In this video I discuss the forthcoming OpenSSL 3.0.7 release which is supposed to include patches for a critical security vulnerability, the worst one in the OpenSSL library since Heartbleed. I also discuss some ways you could mitigate the vulnerability in the meantime.

=> ↺ Upgrade to Ubuntu 22.10 | Kinectic Kudu – Invidious

=> ↺ Parrot 5.1 Security Edition Quick overview #shorts – Invidious

A Quick Overview of Parrot 5.1 Security Edition

=> ↺ Hackaday Podcast 191: Researchers Parse Starlink, Switches Sense Muscles, And LFT Plays The Commodordion

This week, Editor-in-Chief Elliot Williams and Staff Writer Dan Maloney get together for a look at everything cool under the hardware-hacking sun.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Mike Blumenkrantz: Its Over

There comes a time in every Mesa developer’s life when they start searching for answers. Real question answers, not just “why are there so many pipe caps?” or “is it possible to understand the GLSL compiler?”

That time for me was very recent.

Do we really need two CL frontends in Mesa?

My heart says yes. Not only do we need two, we probably need three, such as the Erlang-based one that Jason “99.4% CTS pass-rate” Ekstrand was briefly working on last year in an unsuccessful attempt to throw off avid bloggers who were getting too close to his real next job. Or the one that Adam “Why Am I In Your Blog?” Jackson has been quietly injecting into the Xserver codebase for the past decade without anyone noticing.

Despite these other entirely valid and extant CL implementations, my brain tells me that we probably don’t even need a single CL implementation in Mesa, let alone one that’s pending CL 3.0 conformance certification, is written in the most prominent of all the languages spoken by crabs, and has by far the most sane and credible Mesa developer working full-time on it.

=> ↺ NVIDIA Driver 520 available to install in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 | 18.04 | UbuntuHandbook

NVIDIA 520, the latest feature release of NVIDIA driver for Linux, is available to install in all current Ubuntu LTS releases.

Applications

=> ↺ 37 Excellent Ways to Manage Your System – Essential System Tools – LinuxLinks

This is a series of cornerstone articles highlighting essential system tools. These are small, indispensable utilities, useful for system administrators as well as regular users of Linux based systems.

You’ve moved over from Windows or Mac OS X to the wonderful world of Linux. You’ve selected a Linux distro (after a bit of fruitful distro hopping), chosen a desktop environment, and studied the basic Linux commands. Now you want some really useful free applications. Well this article picks the finest open source software to help you manage your system.

The series examines both graphical and text based open source utilities. There’s a wide range of software we’ve recommended. There’s genuinely useful utilities, productivity software, networking, backup, monitoring, system cleaning and much more. All to download for nothing.

=> ↺ Excellent Utilities: Imagine – image optimization

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Day 25: scrollbar gutters in body and html

When I wrote about the scrollbar-gutter property, my first thought was “omg! I’ll put this in my reset stylesheet and use it on the by default”. I wanted to do that in order to prevent the page from “jumping” when switching from a long to a short page, a page with overflow to one without.

=> ↺ Untappd data with jq – my top brewery countries

I’m an Untappd supporter and an early adopter, joining in early November 12 years ago in 2010. Recently Untappd celebrated 12 years of operation and 10 million users. It got me thinking back to my very first checkin (it was a Leffe Brune, in case you’re wondering) and then I remembered that as an Untappd supporter I could get access to my entire checkin history, in JSON.

=> ↺ How To Install FileRun on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS – idroot

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install FileRun on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, FileRun is an open-source and web-based file-sharing application for Linux based operating system. It alternative to Google Drive and NextCloud and offers many features like virtual drive support, native mobile apps, metadata support, etc. FileRun allows you to host your own file sharing solution on the cloud and access all your files anywhere via secure cloud storage.

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 FileRun on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 22.04 and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, and more as well.

=> ↺ Install Arch Linux on ChromeOS

Hello there.

I have not written a new article for quite a time now, but the waiting is finally over. Here comes the article everyone of you ever waited for.

Let us install Arch Linux on ChromeOS together. Yihaaaa…

=> ↺ Set up a Matrix to Discord bot

Matrix is a popular open source chat application that makes it easy to chat securely with people all over the world. Similarly, Discord is a non-open source chat application that’s also popular with many online communities. Discord, like Matrix, provides a chat client for all major platforms both mobile and desktop, so it’s perfectly usable on Linux. However, it’s not open source and so, given the choice, you might prefer to use Matrix. The good news is that when not given a choice for any reason, you can also use Matrix to interface with Discord by running a Matrix-to-Discord bridge. This article shows you how to set up and run a Python Matrix bot to bridge chat between a Matrix room and a Discord channel.

=> ↺ How to change themes on Tmux | FOSS Linux

The ability to customize Tmux is one of its most notable features. You may modify the themes in Tmux to ensure that you work in an environment that suits you. This article guide will show you how to change your theme in Tmux. Let us go over the steps.

=> ↺ Install FFmpeg On Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | Itsubuntu.com

FFmpeg is a cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. It is an open-source tool that is used to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter, and play multimedia files.

In this tutorial, we will show you the easy way to install FFmpeg on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

=> ↺ How to Install Ubuntu in VirtualBox [Tutorial]

A simple beginner’s tutorial on how to install Ubuntu in Oracle VirtualBox.

VirtualBox is software which allows you to try out several operating systems (Linux, Windows, BSD and so on) in your current Laptop/Desktop without actually installing them in hardware.

There are many software available such as virt-manager or GNOME Boxes. And VirtualBox is among them, which brings additional features.

This guide will teach you how to install Ubuntu in the latest VirtualBox.

=> ↺ How to Use Snap Package Manager on Linux – Linux Nightly

This tutorial shows how to install Snap package manager on all Linux distros, and use it to install, remove, and update software packages.

=> ↺ How to install MariaDB on Fedora 36

Fedora 36 is home to many novices and not so many developers who see it as the ideal system to do their jobs. Today, in this post for newbies, you’ll learn how to install MariaDB on Fedora 36.

=> ↺ How to install FL Studio 20 on a Chromebook

Today we are looking at how to install FL Studio 20 on a Chromebook.

=> ↺ Making the mounting of an encrypted /home optional on a home server

I have a computer that serves as a home server as well as a desktop machine. It has an encrypted home directory to protect user files and, in the default configuration, that unfortunately interferes with unattended reboots since someone needs to be present to enter the encryption password.

Here’s how I added a timeout and made /home optional on that machine.

=> ↺ Monitor a UPS with a Mikrotik router via SNMP

Cyberpower UPS units saved me from plenty of issues in the past with power outages. However, although I love the units themselves, I found that the quality of replacement batteries varies widely. This leads me to keep a close watch on my UPS units and test them regularly. Energy conservation ranks high on my list of priorities, too. I monitor the power draw on my UPS units to know about usage spikes or to review electricity consumption after I make changes. My Raspberry Pi did a great job of monitoring my UPS for my network devices but it failed after a recent reboot. My network woes from September left me with a Mikrotik hEXs running my home network and I noticed it had a USB port.

=> ↺ How to use Tmux mouse mode

Tmux is an open-source multiplexing tool used to handle multiple terminal windows efficiently. If you have used the terminator application previously, you should be familiar with this app. With the aid of Tmux, users can split the terminal into several panes, adjust the pane size, move the panes around, and switch between them. This application aids in reducing the pain of managing multiple tabs and windows of the Gnome terminal.

Tmux is a popular multiplexer; thus, it has plenty of valuable options. It allows users to run programs in parallel while permitting a seamless transition. If you continuously switch between terminals, you could consider trying a multiplexer.

All corresponding remote sessions are closed when you close an SSH connection. However, Tmux comes in handy as it aids preserve those sessions even if the SSH connection is terminated.

This article guide will only brush through the installation, how to use and how to launch section. If you want to learn more about the said sections, check out this in-depth article guide.

=> ↺ How to get a Facebook Messenger client on Linux | ZDNET

If you were to take a look at my web browser, you’d see that it’s always filled with too many tabs. Because of that, I try to separate certain services from the web browser and use desktop clients instead.

=> ↺ How to Fix the Ubuntu Login Loop Issue

If you ever find your Ubuntu desktop stuck in a login loop, here’s how to get out of it.

Few things can throw you into a panic faster than trying to log into your computer and being denied entry. You click on your username. You enter your password. You hit Enter and… nothing.

Unfortunately, this kind of experience is more common than you might think with Ubuntu. The good news is that fixing this problem is not too difficult when you know what to do. If your Ubuntu system is stuck in a login loop, follow along, and we’ll have you back up and running in no time.

=> ↺ New user guide: How to organize your qubes | Qubes OS

When people first learn about Qubes OS, their initial reaction is often, “Wow, this looks really cool! But… what can I actually do with it?” It’s not always obvious which qubes you should create, what you should do in each one, and whether your organizational ideas makes sense from a security or usage perspective.

Each qube is essentially a secure compartment, and you can create as many of them as you like and connect them to each other in various ways. They’re sort of like Lego blocks in the sense that you can build whatever you want. But if you’re not sure what to build, then this open-ended freedom can be daunting. It’s a bit like staring at a blank document when you first sit down to write something. The possibilities are endless, and you may not know where to begin!

The truth is that no one else can tell you exactly how you should organize your qubes, as there is no single correct answer to that question. It depends on your needs, desires, and preferences. Every user’s optimal setup will be different. However, what we can do is provide you with some illustrative examples based on questionnaires and interviews with Qubes users and developers, as well as our own personal experience and insight from using Qubes over the years. You may be able to adapt some of these examples to fit your own unique situation. More importantly, walking you through the rationale behind various decisions will teach you how to apply the same thought process to your own organizational decisions. Let’s begin!

=> ↺ Humans may be rational, or how to collect better documentation feedback with linguistic theory | Ubuntu

Anyone who has ever built a product wants user feedback – and we in open source want it more than anyone else, and place higher demands on it than anyone else. However, this feedback can be hard to give, hard to receive, and hard to act upon.

My product is open source software documentation, and the same is true of it too, but, at least in the case of documentation, I believe there’s a way to make feedback easier and more effective – all thanks to linguistic theory.

The reason is because documentation is a product that relies on natural language. While we’re not all experts on documentation, and we’d be wrong to believe that we are, we are all experts in natural language, and we’d be wrong to believe that we are not. And – as I argue below – this makes all the difference.

Games

=> ↺ Proton Experimental fixes up Persona 5 Royal, UNCHARTED and quite a few more

Valve has released a fresh update to Proton Experimental, and it fixes up quite a few games not working correctly or at all for both Linux and Steam Deck.

=> ↺ Steam Deck Beta adds QR code logins, Gaming Mode UI in Desktop Mode

Valve has put up a fresh Steam Deck Client Beta with numerous fixes, along with new features like the QR code login you can use with the mobile app. To try it out you need to be in the Beta or Preview update channels.

=> ↺ Them’s Fightin’ Herds gets cross-play between Steam and Consoles

One of the more unique fighting games available on PC (Native Linux + Steam Deck Verified), Them’s Fightin’ Herds has launched on consoles and it now has cross-play. This means no matter the platform you want to fight on, you’re good to go.

=> ↺ Monster Prom 3: Monster Roadtrip is out now

The third game in the popular Monster Prom series recently landed (that I missed) and this time, it’s not a dating sim, instead it’s all about survival in Monster Prom 3: Monster Roadtrip.

=> ↺ Check out the new trailer for monster-collecting game Cassette Beasts

Cassette Beasts is an upcoming monster-collecting RPG from Bytten Studio and publisher Raw Fury. The recent Steam Next Fest demo was pretty great and a new trailer is live now for The MIX event.

=> ↺ Valheim gets an important bug-fix for Linux players

Seems that the survival game Valheim had quite an unfortunate bug for Linux players, which has now been solved.

=> ↺ Live by the Sword Tactics: Review on Linux (Proton) – Boiling Steam

Live by the Sword Tactics (LbtS:T), developed by Labrador Studios and published by Gravity Game Arise, is a turn-based tactical RPG with heavy focus on strategy but not so much on RPG.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ This week in KDE: next-generation improvements

As we near the end of Plasma 5, a lot of people are putting thought into what’s next for Plasma 6, beyond simply porting it to Qt 6. The general consensus is to avoid big architectural changes, with most of the major changes being UI improvements and new features. So KDE’s VDG team has been busy planning for that future, which has yielded a lot of improvements for the last and best version of Plasma 5!

=> ↺ New KDE CI configuration options and Plasma KF6 CI

Project dependencies and other CI settings so far could only be set per platform, which made it difficult to deal with differences between Qt 5 and Qt 6 builds on the same platform. This changed now, giving us a lot more flexibility and unblocking Qt 6 CI coverage for a number of repositories.

=> ↺ The KDE Qt5 Patch Collection has been rebased on top of Qt 5.15.7

The Commercial Qt 5.15.7 release introduced one bug that has later been fixed. Thanks to that, our Patchset Collection has been able to incorporate the revert for bug [1] and the Free Software users will never be affected by it!

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ #67 File Descriptors and Scopes – This Week in GNOME

Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from October 21 to October 28.

Distributions and Operating Systems

=> ↺ Celebrating 5 Years of Pop!_OS – System76 Blog

Five years! Five years of learning, engineering, and developing an OS alongside the best community we could ask for. To celebrate five years, we’re looking back at where Pop!_OS started, how it’s grown, and where it’s going next. Thanks for joining us on this incredible journey!

=> ↺ Status and brief review

We are currently reviewing the distros on the strict list, verifying they are still actively being developed, whether they still meet our strict criteria and anything that has changed since they were first admitted to the list.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ CentOS Community Newsletter, October 2022

The EPEL team is retiring package modularity in EPEL 8. Modules were introduced in RHEL 8, but have since been phased out. They were never supported in EPEL 9.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Hot stuff: Pimoroni Pico Enviro+ Pack

The Pico Enviro+ incorporates a whole host of sensors and a colour LCD display all built in, ready to plug into the back of a Raspberry Pi Pico. If you want to have a go at this project yourself, follow the instructions for getting started with Pico by Pimoroni, and download the latest version of their purpose-built custom firmware. Using these instructions you will use the incredibly useful drag-and-drop method for transferring files to the Pico — it’s just like transferring files to a USB memory stick.

=> ↺ Everactive launches batteryless IoT devkit using Evernet low-power protocol – CNX Software

Everactive has launched a batteryless IoT devkit to let engineers evaluate its ultra-low-power energy harvesting solution and the Evernet wireless protocol for the “Hyperscale” Internet of Things.

=> ↺ This Andor-inspired droid moves like the real B2EMO

The new Andor TV show, set in the Star Wars universe prior to the events of Rogue One, is already a hit and a big part of that is thanks to the B2EMO droid. Like many of the other droids in the Star Wars franchise, B2EMO manages to be very expressive despite being cold, hard steel. It conveys emotions and expressions through complex movement, which James Bruton recreated when he built his B2EMO-inspired droid.

B2EMO looks like a conventional rover robot, but it is quite flexible. It can drive in any direction thanks to its omnidirectional wheels and also tilts, leans, and stretches, which makes it seem more like a beloved pet than a soulless robot. The Andor production team actually built a functional B2EMO for filming. Bruton put his own unique spin on the design to create a B2EMO replica that is affordable enough for a hobbyist to tackle.

=> ↺ Overclock your Raspberry Pi to a blistering 2.5GHz

Overclocking isn’t a new idea, and it isn’t limited to high-end processors, either. In high school I overclocked the Intel Xscale CPU in my Palm Tungsten T3 from 400Hz to 600Hz, just so I could play my Quicktime copy of the trailer for The Matrix Revolutions more smoothly. (In hindsight, it wasn’t worth it.) But the point is, you can overclock almost any computer processor, as one enterprising modder did to the little-SoC-that-could, the $35 Raspberry Pi.

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 Delidded and Overclocked to 2.5 GHz

According to Kuleshov, he not only overclocked the CM4 but also managed to maintain a good degree of performance stability. The only caveat for ensuring the performance is managing the heat. Kuleshov explains that the temperature must be kept under 6 degrees Celsius (42 degrees Fahrenheit). You can find a detailed look at the overclocking benchmarks over at pibenchmarks.com.

=> ↺ Mini Mars Rover Runs On Pi Pico W

NASA’s Mars Rovers are robots that have inspired many budding engineers around the world. [Nikodem Bartnik] had a particular fondness for them himself, and set out to build a miniature version of his very own.

=> ↺ Turn Your Original Raspberry Pi into a ZX Spectrum Computer With ZXBaremulator

The ZX Spectrum computer was 40 years old in 2022. Released in the UK and Europe around the same time as the Commodore 64, this British-built budget home computer contributed hugely to the nascent computing and games industry. These days, ZX Spectrums are rare, but they can be emulated.

A British-built computer that you may be more familiar with is the Raspberry Pi. You could install an emulator on Raspberry Pi OS to run ZX Spectrum software, or you could try something different: a bare metal emulator like ZXBaremulator.

=> ↺ Experts Warn That Off-The-Shelf Drones Are Potential Weapons For Terrorists

Across Africa, drones — both sophisticated military hardware and off-the-shelf hobby models — are changing the nature of conflicts. Experts fear that extremist groups are working to acquire them and use them for asymmetric attacks.

“Until recently, drones were used exclusively by state actors in Africa,” researcher Ezenwa Olumba recently wrote in an article published by the London School of Economics’ Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa. “Recent reports regarding the use of drones [by non-state actors] and their sophistication are concerning.”

=> ↺ Build Your Own Smartphone

This tutorial brings you from start to finish in constructing your very own smartphone. You will start by 3D printing a case, then soldering printed circuit boards together, assembly, and finally installing a mobile OS onto your phone and using Python to make it yours. You can learn more about this project at hackaday.io/project/5083

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Realme GT2 Pro gets Android 13 – GSMArena.com news

=> ↺ Google Pixel 7 – 7 Pro Review: Peak Android But Only One Storage Variant

=> ↺ Google details benefits of 64-bit-only Android, starting with Pixel 7

=> ↺ Report: Google will graciously let Android OEMs build Amazon Fire devices | Ars Technica

=> ↺ Create a Shortcut to Google’s Password Manager on Your Android Phone for Faster Access to All Your Credentials – Android :: Gadget Hacks

=> ↺ Android warning for all users – ignoring single pop up lets evil apps invade your privacy | The US Sun

=> ↺ Say goodbye to the popular Google Duo blue icon on Android – SamMobile

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ 13 Free Open Source CCTV and Camera Surveillance Solutions [2022]

Building a security surveillance system for home or business security, often cost a large sum of money, that include hardware, software, setup, and maintenance.

Security surveillance software solutions like CCTV systems, IP camera monitoring programs, DVR apps and NVR apps, are regularly commercial programs. Which means they cost money for subscription or buying a version that you need to pay more to upgrade or renewing the license.

As they vary in price and features, we put together open source and free alternatives to setup your security system without the need to worry about license or vendor lock-in.

Here, in this list we offer you the best open-source and free solution that can help you use old USB cameras, even your old mobile phone camera to setup a strong surveillance system.

If you know your way around Raspberry Pi and you prefer to do it yourself “DIY”, we have another list ready for you: 16 Open-source Projects to Build a CCTV System With Raspberry Pi.

=> ↺ Why I use Jellyfin for my home media library

Today, I posted a new video, showing how I set up Jellyfin on my NAS, and explaining a bit more about transcoding, legal issues around breaking DRM, and acquiring DVDs and Blu-Rays on the cheap.

But I wanted to explain a little more about why I chose Jellyfin.

Many people never heard of it, and those who have often don’t know why someone would choose Jellyfin over Plex, considering Plex’s legacy.

=> ↺ Urgent: Patch OpenSSL on November 1 to avoid “Critical” Security Vulnerability

OpenSSL is developed by the OpenSSL project, who advised on Wednesday, October 26th, that it was releasing a patch for a critical vulnerability the following Tuesday, November 1st.

Here’s how the OpenSSL Project defines a critical vulnerability: [...]

Web Browsers/Web Servers

=> ↺ Google execs knew ‘Incognito mode’ failed to protect privacy, suit claims

A federal judge in California is considering motions to dismiss a lawsuit against Google that alleges the company misled them into believing their privacy was being protected while using Incognito mode in the Chrome browser.

The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District Court of California by five users more than two years ago, is now awaiting a recent motion by those plaintiffs for two class-action certifications.

The first would cover all Chrome users with a Google account who accessed a non-Google website containing Google tracking or advertising code and who were in “Incognito mode”; the second covers all Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer users with a Google account who accessed a non-Google website containing Google tracking or advertising code while in “private browsing mode.”

=> ↺ V2BlankBrowser get new feature!! | nintyfan

V2BlankBrowser is Linux Web Browser, created to playing games or use with web apps in mind. But it is still normal browser, with tabs, etc. To made UI flexible to fulfill both playing games, use web apps and web browsing, I use many techniques. Last is tab displaying/hiding by a gesture! See the link.

Chromium

=> ↺ Google Chrome Browser 107.0.5304.87 – PCLinuxOS

Google Chrome Browser has been updated to version 107.0.5304.87 and shipped to the PCLinuxOS Software Repository.

=> ↺ Vivaldi Browser 5.5.2805.42 – PCLinuxOS

Opera is a Chromium-based browser using the Blink layout engine. It differentiates itself because of a distinct user interface and other features.

=> ↺ Vivaldi Browser 5.5.2805.42 – PCLinuxOS

Vivaldi is a new web browser based on Chromium that is built by an Opera founder. It’s aimed mostly at power users, but it can be used by anyone.

Mozilla

=> ↺ More problems with Google’s “insecure apps” alert and SeaMonkey Mail.

After playing around with the User Agent again, I noticed that Firefox 106’s would work, but since Mozilla releases Firefox versions every 6 weeks, and Google is obviously making it impossible to continue logging in using the older version after another week or so, I decided to play around with User Agents until I found something that worked.

It turns out Firefox 102’s user agent doesn’t work for OAuth even though it’s an ESR.

=> ↺ Firefox Presents: Cosplayer Rachel Maksy gives main character energy

Rachel Maksy has been Wonder Woman, Princess Leia, and, for one week, multiple Jane Austen characters. She goes to conventions to meet other cosplayers wearing costumes that she created. But mostly, her handmade outfits are seen and watched by her nearly 1.5 million followers across YouTube and Instagram.

“Just like a kid dressing up on Halloween as their favorite superhero, there’s something special about making that costume and doing your makeup and hair like them. You just feel empowered,” the 30-year-old content creator said.

Rachel loves Halloween so much that she starts planning her looks in January for what she calls “13 days of Maks-o-ween.” This month, her costumes include a raven dressed as a Victorian woman and a pinup wolfman. (If you still need Halloween costume ideas, check out her Instagram.)

Recently, outside of Halloween, she’s been dabbling in styles from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra

=> ↺ The best open-source Lightroom alternatives (three winners and two that broke our hearts)

With all of that said, the open-source software movement continues to thrive. Indeed, these days much of the commercial software we spend our hard-earned cash on builds upon the work of open-sourced developers. The famous Linux operating system, for example, underlies Google’s Android OS, and not only does it compete head-on against commercial rivals, it’s actually the dominant OS in its space.

Clearly, open-source software is capable of big things when done right. So, can it defeat the likes of Adobe’s Lightroom Classic? Let’s roll up our sleeves and take a look!

Education

=> ↺ Things I Forgot to Bring to KubeCon

I’m attending KubeCon + CloudNativeCon this week, and while the conference itself has been excellent, I have discovered that I have completely forgotten how to be a competent packer. Silly me, I spent a ton of timing making sure I was packed appropriately for the weather, but forgot to consider some of my other needs. Turns out I didn’t actually need to bring any t-shirts, socks, or water bottles anyway (the vendors in the showroom practically throw them at you… seriously, I’m actually coming home with more new clothes than old ones… thank the gods I have an expandable suitcase).

FSF

=> ↺ FSD meeting recap 2022-10-28

Check out the great work our volunteers accomplished at today’s Free Software Directory (FSD) IRC meeting.

Every week, free software activists from around the world come together in #fsf on Libera.Chat to help improve the FSD, which is a catalog of useful free software that runs under free GNU-like systems (not limited to the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants) and a project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). This recaps the work we accomplished at the Friday, October 28, 2022 meeting, where we saw a couple of new programs added and several entries updated.

=> ↺ November 16-18: Envelop yourself in stuffing at FSF’s fundraiser mailing

Upcoming stuff-a-thon! Help the FSF in its fall fundraiser.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is hosting a fall fundraiser mailing and needs your help to make it happen! Please join us from 11:00 to 21:00 EST, November 16, 17, and 18 at our office in Downtown Crossing (51 Franklin St, 5th Floor, Boston, MA, 02110). When all is said and done, we’ll have stuffed 5,000 Bulletins into envelopes destined for members on every continent except Antarctica.

We will need help all day, except for a 13:00 EST lunch break and 18:00 EST dinner break. You can volunteer for many days, one day, a few hours, or however long you wish. Depending on the turnout, we may even finish ahead of schedule, as has happened in years past.

GNU Projects

=> ↺ Conference “GIMP and ZeMarmot” in Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy (France)

Next Friday, the 4th of November 2022, from 6PM to 8PM CET, Aryeom (with her hats of film director of “ZeMarmot” and GIMP contributor) and myself (Jehan, with my hats of main developer/maintainer of GIMP and technical operations in “ZeMarmot”), will host a conference at the Jules Verne library in Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy (France).

Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ [Repost] No good deed goes unpunished in a world where the rules have been set by academic publishers

I’m not going to claim that Ginsparg’s unfair treatment was because of copyright, but I do think he was a victim of the academic publishing culture, albeit indirectly. As Chapter 3 of my Walled Culture book explores in detail, publishers in this sector have done an incredible job of colonising the entire academic and research system – and the minds of those in it. For too long, academic publishers have been regarded as an indispensable part of research work; the idea that knowledge could be shared more easily and beneficially without them was inconceivable for many.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ RIP: Kathleen Booth, the inventor of assembly language • The Register

Professor Kathleen Booth, one of the last of the early British computing pioneers, has died. She was 100.

Kathleen Hylda Valerie Britten was born in Worcestershire, England, on July 9, 1922. During the Second World War, she studied at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she got a BSc in mathematics in 1944. After graduating, she became a junior scientific officer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, a research organization in Farnborough. Two years later she moved to Birkbeck College, first as a research assistant, and later a lecturer and then research fellow.

She also worked at the British Rubber Producers’ Research Association (BRPRA), where she met and worked with mathematician and physicist Andrew Donald Booth, who later became her husband. After studying with X-ray crystallographer Professor J D Bernal – inventor of the Bernal Sphere – A D Booth was working out crystal structures using X-ray diffraction data, and finding the manual calculations very tedious; he built an analog computer to automate part of this.

=> ↺ One-Time Programs

One of the things I like to do on this blog is write about new research that has a practical angle. Most of the time (I swear) this involves writing about other folks’ research: it’s not that often that I write about work that comes out of my own lab. Today I’m going make an exception to talk about a new paper that will be appearing at TCC ’22. This is joint work with my colleagues Abhishek Jain and Aarushi Goel along with our students Harry Eldridge and Max Zinkus.

This paper is fun for three reasons: (1) it addresses a cool problem, (2) writing about it gives me a chance to cover a bunch of useful, general background that fits the scope of this blog [indeed, our actual research won’t show up until late in the post!], and most critically (3) I want people to figure out how to do it better, since I think it would be neat to make these ideas work more practical. (Note, if you will, that TCC stands for Theory of Cryptography conference, which is kind of a weird fit.)

=> ↺ I ❤️ Scala’s Community

The official community channels are very civilized, friendly, and welcoming. There, you can easily find very knowledgeable engineers and scientists, willing to help, without having to feel shame for the questions you ask.

=> ↺ Immutable Collections should be Your Default

Mutable collection types should only be used strategically, with purpose, otherwise for correctness/safety purposes, the default should be immutable collection types, aka persistent data structures.

=> ↺ Dependencies

Here is two straight up facts:

a. There are dependencies that are gratuitous and unnecessary.

b. There are dependencies that make your code significantly more readable and comfy.

=> ↺ Louis-Philippe Véronneau – Extruded Schiit Stack

The original Schiit Stack — being 2 devices high — was pretty manageable as-is. With my current 4-high stack though, things became unstable and I had to resort to finding a way to bolt them together.

[...]

After looking at local options, I then decided to use 15mm x 15mm rails from Misumi. I went with this option since the rails are still small enough not to be an eyesore, but also because this system uses M3 screws, which the Schiit mini series also uses, making assembly much easier.

I choose to make the assembled stack quite a bit taller than the previous one made with 3D printed plastic, as I found the headphone amp got pretty hot during the summer and I wanted to provide better airflow.

Python

=> ↺ Paper review: Concurrency Control Performance Modeling

Another week, another paper! This week for our Red Book reading group, I read “Concurrency Control Performance Modeling” by Rakesh Agrawal, Michael J. Carey, and Miron Livny. It was 46 pages, and I had a little trouble finding the whole paper—many of the Google Scholar links had missing pages in the middle, which was confusing the first time I encountered a weird gap.

=> ↺ Early speed optimizations aren’t premature

The problem with this saying is that many people wrongly interpret it as “early optimization is the root of all evil.” In fact, writing fast software from the start can be hugely beneficial.

In order to reduce the scope a bit, I’m going to focus on one particular problem domain: data processing pipelines or batch jobs. This is the kind of software you often write when doing data science, or scientific computing: you load in some data, process them, spit out a result.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ Scripts and programs should skip having extensions like ‘.sh’ and ‘.bash’

I have the opposite view. Unless you have a strong reason, you should avoid putting an extension like .sh, .bash, or .pl on your scripts and programs. The reason to avoid it is a variant of not making product names visible in messages. Some day you may want to change that shell script into a Perl script, or a Ruby script, or a compiled program (perhaps you get an urge to use Rust). At that point, either you have to find every use of the script elsewhere in your system and change them all, or you have a ‘.sh’ program that’s actually written in Perl.

Rust

=> ↺ The Rust Programming Language Blog: Generic associated types to be stable in Rust 1.65

As of Rust 1.65, which is set to release on November 3rd, generic associated types (GATs) will be stable — over six and a half years after the original RFC was opened. This is truly a monumental achievement; however, as with a few of the other monumental features of Rust, like async or const generics, there are limitations in the initial stabilization that we plan to remove in the future.

The goal of this post is not to teach about GATs, but rather to briefly introduce them to any readers that might not know what they are and to enumerate a few of the limitations in initial stabilization that users are most likely to run into. More detailed information can be found in the RFC, in the GATs initiative repository, in the previous blog post during the start of the stabilization push, in the associated items section in the nightly reference, or in the open issues on Github for GATs

=> ↺ Generic associated types in Rust 1.65 [LWN.net]

The Rust Types Team announces that the long-awaited generic associated types feature will be stable in Rust 1.65.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Keen Sword to test ‘interoperability’ between the Japanese and US militaries

The exercise involving 26,000 troops, 20 ships and 250 aircraft from Japan; plus 10,000 troops, 10 ships and 120 aircraft from the U.S. side “will test the readiness and improve the interoperability” between the two militaries, the statement said.

=> ↺ On-campus awareness of digital sustainability issues (notes on McLean et al. 2022)

Drawing on interviews, survey data, and observations in Sydney University, Mclean’s team found that energy use and digital devices were rarely thought of as part of the university’s carbon footprint. For example, there was little awareness of the university’s reliance on wider digital infrastructures beyond the immediate campus (e.g. remote data centres and servers around the world) or the resource depletion and waste issues inherent in the mass production of digital hardware.

=> ↺ General Perspective From HL7 Work Group

Leftovers

=> ↺ Autumn in New York: On the Finger Lakes Trail

After the West Coast sojourn my lungs were in need of a deep purge and so I set out with a daughter from our doorstep to hike from Ithaca to Watkins Glen—45 out of the 584 miles of the Finger Lakes Trail which runs from the Pennsylvanian border in Southwestern New York to the Catskill Mountains in the eastern part of the state.

=> ↺ Daniel Smith

=> ↺ Luigi’s Mansion First Person Mod Brings Spooky New Perspective

The Nintendo GameCube in many ways defied expectations. It was purple, it had buttons shaped like beans, and it didn’t launch with a Mario game. What we got instead was the horror-adjacent ghost adventure game starring Mario’s brother — Luigi’s Mansion. The game was a graphical showpiece for the time, however, the camera angles were all fixed like an early Resident Evil game. Not satisfied with playing within those bounds, modder [Sky Bluigi] created a first person camera patch for the game that finally let players see why Luigi was so freaked out all the time.

=> ↺ ‘While we rushed between morgues the authorities gave each other medals’: 20 years ago terrorists captured a Moscow theater. The father of one of their victims speaks about how the events changed Russia (or didn’t). — Meduza

=> ↺ Ye of Toxic Faith: Behind the Kanye Downfall

“This is so depressing. I mean, Kanye used to be fun crazy. Now he’s like Hitler,” Howard Stern recently said. To be sure, no one knows the game of using mentally ill people for entertainment better than Stern. He once devoted great swaths of national airtime to fringe bigots and his long-disbanded Wack Pack to build the mass audience for his shock-talk radio show before he moved on to the calmer medium of satellite broadcasting.

=> ↺ Driving Three-Color E-Paper Pricetags With An Arduino

ePaper pricetags are becoming popular parts in the hacker community as a cheap way into tinkering with the technology. [Aaron Christophel] got his hands on a 4.4″ model with red, black, and white colors, and set about programming an ESP32 to drive the price tag instead.

=> ↺ Cursive Out Loud: Dealing With Dragons

When we last left this broadening subject of handwriting, cursive, and moveable type, I was threatening to sing the praises of speech-to-text programs. To me, these seem like the summit of getting thoughts committed to what passes for paper these days.

=> ↺ Joshua Frank

=> ↺ Real Tractor Moonlights As Farming Simulator Controller

Around October, amid all the pumpkin spiced food and beverages, folks make their yearly pilgrimage to a local farm. They load themselves onto hay-filled tractor trailers and ride out in search of the perfect pumpkin to put on the front porch, and let it slowly decompose. The “closest” a video game has come to replicating this seasonal event is the annual Farming Simulator series. One modder, [Dylan], decided to add an extra level of authenticity to the Farming Simulator experience by controlling the game with an actual tractor.

Science

=> ↺ Astronomers have unveiled the world’s largest digital camera

The LSST Camera works like any other digital camera, but it is much bigger. Its 189 sensors take in light emanating from objects like stars and convert it to electrical signals that can be turned into digital images. Each sensor is a square with sides 42 millimetres long and packs more pixels than the camera on an iPhone 13. In total, the camera has 3.2 gigapixels and will take images with a resolution high enough to see a golf ball from 24 kilometres away. Its biggest lens, with a diameter of 1.57 metres, is the largest of its kind ever made.

Education

=> ↺ ‘Who cares about your science?’ asks new Qld Chief Scientist

“I get a bit pointy with people sometimes, someone will be telling me about their science and I say, ‘Who cares about your science?’

“Some people get a bit affronted, but it makes them think, in the end, who’s going to be using it? I want them to think about the whole process, from discovery research to getting something into an end-user’s hands.”

One of Harch’s formative experiences was working at the CSIRO on a south-east Queensland water quality project for the Queensland government.

=> ↺ Your College RA Deserves a Union

Before I went off to college last fall, my older friends and family wistfully shared stories about their prime years spent in cramped dorms, dimly lit frat houses, and other situations they might not appreciate being retold. My dad—who will quickly self-identify as a terrible student—offered his own form of academic guidance. After talking about my impending 126-square-foot bedroom, he said, “Be friends with your RA.” He defended this with the logic that “if your friend finds alcohol in your room, then you won’t get in trouble.”

=> ↺ 80,000 people protest in Budapest to support teachers

Two weeks ago thousands of teachers protested across Hungary against low wages and poor working conditions despite the government’s warning that they risk losing their jobs if they do so. Five teachers have previously lost their jobs for ‘civil disobedience. During Sunday’s protest, many held signs calling for Viktor Orban to leave office because of his pro-Kremlin policies and close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Hardware

=> ↺ Intel forced to cut jobs and spending as revenue continues to decline

Intel reported a 20% decline in third quarter revenue to $15.3 billion, and an astonishing 85% decline in profit to $1 billion for the quarter that ended October 1. In the previous quarter, Intel’s revenue declined 22%.

The chipmaker also lowered its annual revenue guidance for the second time this year to $63 billion, down from $65 billion-$68 billion it expected at the end of last quarter, which was lower than the original revenue guidance of $76 billion.

=> ↺ You Can Now Bootstrap Your Amiga Without A Floppy With This One Weird Trick

Traditionally, most Amigas were intended to boot from a floppy disk. . An Amiga can readily make its own boot floppy, but only once it’s already booted up. If you don’t have a floppy ready to go, you’re out of luck, as PCs can’t readily make them for Amigas. [Roc] whipped up the amigaXfer bootstrapping method to solve this very problem.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Doctor who told married Muslim woman to remove veil handed nine-month suspension

=> ↺ US School Shootings Now at Record Level in 2022: Criminologists

With more than two months left, 2022 is already the worst year on record for the United States, as the country has seen 257 shootings on school campuses, surpassing the 250 total for all of 2021, criminologists from U.S. universities has said.

=> ↺ Facts About How to Stop School Shootings and Gun Violence in the U.S.

In 2021-2022 only, events involving guns quadrupled compared to 2013. Exactly 193 incidents happened in preschools and K–12 schools last year. Unfortunately, gun violence slowly becomes an epidemic in US schools and households. Mass and unintentional shootings, homicides, and suicides regularly hit the headlines without any signs of stopping.

What can we, as individuals, do to prevent the causes of gunfire incidents? What can the state do to address the issue at its root and spare millions of kids from suffering long-term consequences? Can society prevent school shootings and reinstate gun safety? And what about schools and their anti-violence and security policies?

=> ↺ ‘I worked on a superyacht… and was shocked by what I learnt about the uber-rich’

In her first year, White lost ‘a huge amount’ of weight and suffered a kidney infection due to dehydration (‘I just didn’t have time to drink enough’); her tooth enamel was eroded by regular vomiting because of seasickness, and she accrued ‘boat bites’, the painful legacy of on-board knocks and scrapes.

Graver still were the psychological scars. Exhausted and stressed to the point of collapse, White was pushed to a breakdown. ‘Having to perform under that pressure, and on that stage, knowing that there are a thousand people who will very gladly take your place – that takes a very deep kind of inner strength. I had suicidal ideation – I didn’t feel at home on land [any more]… That was really dark, I couldn’t see any light.’

=> ↺ CDC Finds Huge Racial Disparities in Access to COVID Treatment Paxlovid

=> ↺ Is the FTC’s Campaign Against Hospital Mergers Effective?

Suddenly, antitrust regulators seem to have swagger. News articles have described the Federal Trade Commission, whose job is to stop anti-competitive behavior, as being “unleashed” under its aggressive new chief, Lina Khan. Republicans have responded with complaints of “radical” policies. An FTC official told Kaiser Health News, “We are feeling invigorated and looking to fulfill the executive order’s call to be aggressive on antitrust enforcement.”

=> ↺ Nevada Governor Candidates Are Debating a ProPublica Investigation — but Not Always Accurately

In May, a ProPublica investigation detailed how Gov. Steve Sisolak’s administration fast-tracked the license for Northshore Clinical Labs, a company with ties to a family that has donated nearly $50,000 to his political campaigns since 2011, including $40,000 to his gubernatorial races. The investigation also revealed that the company missed 96% of COVID-19 cases in a sample of 51 PCR tests from the University of Nevada Reno campus, used questionable billing practices and had widespread problems with the testing it provided to five government agencies. The article also noted how the lab was allowed to continue operating in the state despite repeated warnings from public health scientists.

=> ↺ Opinion | Literally Killing Americans With Its Policies, the GOP Must Be Defeated

If you were born and live in Japan, you can expect to live to 85 years old. For South Korea average lifespan is 83, as are Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Israel, and Australia.

=> ↺ Vaccines Vs. Viruses

=> ↺ COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a “Complex and Grave Situation” Inside a Wuhan Lab

Proprietary

=> ↺ Adobe steals your color

Pantone wants to license this system out, so it needs some kind of copyrightable element. There aren’t many of these in the Pantone system! There’s the trademark, but that’s a very thin barrier. Trademark has a broad “nominative use” exception: it’s not a trademark violation to say, “Pantone 448C corresponds to the hex color #4a412a.”

Perhaps there’s a copyright? Well yes, there’s a “thin” database copyright on the Pantone values and their ink equivalents. Anyone selling a RIP or printer that translates Pantone numbers to inks almost certainly has to license Pantone’s copyright there. And if you wanted to make an image-editing program that conveyed the ink data to a printer, you’d best take a license.

All of this is suddenly relevant because it appears that things have broken down between Adobe and Pantone. Rather than getting Pantone support bundled in with your Adobe apps, you must now pay $21/month for a Pantone plugin.

=> ↺ Passkeys as a tool for user retention

With the release of iOS 16 and MacOS Ventura, we are now in the age of passkeys. This is happening through WebAuthn, a specification written by the W3C and FIDO with the involvement of all of the major vendors such as Google, Mozilla, etc. The basic premise is familiar to anyone who has used SSH in their career: you login through the distribution of public keys, keeping the private key on the device.

=> ↺ Google goes all in vs. Microsoft over lucrative federal contracts

Details: A key part of Google’s strategy leading up to the creation of the new public sector subsidiary has been aggressively drawing attention to Microsoft’s cybersecurity flaws to sway more government customers.

=> ↺ Tear in Microsoft Azure Service Fabric can give attackers full admin privileges

Orca Security researcher Lidor Ben Shitrit found the bug and reported it to Microsoft, which released a partial fix for CVE-2022-35829 in its October Patch Tuesday. The vulnerability received a 6.4 CVSS score.

There are two versions of Service Fabric Explorer. All new development focuses on version 2 (SFXv2), so Microsoft doesn’t fix any holes in the older version, SFXv1, unless it’s a critical bug. That means releases 8.1.316 and below remain vulnerable to exploitation.

Security

=> ↺ CISA Has Added One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog | CISA

CISA has added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. This type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise. Note: To view the newly added vulnerabilities in the catalog, click on the arrow in the “Date Added to Catalog” column, which will sort by descending dates.

=> ↺ VMware fixes remotely exploitable flaw in open-source library XStream

Multi-cloud services provider VMware has issued a fix for a critical vulnerability in VMware Cloud Foundation which could have been exploited remotely.

The flaw would have enabled an attacker to carry out a pre-authenticated remote code execution in VMware NSX Manager, according to the security firm Source Incite who discovered the issue.

Satnam Narang. senior staff research engineer at security firm Tenable, said VMware had patched this flaw, and one more on Tuesday.

“VMware released patches for two vulnerabilities in VMware Cloud Foundation, one of which is a vulnerability disclosed last year in an open-source library called XStream,” he said.

“According to its advisory, VMware notes that an attacker could exploit the flaw by targeting an unauthenticated endpoint that leverages XStream to serialise inputs, which could lead to remote code execution.

“The affected version of the product is end-of-life, yet, due to the severity of the flaw, VMware chose to release a patch for it, indicating it is likely easy to exploit and may see in-the-wild exploitation in the near future.

=> ↺ Replace PSP with Kubewarden policy | SUSE Communities

Kubewarden is a policy engine for Kubernetes. Its mission is to simplify the adoption of policy-as-code . Since PodSecurityPolicy (PSP) is being deprecated in Kubernetes 1.21, you can use Kubewarden as a replacement to PSP policies .

=> ↺ Sigstore project announces general availability and v1.0 releases

=> ↺ denying GNU/Linux users running software of their choice on their machines

Today, the Sigstore community announced the general availability of their free, community-operated certificate authority and transparency log services. In addition, two of Sigstore’s foundational projects, Fulcio and Rekor, published v1.0 releases denoting a commitment to API stability. Google is proud to celebrate these open source community milestones.

Sigstore is a standard for signing, verifying, and protecting open source software. With increased industry attention being given to software supply chain security, including the recent Executive Order on Cybersecurity, the ability to know and trust where software comes from has never been more important. Sigstore simplifies and automates the complex parts of digitally signing software—making this more accessible and trustworthy than ever before.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Report: Feds Gathered Intel on Portland Protesters

Surveillance of Portland protesters in 2020 “included lists of friends, family and social media associates for people who posed no threat to homeland security,” the office of U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, who obtained the report, told reporters.

The dossiers, known by agents as baseball cards, were previously normally compiled on non-U.S. citizens or only on Americans with “a demonstrated terrorism nexus,” according to the 76-page report.

=> ↺ America, We Have A Privacy Problem

The hottest area in surveillance is emotional recognition, companies claiming their products are able to discern our very thoughts. Smiling = happy! Frowning = Sad! Congrats, Silicon Valley, for finding a way to monetize Resting Bitch Face! It would be funny if it wasn’t so fucking scary. Forget the idea that each internal brain, processing the world in its own unique way, could ever be decoded by the exterior. Full stop at the idea that private corporations are claiming rights to our private thoughts, as they insert this fatally flawed algorithm into programs currently denying you a job, a mortgage or health care.

=> ↺ Here are the executives that have exited Twitter

After months of uncertainty as to whether the acquisition would actually go through, billionaire Elon Musk has completed his Twitter takeover in a deal reportedly valued at $44 billion. New ownership of the platform is expected to lead to shake-ups, and several executives have already been shown the door.

=> ↺ Big Brother Is Listening In Belarus: Lukashenka Gives The KGB Greater Access To Online Data

Lukashenka signed a decree last week requiring telecom operators and website owners to connect to a new, state-designed system that would allow the Belarusian KGB to surveil almost any online activity.

The October 18 decree crystalizes a law passed last year that on paper gave state security agencies unlimited powers to spy on citizens’ digital footprints, including at-home smart devices, but provided no mechanism for doing so.

=> ↺ Where did all the “reject” buttons come from?!

More and more websites have added an option to say “no” to cookies and other tracking- as foreseen by the GDPR. Where did this trend come from?

In March 2021, noyb scanned the web for illegal cookie banners and filed more than 700 complaints across Europe. A final scan shows a detailed assessment after 1.5 years: more than 50% of the sites have improved their banners, in many cases, without noyb ever contacting them.

=> ↺ Statement before the European Parliament hearing on “Spyware and ePrivacy”

In this hearing which focused on ‘Spyware and ePrivacy’, our intervention first discussed whether current ePrivacy directive can apply to the use of spyware by state authorities, including how states often use ‘national security’ to exclude surveillance measures from the ambit of EU law.

Second, we emphasised why government authorities deploying spyware tools might never be able to demonstrate their compliance with EU and international human rights laws.

Finally, PI offered a series of recommendations that the Committee should adopt in order to safeguard everyone’s rights against these extremely intrusive surveillance tools.

=> ↺ Court detains Finnish man in absentia as suspect in psychotherapy centre data [break-ins]

Yle has chosen to reveal the suspect’s identity due to the social significance of the Vastaamo data breach. However, police did not confirm the suspect’s name.

Authorities also said there was no definite information about his current whereabouts.

=> ↺ LinkedIn experiment changed job prospects for millions — and it raises red flags: privacy experts

A five-year study by LinkedIn on nearly 20 million of its users raises ethical red flags since some unknowing participants in the social experiment likely had job opportunities curtailed, experts in data privacy and human resources suggest.

The online networking and social media platform randomly varied the number of strong and weak acquaintances present in users “People You May Know” suggestions to test a long-held theory: that people are more likely to get a new job through distant acquaintances than they are close contacts.

=> ↺ FTC Takes Personal Aim At Drizly CEO For Crap Security Practices

Thanks to our corruption-fueled failure to pass even a basic privacy law for the internet era, the US has seen a steady parade of privacy scandals, hacks, and data breaches. More often than not involving companies with pathetic privacy and security standards, which are dinged repeatedly with pathetic wrist slap fines that are just absorbed as the cost of doing business (see: T-Mobile).

=> ↺ Moscow to spend 23 billion rubles — or $377 million — on video surveillance — Meduza

Moscow municipal government plans to spend 23.3 billion rubles ($377.2 million) on video surveillance contracts.

=> ↺ 100,000+ Sign Letter Demanding Global Moratorium on Sale of Invasive Spyware

“We are witnessing a global spyware crisis in which activists, journalists, and lawyers are targeted with invasive surveillance as a means to silence and intimidate them,” Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard said in a statement. “There is an urgent need for stronger human rights protections on the export of surveillance technology.”

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Mexico at risk of cyberattacks by China and Russia, says former U.S. official

There are growing numbers of Chinese and Russian companies in Mexico and intelligence agencies from those countries could take advantage of their facilities to launch attacks on critical IT systems in Mexico with the aim of obtaining strategic information, he said in an interview with the El Universal newspaper.

Krebs said that the government needs to strengthen cybersecurity, invest in modern technology, work with the private sector to better protect its IT systems and collaborate with U.S. authorities to better understand the threats it faces.

=> ↺ Hamburg Mosque Reportedly a Hotbed for Iranian Propaganda

The Hamburg Islamic Center is considered the most important outpost of the Iranian regime in Germany. But since it is also reportedly used to spread the mullahs’ propaganda across Europe, calls are growing for its work to be restricted.

=> ↺ How to quickly end the war in Ukraine with $10 laser pointers

Buy 100,000 laser pointers and give them to Ukrainian mothers (not kids — too dangerous). Even the puniest lockable laser pointer (notice the keys?) can temporarily blind a pilot at a distance of more than a mile, so what will 100 non-puny laser pointers do to the same aircraft? It would not only create an effective no-fly zone, it might kill hundreds of Russian pilots before they figure it out.

=> ↺ Focus sharpens on network efficiency, resiliency for Project Convergence

Engineers from Raytheon Technologies’ Intelligence and Space (I&S) directorate demonstrated its new Operational Zero Trust (OZT) cyber-resiliency platform during the army’s inaugural Technology Gateway event, which is part of this year’s iteration of the Project Convergence exercises.

=> ↺ The West Turns its Back on Persecuted Christians, Embraces Radical Muslims

Germany and the European Court of Human Rights are hardly the only ones to deny refuge to or discriminate against persecuted Christians. Over the years, many other Western entities have engaged in similar behavior.

=> ↺ “We can’t celebrate Diwali or Holi..send us to India, or let us die” – Islamists fire on Sindhi Hindu homes on Diwali night

The Pakistani Hindu community of Tando Allahyar, Sindh was not allowed to celebrate Diwali. Gunmen unleashed intimidatory firing towards Hindu homes on Monday to prevent them from coming out and celebrating the most important Hindu festival.

In a video posted on Facebook by online news outlet NN Official, the desperate people were heard beseeching, “In Pakistan, we Hindus can’t celebrate Diwali, we can’t celebrate Holi. They opened fire on our houses last night…there were 12 thugs. We request the SP and the PPP MNA/minister to help us…these terrorists should be stopped. We are Sindhi, we are Hindus…please let us celebrate Diwali. Or give us passports and visa and let us migrate to India.”

=> ↺ 15 killed, 40 injured in terrorist attack claimed by ISIS in Iran

The terror group ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, releasing a statement through its affiliated Amaq news agency that said one of its members had “targeted groups of Sunni refusal infidels inside the shrine with his machine gun, causing the death of tens of them.”

=> ↺ B.C. woman who married ISIS fighter released on bail pending ‘terrorism peace bond’ hearing

The judge also ordered Polman not to communicate with anyone who she believes may be associated with terrorist groups and to abstain from any type of communication through social media, which is where she has previously told reporters she met her husband.

=> ↺ Fifteen Dead In Islamic State Attack On Shi’ite Shrine In Iran

At least 15 people were killed on October 26 in an attack on a key Shi’ite Muslim shrine in southern Iran, state media said, with the Islamic State (IS) militant group claiming responsibility for the assault.

=> ↺ EU Admits New Cold War is Not ‘Democracy vs. Autocracy’: ‘On Our Side, There Are a Lot of Authoritarian Regimes’

The European Union’s top foreign-policy official Josep Borrell admitted the West’s new cold war on China and Russia is not a conflict of “democracies vs. authoritarians,” conceding, “On our side, there are a lot of authoritarian regimes.”

=> ↺ The Military Industrial Complex Strikes Again

Europeans discontent with NATO and the war in Ukraine have been left out of North American media coverage, writes Eve Ottenberg.

=> ↺ Is Dennis Kucinich the Last Democrat for Peace?

Former Congressman and Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich joins Scheer Intelligence to discuss the Dems’ infamously rescinded peace letter and the future with China.

=> ↺ Haitians, Peace Activists Denounce Plan for Another US-Backed Intervention

“U.S.-style ‘humanitarian’ intervention is like a massive blow to the spine.”

=> ↺ FSB claims arrest of four ‘Ukrainian nationalist sympathizers’ allegedly planning terrorist act in Stavropol — Meduza

The FSB has supposedly arrested four terrorism suspects in Russia’s Stavropol region, as reported by RIA Novosti. According to the FSB press release, they’re accused of preparing a terrorist act at one of the region’s “administrative objects.”

=> ↺ Russian Defense Minister Shoigu tells Putin mobilization is complete — Meduza

Russia has called up the planned number of reservists — 300,000 people — as part of its “partial mobilization,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting on Friday:

=> ↺ What can Putin present as a victory? Hope, perplexity, and dogged determination mingle in the Kremlin, as Vladimir Putin gears up for the 2024 presidential (re-)election — Meduza

=> ↺ ‘How could a Russian speaker not want to collaborate?’ The Kherson Philharmonic’s conductor is missing. Colleagues say Russian soldiers shot him. — Meduza

=> ↺ Opinion | The Midterms and MAGA’s 2024 Coup Plans

The midterms are less than two weeks away and no one has more than a wild guess as to what the results are going to be.

=> ↺ The Cuban Missile Crisis Cover-Up

On October 28, 1962—that dramatic day exactly 60 years ago when Nikita Khrushchev publicly ordered the removal of nuclear ballistic missiles his forces had just installed on the island of Cuba—the Soviet premier sent a private letter to President John F. Kennedy regarding the resolution of the most dangerous superpower confrontation in modern history. Officially, the USSR withdrew the missiles in return for a vague US non-invasion-of-Cuba guarantee. Secretly, however, the crisis was resolved when President Kennedy dispatched his brother Robert to meet with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin on the evening of October 27 and agree to a top-secret deal: US missiles in Turkey for Soviet missiles in Cuba.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Orson Welles‘ ’War of the Worlds’ Broadcast: Its Ominous Echoes for a Fractured Media

Every year there are new essays about unveiling the truth behind Orson Welles’s 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast that aired on CBS radio on October 30th, 1938. We know the truth – the stories about mass hysteria were overblown. For anyone looking for a straightforward history of what happened, look no farther than A. Brad Schwartz. The reason corrective stories keep coming up is that some people prefer to believe that the radio play sparked a nationwide mass panic. It sure makes for a great story. But while there were many confused listeners, some scared by the play’s deceptive production methods, there was not mass panic coast to coast. Finding the truth takes work, not unlike any fact-finding mission today, because we need to sift through a lot of salacious attention seeking information to find the facts. Then, as now, media literacy is a key facet towards intelligent public engagement.

=> ↺ Unauthorized Disclosure: Hadas Thier

Environment

=> ↺ Climate-Fueled Heatwaves Cost Global Economy Trillions; Poor Countries Hit Hardest: Study

“The regions with the lowest incomes globally are the ones that suffer most from these extreme heat events.”

Energy

=> ↺ Data Reveals Major Africa Pipeline as Climate Killer

The earlier assessments took into account only the construction and operation of the pipeline, known as EACOP, but failed to take into account the emissions which will result from the international transport, refining, and burning of the 848 million barrels of oil that the project will carry over its 25-year lifespan.

=> ↺ Carbon footprint of virtual academic conferences revealed

Using an online tool developed by Bristol and sustainability consultants Carnstone, researchers calculated that the two-day University Press Redux conference held in May, which featured more than 100 attendees from across the world, produced between 15kg to 20kg of carbon dioxide from the use of IT equipment – roughly the amount generated by a single 50-mile (80km) car journey.

That compares with the 1,130kg that a single passenger travelling between John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and London Heathrow would generate from their 6,800-mile round trip.

That means that the carbon emissions from a single transatlantic journey are between 56 and 75 times higher than an entire medium-sized virtual academic conference.

=> ↺ Ethereum RPC as a Service

Google Cloud announced Blockchain Node Engine, a hosted RPC node for Ethereum. RPC is the primary way that you query data on the blockchain. AWS offers a similar product, AWS Managed Blockchain. Essentially these are just fully synced Ethereum nodes running Geth, the Go Ethereum client, and de facto implementation of the spec.

=> ↺ EU reaches deal on law banning sale of new fuel-powered cars starting 2035

Negotiators from the EU countries and the European Parliament, who must both approve new EU laws, as well as the European Commission, which drafts new laws, agreed that carmakers must achieve a 100% cut in CO2 emissions by 2035, which would make it impossible to sell new fossil fuel-powered vehicles in the 27-country bloc.

=> ↺ Why was Elon Musk in Monterrey? It wasn’t “by chance”, according to NL governor García

The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, could inject some of his vast resources into Nuevo León, as the tycoon is reportedly considering a municipality in the metropolitan area of Monterrey as the location for a new electric vehicle (EV) plant.

=> ↺ Ro Khanna Unveils Bill to Ban US Gas Exports as Big Oil Rakes in Record Profits

“Congress and President Biden should get behind the Gasoline Export Ban Act immediately.”

=> ↺ “This Is What Price-Gouging Looks Like”: Exxon Profits Break All-Time Records

=> ↺ Historic Exxon, Chevron Profits Signal ‘All-Out War on American Consumers’

“It’s no surprise that after months of extreme price gouging, Chevron and Exxon raked in a whopping $73 billion in profits so far this year,” said Jordan Schreiber, director of energy and environment at Accountable.US. “But, instead of providing badly needed relief to consumers, they spent over $32 billion to enrich their wealthy shareholders while forcing American families to foot the bill.”

=> ↺ Biden’s Embarrassing Saudi Failure

On Tuesday, at a White House event promoting vaccination, President Joe Biden was asked by a reporter, “What’s your reaction to the Saudis on oil urging the U.S. not to use the reserves?” Biden paused. The silence lasted long enough for a second reporter to start asking another question. Then Biden smiled and addressed the first reporter, saying, “Get your Covid shot.” Biden’s non sequitur stands as a fitting symbol of his administration’s policy toward Saudi Arabia, which now stands exposed as a ridiculous mixture of cynicism, wild rhetorical shifts, and incompetence.

=> ↺ 10 Years After Sandy, Renters Remain Most Vulnerable to the Impacts of Climate Change

When Hurricane Sandy touched down in the northeastern United States 10 years ago, it was considered an anomaly: an unfortunate curiosity that meteorologists dubbed a “Frankenstorm.” Sandy claimed the lives of 233 people in eight countries, 150 of which were in the United States, including 43 New Yorkers. Its wind and waves damaged scores of homes, leaving an estimated 70,000 housing units uninhabitable in New York, a city with an already tight housing market. Thousands became homeless—at least for a time. Low-income tenants, in particular, had few options when their homes were destroyed.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Whale-watching dates announced for 2022-23 season

The whale-watching season will go from mid-December to April in most states, though in Baja California the whales can be observed all the way to mid-May and in Guerrero the season ends as early as March.

=> ↺ A Hurricane of Plastics and Other Links From the Brink

=> ↺ Opinion | Loving Nature or Profiting From It: Take Your Pick

It’s fascinating how “interests” interfere with survival. We prepare for—and, of course, wage—war with an overwhelming percentage of our resources (to the benefit of the profiteers), but we plead poverty when it comes to helping people or, you know, saving the planet.

Finance

=> ↺ Poverty Is at Emergency Levels in the US. Why Isn’t It a Midterm Election Issue?

=> ↺ Sanders: GOP Wants to Repeal Estate Tax, Give Elon Musk’s Family $83B Tax Break

=> ↺ Oz’s Refusal to Back Wage Hike Shows He ‘Does Not Give a Shit About’ Workers, Says Fetterman

During Tuesday night’s televised debate between the two candidates, Oz was asked three times if he supports lifting the nation’s hourly wage floor, which has remained stagnant since 2009 and provides only a third of what a full-time worker needs to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home in the United States.

=> ↺ The World’s Biggest Trial of a Four-Day Workweek Shows: It Works

In June, more than 3,300 people in Britain embarked on an exciting experiment: Their employers had signed up to pilot a four-day workweek in what is currently the world’s biggest trial of this shorter working schedule. Seventy-three British companies have reduced their employees’ working hours by 20 percent for six months while still giving them their full pay.

=> ↺ Here’s One Reason Why Your Rent Is So High

While supply and demand, high mortgage interest rates and other economic factors are certainly at play in rising rents, an investigation by ProPublica found another key factor: a rental pricing software owned by real estate tech firm RealPage. Here’s what we learned.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ What are Midterm Elections: Why the 2022 Midterms Matter

Midterm elections are important because they help determine power in Congress. As stated in the Constitution, Congress is a legislative body that has the authority to make laws. As a bill only becomes law with approval from both the House and the Senate, the political party with the majority in both chambers of Congress is more likely to have their legislation passed. This is especially important when it comes to bills that impact a lot of people, like those that would protect data privacy or secure voting rights.

Midterm elections are important because they provide voters with the opportunity to change the party in power. Fifty-one seats are required for a political party to have control in the Senate, while 218 are needed to achieve a majority in the House. There are currently 11,831 bills and resolutions before Congress. In the 117th Congress, there have been 309 bills and joint resolutions that have become laws with a Democratic majority.

=> ↺ A Scientist’s Quest for an Accessible, Unhackable Voting Machine

After 19 years of building, tinkering, and testing, he told Undark this spring, he had finally invented “the most secure voting technology ever created.”

Gilbert didn’t just want to publish a paper outlining his findings. He wanted the election security community to recognize what he’d accomplished — to acknowledge that this was, in fact, a breakthrough. In the spring of 2022, he emailed several of the most respected and vocal critics of voting technology, including Andrew Appel, a computer scientist at Princeton University. He issued a simple challenge: Hack my machine.

=> ↺ We Finally Know Who Funded Trump’s Truth Social

Since the Donald Trump-founded social media platform, Truth Social launched in February, the site’s financial origins have been cloaked in layer of mystery. The company secured an alleged $1 billion in funding, but that money remains inaccessible pending a successful public launch. In the interim, Trump’s media venture has pulled together about $38 million in debt, according to SEC filings, and that money didn’t come from Trump himself. So, who provided it?

Finally, we have some answers, according to a report from Reuters. An oil tycoon with political ties, former Trump appointees and staff sycophants, and your generic rich business owners pooled their resources together.

=> ↺ Patrick Breyer on Twitter takeover: Switch now!

“The Twitter takeover is another reason to sign up for privacy-friendly, decentralized alternative services like Mastodon. NSA and FBI have no access to European nodes and anonymity is guaranteed. Twitter already knows our personalities dangerously well due to its pervasive surveillance of our every click. Now this knowledge will be falling into Musk’s hands.”

Breyer himself operates a Twitter account, but at the same time distributes his messages via the decentralized alternative service Mastodon.

=> ↺ Twitter employees in the dark as Elon Musk purges top execs

What we’re watching: It’s unclear whether other top executives will remain, including Twitter’s chief customer officer Sarah Personette — who got Musk to assure advertisers in a tweet: [...]

=> ↺ ‘Dangerous for Us All’: Elon Musk, World’s Richest Man, Completes Twitter Takeover

Musk wasted no time imposing himself on the company, swiftly firing several top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal.

=> ↺ What Made Twitter Worth Caring About in the First Place? The People

The bastard finally did it. After months of talk and threats of lawsuits, Twitter has now been handed over to Elon Musk, who apparently plans to do whatever Elon Musk plans to do (starting with studying every engineer’s code, apparently). And sure, it felt like we were probably going to be mired in drama around this potential decision for years, the potential danger of this happening more likely than the actual thing itself. But then the thing happened and all those Twitter shareholders that held on got a payday well above what they were looking for cheered … even though many of the heavy users didn’t. The first question I’ve seen from many of my followers and mutual follows has been this: Where do we go? I guess I’d like to get a little philosophical here. Today in Tedium, let’s talk about communities and the magic spark that made Twitter both special and complicated.

=> ↺ What happens to your Twitter data now that Elon’s taken over

If you care about digital privacy and you’re a Twitter user, this may not be great news. Over the years, Twitter has been dogged by privacy and security issues, while also dragging its feet on implementing possible solutions. The result is that conceivably everything you’ve ever done or said on Twitter, public or private — including your direct messages — now belongs to one of the richest people in the world, a man known for being unpredictable, childish, and even vengeful. It’s also owned by a man who reportedly plans to get rid of 75 percent of its staff, which could compromise Twitter’s security even more. Oops!

=> ↺ Yes, Chances Are Elon Musk Will Make Twitter Way Worse, But He Could Make It Better

To date, Elon Musk has shown very little inclination to actually understand Twitter and why it has been such a useful platform to many. His understanding of free speech and content moderation hasn’t just been generally lacking, but ridiculous. And that’s not even getting into his apparently purposely obtuse misunderstanding of spam/mDAU issues.

=> ↺ Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance

Last night, Elon Musk closed his on-again, off-again, on-again deal to buy Twitter, and his very first order of business was to fire a bunch of top executives. This was not necessarily unexpected. When new owners come in, they will often clean house, and the text messages revealed as part of the lawsuit while Musk was trying to get out of the deal made it clear that Musk could not stand CEO Parag Agrawal. So it seemed obvious that Agrawal would be gone immediately, but Musk also fired (at least) the other top executives who know how the company works: CFO Ned Segal, head of legal and policy Vijaya Gadde, and General Counsel Sean Edgett. That’s not a great sign for an orderly transition, as those are the executives who understood Twitter’s business the best.

=> ↺ Can We Count The Ways In Which Elon Is Going To Regret Owning Twitter?

Nilay Patel over at The Verge has written a fantastic article, Welcome to Hell, Elon, highlighting the many, many ways in which Elon Musk is likely going to be regretting the fact that he now owns Twitter. I will note that many of the links in the article are to some of my stories here at Techdirt, but the whole thing is so good you should go read it. Here’s one small snippet, but really, go read the whole thing:

=> ↺ Twitter employees in India on ‘wait-and-watch’ mode post Elon Musk takeover

Most teams have been in a state of “wait-and-watch” barring those involved in routine maintenance, a mid-level executive working out of its Bengaluru office said.

=> ↺ ‘Chief Twit’ Musk says no reinstatement of Trump or others right away

Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk has assumed the same role at Twitter, after completing his US$44 billion (A$68.6 billion) takeover of the social media company.

=> ↺ Elon Musk takes control of Twitter

In response, Thierry Breton, the EU’s top official for internet regulation, warned that the platform still had to obey European laws.

=> ↺ Elon Musk takes control of Twitter, fires top executives including CEO

Elon Musk took control of Twitter and fired its top executives late Thursday in a deal that puts one of the leading platforms for global discourse in the hands of the world’s richest man.

=> ↺ Elon Musk tells investors he plans to fire 75% of Twitter employees: report

Elon Musk plans to lay off most of Twitter’s workforce if and when he becomes owner of the social media company, according to a report Thursday by The Washington Post.

Musk has told prospective investors in his Twitter purchase that he plans to cut nearly 75 per cent of Twitter’s employee base of 7,500 workers, leaving the company with a skeleton crew, according to the report. The newspaper cited documents and unnamed sources familiar with the deliberations.

=> ↺ Elon Musk buys Twitter at last

The other niggle is digital ads, which is currently how Twitter makes nearly all its money. Mr Musk has said that he “hates advertising”. There has been speculation that he might try to turn Twitter into a subscription product instead.

Making this pay would be difficult. Twitter has a modest subscription option called Twitter Blue, costing $4.99 a month. But Twitter’s accounts suggest that the average American user brings in over $6 a month in ad revenue. Would people pay? Some might, but Twitter needs plenty of tweeters to keep its content coming. Mr Musk seems to be backpedalling here, too. He proclaimed on October 27th that “I also very much believe that advertisng, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you…low-relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!”

=> ↺ Ralph Nader: What Does Donald Trump Really Think About Democrats?

Ralph Nader imagines a dialogue between Donald Trump and two political advisers on the topic of the Democratic Party.

=> ↺ Opinion | Why the Most Dangerous Political Movement Since the Civil War Must Be Crushed

Ralph Nader, the legendary consumer advocate and former Green Party presidential candidate, has a message for the Democrats: Crush the GOP in 2022. Nader sees the Republican Party’s embrace of authoritarianism as an existential moment for U.S. democracy, and the midterm elections as the key moment to defeat this rising tide of fascism. “This is clearly the most dangerous political movement since the Civil War, the GOP under the corporate fascist Trump’s thumb,” Ralph Nader said this week on the Democracy Now! news hour. “He spread a whole breed of mini-Trumpsters who are getting far too much publicity compared to their opponents. Everything we fought for, for over 50 years, is at stake here.”

=> ↺ You, Poor Voter, Must Stand Back and Watch as Billionaire Plutocrats Purchase Democracy

Regular people cannot, but the billionaire class can spend as much as their hearts desire to influence election outcomes.

=> ↺ DeSantis Condemned For Using “Election Police” to Intimidate Florida Voters with Felony Convictions

We speak with Florida voting rights activist Desmond Meade about how Republicans like Governor Ron DeSantis are attempting to scare formerly incarcerated people with felony convictions from voting. DeSantis launched an election police force to arrest people on trumped-up voter fraud charges. The arrests overwhelmingly targeted Black people and demonstrate “the state’s failure to have a system in place that can assure any American citizen that lives in the state of Florida whether or not they’re eligible to vote,” says Meade, who spearheaded an initiative to re-enfranchise 1.4 million people with prior felony convictions, before it was overturned by Republicans. While several charges of alleged voter fraud in past elections have been dismissed, Meade says the arrests still intimidate qualified voters from casting a ballot.

=> ↺ Ari Berman on “How Wisconsin Became the GOP’s Laboratory for Dismantling Democracy”

With Republicans set to make major gains in the November midterms, we speak with reporter Ari Berman, who says Republican control of the Legislature in Wisconsin is a preview of the damage the party could do if empowered in Washington. Berman’s latest piece for Mother Jones is titled “How Wisconsin Became the GOP’s Laboratory for Dismantling Democracy.” It looks at how severely gerrymandered districts there give Republicans nearly two-thirds of the seats in the statehouse with less than 50% of the popular vote, and how they have used those inflated majorities to undermine Democratic Governor Tony Evers by stripping his powers, refusing to confirm his nominees and ignoring his legislative proposals. Berman says the takeover of the Wisconsin Legislature is part of a larger GOP plan to empower swing state officials to assist former President Trump in staging a coup in 2024.

=> ↺ “American Democracy Hangs in the Balance”: Carol Anderson on Midterms, Georgia Races & Voting Rights

Former President Barack Obama is in Georgia Friday to campaign for Democrats in the closely watched Senate and gubernatorial races. This comes as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was caught on a hot mic Thursday saying the race between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Trump-backed anti-abortion Republican nominee Herschel Walker is “going downhill,” and recent polls show Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is trailing Republican Governor Brian Kemp. We speak with Carol Anderson, professor of African American studies at Emory University, who says 2020 was a “dry run” for Republican plans to subvert democracy. We also speak with reporter Ari Berman, who says the media is lauding Kemp as a “defender of democracy even though he systematically has undermined voting rights.”

=> ↺ War and Peace: Do Social Democrats in Congress Favor Negotiations Between Ukraine and Russia?

Earlier tonight, I was telling my guy at Swingers (a diner in LA) that the social democrats in Congress took a stand in favor of negotiations for 15 minutes, and then took it back. Dismayed, we fell silent for a spell. Seated at the counter were two skeletal mannequins dressed in cobwebs and black satin for Halloween. The rites for the burial of the dead in The Book of Common Prayer include these words:

=> ↺ Opinion | It Is Bizarre—and Very Alarming—That the GOP Could Win This Thing

American voters seem poised to hand the Republican Party control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate as well, in November’s midterm elections. The same goes for many state races, where polls show Republicans gaining ground.

=> ↺ GOP May Launch Impeachment Blitz If They Win the House

=> ↺ DeSantis Is Using “Election Police” to Intimidate Voters With Felony Convictions

=> ↺ Russia’s first transgender woman politician forced out of politics by anti-LGBT legislation — Meduza

Yulia Alyoshina, head of the Altay regional division of the Civic Initiative party, has announced that she is ending her political career, due to the prohibition of “LGBT propaganda” by Russia’s recently adopted legislation.

=> ↺ ‘Where’s Nancy?’: Attacker of Paul Pelosi Was Reportedly After House Speaker

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was “violently assaulted” during a break-in at their San Francisco home early Friday morning, the Democratic leader’s office said in a statement.

=> ↺ Opinion | GOP’s Big Lies and Big Money Must Be Defeated

The stakes in the midterm election, now just 12 days away, could not be higher. In many ways, these midterms will determine the future of American democracy.

=> ↺ Warnings of Right-Wing Violence Mount as Bolsonaro’s Son Claims ‘Biggest Electoral Fraud Ever’

Deploying almost the exact same language used by Trump following his loss of the 2020 presidential election, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the right-wing president’s son, said Wednesday on social media that his father is “the victim of the biggest electoral fraud ever seen,” adding that there have been attempts “to manipulate the result” of the runoff election scheduled to take place Sunday.

=> ↺ Is Bolsonaro Headed for Defeat?

In a Brazilian election, black swan events are the rule rather than the exception. Many Brazilians believe the election four years ago was decided when a man stabbed Jair Bolsonaro during a campaign event in Minas Gerais. In 2022, things may have come full circle: The black swan events of the final days of the campaign look set to ensure a Lula da Silva rather than Bolsonaro victory.

=> ↺ Opinion | You, Poor Voter, Must Stand Back and Watch as Billionaire Plutocrats Purchase Democracy

Do you have a favorite candidate in the upcoming congressional midterm elections? Want to do everything you can to see that candidate elected? Thinking about opening your wallet in the campaign’s final days?

=> ↺ Sarah Palin Looks Like a Loser

The weirdest subplot of the off-the-rails 2022 midterm election cycle is the desperate attempt by Sarah Palin to get back into politics.

=> ↺ Good News Alert: Democrats Might Actually Flip the Michigan Legislature

Sarah May-Seward was pouring drinks at the Irish pub in White Lake, Mich., where she works three nights a week, when a group of bikers showed up. They stood at the end of the bar, staring at her, recalls May-Seward. “My first thought was ‘uh-oh.’” But the bikers weren’t there to menace. They’d stopped by to tell May-Seward, who is running for state representative in Michigan’s 51st district, that she has their support. “You’ve got our vote because we can’t stand Matt Maddock,” was how one of the men put it, referring to Seward’s GOP opponent, a Trump loyalist who is married to the cochair of the Michigan Republican Party. The Maddocks, MAGA royalty, embody the party’s trajectory in this state, from Romney Republicans to January 6 insurrectionists and self-styled religious warriors.

=> ↺ Gavin Newsom Debates… Who?

On Sunday evening Gavin Newsom and Brian Dahle took to the debate stage. They debated abortion, climate change, the price of gas, the death penalty, drug policy, taxes, homelessness, and a raft of other big-policy issues. Yet, at the end of the day, it was entirely anticlimactic, simply because no one is paying any attention to the governor’s race. Most of my readers will likely be thinking, Brian who?

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ The Kremlin’s troll network never sleeps – here’s how they spread their message in Hungary

=> ↺ False information is everywhere. ‘Pre-bunking’ tries to head it off early

Officials in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Union County, North Carolina, and Contra Costa County, California, are posting infographics on social media urging people to “think critically” about what they see and share about voting and to seek out reliable election information.

Earlier this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency put out a public service announcement saying cyberattacks are not likely to disrupt voting.

=> ↺ Civil rights coalition: ‘No end in sight’ for Big Tech misinformation ‘crisis’

The Change the Terms coalition, made up of 60 different organizations including civil rights group Color of Change and nonprofit watchdog Common Cause, warned that election-related disinformation spreads throughout the year, leading to “harassment of election officials” and “election-related hoaxes and violence.”

The scathing report found that companies Meta, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube have failed to take the adequate steps to fight disinformation, which the coalition argued might include banning public figures who spread election conspiracy theories.

=> ↺ How ‘mule watchers’ evolved from a Truth Social meme into a ballot drop box patrol

No such drop box fraud has ever been found in significant numbers. But that has not stopped conspiracy theories about “ballot mules” — who supposedly secretly drop off hundreds of fake ballots in the middle of the night at drop boxes or election sites nationwide — from taking hold on pro-Trump parts of the internet. The conspiracy theory got its biggest boost from the widely debunked propaganda film “2,000 Mules,” which alleges such mules somehow changed the outcome of the 2020 election, even though repeated hand counts of ballots recertified the results.

The conspiracy theories have inspired action. Users on the Twitter-like platform Truth Social, which is owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, have discussed forming “mule parties” or “drop box tailgates” since at least late July, looking to organize volunteers to surveil drop boxes. On that platform, the former president’s account has shared posts by users advocating for drop box surveillance, including the Mesa drop box.

=> ↺ Social Media Giants Systemically Fail on Hate and Disinformation, Report Says

=> ↺ Big Tech Failing to ‘Fight Hate and Lies’ Ahead of US Midterms, Report Warns

In Empty Promises: Inside Big Tech’s Weak Effort to Fight Hate and Lies in 2022, Free Press analyzed the policies of the four social media giants to measure how prepared each one is to combat Trump-backed efforts to sow doubt about upcoming electoral outcomes.

=> ↺ Propaganda’s Worst Enemy

In 1986, when I was 14, my father returned from a business trip to Finland and brought me a copy of Time magazine with a piece about John Lennon. Getting such a gift in the USSR was about as unlikely as receiving a free subscription to Netflix in today’s Iran. The Iron Curtain stood in the way of gaining access to any publications other than “organs of the party and government.”

=> ↺ Meet the spooks, mercs and chickenhawk politicos enlisting as NAFO trolls

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ U.S. Sanctions Iranian Foundation That Issued Bounty For Killing Of Rushdie

The OFAC accused the foundation of issuing a multimillion-dollar bounty for the killing of Rushdie, a prominent Indian-born, British-American author, who was seriously injured in an attack on August 12 in western New York state.

=> ↺ [tor-relays] DoS attacks — status update

It’s been a while since we last provided some update on this mailing list about our ongoing work fighting several DoS attacks.

We can use the attached graph about detected overload over the last couple of months to show what is going on and what we do/plan to do about it.

=> ↺ Independent Kyrgyz Media Post Dark Page To Protest Government’s Blocking Of RFE/RL Websites

Dozens of media organizations, journalists, and civic activists stopped working for three hours on October 28 to protest the Kyrgyz government’s decision to block the page of RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, known locally as Radio Azattyk, for two months.

The Kyrgyz government made the decision on October 26 after RFE/RL refused to take down a video of one of its news programs that reported on clashes at the border with Tajikistan.

=> ↺ How To Bypass Blocking

Here are some other ways to continue to access RFE/RL’s reporting not only in English but also in Russian, Chechen, Tatar, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and other languages: [...]

=> ↺ Woman held over blasphemy charges in Karachi: police

The complaint invokes section 295-B (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Pakistan Penal code.

=> ↺ Russian Justice Ministry declares Bookmate and TV Rain founder foreign agents — Meduza

Russia’s Justice Ministry has added the the e-book company Bookmate to its list of “foreign agent” media outlets.

=> ↺ Chief Twit Musk says no reinstatement of Trump or others right away

Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk has assumed the same role at Twitter, after completing his US$44 billion (A$68.6 billion) takeover of the social media company.

Musk also sacked chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, legal services chief Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sean Edgett.

=> ↺ Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko compares people who left Russia with rats leaving sinking ship, quotes Churchill — Meduza

Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko said that people who have left Russia, and now criticize its government from abroad, shouldn’t come back:

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Thousands Attend Funeral of Slain Pakistan Journalist Amid Surging Political Tensions

The funeral was held amid allegations that his death stemmed from a crackdown on media in Pakistan.

Arshad Sharif, 50, was fatally shot in the head by police officers at a checkpoint outside Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, last Sunday in what was declared a case of “mistaken identity” for a carjacking. A police statement expressed regrets over the “unfortunate incident.”

=> ↺ Ex-editor who quit after Xinjiang story axed dismisses SCMP letter warning of ‘further action’ if he publishes it

The South China Morning Post has sent a warning to a former editor who resigned along with two reporters after their three-part series on rights abuses in Xinjiang was axed by management last year.

=> ↺ CPJ: Vietnam must ‘stop equating independent journalism with crime’

In a press release posted on the CPJ’s website, Shawn Crispin, the organization’s senior representative in Southeast Asia, called for the release of the journalist and others imprisoned for publishing their views.

“Vietnam must stop equating independent journalism with criminal conduct and release all journalists they wrongly hold behind bars,” he said.

=> ↺ Kyrgyz Lawmakers, Press Activists Condemn Government Move To Block RFE/RL Websites

The Kyrgyz government blocked the website for two months after RFE/RL refused to take down a video of one of its news programs that reported on clashes at the border with Tajikistan.

=> ↺ Journalists to be taken to court today

The statements of 10 journalists, who have been held in the police station for 3 days, started to be taken on Wednesday. However, the journalists refused to testify to protest the police violence they were subjected to during the house raid as well as in the police station were they were held. The journalists said they would testify at the prosecutor’s office.

=> ↺ Russian Journalist Ksenia Sobchak Reportedly Leaves Country To Avoid Possible Arrest

Russian journalist and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak has reportedly left Russia to avoid possible arrest.

Russian media reports quoted unnamed sources close to law enforcement on October 26 as saying that Sobchak left Russia overnight for Lithuania via Belarus hours before investigators planned to detain her on unspecified charges.

=> ↺ Oulu District Court fines journalist for defamation of former councillor

The court ruled that Parkkonen’s tweet insulted the then-city councillor Lokka, and also offered a negative view of Oulu District Court. The journalist was employed by tabloid newspaper Iltalehti at the time but now works for the cable channel Alfa-TV.

=> ↺ Why Does the Democratic Republic of the Congo Keep Arresting Journalists?

Late Monday night, I received a call from a colleague in Kinshasa. He was in a state of agitation. “They took Steve Wembi,” he told me. “He was stopped at the hotel Léon and bundled into a white jeep without license plates.” Three people—his mother, his wife, and a journalist for Radio France Internationale—who went to look for him at the Léon were detained that evening by state security.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Will Iran’s women win?

The protesters’ demands are not for more welfare or a loosening of this or that oppressive regulation; they want an end to the regime. “Death to the dictator!” is an unambiguous slogan. And they are led by women, which lends them an unusual strength. The regime enforces hijab-wearing with whippings. This rule, part of a broader apparatus to subjugate women, is passionately resented. Thus, simply by doffing or burning their headscarves in public, women send a message of defiance that spreads rapidly on social media, inspiring all who chafe at clerical rule. Some also cut off their hair or walk into the men’s sections of segregated student canteens, and are welcomed by their modern-minded male peers.

=> ↺ Iran Protesters, Security Forces Clash Again in Zahedan

The Associated Press reports Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency Friday carried a statement from the province’s security saying the police chief another police official in Zahedan have been dismissed over their handling of the September 30 protest.

Nationwide protests and strikes, now in their fifth week, started after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained for an alleged dress code violation. Protesters in cities across the country have opposed the mandatory wearing of hijabs by women and called for changes to Iran’s political system.

=> ↺ United States to Put United Nations Focus on Iran Protests

The United States will next week put the United Nations spotlight on protests in Iran sparked by the death of a young woman in police custody and look for ways to promote credible, independent investigations into Iranian human rights abuses.

The United States and Albania will hold an informal U.N. Security Council gathering on Wednesday, according to a note outlining the event, seen by Reuters. Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and Iranian-born actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi are set to brief.

=> ↺ Students in Tehran Protest Gender Segregation in University Dining Hall

=> ↺ The Farda Briefing: As Crackdown Intensifies, Iranian Demonstrators Turn To Protest Art

Why It Matters: Protesters are finding new and creative ways to express their anger at the clerical establishment, which has responded to the protests with lethal force and mass arrests. Besides resorting to protest art and graffiti, some Iranians have been shouting antiestablishment slogans at night from their rooftops and windows.

What’s Next: Acts of civil disobedience are likely to continue and increase in the face of the government clampdown. Such acts allow protesters to sustain the demonstrations without marching on the streets, where they face a greater risk of arrest and harm. The overstretched security forces have found it difficult to stop street art and creative forms of dissent.

=> ↺ Iran withholding bodies of slain protesters from families, says UN rights office

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody last month has ignited protests in one of the boldest challenges to Iran’s clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution. Rights groups have said at least 250 protesters have been killed and thousands arrested.

=> ↺ Woman set to be stoned to death for ‘adultery’

Sudan is one of the countries that still has death by stoning as a punishment. Other countries where stoning is a legal form of punishment are Brunei, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

=> ↺ The plight of migrant workers in Qatar

Qatar’s hosting of the upcoming 2022 World Cup brought in thousands of migrant workers to build stadiums and other infrastructure. These foreigners left everything behind in search of a better life. But once in Qatar, they have often experienced exploitation: unpaid wages, confiscated passports and extreme working conditions that have led to several thousands of deaths, according to various NGOs. Some migrant workers agreed to speak to our reporters Chloé Domat and Rammohan Pateriya for this special full-length report. They explain how their Qatari dream has turned into a nightmare, even if Doha also offers some opportunities for upward social mobility.

=> ↺ Yazidi minor rescued from Hol Camp handed over to YBŞ

Ziyad Heyder was born in the village of Solax in Shengal. She has been living in the 6th section of the Hol Camp since 2019 after she was kidnapped by ISIS from her hometown.

The Kidnapped Women Committee of the Yazidi House and YPJ spokeswoman Rûksen Mihemed handed over Canê Ziyad Heyder to YBŞ commander Omer Şengalî this morning.

=> ↺ Putin appoints Konstantin Yaroshenko, pilot sentenced to 20 years in U.S. prison before April prisoner swap, to Russian Civic Chamber — Meduza

Vladimir Putin has appointed pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced to 20 years in a U.S. prison on drug-smuggling charges in 2011, to the Civic Chamber, an advisory body within the Russian government. The presidential order refers to Yaroshenko as a “human rights activist and public figure.”

=> ↺ Opinion | So When Will Be a Good Time for Peace Talks in Ukraine?

In the last couple months, Ukraine has successfully pushed back against Russia’s invading forces. It retook a large chunk of territory around the northeastern city of Kharkiv. It is on the verge of recapturing the only major city—Kherson in the south—that Russia has occupied since February. Ukrainian forces have also targeted airfields in Crimea and may well be responsible for the attack that caused significant damage to the single bridge connecting the peninsula to the Russian mainland.

=> ↺ How Useful Is Theory In Moments of Crisis?

Crisis tends to connote destruction and disorder. But moments of crisis are also productive, though the political impact and orientation of this is always contingent. That is, a crisis could just as easily produce reactionary outcomes—such as the opportunities for lucrative government contracts and the privatization of public goods that we have come to know as “disaster capitalism”—as emancipatory ones, such as the new forms of mutual aid that emerged to deal with the particular dangers of the Covid-19 crisis.

=> ↺ Noelle Hanrahan on Mumia Abu-Jamal Update

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ The Senate Can Improve Lives by Confirming Sohn to FCC

October 26 marked one year since President Joe Biden nominated Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission. Since then, as the group Free Press (10/26/22) notes, the FCC has remained deadlocked 2-to-2 on critical decisions about how phone, cable and broadcast companies conduct their deeply influential business, while those deep-pocketed companies fight tooth and nail to keep Sohn, an actual public interest advocate, out of the job of advocating for the public interest.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Confirms 2023 Price Increase Plans Following Apple Music Raises

The Helsing investor Ek, who just recently disclosed that Spotify doesn’t intend to pull Kanye West’s music, alluded to the price hike during his company’s Q3 2022 earnings call. The Stockholm-headquartered streaming giant reported double-digit year-over-year (YoY) growth among its subscriber base (totaling 195 million) and its ad-supported users (273 million) for Q3, when revenue climbed 21 percent YoY to crack $3.03 billion.

=> ↺ Netflix Kicks Back At Big Telecom’s Plan To Tax Big Tech In US And EU

Telecom lobbyists have been working overtime in both the US and EU, trying to get policymakers to support the idea of “Big Tech” paying “Big Telecom” billions of additional dollars for no coherent reason.

Monopolies

=> ↺ The Business of Google

In the current format of Google, any developer can upload any app on the Google Play Store. Apps could be anything. A tech friend which is building an app for FinTechs told me that a lot of apps could be irrelevant and illegitimate and they have been uploaded with some agenda. There is an issue with the quality of code as the apps are designed to mislead people for a shorter period, leading to credential and privacy issues. The bigger issues are also related to financial fraud. There are multiple apps selling fake cryptocurrencies and gullible buyers can never encash or withdraw their bitcoins. There are multiple such irregularities. There are also apps which are a replica of India’s most popular payment system, UPI. The question here is can Google control this? Ultimately, it runs on algorithms and RPAs. There are high chances coders could write it in a manner that will surpass the filters framed by Google. Such illegitimate apps, including Chinese ones, have already stolen enough data of Indian consumers.

But on the other hand, this is also a big business for Google. Play Store charges a service fee to the developer on uploading an app and on in-app purchases. The major challenge is there are apps which are not appropriate for people and Google can take action against them only when they receive complaints. On the contrary, Apple goes through various filters and charges heavily for app uploads, so few businesses upload their apps only on Apple.

=> ↺ The Pax Chipzilla Is Over, And Intel Can’t Hold Back The Barbarians

It is the nature of big tech companies with near monopolies to start looking a bit like Rome in its Golden Age – the Pax Romana that held from when Augustus Caesar became emperor in 27 BC until Marcus Aurelius died in 180 AD.

During these peaceful times, all things seem possible and all manner of things are funded from a seemingly bottomless fountain of molten gilt that flows like the blood in the opening of House of the Dragon. But eventually, as always, the barbarians smell the party and they come hoarding to the gates – and then everything gets incredibly difficult.

It happened to IBM in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it happened to Microsoft in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it happened to Sun Microsystems in the early to late 2000s, and it started happening Intel three years ago and it intensifying before our very eyes in the third quarter. It is quite possibly happening with the Facebook collective known as Meta Platforms. Twitter has met its Barbarian In Chief and his big checkbook. Mark our words: One day it will be the turn of Google and Amazon, too. It only takes one upstart with a better algorithm or a different idea about how to locate information or how to shop and warehouse products to AltaVista Google and Pets.com Amazon. Apple has risen from the ashes at least twice.

=> ↺ Old anti-margarine laws resurface and protect consumers as food companies add water to the food supply to hide shortages and price hikes. | BaronHK’s Rants

Old anti-margarine laws resurface and protect consumers as food companies add water to the food supply to hide shortages and price hikes.

In the United States, the dairy industry has been influential enough over that years that in many states, it was illegal to sell margarine, or at least yellow margarine.

In Wisconsin, there are still anti-margarine laws on the books. One of them makes it illegal for the Sheriffs and the state agency managing the prisons to feed margarine to the prisoners.

As part of the anti-margarine laws, butter became a highly regulated product. There are different “grades” of butter, but the only kind you’re likely to come across in the stores are AA graded, which is the highest possible rating.

Margarine, in comparison, has no legal definition, and many companies are eschewing the “margarine” label even if some state has a definition. Simply calling something a “spread” or a “plant-based butter” or “buttery tasting spread” is undefined.

Trademarks

=> ↺ A Bulgarian Right-Wing Leader Trademarks His Own Derogatory Nickname

But now Kostadinov, the head of the far-right Revival party, is hitting back, seemingly trying to stop people from using the epithet by registering it as a trademark — and even by claiming that Kostya Kopeikin is a character from 19th century Russian author Nikolai Gogol’s novel, Dead Souls.

=> ↺ Red Bull Loses To Bullards, A Gin Maker, Over Trademark Opposition

There must be something about being an energy drink company that turns you into a trademark bully turd sandwich. The stories about Monster Energy, for instance, are absolutely legendary and legion. Meanwhile, Red Bull, the other large player in the energy drink space, has far fewer chiding posts from us, but there are still a few.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Most Pirates Skipped the Leaked ‘House of the Dragon’ Season Finale

Last Friday, the season finale of HBO’s “House of the Dragon” leaked online, days before the official premiere. One might’ve expected this to lead to an explosion in piracy traffic, but that’s not the case. While there was still plenty of interest, most pirates waited for the ‘official’ release.

=> ↺ Police IP Crime Units Win Awards For Targeting Pirate IPTV Providers

During the Europol Intellectual Property Crime conference in Rome this week, specialist police units received awards in recognition of their enforcement achievements against large-scale pirate IPTV providers in Europe. With IP crime officially one of the EU’s priorities for the next three years, big things may lie ahead.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ New York City I

People give two arguments for why they believe the Mondrian painting New York City I is upside down:

They’ve seen his photo with him standing next to it and on the photo, it’s 180˚ from how it’s been hanging in the museum and the photo is probably right.

They think the increased amount of line density should represent “the heavy sky”.

Maybe. Mondrian’s WWI era paintings did represent that kinda plastic vision, but when he went back to the palette decades later for his New York and Broadway series, they’re kind of self-referential, ironic, punny, and also invoke a Manhattan city grid from above. (For example, those doubled-up vertical red lines might represent Park Ave.)

=> ↺ Back $HOME

=> ↺ beta pv frame

the larger CLS was i felt too heavy. the frame was more substantial and stiffer but i had difficulty moving it on my own: a requirement is that i need to be able to reposition the frame myself without help.

the blocks for the 8mm bolts were i felt too small. despite countersinking and pre-drilling the holes i damaged the blocks driving in the screws.

=> ↺ Extreme puzzle room, Brevard NC edition

[Picture of the bathroom, with the weird remote in the wall.] And of all things in the bathroom, there is no media center in here. [3] It might make sense if it had options like “water temperature” and “shower” or “bidet” but no, it’s looks like it would control a media center that doesn’t seem to exist anywhere in the suite. I asked the owner about it, and even she was clueless. Oh wait! This is an older house … could there possibly be a hidden room?

Technical

=> ↺ Binary wrist watch

A couple of weeks back I bought a binary watch (well… binary-coded sexagesimal) on a whim. It was cheap and ugly but I figured it would be kind of fun to test myself a little. A quick mental puzzle whenever I want to know the time.

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ What time is it?

I recently read a poll on the Fediverse asking, “Can you read an analog clock?”. This struck me as odd as I just assumed that almost all adults would be able to do this. Or at least all literate enough to be participating in such an online poll.

Programming

=> ↺ Re: dependencies

I think this part is pretty easy to agree upon. And people mostly have come to understand this over time, as dependencies in C and C++ became quite unwieldy for a very long time, leading to an almost universal adoption of language level package managers amongst the last few generations of programming languages. While there are definite concerns with the implementation and security implications of many of these systems, on the whole I believe it has meant a great leap forward.

My experience is largely around Cargo, having written much more Rust in the past few years than anything else. But I am sure that much opf what I’m going to say will also apply more or less to go get, or npm, or whatever your language of choice happens to be using. Even Fortran has fpm now.

=> ↺ WYSIWYG vs markup

One thing that was… not good back in the WYSIWYG days was that you couldn’t easily see where bold ended and plain ended. Quotes, spaces, commas, newlines… which were part of the bold and which weren’t? It was fraught!

Speaking of WYSIWYG, that’s another advantage of markup languages. People, even schmucks and randos, are more likely to realize that what you write is just the text and it’s gonna get mangled anyway and they are slightly less likely to make faux semantics like bolding&cranking up the size instead of marking as a header, or tabbing a hundred times to make it look centered.

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