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● 12.31.22

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● Links 31/12/2022: End of Year’s KDE and GNOME Development Reports

Posted in News Roundup at 4:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ Jumpstart Your Embedded Linux Career: 10 Expert Tips! – Linux Careers

• Embedded Linux is an increasingly important field of technology that is used to enable the development of many products and services that are used in everyday life. For those wishing to pursue a career in embedded Linux, there are many opportunities available, ranging from entry-level positions to advanced roles. With the continued growth in the field, an embedded Linux career can offer a stable, rewarding, and exciting career path with plenty of opportunity for growth.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ 3 Best Linux Apps Of 2022 – Invidious

• A video covering what I believe are the three best Linux applications of 2022. Now I know everyone has their favorites but these are the three that I use the most and make my job easy. Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Files and Directories Processing Using LibreOffice Calc Macro using Basic

• This article demonstrates how to process/read individual files and directories in the Unix file system using Basic and LibreOffice Calc Macro and put the file names/directory names in LibreOffice Calc cells.

• For LibreOffice automation, it is necessary to know the file system and directory processing. This tutorial is based on the Unix file system, which is different from Windows.

=> ↺ How to convert Markdown files to HTML using terminal on Ubuntu 22.04

• In this post, you will learn how to convert Markdown files to HTML using terminal on an Ubuntu 22.04 system The procedure is simple, let’s go for it.

• Markdown is a lightweight markup language that tries to achieve maximum readability and ease of publishing in both its input and output form, drawing inspiration from many existing conventions for marking up email messages using plain text.

• One of the main advantages of Markdown is that formatted text can be written quickly thanks to a syntax that is easy to learn and use.

• The first implementation of Markdown was with Perl, but it has been implemented by many languages and blogging platforms that have plugins that interpret it to HTML.

=> ↺ How to Install qBittorrent on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 – LinuxCapable

• qBittorrent is a cross-platform free and open-source BitTorrent client. qBittorrent is a native application written in C++ which uses Boost, Qt 5 toolkit, and libtorrent-rasterbar library and is extremely lightweight and fast. qBittorrent is very popular amongst torrent users as the main alternative to UTorrent.In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install qBittorrent on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa desktop GUI and install qBittorrent on a headless server using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ How to install KVM on Ubuntu

• Kernel-based Virtual Machine, known as KVM, is an open-source virtualization tech built into the Linux kernel. This virtualization module in the Linux kernel allows the kernel to work as a hypervisor. This software can run multiple Linux or Windows guest virtual machines. Each guest OS is isolated from the others and has its operating system and dedicated virtual hardware like network interfaces, CPUs, storage, and memory.

=> ↺ How to Install Microsoft Edge on Fedora 37 | 36

• Microsoft Edge is a popular browser choice for those who prefer fast browsers based on a chromium-based engine. The following tutorial will show you how to import the Microsoft RPM that contains the browser builds and install Microsoft Edge on Fedora 37/36/35 desktop using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ How to install EasyOS page updated

• This page explains how to write the easy*.img file to a drive, internal or removable drive, and boot from it.

• I have edited the page, as someone recently did something that caused the Limine bootloader to fail to boot. See the new section “Precaution” in that page.

• Another thing that someone did recently was run the ‘tune2fs’ utility on an older Linux distribution, to modify the UUID of the ext4 partition where EasyOS is installed. It failed.

• Please be wary of older Linux distributions, they may have older utilities that lack capabilities of the more recent utilities.

=> ↺ How to Install PHP 8.2 on AlmaLinux 9 | 8 – LinuxCapable

• PHP 8.2 has been officially released, along with the retirement of PHP 7.4. AlmaLinux does not support this version in either EL9 or EL8 but can be installed using the Remi PHP Repo. In the following tutorial, you will learn how to import the REMI PHP Module and install PHP 8.2 on AlmaLinux 9 or AlmaLinux 8, along with some tips about configuring Nginx with FPM using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ What are File Descriptors in Linux

• In this article, you will learn everything about file descriptors, like their uses in Linux, what a file descriptor table is, how to view the file descriptors under a specific process, and how to change the limit of a file descriptor in Linux.

=> ↺ How to Install EPEL on Rocky Linux 9 | 8

• EPEL, which stands for Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, is an open-source and free repository that provides extra packages for Enterprise Linux that can benefit Rocky Linux 9 or 8 distributions. The following tutorial will teach you how to install and enable EPEL on your Rocky Linux desktop or server.

=> ↺ How to Install QSpeakers on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

• QSpeakers is a free, open-source graphical software that simulates common acoustical enclosure behaviors to help design and tune loudspeaker systems based on the loudspeaker driver’s Thiele / Small parameters and the chosen enclosure type. The following tutorial will demonstrate how to install QSpeakers on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish or Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa using the standard APT repository on Ubuntu or using a Flatpak installation utilizing the Flathub repository.

=> ↺ How to Install BleachBit on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

• BleachBit is a free open-source disk space cleaner, privacy manager, and computer system optimizer. Any Ubuntu user who has used the Ubuntu Cleaner software would see similar traits in BleachBit. The following tutorial will demonstrate how to install BleachBit on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish or Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa using the standard APT repository.

=> ↺ How To Install QMPlay2 on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS – idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install QMPlay2 on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, QMPlay2 is a lightweight and easy-to-use multimedia player that is designed to support a wide range of audio and video formats. Its support for various sources and its range of features make it a good choice for users who want a versatile and flexible player. Whether you’re looking to play local files or stream content from the internet, QMPlay2 is a good choice for anyone who wants a reliable and feature-rich multimedia player.

• 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 QMPlay2 music player 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 Raft on a Chromebook

• Today we are looking at how to install Raft on a Chromebook.

=> ↺ How to Install GNU Octave on Ubuntu

• GNU Octave is an open-source, powerful programming language used to solve linear and non-linear mathematical problems and perform scientific computations. It’s available to download for free and you can install it on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

• There are several ways to install GNU Octave on Ubuntu: using Ubuntu Software, Flatpak, and via Snap Store. Here’s how to get started.

=> ↺ How to Install Laravel on AlmaLinux | LinuxCloudVPS Blog

• Laravel is an open-source web framework written in PHP. Today many websites are made in this framework supported by its large community that is growing on a daily basis. Laravel is Symfony based and follows the MVC architectural pattern. We have many posts about this, but this time we will install it using the LAMP stack on the latest AlmaLinux 9 distribution.

• Installing Laravel on AlmaLinux is a straightforward process that may take up to 15 minutes. Let’s get things working!

=> ↺ How to Install Uptime Kuma on Ubuntu 22.04 | LinuxHostSupport

• Uptime Kuma is an open-source monitoring solution. We can monitor our websites and servers’ uptime and configure them to send us notifications via multiple options, like Telegram, email, Discord, etc. Uptime Kuma is an easy-to-use monitoring tool, and it is powerful for traffic control, observability, service discovery, etc. This article will show you how to install Uptime Kuma on Ubuntu 22.04.

=> ↺ apt vs apt-get: Key Differences That You Should Know About

• Here’s a brief list of items that explains the comparison of apt vs apt-get commands in Debian and Ubuntu Linux.

• If you have a brief idea of Linux or Ubuntu, you must have come across “sudo apt” or “sudo apt-get”. Those already familiar with Linux or Ubuntu know that apt is a command you run to install the software in Debian-based distros.

• This wiki article explains some of the trivia & differences between apt and apt-get.

Games

=> ↺ Top 10 browser games you should be playing in 2022 | FOSS Linux

• Graphics, gameplay, and other features of computer games have advanced significantly in recent years. However, did you know that various online browser-based games are available that do not necessitate the purchase of a powerful PC or gaming console? You may play these games on your PC’s web browser anytime, between tasks or after your online class concludes.

• So, in this comprehensive article, we have included some of the greatest browser games available online. Some of them may be played alone, while others offer multiplayer gameplay. So, without further ado, below is the list of the greatest browser games to play online in 2022.

=> ↺ Reviewing our Linux Gaming Predictions for 2022: Eki – Boiling Steam

• There’s only a few more hours left in 2022 so it’s a good time to come back and check how our individual predictions for 2022 fared!

• [...]

• This is probably the most wrong I have been in all of my predictions, since the actual opposite came true here. I expected most influencers to be working/paid by big companies like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, and potentially biased towards the Steam Deck at release. It turns out that most reviews of the Steam Deck were very enthusiastic and positive. Not 100%, but maybe 80 to 90% sounds quite accurate. In effect, the coverage was pretty fair: the typical issues were properly identified by most outlets, and the fact that the gaming experience on the Deck was pretty much glorious also shared in most places. This has restored a bit of faith about what you can see online: influencers may be paid by numerous corporations, but are unlikely to give a negative review for a very well designed product.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ This week in KDE: end-of-year goodies – Adventures in Linux and KDE

• Welp, 2022 draws to a close, but KDE never sleeps, and its developers have managed to whip up some new years’ treats for everyone!

=> ↺ ~redstrate / Fixing the XP-Pen Artist 22R Pro tablet on Linux

• While almost every part of the tablet works, only one of the two stylus buttons is functional. One button is middle mouse click, and the other one is right mouse click. For some reason, only the first stylus button works! This is obviously troublesome, so where do we begin to fix this issue? Let me take you on a journey, if you have no experience with how input works on Linux – well that makes two of us!

=> ↺ ~redstrate / Follow-up: Fixing the XP-Pen Artist 22R Pro tablet on Linux

• So as described in the original post, I have to patch the uclogic HID driver. Let’s start by going through the process of submitting a patch upstream!

• Before we even think about sending this patch upstream, I have to first – fix it. While the patch is mostly fine in it’s original form, there is one big issue I would like to tackle – which is the tablet frame buttons. Not even the original author seemed to figure out this issue, so I’m excited to jump in and figure it out.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Christian Hergert: Frame pointers and other practical near-term solutions – Happenings in GNOME

• I’m the author/maintainer of Sysprof. I took over maintainership from Søren Sandmann Pedersen years ago so we could integrate it with GNOME Builder. In the process we really expanded it’s use cases beyond just being a sampling profiler. It is a system-wide profiler that makes it very easy to see what is going on and augment that data with counters, logs, embedded files, marks, custom data sources and more.

=> ↺ #76 Last Fragments of 2022 – This Week in GNOME

• Update on what happened across the GNOME project in the week from December 23 to December 30.

=> ↺ Daniel García Moreno: The end of 2022

• I’ve been focused this year on the GNOME Translation Editor, migrating it to Gtk4. It’s not ready yet, but I hope I will be able to have a working version soon™.

• It started this summer with one intern from Outreachy, that did some initial work, building with the new Gtk4, and after the summer I started to clean the code and fixing issues, and lately, I’m trying to replace some deprecations for the next Gtk release.

• so I’m working on the code, modernizing it, and replacing every usage of GtkDialog and GtkTreeView, and trying to follow the GNOME HIG as much as possible.

Distributions and Operating Systems

=> ↺ The 5 Best Linux Distros of 2022 – OMG! Ubuntu!

• In this post I look back at the best Linux distros of 2022 — and spoiler: they’re not all Ubuntu-based!

• I know: I make the same joke every year I do this. But hey: I write about Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu. You may expect me to keep it all about Ubuntu. But the Linux ecosystem? It’s more than just Ubuntu. There are a ton of top-tier Linux distros out there deserving of praise, celebration, and recognition. This list is my small way of giving ’em that!

• That said, what follows is not a posit of superiority, nor a ranking of importance. It’s just me, a person, giving a shoutout to some of the year’s best Linux releases. Is it comprehensive? No. And it’s also not a critique, so if an OS you love isn’t featured below the omission is not because I think it’s awful!

• With the SEO gods (hopefully) satiated by that lengthy introduction, lets look at my top 5 Linux distros of 2022!

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Friday’s Fedora Facts: 2022-52 – Fedora Community Blog

• Here’s your weekly Fedora report. Read what happened this week and what’s coming up. Your contributions are welcome (see the end of the post)!

• I have weekly office hours on Wednesdays in the morning and afternoon (US/Eastern time) in #fedora-meeting-1. Drop by if you have any questions or comments about the schedule, Changes, elections, or anything else. See the upcoming meetings for more information.

Debian Family

=> ↺ DebConf8: who slept with who? Rooming list leaked

• The DebConf8 room list has finally been leaked. We are going to progressively leak DebConf9 and subsequent room lists so volunteers can analyze the romantic conflicts of interest.

• Why do some people get to bring their girlfriend or gay partner to DebConf but other people are told to share rooms with strangers? Volunteers have a right to know that some people are getting advantages that are denied to others.

• Debian misfits are currently publishing defamation that violates the privacy of a volunteer’s family. As long as there is rampant defamation and privacy violation on debian.org, in mailing lists and in the Debian keyring repository, everybody’s dirty laundy is going to come out. What a bunch of misfits.

• Only one person took a suite at DebConf8: Mark Shuttleworth

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Announcing Edubuntu Revival – Flavors – Ubuntu Community Hub

• Since Edubuntu is no longer an official flavor, I couldn’t figure out a good place to post this, so this seemed to be most appropriate.

• If you’ve been around Ubuntu for any amount of time, you may have heard of Edubuntu, the official flavor of Ubuntu that was for classrooms, schools, homes, and communities of education that was discontinued in 2016.

• This past November, I was given the opportunity to attend Ubuntu Summit as the leader of Ubuntu Studio and for my nearly five-year contributions to Ubuntu. I brought my wife and son with me. My wife, Amy, was sad to learn that Edubuntu wasn’t a flavor anymore. She didn’t realize you could do so much with Ubuntu and open-source software in general. She felt inspired by the many talks and conversations she had while there.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Linux on MicroBlaze: ArtyA7 Linux Design in PetaLinux 2022.1

• This project details how to develop an embedded Linux image for a MicroBlaze design on the Arty A7 in PetaLinux.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Nifty cam-following plotter can draw many shapes | Arduino Blog

• Before CNC (computer numerical control) came along, automated machines utilized mechanisms like cams and tapers to act as guides. Those are physical components with precise contours meant to guide the tool, like an artist tracing lines with a pantograph. Such mechanisms are uncommon today, as CNC is far more versatile and much easier to implement. But Mr Innovative turned to those traditional techniques to build this cam-following plotter that can draw many shapes.

• A “cam” is a rotating or pivoting component in a mechanism, which has an irregular profile to control the actuation of something. Internal combustion engines, for example, often contain rotating cams that to open and close the valves at the proper times. In this case, the plotter’s cam controls the movement of the pen in the X axis. Wider portions of the cam push the pen further right, while narrower portions of the cam allow the pen to move left. A rubber band pulls the pen arm cam follower tight against a cam. The paper moves at a constant rate in the Y axis, and its speed combined with the shape of the cam determine the resulting plot shape.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Android 14: What to expect from the new version in 2023 | NextPit

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy A04s is now receiving the One UI 5 update based on Android 13 – GSMArena.com news

=> ↺ Fitbit Charge 5 and Luxe Can’t Sync With Samsung Phones on Android 13 – CNET

=> ↺ Google rolls out Material You design for Nearby Share on Android devices | Business Standard News

=> ↺ Best Android Party Games 2022 – Droid Gamers

=> ↺ 3 Ways to Keep Your Android Screen on for Longer

=> ↺ 9 great Android games and gaming subscriptions from 2022 – The Verge

=> ↺ The best Metroidvania games on Android in 2022

=> ↺ The 6 Best Android Games With a Built-In Level Editor

=> ↺ Essential apps for hardcore Android users [Video]

=> ↺ The Google Pixel Buds Pro are Android Police’s 2022 earbuds of the year

=> ↺ The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ is Android Police’s 2022 tablet of the year

=> ↺ Millions of Android owners must look for ‘red alert’ right now – it’s very serious | The US Sun

=> ↺ Hisense Hi Reader Pro is an Android smartphone with a 6.1 inch E Ink display – Liliputing

=> ↺ OnePlus 11 will feature Android’s strongest vibration motor yet

=> ↺ Lilbits: Handbrake adds AV1 support, Fairphone 4 can now run Android 13 (unofficially) – Liliputing

• The Fairphone 4 is a smartphone with mid-range specs that began shipping in 2021, but which should be supported at least until the end of 2025 thanks to Fairphone’s commitment not only to continue releasing software updates, but also spare parts.

• And while Fairphone has a pretty good track record of providing its own software updates, the company’s phones also ship with unlocked bootloaders, allowing independent developers to port other software to the platform. Recently the Linux-based postmarketOS and Ubuntu Touch operating systems added support for the Fairphone 4. And now xda-developers member tfbb has released an unofficial build of LineageOS (based on Android 13) for the Fairphone 4.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

FSF

=> ↺ A message from FSF president Geoff Knauth: Your FSF membership will help us build a stronger future for software freedom

• This year-end, we are putting emphasis on one of the four freedoms, sharing, to help remind everyone that our work to defend computer users everywhere can effect change in all areas where software touches modern life. However, we can only achieve this if we do it together. We have a goal of gaining 455 new associate members before December 31. The deadline is only one day away! — and we are behind on this goal. We need your support to reach this number. The more members we can count, the better equipped we are to defend important freedoms such as the #FreedomToShare, and educate people about its importance. Below is a message from our president, Geoffrey Knauth, reflecting on the FSF’s mission to protect software users everywhere.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ ZCAM-js – A ZCAM implementation in JavaScript | Timj’s bits and tests

• Earlier this year I had to investigate perception of colour attributes for some of my projects. There exists a long history of colour models that try to approximate perception, each with its own shortcomings and complexities. For a decent modern colour space suitable for image processing and with accompanying C code, OkLab can be recommended (based on CAM16 and to some extend IPT).

• [...]

• And it supports back transforms into XYZ/sRGB/etc colour spaces (while inverting the white point adaption if needed) from three of the ZCAM colour appearance model parameters: one of lightness Jz or brightness Qz, one of chroma Cz or saturation Sz or colourfulness Mz or vividness Vz or whiteness Wz or blackness Kz, and one of hue angle hz or hue composition Hz.

• Also, the code now contains functions to find the chroma & lightness cusps for a given hue and the chroma maximum for a given hue and brightness within a gamut, needed for gamut clipping.

Perl / Raku

=> ↺ Hours left to donate to The Perl and Raku Foundation in the US 2022 tax yer | dean [blogs.perl.org]

• There are still a few hours left to donate to The Perl Foundation in the US 2022 tax year. Please support the great work the foundation does to support Perl and Raku

=> ↺ PSA: Changing your b.p.o password is recommended | Meta [blogs.perl.org]

• HTTPS support on blogs.perl.org, announced last month, has now undergone some additional small improvements to plug the previously still theoretically possible exposure of session cookies in unencrypted requests.

• As such, now is a good time to update your blogs.perl.org password to ensure you are not using credentials which may have previously been passively collected on an open network or the like.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Tedium Trends 2023: Anyone Else Feeling Frazzled from 2022?

• I don’t know what else you could say about 2022 that hasn’t been already said—not as awful as 2020, but maybe the awful is coming from some new main characters, and that’s no fun. (Let me strengthen that statement: Nothing about it is fun.) I do these year-end pieces to offer a look ahead at the state of our Tedium, and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling kind of … what’s the word? Distracted? Yeah, that’s it. With shiny objects all over the place, what’s a tedious person to do? Let’s ponder and clear the slate. Today’s Tedium talks about 2023, distractions, and finding a new path forward.

=> ↺ Favourite books of 2022: Non-fiction – Chris Lamb

• In my three most recent posts, I went over the memoirs and biographies, classics and fiction books that I enjoyed the most in 2022. But in the last of my book-related posts for 2022, I’ll be going over my favourite works of non-fiction.

Security

=> ↺ KDE policy made my digital life more secure

• Two month ago, in October 2022, KDE’s GitLab made me use a two-factor authentication (2FA). Without a second factor, I was no longer able to push code, comment on merge requests, or contribute anything meaningful on KDE Invent.

• For a long time, I have known I should use two-factor authentication for my important accounts; especially for those accounts used to commit code other people are executing because they trust me. But I was too lazy to have everything prepared to use the second factor.

• Thanks to Ben and the KDE infrastructure team, there were no more excuses and I had to set up a secure login.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ MSG Takes Facial Recognition Security Too Far – Invidious

• In this video I discuss Madison Square Gardens Entertainment using facial recognition in the security cameras as the Radio City Music Hall to identify a women who worked for a law firm that made litigation’s against the company in the past and kick her out because of that.

Environment

=> ↺ On generators and physics – Kevin’s musings

• On tuesday here we had a massive wind storm come through. 25-35mph winds with gusts up to 75mph or more, along with heavy rains and near freezing temps. It’s a pretty crazy thing to experience in the forest. 250-300ft douglas fir trees swaying 30 or 40 degrees in the winds, branches coming off and flying by. A large gust came through and broke 3 of our large trees off and pulled another one out by it’s roots. Very sad to see these big trees go.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ TikTok Is Used to Spy on US Reporters – Invidious

• This week in the Weekly News Roundup, TikTok used their app data to track US reporters, a new scamvertising scam is going around, and Linux is overtaking Mac for developers. We also visit SillyVille.

Gemini* and Gopher

Politics

=> ↺ Regarding Sambusas

• If you live somewhere in the world, you probably have heard of this thing called a samosa, which is a classic Indian food item. When I moved to Central Asia, I learned about this other (related) thing called sambusa. You’ve probably never had one, but it’s one of the most delicious things in the universe. They’re typically made with meat, but they aren’t always; a very popular recipe uses pumpkin instead.

• I don’t know about other parts of Central Asia, but in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in particular it’s an essential native food item, more or less like a fast food thing but can also be served in formal settings and made at home. (Or can?)

Technical

=> ↺ Microscope Ready

• I got a coin microscope for Christmas, the TOMLOV DM4, which I was planning to use for taking close-up photos of crystals that I grow. It is a budget model, but I think it will work pretty well now that I have it set up. The main challenge was the SD card. The advertisement seems to imply that an SD card is included, but I didn’t see one in the package. I eventually found one of my SD cards but then realized it needed a microSD card, not the larger variety. So I bought one, but it didn’t work, and eventually I figured out that the microscope only will use SD cards that are 32GB or smaller, which is kind of funny because it is actually challenging to find an SD card less than 64GB at the supermarket. So I made a second trip and was able to find a 32GB SD card on clearance.

• A few details of operation are a little confusing, like how to switch between video and photo mode, but I worked it out after a few minutes in the ESL manual. The focuser knobs are pretty straightforward. The base is not especially heavy or stable, so you have to hold everything steady while pressing the “OK” button to take a picture.

=> ↺ Radio updates

• Not long at all after the war broke out in Ukraine, somebody at my workplace organised the collection of a wide range of items for donation, via a local church group. This was not stuff to be given to refugees, who had then only just started arriving locally in significant numbers, but stuff that was actually going to be sent into Ukraine, as soon as possible, before an anticipated closure of borders. The church group supplied a “wish list” which included things like first aid supplies and night vision equipment (which apparently is easy enough for civilians in non-war-torn countries to buy for hunting etc.), which made it pretty clear that this stuff was even likely to end up be given to soldiers. It was a sobering thought, the prospect of an army fighting for survival using at least partially second-hand civilian gear. I donated a lot of the camping gear I had used previously for S24O trips, as this was a lot less useful to me now that I have been stripped of my Everyman’s Rights. We also donated a lot of heavy duty cold weather clothing which we had bought and used in Finland but which was now overkill here in slightly more Southern climes, as well as pretty much the entirety of our home medical supplies.

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ Whitespace, part… 5? ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜

• I was looking for something mildly useful that I could try in Whitespace. “Obviously,” I thought, “a Gemini client, because there aren’t many of them.” But the network communication makes this a no-no. There’s no way to open a socket in Whitespace, and if there were, I’m not about to implement TLS. But I can render in Whitespace if I have something that will fetch a page to a file. So I wrote that first.

• Then after a lot of faffing in Whitespace assembler with line types and text flow and pausing after every screenful and letting the user pick a link, I now have a (really bad) Gemini client. I can look at Antenna, follow the links, and read posts.

=> ↺ Social Media, Victims, Responsibility

• I really don’t like when someone complains about a social network

• banning them, so they cannot communicate via a TikTok or Facebook

• or WhatsApp. People cannot just accept that the social network is

• a private company and that they can ban some users violating the

• rules. I’m cool with it if the user does not pay. Let it be.

• Some say that businesses lose money and customer, and are being shut

• down because of bans, so the social networks should be liable for

• the losses.

=> ↺ Youtube ads

• Normally I avoid the google as much as possible. I therefore avoid youtube, but a couple of days ago I realized that I am totally bored by Hulu, HBO, Netflix and Amazon Prime… So I reluctantly put the youtube ap on my TV.

• I find it is much nicer to relax before sleep by doing something that takes me away from any real concerns. Like learning in great detail how a diesel locomotive works, or delving into the details of quantum chromodynamics. So much nicer than the idiotic TV shows…

• The ads are annoying but I am really impressed. A lot of ads are 5 seconds long, which is about how long I can stand it. And a lot of the longer ads may be skipped by pushing a button. That was somewhat unexpected, and got me thinking.

Programming

=> ↺ 2022 Review

• Rust was the first new programming language I played with this year. I used it to build a simple to-do CLI program and had a pretty good experience with it. The main things that stuck out to me were the compiler’s helpful messages and memory safety checks.

• I don’t expect I’ll be working with Rust very much in the future though. It just seems best suited for systems programming which isn’t really my thing.

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