This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/01/15/libreelec-release/.

● 01.15.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 15/01/2023: MX Linux 21.3, Kodi 20, and LibreELEC (Matrix) 10.0.4 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 10:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Sometimes it actually is a kernel bug: bind() in Linux 6.0.16

• There’s a common saying and rule of thumb in programming (possibly originating in the C world) that it’s never a compiler bug, it’s going to be a bug in your code even if it looks crazy or impossible. Like all aphorisms it’s not completely true, because compilers have bugs, but it’s almost always the case that you haven’t actually found a compiler bug and it’s something else. You can say a similar thing about weird system issues (not) being the fault of a kernel bug, and so that’s what I thought when the development version of Go started failing a self test when I built it on my Fedora 37 office desktop…

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Feeling comfortable with Cascadia Code

• A few years ago I blogged about switching my terminal and programming font from Terminus to Ubuntu Mono. It’s only fair, then, that I mention I’ve switched from Ubuntu Mono to Cascadia Code. I’ve been using Cascadia for many months now, probably over a year, and the experience has been great so far. The font was commissioned by Microsoft and released under the SIL Open Font License, which makes it available in the repositories of many Linux distributions. For example, it’s easily available in the official Fedora or Debian repositories.

=> ↺ How to Install UNRAR on Fedora Linux – LinuxCapable

• If you’re a Linux user working with RAR archive files, then you have likely heard of Unrar before. This powerful tool is ideal for extracting such files on the Fedora system. This tutorial will provide details on installing Unrar on Fedora using the free version bundled on Fedora or for users requiring a commercial product to install RAR from RARLabs.

=> ↺ How to Install GNOME Nightly Apps on Linux – OMG! Linux

• If you’re a fan of all things GNOME, and want to try new versions of core apps before they’re released, GNOME Nightly builds are what you’re looking for.

• GNOME Nightly works via Flatpak. This makes using them a safer alternative to compiling GNOME source code by hand. Plus, Flatpak offers automatic updates, and allows you to run bleeding-edge versions of GNOME software on your existing Linux distro.

• Still, Nightly builds are not for everyone. While you will get to try new features sooner you also get rough edges, bugs, half-working/broken functionality, too. If in doubt, always stick with the latest stable releases. Those are tested, reliable, and safe.

• But if you’re feeling brave…

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

• Chkrootkit is a tool to detect and prevent rootkits on Linux systems. Rootkits are stealthy pieces of malicious software that can be difficult to detect and neutralize, so using Chkrootkit to stay ahead of them can be incredibly important. Installing Chkrootkit on an Ubuntu system can be done in two ways: manually downloading the file from its official page or through the apt package manager. Both methods are relatively straightforward, and this guide will teach you how to install Chkrootkit on Ubuntu 22.04 and 20.04 LTS Linux.

=> ↺ Share Folder Between Guest and Host in GNOME Boxes

• Use the below steps to share a folder between host and guest in GNOME Boxes app.

• GNOME Boxes is a front-end application to create virtual machines. it is primarily compatible with the GNOME desktop. However, you can use it in other desktop environments, such as KDE Plasma.

• At its core, it uses QEMU, KVM, and libvirt tech and provides an easy-to-use user interface to manage multiple virtual machines.

• If you want to learn more, you can also refer to these guides on GNOME Boxes to create virtual machines.

=> ↺ How to Install VSCodium on Rocky Linux EL9 or EL8

• VSCodium is a free, open-source version of Visual Studio Code. It is built from the same source code as Visual Studio Code but without any telemetry or license restrictions. This guide will discuss installing, updating, and removing VSCodium on Rocky Linux 9 or Rocky Linux 8 using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ How to Install Neofetch on Rocky Linux EL9 or EL8

• Neofetch is a free, open-source command-line system information tool that displays system information and an image of your operating system’s logo. It is a popular tool among Linux users and can be easily installed on Rocky Linux 9 or Rocky Linux 8 using the command line terminal.

=> ↺ How to Install Apache Cassandra on Rocky Linux EL9 or EL8

• Apache Cassandra is an increasingly popular NoSQL database that offers businesses and developers many advantages. Its high scalability across multiple commodity servers makes it an attractive choice for storing and accessing large amounts of data. Cassandra provides unparalleled fault tolerance and reliability, meaning the application can keep running even if one or more servers fail. This guide will discuss installing Apache Cassandra on Rocky Linux 9 or Rocky Linux 8 using either the command line.

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

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Apache Cassandra on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Apache Cassandra is a powerful and highly-scalable NoSQL database that is well-suited for use cases that require high write and read throughput. It is a distributed, masterless, and peer-to-peer database that is easy to scale and add new nodes to a cluster without disrupting the overall system.

• 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 Apache Cassandra open source NoSQL Database on Rocky Linux. 9.

=> ↺ Linux Alarm Guide: How to Set Your Reminders or Wake-up Times

• Never oversleep again with our comprehensive Linux alarm guide. Learn how to set alarms on Linux and wake up on time every day.

• Are you tired of relying on your phone for reminders or alarms? Setting the alarm on your computer can be just as convenient, if not more so. In addition, you can set multiple alarms at once and have the bonus of not having to worry about your phone battery dying or losing your phone.

• In this article, I will show you how to set clock alarms on Linux, both from the command line and through a graphical user interface (GUI). This guide is intended for users of all levels of experience, so whether you are a power user who prefers the command line or a beginner who likes a GUI, we have you covered.

=> ↺ How to Remove Packages on Ubuntu Command Line

• Ubuntu users can easily uninstall packages from their system using the command line terminal. Doing so successfully requires knowledge of specific commands and procedures, such as removing a package and configuration files or dependencies that are no longer needed. To help ensure successful removal without creating any issues in your system, this guide provides detailed steps on uninstalling a package on a Ubuntu system.

=> ↺ How to Install HPLIP on Fedora Linux – LinuxCapable

• Staying up to date with your printer and scanner hardware can be challenging, but fortunately, HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) is here to help. This open-source project provides full support for an extensive range of popular distributions like Fedora, making it easy to keep everything running smoothly. Follow this small guide if you’re itching to get HPLIP installed using the command line terminal in no time!

=> ↺ How to Update Packages on Ubuntu Command Line – LinuxCapable

• Ubuntu, like other operating systems, provides frequent updates which aim to fix bugs and make any minor fixes or changes. Updates can be acquired from the terminal where printing the upgradeable packages list is possible. This list includes all newer packages available, allowing you to upgrade one at a time or multiple packages at once. Updating packages and operating systems is critical to bringing users new functionalities and better performance. Keeping your software up-to-date is essential for security reasons and gives access to the latest features available on the platform. The following guide will cover updating packages on the Ubuntu command line.

=> ↺ Install RabbitMQ on Ubuntu

• RabbitMQ is open-source message broker software.

• And if you are curious, the job of the message broker is to receive messages from publishers and route them to the consumers.

• So in this tutorial, I will walk you through step-by-step how you can install RabbitMQ on Ubuntu.

=> ↺ 4 Simple Ways to Take Screenshots with the Context Menu in Linux – TREND OCEANS

• Not getting the option to take screenshots in the menu options? Not to worry, we have four easy solutions for you to try out on your Linux machine.

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

• Zlib is a powerful data compression library used in many software projects worldwide. It simplifies the process of compressing and decompressing data, making it an essential tool for any experienced developer. This small guide will explain two different methods to install Zlib on Ubuntu.

=> ↺ How to Install Go Language on Ubuntu

• Google developed the Go programing language to create a language that is as powerful as C++ but follows simple syntax like Python.

• And because of its efficiency, platforms such as Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform are written in the Go language.

Games

=> ↺ Gamescope (used on Steam Deck) adds in some VR support

• What are you up to Valve? Gamescope, software used on the Steam Deck for Gaming Mode that handles displaying everything recently had some VR work pulled in. Perhaps for the upcoming Deckard VR HMD?

=> ↺ Best Steam Deck Games Released in the Past Week – 2023-01-15 Edition – Boiling Steam

• Between 2023-01-08 and 2023-01-15 there were 100 new games validated for the Steam Deck. We use numerous factors to come up with this list of Best Steam Deck Games every week, such as popularity, ratings, uniqueness, and more…

Distributions and Operating Systems

New Releases

=> ↺ MX Linux 21.3 Released with Xfce 4.18 and Linux Kernel 6.0

• The MX Linux devs released today MX Linux 21.3 as the latest stable version and the third iteration in the MX Linux 21 “Wildflower” stable series of this Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution built around the lightweight Xfce desktop environment.

• MX Linux 21.3 comes four and a half months after MX Linux 21.2 and it features the latest and greatest Xfce 4.18 desktop environment, which brings numerous new features and improvements.

=> ↺ Kodi 20 “Nexus” Released with AV1 Hardware Decoding on Linux, PipeWire Support

• The Kodi 20 “Nexus” has been released today as the latest stable update of this free, open-source, and cross-platform home theater software for GNU/Linux, Android, Raspberry Pi, iOS, tvOS, macOS, and Windows platforms.

• Kodi 20 “Nexus” is a massive update that comes nearly two years after Kodi 19 “Matrix” to introduce major and exciting new features like support for the PipeWire multimedia server, AV1 hardware decoding on Linux via VA-API (Video Acceleration API), AV1 codec support for InputStream, as well as built-in Steam Deck controller support.

=> ↺ LibreELEC (Matrix) 10.0.4 – LibreELEC

• LibreELEC 10.0.4 has been released, bringing Kodi (Matrix) v19.5. Users of LibreELEC 10.x will receive an automatic update (if enabled). LibreELEC 9.2 installs are not automatically updated, and users will need to manually update.

BSD

=> ↺ Exploring the CBSD virtual environment management framework – part 2: Setup

• Let’s continue right were we left off last time. CBSD has been installed on a FreeBSD 13.1 test system that uses ZFS and has been upgraded to version 1.13.21 in the meantime. I will go with /cbsd as the path for the workdir.

=> ↺ Exploring the CBSD virtual environment management framework – part 0: Virtualization overview

• While this is nothing new (FreeBSD introduced jails to the general public in the late 1990’s and they were conceived a while before that), mainstream has largely ignored it until the mid 2010’s when it rose to a real hype as everybody and their cat embraced Docker. Today Linux has the most mature tooling around containers with programs like Kubernetes being used basically everywhere. It has the most fragile implementation, too: Linux containers are a security nightmare. To be fair – they were never meant as a tool for security. Jails and zones on the other hand (still) don’t receive as much attention but are much more solid and an interesting option for people who dare look left and right.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Ubuntu 22.04 LTS servers and phased apt updates

• Steve suggested that it was Ubuntu’s “Phased Update” system, which is what it turned out to be. This set me off to do some investigations, and it turns out that phased (apt) updates explain some other anomalies we’ve seen with package updates on our Ubuntu 22.04 machines.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 22.04 on the ODroid N2+

• Anymore, I just use these sorts of things as desktops. A number of my older posts were about making “Light Desktops” with Pis, but that era has passed. I still apply some of those tweaks, but these? These are just desktops anymore. They can’t do everything, but they continue getting closer and closer over time. They’ve got a decent set of ports, a GPIO header, and, nicely, a proper barrel plug for power. I’ve fought too many voltage drop issues with USB power to appreciate micro USB, though USB-C is getting better. A barrel plug. Use it!

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Low-cost RISC-V BL616 module supports TinyML

• Sipeed launched today two embedded devices based on the RISC-V BL616 microcontroller from Bouffalo Lab. The M0S module is enabled with WiFi6, Bluetooth 5.2 and Zigbee interfaces in addition to support for DVP camera, RGB LCD and Ethernet RMII.

=> ↺ Counting the transistors in the 8086 processor: it’s harder than you might think

• What are these potential transistor sites? ROMs are typically constructed as a grid of cells, with a transistor at a cell for a 1 bit, and no transistor for a 0 bit.2 In the 8086, transistors are created or not through the pattern of silicon doping. The photo below shows a closeup of the silicon layer for part of the 8086′s microcode ROM. The empty regions are undoped silicon, while the other regions are doped silicon. Transistor gates are formed where vertical polysilicon lines (removed for the photo) passed over the doped silicon. Thus, depending on the data encoded into the ROM during manufacturing, the number of transistors varies.

=> ↺ Sensor glove for sign language translation

• All the data from sensors are then processed by the Arduino Nano, which involves IF/ELSE, AND, and OR logical combinations of all the sensor outputs in order to match the resultant output with pre-stored values of different signs regarding the alphabets. For this, appropriate ranges are set for each alphabet and the words that can be recognized with a single hand based on the measured data obtained from repeated measurements. The HC-05 Bluetooth module is connected to Arduino NANO. The processed data are then transferred to the Bluetooth module (transmitter) in string format. The Android mobile also has an inbuilt Bluetooth capability. These two Bluetooth devices are then paired, and the string is transmitted to the Android application.

=> ↺ Did I close the garage door? Let Raspberry Pi check for you

• Two Raspberry Pi Pico W microcontrollers drive this build. One lives inside the garage and controls the door sensors. The other lives inside the house and indicates what state the garage door is in.

• The Pico W inside the garage is connected to two Hall effect sensors attached to different parts of the door opening mechanism. These register whether the door is open or closed.

=> ↺ Come and Get Your Sensors

=> ↺ Bosch Sensortec Announces Tiny Particulate Matter Sensor to Monitor Air Quality

• In addition to being tiny, the BMV080 measures both indoor air quality and outdoor air quality; is fanless; and is silent – all of this makes it high quality but nonintrusive. It is ideal for projects and designs that are compact, but require information about particulate concentration levels.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ The 5 Best QR Scanner Apps For Android

=> ↺ Android 13 QPR2 could let you change your Pixel’s lock screen shortcuts

=> ↺ People are only just realizing there’s an Android feature that makes your phone easier to use in a ‘safe space’ | The US Sun

=> ↺ Android users have virtually no protection from AirTag stalking — and Apple needs to fix it | Tom’s Guide

=> ↺ 7 Best Lawn Care Apps for Android Devices

• Lawn care is essential to maintaining your home’s beauty and value. But maintaining a healthy lawn is quite a time-consuming and challenging task. Fortunately, several excellent lawn care apps for Android can help handle the process more efficiently for you.

• [...]

• Maintaining the health and cleanliness of your lawn is difficult for sure. But it will be more efficient if someone helps you remember all the tasks in time. The basic task of this lawn care app is to remind you of the lawn care schedule. Some of the apps also work great by providing essential lawn care tips. So, check the details of all apps to find exactly which app you should try.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ MRAN is getting shutdown – what else is there for reproducibility with R, or why reproducibility is on a continuum?

• I learnt last week that MRAN is going to get shutdown this year. For those of you that don’t know, MRAN was a CRAN mirror managed by Microsoft. What made MRAN stand out was the fact that Microsoft took daily snapshots of CRAN and it was thus possible to quite easily install old packages using the {checkpoint} package. This was a good thing for reproducibility, and for Windows and macOS, it was even possible to install binary packages, so no need to compile them from source.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

Chromium

=> ↺ Google polishes Chromium code with a layer of Rust • The Register

• Google plans to support the use of third-party Rust libraries in its open source browser project Chromium, a significant endorsement of the programming language and its security characteristics.

• In a blog post published on Thursday, Dana Jansens, from the Chrome security team, said Google’s software engineers have begun working on a production Rust toolchain to its build system. The hope is to include Rust code in the Chrome binary before the end of the year.

• “Our goal in bringing Rust into Chromium is to provide a simpler (no IPC) and safer (less complex C++ overall, no memory safety bugs in a sandbox either) way to satisfy the rule of two, in order to speed up development (less code to write, less design docs, less security review) and improve the security (increasing the number of lines of code without memory safety bugs, decreasing the bug density of code) of Chrome,” explained Jansens.

• Rust, when not written to be unsafe, can avoid memory safety flaws, which represent 70 percent of the serious security bugs identified in Chromium. The language doesn’t guarantee code invulnerability but it can mean many fewer potential flaws.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Where should we use script tag in the HTML ?

• By using the End Approach you will not get any error in the JS code on the console of the browser and all the element tags are found by the DOM API that is present in the HTML code.

=> ↺ You Can (Somewhat) Reliably Measure Change Failure Rate

• In the State of the dora DevOps Metrics in 2022 Logan claims that change failure rate cannot be measured consistently across an organisation. I disagree.

=> ↺ Verifiable Software Development Estimations

• I have long wanted to write this article but I never knew how to structure it. I still don’t, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. Like in the past few articles, there’s some probability theory underlying this article, but I will gloss over it entirely to make it approachable for practically-minded people.

=> ↺ Programmers and Non-Coding Work

• I often hear people say that

• where non-coding work can be things like office politics, budgeting, decisions regarding product direction, technical pre-sales, internal support, being on call for production incidents, etc. I get why that happens. Programming is the fun part. All the other stuff around it that actually delivers value to customers is not as fun, for a lot of people. There are three reasons I think this is the wrong way to go, as tempting as it sounds.

R

=> ↺ End-to-end testing with shinytest2

• Here, we will write a simple shiny app (as an R package) and show how to generate tests for this app using {shinytest2}. As discussed in the previous post, {shinytest2} tests your app as if a user was interacting with it in their browser. The tests generated are application-focussed rather than component-focussed and so give some overall guarantees on how the app should behave.

• This post is slightly more technical than the last, and assumes that the reader is comfortable with creating and unit-testing packages in R, and with shiny development in general.

=> ↺ Fast-Track Your Next Move with R – R-posts.com

• DataCamp is an online data learning platform for all levels. Whether you’ve never written a line in R, you’re working to become a Data Scientist / Analyst with R, or you simply want to bring forward your promotion and add in-demand skills to your resume—upskill today to put your future into your own hands.

• Across 22 R skill tracks and six R career tracks—alongside 400+ interactive courses covering all major data technologies—DataCamp offers learners a career-advancing upskilling solution, regardless of starting point or professional goals. To validate your skills and stand out to employers, all learners have access to Forbes’ #1 ranked Certification program, which elevates certified learners to the top 5% of all DataCamp job searches. From entry-level courses to advanced technical courses in Machine Learning, applied finance, data manipulation, and so much more, DataCamp’s hands-on learning and bite-sized lessons make upskilling efficient and flexible for your career ambitions. Upskill Now For Less – Exclusive to January, DataCamp is offering its Premium Learn subscription—unlimited access to all of the above and more—up to 67% off for an entire year. Go from zero to job-ready in 2023 and put your future in your own hands to thrive in the era of data. Start Now

=> ↺ Dplyr-style without dplyr – Michael’s and Christian’s Blog

• One of the reasons why we love the “dplyr” package: it plays so well together with the forward pipe operator %>% from the “magrittr” package. Actually, it is not a coincidence that both packages were released quite at the same time, in 2014.

=> ↺ MRAN Time Machine will be retired on July 1 (Revolutions)

• One purpose of MRAN was to distribute Microsoft R Open, which was discontinued in 2021. MRAN has also served since 2014 as the repository of a daily archive of CRAN packages. Some R users may still be using these static CRAN snapshots as a default CRAN repository for R scripts either directly, via the checkpoint package, or via older images of the rocker/r-ver container. If this affects you, you will need to find or create a new source of the package archive before MRAN’s retirement.

=> ↺ Check whether any values of a logical vector are TRUE

• Check whether any values of a logical vector are TRUE, this will demonstrate how to utilize all and any R functions in this lesson.

• Since the R syntax and usage of the two functions are almost identical, I’m going to include them both in this article.

=> ↺ rOpenSci | {targets} in Action · Community Call

• The {targets} package is a pipeline tool for Statistics and data science in R. With {targets}, you can maintain a reproducible workflow without repeating yourself. {targets} learns how your pipeline fits together, skips costly runtime for tasks that are already up to date, runs only the necessary computation, supports implicit parallel computing, abstracts files as R objects, and shows tangible evidence that the results match the underlying code and data.

• On this call Will, Eric and Joel will share their experience putting {targets} into action. Eric will share with us Using {targets} with HPC and Joel will talk about Using {targets} for bioinformatics pipelines, then Will will demonstrate Debugging {targets} pipelines.

=> ↺ progressr 0.13.0: cli – progressr = ♥

• progressr 0.13.0 is on CRAN. In the recent releases, progressr gained support for using cli to generate progress bars. Vice versa, cli can now report on progress via the progressr framework. Here are the details. For other updates to progressr, see NEWS.

• The progressr package, part of the futureverse, provides a minimal API for reporting progress updates in R. The design is to separate the representation of progress updates from how they are presented. What type of progress to signal is controlled by the developer. How these progress updates are rendered is controlled by the end user. For instance, some users may prefer visual feedback, such as a horizontal progress bar in the terminal, whereas others may prefer auditory feedback. The progressr package works also when processing R in parallel or distributed using the future framework.

=> ↺ Applications of Data Science in Education – Data Science Tutorials

• Applications of Data Science in Education, Data Science has spread its branches across several essential fields in today’s world.

• It has emerged as a global phenomenon that has revolutionized industries and significantly improved their performance.

• In fact, Data Science has expanded its scope to include education. Previously, we saw numerous Data Science Applications.

• Today, we’ll talk about the value of data science in education. We will also look at how it transforms learning through the use of a case study.

Python

=> ↺ Formalizing f-strings

• The new PEP sets out “”to lift some of the restrictions originally formulated in PEP 498 and to provide a formalized grammar for f-strings that can be integrated into the parser directly””. It notes that the restrictions were set to be removed in PEP 536 (“Final Grammar for Literal String Interpolation”) but that PEP, written in 2016, has never been implemented and was deferred in 2019. In addition to removing the restriction on reusing the f-string quote delimiter within expressions, as mentioned above, the new PEP would dispense with a few other restrictions: escape sequences using backslashes would be permitted in the expressions as would comments in multi-line f-strings. The following examples would work as expected if PEP 701 gets adopted: [...]

Leftovers

=> ↺ Brazilians are turning to Instagram to identify far-right rioters

• Called Contragolpe Brasil—a clever play on words that means both “Against the coup Brazil” and “Counterblow Brazil”—it quickly started posting photos of alleged riot participants. The idea was to crowdsource information that could identify “people who attack democracy in Brazil,” making it easier for authorities to find and punish those who escaped arrest on the day.

• In just 24 hours, it reached 1.1 million followers.

=> ↺ Hovering a Helicopter

• It is my understanding that when you learn to hover a helicopter – a difficult task – you will spin out of control a few times. You will be tempted to say to your instructor, “Your controls”, and let go of the stick. Before you have a chance to utter those words, a good instructor will remind you, “Don’t give up.”

=> ↺ ‘OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems’ print leaking out – Michael W Lucas

• Yesterday, I wrote a big tough screed about how I would push the printer to approve the OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems print. After the horrid delay with the Orcibus, I was ready to chew steel and spit nails. Printer approval isn’t hard: a human eyeballs it and says “yeah, that’ll print,” and hits the button.

=> ↺ Talking with, not talking to

• My example of this is taking to, versus talking with. They’re phrases we use all the time, but they have subtly different meanings and implications.

=> ↺ YA’22R (Yet Another 2022 Retrospective) | flower.codes

• If you follow a lot of personal blogs, I’m sure you are drowning in year-end roundups, retrospectives, and resolutions; I’m sorry to say, this one isn’t going to be much different. It’s such a clichéd post that, looking back on last year’s retrospective, I said almost exactly the same thing.

=> ↺ Patrick Lawrence: ‘Pessimism of the Mind, Optimism of the Will’

• Some years ago now, while researching a book that eventually came out as Somebody Else’s Century, I spent time in Ahmedabad, a city in the northwest Indian state of Gujarat. Ahmedabad has a long and interesting history as a place where Hindus and Muslims lived side by side […]

Science

=> ↺ A Number Maze For Younger Hackers

• [David Johnson-Davies] has a lofty goal of building a small device to give to younger hackers on a semi-yearly basis. So this last year, he designed and created The Number Maze Game, a small handheld logic puzzle maze.

Hardware

=> ↺ Smart LED Curtain Brings Sprites To Your Windows

• Anybody who has ever seen a video wall (and who hasn’t?) will be familiar with the idea of making large-scale illuminated images from individual coloured lights. But how many of us have gone the extra mile and fitted such a display in our own homes? [vcch] has done just that with his Deluxe Smart Curtain that can be controlled with a phone or laptop.

=> ↺ Make Your Own Pot And Encoder Knobs, Without Reinventing Them

• Rotary potentiometers, switches, and encoders all share a basic design: adjustment is done via a shaft onto which a knob is attached, and knobs are sold separately. That doesn’t mean one knob fits all; there are actually a few different standards. But just because knobs are inexpensive and easily obtained doesn’t mean it’s not worth making your own.

=> ↺ Conductive Ink Based On A Simple Idea

• There’s an old series of jokes that starts with: “How do you put an elephant in a refrigerator?” The answer is to open the door, put the elephant inside, and close the door. Most people don’t get that because it is too simple, and simple is the approach Georgia Tech researchers have taken when faced with the problem of using a particular conductive plastic. PEDOT, the plastic in question, is a good conductor, but it is hard to work with. You can add materials to make it easier to work with, but that screws up the conductivity. Their answer is much like the refrigerator joke: add material to PEDOT, paint or print it where you want, and then remove the extra material. Simple.

=> ↺ Too Many Pixels

• Sometimes simpler is more impressive than complicated, and part of this is certainly due to Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”. It’s counter-intuitive, though, that a high-tech project would seem any less amazing than a simpler one, but hear me out.

=> ↺ Homebrew Telephone Exchange Keeps The Family In Touch, In The House And Beyond

• It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while we stumble upon someone who has taken obsolete but really cool phone-switching equipment and built a private switched telephone in their garage or basement using it. This private analog phone exchange is not one of those, but it’s still a super cool build that’s probably about as ambitious as getting an old step-by-step or crossbar switch running.

=> ↺ Building a 100% New Commodore 64

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Consume less, create more

• Every good habit starts with a cue. This part was easy, I simply set up a weekly recurring time slot for writing. However, this cue alone is not enough; I also need to consistently respond to the cue by actually sitting down to write. My wife has generously volunteered act as my accountability partner in building this habit. Additionally, I’ve set up a daily 30 minute screen time limit for specific apps to free up more of my time for creation.

=> ↺ Here is the Truth: Medicare Advantage Is Neither Medicare Nor an Advantage

• Right now, well-funded lobbyists from big health insurance companies are leading a campaign on Capitol Hill to get Members of Congress and Senators of both parties to sign on to a letter designed to put them on the record “expressing strong support” for the scam that is Medicare Advantage.

=> ↺ Briahna Joy Gray: Inside Biden’s DIRTY MONEY Insurance Scheme

• Briahna Joy Gray makes the case that the American healthcare system will only change if voters’ standards change.

=> ↺ Why Won’t the FDA Adopt a Truly Bold Playbook on Medication Abortion?

=> ↺ Oklahoma Bill Signals Growing Push to Prosecute People Who Have Abortions

Proprietary

=> ↺ Microsoft employees are getting unlimited time off

=> ↺ Rubenerd: Unlimited paid time off

• Not to mention that removing liability on the company’s books translates to not being paid out if you leave.

=> ↺ Salesforce Customers Not Swayed by Slack, Analysts Say

• When Salesforce Inc. bought the messaging application Slack for $27.7 billion almost two years ago, it said the marriage would “transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.” Corporate technology buyers so far aren’t impressed, analysts said.

• The acquisition sought to capture the fast-growing market for communications and collaboration software during the Covid-19 pandemic, as employers sent workers home and shifted to remote systems.

• Today, companies in the market for customer-relationship management software — Salesforce’s signature product — don’t appear to be swayed one way or another by the addition of messaging and collaboration features, said Liz Herbert, a vice president and principal analyst at information-technology research firm Forrester Research Inc.

• “We don’t really see, when it comes to Slack, any pent up demand from Salesforce’s base for a tool like that,” Ms. Herbert said. “It really hasn’t become something compelling,” she said.

Security

=> ↺ Frederik Braun : Origins, Sites and other Terminologies

• In order to fully discuss security issues, their common root causes and useful prevention or mitigation techniques, you will need some common ground on the security model of the web. This, in turn, relies on various terms and techniques that will be presented in the next sections.

• [...]

• Some APIs are governed by the notion of a Site, instead of an Origin. A Site is a combination of a scheme and a host’s registerable domain.

• Looking up the registerable domain of a hostname, is a quite literally a check which domain had to be registered (e.g., example.co.uk or is the registerable domain for www.example.co.uk as well as for mail.example.co.uk). This lookup is effectively, a way to include a host and all of its subdomains, but nothing above.

• The idea of a Site is used in a variety of specs that want to allow related web pages to collude with each other for convenience or legacy support reasons. Among them are Storage Access API (3rd Party Cookie Access), WebAuthn and Federated Credential Management.

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ International shipping incident – OSMC

• On 11th January Royal Mail announced that they had suffered from a cyber incident that has prevented them from exporting goods outside of the UK.

• As Royal Mail are our primary shipping partner for B2C shipments, customers are affected.

• We continue to receive information from Royal Mail but they have not stated when this will be resolved. As a result, we are unable to ship items internationally at this time.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ What TikTok Has on You

• TikTok wants to convince the West that it’s just another social media platform, even as the immensely popular short-form video app has been banned from U.S. federal government devices and by several state governments, too. Several lawmakers and officials want to go even further and ban TikTok completely.

• The primary concern, they say, is the likelihood of data collected by the app ending up in the hands of the Chinese government because of TikTok’s ownership by Chinese tech firm ByteDance.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ The U.S. Can’t Make Enough Plutonium Triggers for Its Nuclear Warheads

• A nuclear pit is a hollow ball of plutonium. On a basic level, nuclear weapons work by surrounding one of these balls with high explosives. When the high explosives go off, they apply uniform pressure to the plutonium pit and cause a nuclear explosion. They are a key ingredient in nuclear weapons, but America hasn’t made a new one since 1989.

=> ↺ Weapons Contractors Destroy Lives While Reading Fairy Tales To Children

• A UN report recently revealed that at least 11,000 children have been killed or maimed in the US-backed War in Yemen. At the same time, the weapons contractors that helped create this massacre are reading fairy tales to British children! You probably already know that, as reported by Alex Kane for In These […]

=> ↺ Britain’s 42 coups since 1945

• Probably the most well-known coup staged by British intelligence since 1945 was the overthrow of Iran’s democratically-elected government in 1953 – an operation planned with the CIA. But the UK has been involved in at least 41 other attempts to overthrow governments since the end of the Second World War.

• These have ranged from intelligence-led to military-led operations, both overt and covert, with some being successful from Whitehall’s standpoint, while many have failed to achieve their objectives.

• Many remain little known, while others are shrouded in secrecy, with only a few details having emerged.

• The year 1953 was in fact a busy one for Whitehall planners since, as well as removing Mohammed Mossadeq in Iran, they sent a gunboat to overthrow the democratically-elected government in British Guiana, led by the popular nationalist Cheddi Jagan.

=> ↺ The UK’s 83 military interventions around the world since 1945

• The British military has used or threatened to use military force much more in the postwar world than is conventionally remembered or believed. Declassified has documented 83 interventions by the UK armed forces since 1945, in 47 different countries.

• The most striking of the British uses of force have been the overt invasions or armed attempts to overthrow governments such as in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1953, Egypt in the 1950s, Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011.

• The brutal colonial counter-insurgency wars of the 1950s and 1960s – in Kenya, Malaya, Aden and Cyprus – involved the widespread use of torture and, often, pernicious operations to displace large numbers of people to control the local population.

=> ↺ Putin’s George W. Bush Problem: or Bush’s Putin Problem?

• V. Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine is a war crime. Although the “NATO expansion” is an apparent effort to encircle Russia on its western border with new NATO members, despite the promise of the Bush I administration not to do so, may be considered on the issue of appropriate punishment, it is no defense to the crime. In fact, aggressive war, or a war of invasion, is the “ultimate war crime” according to the Nuremberg Tribunal and the US Prosecutor Justice Jackson.

=> ↺ Wargaming a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan: No one wins.

• War is a language of lies. Cold and callous, it emanates from dull, technocratic minds, draining life of color. It is an institutional offense to the human spirit.

=> ↺ Russia shells Ukraine twice in a day, striking infrastructure and civilian homes — Meduza

• In Kyiv there was an air raid alert in the morning on January 14. Presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko reported missile strikes on the capital’s critical infrastructure.

=> ↺ A full day of shelling Five dead and dozens wounded in Russia’s January 14 attack on Ukraine — Meduza

• Russia subjected Ukraine to yet another round of shelling on the afternoon of January 14. In Dnipro, a missile struck a nine-story apartment complex. Nikolay Lukashuk, chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, reported that the second through ninth floors collapsed between the second and third buildings in the complex. Mayor of Dnipro Borys Filatov said that the shelling had knocked out power to the whole region.

=> ↺ ‘We can do it again’: The invention and reinvention of an ‘antifascist-fascist’ slogan — Meduza

• The Second World War was a transformative, foundational event for the Soviet Union. When the Red Army captured Berlin in May, 1945, it signaled victory over years of massive, widespread suffering and death among soldiers and civilians. In the years leading up to Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, certain aspects of the Second World War acquired special symbolic significance in Russia, which has positioned itself as the “owner” of that period’s legacy. Russian Victory Day, celebrated every year on May 9, gradually transformed from a day of quiet remembrance for fallen veterans into increasingly lavish saber-rattling spectacles. Pro-Putin propagandists, and eventually Putin himself, began speaking of the need to “de-nazify” Ukraine — this would become one of the main justifications for the invasion. And a World War II-era slogan, “We can do it again,” appeared as a popular evocation of both the sacrifices previous generations made to defeat Nazi Germany and the contemporary Russian chauvinism that fuels the war in Ukraine. Meduza explains the origins of the phrase “We can do it again,” and how it was transformed from a celebration of dignity and sacrifice into a symbol of aggressive nationalism — and a lewd bumper sticker.

=> ↺ Military Prosecutor from Vladimir region demands that Russia block the UN website — Meduza

• The military prosecutor who operates in the Vladimir region demanded that Russia block the UN’s main news website. News agency TASS confirmed the information with the district court where the suit was filed.

Environment

=> ↺ Thousands Rally in the Rain to Protest Destruction of German Village for Coal Mine

• Thousands of people demonstrated in a pouring rain on Saturday protesting the clearance and demolition of a village in western Germany that is due to make way for the expansion of the coal mine Garzweiler.

=> ↺ Thousands Rally to Protest Destruction of German Village for Coal Mine Expansion

=> ↺ NASA scientist arrested after chaining himself to Chase Bank as part of global climate protests | Business Insider India

• A NASA scientist and three others were arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday after chaining themselves to the doors of a Chase Bank office building.

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. has invested more money in fossil fuels than any other bank, according to a 2020 report from the Sierra Club and other climate advocacy organizations. In addition to calling for immediate action to address the climate crisis, the protestors on Wednesday were calling for the company to divest from coal, oil, and gas.

=> ↺ With stroke of his pen, Gov. Mike DeWine defines [fossil] gas as green energy

• The term green energy typically refers to energy derived from the sun and wind, not fossil fuels. Natural gas is a fossil fuel released by digging into the earth that acts as a greenhouse gas via leakage during transport and when it’s combusted. Its main component is methane, a potent heat-trapping gas.

• “Characterizing natural gas as green energy is regressive and a fallacy,” said Cinnamon Carlarne, the Robert J. Lynn Chair in Law at the Ohio State University. “Natural gas is not green energy. The labelling is a little bit Orwellian.”

• [...]

• Speaking to reporters on both Thursday and Friday morning, DeWine declined to comment on the gas bill. He announced his decision to sign it in an email just before 5 p.m. Friday.

• “It’s so ridiculous,” Waggoner said. “Nothing says I’m ashamed of this bill like sending out the release at 4:48 p.m.”

=> ↺ 2022 was a remarkable year for the climate. Here’s what to expect in 2023. » Yale Climate Connections

• The past year was full of milestones in the worlds of climate science and policy.

• The year 2022 saw one of the strongest La Niña events in the past half-century, second only to that in 2011. La Niña events draw cold water up to the surface of the Pacific Ocean and so tend to be associated with relatively cold years.

• But despite the powerful short-term cooling effect of its La Niña event, 2022 was approximately the fifth-hottest year ever recorded — and the hottest La Niña year on record. The year’s temperature will be similar to that of 2015, which at the time shattered the previous temperature record, thanks in part to an El Niño warming boost. El Niños raise warm water to the ocean surface, and as a result, the hottest years measured at Earth’s surface tend to coincide with El Niño events.

=> ↺ More wind, rain, flooding ahead for storm-battered California » Yale Climate Connections

• A series of Pacific storms that’s taken aim on California since late December is on track to continue into mid-January. Ferocious winds will slam much of the state on Wednesday and Thursday, accompanied by heavy rain likely to trigger widespread flash floods. After a brief break, at least two more potent systems are expected over the following week.

• The driver of the relentless storminess is an exceptionally strong jet stream that extends across much of the Pacific at unusually low latitudes. Each major impulse along the jet stream has pulled tropical moisture northward and concentrated it into atmospheric rivers — the channels of moisture aloft that bring California some of its most intense rain and flood events.

Finance

=> ↺ Brady, Gisele, Patriots’ Bob Kraft Among FTX Shareholders Facing Wipeout

• Billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and star NFL quarterback Tom Brady are among those sharing in the pain of FTX Group’s sudden implosion.

• Brady, formerly a prominent FTX booster, owns more than 1.1 million common shares of FTX Trading, bankruptcy court documents show. His ex-wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, has more than 680,000 shares in the same entity.

=> ↺ Private Equity Is Turbocharging Damage of Payday Lending Industry

• Predatory lending is an easily overlooked business that has damaged communities of color and poorer people for decades. It traps borrowers in never-ending cycles of debt with high-interest loans on coercive terms. But when Wall Street private equity gets in on the predatory lending industry, it amplifies the magnitude of financial exploitation.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Director Ria Jairam “Recused” by ARRL, and It Seems Political To Me.

• Ria wrote a book on how to pass the Technian class Amateur Radio license exam. ARRL’s Ethics and Elections Committee gave their approval for Ria to publish the book, and that committee later rescinded that approval under the influence of ARRL CEO David Minster and President Rick Roderick. ARRL admits all of this in their own report. Thus it seems Ria acted innocently and ARRL changed their mind. The total revenue for the book to Ria was around USD$10K. The publisher makes the rest. $10K is what lawyers would call de minimus, a small issue that should not raise weighty legal issues like a conflict of interest that would recuse a director from discussions, seemingly forever. No date for an end to the recusal was suggested in the minutes, although we know that book sales diminish sharply after first publication, and this sort of book only has a lifetime as long as the current Technican question pool.

• The minutes are potentially defamatory to Ria in that they don’t mention the prior approval or how small an issue the book really was. They would be prejudicial to any future director election, and appear to be designed to be that way.

=> ↺ Over a Hundred Thousand Israelis Protest Netanyahu Government

• Tens of thousands of Israelis marched in central Tel Aviv and in two other major cities on Saturday night, protesting far rightwing PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the legal system and weaken the Supreme Court — undermining democratic rule just weeks after his election.

=> ↺ Like Trump and Bolsonaro, Canada’s Pierre Poilievre Offers Anger, But No Solutions

• Populist leaders who inspire their angry followers to storm the national capitol seem to be in vogue these days.

=> ↺ McCarthy’s Concessions to MAGA Diehards Have Paved the Way to Brutal Austerity

=> ↺ NYT Moves to ‘Stack the Deck of Justice’ Against Its Subscribers

• “Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking the Deck of Justice” was a headline on a groundbreaking New York Times report (10/31/15) from 2015. Reporters Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Robert Gebeloff looked into the fine-print “agreements” that people sign, usually without reading them, as a requirement for obtaining credit card memberships or cellphone contracts or internet service—contracts that tell you that if there is any problem with your account, the company “may elect to resolve any claim by individual arbitration.”

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Faculty Perspective: Remembering H. Chandler Davis

• The University of Michigan’s annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom was established by the University Senate in honor of three academics who were wrongfully dismissed by the university for refusing to cooperate in the witch-hunt led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee.

• In September 2022, H. Chandler Davis, the last surviving member of the group, passed away. Davis was a man of firm political commitments, a remarkable man of great and varied talents. Born in 1924 in Ithaca, New York, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and after the war undertook a Ph.D. in mathematics at Harvard, which he completed in 1950.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ CIA Pushes for Dismissal of Lawsuit Against Alleged Spying on Assange Visitors

• By Kevin Gosztola / The Dissenter The Central Intelligence Agency and former CIA director Mike Pompeo notified a federal court in New York that they intend to push for the dismissal of a lawsuit that alleges that they were involved in spying against attorneys and journalists who visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador’s London […]

=> ↺ CIA Pushes For Dismissal Of Lawsuit Against Alleged Spying On Assange Visitors

• This article was funded by paid subscribers of Shadowproof’s Dissenter Newsletter. Become a monthly paid subscriber to help us continue our independent journalism.The Central Intelligence Agency and former CIA director Mike Pompeo notified a federal court in New York that they intend to push for the dismissal of a lawsuit that alleges that they were involved in spying against attorneys and journalists who visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador’s London embassy. Both the CIA and Pompeo maintain that the “allegations in the complaint do not establish a violation of the Fourth Amendment [right to privacy].” In August 2022, four Americans who visited Assange in the embassy sued the CIA and Pompeo in his individual capacity: Margaret Ratner Kunstler, a civil rights activist and human rights attorney; Deborah Hrbek, a media lawyer, represented Assange or WikiLeaks; journalist John Goetz, who worked for Der Spiegel when the German media organization first partnered with WikiLeaks; and journalist Charles Glass, who wrote articles on Assange for The Intercept.

• The filed complaint alleged that as visitors Glass, Goetz, Hrbek, and Kunstler were required to “surrender” their electronic devices to employees of a private company called UC Global that was contracted to provide security for the embassy. What they did not know was that UC Global “copied the information stored on the devices” and allegedly shared the information with the CIA, and Pompeo allegedly authorized and approved the action.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ A sheriff in Louisiana has been destroying records of deputies’ alleged misconduct for years

• Like all public agencies, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office is required by law to secure approval from the Louisiana State Archives, a division of the Secretary of State’s Office, before destroying its public records. It also is required to secure approval for policies, or schedules, dictating how long public records are to be retained before they are eligible for disposal.

• The sheriff’s office failed to do either, records show. The only JPSO records retention policy on file with the state concerns body-worn and vehicle-mounted cameras. That was approved in November. The sheriff has not sought approval for retention policies concerning any other public record, including disciplinary files, according to the state archives.

=> ↺ Why do I say we should defund the police? My lived experience

• Well, I don’t. As a child, when armed gunmen stormed my home, held my family hostage and stole our belongings, my dad called the police after they fled, only to be greeted by two cops who showed up hours late with terrible attitudes. That incident was followed by years of cops digging in our pockets and stealing my money, chasing and beating on my friends and me; cops who booked us for stats, the countless traffic tickets for DWB (Driving While Black); the times they made us lie face-down on cold concrete just because they could, the years of senseless trash talk; the brave officers who fixed their lips to call us “Black ass nrs,” and “Jungle nrs”; and one particular, pale Baltimore City cop who dragged his chunky index finger slowly across his neck, calling me a “dead n****r.”

• Some cops can’t wait to wreak havoc on a peaceful block, but never show up during shoot-outs like real heroes would.

=> ↺ HarperCollins Debut Authors Say They Won’t Work With Strikebreaking Editors

=> ↺ New Biden Policy Could Protect Migrant Worker Whistleblowers From Deportation

=> ↺ Some Africans Can’t Get Asylum in Israel Because Persecution Is Normal There

• While the numbers of Israeli atrocities and crimes are far too many to count, from time to time we come across something that stands out. This time it is the decision of Israel’s outgoing Minister of Interior to deny asylum to a woman facing female genital mutilation.

=> ↺ The Fading of Washington’s Global Dreams and the Coming of a New World

• Alfred McCoy suggests what the U.S. might do in its own hemisphere to come to grips with the decline of our country and planet as a whole.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Rubenerd: The solution to centralisation

• I empathise, and in my darker moments I may even agree. But podcasting is proof there’s evidence to be optimistic. It’s resistance to being silod isn’t happenstance, it’s a function of its design. Much as we expect to be able to load any webpage in our browser, we assume we can publish and listen to any podcast on any client we want. Platforms that have attempted to wrestle control away with proprietary extensions or exclusive content have failed for this reason.

• Software may help with discovery, subscriptions, and sharing, but the underlying protocols are the building blocks of the web. They’re open, distributed, and owned by nobody. Social networks can be built the same way, with the same inherent resiliency.

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ German Constitutional Court rejects complaints against Boards of Appeal

=> ↺ German Constitutional Court is rogue

• The German Constitutional Court has confirmed that it has no objections to the current structure of the Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Office, after the judges yesterday rejected complaints about deficiencies in the rule of law. The EPO can thus draw a line under one of the biggest, most controversial issues of the Battistelli era.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Dozens of Pirate IPTV, Streaming Sites & Apps Face Uncertainty in 2023

• Dozens of pirate IPTV services, streaming apps, and web-based streaming sites are part of a new sweep by the ACE anti-piracy coalition. Investigations may still be in the early stages but for those targeted, ACE is known for continuously applying pressure until something gives.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ Galette des Rois

• La Galette des Rois is a traditional French cake that is made and eaten once a year during Epiphany, in early January. The precise date should be the first Sunday of January after the New Year, but you can actually find it in stores and bakery all throughout January.

=> ↺ My attempt at solarpunk

• Barman, a local, vegan, enviro…. heck, just some nice cider from around these parts, please.

• So, I’m going to talk about my book. Oh, don’t scoop yourselves away, I’m not really a writer, and you won’t buy my book, because I’m not selling it.

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: ADFHLUN Wordo: RAVES

=> ↺ When good work life kills motivation

• I’ve had a strange realization lately. I’ve noticed that when my work life is good, I lose motivation for the other activities in my life. Granted some of this is probably due to a lack of time and energy, but it feels as if my biggest motivation for hobbies and recreation was the fact that my previous jobs had sucked. If I felt like my 8 to 5 was killing me, I had a bigger need to find something to make my day not feel so bad.

• This has also got me thinking about what keeps other people motivated. Especially when it comes to those aspects of life that are purely for fun. I’m in that strange spot in life where my kids aren’t quite self sufficient with their own activities so my time outside of work is split between making meals, and keeping them entertained. With working the whole work from home situation I don’t find time for any sort of decompression which is even more reason to be motivated to do something purely cathartic.

=> ↺ First week

• Today marks the end of the first week in the new year where we had to

• go to work. The whole week long.

• Monday was spent doing the usual chores after a longer absence -

• downloading & installing a bunch of updates, working through emails,

• socializing with those present in the office (only a handful of

• colleagues, the others we’ll never see again with our mobile working

• policy).

=> ↺ Christina’s 5 questions

• I love to answer Christina’s questions and read

• others’ answers. She wrote 5 new ones!

=> ↺ Manga Review: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

• The past week or so I’ve been getting back into reading manga. I never stopped, but I have only been keeping up with a single manga – Sono Bisque Doll (My Dress-up Darling). I don’t read much else, but I started reading more, as a way to get myself out of my office.

=> ↺ Observations working at a museum

• I didn’t spend a ton of time with my grandfather as a kid, being that he lived in St. Louis and I lived in Texas. However, it was always fun to visit him as a kid and hang out in his studio. He is a very talented abstract artist who converted a large portion of his basement to painting large abstract oil paintings & acrylics based on reference photographs he took. I grew a lot of my love for art from spending time with him, and through spending that time gained a real appreciation for abstract and minimalist art.

• This isn’t to say I have some pretentious higher understanding of the meaning behind the piece. Because, as you will soon see, I don’t think that it is worth it to “get” every piece of art you come in contact to. I just think that art is neat, and you approach different things from different perspectives.

Technical

=> ↺ Nextcloud Speedbump

• I’ve been running my own Nextcloud off an Ubuntu box in my apartment and for the most part it’s been smooth sailing. I’m even using the Nextcloud snap package and have been really happy with it despite all the gripes you often read about snap packages online. After over a year I’ve only just barely hit one of my first snags in running Nextcloud.

• Now this isn’t the snag, but I thought I’d mention real quick that the new version 25 of Nextcloud includes a redesign that I’m not too enthusiastic about. I’ll get used to it but now there’s a colored, rounded frame around the entire page.

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ Perception of what the Internet looks like today

• I came across DOStodon, a Mastodon client for MS-DOS. I looked at screenshots and I saw today’s Internet distorted by the crystal of time. So there is almost everything in its place, but it looks different. A similar feeling accompanies browsing a world map in MapSCII, and probably during the usage of other niche tools.

• So we have a vision of today’s Internet in our mind. It could be similar to the vision of the black-and-white film era, which made our minds feel that people, cities, and their activities then were less colorful than now. Or characteristic colors of Kodachrome film, which is emulated today by software color palettes.

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

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