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● 02.23.23

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● Links 23/02/2023: Debian-based TrueNAS Scale and GNOME 44 Beta

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

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ 5 Great Linux Operating Systems to Try Out in 2023

• If you’re anything like me, then you’re always on the lookout for the latest and greatest Linux distributions to test-drive. And let’s be honest, there’s nothing quite like the thrill of discovering a new distro that just clicks with your workflow and personality.

• So, let’s dive into the top Linux distros to watch out for in 2023, and who knows, you might just find your next Linux soulmate. Also, since Ubuntu has been the go-to for many years and there are countless distros out there, why not focus on these instead? Let’s dig in.

=> ↺ A Linux Distro For All Your Ham Needs

• For anyone new to the world of ham radio, one of the things that takes a little getting used to is visiting the websites of authoritative experts in various fields and feeling like you’ve traveled back to the Internet of 1999. As a hobby that lends itself to extremely utilitarian amateurs, the software side can feel a little left behind like that. [Andy] aka [KB1OIQ], on the other hand, is also a Linux enthusiast and has been putting together a complete Linux distribution with everything needed to operate a radio in the modern era.

• While most ham radio software seems to be developed for Windows, there is a lot available for Linux. It just takes a bit of tinkering and experimentation to get everything configured just right. Andy’s Ham Radio Linux, or AHRL, takes a lot of the guesswork out of this. The distribution includes everything from contact logging software to antenna modeling, propagation forecasting, and electronic design. While tools like this are largely optional for operating radios themselves, there are also tools included to allow the user to operate various digital modes as well, which require some sort of computer interface to use.

=> ↺ iXsystems Introduces TrueNAS Mini R Appliance with Linux-based TrueNAS SCALE – High-Performance Computing News Analysis | insideHPC

=> ↺ TrueNAS Mini R rack-mountable system supports TrueNAS CORE or Debian-based TrueNAS SCALE

• All three versions of TrueNAS support many of the same features, but the main difference is that TrueNAS SCALE is based on Debian Linux instead of FreeBSD, which leads to differences in terms of supported applications (e.g. plugins vs Docket Linux containers), virtualization (e.g. OpenStack vs Kubernetes), and so on.

• I had read forum threads in the past where people wanted to run FreeNAS on Arm, but each time they were told it was not going to happen, so I asked a company representative who contacted CNX Software if the new TrueNAS SCALE would be cross-platform or limited to x86. Here’s the answer…

=> ↺ Debian-based TrueNAS Scale updated – and iXsystems wins a gong

• Enterprise NAS vendor iXsystems has updated its Kubernetes-capable Debian-based NAS OS, and scored Digital Public Good status too.

• iXsystems now has a family of dedicated storage-server OSes, and the new release of TrueNAS Scale, version 22.12.1. The company has a very cautious, slow-moving lifecycle – which is what you want from a vendor whose offerings will hold all your corporate data.

=> ↺ TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin 22.12.1 Released: What’s New?

• TrueNAS SCALE is a powerful, open-source operating system specifically built for enterprise-level data storage and management. Powered by Debian Linux and the innovative ZFS file system, it offers advanced features such as snapshotting, replication, and data compression to make sure that your organization’s most critical information is always secured in the best way possible.

=> ↺ Computop debuts three new Linux-based payment terminals

• The Linux-based devices from Swiss partner, PayTec, expand the existing range with three options for the most typical use cases in retail.

• With the support of ZVT and OPI, the new Computop models have been designed for the most common international connection protocols of POS terminals. They enable card acceptance via magnetic stripe, chip and contactless NFC transmission and are certified according to the PCI PTS* 5.x and 6.x security standards. This guarantees that they can be used for at least 10 years.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ 51: Linux from the Start

• This week, Linux Out Loud chats about up-and-coming hardware using Linux. Welcome to episode 51 of Linux Out Loud. We fired up our mics, connected those headphones as we searched the community for themes to expound upon.

=> ↺ 218: KDE Plasma 5.27, Endless OS, Fedora 38, Future of Thunderbird & More Linux News

• On this episode of This Week in Linux, KDE has released a new version of their Plasma desktop.

=> ↺ UNIX is Everywhere

• Listen now (19 min) | The Lunduke Journal of Technology Podcast – Feb 23, 2023

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux is Just a Kernel: What Does it Mean

• Well, technically, Linux is just a kernel, not an operating system. However, the term Linux is often referred to a complete operating system that includes a shell (like bash) and command line and/or GUI tools to control the system. The technically correct term for this complete operating system is Linux distribution or simply Linux distro. Examples of popular Linux distributions include Ubuntu, Red Hat, and Debian.

• Back in 1991, what Linus Torvalds created was the kernel only. Even today, he works on the Linux kernel. He doesn’t code anymore but supervises which code goes into the kernel.

=> ↺ Linux 6.2 is up and running on M1 Macs but still missing many key features | Macworld

• The latest Linux build can technically run on Apple silicon, but you won’t be able to do much.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Mesa 23 Graphics Stack Released with Radeon Memory Visualizer Support, Rise of the Tomb Raider Fixes

• Highlights of Mesa 23 include Radeon Memory Visualizer support, various raytracing, graphics pipeline library, and RDNA3 improvements for the RADV (Radeon Vulkan) driver, Rise of the Tomb Raider’s Ambient Occlusion pass misrenders (swimming shadows), improved support for the KDE Plasma desktop environment when using the Plasma Wayland session and the Gallium LLVMpipe driver.

• Mesa 23 also implements more VK_EXT_dynamic_state3 features for the RADV and Turnip drivers, enables the VK_EXT_mesh_shader extension by default on RADV/RDNA2, fixes Rise of the Tomb Raider crashes in Soviet Installation 20% with VK_ERROR_DEVICE_LOST on Wine/DXVK, and improves support for the Battlefield 1 (DX11), Hi-Fi Rush, and Minecraft video games, as well as the VLC Media Player software.

Applications

=> ↺ Fwupd 1.8.11 Linux Firmware Updater Adds Support for New Devices, New Features

• Coming a month after fwupd 1.8.10, the fwupd 1.8.11 release is here to add support for the CalDigit Element Hub and CalDigit TS4 Dock devices, prefer the Intel USB4 plugin over the Thunderbolt plugin when required, allow desktop software to inhibit the system to prevent updates, and add support for replaying USB devices so they can be emulated in CI.

• Fwupd 1.8.11 also introduces support for using requirements with depth=0 and no parent, automatically sets the CCGX remove-delay to parse DMC subcomponents, implements a new mechanism to detect and warn users with broken NVMe 3B2QGXA7 firmware, and the ability to print errors as JSON objects when using the fwupdmgr –json command.

=> ↺ 14 Best Free and Open Source Test Automation Tools

• It’s very important to select the best set of test automation tools for your specific needs and requirements. There’s lots of tools available which makes selection somewhat problematic.

• You don’t need to spend money on test automation software as there is a great range of free and open source tools, libraries, and testing frameworks available.

• To start your automation journey, we make the following recommendations captured in a LinuxLinks-styled ratings chart. All of the programs are free and open source goodness

=> ↺ 10 Best Comic Book Viewers for Linux

• From our childhood, we’ve all been well-versed in comic books. Many of us enjoyed reading them, and they kept us amused during leisure time — it’s a pastime that many of us still treasure today.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Control Screen Brightness for External Monitor in Ubuntu (GUI & CLI)

• Want to control screen brightness, color preset, contrast etc for your external monitor connected in Desktop PC or laptop?

=> ↺ How to Install ffmpeg on Ubuntu 22.04

• FFmpeg is a free and open-source tool that runs through the command line. Basically, it’s used to convert multimedia files from one format to another. It’s got a bunch of audio and video libraries that it shares, like libavformat, libavcodec, and libavutil.

=> ↺ Configuring Nginx for Laravel on Ubuntu & Debian

• Laravel is a popular PHP web application framework used to develop robust and dynamic web applications. When it comes to deploying a Laravel application, Nginx is a popular web server choice due to its speed, stability, and scalability. Configuring Nginx for Laravel is important for production deployments.

=> ↺ Developing a Simple Mobile App with Ionic Framework

• Ionic Framework is a powerful and popular option for developing cross-platform mobile applications. In this article, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step guide to creating a simple mobile app using Ionic Framework.

=> ↺ Getting Started with Vim: A Beginner’s Guide

• Vim is a powerful and widely used text editor that provides users with a number of advanced features for editing and manipulating text. If you’re new to Vim, however, it can be a little intimidating to get started.

=> ↺ Peter Czanik: Installing a syslog-ng 4 development snapshot on FreeBSD

• Unless there is a serious problem, FreeBSD ports usually contains the latest stable syslog-ng release. However, sometimes people want to compile a git snapshot to test a new feature or bugfix. To do that, one way is to generate a syslog-ng release tgz on FreeBSD and edit the syslog-ng port files yourself. However, this needs some practice. As such, an easier solution is to use my weekly development snapshots.

=> ↺ How to Set Up an NFS Share on Debian

• NFS (Network File System) is a distributed file system that allows clients to access files and directories on remote servers over a network. NFS is commonly used in environments with many systems, where it is important to share resources between different servers.

=> ↺ Stig: A TUI and CLI for the BitTorrent Client Transmission

• If you’re looking for a terminal-based bittorrent client that should do all your work with the essence of a GUI, then Stig BitTorrent Client is for you.

=> ↺ How to Install Helpy Customer Helpdesk on Ubuntu 22.04

• Helpy is an open-source customer support system based and written in Ruby on Rails language. It is open-source and allows you to customize it according to your needs. This tool can be used to build up businesses allowing them to create automated ticketing, emailing, and integration with multiple apps.

=> ↺ How to install Zeek Network Security Monitoring Tool

• Zeek is a highly used, free, open-source security tool for detecting network interference and analyzing network traffic. It is favored by security experts who use it to identify irregular patterns and monitor DNS, HTTP, and FTP traffic.

=> ↺ Tailoring your Linux command prompt | Network World

• Here’s how to change your Linux command prompt to something you might like better.

=> ↺ SFTP Port Forwarding: Enabling Suppressed Functionality | Linux Journal

• The OpenSSH maintainers have determined that sftp and scp have no legitimate use for port forwarding (via the -L and -R options). A flag to explicitly disable these features is unconditionally passed to the child SSH executable during file transfers with these utilities.

=> ↺ Linux Fu: Sharing Your Single WiFi | Hackaday

• If you are trying to build a router or access point, you’ll need to dig into some of the details of networking that are normally hidden from you. But, for a normal WiFi connection, things mostly just work, even though that hasn’t always been the case. However, I ran into a special case the other day where I needed a little custom networking, and then I found a great answer to automate the whole process. It all comes down to hotel WiFi. How can you make your Linux laptop connect to a public WiFi spot and then rebroadcast it as a private WiFI network? In particular, I wanted to connect an older Chromecast to the network.

• [...]

• There had to be a better way to solve this than fumbling with hostapd configurations after a long flight. There is and it is called linux-wifi-hotspot. It uses hostapd along with networking tools like iproute2, iptables, and dnsmasq, to create a hotspot with very little effort. It is worth noting that NetworkManager can also do this if you have two WiFi adapters. But, as far as I can tell, it doesn’t know how to put the AP on the same adapter as the incoming Internet connection.

• I installed the program from a package and I had to install hostapd, too. There’s also a ppa for Ubuntu, or you can build it from source by following the instructions.

• The interface to the program is relatively simple. You name your hotspot and provide a password. You can make it a tough one because you can have the program display a QR code that will let your phone, for example, hook right up to it.

=> ↺ How to Use “apt install” Correctly in Your Dockerfile

• To use apt install in Dockerfile…

=> ↺ Debian AppArmor Tutorial

• Tutorial on how to work with the AppArmor profiles to restrict the programs to specific resources and connect the access control properties to the programs.

=> ↺ How to Open the Terminal in Linux

• The command line gives you complete control of a Linux system. Here’s how you can open a terminal on your Linux computer.

=> ↺ How To Install OpenLiteSpeed on Rocky Linux 9

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install OpenLiteSpeed on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, OpenLiteSpeed is an open-source, high-performance web server designed to handle large volumes of traffic efficiently.

=> ↺ How To Install Jira Agile Project Management on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Jira Agile Project Management on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Jira Agile Project Management is a project management tool designed specifically for software development teams.

=> ↺ Bash and DD: Testing Flash Drive Speed with a Simple Script

=> ↺ How to use systemctl in Ubuntu?

• In Ubuntu, the “systemctl” command is used to control and manage the “systemd” services with a combination of service commands.

=> ↺ How to Close a Browser in Selenium

• Comprehensive tutorial on how to close a browser in Selenium using the close() and quit() methods to check whether the WebDriver session ID is alive or not.

=> ↺ How to Push Local Docker Image to AWS ECR

• AWS ECR is a fully managed registry that aids in deploying docker containers using Docker images. This guide provides detail about how to push a docker image.

=> ↺ How Do I Record Audio on Ubuntu?

• In Ubuntu, the “Gnome-Sound-Recorder” and the “Audio Recorder” external software packages are used to record the audio/voice from various sources.

=> ↺ How to Create and Extract TAR.GZ Files on Ubuntu 22.04?

• The pre-installed “tar” command utility supports the compression and decompression operation of “tar.gz” compressed files.

=> ↺ How to Install the Adobe Reader in Linux Mint

• Tutorial on how to install the Adobe Reader in Linux Mint by downloading the “.deb” package and using the “sudo dpkg -i adobereader-*.deb” terminal command.

=> ↺ How to Update Grub on Arch Linux

• Tutorial on the uses of Grub in Linux-like operating systems and how to update it on Arch Linux using the grub customizer and the update-grub repository of Git.

=> ↺ How to Install and Configure Neo4j on AlmaLinux

• Neo4j is a popular graph database used to store and manage data in the form of graphs. Instead of rows and columns, it uses nodes and relationships to represent data.  It is a highly scalable NoSQL database system developed by Neo Technology.

=> ↺ Lolcat: Make your Terminal Output Colourful

• Let’s add a bit of fun to the text that comes out of our terminal using one of the internet’s most beloved commands.

Games

=> ↺ Super Mario World Widescreen on the SteamDeck

• The SteamDeck is a great retro gaming platform. I have loaded it up with many of my retro games and one of my favorites to play on it is Super Mario World but in a widescreen format. I have seen this done elsewhere but wanted to do this for myself.

=> ↺ New Steam Games with Native Linux Clients, with Blue Fish Yokohama and Selene Apoptosis – 2023-02-22 Edition

• Between 2023-02-15 and 2023-02-22 there were 33 New Steam games released with Native Linux clients.

=> ↺ Atelier Games on special on Steam

• You can by games in the Atelier franchise for ~35% off on Steam until the end of the month. It’s not an ad, it’s a recommendation! Right?

• I only got into the Atelier games in the last few years, but they’re so comfy and fun. The alchemy/crafting mechanics are approachable and interesting, the art is beautiful, and the voice acting is top notch. Unlike previous Atelier titles that had time limits, this slower gamer appreciates that you can take the modern ones at your own pace. They also reward you for exploring, which admittedly is something I tend to do more in these sorts of games.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Plasma 5.27 is released, marking the end of Plasma 5′s reign. It’s time to hand over the throne!

• KDE plasma is one of the top Linux desktop environments. For me, it is the top. Plasma is free, open source, feature-rich, and highly customizable DE. The KDE team develops Plasma extensively and thoughtfully to offer us a fresh and stable desktop experience.On February 14, the efforts of dozens of KDE developers and contributors in the past months culminated in Plasma 5.27 release.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME 44 Beta Released with Quick Settings Enhancements, WireGuard Support

• GNOME 44 Beta is an important milestone in the development cycle of the GNOME 44 desktop environment and brings lots of changes to further polish the final release, which will probably be available in most GNU/Linux distributions in mid- or late April 2023.

• We already know from the GNOME 44 alpha release that GNOME 44 promises a GTK4 port of the Epiphany (GNOME Web) web browser, a grid view for the GTK file chooser, support for 64px icon size in Nautilus (Files)’s grid view, a new Bluetooth submenu in Quick Settings, the ability to disable Settings search results in Shell, and more.

Distributions and Operating Systems

=> ↺ Top 7 Lightweight Linux Distributions

• Top 7 lightweight Linux distributions are “Linux Lite”, “antiX Linux”, “Xubuntu”, “Lubuntu”, “Tiny Core”, “Puppy Linux” and “Bodhi Linux”.

Gentoo Family

=> ↺ Gentoo accepted into Google Summer of Code 2023

• Do you want to learn more about Gentoo and contribute to your favourite free software project?! Once again, now for the 11th time,we have been accepted as a mentoring organization for this year’s Google Summer of Code!

• The GSoC is an excellent opportunity for gaining real-world experience in software design and making oneself known in the broader open source community. It also looks great on a resume. Some initial project ideas can be found here, but new projects ideas are also welcome. For new projects time is of the essence: they have to be worked out, discussed with the mentors, and submitted before the April 4th deadline. It is strongly recommended that contributors refine new project ideas with a mentor before proposing the idea formally.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

=> ↺ Awareness Sessions About Projects Available for GSoC Applicants

• Mentors and administrators of openSUSE are excited to be accepted as a mentorship organization for this year’s Google Summer of Code and will be available for potential mentee to discuss the projects that are listed on 101.opensuse.org.

• There will be 15 minute sessions prior to all openSUSE community meetings where mentees can join our Jitsi meeting room to get in touch with members of the openSUSE community who can help them navigate the projects available during this year’s GSoC.

Debian Family

=> ↺ New Raspberry Pi OS Release Adds Support for New Touchscreen and Video Drivers

• Raspberry Pi OS 2023-02-21 was quietly released by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and introduces support for a new touchscreen driver to the Screen Resolution tool, support for a new video driver called msdri3, and installs the kms++-utils package by default to allow you to set display resolution and depth in the kernel space.

• Another interesting change in the new Raspberry Pi OS release is that the window titlebar buttons for GTK message dialogs have been moved to the right. Moreover, this release deprecated the glamor open-source 2D graphics driver for all Raspberry Pi boards except Raspberry Pi 4 with the legacy video driver.

=> ↺ Paul Tagliamonte: Announcing hz.tools

• Ever since 2019, I’ve been learning about how radios work, and trying to learn about using them “the hard way” – by writing as much of the stack as is practical (for some value of practical) myself. I wrote my first “Hello World” in 2018, which was a simple FM radio player, which used librtlsdr to read in an IQ stream, did some filtering, and played the real valued audio stream viapulseaudio. Over 4 years this has slowly grown through persistence, lots of questions to too many friends to thank (although I will try), and the eternal patience of my wife hearing about radios nonstop – for years – into a number of Go repos that can do quite a bit, and support a handful of radios.

• I’ve resisted making the repos public not out of embarrassment or a desire to keep secrets, but rather, an attempt to keep myself free of any maintenance obligations to users – so that I could freely break my own API, add and remove API surface as I saw fit. The worst case was to have this project feel like work, and I don’t know that I can have that be true if I feel frustrated by PRs that are “getting ahead of me” – solving problems I didn’t yet know about, or bugs I didn’t understand the fix for.

• As my rate of changes to the most central dependencies has slowed, i’ve begun to entertain the idea of publishing them. After a bit of back and forth, I’ve decided it’s time to make a number of them public, and to start working on them in the open, as I’ve built up a bit of confidence around it, and feel confident that the repo doesn’t contain overt lies. That’s not to say it doesn’t contain lies, but those lies are likely hidden and lurking in the dark. Beware.

=> ↺ Dirk Eddelbuettel: RcppArmadillo 0.12.0.1.0 on CRAN: New Upstream, New Features

• Armadillo is a powerful and expressive C++ template library for linear algebra and scientific computing. It aims towards a good balance between speed and ease of use, has a syntax deliberately close to Matlab, and is useful for algorithm development directly in C++, or quick conversion of research code into production environments. RcppArmadillo integrates this library with the R environment and language–and is widely used by (currently) 1042 other packages on CRAN, downloaded 28.1 million times (per the partial logs from the cloud mirrors of CRAN), and the CSDA paper (preprint / vignette) by Conrad and myself has been cited 513 times according to Google Scholar.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Xubuntu Vs Ubuntu

• Ubuntu is a well-known Linux distribution that was first released in 2004 and is now used all over the world. In 2006, the derivative of Ubuntu was released known as “Xubuntu” with another derivative. Both distributions are open-source and freely available for all types of users. Moreover, Xubuntu can be developed for older systems.

=> ↺ Kubuntu vs. Ubuntu

• Ubuntu is a good choice for users who want a reliable operating system, and Kubuntu is a great choice for users who want more control over their OS.

=> ↺ 5 Ubuntu Alternatives for 2021

• There are various Ubuntu alternatives which include “Linux Mint OS”, “Fedora OS”, “Arch OS”, “Ubuntu OS”, and “Deepin OS”.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi Pico C SDK Now Has One-Click Installer

• Raspberry Pi announces a one-click installation package for Windows users wishing to write Raspberry Pi Pico projects in C.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ Now you can run some Windows apps on Ubuntu Touch phones (emphasis on some) – Liliputing

• Ubuntu Touch is mobile version of the popular Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution that’s optimized for phones, tablets, and other small touchscreen devices. Like many mobile Linux distros, it also allows you to run some Android apps if you install Waydroid to run Android in a container.

• Now you can run some Windows apps as well, thanks developer Codemaster Freders, who has released an Ubuntu Touch package called Winebox.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Top 8 Ways to Fix Google Messages Not Downloading MMS on Android – Guiding Tech

=> ↺ Don’t Trust the ‘Data Safety’ Labels on These Android Apps | PCMag

=> ↺ Popular Android apps’ Play Store privacy labels don’t match up to their claims, Mozilla says | TechCrunch

=> ↺ Google drops “Chat” for “RCS” on Android – PhoneArena

=> ↺ Vivaldi for Android now supports YouTube background playback

=> ↺ OnePlus 7T finally pushes Android 12/OxygenOS 12 system update

=> ↺ Xiaomi to launch Android 13-based MIUI 14 in India on February 26 – Times of India

=> ↺ Nokia Adds G10 to the List of Official Android 13 Compatible Phones

=> ↺ [Updated] Android 13 update tracker: Here’s everything we know so far – PiunikaWeb

=> ↺ Android 13 QPR2 Beta 3.2 Update Hits Pixel Devices

=> ↺ 2-channel DSO-500K WiFi oscilloscope is based on Raspberry Pi Pico W board – CNX Software

=> ↺ Now use Google Maps on your Galaxy phone even when Android Auto is running – SamMobile

=> ↺ Android Auto is taking some smart Maps direction from CarPlay

=> ↺ Google hands out surprise free upgrade for popular Android app used by millions – it’s a game-changer | The US Sun

=> ↺ Lilbits: Linux on Apple Silicon, Motorola’s next flip-phone, and a new Acer Android tablet – Liliputing

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ FOSS Weekly #23.08: Kernel 6.2 Raspberry Pi Debugger, 40 FOSS Android Apps and More

• Announcing a new tutorial series on NixOS.

=> ↺ Tiny Tiny RSS Is An Open Source RSS Feed Aggregator

• Tiny Tiny RSS is a tiny open source project which is an advanced RSS reader/news aggregator. It is a self-hosted RSS aggregator, which can also be used to read from remote sources. With an intuitive UI and great performance, it is fast and easy to install on any hosting

=> ↺ Build A Backend For Your Apps in Mins with The Low-code Pocketbase

• Pocketbase is a free low-code open-source solution that offers developers a fast way to build backend systems for their apps.

• It is written in the Go programming language and works extremely fast. Also, it does not take much to setup on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

=> ↺ 17 Open Source To Share Your Files Over The Network and The Cloud

• File and document sharing are required by companies, web agencies, freelancers, and enterprise. It is an essential to for teams to collaborate and share files and documents internally and externally.

=> ↺ 10+ Open Source Kubernetes-Native Observability Tools

• Kubernetes is revolutionizing the way modern enterprises manage their cloud infrastructure. But as the technology develops, so does the need for visibility into systems running on Kubernetes. Without proper observability, it’s hard to monitor the health of applications and services running on Kubernetes. Luckily, plenty of Kubernetes-native observability tools can

=> ↺ TCO For a Cloud-Native Environment? $5.6 Million

• A report published today by OutSystems, a provider of a low-code platform for building applications, estimates the total cost of building and maintaining a cloud-native IT environment is, on average, $5.6 million. More challenging still, the report notes it can take 18 months to achieve that goal.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

Chromium

=> ↺ Microsoft aggressively trying to keep Chrome downloaders using Edge

• Microsoft sees its browser as an important aspect and entry point for the new Bing. Microsoft Edge on Windows is now showing a rather aggressive ad on the Chrome download page to dissuade people from switching.

=> ↺ Google Chrome Now Uses Less Memory on Linux

• Google Chrome 110 is rolling out to users across all platforms this week and there’s a notable new feature included.

Mozilla

=> ↺ FOSSDA Launches to Celebrate FOSS Month

• I am thrilled to announce that, with generous support from Mozilla and the Apache Foundation, we have officially launched FOSSDA, the Free and Open Source Stories Digital Archive. It’s time to tell the story of the free and open source movement!

=> ↺ Firefox UX: People do use Add to Home Screen

• Last week Apple added a bunch of capabilities for web apps added to an iPhone or iPad home screen. This includes the ability for 3rd party browsers, like Firefox, to offer Add to Home Screen from the share menu and to open home screen bookmarks if it’s the default browser. I’d love to see us add this to our iOS app. It looks like a contributor did some investigation and this might be easy.

=> ↺ Mozilla Performance Blog: Announcing side-by-side videos for performance regressions

• Early in the fall, I was talking about integrating the side-by-side tool in Continuous Integration (CI). This started as a script for generating a side-by-side comparison between two page load test runs, and emphasizes the visual differences. Using this tool, you can see more clearly which metrics have regressed, and how they might be experienced by a user. The first milestone was to have a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

• The page load tests measure the performance of Firefox (and competitors) browsers and run in Taskcluster (which is our CI) which are then visualized in Treeherder. Perfherder is our tool for catching performance regressions. When a regression bug is filed, the author of the regressing commit is needinfo-ed and asked for a fix. Sometimes the issue is not obvious and additional debugging information is needed, in which case the side-by-side comparison is very useful to help preview the impact the regression would have on the end-user.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Our advice for installing Node.js modules using npm registry

• The Node.js ecosystem is a vast landscape, and one of the most important parts of that ecosystem is its various modules.  Installing these modules is an easy process, thanks to the npm registry. It is easy to download packages, create your own module, and publish it to the npm registry. The Node.js Reference Architecture team has recommendations for creating and publishing your modules.

=> ↺ How I do automated accessibility testing for my website

• This article covers adding accessibility tests to your site using Pa11y (pa11y-ci with axe) and Cypress (with cypress-axe) in GitLab CI/CD. I use a Jekyll website as an example, but any website technology that runs in CI/CD can leverage this setup.

• In addition to getting your website to run in CI/CD, I recommend enabling an XML sitemap feature. A sitemap allows the accessibility tests to parse all URLs to find accessibility issues across the site. I recommend the jekyll-sitemap plugin for Jekyll sites.

• Collecting a list of all major URLs is a good alternate step if a sitemap is not possible. The URLs should cover all potential layouts of the website, such as pages with the highest traffic or the most landings. This approach won’t catch all accessibility issues, especially content level concerns, but it will test the layout and main pages.

• This scenario requires the npm or yarn package managers. I used npm for this article. If your project doesn’t have npm initialized, run the npm init command to create the package.json file.

• Pa11y is a free and open source software that tests websites for accessibility issues. Pa11y-ci is the command line utility geared towards continuous integration (CI). Install pa11y-ci as a development dependency with npm: [...]

=> ↺ Mapping the program counter back to the function name in your code

• Compilers are commonly used to convert human-readable source code into a series of instructions that are directly executed by the computer. A common question is “How do the debuggers and error handlers report the place in the source code where the processor is currently at?” There are various methods to map instructions back to locations in the source code. With the compiler optimizing the code, there are also some complications in mapping the instructions back to the source code. This first article in the series describes how tools map the program counter (also known as the instruction pointer) back to the function name. Subsequent articles in this series will cover mapping the program counter back to the specific line in a source file. It also provides a backtrace describing the series of calls that resulted in the processor being in the current function.

• When translating source code into an executable binary, the compiler keeps symbol information about the entry to each function. Keeping this information available makes it possible for the linker to assemble multiple object files (.o suffix) into a single executable file. Before the object files are processed by the linker, the final addresses of functions and variables are not known. The object files have placeholders for the symbols that do not yet have addresses. The linker will resolve the addresses when creating the executable. Assuming that the resulting executable is not stripped, those symbols describing the entry of each function are still available. You can see an example of this by compiling the following simple program: [...]

=> ↺ The Hayes Code

• The obscure command set that gradually helped us move past acoustic couplers and brought dial-up modems into the mainstream. For a while, at least.

Leftovers

=> ↺ 6.8 magnitude earthquake shakes Tajikistan near China border

• A 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook part of Tajikistan early Thursday near China’s far western Xinjiang region. It was 41 miles west of Murghob, Tajikistan and 12 miles deep, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The area is remote and lightly populated. China Earthquake Networks Center said the quake was 7.2 magnitude and 6 miles deep. Preliminary seismic measurements by different agencies often differ. Further information was not immediately available.

=> ↺ English stand-up in Mexico a growing niche over last decade

• English-language stand-up comedy thrives here, with a diverse audiences of tourists, expats in Mexico and English-fluent Mexicans.

=> ↺ The OSs Nico Cartron Uses

• Last month I blogged about which OSs I use most frequently, which may be different from ones I’d prefer to use. The imitable Nico Cartron posted his own list, which is similar to mine.

• The biggest difference? Aside from not needing to run Windows (I’m jealous), he gives a notable mention to the Amstrad CPC running C/PM, which is too cool. I came so close to buying a later model Amstrad PPC on eBay with the flippy LCD, but it went for silly money. One day I’ll save up enough to have an apartment big enough for a retrocomputer room, and shelving to fit all these machines.

Science

=> ↺ The White Specks in This Image Aren’t Stars or Galaxies. They’re Black Holes

• We can’t stop staring.

=> ↺ Futuristic Body Armor Could Be Based on This Weird Mushroom, Study Finds

• The overlooked fungus “fomen fomentarius” has incredible properties that can be used to develop strong, ultralight materials.

=> ↺ ‘Truly Bizarre’: Scientists Discover Ancient Galaxies That Should Not Exist

• “I think I spat out my coffee,” said the scientist leading the team that discovered the galaxies, which should be impossible within current physics.

=> ↺ Webb Telescope Spots Mature Galaxies Strangely Early in the Universe

=> ↺ Astronomers Detect 6 Massive Galaxies So Old They Can’t Be Explained by Science

• This could “transform our understanding of how the earliest galaxies in our Universe formed.”

=> ↺ A New Battery In Development Means We Might Be Able to Spend The Day On Venus

• It’s not a holiday up there.

=> ↺ Experimental Surgery-Free Treatment ‘Shrinks’ Endometriosis Lesions in Animals

• “This was a rather unexpected result.”

=> ↺ Love is (still) in the air: Stanford researchers find oxytocin receptors not necessary for social attachment

• In a recent study of prairie voles, researchers found that oxytocin — long thought to play a vital role in social attachment — is not necessary for this behavior and saw that the rodents still exhibited social monogamy, even without oxytocin receptors.

=> ↺ This Weird-Looking Fungus Could Be a Biodegradable Alternative to Plastic

• Strong but incredibly light.

Hardware

=> ↺ 40 Years Later, the Original Casio G-Shock Watch Is Back With Solar Power and More Accurate Timekeeping

• April will mark the 40th anniversary of Casio releasing one of the most recognizable and enduring brands in digital watches: the G-Shock.

=> ↺ E-Ink Display Modules Are Over-Rated: Check Out These 3 E-Ink Alternatives!

• It goes without saying, but playing around with e-ink display modules in Arduino and Raspberry Pi projects is fun. They’re bendable, keep their text even without power, and you could look at them under the sun without a backlight! Of course, that’s not to say that they’re 100% perfect. Images tend to burn-in.

=> ↺ Inflation Up, Economy Jittery, And IT Spending Consequentially Slows

• The increasing cost of goods and services is making everyone a little crazy, and corporate IT departments are not immune from the effects of the dual concerns of rising inflation and the desire by central banks to use interest rates to curb our economic enthusiasm and slow that inflation to a much more sane level.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Latvian potato growers hopeful for new season

• Recently, the staple of the Latvian diet – potatoes – experienced one of the steepest price jumps in the past 10 years, reaching an average increase of 50%. Growers are now preparing for the new season in the hope that weather conditions will be favorable enough to finally produce good results after two years of poor harvest, Zemgale Television reported February 22.

=> ↺ Latvia’s Covid vaccination percentage finally near desirable level

• At the beginning of January, in Latvia, the percentage of primary vaccination against Covid-19 was 69.2% of the total population, which is close to the desired public vaccination coverage rate of 70% and the average European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) – 73%, according to the information report prepared by the Ministry of Health, LETA reported February 21.

=> ↺ The Secret to The Naked Mole-Rat’s Unique Fertility Has Finally Been Revealed

• Just when you thought they couldn’t get any weirder.

=> ↺ Explainer-What Are the Risks of Materials Released in the Ohio Derailment?

=> ↺ China halts some classes amid school Covid-19 cluster, flu’s return

• The fresh surges mirror “twindemic” seen after countries eased Covid-19 curbs.

=> ↺ Cambodian girl dies of bird flu

• The girl fell ill on Feb 16 with a fever, cough and sore throat, and later died in hospital.

=> ↺ SARS-CoV-2 Infection Can Alter Future Immune Reponses

• Males recovered from mild COVID-19 have baseline immune states primed to mount stronger responses to future challenges.

=> ↺ Researchers Make Alternatives to Shark-Sourced Vaccine Ingredient

• Synthetic variations of squalene, which is used to boost immune responses, could make vaccines more effective while reducing fisheries for struggling sharks.

=> ↺ How Genes from Neanderthals Predispose People to Severe COVID-19

• Researchers dissect the Neanderthal-derived region on chromosome 3 that drives severe COVID-19 to zero in on the key causal variants.

=> ↺ ‘Forever Chemicals’ Have Been Found in Animals on Every Continent Except One

• “This is really a global contamination issue…”

=> ↺ After pharma lobbying, minister intervened to suspend drug-price reform

• Documents reveal health minister pushed arms-length regulator to delay reform intended to save Canadians billions on drug costs

=> ↺ ‘America Has Lost the War on Drugs,’ The New York Times Says, but Should Keep Fighting It Anyway

• The paper pushes modest reforms while endorsing continued criminalization.

=> ↺ The Covid fog has (mostly) lifted

• Hi! How are you? Wow, it’s weird typing in a text editor again.

• My throat and head still hurt after getting the spicy cough, but I feel as though a mental InfiniBand cable was plugged back in last night, after subsisting on low-baud RS232 for the last week. I can think again!

• I empathise with those of you who’ve talked about Covid “brain fog” now. Even when I began to physically get better this week, my brain felt sluggish. I didn’t know where to begin with most tasks, and I was incapable of holding more than a few thoughts in my head at the same time. My mum used to say the same about chemotherapy.

=> ↺ Tracking malaria and mosquitoes with the help of pregnant women and city dwellers

• By Tom Cassauwers Arnau Pujol Vallribera is a Spanish data whiz who used to study galaxies. Now he tracks diseases spread by mosquitoes. ‘In cosmology, we use algorithms to better understand the laws of physics and how the universe evolves,’ said Pujol Vallribera of the Spain-based Barcelona Institute for Global Health, or ISGlobal.

=> ↺ Are We in The Midst of a Wellbeing ‘Pandemic’? Why Wellness Isn’t Always Good For Us

• Researchers weigh in.

=> ↺ Shoppers hoarding salmon from salad bars to save money

• Certain K-Supermarket outlets have resorted to removing salmon from their salad bar selection due to excessive hoarding.

=> ↺ Finland sending €5m of Ukrainian grain to Africa via WFP

• Around 65 percent of Ukrainian wheat and about half of its corn were taken to developing countries, according to the Finnish Foreign Ministry.

Linux Foundation

=> ↺ Linux Foundation Welcomes New Open Source Projects from Peraton Labs to Scale 5G Security

Security

=> ↺ Why settle for one layer of security when you can have 2FA?

• Protecting your online accounts with just a password is like locking your front door with a key: It might keep most people away, but an intruder who’s determined to break in can still force an entry.

=> ↺ R1Soft Server Backup Manager Vulnerability Exploited to Deploy Backdoor

• Hackers have been exploiting a vulnerability tracked as CVE-2022-36537 to hack hundreds of R1Soft servers.

=> ↺ Intel Paid Out Over $4.1 Million via Bug Bounty Program Since 2017

• Intel paid out more than $935,000 through its bug bounty program in 2022, but found over half of the vulnerabilities internally.

=> ↺ Google Paid Out $12 Million via Bug Bounty Programs in 2022

• Google rewarded over 700 researchers in 2022 for contributions to its bug bounty program, with the highest single payout at $605,000.

=> ↺ CISA Warns of Two Mitel Vulnerabilities Exploited in Wild

• CISA has added two Mitel MiVoice Connect vulnerabilities to its known exploited vulnerabilities catalog and instructed federal agencies to patch them within three weeks.

=> ↺ Washington State city allegedly hit by ransomware

• The BlackCat ransomware gang (ALPHV) has listed the City of Lakewood, Washington, on its data leak site, urging the affected companies to sue the municipality.

• Lakewood is a city in Pierce County, Washington, with a population of over 63,000. BlackCat claimed it had breached Lakewood City Council and stolen over 250GB worth of data.

• “Because of their misunderstanding and inability to negotiate, we share information with you,” BlackCat said and shared a link to download 252GB of documents.

=> ↺ Trove of L.A. Students’ Mental Health Records Posted to Dark Web After Cyber Hack

• Detailed and highly sensitive mental health records of hundreds — and likely thousands — of former Los Angeles students were published online after the city’s school district fell victim to a massive ransomware attack last year, an investigation by The 74 has revealed.

• The student psychological evaluations, published to a “dark web” leak site by the Russian-speaking ransomware gang Vice Society, offer a startling degree of personally identifiable information about students who received special education services, including their detailed medical histories, academic performance and disciplinary records.

• But people are likely unaware their sensitive information is readily available online because the Los Angeles Unified School District hasn’t alerted them, a district spokesperson confirmed, and leaders haven’t acknowledged the trove of records even exists. In contrast, the district publicly acknowledged last month that the sensitive information of district contractors had been leaked.

=> ↺ Lessons From a Ransomware Attack: The Importance of Partnership & Collaboration

• Imagine a rural business is the victim of a cyberattack. A nefarious person or group convinces an unsuspecting employee to open an email promising a bonus. Within 12 hours, every piece of technology connected to that network, and every process needed to conduct daily operations, is paralyzed.

• Now imagine that business is a hospital. It serves 80,000 people and it’s the only one within 10,000 square miles. Add to the scenario a global pandemic that is steadily ravaging the nation’s healthcare system. On October 27, 2020, Sky Lakes Medical Center went dark.

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

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (amanda, apr-util, and tiff), Fedora (apptainer, git, gssntlmssp, OpenImageIO, openssl, webkit2gtk3, xorg-x11-server, and xorg-x11-server-Xwayland), Oracle (firefox and thunderbird), Red Hat (python3), SUSE (gnutls, php7, and python-Django), and Ubuntu (chromium-browser, libxpm, and mariadb-10.3, mariadb-10.6).

=> ↺ Cisco ClamAV anti-malware scanner vulnerable to serious security flaw

• Patch released for bug that poses a critical risk to vulnerable technologies

=> ↺ Announcing Istio 1.16.3

• This release contains bug fixes to improve robustness. This release note describes what’s different between Istio 1.16.2 and Istio 1.16.3.

• This release includes security fixes in Go 1.19.6 (released 2/14/2023) for the path/filepath, net/http, mime/multipart, and crypto/tls packages.

=> ↺ Activision Got Hacked but Didn’t Tell Its Employees: Report

• This week, gaming giant Activision revealed that a cybercriminal had managed to get inside of its network late last year. How did the hacker do that, exactly? Better take a guess.

=> ↺ IBM finds defenders are becoming more successful in detecting and preventing ransomware

=> ↺ New ‘Stealc’ information-stealing malware grows in popularity on dark web

=> ↺ Beware of this Disney+ impersonation email which leads to a phishing website

• This scam email offers a 12-month subscription to Disney+ for £2

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ The CSA further expands with a data privacy working group

• Hot on the heels of announcing a Health and Wellness working group, the Connectivity Standards Alliance has created a working group focused on data privacy. The new working group will explore “the creation of a harmonized global specification and certification program.

=> ↺ Meta may offer a lesson in how to brick a surveillance device

• It’s the beginning of the end for Meta’s Portal display. The company quietly removed the app for Microsoft Teams from the Portal app store in recent weeks, a little over a year after the video chat service first became available on Meta’s smart displays.

=> ↺ Stop using Telegram – it is not safe – at all

• “know in some countries they believe Telegram is safe. I will show you how safe it is,” he said, before showing a screen in which he appeared to scroll through the Telegram contacts of one Kenyan strategist…

=> ↺ Tesla Tweaks Onboard Cameras Following Allegations of Privacy Invasion

• The Dutch safety watchdog decided on Wednesday that it had concluded its investigation into Tesla and wouldn’t issue a fine against the company for its vehicle’s security cameras.

=> ↺ Whistleblower Leaks Documents And Software Of Israeli Surveillance Tech Company Cellebrite

=> ↺ Access Now oral statement for informal meeting of the UN General Assembly Third Committee

• Access Now’s oral statement for an informal meeting of the UN General Assembly Third Committee convened by the Chair with ECOSOC accredited NGOs.

=> ↺ UNESCO’s guidelines for regulating digital platforms must center human rights for everyone, everywhere

• UNESCO must work with all stakeholders to ensure guidelines on regulating digital platforms center human rights for people everywhere.

=> ↺ Citizens do not know they are “monitored” by the Russian SORM system

=> ↺ UK: Rail minister’s laptop with confidential details of strike talks is stolen from pub

=> ↺ Meta successfully resists certification in data privacy collective action

• In an early victory for Meta, the Competition Appeal Tribunal has refused to certify a collective claim brought on behalf of some 45 million consumers by proposed class representative Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen (the “PCR”). Less than three weeks after the certification hearing, the Tribunal has held that the PCR “unequivocally failed” to satisfy one of the tests for certification. Rather than reject the claim outright, the Tribunal has given the PCR six months to file additional evidence setting out a “new and better blueprint leading to an effective trial”.

=> ↺ Thoughts on Dubin v. United States and the Aggravated Identity Theft Statute

• On February 27, the Supreme Court will hear argument in Dubin v. United States, a case on the Aggravated Identity Theft Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1028A. This statute comes up often in the context of computer crimes, and its interpretation raises some interesting and important questions. So I thought I would blog about the case and offer some impressions.

=> ↺ Charlie v. Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services

• If Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services Notified You of a Data Breach, You May be Eligible for Payment From a Class Action Settlement.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Fire-damaged ship ‘Escape’ to be pulled to Rīga port

• Two tugboats have started pulling the ship “Escape” on which a fire broke out during the night, to Rīga, the navy public relations specialist Līva Veita told LETA February 22.

=> ↺ Crew evacuated after fire on cargo ship in Baltic Sea

• In the early hours of February 22, Latvia’s Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC Riga) of the Coast Guard Service of the Navy received information from the cargo ship “Escape” that a fire had broken out on board, which could not be extinguished with the autonomous fire extinguishing system, and assistance was requested.

=> ↺ Authorities: TV reporter, girl fatally shot in Florida

• Authorities say a central Florida television journalist and a little girl were fatally shot near the scene of a fatal shooting from earlier in the day. Orange County Sheriff John Mina said during a news conference Wednesday that they’ve detained a 19-year-old who they believe is responsible for both shootings in the Orlando-area neighborhood. Besides the Spectrum News 13 journalist and the 9-year-old girl, a TV crewmember and the girl’s mother were wounded during the second shooting. Mina said they don’t immediately have a motive for any of the shootings.

=> ↺ Growing Miscalculations of Parties with No clear End-State Describes One Year of Russia Ukraine War

• Backdrop As the war in Ukraine completes one year, both sides put up a brave front, reiterating their resolve to carry on, blaming the other side for the conflict, and engaging in greater miscalculations with a hope that a little extra push can put them in a stronger position to dictate terms…

=> ↺ Vladimir Putin: “The Truth is on our side”

• Vladimir Putin delivered his Address to the Federal Assembly.The ceremony took place in Gostiny Dvor, Moscow.

=> ↺ Military and Pakistan: A Historic Saga

• Taking another U-turn from his previous popular narrative of a US-sponsored regime change to oust him from power, ex-PM Imran Khan blamed the ex-Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa for masterminding the regime change operation.

=> ↺ EU, NATO, Ukraine to Ramp Up Arms Production and Procurement

• Europeans are concerned about the current course of the Ukrainian conflict because the consumption rate of ammunition is greater than the production rate.

=> ↺ Malcolm X’s Daughter To Sue New York Police, FBI, and CIA

• “For years, our family has struggled to bring to light the truth about my father’s murder, which these institutions planned,” Ilyasah Shabazz stated.

=> ↺ Danes donate record amounts to Red Cross during Ukraine war

• The Danish Red Cross has received just under 700 million kroner over the last 12 months in donations towards humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

=> ↺ War as Theatre, at a Private Home in Kharkiv

• Most performance spaces in the city have been shut down since the start of the war. Some residents are reënacting experiences from the invasion themselves.

=> ↺ Joe Biden’s Showy Defiance of Vladimir Putin

• After a year of war in Ukraine, the President offers a strikingly personal rebuke—but little clarity on what winning looks like.

=> ↺ Anti-war protests in Washington, Munich and Helsinki

• Last weekend, Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC for the ‘March Against the War Machine’ rally, which featured several prominent speakers including former US presidential candidates. The speakers accused President Biden of pushing the world to the brink of “nuclear holocaust” by supporting Ukraine militarily and called for an end to such support in favour of diplomacy.

=> ↺ Biķernieki Holocaust memorial vandalism under investigation

• The State Police’s Rīga Teika precinct has initiated an administrative violation process regarding the spray-painting of the letter Z on the Second World War Holocaust Victims Memorial in Rīga, Biķernieku forest, LETA reported February 22.

=> ↺ Finland to unveil possible tank delivery to Ukraine on Thursday

• Finland’s contribution is not expected to be large, as Leopard tanks are crucial for its own defence.

=> ↺ Finland to fly Ukrainian flags on Friday, marking first year of war

• The City of Helsinki has issued an open invitation to a candlelight memorial event commemorating the deadly conflict’s first anniversary at Senate Square on Friday afternoon and evening.

=> ↺ Levits in Poland for Biden meeting Wednesday

• Latvian State President Egils Levits is in Warsaw, Poland February 22 to participate in a meeting of the ‘Bucharest Nine’ group of countries.

=> ↺ “Standing by Ukraine Against Russia’s Aggression” discussion upcoming

• On February 24, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation (LATO) is holding a discussion titled “Standing by Ukraine Against Russia’s Aggression”.

=> ↺ Jan. 6 rioter who threatened Ocasio-Cortez online gets 3 years

• A Texas man who threatened U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter after he stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 has been sentenced to more than three years in prison. Garret Miller was wearing a shirt that read “I Was There, Washington D.C., January 6, 2021” with a picture on President Donald Trump on it when law enforcement officers showed up at his Dallas-area home to arrest him two weeks after the riot. Miller has already served more than two years behind bars since his January 2021 arrest, and with credit for good behavior, he’s expected to serve another eight months.

=> ↺ How has Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affected Latvia’s economy?

• Latvian central bank economists Kārlis Vilerts and Matīss Mirošņikovs examine the economic consequences of Russia’s warmongering in this new analysis for the central bank’s macroeconomics.lv website.

=> ↺ Student confessed to hoax bomb threat on Texas flight

• Authorities say a high school student confessed to sending a hoax bomb threat via AirDrop that resulted in an American Airlines flight being diverted from the tarmac at a Texas airport last week. The Texas Department of Public Safety said while the flight was taxiing on Friday at El Paso International Airport, a message went to passengers’ Apple devices via AirDrop reading: “I have a bomb would like to share a photo.” DPS said that because of that message, the aircraft taxied back to a gate. DPS said that an investigation resulted in the identification of the juvenile, who confessed to sending the AirDrop. Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh confirmed that the juvenile was a student returning from a school-sponsored trip.

=> ↺ De-Russianizing street names stirs historical discussion

• Because of the war in Ukraine, Latvia has taken to remove Soviet-glorifying symbols from the public environment, including changing street names, also some that are simply linked to Russia in some way. Residents of Staraja Rusas Street in Rīga are dissatisfied with the new name and encourage studying history, Latvian Television’s 4. studija reported on February 22.

=> ↺ Defense Minister suspicious of predecessor’s procurement

• Defence Minister Ināra Mūrniece (National Alliance) has grown suspicious of a procurement for the National Armed Forces that took place during the office of former minister Artis Pabriks (Development/For!), Mūrniece said in an interview to Latvian Radio on February 22.

=> ↺ Washington Post Lets Hersh’s Dangerous Cat Out of the Bag

• Bombshell No. 1: Seymour Hersh’s Feb. 8 report that President Joe Biden authorized the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines built to carry cheap Russian gas to Europe. Bombshell No. 2: The Washington Post today ended the Establishment media embargo on Hersh’s damning report, mentioning its findings and even including a link to his article.

=> ↺ While We’re Laughing About a Balloon; Biden Paves a Path to War

• There is reason to be alarmed by the recent China balloon. However, that reason is not the alleged China aggression but the very calculated aggression towards China by the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. This hate and the manufactured reasons for it have been layering on for years. We’ve seen this playbook.

=> ↺ Biden Goes All in on Proxy War Against Russia

• No, Joe, that’s not Hunter you’re sniffing. But Zelensky is a pretty good substitute – every bit as corrupt, drugged-up and delusional as the First Son. So hug away. You have already proven (repeatedly) that there is no betrayal of America’s true homeland security you will not eagerly embrace.

=> ↺ Who’s Winning and Losing the Economic War Over Ukraine?

• With the Ukraine war now reaching its one-year mark on February 24, the Russians have not achieved a military victory but neither has the West achieved its goals on the economic front.

=> ↺ Is China Considering Supplying Russia With Weapons?

• On February 3, following the balloon incident, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled his trip to China. On February 18, he got a second chance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

=> ↺ War in Ukraine and ICBMs: The Untold Story of How They Could Blow Up the World

• Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago, media coverage of the war hasn’t included even the slightest mention of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Yet the war has boosted the chances that ICBMs will set off a global holocaust.

=> ↺ Ukraine to ask G7 leaders for more military equipment on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion

• On the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine Friday (Feb. 24), leaders of G7 nations will hold a virtual summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid concern that Russia could mark the anniversary with a major new offensive.

=> ↺ How Australia can use all its tools of statecraft

• Australian policymakers have increasingly spoken of the need to use all the tools of statecraft in international engagement.

=> ↺ How will the war in Ukraine end?

• On the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it’s timely to consider how this brutal war might be resolved.

=> ↺ Espionage and foreign interference threaten Australian sovereignty

• Literature and movies heavily feature themes of espionage and foreign interference. They focus on a dangerous, fast-moving world that provides people with an escape from their everyday lives. However, many in our community would not …

=> ↺ Ukrainian couple continue medical work at Latvian hospital

• Medical workers Tetyana and Serhiy Cherepov are Ukrainian war refugees whose city Russian troops invaded on the first day of the war. The Cherepov family spent three months in the occupied city before leaving. Now Tetyana and Serhiy, as well as their two daughters, have found a home in Valmiera and work at the Vidzeme Hospital, Latvian Radio reported on February 23.

=> ↺ Meeting in support of Ukraine in Rīga Friday

• On Friday, February 24, at 10:00, a meeting will take place near the Freedom Monument in Rīga to express support for Ukraine and to condemn the criminal and aggressive war launched by Russia, the Civic Alliance Latvia said.

=> ↺ Russian embassy’s former van now helps Ukraine

• Until March 16, 2022, a van had red – diplomatic – number plates and was carrying personnel of the Russian Embassy in Latvia. It was sold and turned into a relief van for Ukraine. Aigars Loss, the activist of the association “Tev”, has traveled to Ukraine 17 times in it, Latvian Television reported February 21.

=> ↺ Drunk drivers’ cars will soon head to Ukraine

• As of Tuesday, February 21, amendments to the law have entered into force, allowing cars confiscated in Latvia from drunk drivers to be handed over to Ukraine.

=> ↺ South Carolina Senate OKs ‘shield law’ for lethal injections

• South Carolina Senators hope a bill passed Wednesday will help the state resume capital punishment after an involuntary pause for nearly 12 years. Lawmakers approved a bill concealing the identity of pharmaceutical companies providing lethal injection drugs for state executions. The state has been unable to purchase the drugs necessary for lethal injection since the state’s batch expired in 2013. Officials have largely blamed that inability to replenish the supply on the lack of a so-called “shield law.” Republican leaders have said pharmaceutical companies fear public pressure from activists and therefore will not sell to states that do not conceal their identities.

=> ↺ Lessons From Ukraine Are Escalating Research Into Developing Killer Robots

• *Humans not included.

=> ↺ President Niinistö: Finland, Sweden want Nato membership ‘as soon as possible’

• Without specifically naming Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Finnish president said that there may be only one man in the world who knows what Turkey’s plans are in the matter.

Environment

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Flights canceled, highways closed as winter storm wallops US

• A brutal winter storm has closed interstate highways from Arizona to Wyoming, trapped motorists in their cars, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the first blizzard warning in Southern California in decades. Few places were untouched by the wild weather. Nearly 300,000 customers were without power late Wednesday in Michigan and Illinois, thousands more in Arizona and some 65,000 in California. Weather contributed to some 1,600 U.S. flight cancellations. Plunging temperatures, high winds, heavy snow and dangerous ice are expected to hammer much of the country through Friday.

=> ↺ CDMX’s Metrobus Line 3 now fully electric

• The new 60-unit-fleet will reduce 7,500 tons of carbon dioxide per year, said head of the capital’s Mobility Ministry, Andrés Lajous.

=> ↺ More than 50 missing in deadly Chinese mine collapse

• A landslide has forced the suspension of the search for the missing. At least two people have been confirmed dead in the open-pit coal mine.

=> ↺ Four dead, 49 missing in China mine collapse

• Premier Li Keqiang has demanded a quick investigation into the cause of the collapse.

=> ↺ Finnish politicians urge electricity retailers to adjust prices of fixed-term contracts

• POLICY MAKERS in Finland have urged electricity retailers to adjust the contracts they sold to customers early this winter amid widespread concerns about electricity prices, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

• Sanni Grahn-Laasonen (NCP), the chairperson of the Parliament’s Commerce Committee, on Tuesday stated in a press release that all members of the committee are pleading with electricity companies to adjust their highest-priced fixed-term contracts.

Overpopulation

=> ↺ Latvia’s median age is 44 years and rising

• On January 1, 2022, the median age of the EU’s population reached 44.4 years, 0.3 years more than in 2021, according to data published Fenruary 22 by Eurostat.

=> ↺ Family Planning Offers the Best Means for Combating Climate Change: An interview with Carter Dillard, Fair Start Movement

• Hardly a day passes in which news headlines fail to inform us of the latest climate crisis. As the global population increases, formerly “once-in-a-lifetime” environmental disasters occur with ever greater frequency.

=> ↺ The Answer to Population Decline Is More Immigration

• Politicians’ go-to fixes like child tax credits and federal paid leave are known for creating disincentives to work without much impact on fertility.

=> ↺ The geopolitical implications of China’s declining population

• In January, China officially acknowledged that its population began to decline last year—roughly nine years earlier than Chinese demographers and the United Nations had projected.

=> ↺ MAP: The 22 Swedish areas with the lowest birth rate in over 50 years

• Sweden’s birth rate is falling – in some places to the lowest since records began.

=> ↺ Sweden’s birth rate falls to lowest in 17 years

• Swedes gave birth to fewer children last year than in any other year since 2005.

Finance

=> ↺ A month after the Hindenburg jolt, Adani continues to bleed

• It’s been nearly a month since the US-based Hindenburg Research published a report jolting one of India’s largest conglomerates. A $120-billion market rout and a major stock market U-turn later, the Adani group continues to bleed from the bruise it received.

=> ↺ How highly productive people at work can cause problems for their teams

• Being productive on an individual level is great, but it actually becomes counterproductive if you can’t work well with others.

=> ↺ The growing US labor movement in 3 charts

• Pro-union sentiment in the US reached a 57-year high last year.

=> ↺ Toyota and Honda announce broad raises for Japanese workers

• Honda and Toyota announced that they had fully met the salary and bonus demands set out by the national automobile workers’ union on Wednesday, as the country’s largest automakers attempt to adjust wages in line with last year’s record inflation.

=> ↺ How Ghana and Gambia are planning to bolster their digital economies

• As legacy economies continue to fall out of favor the world over, Ghana and Gambia are ramping up efforts to build tech-based economies.

=> ↺ Pharmacies tighten opening hours amid staff shortages

• An increasing number of pharmacists are working in hospitals and health centres, which is adding to drugstores’ staffing strain.

=> ↺ Why is the number of part-time workers in Denmark going up?

• The number of people who work on a part-time basis in Denmark increased in 2022, newly-released figures show.

=> ↺ How to maximise your Swedish pension – even if you’re not planning to stay

• How the Swedish pension works, and what you need to do about yours – even if you don’t plan to stay in Sweden long-term.

=> ↺ NetApp’s stock falls on revenue miss and soft guidance

=> ↺ Shares of call center provider Five9 drop on weaker-than-expected outlook

=> ↺ Economists urge China to think ‘beyond GDP’ to head off climate risks

• The team also called on China to cap total fossil fuel consumption.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ European Commission bans TikTok on staff devices — True Story

=> ↺ A Supplement Company ‘Hijacked’ Its Amazon Reviews to Boost Sales, According to the FTC

• Vitamin and supplement maker, The Bountiful Company (owned by Nestlé), has to pay a $600,000 fine to the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly misrepresenting numerous products online.

=> ↺ “I raise a toast to the memory of the late European Union”

• A single peaceful space, social democracy, the protection of languages – this is what Europe looked like at the end of the 90s, when the USSR collapsed. But today, another reality has won, writes columnist Benoît Duteurtre on the ‘Marianne’ website. America played an important role in this.

=> ↺ African Union: future role in BRICS+ and G20

• The summit of the African Union (AU) in February 2023 marked the rising stature of Africa on the world stage and the increasing support for African economic integration both regionally and globally.

=> ↺ Magazine ABCs 2022: Private Eye leads UK news mags with best sales since 2017

• Private Eye grew by 5% and remains the UK’s biggest news and current affairs magazine.

=> ↺ Women’s interest magazine ABCs 2022: Slimming World only title to see print growth

• Six titles recorded year-on-year digital circulation growth in the UK and Ireland.

=> ↺ Magazine ABCs 2022: Digital edition circulation up by 22%

• ABC consumer magazine data shows growth in digital circulation in 2022.

=> ↺ National press ABCs: Daily Mail dips below 800,000 for first time in January

• Press Gazette’s monthly analysis of ABC national newspaper circulation figures.

=> ↺ Challenges and Opportunities in the India-U.S. Partnership on iCET

• Over time, the India-USA defence partnership has grown and changed, as both nations have come to understand the importance of strengthening their strategic alliance in the face of domestic and international security threats. The Initiative on Critical and Emerging Information Technology (iCET), which intends to foster cooperation in cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing,

=> ↺ Where are Nigeria’s women in the upcoming elections?

• This year, Africa will see presidential elections in 10 of its countries. This is an excellent opportunity for more women to take up the mantle of leadership at all levels, but it will be an uphill battle.

=> ↺ Alaska House censures GOP lawmaker over child abuse comments

• An Alaska lawmaker with a history of incendiary remarks has been censured by the state House. Wednesday’s vote came after Republican Rep. David Eastman earlier this week said it has been argued that cases of fatal child abuse can be a “cost savings” because the child won’t need related government services. The House voted 35-1 to censure Eastman. He was the lone dissent. Eastman was previously censured, in 2017, over comments he made suggesting there are women in Alaska who try to get pregnant to get a “free trip to the city” for abortions.

=> ↺ Federal IT leaders see ‘critical moment’ in securing systems from fraud

• The CIO council convened a symposium to tackle “fraud prevention and detection” after potentially tens of billions in pandemic relief funds were stolen by fraudsters.

=> ↺ Schumer blasts Tucker Carlson’s access to Jan. 6 tapes: ‘one of the worst security risks since 9/11’

• “The speaker is needlessly exposing the Capitol complex to one of the worst security risks since 9/11,” Schumer said in a letter to Senate Democrats.

=> ↺ Bangladesh in Democracy Index-2022

• In February 2023, the Democracy Index-2022 has been published. London-based Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) publishes it every year since 2006. The index is considered a scientific and objective study of global democratic health. It is a well-accepted index worldwide.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ The War on Insensitivity

• CJ Hopkins So, here’s a “conspiracy theory” for you. This one is about the global-capitalist thoughtpolice and their ongoing efforts to purge society of “insensitivity.” Yes, that’s right, insensitivity. If there is anything the global-capitalist thoughtpolice can’t stand, it is insensitivity.

=> ↺ The TV series Thunder Bay’s police don’t want you to watch

• The city’s cops say our series about systemic racism and the loss of Indigenous lives in Thunder Bay is triggering…

=> ↺ Libel Suit by Gen. Michael Flynn’s Sister Against CNN Dismissed

• I’m too slammed today to comment in detail on it, but I just thought I’d note the decision handed down today by Judge Mary Scriven (M.D. Fla.) in Valerie Flynn v. CNN: Plaintiff, a citizen of Florida, is a private individual and sister to Retired General Michael Flynn. Plaintiff’s suit against Cable News Network, Inc. ……

=> ↺ No, Vivek Ramaswamy, ‘Political Expression’ Shouldn’t Be a ‘Civil Right’

• There can be no freedom of association without the freedom to disassociate from views you find erroneous, dangerous, or repulsive.

=> ↺ Ron DeSantis Wants To Rewrite Defamation Law

• “The bill is an aggressive and blatantly unconstitutional attempt to rewrite defamation law in a manner that protects the powerful from criticism by journalists and the public,” said one attorney.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Print ad revenue halves in six years as three tech giants make $400bn annually

• Amazon, Alphabet and Meta are estimated to take $4 in every $10 spent in the global ad market.

=> ↺ Villains of Nicola Bulley media coverage were on social media, but press has lessons to learn

• Liz Gerard takes a closer look at press coverage of the Bulley case and finds some aspects of it lacking.

=> ↺ Why calls for tougher press regulation over Nicola Bulley coverage are misguided

• Allegations of press misconduct in the Nicola Bulley case are wide of the mark.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ PHR: Biden’s Asylum Transit Ban “Replaces One Dangerous, Draconian Policy with Another”

• NEW YORK– In response to the Biden administration’s Tuesday announcement proposing a new rule that will restrict asylum seekers who have traveled through other countries before reaching the U.S. southern border from applying for asylum in the United States, the following statement is attributable to Michael Payne, deputy director of advocacy at PHR: [...]

=> ↺ US proposes new immigration rule to limit asylum eligibility

• The proposed rule would take effect on May 11, allowing the swift deportation of migrants who didn’t follow the “established pathways.”

=> ↺ Danish government proposes anti-grooming law

• Denmark’s government wants to criminalise grooming with provisions for punishments of up to two years in prison.

=> ↺ Iraq: Environmentalists Face Retaliation

=> ↺ Proposals to tackle domestic abuse threaten presumption of innocence

• Open Rights Group has responded to government proposals to tackle domestic abuse in the UK. Policy Manager, Sophia Akram said: “It’s important that the government is committed to tackling domestic abuse and supporting the women and girls who are affected by it.

=> ↺ Half of Finnish workers would consider leaving jobs without remote work option: Survey

• Half of Finnish workers would consider changing jobs if they were not allowed to work remotely, according to a recent workplace survey. The Työelämägallup (working life survey) poll also found that the number of employees working from home full-time has dropped from 44% to just 25% in the past year.

• Of those who have been working remotely, almost half (48%) said they would consider leaving their current position if they were no longer able to work from home.

=> ↺ Thousands of Refugee Students Cut off from Classes in Lebanon

=> ↺ Alex Vitale, Who Wrote the Book on Police Reform, Says Issue Is Politics, Not Training

• In a recent interview with Lee Camp, well-known police reform author and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project, Alex S. Vitale, sheds light on the recent murder of Tyree Nichols and America’s ongoing fight for police reform.

=> ↺ Copenhagen Police extend latest stop-and-search zone

• A stop-and-search zone put in place by Copenhagen Police earlier this month has been extended after several knives were found in the affected area.

=> ↺ Greater Cleveland LGBTQ+ Community Needs Assessment aims to improve lives of individuals

• The College of Public Health is partnering with the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland to conduct an LGBTQ+ community needs assessment. The project aims to improve the safety and lives of LGBTQ+ people in the area.

=> ↺ Amazon Employees Ask Their Boss Not to Make Them Come Back to the Office 3 Days a Week

• Amazon employees are petitioning CEO Andy Jassy to cancel his return-to-office mandate and calling out his about-face on remote work

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Bin Laden, Burglars, and Banks: The Supreme Court Considers Twitter’s Role in Terrorism

• Supreme Court justices whipped out their dictionaries and a deep bucket of metaphors Wednesday in a cumbersome attempt to understand whether or not social media companies can be held legally liable for promoting ISIS videos under anti-terrorism laws.

=> ↺ Is This the End of the Internet As We Know It?

• Two pending Supreme Court cases interpreting a 1996 law could drastically alter the way we interact online. That law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, is often disparaged as a handout to Big Tech, but that misses the point. Section 230 promotes free speech by removing strong incentives for platforms to limit what we can say and do online.

• Under Section 230, platforms generally may not be held liable for the content posted by users. Without this protection, important speech such as communication about abortion, especially in states where abortion is outlawed, could be silenced. Movements like #MeToo and #BLM may not have been able to catch on if platforms were worried that they’d be sued, even improperly, for defamation or other claims. People could have found their voices censored, especially when talking about ideas that are under political attack today: race and racism, sexuality, and gender justice. The internet as we know it would be a very different place.

=> ↺ Amy Coney Barrett Searches Bible for God’s Opinion of the Internet

• “It doesn’t matter what we think about the Internet,” the Supreme Court Justice said. “What does God think about it?”

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ UPC and Council of the EU report on UPC system

Trademarks

=> ↺ TTAB Summarily Sustains BITVISION Opposition Due to Offensive Claim Preclusion

• On summary judgment, the Board sustained this opposition to registration of the mark BITVISION, in the form shown first below, for closed circuit TV security systems, concluding that the application must be denied on the ground of claim preclusion. Applicant Creative Security had defaulted in two prior oppositions brought by this same opposer, for identical goods and substantially the same mark.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Images from the Collective Unconscious: Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn and the Eranos Archive

• In the 1930s, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, mystic and founder of the multidisciplinary Eranos forum, began compiling a diverse visual archive that would allow dreamers to cross-reference their visions with the entirety of cultural history. Frederika Tevebring explores this grandiose undertaking and its effect on the archivist, as images from the collection began to blur with her psyche.

=> ↺ Canadian Copyright, Fair Dealing and Education, Part Two: The Massive Shift to Electronic Licensing

• Canadian copyright lobby groups have spent years falsely claiming that educational institutions refuse to pay for licences to compensate for the use of educational materials. This second post in my Fair Dealing Week series on Canadian copyright, fair dealing, and education focuses on this claim, which is a gross misrepresentation of the data (first post on Setting the Record Straight).

=> ↺ Sci-fi magazine has to halt submissions after receiving too much AI-generated fiction

• Neil Clarke is one of the foremost editors of science fiction—and now he’s faced with a very sci-fi problem.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: ABCKROM Wordo: HURLS

Technical

Programming

=> ↺ Federation and forges

• One way GitHub could make itself a lot better and less hated-by-me would be if they set up a way for people who don’t have accounts on there to contribute with git send-email and/or git request-pull (the latter obviously requires some place to host repos). They could translate those contributions in the fancy-schmancy (probably better known as super confusing) “pull request” format and interface GitHub-using devs love so much. Their gh cli thing is fun and all but that still requires an account, which is the biggest reason for my hatred of them.

• I was looking enviously at sourcehut and being intimidated by trying to install it (since the docs are all like “warning warning warning this project is a super scale project that stretches many servers”) but the other day my envy disappeared when I realized that my current setup—plain cloneable repos + a mailing list—is, from a non-maintainer contributor’s perspective, not much different from sourcehut. A way to browse the repos without cloning them is the only thing missing, and I’m on that. (I just need spoons. Looking at softserve and cgit as options. But I kinda also don’t wanna do anything and just chill.)

• Even if GitHub were made open source under the AGPL, if it kept the same “you need an account to contribute” problem we’d still be in trouble. That’s also the problem with a lot of other forges like Gitea.

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