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● 11.08.22

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● Links 08/11/2022: New Zenwalk Current ISO and Krita 5.1.3

Posted in News Roundup at 12:13 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: November 6th, 2022

• This week was all about software and distro releases, starting with Linux Lite 6.2, OBS Studio 28.1, SuperTuxKart 1.4, Nitrux 2.5, Ardour 7.1, LXQt 1.2, and PeppermintOS’ November 2022 release.

• Also this week, the LibreOffice 7.3 office suite received its last maintenance update as the end of life approaches, and Arch Linux’s ISO snapshot for November 2022 ships with Linux kernel 6.0 by default. Below, you can enjoy these and much more in 9to5Linux’s Linux weekly roundup for November 6th, 2022.

=> ↺ Nestbox makes running Linux virtual machines easy on Google’s Pixel 6 or later smartphones – Liliputing

• Android developer Danny Lin (also known as kdrag0n), has introduced a new app called Nestbox that makes it easy to run Linux virtual machines on Google’s latest Pixel phones.

• In a nutshell, this lets you run Linux tools and apps on an Android phone without the need to reboot. While this isn’t the first app that lets you do that, there are a few things that make kdrag0n’s Nestbox stand out.

=> ↺ RP2040 firmware converts Raspberry Pi Pico into a an I2C to USB bridge

• Nicolai Electronics’ rp2040-ic2-interface open-source firmware for the Raspberry Pi Pico (or other Raspberry Pi RP2040 boards) converts the board into an I2C to USB bridge to connect any I2C sensor or module to a PC or other hardware without GPIOs.

• The firmware implements the USB protocol expected by the I2C-Tiny-USB kernel driver used by the original I2C-Tiny-USB project for Microchip ATMega 8-bit AVR microcontrollers. The RP2040 is however not a fork of the original project, but instead a complete re-implementation of the firmware.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Linux User Space Episode 3:10: 1337 H4xx0r

• Coming up in this episode

• Releasing it when it’s ready Exploitation Remotely Exploitation Locally Name Changes and Mergers And Kali as we see it today

=> ↺ Neovim is Better – Invidious

• I’ve never experienced a program with such power and potential than Neovim. It does so much and we are at the beginning as it isn’t even to a 1.0 release yet. The best part is the program works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux.

=> ↺ Steam Deck vs. Retroid Pocket 3… they get along quite nicely, actually. – Invidious

=> ↺ Why we NEED new distros! – TROM Jaro Review – Invidious

• So many thoughts on this one. Inspired by a recent videos by @Chris Titus Tech and @The Linux Experiment I make the argument for why we need new Linux distributions for the desktop using a pretty sweet distro based on Manjaro – TROM Jaro.

=> ↺ Linux Lite 6.2 overview | Simple Fast Free. – Invidious

• In this video, I am going to show an overview of Linux Lite 6.2 and some of the applications pre-installed.

=> ↺ Should you trust NEW GOOGLE services? – Invidious

=> ↺ Gitea Is A Community Run Project In Name Only – Invidious

• Gitea for the longest time has been treated as a community run project but in reality it might not have been that simple, it turns out the keys were actually being held by one person and they decided to go in a different direction

=> ↺ Is This The First Country to Switch to Linux?? – Invidious

• What’s up, Linux Community!!! In this video, we check out an article that covers the first country to fully switched to Linux.

=> ↺ Steam Deck desktop, link problems? [fixed] – Invidious

=> ↺ Reality 2.0 Episode 131: Digital Wallets

• New episode of the Reality 2.0 podcast is uploaded and out today: Reality 2.0 Episode 131: Digital Wallets. Tune in to our new episode! Katherine Druckman, Doc Searls, and Petros Koutoupis talk digital wallets and current events.

=> ↺ Digital Wallets

• Katherine Druckman, Doc Searls, and Petros Koutoupis talk digital wallets and current events.

Applications

=> ↺ Ghostwriter: An Excellent Open-Source Writing App

• We have covered several open-source tools for writers with some distraction-free editors.

• One of them is Ghostwriter. It is available for Linux and Windows with an unofficial build for macOS.

• I will not blame you for accidentally reading it as “Ghost Rider” if you are a fan of it.

• Keeping that aside, it looks like Ghostwriter is now under KDE’s umbrella, with Carl Schwan (KDE Developer) as a sponsor. So, you can expect the writing app only to get better.

• Hence, I think it is a good idea to spotlight KDE’s newest addition to its Incubator, i.e., Ghostwriter as one of our weekly app highlights.

=> ↺ texinfo – GNU documentation system – News: Texinfo 7.0 released [Savannah]

• We have released version 7.0 of Texinfo, the GNU documentation format.

=> ↺ Texinfo 7.0 released

=> ↺ GStreamer 1.21.2 unstable development release

• The GStreamer team is pleased to announce a second development release in the unstable 1.21 release series.

• The unstable 1.21 release series adds new features on top of the current stable 1.20 series and is part of the API and ABI-stable 1.x release series of the GStreamer multimedia framework.

• The unstable 1.21 release series is for testing and development purposes in the lead-up to the stable 1.22 series which is scheduled for release in December 2022. Any newly-added API can still change until that point.

=> ↺ Best Cryptocurrency Wallets for Ubuntu and Linux

• Linux is a popular open-source operating system that uses the Linux kernel, which was released in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. It is considered the best free alternative to Windows and one of the most widely-used operating systems, especially by developers (39%) or websites (37%).

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Firewalld in Examples: A Complete Beginner’s Guide

• This guide will teach you all you need to know to get started with firewalld to add, change, and remove rules from your firewall zones.

• Nowadays, configuring and implementing a reliable firewall for your servers and network is a must. Without it, the question is no longer if but when malicious attacks will harm you, unfortunately, are common on the Internet these days.

• This is where Firewalld comes into play. Firewalld, the default firewall in Linux distros such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, Oracle Linux, openSUSE, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and others, provides all the protection you need to secure your servers and network. But before we get into how to use it, let’s first explain what it is.

=> ↺ Apache2 http logging into journald ring buffer – Lukáš Zapletal

• My webserver at home has several services including Mastodon. And I use Apache2 for web content and as a reverse web proxy, however, this system is configured to log all hits in /var/log/httpd. Both disks in my server are SSD and I do not want to let it to rotate hundreds of megabytes of access logs every week full of bots trying to find security hole in wordpress or other known software (which is not even running on my site).

=> ↺ Prevent Lubuntu 22.04 (SDDM and LXQt) from leaving an external drive mounted incorrectly for other users | Fitzcarraldo’s Blog

• An external USB disk drive is connected permanently to my family’s PC that currently has Lubuntu 22.04 installed. There are several user accounts on this multi-user single-seat machine. If a user does not unmount the external drive before logging out, when another user logs in, the external drive is still mounted with the priviledges of the previous user. In the days when Lubuntu used LightDM and LXDE, I devised a scheme to unmount automatically the external drive when each user logged out (see an earlier post). However, that method is no longer possible now Lubuntu no longer uses LightDM. Therefore I devised a different scheme. This time, the external drive is unmounted automatically every time a user logs in, and udisks2 automatically mounts it for the current user. Below I explain the new scheme. In the example below the external USB drive happens to be an NTFS drive and have the label ‘FREECOM HDD’. The machine actually has several user accounts but, for the sake of brevity, the commands for only two users are shown. All the steps shown below are performed by the account holder with the ability to use the sudo command to get superuser priviledges.

=> ↺ How to Display Your User Avatar in GNOME Quick Settings – OMG! Ubuntu!

• A glut of great GNOME extensions that modify, manage, or merge features in to the new Quick Settings menu in GNOME 43 have been released over the past few weeks — and another one has just appeared!

• We’ve seen Bluetooth integration, button removers, time remaining battery tweak, and a super all-in-one add-on that adds notifications and media controls to the Quick Settings menu.

• The latest bolt-on for the fast-access menu?

=> ↺ How To Install GlassFish on Rocky Linux 9 – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install GlassFish on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, GlassFish is a free and open-source implementation of the Java EE Platform developed by Eclipse. It’s the world’s leading implementation of the Java EE platform. GlassFish provides a lightweight application server and allows you to deploy multiple Java-based applications. The GlasshFish project was originally started by Sun Microsystem. It comes with two different free Licenses – The Common Development and Distribution License and the GNU General Public License.

• 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 GlassFish on Rocky Linux. 9.

=> ↺ How to install Hugo website generator on Ubuntu 22.04

• It is incredibly fast because it is written in Go and will be able to build your website in no time.

• Hugo is open-source and completely free. So, you can use it without restrictions both for learning and for medium-scale information projects.

• Hugo provides a robust theming system that is easy to implement but capable of producing even the most complicated websites. So, there will be no creativity problems when creating the site.

• Therefore, it is an important tool, and we are going to install it.

=> ↺ 2 Ways to VLC Media Player on Fedora 37/36/35

• The VLC Media Player is an open-source, free portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. VLC can play nearly all known multimedia files and DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols and can be extended and customized with multiple plugins.

• In the following tutorial, you will learn to install the VLC Media Player on a Fedora workstation desktop using two methods with RPM Fusion with the dnf package manager or the flatpak package manager, along with some tips in maintaining or removing VLC in the future using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ Linux Logging Guide Part 1: Basics

• Linux is an open-source operating system originating from the Unix kernel. It’s now one of the most used operating systems across devices. You may be familiar with the various flavors of Linux, including Ubuntu, Centos, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Their common Linux core means all these operating systems have a logging framework installed to monitor the system and its services.

=> ↺ Firefox in Ubuntu 22.04 Finally Get Back Native Messaging Support | UbuntuHandbook

• The pre-installed Firefox Snap package in Ubuntu 22.04 & 22.10 now works again for native messaging support. Meaning user can now make it work with GSConnect, KeePassXC, Plasma extension, and/or installing Gnome Shell Extensions,

• As you may know, Ubuntu switched to the Snap version of Firefox that runs in sandbox since 21.10. Which, however broke the feature to exchange messages with native applications.

• Thanks to Flatpak team for working on a new WebExtensions XDG desktop portal and its integration in Firefox. The new native messaging feature is available for testing for a few months in beta channel. And, it’s made int stable channel just a few days ago.

=> ↺ How to Install Portmaster in Linux – Make Tech Easier

• The modern user is a privacy conscious one. We want to know what data is being collected and how it’s being used. For Linux users, we embody this mindset ten-fold. Portmaster gives you more control over your data.

=> ↺ How We Built AlmaLinux 8.6 for s390x – AlmaLinux OS Blog

• The AlmaLinux OS Foundation announced support for the IBM z (s390x) platform thanks to a collaboration with Gold Partner, Sine Nomine Associates (SNA).

• The Almalinux OS Foundation continues a long history of Linux and open source software support on mainframes, which was kickstarted at the end of the last century. In this blog, we wanted to highlight some of SNA’s involvement as we open a new chapter for Linux on the mainframe.

=> ↺ How to use the Zorin OS Windows App Support feature, so you can have your cake and eat it, too | ZDNET

• Zorin OS simplifies the task of installing Windows apps. Here’s how it’s done.

=> ↺ Install MISP on Ubuntu 22.04/Ubuntu 20.04 – kifarunix.com

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install MISP on Ubuntu 22.04/Ubuntu 20.04.

=> ↺ How to install RPG Maker MZ on a Chromebook

• Today we are looking at how to install RPG Maker MZ on a Chromebook.

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

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Shopware on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Shopware is an API-first and headless core open commerce platform. If you have used or worked on e-commerce platforms like Magento OR WooCommerce, you will find Shopware similar to them. It offers a beautiful and user-friendly web UI used for managing clients and orders. It allows you to manage the prices of products, change or update themes, design email templates for marketing your products, and generate statistical results.

• 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 Shopware 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.

=> ↺ How to Install Portmaster in Linux – Make Tech Easier

• The modern user is a privacy conscious one. We want to know what data is being collected and how it’s being used. For Linux users, we embody this mindset ten-fold. Portmaster gives you more control over your data.

=> ↺ Download Youtube videos on Ubuntu 22.04 via command line

• Use the youtube-dl tool in the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Linux to download and save Youtube or various online videos directly on your local drive using the command line terminal.

• YouTube is one of the popular platforms to watch videos online and in case you want to download some of your videos from it on Linux such as Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, Fedora, and CentOS; then you don’t need some GUI software. This can be done directly using the command terminal of the Linux distro you are using.

• Moreover, many of us are not regular YouTube video downloaders, thus for once in a while getting some video for offline usage doesn’t need software. We can use a simple command-line tool called youtube-dl for downloading online videos. However, this tutorial is for educational purposes, thus before saving anyone’s video please take care of all copyright laws applicable to that.

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

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install ELK Stack on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, The ELK stack is an acronym used to describe a stack that comprises three popular projects: Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana. It is designed to collect data, analyze and visualize in real-time.

• 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 ELK Stack on Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

=> ↺ How to Install GlassFish Java Application Server on Rocky Linux

• GlassFish is a free and open-source implementation of the Java EE Platform developed by Eclipse.

=> ↺ Scanning All or Specified Ports With Nmap

• Nmap is an open source utility for network discovery and security auditing. You can use it for penetration testing, network analyzing and more.

• It is a utility with vast options but the goal of this tutorial is to show you various ways of scanning ports.

=> ↺ Trashing Files From the Linux Command Line Is Easy With trash-cli

• Home directories almost always end up cluttered with loose files: random downloads from the internet, to-do lists, and working directories for projects long since abandoned.

• Desktop users can send all of their garbage to the trashcan—a temporary holding space where files are kept before deletion—but users who prefer to carry out their maintenance in the terminal don’t have this option. Here’s how you can change that.

=> ↺ Install VMware Tools on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Linux using terminal

• Learn how you can enable VMWare tools on its hypervisor for not only Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Linux but also for previous versions such as Ubuntu 18.04, 19.04, 16.04, including Linux Mint, Debian, Elementary OS, and more…

• VMware is one of the oldest entities that deal with Virtualization technology and stability with the performance of Vmware Workstation Player on Windows and Linux OS proof of that. As we know, we have only a couple of Type-2 virtualization platforms to run on our OS which Vmware Player, VirtualBox, and KVM are the best options. Well, if you leave the KVM aside then between VirtualBox and VMware, the performance I got while using Ubuntu 20.04 on Vmware Player was much faster than the VirtualBox.

=> ↺ How to start using mongodb 6.0 in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS – Linux Shout

• Learn how to install & start the MongoDB 6.0 database on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Linux Focal using the command terminal for storing your data.

• MongoDB is an open-source, non-relational database solution that belongs to the NoSQL databases and can be used for big data applications. It was first introduced in 2009 and freely available database system for NoSQL databases. Instead of storing and organizing the data into tables, MongoDB uses BSON-format documents and collections of those documents to store the data. It is characterized by its high flexibility and good scalability. MongoDB is freely available under Server Side Public License (SSPL).

• In addition to the free MongoDB Community Edition, there is a commercial MongoDB Enterprise Edition and fully managed cloud-based database services under the name MongoDB Atlas. MongoDB is characterized by its high flexibility and almost unlimited horizontal

=> ↺ How to Install AnyDesk on Debian 11/10/Sid

• AnyDesk is a remote desktop application that allows users to connect to and control a remote computer. It is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. AnyDesk can be used for various tasks, such as accessing a remote computer from another location, providing remote support, or transferring files between computers, and is a commonly used software for technical help to users remotely.

• The following tutorial will teach you how to install AnyDesk on Debian Linux desktop. The tutorial will import the official repository and gpg key and update and remove the remote desktop software using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ What happens when you delete a file in Linux? | Enable Sysadmin

• Understanding how the rm command works helps you make informed decisions about how you trash, delete, or shred files.

Games

=> ↺ Awesome Linux Game Tools: Heroic Games Launcher – GOG and Epic Games

• Digital distribution of video games is becoming increasingly common with major publishers and retailers paying more attention to digital sales.

• Heroic Games Launcher (“Heroic”) is a free and open source games launcher for Epic Games and GOG. Epic Games is an American video game and software developer and publisher. GOG is a digital distribution platform.

• Heroic is an open source alternative to the proprietary Epic Games Launcher that runs on Windows and macOS only.

=> ↺ Anbernic RG353M: New gaming handheld arrives with Android and Linux dual boot support – NotebookCheck.net News

• Anbernic is now selling a new gaming handheld and another member of the RG353 series. While the company already offers the RG353P, RG353V and RG353VS, it has now brought the RG353M to market. As its name suggests, the RG353M shares many features with other RG353 devices. In short, the RG353M is the RG353P but with a different shell.

• Specifically, the RG353M features the same 3.5-inch IPS display as its siblings, which operates at 640 x 480 pixels. Additionally, Anbernic includes a Rockchip RK3566 chipset, 2 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32 GB of eMMC 5.1 flash storage. Moreover, the gaming handheld has a 3,500 mAh battery and is capable of dual-booting Android 11 or Linux. For reference, the RG353M measures 145 x 70.5 x 15.9 mm and weighs 232 g. Likewise, the device has two microSD card slots, two USB Type-C ports, a 3.5 mm jack, an HDMI output and the usual array of gamepad controls.

• Currently, Anbernic sells the RG353M directly or via AliExpress. It is worth noting that while AliExpress orders are US$12 more expensive on the face of it, the retailer includes free shipping. In comparison, Anbernic charges US$12 in shipping when ordering the RG353M directly, eliminating the price difference entirely.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Krita 5.1.3 Released

• Today we’re releasing Krita 5.1.3. This is strictly a bug fix release, but we recommend updating to everyone. There are also performance improvements because we updated some of the libraries we use! Note that we have skipped 5.1.2 because of a last-minute bug fix (with the exception of Android, where we are still on 5.1.2 due to signing trouble, and thus bugs 461436 and 459510 are still at large. They will be fixed in the next version).

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Crosswords 0.3.6: ‘The Man from G.N.O.M.E’ – Jonathan Blandford

• It’s time for another GNOME Crosswords release! This one is particularly exciting to me as it brings a lot of new content. The major highlights include new puzzles, a new distribution channel, and the start of adaptive behavior with an eye to working on mobile. It’s available for download in flathub.

Distributions and Operating Systems

New Releases

=> ↺ Zenwalk GNU Linux: New Zenwalk Current ISO 2022 07 November is ready

• It’s been some time since the last Zenwalk Current ISO, so here it is.

• Most packages have been rebuilt here or upstream. Since 18 years Zenwalk follow the same guideline : being the only true 100% Slackware compatible striped-down optimized system.

• The main change in Zenwalk design lately, is the return of Mozilla Firefox as main browser. Due to the lack of improvements, especially performances issues and instability in Chromium. I also believe that privacy can be more easily achieved with Mozilla Firefox.

• The Zenwalk “SlackBuild” packaging utility has also been updated so that it now allows to build Slackware packages from any source tarball without any configuration, as well as from any .DEB Debian binary as long as it’s using the same toolchain and shared libs as Zenwalk, as well as from any Github URL.

• You’ll also notice some improvements in Netpkg : the multi-repository, dependency aware, package management system.

=> ↺ elementary OS 7 is Getting Closer to Release

• Danielle Foré, Founder & CEO of elementary OS, has announced that the team is now preparing for the release of 7.0. With all blocking window manager issues resolved, the team is ready to move forward.

• At this point, the remaining tasks are mostly centered around builds, infrastructure, etc. But even with the OS in this position, the team is still adding more polish to the release.

• But what can you expect with elementary OS 7.0? The team has been fairly closed-mouthed about the project, but we do know that it will include Flatpak 7.1 (based on GNOME 43) and a number of Gtk 4 improvements.

Screenshots/Screencasts

=> ↺ The First Official Ubuntu Unity Flavor Release | Ubuntu 22.10 – Invidious

• Today we look at Ubuntu Unity and congratulate the team for officially being recognized as an official flavor. This build features the 5.19 Kernel and the old Unity 7 desktop environment.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

=> ↺ The LXQt Desktop updated to 1.2.0 – PCLinuxOS

• LXQt is a free and open source lightweight desktop environment. It was formed from the merger of the LXDE and Razor-qt projects. Like its GTK predecessor LXDE, LXQt does not ship or develop its own window manager, instead LXQt lets the user decide which window manager they want to use. Linux distributions commonly default LXQt to Openbox or xfwm4 or kwin.

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Artificial intelligence: 3 ways to prioritize responsible practices

• The question of how to use AI responsibly has been a hot topic for some time, yet little has been done to implement regulations or ethical standards. To start seeing real industry change, we need to shift from simply discussing the risks of unbridled AI to implementing concrete practices and tools.

• Here are three steps practitioners can take to make responsible AI a priority today.

=> ↺ 3 critical roles for successful digital transformation

• Companies are like high-performance engines – they’re optimized over time to create the greatest output. They handle small incremental changes and fine-tuning well but often break down when broader changes and rebuilding are needed.

• Enter the digital transformation journey. How can companies learn how to shift quickly to meet the needs of their customers, employees, and the market when incremental progress isn’t working? What roles can help ensure success along the way?

• In my experience, it’s best to focus on a “top-down” and “bottom-up” transformation plan to increase the potential for success and encourage more people to join the journey. Remember, each employee has their journey to consider, and it’s important to bring people along to help them see themselves on the other side of change.

• For a successful transformation, someone needs to own the why, what, when, and how of the journey. The following three critical roles represent these key components, each integral to success.

Devuan Family

=> ↺ Peppermint OS Devuan Edition 2022-11 Release Brings Nala Package Manager + More Updates

• Peppermint OS is a Debian-stable-based Linux Distribution which primarily features a lightweight Xfce desktop environment. On August 2022, for the first time, Peppermint OS released its “Devuan” version. Devuan is a Debian fork free from Systemd. Hence Peppermint Devuan edition is much faster than the standard Peppermint OS version.

• The Peppermint Devuan 2022-11 release brings additional updates since its first release. Here’s what’s new.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Giveaway Week – e-con Systems e-CAM20_CURB camera

=> ↺ MS2130 based “4K” HDMI to USB 3.0 video capture dongle sells for $19 – CNX Software

• We first discovered the MS2130 chip in the YuzukiLOHCC PRO open-source hardware board that claims to have a bills-of-material cost of about $10. But you have to build it and source the components yourself, so it’s not for everyone. Now USB 3.0 adapters capable of recording or streaming up to 1080p60 uncompressed video from an HDMI input up to 4Kp30 are available to anyone with around $20.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Android turns 15 years old

=> ↺ The Samsung Galaxy S21 series is getting Android 13

=> ↺ Sony Xperia 1 IV starts receiving stable Android 13 update

=> ↺ Galaxy S10 gets a new update, but it’s not Android 13

=> ↺ Android 13 November security patch live, download Pixel OTA

=> ↺ The Full List of Smartphones That Support Android 13

=> ↺ Android 13 QPR1 Beta 3.1 rolling out with many Pixel fixes

=> ↺ Android 12 lands on Nokia 5.3 | Nokiamob

=> ↺ Best Final Fantasy games on Android in 2022

=> ↺ 5 Best Fixes for Android Keyboard Haptic Feedback Not Working – Guiding Tech

=> ↺ The best rugged Android phones in 2022

=> ↺ 5 Android camera features that I need to have on my iPhone | Digital Trends

=> ↺ The Best AirTag Alternatives For Android Phones

=> ↺ Android Auto update arrives, but the big change we’re waiting for is still missing | T3

=> ↺ Millions of Android users told to delete four apps now – or risk your bank being emptied | The US Sun

=> ↺ Walmart website won’t let you buy Android TV streamers

=> ↺ android: How to disable autocorrect option on Android

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Events

=> ↺ LibreOffice Conference 2022: Impressions from an attendee (and speaker!)

• Since the LibreOffice Conference 2022 was a “hybrid” conference, I decided to travel to Milan. These were exciting days. I gave two presentations: “Introduction to the ‘Limo Stretch’ feature of shapes” and “Creating ‘fontwork’ geometries beyond the predefined shapes”. The first one is addressed at developers, whereas the second one is suitable for everyone. You find the slides and additional material here and here. Videos of my talks are below.

• It was important for me to gain insights into other areas. The Community Meetings on Wednesday introduced me to the problems that LibreOffice communities have in several regions of the world, along with solutions and success stories from others. During the conference, I heard a lot about language-specific aspects of LibreOffice. Do you have ever think about the way a piece of text in Arabic is justified? Or noticed what special problems occur with writing directions top-to-bottom and then right-to-left as used in Japanese?

• Last but not least, I enjoyed personally meeting community members. Having lunch together and the wonderful pasta community dinner were opportunities to get to know each other, beyond code review, Bugzilla and mailing lists. I hope to meet you all again at next LibreOffice Conference.

=> ↺ FOSDEM 2023 In Person – Community DevRoom Call for Participation! | Laura’s Blog

• The twenty-third edition will take place Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th February 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Understanding Performance Impact – Mozilla Performance

• A few years ago, a small group of engineers at Mozilla introduced a process to identify the tasks that would have the greatest impact on the performance of Firefox. They would gather each week to look over user submitted profiles, and discuss bugs reports. Each bug would then be assigned a category and a score to reflect its impact on performance. This would help teams to prioritise their work for performance, and proved crucial in delivering the significant speed improvements that were present in Firefox Quantum.

• Fast forward to today, and this performance triage process has continued, but you’d be forgiven for not knowing about it. This year we have been making improvements to the way bugs are nominated for triage, how the impact and keywords are determined, and getting more people involved. I’d like to share some of these changes with you, starting with how to request a performance impact review for a bug.

=> ↺ Native Messaging Support Arrives in Stable Version of Firefox Snap – OMG! Ubuntu!

• Satisfied users of the Firefox Snap on Ubuntu — hey, if Big Foot can exist, so can they — will be stoked to hear they can FINALLY take advantage of native messaging support without needing to get dicey with dev builds.

• Got a sense of deja vu?

• Back in July I reported that the Firefox Snap finally “fixed” its extant ability to use this feature, but at the time it was limited to beta builds of the browser (thus meaning users who wanted it us either had to switch Snap channel to enjoy.

• However, as of early November the relevant bits and pieces that make it all work HAVE made their way in to stable builds, meaning all users of the Firefox Snap, regardless of channel, benefit.

SaaS/Back End/Databases

=> ↺ PostgreSQL: pgmetrics 1.14 released

• We’re happy to announce the release of v1.14 of pgmetrics.

=> ↺ PostgreSQL: pg_builder 2.1.0 released with support for Postgres 15 syntax

• pg_builder is a query builder for Postgres backed by a partial PHP reimplementation of PostgreSQL’s own SQL parser. It supports almost all syntax available in Postgres 15 for SELECT (and VALUES), INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and MERGE queries.

• With pg_builder it is possible to start with a manually written query, parse it into an Abstract Syntax Tree, add query parts (either as Node objects or as strings) to this tree or remove them, and finally convert the tree back to an SQL string.

=> ↺ PostgreSQL: Nordic PGDAY 2023 Call for papers

• Hi,

• we are happy to announce that Nordic PGDay will return in 2023. The conference will be held in Stockholm, Sweden, on Tuesday, 21st of March. As implied, it will be focused on PostgreSQL, the world’s most advanced open source a database.

• The event offers the opportunity to the speakers to present to an audience from the Nordics with a wide footprint in the PostgreSQL ecosystem. Attendees typically cover a vast spectrum of experience, area of interest, and professional backgrounds; ranging from newcomers to experts, DBA’s to CEO’s, students to seniors.

Licensing / Legal

=> ↺ woofQ project now on github

=> ↺ Microsoft sued for open-source piracy through GitHub Copilot

• Programmer and lawyer Matthew Butterick has sued Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI, alleging that GitHub’s Copilot violates the terms of open-source licenses and infringes the rights of programmers.

• GitHub Copilot, released in June 2022, is an AI-based programming aid that uses OpenAI Codex to generate real-time source code and function recommendations in Visual Studio.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ No more updates for nodejs14, below in Leap 15.4 – openSUSE News

• As of today, nodejs14 as well as any older nodejs versions will no longer receive updates in openSUSE Leap 15.4.

• Users are adviced to switch to nodejs16 instead. The nodejs16 version is an official package in Leap 15.4 despite software.opensuse.org not visibly showing the tag. There is a issue filed to fix that on the website.

=> ↺ Linux is not just for developers and command line pros | ZDNET

• I’m not a developer. Although, I did study C++ back in the 90s and that was really the extent of it. I did very well in my classes but quickly realized I had no desire to become a developer. And, as everyone knows, if you don’t use it, you lose it. It took very little time for my brain to jettison everything I’d learned about C++.

=> ↺ Godot Engine – Animation Retargeting in Godot 4.0

• This post will talk about animation retargeting, a new feature coming in Godot 4.0. It has already been merged, so anything you read in this post can be done in the current beta version (beta 3).

• Recently, a lot of attention has been paid to the 3D features of Godot 4 that have been improved such as rendering, physics, etc. To make those improvements widely known, we should make it easier to create 3D games with Godot so that more people will be able to use them.

=> ↺ Meson Release 0.64.0

• The optimization built-in option now accepts plain value, which will not set any optimization flags. This is now the default value of the flag for buildtype=plain, which is useful for distros, that set the optimization and hardening flags by other means.

• If you are using the value of get_option(‘optimization’) in your Meson scripts, make sure you are not making assumptions about it, such as that the value can be passed to a compiler in -O flag.

• [...]

• It is not possible to portably grant the sticky bit to a file, and where possible, it doesn’t do anything. It is not expected that any users are using this functionality.

• [...]

• A new command has been added: meson wrap update-db. It downloads the list of wraps available in WrapDB and stores it locally in subprojects/wrapdb.json. When that file exists and a dependency is not found on the system but is available in WrapDB, Meson will automatically download it.

=> ↺ Markdownify: Markdown Editor for Windows, Linux and macOS

• Markdownify is a free lightweight open-source Markdown editor that comes with a dozen of useful features.

• It supports KaTeX out-of-box, allows you to export your notes and documents in PDF format, and supports multiple cursors.

Perl / Raku

=> ↺ 2022.45 Evaluersion – Rakudo Weekly News

• Anton Antonov has published a blog post (and associated video) about the conversion and evaluation of Raku files (/r/rakulang comments) into Mathematica and Jupyter notebooks.

Leftovers

Hardware

=> ↺ Big Three in Cloud Prompts ARM to Rethink Software – The New Stack

• British chip design company ARM has seen rough days in the last few years: a merger with Nvidia fell through, and plans for an IPO were put on hold as semiconductor companies got caught in the middle of countries battling over chip supremacy.

• Despite the setback, ARM remains afloat, driven by unprecedented success in smartphones, and slowly working its way into the server market. ARM was once considered dead-on-arrival in servers, but the narrative has changed with the big three cloud providers putting ARM processor designs in cloud native environments.

• ARM is now trying to shore up its software stack, a weakness that held back its adoption in server environments for more than a decade. At the recent ARM DevSummit conference, the company outlined its software development efforts for cloud native, server and embedded computing environments over the next two years.

=> ↺ Mashing Up CXL And OpenCAPI For Shared Disaggregated Memory

• The industry is impatient for disaggregated and shared memory for a lot of reasons, and many system architects don’t want to wait until PCI-Express 6.0 or 7.0 transports are in the field and the CXL 3.0 and beyond protocols that ride on it to reach out to external memory have been tweaked to do proper sharing across servers.

• Recently, we detailed what one startup was working on to help bridge that CXL memory gap by mashing up a combination of Gen-Z transports and protocols with CXL at the endpoints of servers and memory devices. Now, we have another on that is using a mix of OpenCAPI and a PCI-Express 5.0 switch that is coming out from a new vendor plus the CXL protocol on servers to create sharable extended memory that will range up to 16 TB on a single memory appliance.

Security

=> ↺ Security updates for Monday [LWN.net]

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (ffmpeg, libxml2, python-django, python-scciclient, and xen), Fedora (ghc-cmark-gfm, java-latest-openjdk, and vim), Mageia (expat, ntfs-3g, and wkhtmltopdf), Oracle (kernel), Slackware (sudo), and SUSE (expat, libxml2, rubygem-loofah, and xmlbeans).

=> ↺ Experts Find URLScan Security Scanner Inadvertently Leaks Sensitive URLs and Data

• Security researchers are warning of “a trove of sensitive information” leaking through urlscan.io, a website scanner for suspicious and malicious URLs.

• “Sensitive URLs to shared documents, password reset pages, team invites, payment invoices and more are publicly listed and searchable,” Positive Security co-founder, Fabian Bräunlein, said in a report published on November 2, 2022.

=> ↺ Robin Banks Phishing Service for Cybercriminals Returns with Russian Server

• A phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform known as Robin Banks has relocated its attack infrastructure to DDoS-Guard, a Russian provider of bulletproof hosting services.

• The switch comes after “Cloudflare disassociated Robin Banks phishing infrastructure from its services, causing a multi-day disruption to operations,” according to a report from cybersecurity company IronNet.

=> ↺ The Conviction of Uber’s Chief Security Officer – Schneier on Security

• I have been meaning to write about Joe Sullivan, Uber’s former Chief Security Officer. He was convicted of crimes related to covering up a cyberattack against Uber. It’s a complicated case, and I’m not convinced that he deserved a guilty ruling or that it’s a good thing for the industry.

=> ↺ Former Uber Security Chief Found Guilty of Hiding Hack From Authorities

• A jury found Joe Sullivan, who led security at the ride-hailing company, guilty on two different counts. The case could change how security professionals handle data breaches.

=> ↺ REMnux: The Linux Toolkit for Reverse Engineering and Malware Analysis | eSecurityPlanet

• REMnux is a free community distribution that ethical hackers, security researchers, and many other security pros can leverage to build their own labs and speed up malware analysis.

=> ↺ Medibank Refuses to Pay Ransom After 9.7 Million Customers Exposed in Ransomware Hack

• Australian health insurer Medibank today confirmed that personal data belonging to around 9.7 million of its current and former customers were accessed following a ransomware incident.

• The attack, according to the company, was detected in its IT network on October 12 in a manner that it said was “consistent with the precursors to a ransomware event,” prompting it to isolate its systems, but not before the attackers exfiltrated the data.

• “This figure represents around 5.1 million Medibank customers, around 2.8 million ahm customers, and around 1.8 million international customers,” Medibank noted.

=> ↺ iTWire – Ransomware group threatens to post Medibank data on dark web

• The operator of a ransomware blog, which was formerly used by the REvil gang, claims that data from Australia’s Medibank Group will be posted on the dark web in 24 hours.

• Exactly when the post was made is unknown, but it comes soon after the company, on Monday, made a big deal about announcing that it would not pay a ransom to the attacker(s) who had hit its systems. It was later updated to include a screenshot of ABC satirist Mark Humphries who recently published a video about Medibank’s woes.

=> ↺ Linux Database Security Tips | LinuxSecurity.com

• Data leaks are extremely prominent in the cyber world due to lack of proper or adequate security implementation. Securing databases is an essential practice to ensure that consequences such as data loss to even unauthorized access or system downtime is avoided.

=> ↺ iTWire – Optus agrees to refund NSW users for licences, others are in limbo

• Telco Singtel Optus has agreed to reimburse the costs of a new driving licence for NSW residents who were hit by the telco’s catastrophic data breach.

• In other mainland states, the respective departments of transport are still battling to try and get the telco to accept responsibility for the leaking of drivers’ licence data and pay up.

• It may be recalled that when Optus was asked about reimbursement of these costs with specific reference to Victoria, the company indicated that it would pay only the administrative costs incurred in issuing new licences — and not the costs of the licences themselves.

• iTWire contacted the five transport departments of the mainland states last week and asked them about Optus stance on paying for these documents.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ This Hidden Facebook Tool Lets Users Remove Their Email or Phone Number Shared by Others

• Facebook appears to have silently rolled out a tool that allows users to remove their contact information, such as phone numbers and email addresses, uploaded by others.

• The existence of the tool, which is buried inside a Help Center page about “Friending,” was first reported by Business Insider last week. It’s offered as a way for “Non-users” to “exercise their rights under applicable laws.”

• An Internet Archive search via the Wayback Machine shows that the option has been available since at least May 29, 2022.

Environment

Energy

=> ↺ US makes biggest bitcoin seizure from man who stole from Silk Road

• A man who stole bitcoin worth US$3.36 billion (A$5.19 billion) at the time of the theft, from the Silk Road marketplace on the dark web in 2012, has now admitted he was guilty of wire fraud.

• A statement from the US Department of Justice on Monday said James Zhong had entered a guilty plea on 4 November before US district judge Paul Gardephe.

• The 50,676.17851897 of bitcoin was seized on 9 November 2021 and is the biggest cryptocurrency seizure by the DoJ.

• The statement said the government was looking to forfeit: approximately 51,680.32473733 bitcoin; Zhong’s 80% interest in RE&D Investments, a Memphis-based company with real estate holdings; US$661,900 in cash seized from Zhong’s home; and various metals also seized from his home.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Coburg, Prince Alfred and Queen Victoria in more detail

• That sounds like an opportunity for the Internet community.

• Prince Alfred was born in August 1844.

• The state of Victoria was named after Queen Victoria in 1851. The state of Queensland is also named after Queen Victoria.

• Marie was born in October 1853.

• An assassin shot Prince Alfred during his visit to Sydney in 1868. Alfred was nursed back to good health. Citizens in both Sydney and Melbourne raised large sums of money to build hospitals named in the Prince’s honor.

• It wasn’t necessary for royal princes to risk their lives to join the navy and sail half way around the world. He could have stayed home and played polo. A navy career in that era probably required a lot more skill and courage than a military career today. Therefore, royalty aside, his arrival in Australia certainly deserved some respect.

=> ↺ All the perfect drugs and superheroes…: Dissociated Press

• And, unlike other times, I see little evidence that the factors pushing people off Twitter are going to change and people seem to have shifted from “federated is going to fail again, like before” to “trusting in centralized sites has failed us again and again.”

=> ↺ Since YOU asked MY take on Twitter… | Stop at Zona-M

• Tomorrow there are the US 2022 midterm elections (more on this below), but as far as I can tell you are all screaming at Twitter, leaving Twitter, staying on Twitter, going Mastodon or explaining Mastodon.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ #FreeAlaa: At COP 27, Canada Must Speak Out for the Release of Alaa Abdel-Fattah – Access Now

• We, the undersigned members of civil society, write to express our solidarity and support for the wrongfully detained British-Egyptian citizen Alaa Abd el-Fattah and urge all elements of the Canadian government participating in the upcoming COP27 conference in Egypt to raise Alaa’s case before Egyptian authorities and to utilize all possible leverage to secure his timely release from unjust and arbitrary detention.

• Alaa Abd el-Fattah is one of Egypt’s most prominent political dissidents and activists, renowned for being an intellectual leader of the 2011 revolution and for his steadfast commitment to freedom, dignity, and justice for all Egyptians. Alaa was granted British citizenship through his mother in December 2021, and is now in desperate need of immediate intervention. Alaa’s family fears that his life is in acute danger: he has now been on hunger strike for more than 200 days, consuming roughly 100 calories a day. When COP begins on November 6th, he will begin a full hunger strike and stop drinking water entirely. In a letter to his mother announcing this decision and explaining his rationale, Alaa wrote: “I’ve taken a decision to escalate at a time I see as fitting for my struggle for my freedom and the freedom of prisoners of a conflict they’ve no part in, or they’re trying to exit from; for the victims of a regime that’s unable to handle its crises except with oppression, unable to reproduce itself except through incarceration.”

Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Strange Bedfellows: Why Advocates From Across the Spectrum Still Oppose the JCPA – Public Knowledge

• While the Senate Judiciary Committee markup of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) may have moved the bill forward in terms of process, it did nothing to resolve the ongoing problems, confusion, and contradictions about the legislation.

• We’ve analyzed and written about the JCPA a lot (see additional resources). We recognize and have written about the crisis in local news (for example, here), and seek policy solutions designed to meet the information needs of communities (for example, here). In fact, we have developed some of our own (see our “Superfund for the Internet” proposal here).

• But even after multiple amendments and much discussion, the JCPA remains the wrong solution. It compounds some of the biggest problems in our information environment and it does absolutely nothing to “rein in Big Tech.”

• If you haven’t been tracking the debate, you should find this post a fresh if consistent take on what critics say about the JCPA – what it is, where it is now, what’s broken about it – and what Congress should do now.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ The Good and Bad of Random

• In the blorb style, the most important role of the dungeon master is to be the keeper of secrets. Your players can help you with rule calls, book keeping, initiative stuff, tracking HP, and so much more, but it’s your job to make sure they don’t know what they haven’t discovered yet, and reveal it to them as their character learns it.

• That’s the main reason you even have a DM role at the table instead of playing all coop, going through a dungeon together. One person takes it upon herself to have that map and key and text in front of her, getting spoiled by its secrets, and keeping them from the players and their characters until they’ve turned the appropriate stones and pulled the correct levers.

=> ↺ Moneyless Friday

• With Black Friday coming up soon I was thinking of an anti-consumerist and environmentally-friendly antithesis to it. In a sense the opposite of spending money on unnecessary things is to not spend money at all.

• Moneyless Friday takes place on the same day as Black Friday. The idea is to refrain from making any transactions involving money for a twenty-four hour period. That means buying groceries or any essentials in advance, meeting with friends at home or public spaces instead of cafes or pubs and limiting transportation to foot and human-powered vehicles. Using non-electric motor vehicles is discouraged for environmental reasons. Limiting your energy use during Moneyless Friday is another goal. The essence of Moneyless Friday is to challenge capitalism, consumerism and waste. Any action along these lines is encouraged during Moneyless Friday.

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: HTMOPRI Wordo: LUNAR

=> ↺ Dark [2022-01-02]

• As is often the case these dark winter seasons, I’ve fallen into a bit of a funk. Inspiration it seems is as rare as sunlight, and sunlight is scarce indeed in the winters of the north.

• I do know what is missing, novelty. I’ve fallen into consuming “content”. Infinite scroll is the torture rack of the spirit. What is necessary doing new things and seeing new inspiring sights, exposing myself to new inspiring thoughts.

• Given a lack of options, I perused the section of my bookshelf that contains books I have not yet read, and after some vacillation decided on Herodotus’ Histories.

=> ↺ not so long ago

• i can see a thunderstorm getting closer in the distance, i like the smell of rain

• is it just me or is it wild that the 90’s was 30 years ago? i feel like anyone born before the start of the century just kind of has their internal clock a little bit broken.

• i saw someone attributing this feeling is the result of things like popular music having such a long shelf life or something, that it’s difficult to perceive time passing on a macro scale… idk what do you think?

=> ↺ Car Free Lifestyle

• When we moved about six months ago we were looking forward to being closer to places we want and need to go. We like to ride our bikes, ebikes and walk so this was a big part of our decision to move where we did. Well after six months I can say that I’m loving it. We walk to the farmers market downtown with the kids in the stroller most Saturday mornings and to other events that happen downtown at various other times. I take our oldest to school and pick him up on the ebike every day. I do our grocery shopping with the ebike and trailer. Lately when I go to play pick up soccer I take the ebike as well. We go visit friends on the ebikes, we walk to parks, walk to get our hair cut, get lunch, coffee etc. The other night we rode the bikes down to the brewery we like to go to and our neighbor pulled up on her bike about 15 minutes later. So we had a couple beers with her and all rode back together and had a nice chat and cruise.

=> ↺ Star Log 2022-11-05 Evening (Fairbanks, AK, US)

• God gave us clear skies for a few hours on the evening of November 5th. The moon was very bright, making stargazing very difficult, but the cloud situation has been so poor that one must take whatever opportunities are available.

• I spent some time looking at the moon with the H12.5 eyepiece. After that, I did another sketch of Jupiter. I recently bought a Night Sky Observation Logbook (ISBN-13 979-8687347891) which has made sketches neater and more fun.

=> ↺ Run

• As I open the window of my appartment on the seventh floor, the chill air – the winter is soon – comes into contact with my skin. Tiny needles of frost pierce me. I can now breathe freely, I didn’t know breathing this freely was ever possible.

• The entire universe gets divided by a two-dimensional plane running through my window, through me, standing in that window, perpendicular to my line of sight as I look forward into the dark nightly forest.

=> ↺ Enjoying Hummel 🎼🎹♫

• I’d never heard of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. I found him at the bottom of a long list of playlists of “well known” composers¹. So I gave him a go.

• I don’t get on with Mozart so well. Too many notes. He’d squeeze in as many trills as he could². Hummel isn’t so far off Mozart but he gives things a bit more space. Sometimes he’s surprisingly modern. Some of his instrument choices are surprising too. I’ve never heard a mandolin concerto before. The orchestra had to play pretty quietly or the mandolin would have disappeared. There’s a lot of piano pieces accompanied by only a few string players, which again gives a pleasing amount of space. The playlist is a bit over six hours and it’s all good so far.

=> ↺ Music recommendations (and how I generated them)

• This article contains two parts: I’ll start by sharing some of my favourite songs, diving into a few genres I enjoy. After that I will show how I keep track of what I hear and how I generated the recommendations from the first part.

=> ↺ Persistence of Memory

• When it comes to memory, I am with Dali. A few melted pocketwatches and a protoplasmic sack of crap.

• I am somewhat neurodivergent, so your mileage may vary.

• As a kid I had a near total recall. I memorized and recited chunks of ‘the Odyssey’. I read my mother’s math textbooks (she was a math teacher), and skated through math with very little work. I even got into a specialized NYC math/science high school with a perfect math score, in spite of almost non-existent English.

Politics

=> ↺ The best ideas come AFK [ 2022-11-07 ]

• I get my best ideas when I’m not working.

• This seems paradoxical, but past a point, the more I work on a project the slower it seems to go. I’ll find changes to do, but lose any sort of vision.

• If I’m not programming at all, I rarely get good ideas as well.

• There appears to be some magic stoichiometric mixture where I work on a project for a while, then force myself to take a break somewhere far away from any keyword for a day or two, the ideas start to roll in at a pace where I can barely keep up to write them down.

=> ↺ Tom MacDonald, Voltaire

• Tom MacDonald has another release to which I’ve been listening, this one called ‘Sheeple’.

Technical

=> ↺ Switched to Emacs in Mutt

• Early 2021 I started to learn using Emacs, with the vanilla key bindings.

• I started actually doing things in Emacs, like my professional writing. Compared to converting Markdown to ODT with Pandoc, Org mode export to ODT is so much faster.

=> ↺ Capsule Housekeeping

• While the gemlog improvements are nice when sharing posts on the web/Mastodon, these changes also enhance the Lagrange home page that is perhaps the most prominent part of the capsule on the web: => /lagrange/ Lagrange home page

=> ↺ Checking out Void Linux

• Void Linux is a Linux distribution that is built completely from scratch, so it’s not based on some other distribution like Debian GNU/Linux or Arch Linux. I’m testing the “musl libc” edition here because this is one of the more outstanding features of the distro among others. It utilizes the runit init system instead of systemd, which is fast and simple. The update strategy is the “stable rolling release” model. The packages are more well tested and a little behind the bleeding edge packages you get with something like Arch Linux.

=> ↺ This Great Xerox Machine

• This is not just some rant from an angry (former) student. This is a

• feeble attempt at a manifest to save knowledge from the vulture-like

• claws of the universities and publications. The universities have

• turned themselves into a great xerox machine; publishing one research

• after the other and printing the degrees much the same and handing

• them out to those who help sustain this unhealthy cycle of academic

• regurgitation. This foul cult of submission. This regime of scholar

• workers of the machine has poisoned and violated the chronicles of

• critical thinking and academic innovation.

=> ↺ Floppinux – An Embedded 🐧Linux on a Single 💾Floppy

• Short story why I decided to make my own one floppy distribution. An extensive yet simple tutorial/workshop on how to make embedded Linux distribution under 1.44MB.

=> ↺ Embracing Vanilla Emacs as a Vim user

• I started using Vim somewhere around 1997~1998, and arranged my working habits so that I could use Vim for almost everything. Like using Markdown and Latex at work, Mutt for email, and so on.

• In the past I have tried to use Emacs before, but never with success.

=> ↺ Our responsibility as software engineers

• On Twitter, an ex-Twitter engineer called Steve Krenzel talk about his job and we can infer that it’s not different from Google/Facebook/Microsoft.

• While we have no confirmation that this is true, there’s no particular reason to doubt what is said. There’s no huge secret. But this serves as a reminder.

• A reminder that it is normal that any application on your phone is registering every single action you are doing, every single location and beaming those info back.

• A reminder that companies are buying those data and, no, they don’t care about privacy. They want hard data on individuals. And they got them.

• A reminder that this is the world we are currently living in with phones recording position and sound everywhere. For one story where the engineer refused to do it, how many times was it done silently?

• As software engineers, we have a huge moral responsibility. We are not only implementing it, we are ourselves using those tools and letting our family and children using them.

=> ↺ Our responsibility as software engineers

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ Mayan priests and slapping trouts

• The only reasonable response to someone questioning the accessibility and inclusiveness of the Gemini network is to ignore them. Even though that might be rude (and probably considered an example of the detractor’s point), it’s still far less rude than replying with: “How dumb and lazy do you want it to be?”

• In case “slapping trouts” doesn’t ring a bell: “/slap” was a mIRC feature that resulted in the program printing “USER slaps USER around a bit with a large trout” in an irc room.

• mIRC was a popular MS Windows IRC client and was the preferred client of teenagers when the world started getting online and interacting.

=> ↺ I made an self-portrait

=> ↺ Thank you rawtext.club (and the whole Gemini sphere)!

• For years, I’ve been planning to migrate my blog from WordPress to a more minimalistic solution. I did multiple experiments, worked hard with providers, even contributed to writefreely but nothing managed to stick.

• Problem was, like always, the customer: myself. I didn’t exactly know what I wanted. I even wrote huge requirements and discussed them with potential providers. I wanted a minimalistic blog but I wanted lots of features. When I discovered Gemini, it was only one more feature to add to my minimalistic blog.

=> ↺ Thank you rawtext.club (and the whole Gemini sphere)!

• In the meantime, I started a gemlog on rawtext.club.

Programming

=> ↺ fix-me-now

• If you have a tree that’s almost perfect, but you just need to, uh, “fix it up” a little, that’s where this fix-me-now macro can be your friend.

• It’s a combination of strse* from the strse egg and pre-post-order-splice* from sxml-transforms.

• The first argument is the tree you wanna fix, followed by zero or more matches and replacements (so an even number), followed by zero or one alist of tags and bindings.

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

=> Techrights

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