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● 09.08.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 08/09/2023: Release of Francis 1.0, EnterpriseDB Chooses GNU General Public License v3 for Component

Posted in News Roundup at 8:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Server

=> ↺ Cloudbooklet ☛ Top 5 Free Linux Cloud Servers to Host Your Website

• A free Linux cloud server is a virtual machine that runs Linux and is hosted on a cloud platform for free or with some limitations.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Collabora ☛ Video codecs: Adding AV1 stateless video decoder support to Linux

• The latest mainline Linux kernel (v6.5) includes 22 patches that enable support for the AV1 uAPI and for two stateless video decoders: one for the Rockchip RK3588 and one for MT8195, a MediaTek SoC.

=> ↺ Neowin ☛ Linus Torvalds accepts Microsoft’s Linux Hyper-V upgrades so both Intel and AMD can benefit [Ed: No, it is so that Microsoft can benefit]

• Microsoft is improving Hyper-V support in the upcoming Linux kernel version 6.6 so that both AMD and Intel processors will benefit. The upgrade mainly pertains to improved guest support.

Applications

=> ↺ DebugPoint ☛ Reviving the Glory Days: NsCDE Desktop for UNIX Buffs

• If you’ve been pining for the nostalgia of the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) that graced UNIX systems back in the ’90s, but also yearn for a modern, robust, and highly customizable desktop experience, then NsCDE might just be your answer. In this review, we’ll dive into what NsCDE is all about, why it exists, and who it’s meant for.

=> ↺ GNOME ☛ Juan Pablo Ugarte: Cambalache 0.14.0 Released!

• I am pleased to announce a new Cambalache version.

• Cambalache is a new RAD tool for Gtk 4 and 3 with a clear MVC design and data model first philosophy.

• Version 0.14.0 brings two new features one of them not even originally supported by Glade.

=> ↺ Sam Thursfield: Improvements to my helper tool for VM-based openQA testing

• It’s two years since I started looking into end-to-end testing of GNOME using openQA. While developing the end-to-end tests I find myself running tests locally on my machine a lot, and the experience was fiddly, so I wrote a simple helper tool named ssam_openqa to automate my workflow.Having chosen to write ssam_openqa in Rust, it’s now really fun to hack on, and I somewhat gratuitously gave it an interactive frontend using the indicatif Rust library.

=> ↺ Linux Links ☛ 11 Best Free and Open Source Linux e-Learning Tools

• Linux has a wide range of e-Learning software available. This article focuses on software which is user friendly for students and instructors.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 15 Open-source Free DSLR Camera Software and Solutions for Photographers

• In this list we offer you the best usable open-source solutions to control and manage your DSLR cameras.

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 54 Free Open-source Web Spiders, Crawlers and Scrapping Solutions for Data Collection

• Web crawling, scraping, and spiders are all related to the process of extracting data from websites.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Red Hat ☛ How to trigger jobs manually in Packit

• Packit is an open source project aiming to ease your project’s integration with Fedora Linux, CentOS Stream, and other distributions. Packit is mostly used by projects that build RPM packages. We won’t go through the onboarding process that was already described in a previous article, but we would like to introduce you to new features that were recently promoted into production.

• From Packit, you can easily trigger the tests on Testing Farm even without building the RPMs. This is very handy for projects that basically don’t build RPMs but want to use these two services for verifying the code. As a good example, we can refer to the Strimzi project where users consume container images.

• In such cases, the users want to trigger the tests, verify the code and see some output. This option is available from the beginning. Users can easily define when to execute the tests for every pull request, commit, or release. That sounds pretty cool; however, when you have complex tests (5+ hours per test run) as we have in Strimzi, you probably don’t want to trigger all tests for each commit. So, how can the users achieve that?

=> ↺ Podman Vs. Docker: Exploring Key Differences and When to Make the Switch

• Podman is an open-source container management tool that provides a way to create, manage, and run containers on your Linux systems. Sounds familiar, right? If you’ve ever used Docker in your life, you can relate their similarities.

=> ↺ Tmux Tutorial: Mastering the Basics

• What is tmux? Tmux is a terminal multiplexer that allows you to manage multiple terminal sessions with a single terminal window, and you can easily switch between those multiple terminal sessions. Why use tmux?

=> ↺ TecAdmin ☛ Using if-else in Dockerfile

• Docker is an essential tool for containerizing applications, making them portable and isolated. The Dockerfile is a key component in the Docker ecosystem, allowing developers to specify how their application should be containerized. Often, there is a need for conditional logic in Dockerfiles, much like you would find in programming scripts.

=> ↺ MWL ☛ 60 Seconds of WIP, 7 September 2023

• Run Your Own Mail Server has finally forced me to write a bit about netcat versus telnet. Netcat is a flexible network tool that, among other things, allows you to connect to arbitrary TCP/IP ports. We’ll use it for testing services.

=> ↺ Red Pixels Ventures Ltd ☛ How to Take Screenshots on a Laptop or Desktop Using Windows, macOS or Linux

• How to take a screenshot on a laptop is one of the most commonly asked questions by users when they start using a computer running on Windows, macOS, or Linux. There are several ways to take screenshots on your laptop or desktop computer, from using keyboard shortcuts to opening apps designed to crop, rotate, annotate, and print the image you have captured from your screen. However, the fastest way to take a screenshot is through pressing a combination of keys on your keyboard for the screen capture functionality.

WINE or Emulation

=> ↺ ScummVM ☛ Androids get a companion. iOS port public testing

• The day has come. We are super happy to announce public beta testing for the iOS port of ScummVM in the store. Yes, you read it right! Since Lars Sundström, aka lman, joined our team as the iOS porter, we have made significant progress. Thus, you no longer need to compile ScummVM yourself in order to add it to your iOS or iPadOS device.

• If you want to help by testing this version, just follow this Testflight link and enroll yourself in the test program. This may require installing Apple’s Testflight app. You can find instructions on how to install games and how to play them on our documentation portal.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Carl Schwan ☛ Francis 1.0

• Today is my birthday but it’s also the day Francis got its first release. Francis is a pomodoro app, which was originally developed by Felipe Kinoshita. The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a kitchen timer to break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.

=> ↺ “Bring Back [obscure feature]!”

• Did a feature you love disappear from your Free Software project of choice? Before kicking up a fuss on Reddit, read this.

=> ↺ KDE Frameworks 6 / Plasma / Gear Release Schedule Plan

• The Qt 6 based KDE Frameworks 6 (KF6) development is ongoing since some time.

• Already many things including Plasma and several applications, like Kate, have working KF6 based development versions.

• KDE contributors did meet this week online for planning the final release time-frames.

Distributions and Operating Systems

=> ↺ Medium ☛ Top 7 Lesser-Known Linux Distributions You Need to Explore

• When it comes to Linux distributions, most users are familiar with the likes of Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and CentOS. However, the Linux world is a vast ecosystem with a multitude of distributions, each catering to different needs and preferences. In this article, we’ll introduce you to seven lesser-known Linux distributions that you may have never heard of but are definitely worth exploring.

=> ↺ The Register UK ☛ Linux distros drop their feelgood hits of the summer

• Taking advantage of the summer lull, there are new versions of a slew of distros: Nitrux, Ubuntu DDE, Linux Lite, Manjaro, and siblings Mageia, OpenMandriva and PCLinuxOS.

=> ↺ Barry Kauler ☛ More fixes convert Void pkg db to Puppy db format

• Previous blog post:

• https://bkhome.org/news/202309/fix-convert-void-pkg-db-to-puppy-db-format.html

• I have fixed a couple of bugs in support/void/cvt.sh script:

• https://github.com/bkauler/woofq/commit/107c337089a942b046ec1baa124f1da9b3153279

Fedora Family / IBM

=> ↺ TechEconomy.ng ☛ CentOS Linux is Coming to an End: What Does that Mean for Nigerian Businesses?

• As of June 2023, enterprises in Nigeria have less than a year to plan and execute their migration paths from CentOS Linux 7.

• Updates for the open source project will end on 30 June, 2024 as it reaches its end of life. The project comprises two Linux variants: CentOS Linux, a platform built for a wide variety of deployments; and CentOS Stream, a delivered distribution that tracks just ahead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) development and is positioned as a midstream between Fedora Linux and RHEL.

=> ↺ Christiano Anderson: Contributing to Fedora

• Fedora is the Linux distribution that I primarily utilize, as it offers a satisfactory balance between cutting-edge packages and stability. The release schedule is six-monthly, and you can expect the most recent version of the main packages, a level of innovation you can only find in one of the most up-to-date and stable operating systems. Being a data professional, I enjoy trying new software and staying abreast of the newest industry innovation.

=> ↺ Fedora Infrastructure Status: Fedora Copr is slow for ppc64le build tasks

• This outage impacts performance ppc64le tasks in Fedora Copr frontend

Debian Family

=> ↺ Thorsten Alteholz ☛ Thorsten Alteholz: My Debian Activities in August 2023FTP masterThis month I accepted 347 and rejected 39 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 349.This was my hundred-tenth month that I did some work for the Debian LTS initiative, started by Raphael Hertzog at Freexian.

=> ↺ Thomas Lange: FAI.me service now support backports for Debian 12 (bookworm)

• The FAI.me service for creating customized installation and cloud images now supports the backports kernel for the stable release Debian 12 (aka bookworm). If you enable the backports option in the web interface, you currently get kernel 6.4. This will help you if you have newer hardware that is not support by the default kernel 6.1.

=> ↺ Valhalla’s Things: Banners and Signs

• Some time ago, I decided to make a small banner with the GL-Como penguin for a friend, because reasons.

• However, this friend has a big problem, he, well, is from Pisa (no, I’m not from Leghorn, why do you ask?), and I had a screen printing kit, openclipart and no inhibitions.

=> ↺ Dirk Eddelbuettel ☛ Dirk Eddelbuettel: x13binary 1.1.57-4 on CRAN: Minor Update

• Release 1.1.57-4 of the x13binary package providing the X-13ARIMA-SEATS program by the US Census Bureau arrived earlier on CRAN.

=> ↺ Tomeu Vizoso: Etnaviv NPU update 6: Almost there!

• And with this we should have all the features we need to run a model such as MobileNet v1 and get some performance numbers to guide the next steps.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

=> ↺ OMG Ubuntu ☛ Brand New ‘App Center’ Lands in Ubuntu 23.10

• Ubuntu’s new “App Center” app has arrived in Ubuntu 23.10 daily builds – no Snap channel commands required to test it out. The new front-end for installing Snap and Deb package is built using Flutter. Ubuntu made Flutter its ‘default choice’ for app making in 2021. Despite being made with an unconventional toolkit the new store looks perfectly in-keeping with the rest of the Ubuntu desktop. For a closer look at this natty new client, and to learn more about what it can and can’t do, keep reading!

• [...]

• Visually, the app is pleasant to look at. The homepage is clean and uncluttered, logically ordered, and uses eye-catching banners to draw interest when scrolling. App listing pages put the install button within easy reach, and relays info on license, download size, confinement, and links to the publisher.

=> ↺ Alan Pope ☛ Alan Pope: Developer Tools

• I have long said I’m not really a developer. Whenever I used to see news articles in the past quoting me as “Alan Pope, Developer at Canonical”, I would cringe quite a bit. I say to my professional developer friends that I’m not one, and they often roll their eyes at me.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ CNX Software ☛ Libre Computer AML-S905X-CC-V2 SBC directly installs Linux images from the Internet

• Libre Computer AML-S905X-CC-V2 “Sweet Potato” is a “new” Amlogic S905X SBC following the Raspberry Pi 3B form factor and that can directly boot Linux images downloaded from the Internet using the Libre Computer OS Tool (LOST). I wrote “new” in quotes because the single board computer is an update to the Potato board (AML-S905X-CC) introduced in 2017 with just a few hardware changes. But that’s because Libre Computer focuses on the software side and all/most of their boards can now run mainline Linux and have support for features such as LOST.

=> ↺ Arduino ☛ Meet Arduino Pro at PACK EXPO 2023 in Las Vegas

• The Arduino Pro team will be exhibiting in Las Vegas next week at PACK EXPO 2023, the largest event for the packaging industry. From Monday, September 11th through to the 13th, meet our team at the Arduino Pro booth #7592 in the upper south hall. 

=> ↺ CNX Software ☛ Gateworks GW7400 networking SBC features 6 Gigabit Ethernet ports, M.2 & mini PCIe sockets for wireless connectivity

• Gateworks Venice GW7400 is a rugged industrial single board computer for networking and gateway applications with six Gigabit Ethernet ports, and one M.2 and three mini PCIe sockets for WiFi, cellular, and other wireless options. We first mentioned the GW7400 board around three years ago, when the company introduced the Venice family powered by NXP i.MX 8M processor.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

=> ↺ 9to5Google ☛ Qi2 has arrived – Where are the Android phones?

=> ↺ 9to5Google ☛ Android TV homescreen gets Google TV-like design for all

=> ↺ Android Police ☛ How to check your notification history on your Android phone

=> ↺ Make Use Of ☛ How to Add Birthday Reminders in Google Contacts on Android

=> ↺ HowTo Geek ☛ How to Save Voicemails on Your Android Phone

=> ↺ Dignited ☛ Original Xiaomi Mi Box S 4K upgraded to Android TV 12 from Android TV 9 – Dignited

=> ↺ Android Police ☛ Android 14 still doesn’t calculate device storage utilization correctly

=> ↺ CNET ☛ Android 14 Beta 5.3 Is Out. How to Download to Your Phone Right Now – CNET

=> ↺ Giz China ☛ AnTuTu: Unveiling the Most Powerful Android Smartphones

=> ↺ Medevel ☛ 23 Open-source Free Workout Apps for Android, iOS, and the Web

• Workout apps are software applications that can be used to track and manage fitness-related activities. They typically offer a range of features, such as tracking workouts, setting goals, providing workout plans, and monitoring progress.

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

SaaS/Back End/Databases

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ EnterpriseDB releases PostgreSQL cluster deployment tool [as Free Software]

• EnterpriseDB Corp., which sells a commercial version of the popular open-source PostgreSQL database management system, today said it’s making Trusted Postgres Architect available as open source under the GNU General Public License v3. TPA is a tool for automating the deployment and configuration of high-availability Postgres clusters.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Ted Unangst ☛ enjargo – another way to generate go json encoders

• Some people, when presented with a data structure, think let’s encode this to json. Now they have two problems. Encoding and decoding. In response to this dilemma, various libraries were created, such as rust serde or go encoding/json, to facilitate drama and debate about which approach is best.

• Enter enjargo, another approach for go quite different from the standard library, which exists mostly to complete the D triumvirate with a bit of didacticism, and not so much to be a practical option.

Python

=> ↺ Towards a new SymPy: part 1 – Outline

• The other posts in this series can be found at Towards a new SymPy.

• Over the last year in particular I have been working as a part of a CZI funded project that has three strands. One of those three strands is for me to work on speeding up SymPy. Now that we come to the end of that year, I want to describe what has been done and spell out a vision for the future.

• I will be writing this in a series of blog posts. This first post will outline the structure of the foundations of a computer algebra system (CAS) like SymPy, describe some problems SymPy currently has and what can be done to address them. Then subsequent posts will focus in more detail on particular components and the work that has been done and what should be done in the future.

• I am writing this with the intention that it should be accessible to someone who is not a SymPy developer although other SymPy developers are the intended audience for many of the points that I will make. Many of the things that I will describe here are not well understood even by many SymPy developers though and a major goal of this series of posts is to help to try to change that.

=> ↺ Towards a new SymPy: part 2 – Polynomials

• This post will describe SymPy’s computational algebra system for polynomials and how each of these steps could be applied to speed up SymPy. I will talk a bit about FLINT and python-flint but I will also write a separate post about those because I know that some people will be more interested in using python-flint than SymPy itself and I hope to encourage them to contribute to python-flint.

• As before I am writing this with the intention that it should be to some extent understandable to non SymPy developers. The primary intended audience though is other SymPy developers because I want them to understand the significance of the work done so far and the changes that I think are needed for the future.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Benjamin: Towards a new SymPy

• In a series of posts on his blog, Oscar Benjamin looks at SymPy, which is a Python-based symbolic-mathematics library. In the first article, he outlines the “”big changes for SymPy with particular focus on speed””. The second covers polynomial handling; subsequent articles will examine other pieces of the puzzle.

Leftovers

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

=> ↺ Creating Apples

• Time for another weekend post in the 100 days to offload effort.

• A couple of years ago I had an excavator dig up parts of the garden to make room for a new deck. Apparently it took out a bit too much of the roots of my daughters favourite apple tree – the Transparent Blanche. So, yesterday evening we finally got a new one and planted it.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

=> ↺ Report: Expedia Group laying off tech workers as part of restructuring

• Expedia Group is reportedly trimming its headcount as the Seattle-based travel giant restructures its business.

• According to an internal email that was obtained by GeekWire, the company is laying off an undisclosed number of tech workers. Those impacted include members of Expedia Group’s Traveler Products team.

• “As we have begun looking to 2024, it is important that we are ready to ‘Build the world’s most loved AI powered travel apps.’ These changes to our [organization] will help us take the next steps to move quickly and stay tightly aligned while simplifying where we can,” Tript Singh Lamba, a senior vice president, said in the email.

=> ↺ France24 ☛ Apple shares fall following reports of China iPhone ban

• The shares of several major Apple AAPL.O suppliers fell on Friday, following reports that China had widened curbs on use of iPhones by state employees, fanning fears about sales prospects in one of the US company’s biggest markets.

=> ↺ Microsoft clarifies one of the most controversial findings of the FTC federal trial

• Microsoft’s legal counsel clarifies some of the most compelling and controversial aspects of the recent FTC v Microsoft federal trial.

=> ↺ Microsoft announces the end of servicing for third-party printer drivers on Windows

Pseudo-Open Source

Openwashing

=> ↺ Linux Foundation’s Site/Blog ☛ Why You Can’t Miss This Year’s Open Source Summit Europe

• We’re less than 2 weeks away from the 12th annual Open Source Summit Europe, the premier European conference to showcase the open source community’s expertise and innovation. This year’s event will take place in Bilbao, Spain September 19-21, with co-located events held September 17-18.

=> ↺ OSI Blog ☛ The Approved Open Source Licenses never looked better [Ed: But OSI never looked worse. It's doing openwashing and promotions of Microsoft, actively promoting the attacks on Open Source in exchange for some dirty Microsoft/GitHub money,]

• The Open Source community needs a resource to confidently and easily identify licenses that have gained OSI approval, and now they have it. This Approval Registry offers a comprehensive and authoritative listing of all licenses so organizations know that the license they choose for their project allows their software to be freely used, modified, shared and monetized in compliance with the Open Source Definition.

Security

=> ↺ LinuxInsider ☛ Atlas VPN Linux Leak Exposes Users’ IP Addresses

• A Reddit user with the handle ‘Educational-Map-8145′ published a proof-of-concept exploit last week for a zero-day flaw in the Linux client of Atlas VPN. The exploit code works against the latest version of the client, 1.0.3.

=> ↺ Silicon Angle ☛ Apple security updates address vulnerabilities targeted by NSO Group

• Apple Inc. has released urgent security updates for its suite of operating systems after revealing two critical new vulnerabilities that researchers say were exploited by Israeli spyware maker NSO Group Ltd. to install spyware on devices.

=> ↺ Scoop News Group ☛ Multiple nation-state hackers infiltrate single aviation organization

• A single aviation organization was infiltrated by the hackers using vulnerabilities on internet-facing devices.

• /blockquote>

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ ‘Atomic macOS Stealer’ Malware Delivered via Malvertising Campaign

• A malware named Atomic macOS Stealer (AMOS) has been delivered to users via a malvertising campaign. 

=> ↺ SANS ☛ Fleezeware/Scareware Advertised via Facebook Tags Available in Apple App Store, (Thu, Sep 7th)

=> ↺ SANS ☛ Apple Releases iOS/iPadOS 16.6.1, macOS 13.5.2, watchOS 9.6.2 fixing two zeroday vulnerabilities, (Thu, Sep 7th)

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Apple Patches Actively Exploited iOS, macOS Zero-Days

• Apple pushes out an urgent point-update to its flagship iOS and macOS platforms to fix a pair of security defects being exploited in the wild.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ See Tickets Alerts 300,000 Customers After Another Web Skimmer Attack

• See Tickets is informing 300,000 individuals that their payment card information was stolen in a new web skimmer attack.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ CISA Releases Guidance on Adopting DDoS Mitigations

• CISA has released new guidance to help federal agencies decide upon and prioritize DDoS mitigations based on mission and reputational impact.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Cisco Patches Critical Vulnerability in BroadWorks Platform

• Cisco has released patches for CVE-2023-20238, a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in the BroadWorks Application Delivery Platform.

=> ↺ IT Wire ☛ Ransomware hit nearly three-fourths of Indian firms last year

• More than half of these Indian companies — 53% to be exact — had forked out ransoms of up to US$500,000 (A$783,881) to end disruptions which had lasted from a day to weeks, the analyst firm added.

• It cited figures from the Computer Emergency Response Team of India which showed that 1.4 million incidents had been recorded in 2021, with slightly less (1.39 million) in 2022.

=> ↺ Dark Reading ☛ ‘Evil Telegram’ Spyware Campaign Infects 60K+ Mobile Users

• Legitimate-seeming Telegram “mods” available in the official Google Play store for the encrypted messaging app signal the rise of a new enterprise threat.

=> ↺ Security Week ☛ Rigged Software and Zero-Days: North Korean APT Caught Hacking Security Researchers

• Google again catches a North Korean APT actor targeting security researchers with zero-days and rigged software tools.

=> ↺ Google ☛ Unveiling the Chrome Web Store’s Redesign [Ed: Only a spying company, Google, gets to decide what you can and cannot run]

• In celebration of Chrome’s 15th birthday, we’re thrilled to introduce the redesigned Chrome Web Store. With a user-centric focus, we’ve made it easier for you to search and find fun themes and helpful extensions to stay productive at home or at work. Let’s go behind the scenes and learn more about this redesign from Chrome Product Manager Hafsah Ismail and UX Designer Crystal Wang.

=> ↺ CISA ☛ MAR-10454006.r5.v1 SUBMARINE, SKIPJACK, SEASPRAY, WHIRLPOOL, and SALTWATER Backdoors

• This report is provided “as is” for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained herein. The DHS does not endorse any commercial product or service referenced in this bulletin or otherwise.

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ Quick note: Two more school districts hit by cyberattacks

• Brett Callow of Emsisoft notes that LockBit has added Skokie-Morton Grove School District 69 in Illinois to their leak site. No proof of claim was posted and no description of any data allegedly stolen was provided.

=> ↺ Decatur ISD hit by suspected cybersecurity attack

• DISD’s main server went down at 5:15 a.m. Tuesday. Since then, district officials have met with various experts to look into the cause of the issue. On Friday, DISD Director of Communications Robyn Jones released a statement indicating the investigation has pointed to a “cybersecurity incident.”

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ Coca-Cola FEMSA victim of ransomware attack and data leak

• The attack involved both encrypting files and backups and exfiltrating data. TheSnake claims the encryption did not interfere with the firm’s functioning.

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ Schneck Medical Center settles Indiana Attorney General’s lawsuit over 2021 data breach

• On June 6, the state also sued Schneck, alleging violations of HIPAA, the Indiana Disclosure of Security Breach Act, and the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act.

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ Rite Aid, one of many victims in MOVEit breach, sued for negligence

• Rite Aid was one of numerous entities affected by the massive MOVEit breach. In July, they disclosed that 24,400 patients’ pharmacy information including medication names and dates of fill, prescriber information and limited insurance information was involved. They were notified by their vendor of the breach on May 31.

=> ↺ Dymocks warns shoppers of possible dark web data breach

• Bookstore chain Dymocks has warned customers of a possible data breach that could lead to their personal information being leaked on the dark web.

• In an email sent to members on Friday, the bookseller’s managing director, Mark Newman, said a potential hack was detected two days earlier.

=> ↺ Dallas News ☛ Dallas delays release of report that reviews ransomware response

• An internal report reviewing Dallas’ response to a ransomware attack that was planned to be published Wednesday could now have its public release delayed up to two weeks, city officials say.

• The hold up could mean further delaying clarity to the public on how the cyberattack happened and what steps the city took to safeguard residents’ personal information since then.

• A full after-action report was scheduled to be released to the public after a briefing on the review’s findings by information technology officials to the City Council on Wednesday, but the briefing was postponed because it was past 8 p.m. by the time the presentation was set to be heard. The City Council meeting started around 9:30 a.m., and the bulk of it was spent discussing amendments to the upcoming budget.

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ More than a year later, Lifeline Health Systems notifies 75,000 people of a data breach

• What conditions existed that should excuse Lifeline Health Systems from its obligation under the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule to notify HHS and those affected no later than 60 days from discovery? Is this another case where maybe HHS should take enforcement action and start handing out fines and corrective action plans to make sure entities comply with the timely notification rule?

=> ↺ Data Breaches ☛ The Blackbaud data breach — SuspectFile’s final chapter

• While SuspectFile closes its data collection and provides its final figures, we note that litigation against Blackbaud is ongoing. There are still multiple cases open against them stemming from the incident.

=> ↺ Blackbaud Data Breach (2020-2023), the final chapter

• With this article on the Blackbaud Data Breach, we conclude the final chapter of a story that SuspectFile has been following for three years, but not before updating our table with the number of people involved in the data breach at the University of Birmingham – UK (464,395), a figure that was only recently provided to us by the university.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Security updates for Friday

• Security updates have been issued by Debian (chromium, libssh2, memcached, and python-django), Fedora (netconsd), Oracle (firefox and thunderbird), Scientific Linux (firefox), SUSE (open-vm-tools), and Ubuntu (grub2-signed, grub2-unsigned, shim, and shim-signed, plib, and python2.7, python3.5).

=> ↺ TechCrunch ☛ Polish Senate says use of government spyware is illegal in the country | TechCrunch

• A Polish Senate commission concluded that Poland government’s use of spyware made by NSO Group was illegal and influenced the 2019 elections.

Integrity/Availability/Authenticity

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ Concert Ticket Scams Are Absolutely Soaring in 2023, Latest Data Reveals

• Concert ticket scams are soaring in 2023. Here’s a peek at some of the latest data. Banking group Santander says customer reports of ticketing scams have more than doubled in the UK within the last year.

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Ars Technica ☛ Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome

• Don’t let Chrome’s big redesign distract you from the fact that Chrome’s invasive new ad platform, ridiculously branded the “Privacy Sandbox,” is also getting a widespread rollout in Chrome today. If you haven’t been following this, this feature will track the web pages you visit and generate a list of advertising topics that it will share with web pages whenever they ask, and it’s built directly into the Chrome browser. It’s been in the news previously as “FLoC” and then the “Topics API,” and despite widespread opposition from just about every non-advertiser in the world, Google owns Chrome and is one of the world’s biggest advertising companies, so this is being railroaded into the production builds.

=> ↺ LWN ☛ Google bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome (ars technica)

• For those who use Chrome anyway, there are instructions on how to disable this functionality.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ Ministry acknowledges event involving ‘torture, killing’ of refugees on Turkey-Syria border

• “Criminal proceedings were initiated against two soldiers. Four contract personnel were dismissed, and proceedings are underway regarding one reserve officer. It is clear that torture has been acknowledged and cannot be denied,” MP Gergerlioğlu said based on the response he received to his parliamentary question.

=> ↺ Federal News Network ☛ Biden to use G20 summit and Vietnam visit to highlight US as trustworthy alternative to China

• President Joe Biden hopes to demonstrate at the upcoming Group of 20 summit in India and a visit to Vietnam that the United States and like-minded allies can be more trustworthy partners than China on economic and security issues. White House officials say Biden, at the summit, will spotlight a U.S. plan to increase by $200 billion the lending power of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. That’s an attempt to offer an alternative to China’s massive Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, which the U.S. views as a Trojan horse for Chinese military expansion. In Vietnam, Biden is expected to announce plans to tighten economic cooperation between the countries.

=> ↺ The Strategist ☛ Leadership change creates new opportunities for Vanuatu–Australia security relationship

• On Monday, Sato Kilman was voted in as prime minister of Vanuatu for the fifth time, after the country’s Supreme Court upheld a vote of no confidence against former PM Ishmael Kalsakau.

Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

=> ↺ Ukrainian boy’s anti-war painting set to fetch hundreds to help fight Russia

• A 9-year-old Ukrainian boy’s poignant anti-war painting of a tank with a twisted cannon is set to fetch hundreds of pounds at auction.

Environment

=> ↺ University of Michigan ☛ Planting trees and picking politicians: How to survive the new era of global boiling

• In July 2023, Earth broke its “hottest day ever” twice in a row, reaching the highest temperatures in over 100,000 years.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ In Pictures: Hong Kong hit by widespread flooding, landslides as record-breaking rain paralyses city

• Torrential rain has brought severe flooding and landslides to parts of Hong Kong after the city’s Observatory recorded the highest one-hour rainfall since records began in 1884, with public transport and public services affected as the Observatory raised its highest rainstorm signal.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Hong Kong, Shenzhen deluged by heaviest rain on record; 83 people hurt

• The torrential rain was brought by Haikui, a typhoon that made landfall in the Chinese province of Fujian.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Rain and Flooding in Greece Traps Residents and Submerges Villages

• Greek military forces were called in to assist the rescue efforts. At least six people in Greece and at least nine in neighboring Turkey have died this week amid torrential rains and flooding.

=> ↺ University of Michigan ☛ Local Citizens’ Climate Lobby chapter event promotes in-home energy efficiency

• More than 50 Ann Arbor residents and community members gathered in Venue by 4M Thursday evening to learn about home energy efficiency and how to utilize federal incentives such as the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce their home carbon footprint.

Energy/Transportation

=> ↺ Reason ☛ Politicians Say They Want To Fight Climate Change. So Why Are They Fighting China on Electric Vehicles?

• Rather than posing a national security threat, the growth of China’s E.V. industry is an opportunity for global innovation.

Finance

=> ↺ University of Michigan ☛ Op-Ed: The rent is too damn high

• The views expressed here are not the official views of the Ann Arbor Renters Commission I speak to a lot of renters and they tell me a lot of things: horror stories galore of insect infestations, collapsing ceilings and even outright theft of rental deposits.

=> ↺ Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China exports, imports fall again in August as economy struggles, but pace slows

• By Peter Catterall China’s exports and imports sank again in August, data showed Thursday, adding to growing pressure on authorities to introduce fresh stimulus for the world’s number two economy even as the figures showed some sign of improvement.

=> ↺ Mexico News Daily ☛ Inflation declined for 7th consecutive month in August to 4.64%

• Inflation was driven by the cost of food, services and housing, although it did see a decline from July, analysts say.

=> ↺ Walmart Cutting Starting Pay And No Raises In It Is A Double Edged Sword, Complacency In Apple

=> ↺ TechCrunch ☛ Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower conducts layoffs, several execs out

• Sensor Tower, a prominent market intelligence firm for the app economy, this week laid off a notable portion of its workforce, estimated at around 40 people out of the 270+ at the company, according to LinkedIn’s headcount. The layoffs included C-suite executives, TechCrunch has learned from multiple sources, including the CMO, CFO and chief product officer. Other teams impacted include finance and nearly all of marketing, we’re hearing.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan tycoon Terry Gou’s entry heats up presidential race, may force opposition candidates to strike deal

• The Foxconn founder has access to Chinese and US leaders, and believes he can balance Taiwan’s ties with both sides.

=> ↺ RFA ☛ South Korea, China grapple with different priorities amid regional tensions

• Seoul seeks cooperation in regional security; Beijing wants to focus on economic ties.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Sudan: East African Bloc Calls Inclusive Talks to End Conflict

• The leaders warned that the Sudan conflict is becoming increasingly complex and risks taking on a regional dimension with the entry and participation of other armed movements, in addition to the rapid proliferation of small arms and light weapons posing severe security, humanitarian and political risks for Sudan and the broader region.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ PM Lee to attend G-20 Summit in India

• The summit will discuss world issues such as sustainable development, climate change and food security.

=> ↺ The Straits Times ☛ White House: Still work to do on Israel-Saudi normalisation

• White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday that U.S., Israeli and Saudi leaders have put many of the elements of a pathway to normalization on the table but there is still much work to do.

=> ↺ teleSUR ☛ Fearab Congress Condemns Blockade Imposed on Syria and Cuba

• The participants urged respect for international laws and human rights, and called to abandon policies of use of violence, blockades, and theft of natural resources.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ 2 Senators Propose Bipartisan Framework for A.I. Laws

• The effort by Senators Richard Blumenthal and Josh Hawley is the latest move by lawmakers to catch up with the rapidly evolving technology.

=> ↺ Mint Press News ☛ Transparency International’s Covert Agenda: A Pawn in Western Intelligence’s Game

• Founded by World Bank apparatchiks in 1993, Transparency International has relentlessly exposed public sector corruption in the Global South while leaving government-enabled criminality in rich nations unexamined.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ ACLU ☛ What the Fight Against Classroom Censorship is Really About

• The ACLU is leading the fight to end classroom censorship and protect our right to learn. We filed the first case in the country to challenge a law that censored instruction about systemic sexism and racism in Oklahoma, survived a motion to dismiss in New Hampshire, and obtained an injunction to block the State of Florida from enforcing the higher education provisions of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ RFA ☛ Political prisoner stages hunger strike to protect Vietnam’s constitution

• Le Trong Hung says corrupt officials have gone unpunished.

=> ↺ New York Times ☛ Spain’s Female Soccer Players Strike Over Wage Dispute

• The season was scheduled to begin on Friday, but the players refused to play after talks with the league brought no agreement. The dispute comes amid a debate over sexism and soccer in Spain.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Chris ☛ Response Time Is the System Talking

=> ↺ Zimbabwe ☛ NetOne is the biggest loser of subscribers and Telecel loses 56.5% of its mobile internet traffic

• Mobile subscriptions as a whole dropped in Q2, a trend that has been consistent since Q3 2022. This time around NetOne lost the largest chunk of subscribers at 5.2% (193,126 subscribers). An interesting stat is the number of subscribers NetOne lost in Q2 of 2023 is equivalent to 63% of Telecel’s subscribers (307,534).

Monopolies

Patents

=> ↺ Unified Patents ☛ GW Law to host PTAB Roundtable Discussion, September 28

• GW Law is pleased to invite you to our in-person annual PTAB roundtable. Please join us on Thursday, September 28, 2023, for a dynamic discussion on recent PTAB and IPR developments. Join patent leaders for a half-day program discussing the post-grant practice at the PTAB, recent developments, proposed rules and legislation, trends, policy considerations, and more. A casual lunch will be provided before the program and a reception will follow afterwards. The event is complimentary.

=> ↺ Dennis Crouch/Patently-O ☛ The Federal Circuit’s New Reluctance to Limit Claims

• Federal Circuit’s decision in Dali Wireless parallels the issues that I recently discussed in an analysis of the court’s September 1 decision in Sisvel International v. Sierra Wireless. Both cases grapple with claim construction and the tension between construing claims broadly versus importing limitations from the specification.

• In Sisvel, the Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB’s broad construction of “connection rejection message” over the mobile-network patentee’s arguments that the term should be limited to GSM/UMTS networks. Although the disclosed embodiments all focused on GSM/UMTS networks, the claims were drafted broadly without a clear disclaimer or redefinition.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Digital Music News ☛ Spotify Keeps Snubbing Oliver Anthony Music — But This Success Story Is Being Driven By Users, Not Playlist Editors

• Oliver Anthony’s music continues to move up on the streaming charts—no thanks to Spotify’s most popular country playlists. Just last week, Digital Music News wrote a piece highlighting how the upstart singer has been slow to gain traction with both radio airplay and streaming music playlists.

=> ↺ Public Domain Review ☛ The Works of Mars (1671)

• Manesson’s book encompasses theories of fortifications from their origins in designs developed in the sixteenth century by Michelangelo.

Gemini* and Gopher

Politics and World Events

=> ↺ How to increase Bible engagement

• As someone who spent my adolescent and young adult years in some form of Evangelical Protestantism (Christian Reformed to JW to Independent Fundamental Baptist to Charismatic/Pentecostal), and as someone who majored in biblical studies as an undergrad for a couple of years, I thought I knew the Bible from the cover to cover. So it was quite a shock for me earlier this year to find out how little I knew about it, while I was taking Bible survey classes at CLI.

• According to the American Bible Society’s “State of the Bible” survey in 2022, there was an “unprecedented drop” in Bible engagement during the early part of last year. This is when the survey’s definition of Bible engagement is “reading the Bible outside church settings at least three or four times a year.” Even under this shallow bar, the engagement dropped by 11 percent between 2021 and 2022.

Technology and Free Software

=> ↺ The Middle

• I enjoy playing video games, but I don’t consider myself a “gamer” in any substantive fashion. I mostly play the same set of old games from my childhood, and when I do buy new consoles, I often make the purchase years after the consoles were first released–sometimes even waiting until the next generation to save some money. I also very rarely buy games on release. My wife, on the other hand, often pre-orders games, and sometimes she has to twist my arm to get me to play games with her.

• [...]

• This behavior contrasts with people who play video games casually: those who try out a game at a friend’s house, or maybe get introduced to a game via a coworker, a Facebook friend, or even their children. They may play video games or only half an hour or an hour at a time, and if they find they don’t like it, they’ll likely never touch the console again, let alone that particular game. Even if they find that they like it, they may only play socially, or when they have some empty time between other hobbies or interests. Such people rarely play games for more than a dozen or so hours a year.

=> ↺ stream 3

• my phone is in black and white. it goes into sleep mode when the time comes. the time comes always at 8 30 pm now. the baby is here because she makes me wake up early so I go to bed earlier so my phone is black and white and gray. it is mostly gray. the gray takes and takes and takes and sucks and it sucks. songs that suck suck. songs that suck rock suck rocks

• go into the day with another life behind you. the only way to live is to remember. the only thing you can do is live. so you must remember.

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