● 06.18.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 18/06/2023: More Microsoft Spyware and Windows Breaches

Posted in News Roundup at 8:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

=> ↺ Benny Siegert ☛ Operating Systems, Transit and Cultural Influences

• All of the dominant commercial operating systems in desktop and mobile computing — macOS, iOS, Windows, Android, Chrome OS — are made in the US, on the West Coast. Except for Microsoft, they are heavily concentrated in the SF Bay Area. (Note that I am not talking about free software such as GNU/Linux, BSD, etc., which is probably more diverse regarding the location of their developers.)

• Flight Tracking All of these OSes are very eager to support you with flight tickets and boarding passes.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ First Makulu Max Patch ! – AI wars….

=> ↺ 2023-06-14 [Older] FLOSS Weekly 736: Don’t Fear The AI – David Sifry, AI and Open Source

=> ↺ The TLLTS Podcast ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] The Linux Link Tech Show Episode 1008

=> ↺ Going Linux ☛ Going Linux #441 · Listener Feedback

• We get questions on password managers, how we record the podcast, and wear-leveling on SSDs. We get asked for hardware suggestions and get a follow-up on running Linux on the LG Gram.

=> ↺ Tux Digital ☛ This Week in Linux 225: Debian 12, openSUSE 15.5, NixOS, Huge Steam Update & more Linux news!

• Welcome to This Week in Linux, the news show from the TuxDigital Network that keeps you up to date with what’s going on in the Linux and Open Source world.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Edge computer links legacy systems to new ones

• The Dutch industrial computing specialist OnLogic has announced an edge computer designed to link existing equipment with the cloud, modern sensors, and other legacy devices. The solid-state Helix 511 edge computer offers a choice of connection options to help bridge the gap between modern systems and older technologies.

=> ↺ Tom’s Hardware ☛ Dev Boots Linux 292,612 Times to Find Intel, AMD Kernel Bug

• A developer has shared a blog post about finding and fixing an infrequent but replicable Linux boot bug.

=> ↺ 2023-06-16 [Repeat] Karel Zak: util-linux v2.39: Improved Mount Interface and Exciting Updates

=> ↺ Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC) ☛ Linux Plumbers Conference: Registration for LPC 2023 is open

• We’re happy to announce that registration for LPC 2023 is now open. To register please go to our attend page.

• To try to prevent the instant sellout we had last year we’ve updated our cancellation policy to no refunds only transfers of registrations. You will find more details during the registration process. LPC 2023 follows the Linux Foundation’s health & safety policy.

• As usual we expect to sell our rather quickly so don’t delay your registration for too long!

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Mike Blumenkrantz: Conditional Speed

• I didn’t go into much detail in my last post about all the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge optimizations I’ve been working on (they’re big) with code that totally exists and isn’t made up. The reason was that I didn’t feel like it.

• But today’s a different day, and I haven’t done any real blogging in a while. Does that mean…

Applications

=> ↺ Linux Links ☛ Best Free and Open Source Alternatives to Apple Freeform

• Apple Freeform is a digital whiteboarding application, designed to encourage brainstorming and enable real-time collaboration between users

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ ZDNet ☛ How to vastly improve sound on Linux with EasyEffects

• I make no bones about being an audiophile. Since back in the 1980s, when I purchased that first equalizer for my car, I’ve always enjoyed tinkering with sound to get the most out of whatever equipment I have.

• Normally, I listen to vinyl while at my desk toiling away with words. But every once in a while, I’ll go to Spotify to search out some new music (to then later purchase). When listening to music via my computer, the sound isn’t nearly as rich and alive as it is coming from my turntable.

=> ↺ It’s Ubuntu ☛ How to Fix the “sudo: command not found” Error on Linux

• sudo is installed by default in most of the Linux but this might not be the case on all distros.

=> ↺ Own HowTo ☛ How to fix “user is not in the sudoers” error on Linux

• Did you try to run a a command with sudo on Linux and it did not work because of the error “this user it’s not in the sudoers file” .

=> ↺ Cloudbooklet ☛ How to Switch Users in Linux Terminal

• Learn how to switch users in the Linux terminal using the “su” command, allowing you to execute commands and access different user accounts for various tasks and troubleshooting.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install WPS Office on Fedora 38/37/36 Linux

• In the realm of office software suites, one name has been making waves with its feature-rich capabilities and cross-platform support — WPS Office. Distinguished from its counterparts by its exceptional compatibility, it has emerged as an efficient alternative to the popular office software.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Sysdig on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

• Within the vast sphere of Linux based software tools, one remarkably powerful and flexible instrument continues to stand out: Sysdig. An open-source, cross-platform, multi-purpose tool, Sysdig elevates the system monitoring and troubleshooting experience in Linux environments.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Qlipper on Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

• As you delve into the world of Linux-based operating systems, particularly Ubuntu, a tool that will likely become indispensable in your workflow is Qlipper.

=> ↺ Real Linux User ☛ How to use Linux Mint without installing on a PC – Linux Mint 21 edition

• In my previous Linux Mint 21.x tutorial I explained how to create a Linux bootable USB drive in Windows and in macOS.

=> ↺ Make Use Of ☛ How to Upgrade to Debian 12 “Bookworm” From Debian 11 “Bullseye”

• With the new Debian 12 release finally available, many Linux users are looking forward to upgrading their Debian 11 installation to the new release.

=> ↺ Linux.org ☛ Working With Nautilus Scripts

• Sometimes, you may use Nautilus and wish you could add your own script to the right-click ability on a file or folder.

=> ↺ Barry Kauler ☛ How to install EasyOS on a new SSD page updated

• Documentation lags behind, but I do get around to updating the pages eventually. Just tweaked this page in a few places:

• https://easyos.org/install/how-to-install-easyos-on-a-new-ssd.html

=> ↺ ID Root ☛ How To Install Sentry on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Sentry with Docker on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Are you a developer looking for an easy and efficient way to track and monitor errors in your software applications?

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Upgrade Mesa Drivers on Linux Mint 21/20

• In the vibrant sphere of Linux computing, the significance of graphics drivers can’t be overstated. Particularly for those involved in graphics-intensive tasks such as gaming, video editing, or 3D modeling, maintaining your graphics drivers updated can notably improve performance, stability, and compatibility.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install KDE Plasma on Debian 12/11/10

• KDE Plasma is a unique desktop environment, marrying elegance with dynamism. Noteworthy for its sleek design and robust functionality, KDE Plasma stands out with its deep customization options, making it an ideal choice for users seeking a personalized experience.

=> ↺ TecAdmin ☛ How to Install and Configure Tomcat 10 on Ubuntu 22.04

• Apache Tomcat is an open-source web application server designed for hosting Java-based applications. It is developed by the Apache foundation and still provides upgrades and features. It’s easy to install and use, and provides a powerful platform for web applications.

=> ↺ ID Root ☛ How To Install OnlyOffice on Debian 11

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install OnlyOffice on Debian 11. Are you looking for a powerful office suite that is both open-source and user-friendly? Look no further than OnlyOffice.

=> ↺ ID Root ☛ How To Install Liquorix Kernel on Debian 11

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Liquorix Kernel on Debian 11. Are you looking for a way to improve the performance of your Debian 11 system? Consider installing the Liquorix kernel, a popular alternative to the default kernel that comes with Debian.

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ Easy way to Install ownCloud Desktop Client on Debian 12

• Learn how to install ownCloud Desktop Client on Debian 12.

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ Install phpMyAdmin on Debian 12

• In this guide, we are going to learn how to install phpMyAdmin on Debian 12.

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ How to Install BackupPC on Debian 12

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ Install KVM on Debian 12

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install KVM on Debian 12. KVM, an acronym for Kernel-based Virtual Machine [...]

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ Install VirtualBox 7 on Debian 12

• This guide will take you through how to install VirtualBox 7 on Debian 12.

=> ↺ Kifarunix ☛ How to Install Docker CE on Debian 12

• In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to install Docker CE on Debian 12.

=> ↺ OMG Ubuntu ☛ Show Remaining Disk Space in Nautilus on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• Here’s a quick tip for those of you looking for an easy way to see see remaining disk space in the file manager of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Once upon a time — like, really far back — the Nautilus file manager had a static status bar. This gave you an easy, at-a-glance way to see the amount of remaining disk space in whatever drive or folder you were viewing, at all times.

=> ↺ ID Root ☛ How To Install Ansible on Fedora 38

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Ansible on Fedora 38. For those of you who didn’t know, Ansible is a powerful automation platform that allows you to automate tasks across multiple systems with ease.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install GPU-Viewer on Linux Mint 21/20

• For those deeply ingrained in the world of Linux and its graphical interfaces, the term GPU-Viewer might ring a bell. This incredibly useful software serves as a frontend to several utilities, namely glxinfo, vulkaninfo, clinfo, and es2_info.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Element on Linux Mint 21/20

• In the arena of real-time communication, Element establishes itself as a force to reckon with. It’s an open-source instant messaging client designed on the framework of the Matrix protocol, freely available for anyone seeking a secure, robust and feature-rich communication solution.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Firefox ESR on Linux Mint 21/20

• Dive into the world of Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR), an alternate browser solution that provides an edge for Linux Mint users by integrating stable, long-term support into its design.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install mpv Media Player on Linux Mint 21/20

• Designed for the tech-savvy who crave a superior multimedia experience, the MPV Media Player stands as a paragon of flexibility, performance, and customizability. Operating under a free and open-source software license, this media player has quickly established itself as a go-to choice for individuals looking for smooth playback and comprehensive format support.

=> ↺ HowTo Forge ☛ How to Install GitLab CE with Docker on Debian 12

• Gitlab Server is an open-source version of the cloud-hosted Gitlab version control. This guide will show you how to install Gitlab Server using Docker on Debian 12.

=> ↺ HowTo Forge ☛ How to Create Remote Desktop Gateway via Apache Guacamole on AlmaLinux 9

• Apache Guacamole is a free and open-source remote desktop gateway that allows you to connect to your computer/server remotely using different protocols such as SSH, RDP, and VNC. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the installation of Apache Guacamole as a Remote Desktop Gateway on AlmaLinux 9 machine.

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install Wireshark on Debian 12/11/10

• Wireshark – an indelible tool in the network engineer’s arsenal. This open-source packet analyzer, ubiquitously known in the tech realm, comes equipped with a multitude of capabilities aimed at scrutinizing network traffic down to the minutest details.

=> ↺ How to Sort Files by Size in Linux/Unix?

• To sort files in Linux, use the ls command with the -S flag. You can also use the du and sort command in combination.

=> ↺ Enriching Your Repository: An Introductory Guide on Storing Additional Information in Git

• Git is a popular version control system that allows developers to manage changes made to their code over time. A Git repository is a directory that contains all the files related to a project, as well as the history of changes made to those files.

=> ↺ How to Change the default kernel in RHEL 8 and 9

• Usually a Linux system boots with the latest installed kernel, which is set by default. It keeps maximum 3 recent versions of Linux Kernel boot entries.

=> ↺ TeX Live package reorganization

• Starting from version 2023.66594-9, TeX Live packages have been reorganized to mirror upstream collections. Even though the new texlive-basic replaces the old texlive-core, many of the texlive-core contents (including language specific files) are now split between different packages. To find out which Arch package contains a specific CTAN package, you can use the tlmgr utility, eg.

=> ↺ Your First Git Note: A Step-by-Step Guide

• Taking notes in Git is an important practice for any developer working on a project using this system. Notes are used to document specific changes or updates made to code within the repository.

=> ↺ Utilizing Curl to Query Currency Rates on Ubuntu and Alma Linux – Weekend Hack

• In the world of global finance and international trade, keeping track of currency exchange rates is vital. CurrencyBeacon.com is a prominent currency data provider that offers reliable and up-to-date rates.

=> ↺ Organizing Git Notes: Separating Notes by Category

• In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of separating your Git notes into categories and provide tips on how best to organize them. We’ll discuss different approaches you can take based on your needs and workflow, as well as techniques for maintaining your categorized notes over time

=> ↺ Selective Commit Rebasing: An Interactive Guide

• Selective commit rebasing is a technique used in Git to selectively choose which commits to include when merging code from one branch to another. It allows developers to remove unnecessary or irrelevant commits, making it easier to track changes and understand how different parts of the codebase are related.

=> ↺ Changing Commit Authorship with Rebase: A Step-by-Step Guide

• There are two main types of rebase: interactive and non-interactive. Non-interactive rebase is the simpler of the two – it essentially just moves all of your commits onto a new base commit without any additional options or input from you.

=> ↺ Autos quashing Commits in Git: A Practical Overview

• Autosquashing is a technique that can help streamline the workflow for merging changes into the master branch. This technique involves squashing commits so that they appear as a single commit with one commit message. Autosquashing saves time by reducing the number of unnecessary commits that need reviewing before being merged into the master branch.

=> ↺ Trend Oceans ☛ [FIX] No Sound or HDMI Missing Output From HDMI in External Monitor In Ubuntu

• Not getting sound output from HDMI or HDMI output option is missing from setting windows in Ubuntu then there is nothing to worry.

=> ↺ Squashing Commits with Interactive Rebase: A Git Tutorial

• A commit in Git is similar to saving a document in Microsoft Word. It captures all changes that have been made since the last commit, including additions, deletions, and modifications. Each commit represents a specific version of the codebase, allowing developers to easily revert back or compare changes made over time.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Handbook ☛ How to Install Cinnamon Desktop 5.8 via PPA in Ubuntu 22.04 | 23.04

• This simple tutorial shows how to install the latest Cinnamon Desktop 5.8 in Ubuntu 22.04 or Ubuntu 23.04 via PPA. The source of Cinnamon 5.8 was out a few days ago! It will be officially announced later in this month along with Linux Mint 21.2. Cinnamon 5.8 features built-in touchpad / touchscreen gestures support!

=> ↺ John Goerzen ☛ John Goerzen: Using dar for Data Archiving

• This is the third post in a series about data archiving to removable media (optical discs and hard drives). In the first, I explained the difference between backing up and archiving, established goals for the project, and said I’d evaluate git-annex and dar. The second post evaluated git-annex, and now it’s time to look at dar. The series will conclude with a post comparing git-annex with dar.

• What is dar?

=> ↺ Linux Capable ☛ How to Install ModSecurity 2, OWASP CRS with Apache on Debian 12/11/10

• As stewards of Apache web servers, understanding and leveraging the capabilities of ModSecurity is absolutely crucial. This powerful open-source, cross-platform web application firewall (WAF) plays a pivotal role in fortifying your web applications against numerous threats. >

=> ↺ Fedora Magazine ☛ Fedora Magazine: Using Postfix DNS SRV record resolution feature

• In March 2011 Apple Inc. proposed RFC 6186 that describes how domain name system service (DNS SRV) records should be used for locating email submission and accessing services. The design presented in the RFC is now supported by Postfix since version 3.8.0. With the new functionality, you can now use DNS SRV records for load distribution and auto-configuration.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Nate Graham ☛ Call to Action: Easy porting opportunity in Plasma

• This post is a Call To Action for those with the ability to set up a Plasma development environment and an interest in code hygiene. Plasma 6 development is in full swing, and we have an opportunity to make a difference by doing some relatively easy code porting. Read on if this intrigues you!

=> ↺ GSoC with KDE: Coding Period Week 1 and 2

• Before the start of the coding period I had a call with one of my mentors Carl, he gave me good guidance and suggestions on which aspect to focus first and also gave me a few resources to use as a reference which was a good starting point for me. My first task involved looking into how and where I could launch my Email Composition window from. At first, I looked at Menu actions but that seemed to not work and later got it to work by launching it from ToolBar actions. During the process, I got to learn how actions work and how powerful they are. Then I started working on the design of the UI trying to make it as close to my proposed mockup. During this I realized how powerful ‘grep’ is, whenever I got stuck somewhere I would start grepping and try to connect the dots as to how different aspects of the codebase worked together along with going through the documentation and code examples and by the end of the first week I managed to have a basic structure ready.

=> ↺ The Fully Functional Bundle Creator

• Welcome back! Last time, I successfully completed the development of the Bundle Creator up to the Resource Chooser page. This page now allows us to easily select resource items by applying filters based on tags or names. I’ve introduced some UI improvements, including the ability to click-to-select, the addition of a convenient Remove Selected button and the introduction of a visually appealing grid view to replace the traditional list view. These enhancements enhance the overall user experience and provide a more streamlined resource selection process.

=> ↺ Qt ☛ Qt Creator 10.0.2 released

• We are happy to announce the release of Qt Creator 10.0.2!

=> ↺ Qt ☛ Qt Creator 11 – CMake update

• Below, you have two new CMake features in Qt Creator 11:

=> ↺ Nate Graham ☛ On the road to Plasma 6

• At this point you’ve heard a lot about Plasma 6, and each of my weekly “This week in KDE” brings news of a few new features, UI changes, or bugfixes that are only in Plasma 6. But how do we get there, and how long will it take? So today I’d like to talk about the process and schedule a bit. Let’s start with an outline of the required steps to get there, in sequential order…

• My sense right now is that we’re in the middle of steps 3 and 4. Basically everything in Plasma compiles with Qt 6, and at this point Plasma 6 is fairly livable. To give you a sense of how livable, it’s good enough that over the past 2 months, I’ve gone on three KDE-related trips from the USA to Europe, with my only computer running Plasma 6 in “current git master” state, with work-in-progress merge requests applied! Its stability has been good enough that this has caused me no apprehension, and indeed, it’s been totally fine on each trip.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ This Week in GNOME ☛ This Week in GNOME/Felix Häcker: #100 One Hundred

• One hundred weeks ago, on Friday 16 July 2021, “This Week in GNOME” was launched – the first post was “#1 Scrolling in the Dark”.

• Since then TWIG has grown into a vibrant community, and has become a weekly ritual for many people—both for developers who share their work, and for curious readers who want to follow the development of GNOME.

Distributions and Operating Systems

New Releases

=> ↺ risiOS 38 Release.

• After a few delays…

=> ↺ Voyager 12 Debian Bookworm

• I introduce you Voyager 12 Debian “Bookworm” in final version. A 2 in 1 version with always the same idea, to unify the Gnome and Xfce desktops in a single distributionVoyager, à sélectionner à votre session. Le tout dans un style complètement repensé pour ce duo, Gnome 43.4 desktop paired with Xfce 4.18 desktop . With the promise finally realized, to have 2 unified systems Gnome and Xfce, light, fast, modern, fluid, secure and efficient in a hybrid environment for PC and Tablet. The 2 offices are quite distinct and their respective applications are for the most part invisible, for one or the other environment. This version is based on the Linux 6.1 kernel and the Debian 12 “Bookworm” distribution with its new features. Kernel 6.1 is in LTS version. Bookworm will be supported for the next 5 years thanks to the combined work of the Debian Security Team and the Long Term Support Team. Debian 12which offers experimental Rust support, Intel Meteor Lake enable, improved ARM SoC support, and more. Additionally, PipeWire replaces the aging PulseAudio, providing improved handling of audio and video. With integrated, options grouped in the Box Voyager like Conky Control , Effects Gnome Shell , Repair ,Screencast, Wine development and Steam Gaming and select Gnome extensions as per PC needs. A Special Gaming type GS profile has been created in xfce. With many Themes and Wallpapers and essential software and many other new features to discover like Scrcpy to have your smartphone screen on PC. Debian 12 “Bookworm” contains over 11089 new packages, bringing the total to over 64419 packages. Most of the software included with Debian has been updated, with over 6296 packages removed because they are old or obsolete.

=> ↺ MX Linux ☛ MX-23 “Libretto” beta 2 now available for testing purposes

• MX-23 beta 2 is now available for testing. MX-23 is built from debian 12 “bookworm” and MX repositories. As in past releases, the MX will default to sysVinit but systemd remains an option for installed systems.

• This release builds upon beta 1, and includes all bug fixes and changes to date, including default wallpapers and theming.

• As with beta 1, the Installer now supports swapfiles as well as swap partitions. The “regular” auto installation will default to swapfiles. There are many other installer changes, including gui adjustments, setting of some debconf value to make legacy grub-pc updates more seamless, various fixes for grub install functions and cleanup of “dump” entries that might be clogging up a user’s nvram. There is also additional help guidance right in the installer gui. We are also interested in testing of the –oem option, which allows for user creation on first boot after installation. KNOWN ISSUE: the –oem switch doesn’t currently work but will be addressed with an update.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

Dominique Leuenberger ☛ openSUSE Tumbleweed – Review of the weeks 2023/23 & 24Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,Again I have to span the review over two weeks – in the region where I live we had some holiday last week and I allowed myself to stretch for a long weekend. But this had no impact on Tumbleweed: it just kept on rolling. There was some additional ‘confusion’ though as the system used to calculate the diff between snapshots has been defunct for a few days, which resulted in the announcements for snapshots 0601 – 0604 not being sent out to the mailing lists. The info was then collected in the report for 0605. This review covers the 10 snapshots 0601, 0602, 0603, 0604, 0605, 0607, 0608, 0610, 0612, and 0613.The most relevant changes in those snapshots were:AppArmor 3.1.4 & 3.1.5LibreOffice 7.5.4.1openSSL 3.1GNOME 44.2Linux kernel 6.3.6 & 6.3.7KDE Gear 23.04.2KDE Frameworks 5.107.0Mozilla Firefox 114Mesa 23.1.2

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ Fedora ☛ Fedora ELN Plans for Summer 2023

• On behalf of the ELN SIG, I’d like to share with you some of our plans for summer 2023. First, as some of you may know, we will be more actively beginning the process of launching CentOS Stream 10. We have made some recent changes to our strategy and schedule and this email will attempt to cover them both in detail. This will be a long email, so strap in!

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ The fee, or no to the fee [Ed: IBM pushing non-free GNU/Linux distro]

• Sponsored by Red Hat.

=> ↺ Red Hat Official ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift, focus on innovation while we manage the rest [Ed: Red Hat promoting Microsoft]

=> ↺ Fedora Project ☛ Fedora Community Blog: CPE Weekly update – Week 24 2023

• This is a weekly report from the CPE (Community Platform Engineering) Team. If you have any questions or feedback, please respond to this report or contact us on the #redhat-cpe channel on libera.chat.

• We provide you with both infographics and text versions of the weekly report. If you just want to quickly look at what we did, just look at the infographic. If you are interested in more in-depth details look at the infographic.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ Ubuntu Fridge ☛ The Fridge: Extended Security Maintenance for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS began on May 31, 2023

• This is a follow-up to the Extended Support warning sent one month ago to confirm that as of May 31, 2023, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS standard support has ended. No more package updates are planned to be accepted to the primary archive of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ CNX Software ☛ Station P2S Rockchip RK3568 mini PC adds support for 4G LTE cellular connectivity

• Firefly offers Android 11, Ubuntu 20.04, and OpenWrt images for the mini PC, as well as the company’s own Android-based Station OS with desktop and media modes. The product page on the Firefly’s website lists some older operating systems, but it’s probably a copy/paste issue, and the Station P2S OS images are likely to be similar, and possibly the same, as the ones for the Station P2 mini PC found on the download section of stationpc.com website.

• The Station P2S mini PC does not show up on the Firefly store just yet, but for reference, the Station P2 is now selling for $199 with 2GB RAM and 32GB flash, so the Station P2S Rockchip RK3568 mini PC should probably cost around $250 with 4G LTE connectivity. We are not told how 4G LTE is implemented (soldered module or M.2 module), and which bands are supported, but I suppose those important details will be released before the mini PC actually starts selling…

=> ↺ Ubuntu ☛ Is Linux secure?

• “Livepatch is a perfect fit for our needs. There’s no other solution like it, and it’s highly cost-effective. Manually migrating virtual machines, applying kernel updates, and rebooting took an average of 32 hours per server. Multiplied by 80 servers, that was more than 2,500 hours of work.”

=> ↺ Linux Gizmos ☛ Industrial PC for IoT builds on Raspberry Pi CM4

• The CM4 Sensing is an industrial computer designed to address the specific requirements of IoT and data acquisition applications. Leveraging the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4), this compact device offers a versatile and reliable solution for industrial environments.

=> ↺ Hackaday ☛ Long-Distance Wi-Fi With Steam Deck Server

• It’s no secret that the Steam Deck is a powerful computer, especially for its price point. It has to be capable enough to run modern PC games while being comfortable as a handheld, all while having a useful amount of battery life. Thankfully Valve didn’t lock down the device like most smartphone manufacturers, allowing the computer to run whatever operating system and software the true owner of the device wants to run. That means that a whole world of options is open for this novel computer, like using it to set up an 802.11ah Wi-Fi network over some pretty impressive distances.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ Drew DeVault ☛ Throwing in the towel on mobile Linux

• I have been tinkering with mobile Linux – a phrase I will use here to describe any Linux distribution other than Android running on a mobile device – as my daily driver since about 2019, when I first picked up the PinePhone. For about 3 years I have run mobile Linux as my daily driver on my phone, and as of a few weeks ago, I’ve thrown in the towel and switched to Android.

• The distribution I ran for the most time is postmarketOS, which I was mostly quite happy with, running at times sxmo and Phosh. I switched to UBports a couple of months ago. I have tried a variety of hardware platforms to support these efforts, namely:

=> ↺ India Times ☛ Realme: Data tracking on Android phones: Why Realme may not be the only one be at fault – Times of India

=> ↺ SlashGear ☛ How To Screen Record On Android

=> ↺ Make Use Of ☛ How to Use Android’s Nearby Share With a Mac

=> ↺ Phone Arena ☛ Nokia’s 5G tech will allow Android 14 users to buy optimized slices of 5G for better gaming and more – PhoneArena

=> ↺ Android Authority ☛ 5 Android Apps you shouldn’t miss this week – Android Apps Weekly

=> ↺ Make Use Of ☛ Do You Need to Install Updates on Your Android Phone? What Happens When You Skip One?

=> ↺ The Sun ☛ Backbone One for Android PS Edition review – take your PlayStation console on the go | The US Sun

=> ↺ SlashGear ☛ All The Most Popular Map Apps For Android Ranked Worst To Best

=> ↺ Phone Arena ☛ Google adds useful new features to the Android Play Books app – PhoneArena

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

=> ↺ It’s FOSS ☛ Best Open Source Email Servers

• It is convenient to use email services like Gmail, Proton Mail, and Outlook to send and receive emails, no matter what email client you use.

• And, for all of that, you utilize their mail servers for email transactions. So, your emails’ security, reliability, and privacy depend on someone else.

• But what if you want to own your email infrastructure and have the data in your control? You need an open-source email server, which should solve your problem.

=> ↺ Undeadly ☛ OpenSMTPD 7.3.0p0 released

• The OpenBSD project has released version 7.3.0p0 of OpenSMTPD, the project’s SMTP server. The announcement reads in part: [...]

=> ↺ Alex Ewerlöf ☛ You build it, you own it

• Back in 2006, Amazon CTO, Werner Vogels said:

• You build it, you run it

• It is easy to understand why a company that has built a strong empire around running software would focus on the “run” part. 💰

• But allow me to elaborate why the real magic happens with full ownership:

• You build it, you own it.

=> ↺ Sven Hoexter: htop on stage in the theatre

• Always amusing to see some more or less famous open source tools on stage or in movies. Lately we watched THE ME (german only) which is mixing live playing of actors and pre recorded video material. In one of the early video sequences a fictional console interface is displayed, claiming to be running on a Macbook, and htop is used to look for a suspicious process.

=> ↺ It’s FOSS ☛ FOSS Weekly #23.24: Free Book, Debian 12 Release, New Bash Series [Anniversary Special]

• It’s FOSS is 11 years old now. Get a free Bash book to celebrate the occasion.

=> ↺ FSFE ☛ 2023-06-14 [Older] EU: Majority for AI Act — and safeguards for Free Software

Events

=> ↺ Philip Withnall: Carbon emissions analysis of GUADEC 2022

• I’ve just finished estimating the carbon emissions from GUADEC 2022, and have a few interesting highlights from the report. The report is based on data collected from the streaming servers, registration data, and the post-conference survey.

=> ↺ GStreamer: GStreamer Conference 2023 announced to take place 25-26 Sept 2023 in A Coruña, Spain

• The GStreamer project is thrilled to announce that this year’s GStreamer Conference will take place on Monday-Tuesday 25-26 September 2023 in A Coruña, Spain, followed by a hackfest. You can find more details about the conference on the GStreamer Conference 2023 web site.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

=> ↺ Daniel Stenberg ☛ curl user survey 2023 analysis

• The curl user survey 2023 ran for two full weeks in the end of May, in the same fashion we run it every year.

• I have then collected all the answers, ran the numbers and looked at the trends and put all the conclusions and graphs into a single document for everyone to enjoy.

=> ↺ Daniel Stenberg ☛ curl user survey analysis 2023

• If you are in too much of a hurry to read it all, here are five key facts this year’s survey revealed:

• 1. curl users leave Twitter and join Mastodon in quite notable amounts.

• 2. Windows 11 is growing quickly as a platform curl users are on

• 3. HTTP/3 is used by a quarter of all curl users

• 4. WebSocket reached the top-10 of most used protocols before its firth birthday

• 5. The positive comments in section 21 are heart-warming

=> ↺ Linux Links ☛ Alternatives to popular CLI tools: curl

• We spotlight alternatives tools to curl, a utility for transferring data from or to a server, supporting many protocols.

=> ↺ University of Toronto ☛ Javascript modifying cut and paste can sometimes be a good thing in browsers

• This behavior is almost always going to be what you want if you’re copying the text of a Mastodon post that contains one or more links. You almost never want the shortened display version of the link, you want the full URL that the author wrote and that you can use. So Mastodon’s Javascript arranges to give you that full expanded version. A lot of people may not even notice it, because it ‘just works’ from their perspective. The only reason I noticed is that I was expecting to have to copy the full link by hand, and then didn’t need to because it was already there.

=> ↺ HowTo Forge ☛ How to Create Remote Desktop Gateway via Apache Guacamole on AlmaLinux 9

• Apache Guacamole is a free and open-source remote desktop gateway that allows you to connect to your computer/server remotely using different protocols such as SSH, RDP, and VNC. Apache Guacamole is maintained by Apache Software Foundation, and licensed with Apache License 2.0.

Chromium

=> ↺ Malwarebytes Labs ☛ Edge browser feature sends images you view back to Microsoft

• Unlike the Video Super Resolution which uses local resources to enhance the quality of video viewed in Microsoft Edge, the pictures submitted to the Enhance images service are sent to Microsoft for processing as Edge loads them. This is enabled by default, so users have to opt out if they don’t want their images to be sent.

=> ↺ Neowin ☛ Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft, here is how to disable that [Update]

• The browser now warns that it sends image links to Microsoft instead of performing on-device enhancements.

=> ↺ Eric Hameleers ☛ Chromium 114.0.5735.133 packages address critical bug

• Chromium, regular and un-googled. Earlier this week, Google released its 114.0.5735.133 update for Chromium 114.

Education

=> ↺ Vox ☛ The “anti-intellectual attack” on higher ed will take years to undo

• Ultimately, these bills threaten democracy, said Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the organization that has long promoted the benefits of faculty tenure and intellectual freedom. By the AAUP’s count, there have been more than 50 such bills in 23 states.

• “The bills have produced a chilling effect on academic freedom,” Mulvey said.

• She talked to me about what’s behind these bills and why all academics, even those in blue states and even those with tenure, are under attack. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

=> ↺ Troy Patterson ☛ Mentors

• The more I think about it though, the more I realize that mentors should be picked by the “mentee”. I started thinking about my mentors. My mentors include Terry Campbell and Gail Shenkman. I doubt either one of them consciously decided to be a mentor for me. Yet, both were absolutely instrumental for me. Terry believed in me as a younster. He shared so many thoughts, so much practical advice. He firmly believed in kids becoming successful even if they weren’t successful in traditional settings. He had a sense of humor and a pragmatic streak.

=> ↺ Bruce Schneier ☛ Security and Human Behavior (SHB) 2023

• SHB is a small, annual, invitational workshop of people studying various aspects of the human side of security, organized each year by Alessandro Acquisti, Ross Anderson, and myself. The fifty or so attendees include psychologists, economists, computer security researchers, criminologists, sociologists, political scientists, designers, lawyers, philosophers, anthropologists, geographers, neuroscientists, business school professors, and a smattering of others. It’s not just an interdisciplinary event; most of the people here are individually interdisciplinary.

• Our goal is always to maximize discussion and interaction. We do that by putting everyone on panels, and limiting talks to six to eight minutes, with the rest of the time for open discussion. Short talks limit presenters’ ability to get into the boring details of their work, and the interdisciplinary audience discourages jargon.

GNU Projects

=> ↺ FSF ☛ FSF Blogs: FSD meeting recap 2023-06-13

• Check out the great work our volunteers accomplished at today’s Free Software Directory (FSD) IRC meeting.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Why I will likely never use AI programming tools

• I actually like writing code.

• That’s really it.

• If I didn’t, I still wouldn’t use it due to the ethical/copyright issues, but I don’t even have to think that far: I just like writing code.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ How to Reverse a String in JavaScript: A Comprehensive Guide

• In JavaScript, reverse a string is not also a common task but a fundamental operation for building logical and conditional statements. By reversing a string, we can implement powerful algorithms such as checking whether a string remains the same when read forwards or backwards, also known as a palindrome.

=> ↺ Jose Hunter: Developer Experience

• As part of my internship with the open-source project “Workbench”, I’ve been developing demos showing off new GTK4 and Libadwaita widgets. Workbench is unique in a way, as it is an application aimed at developers. So developer experience is of utmost importance.

=> ↺ Barry Kauler ☛ QEMU recompiled in OE with more features

• We are discussing QEMU in this forum thread:

• https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=8844

• An issue with the latest package, qemu-6.2.0-r4-nocona-64.tar.xz, is that it does not show ‘virglrenderer’ as a dependency. In that case, run PKGget to install it.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 17 Open-source Go Lang Blogs and CMS Solutions

• Go language, also known as Golang, is an open-source programming language designed for building efficient, reliable, and scalable software. It was developed at Google in 2007 and is now widely used for developing web applications, network tools, and system software.

=> ↺ Gentoo ☛ Week 3 Report, Automated Gentoo System Updater

• This article is a summary of all the changes made on Automated Gentoo System Updater project during week 3 of GSoC’23.

Python

=> ↺ Didier Stevens ☛ Update: zipdump.py Version 0.0.26

• In this new version, new features/updates are: zipdump_v0_0_26.zip (http)MD5: 5F6C82CD17D587D201D59A4B535F3702SHA256: 90D0F0C1FA238DA9FBC6B7100B8EC01B0E155A0BBF22613B2BA22D5190ABF4DF

Leftovers

=> ↺ Ruben Schade ☛ The trap of booming self-storage

• The Economist ran a surprising story that self-storage has outperformed other real estate in the United States in the past few years. They cite pressures faced from working at home during Covid, and the necessity of converting small spaces into home offices. Stuff, as they point out, has to go somewhere!

Science

=> ↺ Science Alert ☛ 400-Million-Year-Old Fossil Upends Our Understanding of Fibonacci Spirals in Nature

• Such is the prevalence of Fibonacci spirals in plants today that they are believed to represent an ancient and highly conserved feature, dating back to the earliest stages of plant evolution and persisting in their present forms.

• However, our new study challenges this viewpoint. We examined the spirals in the leaves and reproductive structures of a fossilized plant dating back 407 million years.

• Surprisingly, we discovered that all of the spirals observed in this particular species did not follow this same rule. Today, only a very few plants don’t follow a Fibonacci pattern.

Hardware

=> ↺ Terence Eden ☛ On the usability of number pads

• Work had taken the (sensible) decision that our entry cards weren’t secure enough. In order to gain access to the building we needed to present our card and type in a 4 digital personal PIN number1. Only then would the gates open.

=> ↺ IT Wire ☛ India sales of realme show an alarming drop in 1Q23

• Honor was formerly the budget smartphone business of Huawei, but in November 2020 it was sold to a consortium of Chinese companies under the name Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology.

• The Indian branch of realme is now expected to be managed from Shenzhen where the parent firm is based.

• Quoting anonymous sources, the ET report said: ‘Further, all teams looking after the market, including the zonal sales managers, area business managers, and regional retail teams are reporting to the regional sales managers, a move which could be the trigger for exits from the company.”

• realme’s problems are an indication of the current state of the market, with sales falling around the globe for practically all brands. Given the level of competition both outside and inside China, it was only a matter of time before some brands took a hit.

=> ↺ Russell Graves ☛ Bulb Reviews: A Range of Modern LED Bulbs

• This week’s set of bulb reviews is about a range of regular LED bulbs you can find various places – they’re not wifi connected, they’re not networked, they’re just bulbs (do we have to call them “dumb bulbs” now?). Some are better than others in the evenings. And some have a switch on the side you can toggle to change the color temperature, which is a new feature I’ve not seen until quite recently.

=> ↺ Tom’s Hardware ☛ Chinese Company Allegedly Stole from Applied Materials

• Applied Materials files a lawsuit against Chinese-based Mattson.

=> ↺ DaemonFC (Ryan Farmer) ☛ Pep Boys in Waukegan, Illinois Botches My Vehicle Alignment

• Pep Boys in Waukegan, Illinois Botches My Vehicle Alignment I don’t normally go to Pep Boys anymore because their prices are way higher than other shops now and they got rid of their parts business.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Modern Diplomacy ☛ Ethiopia Earns $1.15 billion from Coffee Exports

• Ethiopia, for the first time in its history, exported 300,000 metric tons of coffee valued at $1.4 billion to the global market last year. The achievement was made when the price of Arabica coffee in the global market enjoyed well above $2 per pound for most of 2022.

=> ↺ El País ☛ Nighttime lighting is harmful to human health

• This week, the journal Science published a special edition focused on light pollution with half a dozen papers that review what science knows about its many, varied impacts. The review cites, for instance, how most of the planet’s telescopes are no longer able to see the sky the way they did just a few years ago. It also mentions a work from 2020 that showed how artificial light was disrupting animal life. One of the mechanisms of this disturbance has to do with a hormone that humans share with practically all living beings: melatonin. This hormone intervenes in the biological clock, increasing its production and release at dusk and reducing it when the day begins, inducing sleep or awakening.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Everyone Says Social Media Is Bad for Teens. Proving It Is Another Thing.

• The surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, warned last month that social media carried a “profound risk of harm,” but he didn’t name any apps or websites. His report acknowledged that “there isn’t a single, widely accepted scholarly definition of social media.”

=> ↺ Scheerpost ☛ RFK Jr: Should Fauci be Prosecuted? Will RFK Jr Take Big Money? & More

• Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave interview 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about Covid-19 and how he would have handled the response to the pandemic differently.

Proprietary

=> ↺ El País ☛ Isaac Asimov’s disturbing message for 21st-century humankind

• The writer imagined a society managed by interconnected computers; was worried about an ecological crisis caused by pollution and the extinction of species, which only international cooperation could solve; and he foresaw the dilemmas that would arise from the coexistence between people and intelligent machines. Regarding this last matter, he saw two possible outcomes: AI systems taking our jobs and leaving us destitute, or freeing us from painful or routine tasks, allowing us to develop our creativity. We still do not know which of these two directions the future will take.

=> ↺ The Drone Girl ☛ Does this American airline have what it takes to become America’s largest drone airline?

• If you’ve never heard of Ameriflight, that’s because it’s a cargo — not a passenger — airline. But in fact, Ameriflight is the nation’s largest Part 135 Cargo airline, operating to destinations in 250 cities across 43 U.S. states plus Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. And now, it’s taken a big step ahead in its ability to deliver cargo via drones.

• With this step in the partnership, Ameriflight will soon operate the Matternet M2 drone for package delivery to Matternet’s customers. The flights will occur nationwide, but will be managed from a central, regulatory-compliant Remote Operating Center located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.

Windows TCO

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Third MOVEit bug fixed a day after PoC exploit made public

• Meanwhile, the list of bodies and companies hit by Clop – which has exploited MOVEit’s security shortcomings to steal data from organizations – keeps growing. On Friday, oil and gas giant Shell reportedly became the first organization to have its stolen data published on the Clop leak site, according to infosec guru Dominic Alvieri. Clop demands a ransom payment from victims or it threatens to leak any data swiped from them.

=> ↺ International Business Times ☛ Shell confirms impact of Clop ransomware attack on MOVEit file transfer tool

• Oil and gas giant Shell has confirmed that it was impacted by the Clop ransomware attacks. The Clop ransomware gang breached the MOVEit file transfer tool, and Shell was listed as one of the victims on the group’s extortion site. This is the second time that Shell has been targeted by the Clop gang through a file transfer service.

• Shell, a British oil and gas multinational, employs over 80,000 people globally and reported revenues exceeding $381 billion last year. A spokesperson for Shell stated that the cyber security incident affected a third-party tool called MOVEit Transfer, which is used by a small number of Shell employees and customers.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ U.S. Receives Ransom Requests From Russia-Linked Group After Data Breach

• The U.S. Department of Energy received ransom requests from a Russia-linked extortion group at its nuclear waste facility and at scientific education facilities, a spokesperson said on June 16.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Illinois Hospital First To Shut Down Completely After Ransomware Attack

• You may have noticed that for-profit healthcare in the U.S. is already a hot mess, especially in the most already marginalized parts of the country. Giant, mismanaged health care conglomerates have long pushed their underfunded staffers to the brink, while routinely under-investing in necessary technical upgrades and improvements. It’s getting consistently worse everywhere, but in particular in rural or poor regions of the U.S.

Security

=> ↺ Hacker News ☛ ChamelDoH: New Linux Backdoor Utilizing DNS-over-HTTPS Tunneling for Covert CnC [Ed: It's not "Linux Backdoor"; it's intentional misreporting by a Microsoft-friendly FUD site]

• The malware, dubbed ChamelDoH by Stairwell, is a C++-based tool for communicating via DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) tunneling.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ In Other News: Linux Kernel Exploits, Update on BEC Losses, Cybersecurity Awareness Act [Ed: "Bug bounties for Linux kernel exploits" became just "Linux Kernel Exploits" in the headline]

• Cybersecurity news that you may have missed this week: Bug bounties for Linux kernel exploits, Cybersecurity Awareness Act, FBI data on BEC losses. 

=> ↺ Neowin ☛ Ubuntu 22.10 Kinetic Kudu dies on July 20, upgrade now [Ed: Now "dies", just not officially patched]

• Canonical has said Ubuntu 22.10 Kinetic Kudu will reach end of life on July 20.

=> ↺ US Energy Dept gets two ransom notices as MOVEit hack claims more victims

• The U.S. Department of Energy got ransom requests from the Russia-linked extortion group Cl0p at both its nuclear waste facility and scientific education facility that were recently hit in a global hacking campaign, a spokesperson said on Friday.

• The DOE contractor Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the New Mexico-based facility for disposal of defense-related radioactive nuclear waste, were hit in the attack, which was first reported on Thursday.

=> ↺ Data breach at Public Appointments Service involving 15,000 people

• The personal information of 15,471 candidates for public roles has been released in error by the Public Appointments Service (PAS).

• A message was sent to the affected candidates through the publicjobs.ie portal notifying the candidates affected their names and jobs alert notifications they had subscribed to may have been provided to other candidates.

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ Healthcare and Public Health Sector Cybersecurity Notification: #TimisoaraHackerTeam Analysis

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ BlackCat claims they hacked Reddit and will leak the data

• In our last email to them, we stated that we wanted $4.5 million in exchange for the deletion of the data and our silence. As we also stated, if we had to make this public, then we now demand that they also withdraw their API pricing changes along with our money or we will leak it.

• We expect to leak the data.

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-12 [Older] Fortinet Releases Security Updates for FortiOS and FortiProxy

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] Adobe Releases Security Updates for Multiple Products

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] Cisco Releases Security Advisories for Multiple Products

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] Microsoft Releases June 2023 Security Updates

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Barracuda Networks Releases Update to Address ESG Vulnerability

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] CISA, FBI, and MS-ISAC Update Joint CSA on Progress Telerik Vulnerabilities

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] CISA Releases Fourteen Industrial Control Systems Advisories

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] SUBNET PowerSYSTEM Center

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Advantech WebAccess/SCADA

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Siemens SIMOTION

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Siemens SIMATIC WinCC

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Siemens SIMATIC WinCC V7

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Siemens SIMATIC STEP 7 and Derived Products

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Siemens Solid Edge

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP BIOS

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Siemens SINAMICS Medium Voltage Products

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Siemens SICAM A8000 Devices

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-14 [Older] CISA and NSA Release Joint Guidance on Hardening Baseboard Management Controllers (BMCs)

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] CISA Issues BOD 23-02: Mitigating the Risk from Internet-Exposed Management Interfaces

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] CISA Releases Four Industrial Control Systems Advisories

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] Fortinet Releases June 2023 Vulnerability Advisories

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] Datalogics Library Third-Party

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Services Platform

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Edge Gateway

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-13 [Older] Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk Transaction Manager

=> ↺ CISA ☛ 2023-06-15 [Older] Progress Software Releases Security Advisory for MOVEit Transfer Vulnerability

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ WhichUK ☛ One in seven Which? members have struggled to pay with cash at a business or retailer

• In fact, the Bank of England says that legal tender has a ‘narrow technical meaning’, which has no use in everyday life. It means that if you offer to fully pay off a debt to someone in legal tender, they can’t sue you for failing to repay.

• However, with millions of people still reliant on or prefer to use cash, it makes sense for businesses to make every effort to accept it.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Google searchers from years past can get paid for pilfered privacy

• Under the terms of the settlement agreement, hammered out last August and published on a website earlier this month, Google is admitting no wrongdoing. However, having done nothing wrong, the company still intends to pay $23 million to resolve the privacy lawsuit, known as In re Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation, Case No. 5:10-cv-4809-EJD.

• Google users during this period have until Monday, July 31, 2023, to register and file a claim to be paid, to file for exclusion from the settlement, or to file an objection prior to the October 12, 2023 Final Approval Hearing.

=> ↺ Scoop News Group ☛ FTC accuses genetic testing company of exposing sensitive health data

• The FTC alleges that the California-based 1health previously known as Vitagene, deceived customers about its privacy policy, retroactively changed that policy and misled customers about its process for deleting data. The company will pay $75,000 to the FTC for consumer refunds as part of a settlement with the agency.

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Smart Home System = Home System That Amazon Can Mess With If It Doesn’t Like What You Say?

• From a Medium post by Brandon Jackson, a Microsoft engineer: Wednesday, May 31, 2023, I finally regained access to my Amazon account after an unexpected and unwarranted lockout that lasted nearly a week, from Thursday, May 25. This wasn’t just a simple inconvenience, though. I have a smart home, and my primary means of interfacing…

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ VOA News ☛ Mali Wants Withdrawal of UN Peacekeepers

• The West African country has faced an insurgency since 2012. The U.N. peacekeeping mission was deployed in 2013 but the instability continues.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ The Taliban Government Runs on WhatsApp. There’s Just One Problem.

• The United States has long criminalized any form of support for the Taliban. Consequently, WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, scans group names, descriptions and group profile photos on the messaging app to identify users among the Taliban and block their accounts, according to a spokesman for the company.

• The policy has been in place since U.S. sanctions were enacted more than two decades ago. Even when the Taliban were an insurgency, the ban handicapped some fighters who relied on the app because it catered to people with neither literacy nor technological skills; using WhatsApp’s voice message feature, they could send messages and listen to the verbal instructions from their commanders with the press of a button.

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Lithuania considers banning dual-use goods transit, fearing they end up in Russia

• Armonaitė says the proposal is to restrict the shipment of 65 commodity codes, adding, however, that the list may change.

• “Some of the dual-use and potentially dual-use goods can be used both in household appliances and in armaments, and what the data from our services shows is that these goods, which we have already identified, the 65 codes, are also being used on the battlefield,” the minister said.

=> ↺ Jacobin Magazine ☛ True Democracy Is Incompatible With Capitalism

• The problem, Wolf seems to believe, is that neoliberals, in all their zeal for the end of history, spread free markets too far and too fast. The shock therapy of the 1990s was not coupled with measures to alleviate the social and economic tensions that came with it.

• The argument is reminiscent of that put forward by progressive political theorist Karl Polanyi, who believed that capitalist free markets spread too quickly for societies to adapt. Those whose lives and ideals were threatened by the emergence of this brave new world would push back against the encroachment of the “market society” — often supporting authoritarian strongmen to do so.

=> ↺ Gizmodo ☛ Twitter Runs Ads for Disney, Microsoft, and the NBA Next to Neo-Nazi Propaganda

• Twitter ran ads from household-name brands like Disney, Microsoft, and The Telegraph newspaper alongside neo-Nazi propaganda this week. Family-friendly media conglomerates, tech giants, and legacy newspapers running ads on social media platforms may try to do so with some confidence their names won’t appear plastered next to racist, hateful imagery, but that’s far from guaranteed on Elon Musk’s new Twitter. Users tweeted screenshots of the ads beside clips an antisemitic film, and Gizmodo was able to verify that the ads were still being shown against the videos via simple searches.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Uruguay Will Turn a Bronze Nazi Eagle Into a Dove

• The artifact, once part of a German warship, was recovered by a private venture off Uruguay’s coast in 2006. It’s been the subject of a legal battle for years.

=> ↺ Meduza ☛ Russian nukes are now in Belarus, says Putin — Meduza

• In remarks at this year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia has delivered the first batch of nuclear weapons to facilities in Belarus, vowing that more warheads will arrive before the end of the year.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ ABC ☛ Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, dead at 92

• After attempting to call attention to the classified documents — which showed the U.S. did not believe it could win the war in Vietnam despite claims to the contrary from the administration — among politicians, Ellsberg eventually passed the documents to The New York Times, which published them on the front page in June 1971.

• [...]

• The government sued The New York Times to stop publishing of the Pentagon Papers, but the U.S. Supreme Court would eventually rule in favor of the Times and the publication would resume. Ellsberg would leak the documents to The Washington Post days before the Supreme Court ruling.

=> ↺ EFF ☛ Remembering Daniel Ellsberg

• The world lost an unmistakable voice this week, as Daniel Ellsberg passed away at 92.  

• Dan will be remembered for many things, of course most prominently providing the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971. Although he hated being called one, he was rightly a hero to anyone who believes that we must be in a position to evaluate our governments and cast our votes based upon truth rather than lies.  

• The biggest lesson Dan taught me was to see the dangers arising from governmental secrecy from the position of those keeping the secrets. Dan talked about how the government was too often driven by what he called “smart dumb” people. He talked about how governmental officials’ proximity to power and insider knowledge led them to do stupid things—like continuing a war that was clearly lost, or lying about weapons of mass destruction—and how these kinds of terrible misjudgments and mistakes are as inevitable as they are insidious. Dan was as steadfast in debunking the myths surrounding governmental secrecy as he was in giving unwavering public support to others who took courageous steps to tell the truth about illegal, immoral, and improper governmental actions, especially around matters of national security.

=> ↺ Common Dreams ☛ A Life of Hope, Well Lived

• We mourn the loss of Daniel Ellsberg, singularly principled truth-teller, activist and “patriarch of whistleblowing” who exposed the murderous lies of the Vietnam War – with, it turns out, the help of his 13-year-old son – and spent the next 50-plus years bearing righteous witness to “the human consequences (of) what we’re doing” – our wars, ravages of the planet, dalliance with nuclear mayhem. A fierce ally of “those who care about the others,” he grew weary but never hopeless, insisting, “One candle lights another.”

=> ↺ American Oversight ☛ News Roundup: Lawsuits Against Louisiana and Ohio Secretaries of State

=> ↺ NPR ☛ History-making whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg has died at 92

• In the statement, Ellsberg family said that in the months since the diagnosis, “he continued to speak out urgently to the media about nuclear dangers, especially the danger of nuclear war posed by the Ukraine war and Taiwan.”

• “Daniel was a seeker of truth and a patriotic truth-teller, an antiwar activist, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, a dear friend to many, and an inspiration to countless more. He will be dearly missed by all of us,” according to the statement

• Ellsberg never ran for office and only occasionally appeared on TV. But he altered the course of U.S. history in a way few private citizens ever have.

=> ↺ [Old] NPR ☛ 40 Years Later, Pentagon Papers Being Declassified; Go Online Today

• Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon whistleblower who was the papers primary leaker, tells the AP that it’s unlikely many new secrets will be spilled. But Ellsberg believes the value in today’s document dump, the AP says, is “in having the entire study finally brought together and put online, giving today’s generations ready access to it.”

• The Times, meanwhile, says the papers “will now appear in the context in which they were first written, along with several volumes that have not been published, including a section on the United States training the Vietnamese national army, a statistical survey of the war from 1965 to 1967 and some supporting documents.”

=> ↺ Rolling Stone ☛ We’re Told Never to Meet Our Childhood Heroes. Knowing Daniel Ellsberg Proved That Wrong

• Daniel Ellsberg, the renowned Pentagon Papers whistleblower, single-handedly destroyed the validity of this advice for me. Ellsberg was one of my two or three top childhood heroes. Though I was only four years old in 1971, when he knowingly assumed a high probability of life in prison to inform the American people about systemic lying by the U.S. government regarding the war in Vietnam, I became engrossed by both the Pentagon Papers and Watergate dramas as I entered adolescence. Those became the formative events for my understanding of politics and journalism.

• The lies told by leading Pentagon and CIA officials about the Vietnam War were numerous, and they came fast and furious from the start of the U.S. role in the war in the early 1960s to its end in the mid-1970s. The lie that led Ellsberg to risk his liberty to expose was central. Top Pentagon and other U.S. security-state officials were publicly insisting they were getting closer and closer to winning the war, all while privately admitting from the start that victory would be impossible, that the best-case scenario was a stalemate with the North Vietnamese.

=> ↺ New Yorker ☛ Daniel Ellsberg’s Life Beyond the Pentagon Papers

• As he aged, Ellsberg grew frustrated that people associated him primarily with having leaked the Pentagon Papers and that they knew little of the six decades that he had subsequently spent as an anti-nuclear activist, getting arrested as many as ninety times in civil-disobedience protests. “Really, only the people who’d been doing anti-nuclear resistance with me knew, though it’s actually been the theme of my life since I was twenty-seven,” he told me. “That part nobody’s written about at all.’’ In 2017, Ellsberg tried to remedy that, publishing “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner,” a memoir of his role in building the American nuclear arsenal at RAND and the Pentagon, which warned of nuclear disaster if the U.S. and other nuclear powers failed to take more active steps toward disarmament.

=> ↺ Shadowproof ☛ The Loving Truth-Teller That Was Daniel Ellsberg

• Dan was in rare form during our recorded interview. The moment I started asking questions he was energized. We spoke for nearly two hours, and he never told me that I needed to end the interview. I probably could have talked with him for another half hour if I wanted.

• Multiple times Dan paused. A glimmer appeared in his eyes as he chimed, “Okay, I’ll tell you something I’ve never said publicly.” Then he would share an extraordinary anecdote. Or he would acknowledge that he was “coming to a point,” where he did not have to worry about “antagonizing” a media organization or particular media figure. So Dan would call them out.

=> ↺ US News And World Report ☛ California Governor Proposes Rolling Back Access to Police Misconduct Records

• The Newsom administration now wants to get rid of that transparency element. The commission says the public could still get the records from police departments. But advocates say local police departments often resist releasing that information.

Environment

=> ↺ Salon ☛ The US will send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine — a health physicist explains what that means

• Fragments and much smaller particles from exploded DU munitions can remain in soil long after conflicts end. This has raised concerns about possible radiation or toxic threats to people who come across these materials, such as local residents or peacekeeping forces. In general, studies of people who were inadvertently exposed to battlefield remnants of depleted uranium munitions show low radiation doses and low levels of chemical exposure that were generally indistinguishable from background level.

• In terms of environmental impacts, the scientific literature is largely silent on the extent to which plants or animals can absorb DU from munition fragments, although laboratory studies indicate that this is possible. Researchers and health professionals agree that very high levels of uranium, depleted or otherwise, may cause chemical toxicity in plants – but if this were to happen, it would likely be in the immediate vicinity where the munitions exploded. Scientists continue to examine how DU particles behave in the environment, in order to improve our ability to predict long-term environmental effects.

=> ↺ The Conversation ☛ The US will send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine – a health physicist explains their military, health and environmental effects

• It’s already clear that large areas of Ukraine’s territory will contain the residues of conflict, including weapon fragments, spilled fuels and explosive residues, long after the fighting there ends. The U.S. and U.K. governments clearly believe that providing DU munitions will improve Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russian tanks and bring this conflict to an end.

=> ↺ Omicron Limited ☛ Opinion: The US will send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine—despite military, health and environmental effects

• DU munitions, developed in the 1970s, are not nuclear weapons and do not produce a nuclear explosion. But soldiers or civilians can be exposed to the uranium, either in combat or afterward. Health physicist Kathryn Higley explains what depleted uranium is and what’s known about potential health and environmental risks.

=> ↺ Gannett ☛ Detroit once again experiencing unhealthy air quality due to Canadian wildfire smoke

• According to the National Weather Service, the recent increase is due to the Canadian wildfires as the smoke continues to drift south. Canadian wildfires also contributed to unhealthy air quality earlier this month and in late May.

• Detroit’s primary pollutant is PM2.5, fine particulate matter that can be inhaled and cause aggravated asthma and difficulty breathing.

=> ↺ El País ☛ Drought turns one of Spain’s largest lagoons into a salt desert

• At six kilometers (3.7 miles) long, this saltwater lagoon is the largest in Andalusia and one of the largest in Spain. It measures about 1,400 hectares and is located a few kilometers from Antequera. The lagoon came to host 20,000 pairs of flamingos; according to the Andalusian government, the Iberian Peninsula’s largest colony of flamingos, and the second largest in Europe, regularly nests there. Now, the lack of rain has left it dry. Data from the Andalusian government indicate that since the current water year began last October, through mid-May, only 220 liters per square meter have fallen in the area, half the usual average. In March of any other year, the birds would have found at least 20 centimeters of water — a sufficient amount for flamingos — and built their nests on a natural island located in the center; this year, there wasn’t even a centimeter of water, so the flamingos have bypassed the area. For that reason, the Department of the Environment has decided to cancel the traditional ringing of hatchlings, an event between July and August that has been held for scientific purposes since 1984. It was also suspended in 2021 due to lack of water and in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

=> ↺ Matt Brown: Ventilation Monitoring Market Research

• Over the last month I’ve performed some market research to better understand the potential for co2mon.nz and to help me decide whether the product I’ve built has a fit with the market or not. The key conclusions I’ve drawn from this work are: [...]

=> ↺ 2023-06-14 [Older] Danish energy consumption nears 50 percent sustainability

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Modern Diplomacy ☛ 2023-06-14 [Older] Ethiopia Earns $83m From Energy Export

=> ↺ RTL ☛ France to plough cash into low-emission planes: Macron

• Paris would dedicate 300 million euros ($330 million) to aircraft and motor research, Macron said during a visit to jet engine maker Safran just outside the capital.

• Public and private cash would also be funnelled to developing small electric or hydrogen-powered aircraft and renewable fuels, including a biofuel plant for southwest France.

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ Is [Cryptocurrency] Dead?

• Even before the SEC announcements, [cryptocurrency] was in trouble. Dozens of firms had failed, millions of individual investors had plunged into the red or cashed out, and billions of dollars of institutional investment had moved on. Beset by long-standing problems of its own invention, the industry now faces not just a regulatory crisis but an existential one too: Is [cryptocurrency] down, or is it dead?

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Why a New Coal Plant in Bangladesh Keeps Running Out of Coal

• The problems are an early warning for countries, especially poorer ones, that are investing in new coal-burning plants even as solar and wind get cheaper.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Binance Reaches Deal With Government to Avert U.S. Shutdown

• The Securities and Exchange Commission agreed on a compromise with Binance that will keep the exchange open as it battles a fraud lawsuit.

Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Omicron Limited ☛ Light pollution is taking the sparkle out of glow-worm mating

• Light generated outside of the natural cycle of the sun and moon can have unwanted effects, however, and is actually a form of pollution. Like other kinds, light pollution can harm animals, particularly nocturnal ones. Some predators which would otherwise turn in for the day are instead now choosing to hunt after dusk and disrupting entire food webs.

=> ↺ The Atlantic ☛ Killer Whales Are Not Our Friends

• Stop rooting for the orcas ramming boats.

Overpopulation

=> ↺ LRT ☛ Lithuania’s crisis centre decides against declaring national emergency over drought

• The ten municipalities that have already declared an extreme situation due to drought are the districts of Klaipėda, Kretinga, Vilkaviškis, Rokiškis, Plungė, Šilutė, Pakruojis, Šakiai, Telšiai and Mažeikiai.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ ABC ☛ Why 2024 Is Shaping Up To Be The Most Online Election Ever

• If these references to pudding fingers and glowing-eyed Biden memes bemuse you, congratulations. You probably don’t spend nearly as much time rooting around in the sewers of the internet as I do. But chances are, you’ve noticed at least some of these hyper-online political moments — 2024 candidates are banking on it. And while campaigns have had an online component for decades now, I’m not simply talking about candidates having a social media presence or a website of questionable design. We’re in a moment of transition, one in which candidates increasingly feel pressured to engage with and respond to every Twitter debate, TikTok microtrend and obscure meme in order to feel relevant, but also one in which most candidates didn’t grow up as digital natives. The result is a dizzying cascade of online content and IRL1 references to it that is as likely to make voters cringe as to delight them. And there are still 17 months until Election Day.

=> ↺ The Economist ☛ How Britain can become an AI superpower

• The country does have some advantages. It is home to several important AI companies, mostly in London—in particular, Google DeepMind. It has excellent universities, and welcomes the highly skilled foreign workers that AI companies need. The state generates troves of data; no other country has such an array of health records under a single entity, the National Health Service (NHS). And Brexit creates a chance to adopt an appealing regulatory position that could be a model for medium-sized countries around the world as they also rush to join the AI party.

• But there are problems aplenty, too. The most obvious is that Britain is a smallish place. America’s dominance in tech exerts a steady pull on capital, people and ideas, and American firms duly dominate in AI. The way Brexit was done means that Britain has lost access to the European Union’s single market. Although Oracle has a cluster of the advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) needed to train large models, none of the cloud-computing giants has yet chosen Britain as the base for what techies call the “compute”.

=> ↺ Business Insider ☛ Reddit CEO says the mods leading a punishing blackout are too powerful and he will change the site’s rules to weaken them

• Reddit mods hold a lot of power, which many believe is earned from the amount of unpaid labor they put into the site. Researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and Northwestern University estimated in a study last year that the number of hours worked by Reddit mods in 2020 was worth $3.4 million.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ The Titanic Truthers of TikTok

• On the short-form video app, long-established facts about the crash are being newly litigated as musty rumors merge with fresh misinformation and manipulated content — a demonstration of TikTok’s potent ability to seed historical revisionism about even the most deeply studied cases.

=> ↺ Futurism ☛ An AI Is Inventing Fake Quotes by Real People and Publishing Them Online

• Among other causes for concern, there’s no contact information, and the many thousands of articles in the site’s sizable archive only date back to January 2023. Most importantly, of these thousands of published stories, the vast majority contain telltale signs of AI generation. The text is generic and lacks backlinks for sources, and the included pictures — a garbled, illegible mess of horrifying, hilarious, or otherwise bizarre images — often appear to be AI-generated as well.

• So, in other words, a lot of red flags. But it actually gets worse. Upon closer inspection, the text of the site’s AI-produced articles is often riddled with misinformation, including AI-fabricated quotes — which, concerningly, are often attributed to entirely real people.

=> ↺ Teen Vogue ☛ What Is a Deepfake, How Can You Spot One, and How Can They Be Dangerous?

• Deepfakes are videos, audio, or images meant to look like a person said or did something that they didn’t. They are created by feeding the existing media of a person into software programs that use a kind of artificial intelligence (AI) called “deep learning.” The AI learns key traits of its subjects, such as facial features, mannerisms, or the way the person speaks, and it learns the traits of other people, too. It uses all this data to create new or manipulated images, videos, or audio. AI can also create pictures of people who do not actually exist through what is called generative adversarial networks (GAN).

=> ↺ Variety ☛ TikTok and YouTube Key to Reaching the U.S. Hispanic Audience

• The “Latino Mosaic Study” found that one in five Hispanics say TikTok is where they most often learn about new products and services, close to double that for the general population. Once YouTube is included, the number swells to over a third of U.S. Hispanics using the two digital media platforms as their primary discovery source.

=> ↺ RFERL ☛ Flipping The Channels: Moldova Faces A Huge Challenge Countering Pro-Kremlin Propaganda

• After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin upped its disinformation game, experts say, exploiting traditional and social media and other tools to spin its narrative as it faced global condemnation for its aggression.

• And Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest nations, appeared to be at or near the top of the Kremlin’s hit list. To fight back, Chisinau first banned Russian news programs, then a few months later blocked several TV channels from broadcasting. More recently, Maia Sandu, the country’s pro-Western president, proposed creating a state center to monitor Russian disinformation and propaganda, saying the lies spread on television and social media were “the most dangerous weapon.”

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

=> ↺ NBC ☛ Jamal Khashoggi’s widow says he wouldn’t want Saudi Arabia penalized amid golf deal

• The widow of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist whose 2018 murder fueled international outrage and embroiled Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in scandal, says her husband’s killing should not prevent the country from cutting major deals in the United States or turn it into a pariah state.

• In an interview Friday with NBC News, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi said that her late husband would agree that the people of Saudi Arabia — the country of his birth — shouldn’t be penalized because of the actions of a few. The Saudi government has come under scrutiny again after reaching a surprise deal last week between LIV Golf, a Saudi-backed upstart league, and the PGA Tour, an organizer of top-level professional golf tournaments mostly in the U.S.

=> ↺ The Hill ☛ Khashoggi widow suing Israeli firm, says spyware caused her to ‘constantly be looking over her shoulder’

• Khashoggi, a fervent critic of the Saudi government, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. A U.S. intelligence report found that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the killing.

• Following Khashoggi’s killing, Elatr was put under house arrest in Dubai before going into hiding in the U.S.

• Elatr’s suit says the spyware “caused her immense harm, both through the tragic loss of her husband and through her own loss of safety, privacy, and autonomy, as well as the loss of her financial stability and career.”

=> ↺ ABC ☛ Men charged with vandalizing homes of New Hampshire journalists

• “Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of any health democracy and these three men are now accused of infringing on that freedom by conspiring to harass and intimidate two New Hampshire journalists who were simply doing their jobs,” said Christopher DiMenna, acting special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office.

• The targets were a New Hampshire Public Radio reporter and editor. In six incidents in April and May 2022, their homes and the home of the reporter’s parents were hit with bricks, rocks and red spray paint. In one incident, a brick was thrown through the reporter’s window and the phrase “JUST THE BEGINNING!” was spray-painted on the front of her home.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Indonesian Official Accused of Enslaving People

• Families in Indonesia thought they were sending their sons to a rehab facility run by a powerful local official. Those who stayed there say it was a brutal human slavery operation.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ My Church Was Part of the Slave Trade. This Has Not Shaken My Faith.

• Enslaved people have been largely left out of the origin story traditionally told about the emergence of Catholicism in the United States.

=> ↺ Omicron Limited ☛ Tribes seek greater involvement in talks on Colorado River water crisis

• As the federal government starts negotiations on long-term plans for the overtapped Colorado River, leaders of tribes are pushing for more involvement in the talks, saying they want to be at the table in high-level discussions among the seven states that rely on the river.

• The 30 tribes in the Colorado River Basin have rights to use roughly one-fourth of the river’s average supply. But over the past century, leaders of tribal nations were largely excluded from regional talks about river management, and only in recent years have they begun to play a larger role.

=> ↺ ABC ☛ Small-town Pennsylvania officers kicked, punched and choked arrestees, indictment alleges

• The indictment accuses the three men of trying to hide their alleged crimes by avoiding cameras and lying about the victims.

=> ↺ Ali Reza Hayati ☛ Growing up to care about details

• My blog has a lot of media that don’t have proper alt text and I regret that I published them the way I did but I’ve decided to not do that again. Accessibility is important and it’s just one minor detail that I care about now.

=> ↺ Deutsche Welle ☛ Bahai community marks grim anniversary in Iran

• One of the cruelest crimes to have befallen the oppressed Bahai minority of Iran took place 40 years ago in the southern city of Shiraz. On June 18, 1983, 10 women aged 17 to 57 were executed. As they waited their turn, they were forced to watch as their fellow prisoners were hanged one by one in a public square.

• Their “crime” was that they belonged to the Bahai faith and had refused to renounce it. The youngest was Mona Mahmoudnejad, a 17-year-old who had taught Bahai children who had been forbidden from attending school.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Google to wind down Google Domains, sell assets to Squarespace

=> ↺ Broadband Breakfast ☛ State Officials Highlight Discrepancies Between Updated FCC Map and Ground Truth

• Sascha Meinrath, telecommunications professor at Penn State University, said in an email that the maps “are neither accurate – they vastly overstate service availability – nor precise – with failure rates of 10 to 20 percent in correctly identifying rural broadband serviceable locations and huge problems correctly identifying homes versus garages in many cities.”

=> ↺ Ruben Schade ☛ Sites redirecting you to localised nothing

• This is happening more and more. I’ll visit a global website for a computer or camera site, and the server will detect I’m in a different country. They’ll claim there’s an Australian or Singapore-specific page I can go to for more relevant information, which I’ll click through to. Invariably, I get a 404 on that localised site.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Activists Call BS On FBI’s Section 702 Abuse Band-Aid, Demand Major Reforms To Surveillance Power

• It’s renewal time again, and this time the snooper squad is facing unprecedented push back. Sure, a lot of it is politically motivated, what with the post-Trumpians still getting high on their own “deep state” supply. Even as opportunistic as they are, they still have a point: some of their own have been subjected to some very questionable surveillance.

=> ↺ Techdirt ☛ Twitch Rolls Out New Tiered Revenue Splits, Pissing Creators Off Yet Again

• Amazon-owned Twitch appears to be running something of an experiment to see just how much it can piss off its creative community before a mass exodus occurs. Reading back through our posts on the platform, you will be left with the understanding that there are two types of policy rollouts when it comes to Twitch. There are the policies the company rolls out and almost immediately has to rescind after everyone gets wildly angry. And then there are the polices the company rolls out that result in just as much anger, but where the platform ignores the anger and gives its creative community the middle finger.

=> ↺ EFF ☛ There is Nothing Fair About the European Commission’s “Fair Share” Proposal

• After the European Commission held a public consultation on whether they should adopt what they call a “fair share” proposal, they unfortunately voted to move forward with this dangerous plan. This proposal is nothing but a network usage fees regime, which would force certain companies to pay internet service providers (ISPs) for their ability to deliver content to consumers. This idea not only hurts consumers, but also breaks a status quo that facilitated and continues to facilitate the rapid spread of the global internet. Accordingly,  we filed comments that called for the European Commission to abandon this completely unfair idea altogether.

• The misguided idea behind the consultation is that large ISPs are suffering mightily because the companies that create and/or deliver information and content online, called content and applications providers (CAPs), are freeriding off the ISPs physical infrastructure networks. The CAPs you may be most familiar with go by another acronym — FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) — but also encompasses companies who provide many other services.

• The ISPs claim they incur costs for delivering this content and that as CAPs push more and more content, those costs increase. They also claim that the increase in internet traffic that has led to increasing costs are in fact caused by the CAPs. Taken together, because the CAPs both cause the traffic and don’t pay for the delivery of their services, CAPs should pay ISPs their “fair share” for using the network.

Monopolies

Trademarks

=> ↺ TTAB Blog ☛ Precedential No. 18: BOYS WORLD Functions Not Only as the Name of a Musical Group, But Also as a Trademark

• The Board reversed a failure-to-function refusal of BOYS WORLD for “audio recordings featuring music,” ruling that the term not only identifies the musical group but also serves as a trademark for the group’s recordings. In re ZeroSix, LLC, Serial No. 88981832 [re-designated as precedential, June 14, 2023] (Opinion by Judge Michael B. Adlin).

Copyrights

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ Music Publishers Face Recalcitrant Elon Musk In Copyright Lawsuit vs. Twitter

• A group of music publishers is suing Elon Musk’s Twitter for copyright infringement to the tune of $250 million. But the group faces a recalcitrant Musk who isn’t paying rent—why would he pay royalties?

=> ↺ Torrent Freak ☛ Sky ‘Free NOW TV’ Security Hole Exposed For Months, Researcher Claims

• A researcher who alerted Sky to a security hole that allowed anyone to watch NOW TV subscription channels for free claims the problem went unfixed for months. Emails seen by TorrentFreak show that Sky was made aware of the piracy loophole in January 2023 but encryption keys were still working until at least early June. What Sky could’ve actually done is unclear.

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