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● 03.06.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 06/03/2023: LibreELEC 11 Released and Deutsche Telekom Spreads Nextcloud

Posted in News Roundup at 9:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ 9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: March 5th, 20234

• This week we got lots of releases and Linux news, starting with the availability of the latest KDE Plasma 5.27 LTS desktop environment on Kubuntu 22.10, new GIMP and FFmpeg releases, new kernel security updates for Ubuntu users, and support for 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs in Ubuntu.

• New IPFire and Armbian releases arrived as well this week, along with more goodies for KDE users. Check out the hottest news of this week and access all the distro and package downloads in 9to5Linux’s Linux weekly roundup for March 5th, 2023, below.

=> ↺ Linux Around The World: USA – Maine

• We cover user groups that are running in the US state of Maine. This article forms part of our Linux Around The World series.

=> ↺ Linux Weekly Roundup #225

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ 2023-03-04 Ubuntu Linux Announces New Kind Of Mini ISO??

=> ↺ 2023-03-05 Installation And First Look Of PCLinuxOS (An Oldie But A Goodie!)

=> ↺ 2023-03-05 How to install Shotcut video editor on Linux Lite 6.2

=> ↺ 2023-03-05 Fedora Linux Finally Kills Off Delta RPM

=> ↺ 2023-03-05 HP gives up, Flathub payments, companies using FOSS wrong: Linux & Open Source News

=> ↺ Episode 365 – “I am not your supplier” with Thomas Depierre

• Josh and Kurt talk to Thomas Depierre about his “I am not a supplier” blog post. We drink from the firehose on this one. Thomas describes the realities and challenges of being an open source maintainer. What open source and society owe each other. How safety can help describe what we see.

=> ↺ 2023-03-05 The Lunduke Big Tech Show – Mar 5, 2023 – Hour 2

=> ↺ 2023-03-05 The Lunduke Big Tech Show – Mar 5, 2023 – Hour 1

Applications

=> ↺ 2023-03-04 The Top 15 Best Linux Terminal Emulators

=> ↺ How to Use the tee Command to Split Terminal Output on Linux

• Linux lets you store the command output in files as a means of output redirection. When you save the output to a file using the > or >> operators, the output gets redirected with no information displayed on the terminal.

• But what if you want to print the output on the screen and store it in a file simultaneously? Although you can’t do it with the output redirection operators, it is possible to do so using the tee command on Linux.

=> ↺ Introducing runst: Handle desktop notifications neatly on Linux!

• runst is a dead simple notification daemon. In this post, I’m introducing the project and giving different usage examples that will improve your Linux desktop experience.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Install MiniKube on Rocky Linux 9 (Simple Guide)

• Minikube is a free and open-source tool that allow us to setup a single node Kubernetes cluster locally on our system. Minikube is only used for learning Kubernetes and allow developers to  build their test environment locally on their system.

=> ↺ How To Check An MD5 Checksum on Linux (Fast And Easy)

• A checksum value is a short data block derived from a larger one. MD5 (Message Digest 5) checksum values are used to verify the integrity of files in Linux. 

=> ↺ How secure is merely discarding (TRIMing) all of a SSD’s blocks?

• First off, any SSD you want to use today will support what’s called ‘Deterministic Read After TRIM (DRAT)’ (sort of cf), where the SSD will always return a fixed result when you read data after a TRIM operation. Some SSDs also promise to always return zeros in this situation; this is ‘Deterministic read ZEROs after TRIM’, variously abbreviated as ‘DZAT’, ‘RZAT’, or ‘DRZAT’. These are the (S)ATA versions, but NVMe has a similar system. All of these mean that once you TRIM the entire drive, the previous data on the drive can’t be read through normal means, so someone who gets your drive and puts it in a computer will get garbage (or possibly errors on NVMe drives).

=> ↺ How to install PHP, PHP-FPM in Alpine Linux?

• PHP is a general purpose scripting language that is used mainly for web development, it is pragmatic, easy to learn and use, it is constantly evolving with a wide community of developers who are in charge of enriching this popular programming language with new features, therefore it is constantly evolving.

=> ↺ How to Install iostat on Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04

• Iostat is a popular system monitoring and performance analysis tool widely used on Linux systems. It provides detailed information on system resources such as CPU utilization, disk I/O, and network utilization, which can help system administrators monitor and optimize their systems’ performance.

=> ↺ How to Install Brave Browser on Manjaro Linux

• Brave Browser is a free and open-source web browser created by Brendan Eich, the co-founder of Mozilla and the creator of JavaScript. It is designed to provide users with a fast, secure, and privacy-focused browsing experience.

=> ↺ SCP Command on Linux: 30 Example Commands

• Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) is a command-line tool that transfers files securely between remote servers using the SSH (Secure Shell) protocol. It is a convenient and secure way to move files between servers, particularly for system administrators who manage multiple servers.

=> ↺ Extract Tar Files on Linux: 30 Useful Commands

• Extracting tar files is a fundamental task in Linux and Unix-based systems. The tar utility is designed to consolidate multiple files into a single archive file. This archive file can be compressed with various algorithms such as gzip, bzip2, and xz. After compression, the archive file can be extracted using the untar command.

=> ↺ How to Set up Prometheus Node exporter in Kubernetes

• In this guide we’ll learn how to set up and configure “Node Exporter” to collect Linux system metrics like CPU load and disk I/O and expose them as Prometheus-style metrics in kubernetes. To get all the kubernetes node-level system metrics, you need to have a node-exporter running in all the kubernetes nodes.

=> ↺ How To Install Couchbase on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Couchbase on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Couchbase is an open-source, distributed NoSQL document database that provides a flexible and scalable architecture.

=> ↺ How To Install Synaptic Package Manager on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Synaptic Package Manager on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

=> ↺ How to Deploy Filebeat using Ansible

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to deploy Filebeat using Ansible. Ansible is an open-source automation tool used for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. It is designed to simplify IT automation by providing a way to automate tasks across a large number of computers.

=> ↺ Install and Setup VeraCrypt on Linux Mint 21

• In this guide, we are going to learn how to install and setup VeraCrypt on Linux Mint 21. VeraCrypt, a fork of TrueCrypt, is a free and open source on-the-fly disk encryption (OTFE) tool.

=> ↺ Add a Touch Monitor to Raspberry PI: Reviewing the Elecrow Meteor Screen 10.1″

• In recent days, I get hands on an interesting touch monitor for my Raspberry PI: the Elecrow Meteor Screen.

=> ↺ How to Install ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors on All Major Linux Distrbutions

• If you are looking for some alternatives to Microsoft Office that can open and create Microsoft Office documents without any problem, then ONLYOFFICE Desktop is a perfect choice.

=> ↺ How to sideload apps to a Chromebook

• A significant benefit of owning a great Chromebook is that you can use all kinds of apps on it, including Linux apps, Android apps, and standard web apps. Most Android apps, in particular, can be downloaded via the Google Play Store, but what if you want to use a specific Android app that’s not listed? Well, you can sideload that app.

• Just know that doing so isn’t exactly easy since you’ll need to switch your Chromebook to developer mode. This comes with risks of its own, but if you’re up for the task, you can follow the steps below.

=> ↺ Searching and manipulating text with grep and sed

• As a programmer or system administrator, you often need to work with large text files, log files, and configuration files. These files can be difficult to read and analyze manually. In such cases, using command-line tools like grep and sed can make the job much easier. In this blog post, we will explore how to use grep and sed to search and manipulate text in a Unix/Linux environment.

=> ↺ How to install Shotcut video editor on Linux Lite 6.2

=> ↺ How to install Godot 4.0 on a Chromebook

=> ↺ Converting Between Graphics Formats, Revisited

• Back in November 2022, there was a thread in the PCLinuxOS forum where GOTHBITES was asking how to view a JXL (JPEG XL) file. Back in April 2022, the JXL format was talked about in an article on WEBP graphics. PCLinuxOS users … heck, most users, regardless of the operating system … are pretty much up a creek without a paddle when it comes to viewing or using JXL files. I’m doubtful that the JXL format will gain much traction, performing like most of the JPEG Group’s other attempted modifications to the original JPG format. And none of them resulted in anything resembling widespread use, except among the committee members and their fanbois.

• By the second page of the aforementioned forum thread, talk had turned to the “newish” WEBP graphic format (originally announced by Google in September 2010 as an open source format, but the first stable version of its library didn’t come out until April 2018, according to Wikipedia) that appears to be coming on strong with widespread adoption, at least on the web. I’ve even seen “reports” that the Google Chrome web browser will save images in the WEBP format when/if you select “Save Image…” from an image on a web page. However, none of the usual word processors or publishing programs known and used by Linux users (including LibreOffice and Scribus) recognize the WEBP graphics format, but all of the major web browsers and GIMP support the format.

=> ↺ Tip Top Tips: Xfce Configuration For The CAPS-LOCK

• Do you ever look up from your keyboard to the screen, only to see that you’ve typed everything in CAPS, and you have to delete and retype it? You’d pressed the CAPS key in error. It happens.

• Now in the Xfce Settings Manager > Keyboard > Layout, it’s possible to reassign CAPS LOCK to Compose, meaning that the worst that can happen if you accidentally hit the CAPS key is that one character has to be replaced by 2 or 3. However, if you do that, there may be times when you actually require CAPS to be LOCKed. One example here in Britain is when you get a loyalty voucher from a well-known supermarket chain, and to claim it, you have to enter a long string of characters consisting of numbers and capital letters, and you don’t want to keep alternating the SHIFT key as you type. Lower case letters result in an error. It is possible to set CAPS LOCK by pressing both SHIFT keys via the KDE Control Centre, but not Xfce.

=> ↺ GIMP Tutorial: Time-Saving Tips

• I’ve been on YouTube again, looking for extra knowledge about GIMP. As I’ve said before, one of my faves is Davies Media Design. He outlined ten time-saving tips, which are mostly keyboard shortcuts, but they are really good, so I’ll share. Some of them have two tips in the same section, so you’ll end up with more than ten.

WINE or Emulation

=> ↺ Best Android Emulators for Linux in 2023

• Guide on the best and reliable Android emulators in 2023 that you can use on Linux and its distros such as Ubuntu to turn your computer into an Android device.

=> ↺ Wine development release v8.3 is out now

• Wine, the translations layer that allows Windows apps and games to run on other operating systems, that forms part of Steam Play Proton has version 8.3 out now.

Games

=> ↺ Base-building, tower defense and digging — Lumencraft has it all

• Lumencraft is a pretty gorgeous top-down blending of base-building, where you need to set up defensive towers and a whole lot of digging. Developed with full Linux and Steam Deck support using Godot Engine, it’s easily one of my indie favourites from this year and it just left Early Access as a full game.

=> ↺ Rhythm mini-game collection Bits & Bops gets Linux support

• Bits & Bops looks sweet! A fun collection of rhythm mini-games, and the developer has upgraded the demo to include Linux support for this upcoming game.

=> ↺ Your Only Move Is HUSTLE gets a Linux version

• Your Only Move Is HUSTLE, a very popular online turn-based fighting game and super-powered fight scene simulator now has Linux support. On Steam, it has an Overwhelmingly Positive rating from over 4,000 user reviews. The new Native Linux build landed on March 2nd in a short announcement, seems this was to get it working better on Steam Deck where it has a Steam Deck Playable rating with multiple issues noted.

=> ↺ Counter-Strike 2 is reportedly a real thing and coming soon

• There’s been a whole lot of rumours appearing lately that seem quite credible, with Counter-Strike 2 apparently due soon. It’s not entirely clear if this is a full new game, or a big upgrade for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive but either way it’s pretty exciting for FPS fans.

=> ↺ NVIDIA RTX 4080/4070 Ti Enter the List of Top 10 Most Sold GPUs on Steam, AMD Grows Linux CPU Share

• The PC market has been in a slump for quite a while now. Since GPU mining collapsed, excess inventory, falling prices, and lack of demand have plagued the graphics card market. The launch of NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series graphics cards marks the beginning of a new chapter. One where AMD isn’t doing too well. Despite being out for several months, the Radeon RX 7900 series graphics cards are yet to enter the Steam hardware database.

=> ↺ Install DOSBox in Ubuntu to Play Retro Games

• The DOSbox emulator lets you use the disk operating systems of the 80s. You can also use it to play retro games on Linux.

=> ↺ Game Zone: X-Com: UFO Defense

• olks, where has the world gone? After all that we have been going through in the last few years, we are now having a wave of UFO sightings. Yes, unidentified objects are popping up everywhere, and if they are just Chinese balloons, we are fine. BUT what if they are not? If the aliens are really visiting us and preparing an invasion ?

• Well, to prepare for the aliens’ arrival, nothing better than playing X-Com: UFO Defense, a strategy game by Microprose, released in 1994.

• [...]

• To play Openxcom on PCLinuxOS, you must have a copy of the original DOS game, X-COM: UFO Defense.

=> ↺ Best Steam Deck Games Released in the Past Week, with Pizza Tower and The 25th Ward – 2023-03-05 Edition

• Between 2023-02-26 and 2023-03-05 there were 95 new games validated for the Steam Deck.

=> ↺ Top 13 New Games You Can Play on Linux with Proton – March 2023 Edition

• We are back with our usual monthly update! Boiling Steam looks at the latest data dumps from ProtonDB to give you a quick list of new games that work (pretty much? see ratings) perfectly with Proton since they were released…

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Pano Clipboard Manager for GNOME Shell Updated

• We’re talking improved UI, new user-requested features, and a ton of additional configuration options. Oh yeah, and it supports GNOME 44 nice and early so you can upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04 this April without worrying about breakage – aah!

• To recap for those unfamiliar with it, Pano is a clipboard manager for GNOME Shell that uses rich previews for copied content types (e.g., image, links, images, hex codes, text, etc). Content is stored in a horizontal pop-up bar placed the bottom of the screen that you open using a keyboard shortcut or a tray icon.

Distributions and Operating Systems

=> ↺ Top 5 FAVORITE Linux Distros in 2023 | by TechHut | Mar, 2023 | Medium

• It’s been a while since we over-viewed some of my top Linux distributions. Creating top lists for anything is difficult to do as leaving out bias and opinion is near impossible. An actual top or best Linux distro list would probably have Debian at the top and include OpenSUSE, RHEL, and distributions like that. This list is my personal favorite. Linux distributions that I’ve actually used on physical hardware in the last year and find myself coming back.

=> ↺ Nitrux 2.7 Released with Maui Shell and KDE Plasma 5.27 LTS Flavors

• Powered by the long-term supported Linux 6.1 LTS kernel series (Liquorix flavored for desktop, multimedia, and gaming workloads), Nitrux 2.7 is here to offer you a brand-new flavor of its ISO image featuring the in-house developed and long-anticipated Maui Shell desktop interface.

• Maui Shell is a convergent desktop interface for desktops and mobile devices developed by the Nitrux development team. It features a set of in-house baked apps created with the Maui Kit, called Maui Apps, which are also available in the KDE Plasma edition.

=> ↺ After 20 years are developers now ready for Nix?

• Nix and NixOS promise application portability, reliability and reproducibility, but can developers be persuaded to make the switch?

Reviews

=> ↺ Review: Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone

• I started out this week looking forward to trying a new operating system, Nemo Mobile, and when it didn’t work for me, I ended up going down a long series of dead-ends. What began as a week of gradually exploring one mobile platform turned into a journey through the landscape of the PinePhone ecosystem.

• What I discovered there was not encouraging.

• A year or so ago the PinePhone appeared to have a healthy and growing community. There were over 20 operating systems available for the PinePhone, people were encouraging developers to port their distributions to the original PinePhone, and it was proving to be a good test bed for mobile Linux systems. The PinePhone looked to be performing a similar role for the open source mobile community as the Raspberry Pi did for budget computing. Neither device is high powered, but they are fairly open and inexpensive. Both are great for hobbyists and people looking to polish software which might end up running on other, more formidable equipment. In other words, a new mobile operating system running on the PinePhone today where it can be tested and polished might be ported to mainstream devices next year.

New Releases

=> ↺ LibreELEC 11 Launches with Kodi 20, Support for NVIDIA GPUs

• LibreELEC 11 is a major update that ships with the latest Kodi 20 “Nexus” open-source media center and introduces a new Generic-Legacy image supporting NVIDIA GPUs, Chrome browser add-on, and older hardware.

• It also improves support for Raspberry Pi 4 boards by enabling the 4096×2160 resolution on 4K TVs instead of 3840×2160, and reintroduces support for older Amlogic devices, such as S905, S905X/D, and S912, enabling H264 playback and seeking, HDR for HEVC/VP9 media, HDMI multi-channel PCM and pass-through audio, and more.

BSD

=> ↺ Some notes on OpenBSD 7.2 on a Thinkpad X201

• Recently I bought a refurbished Thinkpad X201, so this was a great occasion to put OpenBSD on it.

=> ↺ OpenBSD -current is now 7.3-beta

• This means that the code is likely feature complete for the upcoming release, which is expected to appear in May, and your testing is especially welcome.

=> ↺ The answer is yes

• Self-Host All the Things?

=> ↺ Straightforward utilities

• rsync(1) on FreeBSD with a modern Walkman.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

=> ↺ Exploring LXQt: A Basic Guide, Part 2

• LXQt’s default file manager, PCManFM-Qt, has some handy capabilities which might enhance your workflow. A split-screen feature makes it very convenient to copy files between two different locations.

• In addition, PCManFM-Qt is able to connect to a remote server (such as an FTP server or NAS [Network Attached Storage]).

=> ↺ ICYMI: Ransomware Operation Adds Support For Linux Devices

• PCLinuxOS users have a wide variety of interests, and it’s important to keep ourselves informed about what’s going on beyond the borders of our beloved PCLinuxOS playground. Sometimes, it’s even good to reach out beyond our normal interests and comfort zone. It’s how we discover “new things” that we like. A “roundup” article, therefore, is still warranted (in my humble opinion). So, to mark the “change,” we’re going to change the name of Short Topix to ICYMI (in case you missed it). The entries will be shorter, with the same links you’ve become accustomed to in the Short Topix column, and you can follow the links to read more about the topics that interest you.

=> ↺ Screenshot Showcase

=> ↺ From The Chief Editor’s Desk…

• In the U.S., Daylight Savings Time is “starting” again. As in, “spring forward.” That means we all advance our clocks by one hour. Bleh! I’m reminded of the supposed old American Indian quote (no one really knows if it is, but it makes the point perfectly): “Only white man thinks that cutting one foot from top of blanket and sewing to bottom of blanket makes blanket one foot longer.”

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Red Hat & Nutanix: a partnership forged in cloud-native leadership

• Adam Tarbox, vice president channel sales EMEA, Nutanix , shares his thoughts on the relationship the firm has formed with Red Hat

=> ↺ 2023-03-03 Fedora 37 templates available

Debian Family

Enrico Zini: Generating MIDI events with JACK and PythonI had a go at trying to figure out how to generate arbitrary MIDI events and send them out over a JACK MIDI channel.Setting up JACK and PipewirePipewire has a JACK interface, which in theory means one could use JACK clients out of the box without extra setup.In practice, one need to tell JACK clients which set of libraries to use to communicate to servers, and Pipewire’s JACK server is not the default choice.To tell JACK clients to use Pipewire’s server, you can either:on a client-by-client basis, wrap the commands withpw-jackto change the system default: cp /usr/share/doc/pipewire/examples/ld.so.conf.d/pipewire-jack-*.conf /etc/ld.so.conf.d/ and run ldconfig (see the Debian wiki for details)

=> ↺ Enrico Zini: Heart-driven drum loop

• I have Python code for reading a heart rate monitor.

• I have Python code to generate MIDI events.

• Could I resist putting them together? Clearly not.

=> ↺ Reproducible Builds: Reproducible Builds in February 2023

• Welcome to the February 2023 report from the Reproducible Builds project. As ever, if you are interested in contributing to our project, please visit the contribute page on our website.

• FOSDEM 2023 was held in Brussels on the 4th & 5th of February and featured a number of talks related to reproducibility. In particular, Akihiro Suda gave a talk titled Bit-for-bit reproducible builds with Dockerfile discussing deterministic timestamps and deterministic apt-get (original announcement). There was also an entire ‘track’ of talks on Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs). SBOMs are an inventory for software with the intention of increasing the transparency of software components (the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) published a useful Myths vs. Facts document in 2021).

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Xubuntu Minimal: Opportunity to Build Your Own Distro

• Afew days back, Canonical announced that an official minimal ISO installation file for the Ubuntu 23.04 “Lunar Lobster” release is in the works. While the image is not yet available as of publishing this, the Xubuntu team managed to work out their own minimal ISO installation image.

• Let’s look at what you get in the minimal Xubuntu installation and a comparison with the regular desktop installer.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ OPPO Find X5 Pro Review: The Budget Android Flagship

=> ↺ Why Brightness Keeps Going Down on Your Android Phone (And How to Fix)

=> ↺ Motorola G73 5G with Dimensity 930, Android 13 to launch in India on March 10: Details | The Financial Express

=> ↺ The Best Widgets To Add To Your Android Phone’s Home Screen

=> ↺ Best Android Emulators for Linux in 2023

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Libre Arts ☛ LibreArts Weekly recap — 5 March 2023Still settling in, shorter recap again. Week highlights: new releases of GIMP and Godot, new features in Krita and Inkscape.GIMP 2.10.34The GIMP team released anotherupdate in the stable series, mostly with bugfixes and some minor new features backported from the 2.99 series.Notable changes:TIFF support improvementsExporting of paths to PSD now possibleExporting to JPEG XL now possible, metadata now importedTransparency now handled on importing and exporting to PDFThe Set Image Canvas Size dialog now has a template selectorFixes in the desktop color picker

=> ↺ Rustdesk

• Open source virtual / remote desktop infrastructure for everyone! The open source TeamViewer alternative. Display and control your PC and Android devices from anywhere at anytime.

=> ↺ 14 Best Free and Open Source Figma Kits, Elements, and UI/UX Components

• What is Figma?

• Figma is a cloud-based design tool used to create user interfaces, websites, and other digital products. It allows designers to collaborate, share, and create designs in real-time with their team members and stakeholders.

• Who uses Figma?

=> ↺ Deutsche Telekom offers Nextcloud Office to its cloud customers

• Hundreds of millions of users use Microsoft 365 or Google Docs as their office software. But, if you’re not keen on using a proprietary program and keeping your files on a proprietary platform, Deutsche Telekom is now offering another approach for its German and Austrian users: Open-source, NextCloud Office.

• Nextcloud Office is a Sofware-as-a-Service (SaaS) office suite. It supports collaborative editing for groups. Based on LibreOffice and Collabora, it supports all major document, spreadsheet, and presentation file formats. You can use it via a web browser on Linux, macOS, and Windows desktop and Android and iOS mobile applications. In short, it’s a complete replacement for all but the fussiest Microsoft Office and Google Docs user

=> ↺ 10 Open Source Flutter UI Kits to Boost your App Development

• What is Flutter?

• Flutter is a free and open-source mobile application development framework created by Google that has been gaining popularity in recent years.

=> ↺ Grafana & Prometheus

• So as you can imagine – I can collect data via Prometheus and Grafana perfectly can ingest that data to visualize it. The challenge I had was figuring out how all this worked.

Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ How Wikipedia helps keep the internet open

• Overall, Wikipedia’s technology ecosystem is vast! As MediaWiki, one of the most popular software in the Wikimedia world, is available under an open source license, over four hundred thousand projects and organizations use it for hosting their content. For example, NASA uses it to organize its content around space missions and their knowledge base!

• In addition, there are many other bots, tools, desktop and mobile apps that help with content access, creation, editing, and maintenance. For example, bots in particular help drastically reduce the workload of editors by automating repetitive and tedious tasks, such as fighting vandalism, suggesting articles to newcomers, fact-checking articles, and more. InternetArchiveBot is a popular bot that frequently communicates with the Wayback Machine to fix dead links on Wikipedia.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ How the first chatbot predicted the dangers of AI more than 50 years ago

• In 1966, MIT computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum released ELIZA (named after the fictional Eliza Doolittle from George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion), the first program that allowed some kind of plausible conversation between humans and machines. The process was simple: Modeled after the Rogerian style of psychotherapy, ELIZA would rephrase whatever speech input it was given in the form of a question. If you told it a conversation with your friend left you angry, it might ask, “Why do you feel angry?”

• Ironically, though Weizenbaum had designed ELIZA to demonstrate how superficial the state of human-to-machine conversation was, it had the opposite effect. People were entranced, engaging in long, deep, and private conversations with a program that was only capable of reflecting users’ words back to them. Weizenbaum was so disturbed by the public response that he spent the rest of his life warning against the perils of letting computers — and, by extension, the field of AI he helped launch — play too large a role in society.

=> ↺ Artificial neurons considered harmful

• So-called “neural networks” are extremely expensive, poorly understood, unfixably unreliable, deceptive, data hungry, and inherently limited in capabilities.

• In short: they are bad.

=> ↺ Adventures in home automation – Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi 2

• They say that The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You – the same is true of Raspberries Pi. As much as I’d love a 4B, they seem permanently sold out.

• So I dug through my scrapheap of old tech and resurrected an ancient Pi2. It’s old, outdated, slow, with limited RAM, and has a bunch of much-abused GPIO pins. But it works and – crucially – is still supported by Home Assistant OS.

• Well… ish!

=> ↺ An unexciting idea: Code changes have context

• I recently read Mark Dominus’s I wish people would stop insisting that Git branches are nothing but refs (via). One of my thoughts afterward is that this feels like an instance of a broader thing, which is that (code) changes have context; here, one part of that context is where they happen (ie, what branch they happen on). Of course we already know that in a sense, because Git (and pretty much every other version control system) considers it important to record both who made the change and when it was made.

=> ↺ The code functionality tipping point

• Software development is weirdly nonlinear. When you start working on a new project at first it does not really do much. Adding more and more code does not seem to help. The “end user visible” functionality is pretty poor and it does not seem to get visibly better. You can do something, but nothing that would be actually useful.

• This goes on for some amount of time that can’t be predicted.

• And then, unexpectedly, the pieces come together and useful functionality jumps from “almost nothing” to “quite a lot, actually”.

=> ↺ Reverse-engineering the electronics in the Globus analog navigational computer

• In the Soyuz space missions, cosmonauts tracked their position above the Earth with a remarkable electromechanical device with a rotating globe. This navigation instrument was an analog computer that used an elaborate system of gears, cams, and differentials to compute the spacecraft’s position. Officially, the unit was called a “space navigation indicator” with the Russian acronym ИНК (INK),1 but I’ll use the nickname “Globus”.

=> ↺ Getcwd() Function in C Language

• Practical tutorial on how to use the getcwd() function to determine the current working directory of the calling program in C langugage and their errors.

=> ↺ Gethostbyname() Function in C Language

• Comprehensive guide on how to use the gethostbyname() function in C language to get an information about a hostname and how a “hostent” structure is composed.

=> ↺ Open() Function in C Language

• Tutorial on how to use the open() function to open the files, its theoretical description and input arguments, and the data type that is used in each case.

Python

=> ↺ Advanced MongoDB Features with PyMongo

• In this tutorial, you will learn about schema validation, data modeling, and advanced MongoDB queries.

=> ↺ Python Create File If Not Exists

• To create a file after checking its non-existence in Python, use the open() method with the “w+” flag or use the pathlib module.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

=> ↺ Be Careful Using tmux and Environment Variables

• What this says is that the global environment is copied over when the server is started. Each session also has an environment that is merged with the original global environment but it only has a set list of environment variables that are updated. You can see this with the following command in a tmux session: [...]

=> ↺ How to calculate division and remainder in Bash

• Bash is a powerful command-line interface and scripting language that offers a wide range of mathematical operations, including division and remainder. Division and remainder are fundamental operations used in various programming and mathematical applications. This article will discuss how to perform division and remainder operations in Bash and their usage.

Java

=> ↺ Disabling the DebugLoggerUI service app in Android

• The following notification appeared every time I switched on my Blackview Tab 10 tablet (Android 11): DebugLoggerUI DebugLoggerUI service is running I cannot remember if this notification started appearing after I upgraded the tablet’s firmware last year to remove a bug in the original firmware…

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Feedback on paper sizes

• Last Friday I talked about liking the ANSI/US Letter paper size, despite living in a country that uses the far more sensible A4 for documents. I also mentioned that C Series paper also exists.

• [...]

• I’d never considered this, but it makes sense. I miss 4:3 monitors more broadly, and having it at about that ratio for paper might be pleasing for a similar reason.

=> ↺ I doubled-down on RSS

• Part of mourning the communities I once had there involves figuring out how to not forget who was important to me. This means creating a way to stay abreast of what they’re doing.

• One of the most obvious ways to stay in the know is subscribe to RSS feeds.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Ericsson pays US$207m DoJ fine over alleged bribery in Iraq

• Swedish telecommunications equipment provider Ericsson has paid a fine of US$207 million over breaches of a deferred prosecution agreement reached with the US Department of Justice in 2019, the company says.

=> ↺ Ericsson fined again over bribery case

• Networking giant Ericsson has been slapped with a fine by the US Department of Justice or breaching terms of the deferred prosecution deal it struck in 2019 in a corruption scandal.

=> ↺ Greek stationmaster charged over deadly rail crash as PM seeks forgiveness

• The stationmaster implicated in Greece’s deadliest rail crash, which killed at least 57 people, was charged and taken into custody Sunday, hours after the prime minister asked for forgiveness for the disaster.

=> ↺ Scheduling my Electricity Usage

• Modern societies function in large part thanks to our ability to use as much electricity as we want, when we want it. As renewable energy (solar, wind) plays a greater part in the electricity generation mix, our opportunities to use “cleaner” energy increase, but renewables are also fickle — sometimes the wind doesn’t blow, and the sun doesn’t shine. Today in the UK, for example, the weather is overcast and still: solar and wind aren’t going to generate much power. In such cases, the electricity we’re using is generated from much “dirtier” sources.

Science

=> ↺ ‘Truth Serums’ Exist – But They Probably Don’t Work The Way You Think They Do

• Lying is complicated.

=> ↺ Black Holes So Massive They Shouldn’t Exist Could Spawn From a Rare Triple Merger

• The most massive single objects in the Universe.

=> ↺ Runes were just as advanced as Roman alphabet writing, says researcher

• In the Middle Ages, the Roman alphabet and runes lived side by side. A new doctoral thesis challenges the notion that runes represent more of an oral and less of a learned form of written language.

• “Here rests Bishop Peter’ might have been inscribed on a gravestone from the 1200s. Some inscriptions might have been made using runes, others with Roman letters,” says Johan Bollaert, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies.

• He has investigated written language used in public inscriptions in Norway from the 1100s to the 1500s. Last autumn, he defended his doctoral thesis “Visuality and Literacy in the Medieval Epigraphy of Norway.”

=> ↺ What if The Universe Started With a Dark Big Bang?

• There may have been two ‘Big Bangs’.

=> ↺ Researchers Have Found The Earliest Evidence of Horseback Riding Yet

• Giddy up.

Education

=> ↺ It’s time to hit the reset button on American secondary education

• The American secondary education system is fundamentally broken. Despite federal spending on education amounting to $94 billion, the United States ranks 24th out of 71 developed nations in science and 38th in math. With only 37% of high school seniors performing at a “proficient” level in reading…

Hardware

=> ↺ World’s largest contract chipmaker TSMC to hire 6,000 engineers in 2023

• According to TSMC, the company will seek young engineers with associate, bachelor’s, masters’s or doctorate degrees in electrical engineering or software-related fields in cities all across Taiwan.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ 2023-03-04 Why it’s so hard to get answers on long Covid

=> ↺ 2023-03-03 British tourists warned not to travel to Ibiza as island is on dengue alert after travellers get infected

=> ↺ Too Many Studies on Teen Social Media Use Only Look at White Kids

• Most research on teen social media use has been conducted on white teens and college students. As a result, it is unclear to what extent overlooked populations such as racial and ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities and other vulnerable adolescent populations may be using social media in different ways.

=> ↺ New emails show Dr. Anthony Fauci commissioned scientific paper in Feb. 2020 to disprove Wuhan lab leak theory

• New emails uncovered by House Republicans probing the COVID-19 pandemic reveal the deceptive nature of Dr. Anthony Fauci.

=> ↺ NY court workers fired for refusing COVID vax must be rehired with back pay as state board scraps mandate

• Under terms of the decision issued last month, the Unified Court System must immediately “cease and desist” from enforcing policies that require all non-judicial employees to be vaccinated or undergo regular testing.

=> ↺ A night in isn’t always to our benefit

• When marijuana is legalized, its usage skyrockets. With dispensaries popping up on every corner and the potent smell lingering in the streets of Ann Arbor, it’s no mystery that college students are playing their part in those rising numbers.

=> ↺ THL: Low risk of bird flu transmission to humans

• Avian influenza has been circulating among wild birds in Finland over the past few years.

=> ↺ Texas mulls law forcing ISPs to block access to abortion websites

• The bill, introduced by Republican Steve Toth, a member of the state House of Representatives, would require ISPs in Texas to “make every reasonable and technologically feasible effort to block [Internet] access to information or material intended to assist or facilitate efforts to obtain an elective abortion or an abortion-inducing drug.”

=> ↺ Bees follow linear landmarks to find their way home, just like the first pilots

• In late summer of 2010 and 2011 near the village of Klein Lüben in Brandenburg, Menzel and colleagues caught 50 experienced forager honeybees and glued a 10.5-mg transponder on their back. They then released them in a new test area, too distant to be familiar to the bees. In the the test area was a radar, which could detect the transponders at a distance of up to 900 meters. The most notable landmark in the test area was a pair of parallel irrigation channels, running southwest to northeast.

• When honeybees find themselves in unfamiliar territory, they fly in exploratory loops in different directions and over different distances, centered on the release spot. With the radar, the researchers tracked the exact exploratory flight pattern of each bee for between 20 minutes and three hours. The bees flew at up to nine meters above the ground during the experiment.

=> ↺ Seminar: Interactions between honey bees and pesticides in agriculture

• Reed got his start in research beekeeping as an undergraduate research assistant at the University of Montana. He went on to receive a Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was involved in the honey bee genome project. Reed is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Entomology at The Ohio State University in Wooster, Ohio where he teaches two courses: one on beekeeping and the other on pesticide science. His research focuses on determining how bees are exposed to pesticides and the effects that pesticides have on the health of honey bees, with the larger goal of promoting bee health in the context of modern agriculture.

=> ↺ Ecological traits interact with landscape context to determine bees’ pesticide risk

• Widespread contamination of ecosystems with pesticides threatens non-target organisms. However, the extent to which life-history traits affect pesticide exposure and resulting risk in different landscape contexts remains poorly understood. We address this for bees across an agricultural land-use gradient based on pesticide assays of pollen and nectar collected by Apis mellifera, Bombus terrestris and Osmia bicornis, representing extensive, intermediate and limited foraging traits. We found that extensive foragers (A. mellifera) experienced the highest pesticide risk—additive toxicity-weighted concentrations. However, only intermediate (B. terrestris) and limited foragers (O. bicornis) responded to landscape context—experiencing lower pesticide risk with less agricultural land. Pesticide risk correlated among bee species and between food sources and was greatest in A. mellifera-collected pollen—useful information for future postapproval pesticide monitoring. We provide foraging trait- and landscape-dependent information on the occurrence, concentration and identity of pesticides that bees encounter to estimate pesticide risk, which is necessary for more realistic risk assessment and essential information for tracking policy goals to reduce pesticide risk.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Hall of Shame: 9 Ways Apple Makes Your Life Worse

• Apple also makes your life more annoying, more expensive, and less secure…

=> ↺ Customizing the startup chime on a 1999 G3 iMac

• Before we get started, I need to provide some background info from my 2012 work on customizing the startup sound in my Power Mac G3 because a good portion of it was relevant for the iMac too. When I dumped my G3’s ROM, I imported it into Audacity as a raw file. I chose signed 16-bit PCM, big-endian, 44,100 Hz as the format. Then I played the entire 1 MB ROM as a big sound. It mostly sounded like a scratchy mess, but there were two locations that both obviously contained the startup sound data. It sounded very staticky and played way too quickly, but it was clearly the startup chime. Headphone/earbud users beware, it’s pretty loud: [...]

=> ↺ We’re never getting rid of ChatGPT

• In the exact case of asking questions in my text editor, I am fairly sure that it is innocuous to have an AI model explain code bits like this. It is very easy to check if the AI model is accurate. As things get more complicated and the AI delves into topics like sociology, I fear that things aren’t going to be as easy. For every innocuous use of this, there are a thousand evil uses waiting to happen. Holding this technology back doesn’t help, releasing it to the public doesn’t help, it’s a proper quandary.

=> ↺ Tennessee State, Southeastern Louisiana universities hit with cyberattacks

• Tennessee State University — a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville — notified its more than 8,000 students on Wednesday that its IT systems were brought down by a ransomware attack.

Linux Foundation

=> ↺ What to expect from KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2023

Security

=> ↺ New TPM 2.0 flaws could let hackers steal cryptographic keys

• The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 specification is affected by two buffer overflow vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to access or overwrite sensitive data, such as cryptographic keys.

• TPM is a hardware-based technology that provides operating systems with tamper-resistant secure cryptographic functions. It can be used to store cryptographic keys, passwords, and other critical data, making any vulnerability in its implementation a cause for concern.

=> ↺ Open Source Vulnerability Assessment Tools & Scanners

• Computer systems, software, applications, and other network interfaces are vulnerable to various threats. Failure to find these vulnerabilities can lead to the downfall of the company.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ WhatsApp vs Signal – centralized vs de-centralized

• both are centralized Messengers meaning: the user is in control of the device + software (to the extend that the user can understand the src) Android-Client “the client” 100% Open Source (Java 70.8% Kotlin 29.1%) iOS-Client 100% Open Source…

=> ↺ Heads Up: A Better Movie Seat May Cost You

• “It’s a taste of what’s coming,” said Stacy Spikes, who co-founded the subscription ticketing service MoviePass, which he plans to reintroduce nationwide this summer. “The big theater chains are gaining the technology to implement variable pricing on a wide scale. This may have near-term financial benefits, but it may also reduce attendance of younger customers who are more price sensitive and key to future growth.”

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Russia’s Wagner Chief Warns of Frontline Collapse if Forced to Retreat From Bakhmut

=> ↺ Experts claim Australia’s most immediate threat is China

• The overwhelming threat to Australian security is China, and we need to be prepared for imminent conflict, independent experts claim in a review entitled Red Alert.

=> ↺ Red Alert round table discussion in full

• The Red Alert panel of national security experts discuss Australia’s readiness for war.

=> ↺ South Korea is exporting billions in arms. Just not to Ukraine.

• In 2022, South Korea’s arms exports rose 140 per cent to a record US$17.3 billion.

=> ↺ March To Iraq War, 20 Years Later: March 5, 2003

=> ↺ Illegal Immigrants Will Not Be Able To Apply For Asylum: UK PM Sunak

• UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday (local time) warned illegal immigrants entering the country that they will begin deporting every illegal immigrant crossing its borders and will not allow them to apply for asylum, reported Fox News.

• Sunak made the vow in a Sunday interview as the UK faces a steady flow of migrants crossing its borders from Europe.

=> ↺ Stop Human Traffickers, Pope Francis Says After Italy’s Migrant Shipwreck

• Three alleged traffickers were arrested this week and prosecutors began looking into the way emergency services responded to the disaster, after accusations that authorities were slow to react.

=> ↺ Iran Needs to Believe America’s Threat

• If the U.S. does not take forceful action to check Tehran’s progress toward a nuclear bomb, Israel will. That’s a much more dangerous scenario.

=> ↺ Russia’s Technological Advantage Has Been No Match for Ukraine’s Ingenuity

• In less than a year, Ukraine’s military has emerged as a modern, effective fighting force in large part due to an abundance of technology provided by the United States and its NATO allies.

=> ↺ Turkey is blocking NATO’s expansion. It could backfire and hand Putin a propaganda coup

• When Sweden and Finland declared their intention to join NATO last May, it was seen by many as a poke in the eye for Russia and evidence of a shift in European thinking. Historically, both countries had committed to non-alignment with NATO as a way of avoiding provoking Moscow. The invasion of Ukraine changed that.

=> ↺ The UN and Ukraine: year-long war spreads global fallout

• As well as causing untold suffering for the people of Ukraine, the consequences of Russia’s invasion of the country have spread far beyond the two nations, fuelling alarming cost increases and product shortages, and creating food shortages around the world.

=> ↺ China announces military spending increase despite low economic growth

• China said Sunday its military spending would rise at the fastest pace in four years, warning of “escalating” threats from abroad at a meeting of its rubber-stamp parliament that is set to hand Xi Jinping a third term as president.

=> ↺ 🔴 Live: Zelensky pays tribute to troops in ‘difficult’ fight as Bakhmut battle rages

• Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky on Sunday paid tribute to his soldiers fighting in a “painful and difficult” battle in the eastern Donbas region, which includes the city of Bakhmut that Russia has been trying to capture for months. Ukrainian troops have vowed to defend “fortress Bakhmut”.

=> ↺ Illinois state judge declares state assault rifle ban unconstitutional

• Associate Judge Rodney S. Forbes Friday ruled that the Illinois statewide ban on the sale and manufacturing of assault rifles is unconstitutional under the Illinois Constitution. The case is in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Macon County.

=> ↺ Massive fire in Rohingya refugee camp raises humanitarian aid alarm

• The United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) Sunday reported a massive fire in the Balukhali refugee camp. The camp, located in southeast Bangladesh, is home to tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees. UNHCR officials reported an estimated 2,0000 shelters and 90 hospitals, schools and other essential structures destroyed.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Firm of NYC homeless boss Joslyn Carter’s sister lands $1.7B in shelter contracts

• The firm of NYC Homeless Service Administrator Joslyn Carter’s sister has been awarded 17 contracts with her agency valued at a staggering $1.7 billion, according to data compiled by city Comptroller Brad Lander’s office.

=> ↺ Ending jobs for mates – Sophie Scamps’ bill for integrity, transparency in public appointments

• Sophie Scamps is introducing the ‘Ending Jobs for Mates Bill’ which intends to legislate a transparent and independent process for major Commonwealth public appointments

=> ↺ Inside Jim Jordan’s Disastrous Search for a ‘Deep State’ Whistleblower

• In the interview, the witness, former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill, had admitted he had little or no firsthand knowledge of alleged “deep state” scandals. Instead, he brought baggage of his own: a history of inflammatory commentary on social media. Democratic staff had found a tweet in which Hill claimed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had “blood on her hands.” In a since-deleted tweet found by Rolling Stone, Hill wrote “Cancer! GO FASTER!” in response to a tweet from Rep. Lauren Boebert claiming that President Biden had been diagnosed with cancer.

Environment

=> ↺ UN states agree ‘historic’ deal to protect high seas

• The treaty is seen as essential to conserving 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030, as agreed by world governments in a historic accord signed in Montreal in December.

=> ↺ Treaty ahoy? Talks to protect high seas near finish line

• UN countries appeared Friday to be nearing an agreement on a long-awaited treaty to protect the high seas, a fragile and vital treasure that covers nearly half the planet.

• After more than 15 years of informal and then formal talks, negotiators are coming to the end of two more weeks of discussions, the third “final” session in less than a year.

=> ↺ UN states strike historic deal to protect high seas

• While the high seas make up over 60% of the world’s oceans, they have long drawn less attention than coastal waters. The UN treaty aims to change that by attempting to ensure the sustainable use of ocean biodiversity.

=> ↺ US Company to Sample for Dioxins at Ohio Train Derailment Site

• On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that it will require railroad company Norfolk Southern to test directly for dioxins in East Palestine, Ohio.

=> ↺ Relevance of green politics in the contemporary world

• Green theory is a critical theory in International relations which is gaining its relevance very much in recent times as the world couldn’t help itself in fostering climate change and in controlling global warming.

=> ↺ UN high seas treaty agreed to by member states to protect vast swathes of planet’s oceans

• UN member states Saturday agreed to a legally-binding high seas treaty after nearly 20 years of talks. The high seas treaty aims to protect 30 percent of seas by 2030 (a target known as “30 by 30”).

=> ↺ United Nations reach agreement to protect the world’s oceans

• After more than a decade of negotiations, the United Nations have made a pact which aims to place 30 percent of the high seas into protected areas by 2030.

=> ↺ Eliminating single-use plastics by 2030 seen as an uphill battle for Malaysia

• Public apathy and lax enforcement are the biggest impediments to phasing out the use of the item.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Greening the Burial of the Dead, in Brooklyn

• The historic Green-Wood Cemetery—the final resting place of Leonard Bernstein and half a million others—explores a cutting-edge method of processing human remains: electric cremation.

=> ↺ #StopWillow is taking TikTok by storm. Can it actually work?

• When Elise Joshi posted a TikTok video about the Alaska oil drilling project known as Willow in early February, she didn’t have high hopes it would go viral. Joshi, 20, posts often about climate issues on TikTok for the account Gen-Z for Change, as well as her personal account.

=> ↺ A 120-Year-Old Company Is Leaving Tesla in the Dust

• But the more I dealt with Tesla as a reporter — this was before Mr. Musk fired all the P.R. people who worked there — the more skeptical I became. Any time I spoke to anyone at Tesla, there was a sense that they were terrified to say the wrong thing, or anything at all. I wanted to know the horsepower of the Model 3 I was driving, and the result was like one of those oblique Mafia conversations where nothing’s stated explicitly, in case the Feds are listening. I ended up saying, “Well, I read that this car has 271 horsepower,” and the Tesla person replied, “I wouldn’t disagree with that.” This is not how healthy, functional companies answer simple factual questions.

• That was back in 2017. In the years since, Tesla’s become even crankier, while its competition has loosened up. Public perception hasn’t yet caught up with the reality of the situation. If you want to work for a flexible, modern company, you don’t apply to Tesla. You apply to 120-year-old Ford.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Blue hole in Chetumal Bay discovered to be world’s second deepest

• According to the Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, a division of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, blue holes are “underwater sinkholes, similar to sinkholes on land.”

Overpopulation

=> ↺ Japan will ‘disappear’ without action on births, PM’s aide says

• While South Korea has a lower fertility rate, Japan’s population is shrinking faster. 

=> ↺ South Korean romance reality shows boom, but marriage no longer the end game

• Sharp gender inequality and the sky-high costs of rearing children are widely blamed.

Finance

=> ↺ The Rise of China as A Global Economic Superpower and Its Impact on International Trade

• As China continues to experience remarkable economic growth, its impact on international trade has become increasingly significant. China’s population of over 1.4 billion people, its vast industrial capabilities, and its technological advancements have made it a formidable player in the global economic system.

=> ↺ China just shook up its crystal ball in a very curious way

• China is normally quite optimistic about its economy. Not this year.

=> ↺ Imperatives for the World Bank’s next president

• The World Bank will soon pick a new president. With the world facing a confluence of climate, debt, energy and security crises, the leadership change comes at a pivotal moment for the institution.

=> ↺ Reserve Bank expected to lift cash rate to 3.6 per cent

• Mortgage holders bracing for expected 10th-consecutive interest rate hike.

=> ↺ Policy, Guns and Money: Opportunities for Australia in space and global food security

• Governments and industry are constantly innovating in the space domain, but as space becomes increasingly contested and congested..

=> ↺ Leaders from world’s poorest nations unleash anger and despair at UN summit

• Leaders from the world’s poorest nations poured out their disappointment and bitterness at a UN summit on Sunday over the treatment of their countries by richer counterparts.

=> ↺ Former PM Turnbull questioned ‘fairness’ of robodebt

• Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says he questioned whether the department responsible for overseeing robodebt was providing its minister with correct information about its operation. But he never doubted the scheme’s legality because the proposal had originally been presented to cabinet as not requiring any legislation change.

=> ↺ Former PM Turnbull to testify at robodebt commission

• Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull will give evidence on what he knew about the unlawful robodebt scheme while he was in office, when the royal commission into the program resumes.

=> ↺ Mortgage holders brace for more interest rate pain

• Nearly one in 10 mortgage holders have struggled to make a repayment or pay a bill as rising interest rates tighten the screws on household budgets.

=> ↺ Having an Advert on my Blog

• For some transparency, over the last 12 months, the single advert on my blog has brought in $179.89 which works out just below $15 a month on average. The running costs of this blog are $14.40 a month ($12 plus VAT). I also have an automatic backup that adds on a few extra dollars, but that’s more for my peace of mind than being absolutely necessary.

=> ↺ Teacher turned OnlyFans model gives report cards to her subscribers

• A month later, the ex-teacher of 20 years said she raked in $17,000, and was able to earn the equivalent of her entire annual paycheck in just half a year, Business Insider reported Sunday.

=> ↺ I was fired from my teaching job for being an OnlyFans creator. I then made more than my annual salary in 6 months.

• Despite having a full-time job, I was juggling five side hustles to try to keep myself afloat financially as a single mom, including teaching group exercise classes, Keto nutrition coaching, tutoring kids, a teeth whitening business, and designing shirts and mugs.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Biden’s first veto could be over an anti-ESG bill

• But that could change after the US Senate voted this week to block a US Labor Department rule that would have allowed retirement plans to consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in their investments.

=> ↺ Macron Outlines France’s New Policy Strategy for Africa

• French President Emmanuel Macron has gained some considerable success during his trips to Africa, mostly capitalizing on the geopolitical neutrality of African leaders. And African leaders, without doubt, will benefit tremendously from this neutral position.

=> ↺ For first time, women represented in all parliaments of the world

• For the first time ever, there are women MPs in every single country on Earth, the Interparliamentary Union, IPU, said on Friday.In its latest annual report, the global body dedicated to promoting peace through parliamentary diplomacy and dialogue, also said that women’s participation has never been as diverse as it is in many countries today.

=> ↺ Two of Jim Jordan’s So-Called Whistleblowers Are Under Investigation for Improper Treatment of FBI Files

• Two of the FBI Agents that Jim Jordan claims to be whistleblowers are themselves under investigation for improperly accessing — and in one case, leaking — FBI files. Both have been paid money that may be part of the larger Trump investigation.

=> ↺ Democratic backsliding: A retrospective on the Bolsonaro years

• Authors: Sahasranshu Dash and Ana Tereza Duarte Lima de Barros* The twin shocks of the 2007-09 financial crisis and the refugee crisis caused by the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring destabilised most major democracies. In subsequent years, economic and migration crises mushroomed across the globe, accelerating such trends.

=> ↺ Lithuania ends voting in local elections with highest turnout in 20 years

• Polling stations closed at 20:00 in Lithuania’s local elections. Slightly under half of all eligible voters cast their ballots to pick municipal councils and mayors of 60 municipalities.

=> ↺ “I feel great empathy.” Ukrainian refugees build new lives in Lithuania

• The war in Ukraine, waged by Russia, has forced over 8 million people to seek refuge outside the country. Looking through the lens of people of different ages, professions, and statuses helps to understand how, persevering through personal tragedies, they return to some sense of “normality”.

=> ↺ More than 200 protesters rally outside Chuck Schumer’s NYC home over Israel

• Last month, the Democrat, who lives in Park Slope, vowed to give Israel his “fullest support” while visiting the country with a delegation of other Senate Dems and meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Jewish Insider.

=> ↺ Polls show Trump ahead for ‘24 GOP nod, but only DeSantis beating Biden

• Former President Donald Trump remains the clear frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination — but not to beat President Joe Biden.

=> ↺ Estonian Prime Minister’s center-right party wins general election

• Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’s centre-right Reform Party won the general election by a large margin Sunday, scoring 31.6 percent against 16 percent for the far-right EKRE, according to near complete results.

=> ↺ This Week in the New Normal #57

• Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world. 1. UN agrees “historic” ocean treaty Just yesterday it was reported that after “a decade of negotiation” the UN has finally agreed on the text …

=> ↺ Quoth the Vultures “Evermore”

• Edward curtin On the short roof outside the bedroom window, two black vultures sit, staring in.  They have come to remind me of something.  I put my book down and peer back at these strange looking creatures. The book: Our War: What We Did in Vietnam And What It Did to Us by David Harris.

=> ↺ Rugby relations: Australia’s best diplomatic asset in the Pacific

• Australia’s strength in its international relations with the South Pacific rests on shared history, common values and cultural affinities for sport, family and religion. Pursuing Australia’s interests in an increasingly contested post-pandemic environment will require …

=> ↺ It is time for the West to welcome Ukraine home

• Russia’s full-scale invasion has strengthened Ukraine’s commitment to a future as part of the Western world. Western leaders should now respond by intensifying Ukraine’s further integration, writes Michael Druckman.

=> ↺ Can Swift Retort still inspire swift reforms?

• After Operation Swift Retort four years ago, I argued that if Pakistan really wants to compete with India, it must focus on rapid economic growth. Regrettably, our national leadership has had other priorities, and we have fallen further behind.

=> ↺ Tunisia’s anti-migrant discourse: ‘A way to distract from the country’s problems’

• Hundreds of protesters rallied in Tunis on Sunday, demanding the release of more than 20 opposition figures who were arrested in recent weeks. The demonstration came a day after more than 3,000 joined a rally organised by the UGTT trade union against what Amnesty International has called a “politically motivated witch hunt”. Protesters also condemned the violent attacks sub-Saharan nationals have faced in recent days, following an anti-immigration speech made by President Saïed on February 21.

=> ↺ Cambodia opposition leader sentenced to 27 years in prison for treason

• A Cambodian court Friday sentenced leading opposition figure Kem Sokha to 27 years in prison for treason. Sokha was accused of developing a “secret plan” in cooperation with foreign organizations to overthrow Hun Sen’s government and was previously arrested in 2017 during a midnight raid involving hundreds of security personnel.

=> ↺ Millions donated to Michigan campaigns last year could be tied up in [cryptocurrency] scandal

• FTX is a cryptocurrency trading and exchange platform. It declared bankruptcy in November, and in December, federal prosecutors charged its founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, with misappropriating billions in investor funds between FTX and Alameda Research, another company founded by Bankman-Fried.

• Part of the alleged misuse of funds involved making illegal political contributions, as well as real estate purchases and other venture investments, according to the SEC. Prosecutors allege that an estimated $8 billion in investor funds is missing. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty in the case.

=> ↺ SoftBank’s Arm aims to raise at least $8 billion in US IPO

• Arm is expected to confidentially submit paperwork for its initial public offering in late April, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential. The listing is expected to happen later this year and the exact timing will be determined by market conditions, the sources added.

=> ↺ TikTok a potential target in upcoming US bill to ban some foreign tech: Senator

• Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said TikTok would be “one of the potentials” for review under the bill. The Democratic senator made the comments on Fox News Sunday.

• The bill comes at a time when TikTok is under intensifying pressure over concerns that data about U.S. users could end up in the hands of the Chinese government.

=> ↺ Zoom Fires Its President Days After Company Cut 1,300 Jobs

• The businessman and a former Google employee, Mr Tomb had assumed the position in June 2022. Since then, he had actively participated in earnings calls and managed the company’s sales. According to a Zoom representative, the tech company is not seeking for a replacement.

=> ↺ Zoom boss Greg Tomb fired ‘without cause’

• Mr Tomb reported directly to chief executive officer Eric Yuan, who started Zoom in 2011 and was at the helm as the company became one of the pandemic’s biggest winners.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ “Art is a matter of survival”: A glimpse inside the artists’ revolt in Greece

• A passerby walking outside the Ziller building, the main stage of the National Theatre of Greece, would notice a giant banner writing “Squat.”

=> ↺ Don’t Just Hire ‘Better Cops.’ Punish the Bad Ones.

• Convincing law enforcement officers that those who do wrong will suffer consequences is by far the most powerful tool for changing police behavior in the long run.

=> ↺ Legal versus ethical

• A worrying number of IT engineers and business folk don’t consider the ethical impact of their actions, or only judge them on based on legality. I’ve noticed this with AI training, but it’s played out with blockchains, online tracking, DRM, and… well, there’s a lot!

• Suffice to say, I’m unconvinced. The law isn’t an ethical code, and we’d be in deep trouble if it was. This should be transparently obvious to anyone who spends more than a few seconds thinking about what was legal before.

• Business ethics educator Chris MacDonald put it like this: [...]

=> ↺ They Shared Erotic Images in a Group Chat. The Fine: $17,000.

• Two years later, a court in Singapore fined the couple $17,000, saying the video as well as other photos of Ms. Nguyen in various states of undress violated the country’s laws against nudity and obscenity. The couple was also convicted of providing and abetting false information.

=> ↺ EU Envoy Says Taliban Won’t Commit To Reopening Schools To Girls

• The Taliban authorities have not given any pledge to reopen schools and universities for Afghan girls and women in the new school year, a senior EU official said in Kabul on March 5. [...]

=> ↺ Graduate Student Workers at the University of Southern California Have Won a Union

• The unionization wave in higher ed continues apace, with grad student workers at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles winning a union election in mid-February. Jacobin spoke to USC worker-organizers about their win and their contract demands.

=> ↺ Illness Reports Mount At Girls’ Schools In Iran, Spurring ‘Terror’ Accusations

• Female students reportedly fell ill in at least 33 cities across 17 Iranian provinces on March 4, as speculation swirled over what some allege are months of noxious gas attacks that have coincided with a crackdown on unprecedented protests over the death in custody of a young woman in September.

=> ↺ Girls report symptoms of poisoning across Iran

• So far, more than 1,000 schoolgirls in 15 cities have reported symptoms consistent with those experienced by victims of toxic gas attacks. Girls interviewed by the state media say that they were suddenly overcome by a smell “of rotten fruit or rotten eggs or a strong perfume” and could barely breathe. Some say they passed out and had to be dragged into the fresh air by their friends. Others say they felt dizzy and sick. Many girls were taken to hospital.

=> ↺ Pope John Paul II covered up child abuse as cardinal: report

• The late Polish pope John Paul II knew about child abuse in Poland’s Catholic church years before becoming pontiff and helped cover it up, private broadcaster TVN reported Sunday.

=> ↺ Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 32

• In February, the landmark national security trial of 47 democrats began after some had spent almost two years in detention. The sedition case against now-defunct independent media outlet Stand News dragged on, as prosecutors grilled a former chief editor about the 2019 protests and his intentions in publishing certain opinion articles.

• [...]

• Former lawmakers, ex-district councillors and a former Stand News reporter are among 16 defendants facing a no-jury trial. They deny conspiracy to commit subversion in connection with an opposition primary election held in July 2020 to choose candidates for an upcoming legislative election, while 31 other democrats have pleaded guilty.

=> ↺ Human Rights Watch Mourns Loss of Judy Heumann

• Human Rights Watch mourns the passing of the pioneering disability rights activist Judy Heumann, a dear friend and board member. Heumann’s lifelong activism supporting the rights of people with disabilities in the United States and around the world was extraordinary, Human Rights Watch said. 

• She died on March 4, 2023, surrounded by her close friends, at the age of 75.

=> ↺ Depravity and deepfakes; Or, how women are robbed of bodily autonomy

• Content warning: Discussion of sexual harassment It is no secret that men have been raised within a culture that readily provides misogynistic porn — reservoirs of digital pornography exist to access at a moment’s notice. A variety of websites, forums and social media sites host hubs of both consensually and non-consensually posted pornography.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ 2023-03-03 Stream Automator

• I have a problem, and I think I’m not alone: Getting TV is too complicated and too expensive. I know what a solution might look like, and if someone can build it and charge just a little bit for access, they might become very wealthy.

Monopolies

Software Patents

=> ↺ Dell and partners smash patent troll WSOU in court

• In the land of patent litigation, all patent trolls want to file in the US Western District of Texas Court. This court is infamous for being sympathetic to patent plaintiffs. That’s why patent litigator WSOU Investments, aka Brazos Licensing and Development, went after Dell, EMC, and VMware in this Court. Usually, this would have been the smart move. Not this time. District Judge Alan Albright granted the defendants a directed verdict, and that was the end of the matter.

• What happened was this: WSOU, although successful before with their carpet bombing patent lawsuit strategy, failed this time. According to the lead defense counsel and Gibson Dunn partner, Brian A. Rosenthal, “This case got to trial because the plaintiff refused to come to their senses before trial. We obtained a number of serious exclusions of evidence prior to trial, and told them very early on the case had no merit.” The judge agreed.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ The Library Window

• As I look out the library window, time slows down. This particular library window is on the 5th floor, and overlooks a sprawling, yet flat, Florida college campus. It’s a Sunday, so the walkways are devoid of the usual hustle-and-bustle of college life.

• As I look out the library window, I take in where I am. I see the strange mix of moss-covered oak trees and palm trees of all sizes, and the flat, orange brick buildings poking out, contrasting with the bright greens of all the foliage. I see the sun beaming down, coating everything in a warm glow, and illuminating the horizon.

=> ↺ 2 years with my chosen name

• In 10 days, it’ll be 2 years since I’ve legally changed my name.

• I did so for two reasons – one, I have never identified with my old one. It wasn’t ugly at all, it was a nice and cute name, and I wish I would’ve felt like that was me, but it just wasn’t. My mum remembers still how even at a few years old, I told her “that isn’t my name!” and she did ask me what else I wanna be called, but I had no ideas. Two, I have C-PTSD and the memories and trauma involve my name. Three, my old name was a nickname of a different name and people always thought my “real” name was the longer version and also, there were several correct ways to write it; both of these circumstances led to a lot of wrongly addressed mail, report cards, bank cards etc.

Technical

=> ↺ Diskette quest

• My friend caiu (🦆) found a floppy drive with her name written on it in her dad’s stuff. She had no idea what was on it and gave it to me with a smile. Could I get what’s on it? What 1.44MB of mysteries can it hold? I love these kind of challenges and since my laundry room is currently the storage room for our hackerspace’s stuff, I had a lot of parts to try to read it, and of course it was out of the question to buy a fancy USB floppy disk drive, so this note is about how I got the files back.

• Alright so I found three floppy disk drives, all covered in dust. First issue: they all have IDE ports only, and I don’t recognise the power supply port: turns out it’s actually a dedicated floppy port that modern PSUs don’t have anymore. I don’t have IDE-to-something converters so I found the only motherboard in our stuff that have IDE ports and decided to build a computer with it. Of course it has no RAM nor CPU nor anything, but my accomplice Kholah found in his own mess a matching CPU, an Intel Pentium 4 with bent pins — yeah since we got kicked out of our place in Aubervilliers last October, we all have our own pile of electronics cluttering our homes — and I had the antistatic bag holding all our RAM bars (20 of them maybe), and only one had the matching format, whew! 256MB. The motherboard has no video output I can use so I plug a stupid video card with a VGA output and it can use my TV as display. I also have no power button so I’m just shorting it manually using cables and a breadboard. I manage to straighten the CPU pins and successfully plug it. Let’s boot it!

=> ↺ How do they know?

• Some obersvations on Google’s tracking and not always telling

• I left my mom to housesit for a couple of weeks; when I came back, my youtube got totally polluted! More on that in a second.

• I certainly would never log into youtube; it is way too much fun to see it figuring out who I am (well, not that much fun). Now, I’ve never used youtube much (an occasional search leading to some tech or cat video…), but lately I’ve been stuck alone, and needed stimulation. So I’ve been watching from a couple of TVs – often in the background while I wire-wrap some crap or code some other crap.

=> ↺ new and old web adventures

• And then it was just outrage and ads. Content making you consume as much as possible, content that will make you want to buy lots of makeup and clothes and small useless trinkets and accessories. Content that made you hate yourself in the mirror. Everything was decided by likes and followers. The snarkiest and edgiest comments got the most attention and won the fight. Being seen meant being a target for unwanted images, harassment, doxxing, etc. by someones large fanbase.

=> ↺ 180s

• I’ve had a couple of 180s in my life.

• I went from being a copyright zealot to being a copyright abolitionist (this was in 1999 so most of y’all know me after). I realized the limitless potential of sharing & caring. Copyright abolitionism was also my gateway to anti- and post-capitalist politics.

• I went from rules light RPG to rules heavy gradually but pretty early on in our 5e experience. Maybe CoS/ToA era. Having engaged players who are into this playstyle makes all the difference.

=> ↺ Forced Password Changes…Really?

• Way back in 2006 I wrote about how password changes were a bad idea [0], backed up commentary by Euene Spafford [1]. I’m dismayed that the password change policy is still very prevalent at the corporate level, almost 17 years later. It’s an annoying practice for users that needs to stop. Where I work, policy forces use of two-factor authentication but still forces users to change passwords every 90 days. This is completely non-sensical.

=> ↺ Killing All Processes When Logging Out

• I happened to run the Xfce Task Manager to troubleshoot an unrelated issue. And I noticed that the previous user of my computer had processes running in the background. I thought this was strange because my assumption is that all processes are terminated when a user logs off. In this case, I’m sure the user logged out instead of switching users.

• It turns out that Arch Linux and Manjaro have a different default configuration. By default, Arch and Manjaro allow their service manager, systemd, to run in the background after logging off. The reason given is this allows terminal multiplexers–like tmux and screen–to work. So, in my case, it was systemd and a group of child processes that I saw running in the background.

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ Less Gemlog, More Capsule

• I’ve been spending a lot of time with older web content recently. Mainly I’ve been improving the capabilities of Stargate, my proxy that provides a Gemini-to-HTTP gateway, by reading web content via a Gemini client.

• 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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