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● 08.25.22

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● Links 25/08/2022: Purism Rant and pgAdmin 4 v6.13

Posted in News Roundup at 11:07 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Purism

=> ↺ One dead Purism laptop – anarcat

• The “série noire” continues. I ordered my first Purism Librem 13v4 laptop in April 2019 and it arrived, unsurprisingly, more than three weeks later. But more surprisingly, it did not work at all: a problem eerily similar to this post talking about a bricked Purism laptop. Thankfully, Purism was graceful enough to cross-ship a replacement, and once I paid the extra (gulp) 190$ Fedex fee, I had my new elite laptop read.

• Less than a year later, the right USB-A port breaks: it would deliver power, but no data signal (nothing in dmesg or lsusb). Two months later, the laptop short-circuits and completely dies. And here goes another RMA, this time without a shipping label or cross shipping, so I had to pay shipping fees.

• Now the third laptop in as many years is as good as dead. The left hinge basically broke off. Earlier this year, I had noticed something was off with the lid: it was wobbly. I figured that it was just the way that laptop was, “they don’t make it as sturdy as they did in the good old days, do they”. But it was probably a signal of some much worse problem. Eventually, the bottom panel actually cracked open, and I realized that some internal mechanism had basically exploded.

=> ↺ Swipeable Upgrade to the Librem 5 Interface – Purism

• Interested to know what has improved using the Librem 5 phone? We made the interface more swipable. The Librem 5 phones are powered by the same PureOS that runs on our other computers, and with Phosh 0.20.0 entering PureOS, it got a major makeover.

Server

=> ↺ Why You Should Use Administrative Interfaces to Manage Linux Servers

• The biggest problem for Linux system and server administrators is troubleshooting the errors encountered. Fixing these issues, managing security problems, and analyzing the primary cause behind such issues from the command screen can sometimes pose serious challenges.

• Linux itself is a command-line universe. It is not easy to learn all the commands and their parameters, let alone use them to troubleshoot errors.

• That’s why there are Linux management interfaces to keep everything in sight. Most system and server administrators prefer these administrative interfaces for managing their Linux systems instead. Here’s why you should consider using an admin interface to manage a Linux server.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Going Linux #429 · Using Open Source Software to get a new job

• Bill reveals his personal experiences using only Open Source software to get a new job. From resume and application through providing ID and other documents, he uses only open source software on Linux. He also provides some tips for job seekers.

=> ↺ A rant about writing “systems” – Writing things. – Invidious

=> ↺ How to install CLion on Pop!_OS 22.04 – Invidious

• In this video, we are looking at how to install CLion on Pop!_OS 22.04.

=> ↺ This Encrypted Email Provider Keeps Getting Banned – Invidious

• If you want to keep your emails private online you probably want to use an encrypted email service but you might have trouble signing up to certain websites using your Tutanota or Protonmail accounts

=> ↺ How to install Krita 5.1.0 on a Chromebook

• Today we are looking at how to install Krita 5.1.0 or newer on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to install and configure Mysql 8 on Rocky Linux/Alma Linux 9

• MySQL is an open-source relational database management system. Its one of the popular relational management system.

• Mysql is commonly installed as part of the popular LAMP or LEMP (Linux, Apache/Nginx, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP/Python/Perl) stack. It implements the relational model and Structured Query Language (SQL) to manage and query data.

• In this guide we are going to install mysql 8 on Rocky Linux 9.

=> ↺ How To Install TeamViewer on Linux Mint 21 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install TeamViewer on Linux Mint 21. For those of you who didn’t know, TeamViewer is an application that lets you access other computers remotely such as desktop sharing, online meetings, web conferencing, and file transfer between computers. TeamViewer is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android operating systems.

• 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 the step-by-step installation of the TeamViewer remote desktop on Linux Mint 21 (Vanessa).

=> ↺ How to load test your websites with Apache Bench | TechRepublic

• How well are your websites performing? You might open a web browser, point it to those sites, and verify they’re working, but do you really take the time to load test those sites to see if they are living up to the high-performance standards your business (or clients) require? If you don’t know the answer to that question, you need to start load testing the sites you develop or administer.

• Before you think this is challenging or will require paying for a third-party service, think again. There are plenty of tools to help you get this job done, many of them open-source and free. One such open-source tool is called Apache Bench.

• Apache Bench is capable of load testing more than just the Apache web server, as any HTTP server or even an API (application programming interface) can be tested with this tool.

=> ↺ You Can Now Install KDE Plasma 5.25 on Kubuntu 22.04 LTS, Here’s How – 9to5Linux

• The wait is finally over! Kubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) users are now able to the latest and greatest KDE Plasma 5.25 desktop environment on their personal computers.

• Kubuntu 22.04 LTS was released in late April 2022 and it shipped with the long-term supported KDE Plasma 5.24 LTS desktop environment, which is obviously the smart choice because the KDE Project will support it with regular maintenance updates for two years.

• But, thanks to the Kubuntu Backports PPA effort, if you want to enjoy the latest and greatest features, you can now upgrade your installations to the KDE Plasma 5.25 desktop environment, as well as the KDE Gear 21.12 and KDE Frameworks 5.95 software suites, which are all compiled against the Qt 5.15.3 framework.

• To install KDE Plasma 5.25 on your Kubuntu 22.04 LTS machine, you will first need to ensure that you have all the latest updates installed so run the following commands in a terminal emulator, such as Konsole. Alternatively, you can use the Plasma Discover graphical package manager to apply all available updates.

=> ↺ An NBD block device written using Linux ublk (user block device) | Richard WM Jones

• ublk is a Linux-only io_uring-based user block device. It lets you write block devices in userspace. nbdublk is an NBD client written using ublk.

=> ↺ Host virtual machines on Ubuntu with Virt Manager

• If you have an Ubuntu Server and wish to run virtual machines on it with Virtual Machine Manager, you’ll need to set up SSH and Libvirtd. Here’s how to do it on your Ubuntu system.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Set Up UFW Firewall in 5 Minutes

=> ↺ How to Control Servo Motor with Arduino

• Servo Motors is a type of electrical device which can change or rotate position of an object with great precision. In starting they were used to control RC plane wings moments later they made their way to robotics, humanoid robots and many automation projects. Unlike stepper motors their motion is limited between 0o to 180o.

• Usually, servo motors have arms that can be controlled using Arduino. Servo motors consist of a control system which provides feedback about the current position of the motor shaft this feedback allows to move at great precision.

=> ↺ How to Connect Arduino to a Computer

• If you are reading this then most probably you have bought an Arduino and now looking for a guide on how to connect Arduino to a PC. This article will sum up all steps needed to integrate Arduino with laptop or PCs.

=> ↺ Monitor Raspberry Pi Information Through Mobile

• Raspberry Pi Monitor is an Android application used to monitor your Raspberry Pi device on your mobile phone. This application will find information like CPU usage, device temperature, system memory, disk usage, and much more. You will also get to see these results in the form of graphs as well to find out how the information changes with each passing time.

• In this guide, we will show you how you can install Raspberry Pi Monitor on your Android phone and monitor Raspberry Pi on it.

=> ↺ What does Vcc Stands for in Arduino

• Vcc is any regulated DC voltage supply that is needed to operate an integrated circuit and sometimes also referred to as supply voltage for ICs. Mostly, Arduino are designed to operate at either 3.3V level logic for less power usage or at 5V logic for devices that are compatible with TTL logic. Vcc also known as (Voltage Common Collector) in any electrical circuit refers to a higher voltage value with respect to GND. Vcc may be positive or negative but in the case of Arduino it only operates over positive Vcc. Giving negative voltage to it can cause damage to the board.

• Every electronic device needs power to run, the same is the case with Arduino. Vcc is the minimum power needed to operate Arduino efficiently. Vcc in Arduino refers to a regulated DC supply voltage required to run the ATMEGA328P used in Arduino boards as microcontroller.

=> ↺ How to Code Arduino – Beginners Guide

• Arduino is an open-source platform quite useful for people who are into embedded systems. Arduino’s main components include Arduino board inside which we have microcontroller and the other main part is Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) also known as Arduino Software where we can write the code and IDE compile that code into binary Hex file which can be read by the microcontroller.

• Arduino IDE is a cross platform software available on Windows, Mac and Linux. Arduino language which is derivative of C++ is used to program Arduino boards using the IDE.

=> ↺ What is TX and RX on Arduino

• Arduino uses serial communication to transfer data between microcontroller and PC or with any other microcontroller. A serial bus is used for this communication which consists of two terminals one is for sending data other one for receiving data.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Kdenlive 22.08 Released! How to Install in (K)Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 | UbuntuHandbook

• Kdenlive video editor released version 22.08 with exciting new features. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu via PPA.

• Kdenlive 22.08 introduced initial support for styling subtitles, allows to modify the font, font size, font and outline colors, add shadows, set position and background color of subtitles.

• The release also adds many new effects, including Shear, Scroll, Photosensitivity, Monochrome, Median, Kirsch, Exposure, EPX Scaler, Color Temperature, Color Overlay, Color Correct, Color Contrast, Chroma Noise Reduction, Contrast Adaptive Sharpen, Bilateral and VR360 Equirectangular to Stereo.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Trying TypeScript for GNOME Apps

• Generally, I prefer to work in a language that watches my back – the tooling is my partner as I write my code. Rust is an exemplary language in this department, but certain design decisions make it slower to write an app in Rust than in JS. I figured it wasn’t the right choice for the JS apps I maintain, but I also wasn’t fond of continuing to work in plain JS. These reasons led me to look into TypeScript, and after some research, I decided I would port an app as an experiment: GNOME Sound Recorder. As far as I know, this is the first complete application in the GNOME ecosystem written in TypeScript.

Distributions and Operating Systems

=> ↺ Top 10 Best Linux Distros for Privacy and Security | HackerNoon

• The terms Security and Privacy are becoming more relevant than ever before. Organizations spend Billions of US dollars trying to secure confidential information. Most Organizations are now beginning to rely on Linux as their primary OS because they provide excellent privacy and security compared to other OSes, like Windows or Mac.

• Linux is a collection of countless variants and distributions of the open-source, modular operating system. Linux Operating System provides you with some of the best Security and Privacy. So, picking the right distros can be challenging because each distro focuses on different aspects of security and privacy, depending on user demands and preferences.

• Some of these Linux distributions incorporate privacy protection as a standard utilizing a number of tools. Others are concerned with making security software a standard component for people who must do penetration tests.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ A Bundle of Salt? | SUSE Communities

• If you are using SUSE Manager, you arguably know that much of its power comes from Salt. It is well known for its high-speed, secure, and powerful integrated message bus. On top of this communication system, Salt provides an extremely fast, flexible, and easy-to-use configuration management system employing states, modules, and formulas. SUSE Manager wrappers capabilities of Salt into a best in class, true open source infrastructure management solution that manages, monitors and secures the entire Linux estate – no matter where it’s located.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ In the Clouds (S2E13) | How data science can improve business – Invidious

=> ↺ GitOps Guide to the Galaxy (E43) | Codefresh hosted GitOps on OpenShift – Invidious

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ ESP32 Looks Good In Red – News – SparkFun Electronics

• Hello everyone, and welcome back to another Friday Product Post here at SparkFun Electronics! This week, we have two brand new IoT boards for you to check out, the first of which is our new USB-C version of our ESP32-WROOM Thing Plus. As the name implies, this board replaces the micro USB port on the board with a USB-C, it adds a microSD card slot, and it adds two new voltage regulators for better power use! Following that, we have a new Arduino R3 footprint IoT RedBoard equipped with an ESP32-WROOM as well! A lot of the features that are on the new Thing Plus this week. So, if an R3 version is more your style, you have options. Teensy is up next with 4.1 versions of the popular development board, just without Ethernet. This is a simple change due to supply constraints, but you’ll be able to pick up these new versions of the Teensy 4.1 with or without headers. Finally, we wrap the week with a new miniature through-hole speaker. Now, let’s jump in and take a closer look at all of this week’s new products!

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Review: The Best Android Watch, For Now – CNET

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 review: Ultimate Android | Android Central

=> ↺ Google Play Games beta allows more people to play Android games on PC

=> ↺ 12 Best KWGT Widget Packs to Customize Android Homescreen [2022] – TechPP

=> ↺ Samsung adds ‘Privacy Detection’ in second Android 13 beta

=> ↺ Google Camera 8.6: Android 13, Pixel 6 Speech, .7x – 9to5Google

=> ↺ Android 12-based LineageOS 19 arrives for the OnePlus 8 series

=> ↺ Android Auto Receiver lets you run Android Auto on an Android Automotive head unit

=> ↺ Firefox Finally Gains Address Autofill On Android

=> ↺ This Android application for better sleep is free instead of $8.49 | NextPit

=> ↺ 3 affordable lens attachments to take better photos with Android phones

=> ↺ Android Wii U emulator may be possible as CEMU goes open source

=> ↺ Nearly 35% Of People Didn’t Realize Android Phones Had This Hidden Feature

=> ↺ Steam beta on Android gains improved UI, new ‘Library’ design | Android Central

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox 104 Released with Performance & Battery Optimization | UbuntuHandbook

• Mozilla Firefox got a new monthly update recently, with minor new features, performance improvements and some bug-fixes.

• According to the release note, Firefox 104 adds one more video site, Disney+, for displaying subtitles in the pop-out videos (Picture-in-Picture).

SaaS/Back End/Databases

=> ↺ PostgreSQL: pgAdmin 4 v6.13 Released

• The pgAdmin Development Team is pleased to announce pgAdmin 4 version 6.13. This release of pgAdmin 4 includes 37 bug fixes and new features. For more details please see the release notes.

• pgAdmin is the leading Open Source graphical management tool for PostgreSQL. For more information, please see the website.

=> ↺ PostgreSQL: PGConf.EU 2022 schedule posted, registration open

• PostgreSQL Conference Europe is pleased to announce that the schedule for its 2022 event, to be held in Berlin, Germany, from 25th – 28th October, has now been published.

• The schedule is, of course, subject to minor changes.

• Tickets are available here. With a history of the event selling out, and about half the available tickets already sold, we encourage everybody who wants to attend to register as soon as possible to guarantee a seat.

• We also still have seats left at some of the training sessions, taught by PostgreSQL experts from around the world, held the day before the main conference. Available training sessions are listed here, and are booked along with the registration. Training attendees get a discount on the entry fee to the main conference.

=> ↺ PostgreSQL: WAL-G 2.0.1 released

• This release mainly consists of various bug fixes and improvements.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Dirk Eddelbuettel: RApiSerialize 0.1.2 on CRAN: Small Bugfix

• A new bug fix release 0.1.2 of RApiSerialize got onto CRAN earlier. It follows on the 0.1.1 release from earlier this month, and addresses a minor build issue where an error message, only in the case of missing long vector support, tried to use an i18n macro that is not supplied by the build.

=> ↺ How to Upload Code to Arduino – 3 Different Methods

• Arduino is one of the best learning platforms for beginners, students and tech related people. Every time you write a new code in Arduino you get a chance to learn something new. After learning how to code Arduino and compiling to find the errors, it’s time to upload the code. Uploading code to Arduino can be difficult for many new learners. Well, I will cover some ways to upload code in Arduino. Let’s begin:

Java

=> ↺ How to use OR Statement in Java

• In Java, Operators are unique symbols with a pre-defined purpose. They are utilized to perform a specific operation with one or more operands and then return an output. There are many Java operators, such as Arithmetic, Logical, and Bitwise operators. More specifically, the “OR” operator belongs to the category of logical operators. This boolean operator returns “true” if either or both operand’s values are “true”; otherwise, it returns “false”.

=> ↺ How to Sort 2d Array in Java

• A two-dimensional or 2D array is a collection of columns and rows. Programmers can randomly access the 2D array elements or each cell individually by utilizing their indexes. With the help of sorting, array elements are arranged according to the requirements, whether in ascending or descending order. More specifically, the Java “Array.sort()” can be utilized for the elements of a 2D array within a program.

=> ↺ What Does Double Colon (::) Mean in Java

• In Java, many operators are used to perform different types of tasks, one of them is a “::” (double colon) called “Method Reference” operator. This operator is a replacement of Lambda Expression and is used to refer to the method, whether it is a static method, constructor, or an instance method.

=> ↺ How to Convert double to String in Java

• In Java, “double” is an object of the Java “Double” wrapper class which stores the primitive data type double as a parameter. However, sometimes, we need to convert double to String because Strings allow us to store larger numbers that do not fit in any data types that hold the numbers, such as integers or doubles.

=> ↺ How to Convert Integer to Int in Java

• The terms “int” and “Integer” are used in Java to store the integer type data. The Integer is a wrapper class for creating integer objects defined by java.lang package, while int is a primitive data type that holds a primitive integer value. It saves 32-bit signed two’s complement integers, whereas the Integer object stores its int value in 128 bits. However, there exist chances that you may need the conversion of an Integer object to a primitive data type int.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Friction as a Proxy for Value

• Sometimes we use products, no matter how difficult they are to use.

• Friction is a good proxy for value. It’s a simple cost-benefit equation, where cost is often more observable than benefit. And it’s much easier to optimize and quantify cost rather than benefit – how quickly, efficiently, or easily we can do something (rather than how much we enjoy or value an experience).

• Better yet, high-cost activities are more likely to have inelastic demand.

• This principle applies to generational technology that looked like a toy before the costs came down. For example, the Wright Brothers Flier could only travel 200 meters. The Tesla Roadster could barely break a range of 200 miles, and there were no charging stations.

Science

=> ↺ The story of the first “computer bug”… is a pile of lies.

• The story is a fantastic one. A bug. An actual bug causing a computer to misbehave.

• The fact that this was found by Grace Hopper — who is an absolute legend in the world of computer programming — adds to the legendary status of this story. And this story has been repeated countless times as the origin for why we use the term “bug” when talking about errors and defects in computer software.

• Here is a picture of the actual log book page. Note that the moth in question is actually taped onto the page. Which, I must say, is a pretty awesome way to handle a “bug report.”

Linux Foundation

=> ↺ Free Quantum Computing Training Course Launched by the Linux Foundation and World Bank

Security

=> ↺ CISA Adds Ten Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog

• CISA has added ten new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise.

=> ↺ OpenFHE: Open-Source Fully Homomorphic Encryption – Help Net Security

• Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is a cryptographic primitive that enables performing computations over encrypted data without having access to the secret key.

• In this Help Net Security video, Prof. Kurt Rohloff, CTO at Duality, talks about Open-Source Fully Homomorphic Encryption (OpenFHE).

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Workplace surveillance is coming for you

• If you want to do something terrible with technology, you can’t just roll it out on people with money and social capital. They’ll complain and your idea will tank. Successful shitty tech rollouts start with people you can abuse with impunity (prisoners, kids, migrants, etc) and then work their way up the privilege gradient. I call it the Shitty Technology Adoption Curve.

• The point of the Shitty Technology Adoption Curve is to normalize technological oppression, one group at a time. 20 years ago, if you were eating your dinner under the unblinking eye of a video-camera, it was because you were in a supermax prison. Now, thanks to “luxury surveillance,” you can get the same experience in your middle-class home with your Google, Apple or Amazon “smart” camera. Those cameras climbed the curve, going from prisons to schools to workplaces to homes.

=> ↺ Gmail will call the cops on you based on the content of your emails

• Google refused to listen to Mark’s explanation. Instead, they terminated his account, seizing more than a decade’s worth of personal and business email, cloud files, and calendar entries. He lost all the family photos he’d synched with Google Photos (including all the photos of his toddler from birth, on). He even lost his mobile plan, because he’s a Google Fi user. He lost access to Google Authenticator and couldn’t sign into any of his other online accounts to tell them that he had a new, non-Gmail email address.

• Mark received an envelope from the SFPD telling him that Google had contacted the police department, accusing him of producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and that the company had secretly given the police full access to all of his files and data, including his location and search history, as well as all his photos and videos.

• The reason the police had to mail him all this stuff? Google had shut down his phone number and so they couldn’t reach him.

• To SFPD’s credit, they’d figured out what was going on and decided Mark wasn’t a child molester. To Google’s shame, they continue to hold all his data hostage – including his address book with the contact info for everyone he is personally or professionally connected to, denying him access to it.

• Google says they won’t give Mark his account back because they found another “problematic” image in his files: “a young child lying in bed with an unclothed woman.” Mark doesn’t know which picture they mean (he no longer has access to any of his photos), but he thinks it was probably an intimate photo he captured of his son and wife together in bed one morning (“If only we slept with pajamas on, this all could have been avoided.”).

• Writing for the New York Times, Kashimir Hill discusses another, similar case, involving a Houston dad called Cassio, whose doctor asked him to send in photos of his child’s genitals for diagnostic purposes. Like Mark, Cassio was cleared by police, and, like Mark, Cassio is locked out of his Gmail account, along with all the services associated with it.

• Hill spoke with my EFF colleague Jon Callas, who criticized Google, saying that private family photos should be a “private sphere” and not subject to routine scanning by algorithms or review by moderators. Google claims that they only scan your photos when you take an “affirmative action” related to them, but this includes automatically uploading your photos to Google Photos, which is the default behavior on Android devices.

Finance

=> ↺ Biden’s “student loan forgiveness” is a moral hazard and election year vote-buying. It’s extremely unfair to people who planned as-if they’d have to pay it all back and did something responsible.

• Biden’s “student loan forgiveness” is a moral hazard and election year vote-buying. It’s extremely unfair to people who planned as-if they’d have to pay it all back and did something responsible.

• I never got to go to college. I was told that if I did, I’d get no help from my parents. In fact, my parents actively stood in the way of me taking a FAFSA grant for years, because they look at your parents’ tax filings until you’re in your 20s, even if you can’t get your parents to help you because they’re a couple of dickheads who ran off after breaking your home and did what they wanted to do and disowned you.

• After coming out as gay, my parents did the legal bare minimum and threw me out at 18. Neither one of them wanted anything more to do with me, and even if they did, they had both remarried to people who didn’t want me there. Including my mom’s second husband, who violently beat me numerous times, closed-fist.

• I didn’t really stand much of a chance against the guy. I was just a kid and he was a former Army soldier who was a drill instructor. The best I ever managed to do was save my own life from him while he had given me a concussion (I was bleeding all over the place.) and had caught up with me at the front porch of his house, and pinned me down into a choke-hold. I had maybe a few seconds left before I lost consciousness, and with the last ounce of my strength I managed to grab a landscaping rock and smash it against his hand, breaking his hand in two places. I escaped and a passing driver called 911.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ [Old] Excerpt from Norman Finkelstein’s forthcoming book on Cancel Culture and Academic Freedom #1 | Norman Finkelstein

• Not as much as it might appear; but not so little either. Cancel culture is as old as culture itself. Every society establishes boundaries of what’s acceptable. If one finds, or places, oneself on the wrong side of them, one gets canceled. The mechanisms can be subtle—a polite rejection letter after submitting a “controversial” article to a scholarly publication—or quite brutal—a stint in a re-education camp or an assassination. Julien Benda, in La Trahison des Clercs (The Treason of the Intellectuals), posited that, if you’re faithful to the values of Truth and Justice, it must inevitably come to pass that you’ll be ostracized—or, in the current idiom, “cancelled”—by society: “A clerk who is popular with the laymen is a traitor to his office.” He gestured to Socrates and Christ. A true clerk, according to Benda, accepts Christ’s dictum that “My kingdom is not of this world.” Had Benda lived longer, he could have added to this martyrs’ pantheon Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, both of whom, it is now forgotten, were reviled at the time of their respective assassinations. Right after Malcolm X’s death, The New York Times editorialized that “The world he saw through those horn-rimmed glasses of his was distorted and dark. But he made it darker still with his exaltation of fanaticism.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Public Knowledge Applauds FCC for Investigating Mobile Carrier Data Practices – Public Knowledge

• Today, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenrocel publicly shared the responses from the nation’s 15 top mobile carriers following a request for information about their data retention and data privacy policies. The agency also announced that its Enforcement Bureau would launch an investigation into mobile carriers’ compliance with FCC rules that require carriers to fully disclose to consumers how they are using and sharing geolocation data.

• The agency previously sent letters asking providers to share information about geolocation data policies, including how long geolocation data is retained and why and what the current safeguards are to protect this sensitive information. The letters also probed providers about their processes for sharing subscriber geolocation data with law enforcement and other third parties, and how the carriers combine geolocation data with other data to which they have unique access. Finally, the letters asked if and how consumers are notified when their geolocation data is shared with third parties. Carriers were given until August 3 to respond to the inquiry.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ Notes on Running

• Like many people, I got pretty unfit during COVID, but I got back on the fitness grind summer of last year. However, I was solely weightlifting, and I was silly enough to listen to youtube influencers telling me to avoid cardio at all costs lest I “kill my gainz”.

=> ↺ “nothing’s gonna change my world”

• low. It’s been this way for some time, so it is what it is. But I started on meds that work ok, so there’s some “clarity” coming back to my brain.

=> ↺ Bank Holiday Weekend

• It’s nearly reached a bank holiday weekend here in the UK, which means we get an extra day off (woop!) I really need it at the moment, quite honestly. Work has not been easy to cope with the last few months. I desperately need a change.

=> ↺ Trimming the cruft

• Every so often, something takes me back to A PLACE. An obsession that stokes my heart. A rabbit hole, but the good kind. I’ve been up til 2-3am a few nights this week, tinkering with webnerdery, learning, exploring, burning internally in a way that feels different to the kind of burn you get from social media and addictive tech.

• I have no doubt it’s still a dopamine rush, but there’s a joy attached to this. It reminds me of who I was and what I loved before I started building for the Big Internet.

• They were the best of times and the worst of times. Chasing those aspirations, acquiescing to that paradigm and mindset, changes you. At least, I think it changed me. Reordered my priorities in those moments I was at my weakest, busiest, and least self-aware. Being immersed and working in a profit-motivated, engagement-driven, conversion-focused environment offered plenty of incentive and validation for disconnecting from the little, authentic, vulnerable part of yourself that craves integrity and connection.

Technical

=> ↺ On the Frustrations of Android

• StackSmith shared some well-written and very relatable frustrations about Android today^, citing the example of LibriVox and independently-developed audiobook players. I don’t listen to audiobooks on Android, so I can’t comment too much on that particular experience, but I definitely understand how difficult it can be to get certain apps to recognize certain types of data.

• I should first mention some of the specific things I do that make my Android experience a little easier. I am very much a smartphone “power user”, utilizing my phone similarly to how I use a computer. As such, I’ve spent a good amount of time in the past looking for apps that work the way I want them to.

=> ↺ Using Asterisks as Bullet Points in Vim

=> ↺ Local Reading Tracker

• I used to use Goodreads to keep track of my reading. However, I opted to delete my Goodreads a few months ago and start over fresh with a new solution. For social sharing (and linking to my website), I have temporarily settled on Open Library in conjunction with Libreture (DRM-free ebooks) and Inventaire (physical books). However, I want my own primary solution to be local. After trying a few ideas, including Zim, I have now settled on maintaining a Markdown file with a table containing my books. While I know that some people do not like markdown tables, I have become a fan.

=> ↺ Week 6: Meetups, Filipino Food, Hypercard

• I recently made a work presentation in Hypercard as well. I think this is going to be my go-to presentation tool! I love how something from the mid-90s can still be used today.

• Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

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