would send her a ticket in the mail and both returned to their vehicles.

=> ↺ Canadian prisoner attacked by convicted terrorist now in legal fight with Victorian government

• Shoma, now 29, was remarkably frank and told investigators that she had been hoping to spark international headlines by attacking Mitz, who was a Canadian citizen.

• She cheered when they charged her with terror offences, and told them that Allah would be pleased with her.

• How Shoma came to arm herself with the gardening shears and stab her victim in a low-security unit is the crux of a new lawsuit launched in the County Court of Victoria by Mitz, who is suing the state for unspecified damages.

=> ↺ Sudanese couple face flogging for ‘adultery’ after court nullifies marriage over Christian conversion

• Shukralah’s family filed a case in a sharia court, which dissolved their marriage, as apostasy was a crime punishable by death at the time, it explained.

• In 2021, Shukralah also converted to Christianity and returned with their two children to her husband, as Sudan had decriminalized apostasy a year after the end of President Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist regime. Both are members of a Baptist church.

• However, socially, conversion was still not accepted.

• Shukralah’s brother charged them with adultery under Article 146 of Sudan’s 1991 criminal law based on the Sharia court’s annulment of their marriage, leading to the couple’s arrest last August.

=> ↺ Christian Couple in Sudan Faces Possible Flogging for ‘Adultery’

• He said the couple, members of a Baptist church, are facing growing threats from hardline Muslims, in particular Shukralah’s brother.

• In the case of adultery by an unmarried person, Article 146 calls for a sentence of flogging and expulsion from the area. If the convicted is married, adultery is punishable by death by stoning under Article 146.

• Flogging violates the absolute prohibition against torture and other ill treatment in international human rights law, according to Amnesty International.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Wi-Fi May Be Coming Soon to a Lamppost Near You

• As Wi-Fi is deployed more widely in cities, and perhaps at higher frequencies, it may depend on an abundant urban asset: streetlight poles.

• To help ensure these networks work well, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed and verified a novel model that will help wireless communications providers analyze how high to attach Wi-Fi equipment to light poles.

• In general, the NIST team found that the optimal height depends on transmission frequency and antenna design. Attaching equipment at lower heights of around 4 meters is better for traditional wireless systems with omnidirectional antennas, whereas higher locations 6 or 9 meters up are better for the latest systems such as 5G using higher, millimeter-wave frequencies and narrow-beam antennas.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ An Xbox outage is preventing some players from launching digital titles

• Although Xbox seemed to resolve these problems, it looks like issues with its store, digital titles, and Cloud Gaming have started to resurface. As my colleague Tom Warren notes, if you’re affected by the outage, you should still be able to play games offline when you have your Xbox set as your “home” console. Xbox Support also says rebooting your Xbox console might help.

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ FOSS Patents: Ericsson says Apple ‘walk[ed] back its agreement to accept Ericsson’s [5G patent licensing] offer if it is confirmed as FRAND’ by Texas court

• If both Ericsson and Apple are sincere in this regard, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas–whose Chief Judge Rodney S. Gilstrap decided on the structure of the dispute and the schedule two weeks ago–may become the center of gravity of their patent dispute. While no single court anywhere in the world is going to set a license fee for non-standard-essential patents, it would put the parties much closer to an agreement if the terms on which Apple licenses Ericsson’s SEPs (up to 5G) were set. It’s hard to imagine they couldn’t then easily agree on the rest. A complete agreement on SEPs and non-SEPs would result in the dismissal of roughly three dozen lawsuits in at least half a dozen countries.

• That’s a big If, though. Not with respect to Ericsson, which says that $5 per device (with Apple probably having missed out on the opportunity to get a $1 per-unit early-signing bonus) is a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) rate. The Swedish company undoubtedly wants to conclude a license agreement as soon as that one–a rate it publicized a while ago–has been blessed by the Texas court. What’s unclear here is Apple’s agenda.

Software Patents

=> ↺ $2,000 for Fare Technologies prior art

• On May 3, 2022, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent RE46727, owned by Fare Technologies, LLC, an NPE. The ’727 patent generally relates to a taxi trip meter system that includes a taximeter and a location sensor connected to a computer loaded with street information and driver evaluation software. It has been asserted against Lyft and Uber.

=> ↺ $2,000 for prior art on Equitable IP entity, Route Guidance System patent

• On May 6, 2022, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 6,917,876, owned by Route Guidance Systems, an NPE and Equitable IP entity. The ’876 patent relates to a route guidance system for vehicles. The patent has been asserted against several companies such as Honda, Verizon, Salesforce, Grubhub, and DoorDash.

=> ↺ $2,000 for prior art on IP Edge entity, Moxchange — Unified Patents

• On May 6, 2022, Unified Patents added a new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 7,233,664, owned by Moxchange LLC, an NPE and IP Edge entity. The ’664 patent relates to a dynamic computer system security method using dynamic encryption and full synchronization between system nodes for wireless communication. This patent has been asserted against companies like Resideo, ADT, Panasonic, and Western Digital.

=> ↺ Part II – Strategies in Response to Non-Obviousness Requirements for Mechanical and Software Patents in the United States, China, Europe and Taiwan

=> ↺ New Patent Examination Guidelines for Computer Software-Related Inventions

Copyrights

=> ↺ IPTV Pirate Agrees to Pay Well Over Half a Billion Dollars in Damages

• Large-scale pirate IPTV operations can generate significant profits but with that comes the chance of significant liability should things go bad. A man from Canada who operated and sold pirate IPTV services is finding just how bad things can get. In response to a lawsuit, he’s asking a US court to find him liable for $585 million in damages. He’ll pay his own legal bills but not those of the plaintiff.

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