● 02.15.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 15/02/2023: FreeBSD 13.2 Beta, Istio 1.17, and ChromeOS on Zephyr

Posted in News Roundup at 9:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ ChromeOS now runs on top of Linux and, er, Zephyr …

• You probably knew Google’s ChromeOS is a Linux distribution. But, now, it’s running on more than Linux under the hood. I didn’t, and I’ve been covering Chrome OS like paint since the day it arrived. Today, your newer Chromebook also depends on the open-source Zephyr Project Real-Time Operating System (RTOS). Here’s Chrome OS’s history and where Zephyr comes in.

• Originally, ChromeOS’s beginnings were shrouded in mystery. Jeff Nelson, a former Google engineer, claimed that he created “Google OS,” an ancestor to Chrome OS, which used Firefox as its browser, although it is a matter of dispute whether this project is connected to the operating system we know today.

=> ↺ XSAs released on 2023-02-14

• The Xen Project has released one or more Xen security advisories (XSAs). The security of Qubes OS is not affected. Therefore, no user action is required.

=> ↺ Will installing Ubuntu Linux make a laptop faster? – Linux Shout

• Then you should consider installing Ubuntu Linux distro as it may be able to help you boost your laptop performance considerably. In some situations, you will be surprised by the performance gap that could be seen in the Laptop after switching to the free Ubuntu distribution.

Server

=> ↺ Announcing Istio 1.17

• We are pleased to announce the release of Istio 1.17. This is the first Istio release of 2023. We would like to thank the entire Istio community for helping get the 1.17.0 release published. We would like to thank the Release Managers for this release, Mariam John from IBM, Paul Merrison from Tetrate and Kalya Subramanian from Microsoft. The release managers would specially like to thank the Test & Release WG lead Eric Van Norman (IBM) for his help and guidance throughout the release cycle. We would also like to thank the maintainers of the Istio work groups and the broader Istio community for helping us throughout the release process with timely feedback, reviews, community testing and for all your support to help ensure a timely release.

=> ↺ Istio 1.17 Upgrade Notes

• When you upgrade from Istio 1.16.x to Istio 1.17, you need to consider the changes on this page. These notes detail the changes which purposefully break backwards compatibility with Istio 1.16.x. The notes also mention changes which preserve backwards compatibility while introducing new behavior. Changes are only included if the new behavior would be unexpected to a user of Istio 1.16.x. Users upgrading from 1.15.x to Istio 1.17 should also reference the 1.16 change notes.

=> ↺ Istio 1.17.0 Change Notes

• These notices describe functionality that will be removed in a future release according to Istio’s deprecation policy. Please consider upgrading your environment to remove the deprecated functionality.

=> ↺ How I built a homelab with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) | Enable Sysadmin

• As a recovering sysadmin, the last thing I want is to end up being technical support at home. I often tell people that I wish I had the tools available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) now when I was a fresh Linux sysadmin.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ SFP#19: Why we need Free Software on medical devices with Karen Sandler

• For this episode Bonnie Mehring met with Karen Sandler to talk about her relationship with Free Software. Karen depends on a medical device to keep her heart working. This led her to become an advocate for Free Software in medical devices.

=> ↺ WP Briefing: Episode 49: Everything You Need to Know About the Community Summit!

• Episode forty-nine of the WordPress Briefing explores the What, Why, and Who behind the upcoming Community Summit in National Harbor, DC, USA, August 22-23, 2023. Join Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy to learn the importance of the gathering to the WordPress project.

=> ↺ Make your own I Love Free Software Day video

• Made in honor of “I Love Free Software Day.”

=> ↺ MX Linux 21.3 KDE Quick Overview #shorts – Invidious

• A Quick Overview of MX Linux 21.3 KDE

=> ↺ Endless OS 5.0.0 overview | The operating system that comes with everything your family needs. – Invidious

• In this video, I am going to show an overview of Endless OS 5.0.0 and some of the applications pre-installed.

=> ↺ This FOSS software is watching you. Here’s why. – Invidious

=> ↺ 30 Days with elementary OS 7 – The Cost of Idealism – Linux Distro Review – Invidious

=> ↺ KDE PLASMA 5.27: the biggest, best KDE release yet! – Invidious

=> ↺ You Can Buy Modern Linux Distros On A DVD?? – Invidious

=> ↺ Bypass Paywalls Vanishes From Firefox Addon Store – Invidious

=> ↺ The Reasons Developers Prefer Linux Over Windows Are Why EVERYONE Should Use Linux – Invidious

=> ↺ 312: Linux At The Movies & Making Open Source Radio Waves!

=> ↺ Linux User Space Episode 3:16: The Cent of a Distro

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Demystifying Linux Kernel Initialization – The New Stack

• Let’s first talk about how much visibility a user has into what’s happening on their system and the state of the kernel itself. The Linux kernel is constantly printing diagnostic messages to the kernel ring buffer. As the name indicates, this ring buffer is a circular buffer in which older messages get overwritten by newer ones. It prints important messages about the initialization process during initialization and boot up. Several priority levels, such as emergency, critical, error, warning and informational are supported and logged to the ring buffer.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Quickly Check the System Uptime on Linux

• When was the last time you shut down or restarted your Linux system? Can’t remember? Maintaining an optimal uptime is essential for the smooth running of your system and preventing downtime.

• It is also essential to know your system uptime when troubleshooting. You do not need to be a tech guru to be able to check your system’s uptime when you need to. Let’s see how you can easily check the uptime for your Linux system.

=> ↺ How to Use the Desktop Mode on Steam Deck (2023) | Beebom

• Want to access SteamOS on your Steam Deck? In this guide, learn how to enable and use the Desktop Mode on your Steam Deck.

=> ↺ Run Multiple GNOME Virtual Boxes Parallelly on Linux

• GNOME Boxes is a utility that easily allows you to create “virtual boxes” where you can run any operating system or Linux distribution virtually on your system.

=> ↺ Login as Root in Ubuntu GUI

• If you really want it, you can log in as root into the Ubuntu desktop using GNOME. Here’s how to do that.

=> ↺ How To Install Nginx on Fedora 37

=> ↺ How To Install phpPgAdmin on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

=> ↺ How To Install Go on Fedora 37

=> ↺ How To Install CodeIgniter on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

=> ↺ How To Install OpenVAS on Rocky Linux 9

=> ↺ How To Redirect www To Non-www Domain on Nginx

=> ↺ How to Upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.27 from 5.26

• A beginner’s guide to upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.27 from Plasma 5.26 desktop environment via terminal and GUI method.

=> ↺ Translate Selected Text With A Keyboard Shortcut Using Crow Translate (X11 + GNOME Wayland) – Linux Uprising Blog

• I was looking for a way to easily translate selected text that works under GNOME with Wayland, and find out that Crow Translate provides just this, bu

=> ↺ 6 Key Performance Metrics to Monitor in Linux Servers

• This 4-part series will explain six key performance metrics to monitor in a Linux server. By the end of this series, you will understand what factors in a Linux system you need to look out for that contribute to the overall system performance and also their relative importance.

• Is your Linux server slow or are applications hosted on it showing unexpected behavior or signs of sluggish performance? Many factors in a Linux server affect its overall performance or the performance of applications hosted on it.

• But there are a few key metrics you need to track that can impact the most critical things such as response time or execution time of processes, throughput – the total amount of work the server can do in a given time, and much more.

=> ↺ How to configure the Let’s Encrypt email notification when a cert is skipped, renewed, or error

• Let us see how to configure the Let’s Encrypt email notification when a TLS/SSL cert is skipped, renewed, or an error is created by “acme.sh” client so developers or sysadmin can investigate the matter further.

=> ↺ How to install CLion on KDE Neon – Invidious

• In this video, we are looking at how to install CLion on KDE Neon.

=> ↺ How to install Google Chrome on KDE Neon – Invidious

• In this video, we are looking at how to install Google Chrome on KDE Neon.

=> ↺ How to Create a New User in Raspberry Pi OS

• Older versions of Raspberry Pi OS used to have standard user credentials by default. Although the newer version asks you to create a custom username and password during installation, you may need to create more users down the road to meet additional requirements.

• You can do this easily using Linux commands, and since Raspberry Pi OS is a flavor of Linux, the same commands apply to other distros as well.

=> ↺ Install FCEUX on Ubuntu and play some NES games

• Today, you will learn how to install FCEUX on Ubuntu. This NES emulator will help you to relive old times or play some games for leisure.

=> ↺ 4 Useful Commands to Find Virtualization Type in Linux

• Linux can be run on various platforms including bare-metal, virtual servers, and even containers. If you are running a Linux server on a virtualized environment such as VirtualBox, you might probably want to know which type of virtualization technology it is running on.

=> ↺ How to install PPSSPP on a Chromebook

=> ↺ How to install RStudio on a Chromebook in 2023

=> ↺ How to install Zrythm on a Chromebook

WINE or Emulation

=> ↺ CodeWeavers CrossOver 22.1 for macOS Linux and ChromeOS has been released

• Hi folks,

• I’m thrilled to announce that CodeWeavers has releasedCrossOver 22.1for macOS, Linux and ChromeOS!

=> ↺ Lutris 0.5.13-beta1 has been released

• Lutris helps you install and play video games from all eras and from most gaming systems. By leveraging and combining existing emulators, engine re-implementations and compatibility layers, it gives you a central interface to launch all your games.

Games

=> ↺ Steam Next Fest, February 2023: The Big Recap (24 Games Tested on Linux)

• Following our most recent tradition to cover the Steam Next Fest, we tested some of the freshest demos from the recent Steam Next Fest edition that just ended on the 13th of February 2023.

=> ↺ Release candidate: Godot 4.0 RC 2

• The Godot 4.0 release is mere days away! We’ve had a first release candidate last week, and since then our contributors have been fully focused on fixing regressions and critical bugs to ensure that the upcoming 4.0 release will be a great foundation to build upon.

• The Production team has been hard at work assessing the remaining PRs and issues in the 4.0 milestone, pushing non-critical or risky changes to the 4.1 milestone, or prioritizing what could actually still be done so close to the release. Astute watchers of the 4.0 milestone’s completion ratio will have noticed a significant increase, but that doesn’t mean that all issues are being solved. Some will be fixed in time for 4.1, and cherry-picked for 4.0.x maintenance releases along the way.

• Regardless of which milestone our contributors assign to your issues, be sure to keep reporting any major or minor problem you’re having with 4.0 RC 2! Your test reports at this stage are critical for us to assess whether we can finally stamp the current development branch as “stable” and release it to all platforms.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ KDE Plasma desktop 5.27 Released! PPA for (K)Ubuntu 22.04

• KDE Plasma desktop announced the new 5.27 release today! It’s a LTS release with support until 2024!

• Plasma 5.27 features new window tiling system. By enabling it in “System Settings > Workspace Behavior > Desktop Effects“, user can press and hold Shift key and then drag app windows to auto-resize and place them in the screen side by side.

• By pressing the Windows logo key + T will go into the tile editing mode. There user can configure to have custom tile layouts.

=> ↺ The KDE Plasma Desktop on Linux Just Got a Big Update

• KDE Plasma is one of the most popular desktop environments on Linux computers, taking inspiration from Windows and macOS and adding countless customization options on top. There’s now a new release that makes it even better.

• Just in time for Free Software Day, the KDE community has released Plasma 5.27, the latest version of the desktop environment used in operating systems like Kubuntu, KDE Neon, openSUSE, and Fedora KDE. The best improvement might be the new tiling system, which allows you to set up custom tile layouts and resize adjacent windows simultaneously. It’s much more powerful than the window tiling features in Windows, but the feature is “still in its infancy” and might not work well for everyone.

=> ↺ KDE Plasma 5.27 released with multi-monitor & Wayland upgrades, Steam Deck updater

• KDE Plasma 5.27 sounds like a really great update to this desktop environment, the same one used on the desktop mode for the Steam Deck and my personal choice for my PC too.

• Coming in on Valentines Day and the “I Love Free Software Day” (that’s apparently a thing?), it brings an absolute ton of enhancements to the desktop experience including a new introduction wizard to guide you through a first time install that might help a few confused users. There’s also a window tiling system, updates to app themes, upgrades to the widgets system, adjustments to system settings so it’s not so overloaded, Discover now supports full Steam Deck system upgrades and so much more.

=> ↺ KDE Delivers Plasma 5.27 Valentine

• The new version celebrates Free Software Day and is set to be the final KDE Plasma 5 release.

• The KDE Community has announced the release of version 5.17 of its flagship Plasma Linux desktop environment.

=> ↺ Send you talks for Linux App Summit 2023 now!

• Call for proposal ends this Saturday 18th of February.

• I’m sure there’s lots of interesting things you have to talk about so head over tohttps://linuxappsummit.org/cfp/and press the “Submit your talk” button

=> ↺ KDE Plasma 5.27.0 on Fedora (via our COPR)

• There’s acatchthough: you will have to use ourCOPR.

• The regular update on Fedora repositories will follow shortly, I will keep you all posted.

• Feel free to join us at ourMatrix room!.

Distributions and Operating Systems

=> ↺ The Top 10 Linux Distros for Different Use Cases

• Linux is an open-source operating system that offers a wide range of choices for users based on their needs and preferences. The beauty of Linux is that it is highly customizable, which means users can tweak the OS to fit their specific requirements. However, with so many Linux distros available, it can be overwhelming to decide which one to choose.

New Releases

=> ↺ KaOS 2023.02 Released with the Brand-New KDE Plasma 5.27

• KaOS is an independent rolling-release distribution inspired by Arch Linux and entirely focused on the KDE Plasma Desktop and related Qt Toolkit-based software.

• Although it uses Pacman as its package manager, KaOS does not rely on software repositories developed and maintained by Arch. Instead, the software is available from in-house repositories, built exclusively for 64-bit systems.

=> ↺ KaOS 2023.02

• It is with great pleasure to present to you the February release of a new stable ISO.

• For the Plasma desktop, the latest Plasma (5.27.0), KDE Gear (22.12.2), and Frameworks (5.103.0) are included. All built on Qt 5.15.8+. Among the many changes included in Plasma 5.27 are the Big Multi-monitor Refactor to make working with screens much more reliable. There is also a new fine grained control tools when the user has 3 or more screens connected. For those with a large monitor KWin has long been able to place one window on the left and one on the right. Now with Meta-T the quick tiling is launched allowing complete control of where your windows are placed. Drag windows with Shift pressed and it will stick to the tiled layout. And a new System Settings module has been added to easily control the settings for Flatpaks. Your browser does not support the video tag.

BSD

=> ↺ FreeBSD 13.2-BETA1 Now Available

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ AI/ML at the Edge: 4 things CIOs should know

=> ↺ 4 key IT skills to grow in 2023

=> ↺ Build smaller container images using S2I

• The Source-to-Image (S2I) framework makes it easy for developers to transfer their projects into ready-to-use and reproduciblecontainerimages. S2I consists of atoolthat prepares your container, along with manybase imagesto choose from.

=> ↺ Remote container development with VS Code and Podman

=> ↺ 5 things developers should know about edge computing

• Edge computinghas become a major part of our current technology ecosystem, from your neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts to the watch on your wrist. In fact, Gartner estimates that “about 10% of enterprise-generated data is created and processed outside a traditional centralized data center or cloud” (essentially, edge). A

=> ↺ CentOS 7 vs CentOS 8 – Which is a better choice for you?

• The new release of CentOS is here and has brought in man changes many users have questioned about. I know many of you are considering an upgrade, but why? This CentOS 7 vs CentOS 8 comparison goes over points such as performance, updates and stability so you can choose the best.

=> ↺ IT leadership: 5 steps to develop a world-class workplace culture

• It’s more important than ever for organizations and teams to foster a strong, positive workplace culture. Check out these leadership tips to set a strategy for success

=> ↺ Why tech teams must prioritize leadership skills in 2023

• Strong leadership will be more important than ever in the year ahead. Here’s how to identify the ‘power’ skills your IT team needs

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Real-time Ubuntu released, offers end-to-end security and reliability

• Canonical released real-time Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, providing a deterministic response to an external event, aiming to minimise the response time guarantee within a specified deadline.

• The new enterprise-grade real-time kernel is ideal for stringent low-latency requirements. Enterprises in industrial, telecommunications, automotive, aerospace and defence, as well as public sector and retail, can now run their most demanding workloads and develop a wide range of time-sensitive applications on the open-source operating system (OS).

• “The real-time Ubuntu kernel delivers industrial-grade performance and resilience for software-defined manufacturing, monitoring and operational tech” said Mark Shuttleworth, CEO at Canonical. “Ubuntu is now the world’s best silicon-optimised AIOT platform on NVIDIA, Intel, MediaTek, and AMD-Xilinx silicon.”

=> ↺ Manjaro Vs. Ubuntu 2023 – Which is the best Linux Version?

• If you are the kind of user who is associated with computer technology 24/7 and spend most of your time in the open-source arena then you may have worked with popular Linux distributions. Some of these are Red Hat, CentOS, Debian, Mint and Arch. Today we are comparing Manjaro Vs. Ubuntu for you.

• In spite of Linux having more than 600 distros available today; we believe that there is that one for which everyone has a soft spot. This could be due to its performance, stability, availability of software, or a certain feature that is not available in other distributions.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ 2.5Gbps SFP to RJ45 Ethernet adapter sells for $25 shipped – CNX Software

• Banana Pi has started selling an inexpensive 2.5Gbps SFP to RJ45 adapter for their Banana Pi BPI-R3 WiFi 6 router board that goes for $17.89 plus shipping ($25 shipped here) on Aliexpress.

• The BPI-R3 router includes five Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports as well as two 2.5GbE SFP cages, but since not everybody has equipment that takes SFP cables, they used to sell it with a $30 TP-Link adapter. The company now appears to have found a cheaper model marked “SFP-2.5G-T” module that works with their board.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Arduino Nano Every brings Knight Rider sound effects to Knight Rider RC car

• KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) was a fictional car based on a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am in the “Knight Rider” television series. KITT featured an artificial intelligence, voiced by the legendary William Daniels, and some iconic styling.

=> ↺ USB Cereal is an open-source hardware USB-C debugging – development tool (Crowdfunding) – CNX Software

• 0xDA LLC’s USB Cereal is an open-source hardware development tool with three USB-C ports designed to simplify the testing, development, debugging, and manufacturing of devices with USB Type-C ports.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (6/2023): Work on dozing support for GNOME Settings daemon and more FOSDEM 2023 talk recordings

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Reports

=> ↺ Save the date: Freedom not Fear 1-4 September 2023

• Freedom not Fear (fnf) is an annual self-organised conference on privacy and digital rights. People from all across Europe meet and work towards more freedom in the digitalised world, plan actions against increasing surveillance and other attacks on civil rights.

=> ↺ Haiku Activity & Contract Report, January 2023

• As is the usual way of things, the monthly Activity Report is hereby combined with my Contract Report. Apologies for the delay in getting this one out; I had originally planned to publish it before the end of last week.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox 110 Arrives with WebGL Performance Improvements

• I’ll keep this short and sweet: a new version of Mozilla Firefox is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux (heard of that?).

• Firefox already supports importing bookmarks, history, and passwords from Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Chromium, and Safari but once you have the Firefox 110 update you can also import data from Opera, Opera GX, and Vivaldi too – which is handy.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ How debugging Go programs with Delve and eBPF is faster

• In this article, I will explain how to use Delve to trace your Go programs and how Delve leverages eBPF under the hood to maximize efficiency and speed. The goal of Delve is to provide developers with a pleasant and efficient Go debugging experience. In that vein, this article focuses on how we optimized the function tracing subsystem so you can inspect your programs and get to root-cause analysis quicker. Delve has two different backends for its tracing implementation, one is ptrace based, while the other uses eBPF. If you’re unfamiliar with any of these terms, don’t worry, I will explain along the way.

=> ↺ ongoing by Tim Bray · More Monos!

• Our story thus far is here. Tl;dr: I looked at a bunch of monospace fonts and recommended a few. The piece went kind of nuts, way past 50K views as I write this, and a flood of comments here and on YCombinator, nearly all of which took the form of “You left out my favorite font, which is X!” So I harvested 14 values of X, and let’s have a look at them! I’ve enjoyed this little project enough to pay actual real money for three of these.

• The methodology is the same as last outing. For each font, I post a shot of a the Linux ls(1) man page, switch Emacs into that font, and use it to write my feelings about it. Those fonts I consider excellent advance to round two, where I assemble screenshots of them displaying code in the Goland IDE.

• In this episode: Anonymous Pro, Berkeley Mono, Cascadia Mono, Comic Mono, Courier Prime, Dank Mono, DejaVu Sans Mono, Fantasque Sans Mono, Liberation Mono, Menlo, monofur, MonoLisa, Recursive Mono Linear, and Victor Mono. Reactions of the form “But you didn’t look at X” will almost certainly fall on deaf ears.

Perl / Raku

=> ↺ PayProp supports the German Perl/Raku Workshop 2023

Rust

=> ↺ GStreamer Rust bindings 0.20 / Rust Plugins 0.10 release

• Version 0.20 of the GStreamer Rust bindings was released. Together with the bindings, also version 0.10 of the GStreamer Rust plugins was released.

• As usual this release follows the latest gtk-rs 0.17 release and the corresponding API changes.

• This release features relatively few changes and mostly contains the addition of some convenience APIs, the addition of bindings for some minor APIs and various optimizations.

• As part of the optimizations there will be a lot fewer temporary allocations with the new version (especially for NUL-terminated strings), and improved code generation which does not only improve performance but also reduces the size of the resulting binaries considerably. Various GStreamer plugins saw size reductions of 15-20%.

• The new release also brings a lot of bugfixes, most of which were already part of the 0.19.x bugfix releases.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Russian shoppers take Norway’s Schengen shortcut to Finland

• Finland closed the Russian border due to the attack on Ukraine last year, but that has not reduced the flow of Russian shoppers arriving from Norway. The Finnish Customs agency is unable to intervene as Norway is in the Schengen area.

=> ↺ Several Earthquake Survivors Rescued After Over 204 Hours

• A German risk analysis company warned that the final death toll could be between 75,000 and 90,000.

=> ↺ Türkiye-Syria Quake: Death Toll Tops 35,000

• The U.S. sanctions impede and delay the delivery of humanitarian aid to earthquake-hit Syria.

=> ↺ Always Something There to Remind Me

• Burt Bacharach’s complex, existential pop.

=> ↺ What Is Success?

• Success is different for everyone, and it changes depends on where you are in life. The very definition of success actually is “a favourable or desired outcome” which can change very often. Your communication style can also affect your success.

=> ↺ Sybil Defense

• Because a system’s Nakamoto coefficient is variable, somewhat difficult to measure and likely to be an over-estimate, the claim that a system is “decentralized” is always subjective.

• There is a much more useful, completely objective criterion. Participation in a system either is, or is not subject to permission from some authority, and this can be confirmed by the experiment of trying to participate without asking permission.

• Permissionless systems can claim some advantages, but they suffer from some serious disadvantages. Chief among them is the need to defend against “Sybil attacks”. Below the fold I discuss Sybil attacks, the defense against them, and the implications for the systems that adopt this defense.

Science

=> ↺ Discovery of a New Brain Disease in Children Could Help Us Understand Dementia

• So rare, it’s only been found in three children.

=> ↺ A Fleeing Black Hole Was Found Leaving a Trail of Newborn Stars in Its Wake

• It could run, but it couldn’t hide.

Hardware

=> ↺ TSMC’s Morris Chang: $50 Billion US Chip Investment Is Just a ‘Good Start’

• TSMC’s founder doesn’t seem worried about the United States’ increased spending in the semiconductor space.

=> ↺ Replacing the cracked screen on a Blackview Tab 10 tablet

• In a previous post I mentioned that the LCD touchscreen of my Blackview Tab 10 tablet had partially popped out of the tablet’s plastic housing and had developed a crack when I tried to push it back in, as can be seen in the photograph below.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Doctors Go on Strike in France

• The Macron administration seems only willing to pay doctors 25 euros per consultation.

=> ↺ Incurable Ebola-like virus spreads to Cameroon after killing several across border

• A WHO emergency response has been activated after reports of nine deaths and 16 more suspected cases of Marburg virus in Equatorial Guinea.

=> ↺ U.S. Senator Casey Has Surgery for Prostate Cancer

=> ↺ Jumping Genes Put a Target on Cancerous Cells

• Two studies find that tumor-specific antigens are often peptides that result from a splicing event between exons and transposable elements.

=> ↺ EPA Says Ohio Toxic Train Derailment Air Quality Is Safe, Expert Urges ‘Caution’

• East Palestine residents reported animal deaths after the incident, but the environmental agency says test are now showing safe levels of pollution.

=> ↺ ‘On Demand’ Male Contraceptive Pill Could Switch Your Sperm Off For a Day

• Could be bigger than Viagra.

=> ↺ ‘Disproportionate’ amount of HIV coverage relates to criminal cases, says charity

Linux Foundation

=> ↺ The risks of fragmenting open source – Linux Foundation – Huawei United States

• The world of open source software is at risk of fragmentation from political forces, techno-nationalism, and weaponization, the Linux Foundation warns. This report was sponsored by FutureWei.

=> ↺ FinOps Foundation Announces Microsoft as a Premier Member

• The FinOps Foundation, a part of The Linux Foundation’s non-profit technology consortium focused on advancing the people and practice of cloud financial management, announced today that Microsoft is joining as a Premier Member company. Additionally, Microsoft’s Jimin Li will join the FinOps Governing Board as a voting member to help craft Foundation strategy and direction.

Security

=> ↺ 5 Most Common Cyber Attacks In 2023

• Building a company and keeping it afloat amidst financial turmoil is challenging, and it isn’t made any easier by the number of hackers who are taking aim at thousands of companies every day.

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

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (libde265 and snort), Fedora (chromium, openssl, php-symfony4, qt5-qtbase, qt6-qtbase, tigervnc, vim, wireshark, xorg-x11-server, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Slackware (gnutls), SUSE (apr-util, grafana, java-1_8_0-ibm, kernel, less, libksba, opera, postgresql12, postgresql13, postgresql14, postgresql15, python-py, webkit2gtk3, wireshark, and xrdp), and Ubuntu (nova and webkit2gtk).

=> ↺ Zscaler to Acquire Israeli Startup Canonic Security

• Zcaler plans to acquire Israeli startup Canonic Security to expand into the red-hot software supply chain security business.

• The postZscaler to Acquire Israeli Startup Canonic Securityappeared first onSecurityWeek.

=> ↺ Security updates for Tuesday

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (imagemagick), Fedora (xml-security-c), Red Hat (grub2), SUSE (chromium, freerdp, libbpf, and python-setuptools), and Ubuntu (fig2dev and python-django).

=> ↺ Patch Tuesday: Microsoft Warns of Exploited Windows Zero-Days

• Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday machine is humming loudly with software updates to fix at least 76 vulnerabilities in Windows and OS components.

=> ↺ iTWire – Microsoft issues 75 patches, including three for zero-days

• Microsoft has released patches for 75 vulnerabilities overnight on its second Patch Tuesday for the year, with nine being rated critical.

• There were 66 fixes rated important and the company issued fixes for three zero-day vulnerabilities.

• Top among the flaws being exploited in the wild was one that allowed remote code execution in a Windows graphics component, flagged as CVE-2023-21823.

• Satnam Narang, senior staff research engineer at security vendor Tenable, said of this bug: “Being able to elevate privileges once on a target system is important for attackers seeking to do more damage.

=> ↺ Adobe Plugs Critical Security Holes in Illustrator, After Effects Software

• Patch Tuesday: Adobe ships security fixes for at least a half dozen vulnerabilities that expose Windows and macOS users to malicious hacker attacks.

=> ↺ Spanish, US Authorities Dismantle Cybercrime Ring That Defrauded Victims of $5.3 Million

• Spanish and US authorities have dismantled a cybercrime ring that defrauded victims of more than $5.3 million.

=> ↺ Pepsi Bottling Ventures Discloses Data Breach

• Pepsi Bottling Ventures, the largest privately-held bottler of Pepsi-Cola products in the United States, says data was stolen from its systems following a malware attack.

=> ↺ GoAnywhere Zero-Day Attack Victims Start Disclosing Significant Impact

• Organizations hit by exploitation of the GoAnywhere MFT zero-day vulnerability CVE-2023-0669 have started coming forward.

=> ↺ Hackers Target Bahrain Airport, News Sites to Mark Uprising

• Hackers took down the websites of Bahrain’s international airport and state news agency to mark the 12-year anniversary of an Arab Spring uprising in the small Gulf country.

=> ↺ Parrot OS vs Kali Linux vs Ubuntu Comparison: Which To Choose? – DekiSoft

• Linux has been known for its different distributions that cater to different needs. The most famous among all is Kali Linux which is a penetration testing oriented for security professionals. From the time it has been released, it has gone through various iterations in the form of updates while others were also being developed throughout the globe.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Planning to use Digiyatra? Read this first!

• The DigiYatra scheme has been rolled out at the Delhi, Bengaluru, and Varanasi airports in the first phase. In the second phase, it will launch at the Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Vijayawada airports. However, how does your personal data fare under the scheme?

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ 3 Dead, 5 Injured in Michigan State University Shooting

• The police located the male suspect off campus, who had died from a self-inflicted gunshot.

=> ↺ Nord Stream Blast is Part of US Economic War Against Its Allies

• “One must wonder when the Europeans will wake up and finally understand that they no longer share interests with the U.S.,” Oberg pointed out.

=> ↺ US Military Swears It’s Not Spying on China With Balloons It Spent Millions Developing

• The U.S. said it has no high altitude balloons above China, but that doesn’t mean the technology doesn’t exist.

=> ↺ AI Has Successfully Piloted a U.S. F-16 Fighter Jet, DARPA Says

• The fighter aircraft that was first introduced in 1978 has now seemingly evolved into an autonomous plane.

=> ↺ President Niinistö to meet the Prime Ministers of Sweden and Norway in Harpsund, Sweden

• President of the Republic of Finland Sauli Niinistöwill meet Sweden’s Prime MinisterUlf Kristerssonand Norway’s Prime MinisterJonas Gahr Støreon Wednesday, 22 February 2023 at the Swedish Prime Minister’s summer residence Harpsund.

• The meeting will focus on current security policy issues, the cooperation between Finland, Sweden and Norway and the countries’ strong support for Ukraine.

=> ↺ Moscow accuses Japan of Russophobia, making ‘vicious attacks’ over Ukraine war

• Tokyo is locked in a decades-old dispute with Moscow over a chain of Pacific islands.

=> ↺ US military recovers sensors from suspected Chinese spy balloon

• Sensors from a downed Chinese balloon have been recovered by US experts.

=> ↺ We’ve Forgotton The Potential Horrors of What a Nuclear Winter Would Be Like

• In case you need reminding.

=> ↺ Will the New Peace Deal Finally End the Conflict in Yemen?

• For anyone following the conflict in Yemen, the news about a new peace being made will sound like a broken record, but there is genuine optimism about the truce that has been hashed out over the last month in Yemen.

=> ↺ US Big Defense, the Only Winner of the Ukraine Proxy War

• Not only do these global military contractors arm Ukraine, but they stand to benefit from the re-militarization of Western Europe, Japan, and the new NATO members.

=> ↺ First National Rally Against Ukraine War, Threat of Armageddon: Feb.19

• We in the United States are on the brink of war with a major nuclear power, Russia. If that is not a dire emergency, an acute existential threat, what is? This situation has persisted for a year now without a national protest to stop the slide to Armageddon.

=> ↺ Most Dutch people not yet in favor of sending F-16 jets to Ukraine

Environment

=> ↺ Fire warnings as three-day Victorian heatwave looms

• Victorians will sweat through a three-day heatwave, with temperatures as hot as 42 degrees in some parts of the state, prompting fears of increased fire danger.

=> ↺ Air New Zealand resumes services to all airports after cyclone-led cancellations

• The carrier also said it added extra services to multiple cities to its international network.

=> ↺ Finnish academia and companies lead the way towards sustainable nonwoven products in SUSTAFIT research project

• Sustainable fit-for-purposenonwovens project boosts the competitiveness and broadens the export potential of the Finnish nonwovens sector in the growing markets. The 2,6 MEUR project is conducted by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) and Aalto University and supported by 17 industry partners.

• Nonwovens are fibre-based materials that are widely used in our daily life products such as masks and wet wipes.

=> ↺ The Market Will Never Solve the Climate Crisis

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Concern Over Chemical Contamination After Ohio Train Derailment

• “This is one of the deadliest environmental emergencies. And no one is talking about it,” U.S. Congressman Bowman pointed out.

=> ↺ Finland faces more hybrid influencing and energy supply threats, ministry’s risk assessment finds

• The report, published on Tuesday, is the first national risk assessment since 2018, with authors noting the extent to which the threats Finland faces have changed.

=> ↺ Joining the dots: Practices and Imaginaries for Post-Fossil Cultures

• As cultural organisations, what do we mean when we talk about sustainability? ENCC annual conference will go beyond the catch-all keyword to highlight specific intersections between culture, ecology, digital practices and care.

=> ↺ Sysadmin Series – How to Catch a Bitcoin Miner

• What first looked like some CPU oddity in a monitoring graph became a full-fledged hunt for a bitcoin miner. Figuring out what happened and how they were operating is part of the investigation. Collecting evidence to make a case soon became akin to a detective story.

Overpopulation

=> ↺ ‘Pray for our country’: Kenya president asks for help to end drought

• President William Ruto of Kenya has declared the first-ever national day of prayer on Feb. 14 as the region faces the potential of a sixth consecutive dry season. East African nations have been experiencing the worst drought in decades.

Finance

=> ↺ UK: Over 70,000 University Staff Begin Strike Over Pay Rises

• This initiative is part of the 18 days of strikes planned for February and March in 150 Universities.

=> ↺ Danish mortgage volumes drop by a quarter as property market slows

• The number of mortgages issued in Denmark dropped by a quarter in January, according to new figures from Statistics Danmark.

=> ↺ Maersk ‘paid 0.27 percent’ tax in Denmark in 2021

• Danish shipping giant Maersk paid just 0.27 percent in tax to the Danish state in 2021, according to a media analysis.

=> ↺ Uber and Lyft Fares Skyrocketed But Drivers Didn’t See all the Benefits, Study Says

• An Uber ride might cost you more than ever before, but workers aren’t seeing all of the benefits, researchers say.

=> ↺ ‘I’m holding out for some relief’: High interest rates hit foreigners in Sweden

• Many foreigners living in Sweden bought their houses or apartments recently, closer to the market peak. The Local spoke to some of them about how recent hikes in interest rates have hit their finances.

=> ↺ Reader question: When am I eligible for a Swedish pension?

• A reader got in touch to ask how long he had to work in Sweden before he was eligible for a pension. Here are Sweden’s pension rules, and how you can get your pension when the time comes.

=> ↺ Tax credits for home maintenance services do little to help against tax evasion

• Tax relief for home maintenance servicesis not an effective means of tackling tax evasion. In Germany, it would cost the government a great deal of money while only marginally improving tax compliance. This is the finding of a survey of just under 2,000 private households in Germany by theLudwig Erhardifo Center for Social Market Economy and Institutional Economics.

=> ↺ Candy sales increase, fruit and vegetable sales decrease as economy slows

• BROAD-BASED INCREASESin consumer prices are having a visible impact on consumer behaviour,reportsYLE.

• Hannu Krook, the chief executive of SOK Corporation, on Monday told the Finnish public broadcaster that consumers are presently swapping products for more affordable alternatives, favouring store-branded products and planning their shopping more carefully to reduce impulse purchases.

=> ↺ Bernie Sanders’s New Campaign: Taking On Big Pharma and Starbucks

• As the new chair of a powerful Senate committee, the reënergized progressive leader is once again targeting the corporate plutocracy.

=> ↺ Elon Musk to Seek Life on Mars and Keep It from Unionizing

• The billionaire said that he would personally talk to the Martians and convince them that joining a union would be a mistake that they’ll regret.

=> ↺ ‘Source of worry’: CBA chief tips softer spending as peak in $96b mortgage cliff looms

• CBA chief Matt Comyn says household spending will come under pressure this year, as consumers adjust to the sharp increase in interest rates and $96 billion in ultra-cheap fixed-rate loans expire.

=> ↺ Australian Catholic Uni cuts 110 jobs, 40 in Melbourne, as enrolments shrink, costs rise

• The university will cut about 110 full-time jobs as enrolments in its key courses have declined sharply.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Twitter reportedly created a system to artificially boost Elon Musk’s tweets

=> ↺ Twitter Delays API Changes Amid Developer Outcry

=> ↺ BBC to launch new Nordic TV channels in Denmark

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ Bing’s ChatGPT-Powered Search Has a Misinformation Problem

• Bing’s AI-powered search engine made up information about a pet vacuum and reported incorrect financial data in its responses in its public demo.

=> ↺ Europe’s weapon against Russian disinformation

• Ukraine’s truth-telling about Moscow’s plot against neighboring Moldova shows how to defeat lies and secrecy.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Tax Authorities Raid BBC Offices in India

=> ↺ Indian tax authority raids BBC after critical documentary

=> ↺ Belarus authorities detain journalist Vyacheslau Lazarau on undisclosed charges

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Finland’s FGM ban bid stalls over gender equality fears

• MPs have voted to make a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) more explicit in Finnish law, but a Ministry of Justice working group has proposed keeping the law as it is.

=> ↺ Movement Lawyering and Abolition of Digital Policing

• DFF’s third Speaker Series will run through end 2022 and beginning 2023. Through conversations between preeminent experts deploying an anti-colonial lens, it will explore resistance against tech oppression and how we can build the world we want. Registration is available below.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Prevent: Shawcross Review fails to address data harms and rights

• On 8 February, the long awaited report – the Independent Review of Prevent – conducted by the commissioner for public appointments William Shawcross, was published after much scepticism, delay and controversy, even from within the cabinet.

=> ↺ Updated RIPE Code of Conduct Process Document

• Last September, we published two draft Code of Conduct documents for review by the RIPE community. We received significant feedback on one of these documents and would like to update you with the changes we have made in response.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ After Windows 11 and Windows 10, AMD Ryzen fTPM stutters and freezes now hit Linux

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ CommWorks cellular patent held invalid

• On February 13, 2023, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision inUnified Patents, LLC v. Commworks Solutions, LLCholding all challenged claims ofU.S. Patent 8,923,846unpatentable.

=> ↺ How to create a UPC CMS user account

=> ↺ Training of UPC judges and staff

=> ↺ Attorney Fees for Not Quickly Dropping Meritless Lawsuit

• ZT IP, LLC v. VMware, Inc., 3:22-CV-0970-X, 2023 WL 1785769, at *1 (N.D. Tex. Feb. 6, 2023) [ZT VMWare Sanctions Opinion]

• William Ramey filed this case on behalf of ZT in 2022 alleging that VMWare’s ESX 1.5 infringed U.S. Patent No. 7,647,583.  The problem though is that VMWare’s accused product was on the market more than one-year before Zeidman’s application priority filing date.  This is obviously a problem the VMWare (and its product manuals) would be invalidating prior art.  VMWare filed a motion to dismiss but before the court could rule, ZT dropped the case with a voluntary dismissal with prejudice.

Software Patents

=> ↺ IP Edge entity Bassfield IP image processing patent prior art found

• Unified is pleased to announce prior art has been found onU.S. Patent 6,641,053, owned and asserted by Bassfield IP, an NPE and entity ofIP Edge. The ‘053 patent generally relates to an image processing apparatus for encoding and decoding a document containing machine-readable code overlaid by human-readable content.

=> ↺ Linux-powered AI assistant killed off by ‘patent troll’ • The Register

• Mycroft AI, creator of a Linux-based virtual assistant, announced on Friday it would not be able to fulfill rewards for its Mark II Kickstarter campaign.

• Furthermore, without immediate new investment, the company will be forced to cease development by the end of the month, said the company’s CEO Michael Lewis [although the post is attributed to former CEO Joshua Montgomery due to Kickstarter not allowing multiple authors – ed.].

• “We will still be shipping all orders that are made through the Mycroft website, because these sales directly cover the costs of producing and shipping the products,” confirmed Lewis.

• He said the company was now at bare-bones employee count: layoffs had reduced the staff down to two developers, one customer service agent and one attorney.

=> ↺ Creator of Linux Virtual Assistant Blames ‘Patent Troll’ For Project’s Death

Trademarks

=> ↺ Weakness of “LAGUNA” for Clothing Leads to Dismissal of Opposition to LB LAGUNA BEACH FOOTBALL CLUB & Design

• The Board dismissed a Section 2(d) opposition to registration of the markLB LAGUNA BEACH FOOTBALL CLUB & Designfor “hats; sweatshirts; t-shirts; track pants; athletic uniforms; track jackets” [LAGUNA BEACH disclaimed], concluding that the opposer failed to prove a likelihood of confusion with its registered markLAGUNAfor overlapping and related clothing items. The Board found that the term “Laguna” merited a limited scope of protection for clothing, swimwear and beachwear, and, in view of “the comparatively smaller size and subordinate nature of ‘LAGUNA BEACH’ in Applicant’s mark,” that confusion is not likely.R. Josephs Licensing Inc. v. Laguna Beach Football Club, Opposition No. 91264741 (February 9, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Jonathan Hudis).

=> ↺ Written Description: Lemley & McKenna: Trademark Spaces

• Where a trademark is located matters. Some physical spaces on products are more likely to contain trademarks. Some obvious examples are the left breast of a t-shirt, the side or tongue of a sneaker, or the label on the front of a food container. Consumers are more likely to find trademarks located in those spaces, and they are probably more likely to perceive features as trademarks if they are in those locations.

• In their fascinating new article, Trademark Spaces and Trademark Law’s Secret Step Zero, Mark Lemley and Mark McKenna draw out the relevance of physical space for trademark protection, and in particular for non-verbal marks like logos and trade dress. The authors argue that where a trademark is located determines how the law currently treats it, but that this is currently done by judges and trademark examiners as a “secret step zero.” They think this is not ideal. Consideration of trademark spaces should instead be both more explicit and better thought-out.

• The article is now published in the Stanford Law Review (and posted here on SSRN).

Copyrights

=> ↺ Over 100 Danish lawmakers broke copyright laws on social media

• Some 126 members of the Danish parliament broke copyright laws in 2022 by sharing music and images on social media without the owner’s permission.

=> ↺ Apologies Without Accountability: Canadian Heritage Committee Seeks Answers on Government Funding an Anti-Semite

• The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage conducted along-overdue hearingyesterday on thedepartment’s funding of Laith Marouf, a known antisemite, as part of its anti-hate program. The hearing, which was held almost seven months after the issue began to attract to public attention, featured departmental officials answering questions from MPs seeking to understand how this could have occurred.

=> ↺ The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 156: Senator Paula Simons on Why the Government Should Accept the Senate’s Bill C-11 Fix on User Content Regulation

• Bill C-11 is in the hands of the government as Canadians await a decision on which Senate amendments it will accept, which might be rejected, and then how the Senate responds.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: GILNYWU Wordo: ANGLE

=> ↺ Progressively impatient

• As I get older, I notice something in myself: a certain impatience. With well intentioned people who never seem to learn. With people who claim to be on the right side of things, but who do nothing. With people who think that change is something that just happens, somehow, if only we think the right things. With liberal “progressives.”

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

=> Techrights

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