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● 04.16.23

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● Links 16/04/2023: digiKam 8.0.0 and PGroonga 3.0.0

Posted in News Roundup at 8:45 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

=> ↺ Linux Around The World: USA – Hawaii

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

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ The very first interview about Linux with Linus Torvalds – Oct 28, 1992

• On October 28th, 1992, the first interview about Linux — with Linus Torvalds — was published in a small E-Mail newsletter.

• That newsletter, the aptly named “Linux News”, was written by Lars Wirzenius — a friend, colleague, and fellow student of Linus Torvalds’ at the University of Helsinki.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ mesa 23.1.0-rc1

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ What runs on the servers at home?

• The last time I did this inventory was 2018. It is time for a refresh.

=> ↺ OpenVMS 9.2 for x86, Getting Started part 2, auto boot, licenses, PAKs, networking and SSH

• This guide is a summarized / shorter version of the official installation guide. It is tailored for hobbyist usage using VirtualBox and helps you to get set up quickly. Please refer to the official documentation for any questions. The official documentation is targeted at VMWare ESXi, this guide is for VirtualBox.

• This guide is a follow up on part 1 of my guide. You should have an installed system in VirtualBox. Make sure you also have the license files (x86community-20240401.zip) from https://sp.vmssoftware.com.

=> ↺ Disassemble all ACPI tables on your system

• $ for i in /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/*; do sudo iasl -p $PWD/$(echo $i | cut -d/ -f6) $i && sudo chown $USER $(echo $i | cut -d/ -f6); done

=> ↺ How to Install and Secure Redis on AlmaLinux 9

• Redis (or remote dictionary server) is an open-source in-memory data store, NoSQL database that can be used primarily as an application cache or database.

=> ↺ How To Install Apache Spark on AlmaLinux 9

• In this tutorial, we are going to explain in step-by-step detail how to install Apache Spark on AlmaLinux 9 OS. Apache Spark is an open-source unified analytics engine used for data processing large amounts of data.

=> ↺ How to Install a LAMP (Apache, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP) Server on Ubuntu

• Installing LAMP on Ubuntu is simpler than you might think. Check the complete guide to know how you can easily install Apache, MySQL, and PHP on your Ubuntu machine and start building web applications in no time.

=> ↺ How to fix the “Read-Only File System” error on Ubuntu

• If you’re an Ubuntu user and you’ve ever encountered the “Read-Only File System” error, you know how frustrating it can be. This error message usually occurs when the file system is set to read-only mode, which means that you cannot make any changes to the files or directories on your system. This can be a serious problem, especially if you need to write or edit files frequently.

=> ↺ How to install Android Studio on Debian 12 | 11 Linux

• Developers can install their favorite Android Studio Flamingo IDE on Debian 12 Bookworm or 11 Bullseye using the terminal commands given here. Google’s team is behind the development of a popular IDE i.e Android Studio so that developers can create Android applications easily.

=> ↺ Setup Snap Store in Debian 12 Bookworm Linux

• To easily get a wide range of free and open-source software using the Snap Store GUI on Debian 12 Bookworm, here are the commands to install it using the terminal.

=> ↺ Steps to Reset your Root Password in Debian 12 bookworm Linux

• Handling multiple Linux systems or once in a while, there might be chances of forgetting the root user password. If so, here is the article to reset the root password on Debian 12 Linux (bookworm) servers or desktops.   

=> ↺ MySQL IF ELSE with Concepts and Examples

• Are you looking to harness the power of conditional logic in your MySQL queries? Look no further! In this article, we’ll explore the concepts of IF ELSE statements in MySQL, learn how to write them and dive into examples you can apply in your work.

=> ↺ How to Install Yarn on Fedora Linux

• Yarn is a fast, reliable, and secure package manager for JavaScript designed to provide users with an efficient and seamless way to manage their project dependencies. Created as a response to the shortcomings of the npm package manager, Yarn has quickly gained popularity among developers for its innovative approach to dependency management.

=> ↺ How to Switch Git Branch

• Git, a powerful version control system, allows developers to manage their code effectively by creating and managing multiple branches within a repository. Branches provide a way to work on different features, bug fixes, or experimental code without affecting the main codebase.

=> ↺ How to Install Node.js on Fedora Linux

• Node.js is a powerful, open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment that allows developers to build server-side applications using JavaScript. Initially released in 2009 by Ryan Dahl, Node.js has become an essential tool for developers across the globe, enabling them to create high-performance, scalable, and versatile applications.

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

• Calibre is a powerful and versatile open-source e-book management software that has been a game-changer for avid readers and e-book enthusiasts. Designed by Kovid Goyal, Calibre offers a one-stop solution to all your e-book needs, making it an essential tool for anyone with an extensive digital library.

=> ↺ How to Install and Secure Redis on AlmaLinux 9

• Redis (or remote dictionary server) is an open-source in-memory data store, NoSQL database that can be used primarily as an application cache or database. Redis stores its data in memory so that it can deliver unparalleled speed, reliability, and performance.

=> ↺ LFCS – Setting up a DHCP Server

=> ↺ How to Configure FreeIPA Client on Ubuntu 22.04 / 20.04

• FreeIPA is a powerful open-source identity management system that provides centralized authentication, authorization, and accounting services. In this post, we will walk through the steps to configure FreeIPA client on Ubuntu 22.04 / 20.04.

=> ↺ Docker Management Command Cheat Sheet

• Docker management commands are used to manage Docker containers, images, networks, volumes, and much more. Using these commands, you can interact with the Docker daemon and run containers, build and push images, manage networks and volumes, and perform many other tasks.

=> ↺ Top Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows, macOS, and Linux

• Keyboard shortcuts can significantly increase your productivity by reducing the time spent navigating your computer and performing repetitive tasks. They allow you to access specific features, commands, or functions with just a few keystrokes, streamlining your workflow and enabling you to work more efficiently.

=> ↺ A Step-by-Step Guide to Secure MySQL Server with SSL/TLS

• Ensuring secure connections to your MySQL databases is vital for protecting sensitive data and maintaining privacy. In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the process of configuring MySQL secure connections using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), helping you establish encrypted communication between clients and servers.

=> ↺ Pre-populate SFS .png and .specs files

• The first time that you run ‘SFSget’, there is a delay of several minutes, while .png and .specs files are downloaded. These correspond to each SFS file available online and provide image and information in the GUI.

• A few people have asked if this delay could be shortened. Yes, it can. Those files go into /mnt/wkg/sfs, and now the ’3buildeasydistro’ script in woofQ will pre-populate that path with the .png and .specs files, so they don’t have to be downloaded.

WINE or Emulation

=> ↺ Wine development release 8.6 is now available for Linux FreeBSD and macOS

• The Wine development release 8.6 is now available.

Games

=> ↺ The Last of Us has more Steam Deck improvements and lots of other fixes

• Fires continue to be put out by Naughty Dog and Iron Galaxy as they fix up The Last of Us, with a new patch landing with lots of fixes.

=> ↺ MangoHud performance overlay version v0.6.9 is out now as a nice update

• It’s been a while since the last release but a nice update to the performance hud and benchmarking tool MangoHud is out now. This is the tool used for the performance stats on Steam Deck.

=> ↺ Top 4 New Games You Can Play on Linux with Proton – April 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…

=> ↺ WSJ: Gaming giant Sega to buy Angry Birds firm

• Rovio confirmed on Saturday evening that it was in takeover talks with Japanese video game giant Sega.

Desktop Environments/WMs

=> ↺ LXQt 1.3 Desktop Environment Released with Wayland Improvements, Bug Fixes

• LXQt 1.3 desktop environment is now available with various improvements to the file manager, panel, terminal, and image viewer.

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ digiKam 8.0.0 is released

• After two years of development and bugs triage, and tests, the digiKam team is proud to present the new major version 8.0.0 of its open source digital photo manager.

• See below the list of most important features coming with this release.

• A huge Application as digiKam needs good documentation for end users, and is well written with plenty of screen-shots and screen-casts. We have been working many months to migrate and proof-read the old digiKam documentation based on DocBook format to a new architecture, more simple, easy to maintain, and translatable. After 20 years, we left the DocBook manual for the modern Sphinx/ReStructuredText framework. This one is really a pleasure to use by documentation writers.

Distributions and Operating Systems

Debian Family

=> ↺ Modern Slavery & Debian Open Source

• This is analogous to what we see in Debian and other large free software organizations, where the threat of public humiliations, in place of dismissal, has become a common way to exercise some form of coercive control over individual volunteers.

• [...]

• If we consent to work in exchange for recognition and if that recognition is deliberately and maliciously stolen from us then it is a worse outcome than if we were simply forced to work while being tied up in chains.

=> ↺ Khochu Zhit

• Our project currently supports Trisquel GNU/Linux 10 (nabia) & 11 (aramo), PureOS 10 (byzantium), Gnuinos chimaera, Ubuntu 20.04 (focal) & 22.04 (jammy), Debian 10 (buster) & 11 (bullseye), and Devuan GNU+Linux 4.0 (chimaera). Others can be supported to, please open an issue about it, although my focus is on FSDG-compliant distributions and their upstreams.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ ESP Terminal is equipped with 3.5” Capacitive Touch display and 2MP camera

• The ESP Terminal from Elecrow is a handheld device based on the ESP32-S3-WROOM Wi-Fi + Bluetooth LE microcontroller. The compact device includes multiple terminal connectors for sensors and LiPo battery support.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Winners and Losers: Android gets a space-saving update as YouTube locks SharePlay behind a paywall

=> ↺ Irctc: IRCTC has a ‘warning’ for all Android smartphone users – Times of India

=> ↺ How to record a phone call on Android in 2023

=> ↺ Indiedroid Nova is a Rockchip RK3588S SBC with full-body heatsink, fan, and a swappable eMMC flash – CNX Software

=> ↺ Android 13 starts rolling out for 2020′s LG Wing; it’s the last system update for LG’s last smartphone – PhoneArena

=> ↺ The LG Wing is finally receiving an Android 13 update – GSMArena.com news

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ Some thoughts on OpenSSH versus SSH

• When I started to write yesterday’s entry on how OpenSSH certificates aren’t X.509 certificates, I initially titled it as being about ‘SSH certificates’. This wouldn’t be unusual; Matthew Garrett’s article We need better support for SSH host certificates also uses ‘SSH’ here. I changed my entry’s title out of a sense of pickyness, because although OpenSSH is the dominant SSH implementation, it’s not the only one. Or maybe it is, depending on your perspective, or at least the only SSH that matters and so we might as well talk about ‘SSH certificates’.

=> ↺ Wike is a Wikipedia Reader for Linux Desktops

• Wike is a GTK4/libadwaita Wikipedia reader for Linux. It’s sort of like a site-specific browser for Wikipedia but offers additional features and better integration than a standard browser tab can.

=> ↺ Walkthrough: Bitwarden’s New Secrets Manager

• It was only a matter of time before a popular password manager, such as Bitwarden, would create a secrets manager…

SaaS/Back End/Databases

=> ↺ PGroonga 3.0.0 – Multilingual fast full text search

• Hi,

• PGroonga 3.0.0 has been released!

• NOTE: If you’re a PGroonga 1.Y.Z user, PGroonga 3.0.0 has an incompatible change! If you’re a PGroonga 2.Y.Z user, PGroonga 3.0.0 does NOT have an incompatible change.

• See also release announce blog post: https://groonga.org/en/blog/2023/04/13/pgroonga-3.0.0.html

• PGroonga is a PostgreSQL extension that makes PostgreSQL fast full text search platform for all languages! It’s released under PostgreSQL license.

=> ↺ DB Doc 10.2 released

• Yohz Software has released DB Doc 10.2, the PostgreSQL schema documentation tool, and is available for immediate download.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Neural networks mystify me

• Neural networks (there really there is nothing “neural” about them) are really not new: I remember hearing about that as an undergraduate in the early 2000s (and I think they were rather old hat even then). At the time, they were pretty much dismissed as a warmed-over model of behaviorism, unlikely to be useful anywhere except perhaps in a few simplistic applications. Based on what I saw at the time, I agreed and basically bought into the idea that computers are mainly useful as an adjunct to human processes, systems and intuition.

=> ↺ What a flaky test is and why they’re hard to fix

• The fact that the flakiness usually can’t be reproduced locally means that it’s harder to reproduce and diagnose the buggy behavior of the flaky tests.

• In addition to the fact that flaky tests often only flake on CI, the fact that flaky tests don’t fail consistently adds to the difficulty of fixing them.

• Despite these difficulties, I’ve developed some tactics and strategies for fixing flaky tests that consistently lead to success. In this post I’ll give a detailed account of how I fix flaky tests.

=> ↺ How to Validate Date String in PHP: Exploring Multiple Options

• Date validation is an essential part of many web applications, as it ensures that users input correct and meaningful dates. PHP, a popular server-side scripting language, offers several functions to help developers validate date strings with ease.

=> ↺ 12 Tips to Secure Your MySQL Database Server: Best Practices and Techniques

• Securing your MySQL database is vital to protect sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access.

=> ↺ Spidermonkey Development Blog: SpiderMonkey Newsletter (Firefox 112-113)

• SpiderMonkey is the JavaScript engine used in Mozilla Firefox. This newsletter gives an overview of the JavaScript and WebAssembly work we’ve done as part of the Firefox 112 and 113 Nightly release cycles.

Python

=> ↺ CS193p

• Flash forward years later and I found myself in love with programming, particularly Python and the web. CS193p was both exactly for what I was looking and not quite right for me at the same time: a demonstration of what was possible with programming, but that was missing the same allure that I found in Python later in my coding journey.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Sufficiently Advanced Tech: Has Bugs

• Arthur C. Clarke said that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. He was a sci-fi writer, though, and not a security guy. Maybe it should read “Any sufficiently advanced tech has security flaws”. Because this is the story of breaking into a car through its headlight.

=> ↺ Even Making Trivial Decisions Can Be Draining, But You Can Make It Easier

• What to do?

Science

=> ↺ I liked this simple calculus exercise

• A recent Math SE question asked for help computing the value of $$\int_0^{2000} e^{x/2-\left\lfloor x/2\right\rfloor}; dx.\tag{$\star$}$$

• Often when I see someone’s homework problems I exclaim “what blockhead TA assigned this?” But I think this is a really good exercise. Here’s why.

=> ↺ This 1,000-Year-Old Stone Tablet May’ve Been a Maya Sports ‘Scoreboard’

• Who’s winning?

Hardware

=> ↺ Socket To Me: Why the processor socket, an important part of most desktop computers, lost its upgrade path as computers became smaller and more integrated.

• The evidence is getting stronger by the day that our computers are becoming less upgradable, with more things soldered on, glued in, and screwed down than ever. Part of this is a side effect of our computers getting smaller, but part of it also is a direct result of the companies that make our computing devices getting more protective over who can open up a machine. One company, whose name rhymes with “map pull,” has even gained a reputation for removing once-common upgradability options like RAM and storage. Because who needs a 512GB SSD anyway? It’s with this in mind that I’d like to frame today’s Tedium around the processor socket, an important part of building a computer from scratch. Make sure you have your pins all lined up. — Ernie @ Tedium

=> ↺ Tower Records in Japan!

• Seeing the No Music No Life merchandise and contemporary English music interspersed with K-Pop and Japanese virtual streamers… it was uncanny.

=> ↺ The Soul of an Old Machine

• I strongly considered keeping the old MBP as a momento of this now-closed chapter of my life, but ultimately decided on recycling it. One less piece of old hardware sitting around, and hopefully Apple actually is able to salvage some materials from it.

=> ↺ Efficiency trades off against resiliency

• What’s the “right” level of CPU utilization for a server? If you look at a monitoring dashboard from a well-designed and well-run service, what CPU utilization should we hope to see, averaged over a day or two?

• It’s a very general question, and it’s not clear it should have a single answer. That said, for a long time, I generally believed that higher is always better: we should aim for as close to 100% utilization as we can. Why? Well, anything less than 100% represents unused hardware capacity, which means we’re wasting resources. If a service isn’t maxing out its CPU, we could move it onto a smaller instance or run some additional work on that node.

=> ↺ Better Laser Cuts: Know Your Kerf

• The recent crop of laser cutters are nothing short of miraculous. For a few hundred dollars you can get a machine that can easily engrave and — subject to materials — cut well, too. [Nate] has been taking advantage of a laser to make boxes that join together using finger joinery. The problem is, the pieces have to fit exactly to get a good box. While setting dimensions in software is fine, you need to account for how much material the laser removes — something traditional woodworkers and machinists know as kerf.

=> ↺ Noninvasive Sensors For Brain–Machine Interfaces Based On Micropatterned Epitaxial Graphene

• As fun as brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are, for the best results they tend to come with the major asterisk of requiring the cutting and lifting of a section of the skull in order to implant a Utah array or similar electrode system. A non-invasive alternative consists out of electrodes which are placed on the skin, yet at a reduced resolution. These electrodes are the subject of a recent experiment by [Shaikh Nayeem Faisal] and colleagues in ACS Applied NanoMaterials employing graphene-coated electrodes in an attempt to optimize their performance.

=> ↺ 3D Printed Tool Lets You Measure Component Reels Easily

• Component reels are a highly-0ptimized packaging format. They deliver components to pick and place machines for effective high-speed assembly. As more of us get into working with SMD components, we’re exposed to them as well. [MG] wanted a way to easily measure tape from component reels, which is difficult because they’re often curled up. Thus, they whipped up a nifty little tool for the job.

=> ↺ HDD Sales Crater, Drop 35% Year-over-Year

• Unit shipments of nearline drives suffer the most in the first quarter as exascalers remain cautious.

=> ↺ Relive The Glory Days Of Sun Workstations

• When the IBM PC first came out, it was little more than a toy. The serious people had Sun or Apollo workstations. These ran Unix, and had nice (for the day) displays and network connections. They were also expensive, especially considering what you got. But now, QEMU can let you relive the glory days of the old Sun workstations by booting SunOS 4 (AKA Solaris 1.1.2) on your PC today. [John Millikin] shows you how in step-by-step detail.

=> ↺ Real Radar Scope CRT Shows Flights Using ADS-B

• Real-time flight data used to be something that was only available to air traffic controllers, hunched over radar scopes in darkened rooms watching the comings and goings of flights as glowing phosphor traces on their screens. But that was then; now, flight tracking is as simple as pulling up a web page. But where’s the fun in that?

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Mifepristone Restrictions in a Rare Win for Abortion Rights

• The decision, issued Friday, delays a ruling from a federal appeals court and will allow abortion providers to continue providing the drug as usual for now.

=> ↺ Thailand, Indonesia readying for holidays-fuelled spike in Covid-19 cases

• Thailand is anticipating a spike following Songkran, while Indonesia is set to witness the biggest wave of travellers during Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

=> ↺ Boy’s Suicide in Poland Spurs Backlash Against State Media Tactics

• A public radio station in the city of Szczecin is under fire for helping to identify a 15-year-old sex abuse victim, the son of a local opposition politician, who later killed himself.

=> ↺ Cold Temperatures Seem to Have a Mysterious Effect on Longevity

• This could be the secret.

=> ↺ What exactly is ghee, and why do people love it?

• Janet Blaser examines this ‘liquid gold’ that’s in Indian cuisine for centuries and has recently become the newest trendy health food.

=> ↺ Weed, water and welfare: the week at the mañaneras

• President López Obrador addressed marijuana licensing, water shortages, hospital improvements and more at the weekday morning pressers.

=> ↺ As Paper Shows Benefits of Expanded Child Tax Credit, Sinema Challenger Gallego Says ‘Bring It Back’

• “Bring it back.”

=> ↺ Kamala Harris rallies as high court eyes abortion pill rules

• Vice President Kamala Harris is urging Americans to take action during “a critical point in our nation’s history” as thousands of people protested new limits to abortion rights in demonstrations across the country. The nationwide rallies come after the U.S. Supreme Court intervened Friday to delay rule changes that would have limited the way the abortion drug mifepristone could be used and dispensed, to give itself more time to review the matter more thoroughly. Harris made a surprise stop at a rally in Los Angeles on Saturday where she called the latest upheaval over abortion rights a further incursion by conservatives into myriad “fundamental rights.”

=> ↺ ‘He Needs to Be Investigated’: Abortion Case Judge Potentially Hid Law Review Article From Senate

• Calls for an investigation into Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk mounted Saturday after The Washington Postrevealed that the U.S. judge behind a temporarily blocked ruling against an abortion medication may have taken his name off of a controversial law review article as he sought a nomination to the federal bench from then-President Donald Trump.

=> ↺ Australians push for greater flexibility to work from home after Covid-19 transforms workplace

• Nation’s 150,000 federal civil servants are demanding unlimited work from home rights.

=> ↺ Loneliness

• Note: This post discusses loneliness. I’m okay. Let me say that again. I’m okay. I feel more connected than I have in a long time. With that said, if it weren’t for my friends being open about their experiences with loneliness — and the encouragement I received to talk about my feelings — I may not have written this essay. I hope my experience below is helpful to someone and conveys one key point: if you experience or have experienced loneliness, you are not the only one. Let my post below be a testament to that.

=> ↺ Eid in Indonesia: E­-commerce businesses continue to flourish even with Covid-19 curbs eased

• But this year’s Lebaran shopping may be the last wave of pent-up demand after economic reopening.

=> ↺ Blood Test For a Sugar Molecule May Eventually Help Early Detection of Alzheimer’s

• A new warning system.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Is Twitter finally dying?

• So Twitter isn’t dead. But it’s getting there.

• If you’re on Twitter today, you’re likely experiencing an app that is more frequently broken, more random, and more unhinged. The site has seen a sustained uptick in outages and bugs. Many users are complaining about seeing more content in the new For You feed that they don’t want to see. There are active neo-Nazis on the platform. And just this week, NPR and PBS, two major news outlets with over 10 million combined followers, stopped using the platform, saying they had lost faith in Musk’s decision-making after he slapped a “government-funded media” label on the accounts.

=> ↺ The brief, eventful history of Twitter under Elon Musk

• Yesterday (April 14) marks one year since Elon Musk announced his offer to buy Twitter. And what an eventful year it was. First came some backpedaling by Musk, and legal challenges surrounding the acquisition. After the Musk era officially began, there were mass layoffs and changes to the platform…

=> ↺ New Twitter settings could hinder timely storm warnings: National Weather Service

• The National Weather Service (NWS) is warning that Twitter’s limit on automated tweets could hinder its ability to post timely storm and other weather updates.

• The NWS Tsunami Warning Center and several other local NWS offices tweeted out posts alerting their followers that the platform’s new restrictions could prevent them from being able to post all updates about weather events that they normally would.

=> ↺ The one about AI

• I feel in the middle, as someone who writes prose and code on a regular basis but also helps guide companies, people, and do other sorts of founder stuff. All I’m saying is, whichever way it turns out, spare me in the revolution.

=> ↺ Automuse: A System for Generating Fiction Novels

• If you know of any AI/Machine

• Learning scientific journals or academic conferences, I have an academic paper version of this post available here. I would love to submit this paper to be formally published, but I’m not sure where to send it.

=> ↺ Pen Testing AWS

• Thirteen pages later, I realized I didn’t write a blog post but a white paper. I was going to post it over at PrimeHarbor, along with a post on how to get an AWS PenTest, but then Nick Jones penned an excellent blog post On AWS Penetration Testing.

=> ↺ Cyber gang blackmails Cypriot university to pay $100K

• According to experts, the Medusa ransomware terminates crucial services and processes for Windows operating programs and penetrates file backup systems while targeting mail servers, database servers, and security software.

=> ↺ Update available for Chromium 112 to address zero-day exploit

• Chromium, regular and un-googled. Two days ago on friday, Google released an out-of-cycle stable update. This 112.0.5615.121 update addresses and fixes a zero-day exploit (CVE-2023-2033) which is already actively abused.

Security

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Russia-pushed UN Cybercrime Treaty may rewrite global law. It’s … not great

• The UN Cybercrime Treaty, to the extent it gets adopted, is expected to define global norms for lawful surveillance and legal processes available to investigate and prosecute cybercriminals. And what has emerged so far contemplates [PDF] more than 30 new cybercrime offenses, with few concessions to free speech or human rights.

• This fifth negotiating session involves representatives from more than 100 member states trying to come up with draft chapters covering international cooperation, technical assistance, cybercrime prevention, implementation details and other provisions.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ ‘Leave As Soon As Possible’: New Conscription Law Raises Fresh Fears Of Mobilization At Home And Abroad

• The new April 14 law modifies Russia’s military service rules that previously required the in-person delivery of notices to conscripts and reservists who are called up for duty. Now, the notices issued by local military conscription offices will also be sent electronically and be considered valid from the moment they are put on a state portal for electronic services, known as Gosuslug. The law will also set up an electronic registry of all people required to serve and collect their personal data while creating a public list of all those who have been summoned for military service.

• Unlike in September, however, fleeing abroad is not as straightforward of a process as before, with the list of possible countries to receive Russian citizens shrinking.

=> ↺ Sudan’s army and rival force battle, killing at least 27

• Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary force have engaged in fierce fighting in the capital and elsewhere in country. A Sudanese doctor’s group says at least 27 people were killed and more than 180 wounded as the two forces battled Saturday with armored vehicles, machine guns and airstrikes. The fighting delivered a new blow to recent hopes of an eventual transition to democracy and it raised fears of a wider conflict as fighting continued into Saturday night. The clashes capped months of heightened tensions between the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces group. Those tensions had delayed a deal with political parties to get the country back to its short-lived transition to democracy.

=> ↺ Ukrainian Soldiers Freeze Sperm as a Way to Defy Russia

• Some Ukrainian soldiers are trying to ensure that even if they die in the war, their partner can still build a family. They also want to send Russia a message of defiance.

=> ↺ Death Toll From Russian Strike in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Climbs

• Rescuers were searching through rubble a day after the city of Sloviansk was struck as fighting raged in Bakhmut.

=> ↺ Death toll mounts in Sudan as army, paramilitary fight for power

• Fighting in the Sudanese capital raged into the early hours of Sunday after a day of deadly battles between paramilitaries and the regular army that left at least 56 people dead and nearly 600 wounded.

=> ↺ China rocket launch sends debris into sea near Taiwan, Taipei authorities report

• China said Sunday it had launched a satellite into orbit, with authorities in Taiwan saying rocket debris had fallen into the sea where Beijing announced a no-sail zone this week. Maritime authorities in China’s eastern Fujian province this week banned ships from an area north of Taiwan from 9:00 am (0100 GMT) to 3:00 pm

=> ↺ Human rights groups criticize Iraq decision making Yazidi sexual violence survivors file criminal complaints to receive reparations

• A group of NGOs including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International Friday released a joint statement criticizing the Iraqi government’s decision to require applicants for reparations under the Yazidi Survivors Law to file a criminal complaint.

=> ↺ US and UK target Russian oligarch affiliates in latest round of sanctions

• The US and UK governments last week unveiled a batch of sanctions against individuals and entities who have allegedly enabled Russian oligarchs on the UK’s designated sanctions list to access their external assets. 

=> ↺ US Arms Industry Planning First Taiwan Trip in Four Years

• When asked about the prospect of US companies jointly producing arms with Taiwan, a Biden administration official expressed support for the idea.

=> ↺ G-7 to discuss ‘common and concerted’ approach to China, US official says

• Foreign ministers from the world’s wealthiest nations are set to discuss China’s actions involving Taiwan.

=> ↺ Convict who started the fire at Madımak Hotel in Sivas may be released

• The Constitutional Court ruled that Yunis Karataş who started the fire that caused the Sivas Massacre in 1993 has “committed a terror crime” but cannot be evaluated as a “terror convict” since the latter requires the presence of a definite terrorist organization.

=> ↺ A Path to Peace in Yemen

• A delegation from Saudi Arabia has arrived in Yemen’s capital Sana’a alongside Omani negotiators with the aim of reaching a resolution to the protracted war in Yemen. This marks a major turning point in a conflict that began more than eight years ago and has been characterized as a stalemate between Yemen’s Houthis and a coalition of anti-Houthi forces backed and led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

=> ↺ Zelensky sanctions Sergey Shoigu’s daughter, several famous athletes, and Yandex — Meduza

• President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed two orders, which put into effect the recommendations of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, to sanction more than 400 individuals, as well as 241 companies, with connections to Russia.

=> ↺ What’s Needed for True Peace in Yemen

• The news that Saudi officials, who have been leading a bombing campaign in Yemen for eight years, met with the Houthi officials who control much of the country on April 9 to possibly renew a truce that ended in October is positive. But a renewed truce that does not address the harm that warring parties have caused to Yemen’s civilians will not be sustainable without accountability.

=> ↺ Kazan residents report audible explosions outside city. Emergency services say there have been no reports. — Meduza

• Residents of Kazan posted on social media about audible explosions in the area of a tank training ground, writes local publication Inkazan. Journalists for the outlet reported that a column of smoke was visible from the southern part of the city as well as from surrounding villages.

=> ↺ War would bring disaster to China too, says Taiwan presidential contender William Lai

• Mr Lai says a war would have no winners.

=> ↺ Left in limbo: Afghan refugees in Albania

• In August 2021, when the US hurriedly pulled out of Afghanistan, it organised an airlift to evacuate those who had worked with NATO forces and found themselves threatened by the Taliban. These evacuations became chaotic and not everyone made it out. Meanwhile, Washington insisted on security checks for the Afghans and asked third countries to take some of them in while their visa requests were processed. Albania is one of 27 countries that are now home to Afghan refugees. FRANCE 24′s Nadia Bletry and Thierry Trelluyer went to meet some of them and found that in many cases, their lives are still in limbo a year and a half later.

=> ↺ Wagner Group Head Urges Moscow To Wind Down War In Ukraine

• Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin-connected businessman who controls the Wagner mercenary group that is playing a leading role in the fighting in eastern Ukraine, has said that a long conflict in Ukraine could lead to the dissolution of Russia.

=> ↺ Ukraine, Russia Mark Orthodox Easter With Large Prisoner Exchange

• Russia and Ukraine completed a prisoner exchange that resulted in the return of 130 Ukrainian prisoners, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram on April 16.

=> ↺ Zelenskiy Calls For Immediate ‘Security Guarantees’ For Ukraine

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for “effective security guarantees for Ukraine” immediately, even as rescue work continues following a Russian air strike in the Donetsk region city of Slovyansk that left at least 11 civilians dead.

=> ↺ Poland Bans Import Of Ukrainian Grain, Other Produce To Protect Local Farmers

• Poland has banned the import of grain and other food items from Ukraine after farmers said their incomes were cut by the duty-free movement of large quantities of Ukrainian produce.

=> ↺ Hungary Joins Poland in Banning Grain Imports From Ukraine

• The move is a diplomatic setback for Kyiv, and further raises the stakes of negotiations to renew a deal on shipments via the Black Sea.

=> ↺ Polish Ban on Ukrainian Grain and Food Imports to Apply to Transit, Says Minister

• A Polish ban on imports of Ukrainian grain and other food will also apply to the transit of these products through the country…

=> ↺ Poland bans Ukrainian grain imports to protect local farmers

• Poland on Saturday banned imports of grain and other food from Ukraine to protect local farmers, said the governing party’s leader. Earlier in the day, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the US should stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine “and start talking about peace” on the third day of his state visit to China. Follow our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT + 2).

=> ↺ Grassroots efforts in border areas address mental anguish for Myanmar refugees

• After escaping conflict, refugees face new anxieties in border areas, including risk of arrest

=> ↺ Azerbaijani Weightlifters To Boycott Armenia-Hosted Championships After Flag Incident

• Officials in Baku say Azerbaijani athletes will boycott the European Weightlifting Championships in the Armenian capital of Yerevan and return home after an Azerbaijani flag was set afire by an apparent intruder at an opening ceremony late on April 14.

=> ↺ Fighting Rages In Ukraine’s Bakhmut As Death Toll In Slovyansk Climbs To 11

• Intense fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces raged in the devastated town of Bakhmut on April 15 as the death toll from a Russian strike in nearby Slovyansk climbed to 11.

=> ↺ South Korea fires warning shots after North’s boat crosses sea border

• The incursion came as tension flared over the North’s stepped up military activities in recent weeks.

=> ↺ South Korea fires warning shots after North’s boat crosses sea border

• South Korea fired warning shots toward a North Korean vessel that crossed the maritime border on Saturday, South Korea’s military said a day after the incident which came amid recent tension over the North’s missile tests.

=> ↺ China launches weather satellite, flights avoid no-fly zone to north of Taiwan

• Taiwan’s defence ministry said some debris had fallen into the ‘warning zone’, but they did not affect the island’s territorial safety. 

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ American prophet: Nearing the end of his life, Daniel Ellsberg can’t be confined to the past

• After working inside the U.S. war machinery as a military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation, Ellsberg became its highest-ranking operative to opt out, bravely throwing sand in its gears by revealing the top-secret Pentagon Papers, at risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. That 7,000-page study, an internal Defense Department history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, exposed lies about U.S. policies that had been told under four successive presidents. During the 52 years since then, Ellsberg has continually provided key information and cogent analysis of the pretexts for U.S. wars, and has also focused on what those wars have actually meant in human terms.

Environment

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ China auto show highlights intense electric car competition

• Global and Chinese automakers plan to unveil more than a dozen new electric SUVs, sedans and muscle cars this week at the Shanghai auto show, their first full-scale sales event in four years in a market that its developing its own EVs, self-driving cars and other futuristic technology. Global automakers are competing to roll out appealing electric vehicles in the technology’s biggest, most crowded market after the ruling Communist Party invested billions of dollars in subsidies to buy an early lead in an emerging industry. They face intense competition from young but aggressive Chinese brands with fast-developing technology and lower prices.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Why to Be a Capitol Hill Citizen

• Spring, the season of renewal, is here. The ants are diligently building their little symmetrical ant hills. The robins are in their nests occupied with posterity. And the anointed members of Congress, after a long recess, aka vacation, return to work on April 17th. The next day, April 18th is the deadline for filing taxes.

=> ↺ Indian tigers may one day roar in Cambodia’s forests

• India’s successful tiger conservation is leading it to work on a relocation project with Cambodia.

=> ↺ Fishing nets banned to protect endangered Saimaa seal pups in Finnish lake district

• The Saimaa ringed seal, which is only found in southeast Finland, is one of the world’s rarest seal species, and “remains on the verge of extinction” according to the WWF.

=> ↺ Archeologists in Italy unearth ancient dolphin statuette

• Ancient Romans controlled the city by around 275 B.C., renaming it Paestum from the Greek “Poseidonia,” in what had before been Magna Graecia.

=> ↺ Ancient Mega-Fish Was a Giant Swimming Mouth With a Tiny Body

• Terrifying.

Finance

=> ↺ Denmark Distances Itself From Adherence to ESG Criteria With Israeli Arms Deal

• Denmark has in recent years made efforts to enhance its image as a champion of ESG and business ethics. In certain sectors this has been successful, not least in tech. But the country’s ongoing liaison with an Israeli arms dealer has brought into question its approach to ethics and human rights.

=> ↺ Be a Capitol Hill Citizen on Your Congress

• Congress should be viewed as a criminogenic enterprise.

=> ↺ Will Turkey’s inflation crisis damage Erdogan’s re-election chances?

• A month before Turkey goes to the polls on May 14, the country’s inflation crisis is a major campaign theme as the six main opposition parties rally around Kemal Kilicdaroglu to create the strongest challenge yet to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But analysts say discontent with Erdogan’s economic management will not automatically translate into votes for Kilicdaroglu – especially given the prominence of cultural issues in Turkish politics.

=> ↺ America is not ready for retirement

• After a tumultuous year in the markets, America’s preparedness for retirement has gotten shakier.

• By the numbers: More than half — 52% — of Americans are not on track to comfortably pay for their retirement, according to a new report from Fidelity, the nation’s largest provider of 401(k) plans.

=> ↺ Hong Kong releases HK$3,000 in first phase of consumption vouchers scheme

• Hong Kong has released the first phase of this year’s consumption vouchers scheme, allowing residents to collect HK$3,000 in their digital payment accounts.

=> ↺ Fiscal Insanity: The Government Borrows $6 Billion a Day, and We’re Stuck with the Bill

• John whitehead We’re not living the American dream. We’re living a financial nightmare. The US government is funding its existence with a credit card.

=> ↺ Reserve Bank’s close April decision on show

• The thinking behind the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision to hold interest rates steady after 10 hikes in a row will be laid out in the board meeting minutes due this week.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Poland temporarily halts Ukrainian grain imports — Meduza

• The government of Poland has decided to temporarily limit imports of grain and a variety of other food products from Ukraine, according to the Cabinet of Ministers’ website.

=> ↺ Problems With The Standard Story Of The Revolutionary War And The Constitution

• The standard story is wrong about the causes of the Revolutionary War. The Founders Constitution doesn’t protect individual rights.

=> ↺ French far-right veteran Jean-Marie Le Pen hospitalised after ‘mild’ heart attack

• Jean-Marie Le Pen, the veteran leader of the far-right in France, suffered a “mild heart attack” and was taken to hospital on Saturday, a close source said.

=> ↺ Macron signs controversial pension reform into law as unions accuse him of ‘contempt’

• French President Emmanuel Macron signed his unpopular pension reform into law on Saturday, prompting accusations from unions and the left that he was showing “contempt” for those behind a three-month protest movement.

=> ↺ Japanese PM Kishida resumes campaigning following ‘smoke bomb’ incident

• Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida resumed campaigning on Saturday after being evacuated unharmed from the scene of an apparent “smoke bomb” blast.

=> ↺ Saakashvili answers Navalny’s letter of support, calling him Russia’s future president — Meduza

• Mikheil Saakashvili responded to Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, who called on the authorities of Georgia to release Saakashvili from prison for medical treatment. Saakashvili published his statement on Facebook.

=> ↺ Is Elon Musk the Worst Businessman in the World?

• Even billionaires get things wrong. But none more so than Elon Musk, who, a year after announcing his bid to buy Twitter, has squandered every opportunity he’s had to make the social-media company a success.

=> ↺ Biden Should Prioritize the Climate Emergency, Not LNG Profits, at G7 Meeting

• The G7 (Group of Seven) Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment is meeting today, bringing together the world’s seven wealthiest nations. The cost of the climate emergency that is once again tipping the scales out of favor for BIPOC communities—and especially women of color—should take precedence at the meeting, but this is unlikely. Instead, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) lobbyists are making LNG a major trade priority to increase their profits and prop up the fossil fuel industry.

=> ↺ Chris Hedges: Taking Back Our Universities From Corporate Apparatchiks

• American universities are appendages of the corporate state. Educators are increasingly poorly paid, denied benefits and job security while senior administrators pay themselves obscene salaries.

=> ↺ Jack Teixeira: Leak Dumps Don’t Care about (the Story You Tell about) Motive

• The Discord Leaks are a leak dump. They may have more in common with past leak dumps than a lot of past leak dump journalists would like to admit.

=> ↺ OffG’s Quick Take: The Pentagon “leaks”

• The news the last few days so has been about the “leaked” Pentagon documents concerning the “special military operation” in Ukraine, and the apparent arrest of the young man responsible.

=> ↺ Online Gaming Chats Have Long Been Spy Risk for US Military

• Step into a U.S. military recreation hall at a base almost anywhere in the world and you’re bound to see it: young troops immersed in the world of online games, using government-funded gaming machines or their own consoles.

• The enthusiasm military personnel have for gaming — and the risk that carries — is in the spotlight after Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, was charged with illegally taking and posting highly classified material in a geopolitical chat room on Discord, a social media platform that started as a hangout for gamers.

=> ↺ How the Boston Marathon bombings changed Twitter, media and how we process tragedy

• “Once I saw the photo I took, I was like, ‘People need to see this. People need to know what happened and what it looked like firsthand,’” he told NPR. “The only reason I chose Twitter was because I knew it would reach an audience that was craving information.”

=> ↺ “Fossil fuels are natural and amazing,” says Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in a rant on Twitter

• In addition to causing harm to the environment, studies from Harvard University have proven that the use of fossil can “lead to early death, heart attacks, respiratory disorders, stroke and asthma.”

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ When the Mad Lead the Blind

• Lear, Murdoch, Trump and America’s gerontocracy.

=> ↺ Fox News Is on Trial, and So Are Falsehoods About 2020

• A jury in Delaware will be asked to weigh the limits of the First Amendment. Another question in the case is whether the network will pay a financial penalty for disseminating election lies.

=> ↺ America braces for defamation trial between Dominion and Fox News

• Dominion Voting Systems tomorrow will square off in court against Fox News, more than two years after filing a $1.6 billion defamation suit accusing the network of knowingly airing disinformation about election fraud in the 2020 presidential contest.

=> ↺ The ‘ninjas’ fighting climate change denial on Twitter

• The “ninjas” spotted claims going viral and responded to them with links to factual information – academic papers or scientific reports.

• “But after a couple of months, you realise you don’t make an impact because, for most of these people, facts are irrelevant,” Maria says.

• It was time to come up with new tactics.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Promising Signs for Free Speech on Campus

• Universities are pushing back against attacks on academic freedom.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ Blinken Calls On Russia To Allow Access To Detained WSJ Journalist Gershkovich

• On April 10, the U.S. State Department designated Gershkovich as being “wrongfully detained” by Russia and called for his immediate release, following earlier appeals, including from U.S. President Joe Biden.

• International journalist organizations have also demanded Russia release Gershkovich.

=> ↺ Blinken Calls On Russia To Allow Access To Detained WSJ Journalist Gershkovich

• U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken says U.S. consular officers have not been granted access to Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is currently detained in Russia.

=> ↺ Indian gangster-turned-politician, brother shot dead live on TV

• The killers were posing as journalists, with one even carrying a television camera and another a microphone.

=> ↺ Former Indian lawmaker, his brother fatally shot live on TV

• Atiq Ahmad and his brother, Ashraf Ahmad, were under police escort on their way to a medical checkup at a hospital on Saturday night when three men posing as journalists targeted the two brothers.

=> ↺ Former Indian lawmaker and brother shot dead on live TV

• A former Indian lawmaker convicted of kidnapping and facing murder and assault charges was shot dead along with his brother in a dramatic attack that was caught live on TV in northern India, officials said Sunday.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Iran Vows Crackdown On People Who Promote Removing The Veil

• People who encourage women to remove the hijab will be prosecuted in criminal courts and will have no right of appeal against any conviction, Iran’s deputy attorney general was quoted as saying on April 15.

=> ↺ HRW: Indonesian authorities should drop defamation charges against human rights defenders

• Human Rights Watch (HRW) Friday stated that Indonesian authorities should not pursue criminal defamation charges against Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti, who are significant human rights defenders in Jakarta. The charges were brought against them based on a 2021 police report filed by Luhur Binsar Pandjaitan, a minister in the president’s cabinet.

=> ↺ Iran to Crack Down on People Who Promote Removing Veil

• Iranian police on Saturday installed cameras in public places to identify and penalize unveiled women, Iranian media reported. Police announced the plan last week.

• “The crime of promoting unveiling will be dealt with in the criminal court whose decisions are final and unappealable,” the semi-official Mehr News quoted deputy attorney general Ali Jamadi as saying.

=> ↺ The Rutgers University faculty strike is over, for now, after a deal is reached

• The unions, representing some 9,000 staff and faculty workers, called for the strike on April 9 in what they said was a fight to secure equal pay, living wages, race and gender equity and salary hikes.

=> ↺ Stop Cop City Movement Embraces National Strategy as Permit Appeal Is Denied

• Plaintiffs plan to appeal the decision to the DeKalb County Georgia Superior Court as the movement expands nationally.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Internet Of Washing Machines Solves An Annoyance

• [Laurence Tratt]’s washing machine blew up, so he sprung for a brand new model with all the bells and whistles. Of course, these days, that means it has an Internet connection and an API. While we’re not quite convinced our washing machine actually needs such a thing, at least [Laurence] is making the most of it by creating an interface to the washer’s API that provides a handy countdown on the computer.

=> ↺ The Resilience of the Internet in Ukraine – One Year On

• In our earlier analysis of Ukraine back in March 2022, we looked at factors that contributed to the resilience of the country’s Internet since the outbreak of the war. A little over a year on, we draw on data from RIPE Atlas and RIPE RIS to investigate what has changed.

=> ↺ Obligations Hanging Over Me

• It’s been a rather busy month since I last posted. Like most good plots, the plans I had for the month have not survived contact with the enemy. This will be the not entirely happy post for some of it, but there are good parts at the end.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

=> ↺ Name-that-tune game Heardle dropped by Spotify after a year

• Heardle, the name-that-tune game inspired by the Wordle craze, is being dropped by Spotify less than a year after the music-streaming giant acquired it. Spotify confirmed the move in a statement Saturday. Similar to what the New York Times-owned Wordle does with letters, Heardle plays fleeting moments of a song from the Spotify catalog and challenges users to see how quickly they can guess it. Users can then play the song on Spotify. The company acquired the game in July as a means of music discovery. But it said Saturday that it is going to focus on other ways of doing that.

Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Soundtrack Loops Teams Up with Cherry Audio for Charitable ‘Humble Bundle’ Initiative

• Soundtrack Loops produces royalty-free samples, loops, and music for films, creative artists, beat makers, producers, DJs, and music lovers. The company recently announced a charitable partnership with Cherry Audio to create a donation-focused ‘Humble Bundle’.

=> ↺ DMCA Robocops Give 20 Seconds to Comply, But Can’t Muster a Reply

• It’s not unusual for anti-piracy companies to promote their takedown prowess based on their ability to send out millions of takedown notices every week. The problem, for some, is their deployment of autonomous robocops that give recipients 20 seconds to comply but can’t handle a complaint or muster a basic reply.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

=> ↺ 🔤SpellBinding: FGTIORH Wordo: STOAT

Technical

Internet/Gemini

=> ↺ CAPCOM changes

• This month I am working on some substantial changes to the way the public CAPCOM instance hosted at gemini.circumlunar.space works. The “big picture” whereby each month CAPCOM selects 100 random feeds from all those it knows about to aggregate for that month will not change. Therefore most of the changes I’m about to describe will not become visible until May. However, there are some details worth knowing in advance because some people can act upon them now. In approximate order of excitingness…

• [...]

• I hope that in this way CAPCOM will start to respond to the natural ebb and flow of activity in Geminispace in an organic way without any manual attention from either me or from capsule authors. If a feed is permanently abandoned, CAPCOM won’t beat its head against that bad URL forever (as it no doubt has been for some dead feeds in recent years), but the feed will be migrated to the inactive list and stay there, so that it will not decrease the odds of actively updated feeds being sampled each month. Eventually, neither time nor bytes will be wasted checking on that feed. If somebody stops updating their capsule for somewhere between six and twelve months for whatever reason but then returns, CAPCOM will notice, set that feed aside for a while to give others more of a chance at exposure, but will then start regularly checking in on the newly active feed again after a modest delay. Even a hiatus of between one and two years will be recovered from with a delay which, while longer than some might consider ideal, is not longer than the hiatus itself. It is not a big problem that CAPCOM might take several months to realise that a previously inactive feed has come back to life; even if it noticed the return immediately, it could easily still take a few months before the feed happened to get sampled as one of the monthly 100. Naturally, feeds which maintain a regular and consistent posting schedule for years on end will remain in the active list for years on end and are likely to get sampled many times. Such a regular feed can still drop off the network for a month or so due to hardware failure or network outages without any lasting consequence.

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

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