01.18.23

Microsoft Azure is So Amazingly Successful That Every Year Since 2020 It Has Layoffs (Even This Year)

Posted in Deception, Finance, Microsoft, Servers at 1:55 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

To quote this new article: “Among the new cuts will be teams within a group led by executive Omar Abbosh that help Microsoft’s sales teams pitch customers on Azure cloud services, this person said. Teams that don’t generate revenue or whose roles don’t carry specific sales quotas are especially vulnerable, the person said.”

Microsoft Prepares to Lay Off Thousands of Employees, Including in Azure-Related Units
So the government bailouts [1, 2] were not enough

Summary: The layoffs at Microsoft impact Azure; and why is this so important? Because Microsoft keeps lying to shareholders about “clown computing” success, hailing Azure as the “future” of the company (without supportive figures, just more re-branding for further re-classification, i.e. cannibalisation)

[Meme] Spot the ‘Pirate’

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, GPL, Humour, Microsoft at 1:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Microsoft: What’s Yours is Ours, Too

Gates letter to 'hobbyists': sharing of code is evil, it's like stealing and that's just piracy; Microsoft Corp.: Opposing monopoly and its predatory pricing is piracy

Microsoft today: We take the code from 'hobbyists' and encourage plagiarism (we even sell it as a subscription), but that's not piracy, it is 'AI' and 'Fair Use'

Summary: Microsoft is very strict about copyright law when enforcing its monopolies; when it comes to the competition, however, Microsoft gleefully violates copyright law

“It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not.”

–Bill Gates

Sirius ‘Open Source’ Needed a Staff Union to Save the Company From Abusive, Corrupt Management

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Law at 12:45 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum 7d777a6535bcafb6984260cd8b1e6ec8
Sirius Treats Staff as Lacking Basic Rights
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ failed to accomplish what its mission statement said, but it wasn’t the fault of Free software (or “Open Source”); it was the fault of management that does not understand Free software, rejects Free software, and cracks down on staff that advocates Software Freedom

THIS series has thus far shown that in 2019 things took a turn for the worse, perhaps coincidentally around the very same time the Gates Foundation secretly paid under an NDA. Within weeks at least 2 “managers” conspired to send not only me but also my wife to humiliating disciplinary action (we were fully acquitted by an external HR firm, but the bullying management was never held accountable).

“So we ended up in a crooked, dishonest, lousy company, where technical staff collectively suffered the wrath/”big ego” of the “Big Shot” management (it’s always right and it knows everything; even when it’s wrong it will never admit it).”Back then we realised (several different aggrieved employees) that had workers set up a union, even managers would be held accountable. But Sirius was already run by vicious people, who would never tolerate a union and would likely ‘hunt down’ any perceived union ‘leaders’.

So we ended up in a crooked, dishonest, lousy company, where technical staff collectively suffered the wrath/”big ego” of the “Big Shot” management (it’s always right and it knows everything; even when it’s wrong it will never admit it). The management disregarded Free software, failed to make payments to providers (we’ve shown examples), and basically rode the “brand” of company already (by that time) over 20 years old. Opportunists and charlatans.

“If you work for ogres, don’t wait for them to start a witch-hunt.”The video above explains the last straw. It was all about me chatting with a close friend about what I was experiencing at the company, only after the company had failed to act as I expressed those same grievances internally. What I did wasn’t wrong. First of all, what I said was accurate; it’s all true. Second, nobody is mentioned. Third, it’s informal and management should not spy on staff outside work. Fourth, Rianne had nothing to do with the informal chats and wasn’t even aware of them. They’re not “publication” but mere act of fast, informal, typos-riddled chatting in a command line about very legitimate issues brought forth internally first (the culprits want to keep it secret because the truth is embarrassing).

If you work for ogres, don’t wait for them to start a witch-hunt. Quit proactively and explain to the world what happened. If you worry about what future employers might think, worry not. Clever employers with real integrity can value honesty and can identify innocent victims of utterly mad companies, governed by ruthless control freaks. █

Behind the Microsoft Layoffs There’s an Even Darker Reality

Posted in Deception, Finance, Microsoft at 12:13 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum 7fb0edfd2781c995111982f6fd392be8
Do Not Lose Sight of What Microsoft Hides
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The Microsoft layoffs are big (even bigger if one counts the contractors), but beneath the surface there’s a company that’s failing to evolve and is instead resorting to more illegal operations, which include not just mass bribery but also mass plagiarism (plagiarism-as-a-service)

THE most accessed posts this month concern Microsoft layoffs because the mainstream/corporate media refused to cover the issue until it was “too late” for Microsoft to hide it. The media did not bother investigating the matter. Any real journalist could ask a Microsoft insider (discreetly of course!), especially a manager, about the matter. If I can do this, salaried journalists certainly could. But nowadays journalism isn’t about informing the public but about attracting (or retaining) advertisers, including Microsoft.

“I’m a huge fan of guerrilla marketing.”

–Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Watch ‘Reporter’

“Remember that Microsoft makes journalists toe the line to retain their “access” to official channels of information,” an associate reminds us. We’ve documented extensive evidence of this over the years, e.g. this Microsoft internal document. [PDF]

“…nowadays journalism isn’t about informing the public but about attracting (or retaining) advertisers, including Microsoft.”The post we published hours ago confirms the layoffs (the scale is not yet confirmed and the divisions impacted are mostly unknown). We only know that Microsoft will certainly downplay the whole thing, lie about what the motivations are, and as the video above notes, Microsoft will continue to bombard the media with its "Hey Hi" PR (plagiarism). Don’t lose sight of Azure’s failure (shut-down datacentres and layoffs for several consecutive years). Microsoft is not a security vendor, not a gaming company (XBox sales lose* the company money!), it continues to fail at “Clown Computing”, and now there are layoffs, partly obscured by a Microsoft PR campaign about “Hey Hi” (AI). Look away from the noise to find the signal. Even several bailouts from President Biden [1, 2] did not or could not prevent layoffs because the company fails to actually sell things (Microsoft has had a tight “lobbying” grip on Biden since the Obama years). It’s still far too reliant on monopoly rents, such as secret and potentially illegal OEM agreements (Windows and more).

Just to clarify how/why Azure is failing, as the video above notes almost nobody uses it and the company was left with a lot of unused server capacity, resulting in a waste of energy. Energy has gotten a lot more expensive. Don’t believe the paid-for hype! █

“[A]fter analysing a five-day working week in the media, across 10 hard-copy papers, ACIJ and Crikey found that nearly 55% of stories analysed were driven by some form of public relations. The Daily Telegraph came out on top of the league ladder with 70% of stories analysed triggered by public relations. The Sydney Morning Herald gets the wooden spoon with (only) 42% PR-driven stories for that week.”

–“Over half your news is spin”

______
* Since the early days of the XBox it has barely made any money (revenue and profit aren’t the same thing); Microsoft suffered losses, but it persisted nevertheless. One might argue that it has not really been much about dominating that market and that XBox was never about being or becoming a gaming console. Instead, this losing venture has been about fighting against general-purpose computing with a lot of restrictions inside the underlying hardware, in effect making a test bed for DRM and other lock-in using previously-commodity hardware. It’s like the handle and razor blades. Microsoft and Bill Gates have long loathed sharing and generics. Their business model was mostly based on stealing from the Commons and creating privatised monopolies, instead.

01.17.23

[Meme] Cannot Speak to Friends If You Work at Sirius (Spouse Cannot Speak to Friends, Either)

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software at 9:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Not Free software, not even free speech (because truth discredits lies)

failed to prevent husband from speaking to a friend in 2-way chat?

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ is a truly absurd company where chat outside work is apparently impermissible even if no companies or persons are named (and spouses too are impacted in an act of ‘collective punishment’)

Sirius and the Straw Man

Posted in Deception, Law at 9:21 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Sirius never had a union; managers would not allow one, either

Summary: Today we take a closer look at what Sirius ‘Open Source’ management said about unions. We have plenty left to say about Sirius ‘Open Source’ (many posts already; about 200!), so we expect this series to go on until next month. We’ll show a lot more examples and evidence of scandals.

FOUR years ago I seriously considered leaving Sirius in light of the abuse suffered due to management being liars and manipulative bullies. The abuse started only weeks after the Gates Foundation had gotten involved, according to our records (we re-checked the dates recently). Earlier this winter or in autumn I had already made up my mind, having tentatively decided to do that around 12 months ago (leaving the company), but Rianne is another story. Rianne did not want to leave. My own motivations were explained in blog posts last year. Ethics were a key part of it, instrumental in the decision-making. The company ceased to be ethical.

“A boss who hoped to prove that Rianne had done something wrong ended up doing many wrong things himself.”Earlier this month we showed that a boss had picked on my wife using non-evidence and non-facts. It was a total disaster (we previously showed Rianne’s resignation letter and Rianne’s departure message at tuxmachines.org). A boss who hoped to prove that Rianne had done something wrong ended up doing many wrong things himself. For more information see Anatomy of a Corporate Witch-Hunt, especially parts like these, which reveal the full chain of correspondence. People can assess that for themselves. Readers can form their own opinions.

“These gross omissions — and more generally the unprofessional management style — were consistent with what had been criticised for years already. This merely reinforced the legitimacy of the criticism.”Here at Techrights we’ve been covering many union-related activities, especially at the EPO (since 2014, i.e. nearly a decade already). So we’ve spent more time studying this situation at Sirius, striving to accurately explain that “fluke”. The gist of the story is, on November 18th a letter was sent to Rianne, probably before the company was getting legal advice and before Rianne herself could seek legal advice. Rianne insisted that she should be given time to speak to a lawyer.

Then, on November 28th, an entirely different letter was sent. Ever so suddenly the tone of the letter and content changed because the boss and the sidekick apparently spoke to actual HR people for the first time. They checked the law and realised they had left something out. These gross omissions — and more generally the unprofessional management style — were consistent with what had been criticised for years already. This merely reinforced the legitimacy of the criticism.

“My lawyer says I can be accompanied not only by a trade union person,” Rianne wrote to the bully. “Sirius doesn’t have a union.”

The response came about a day later (after the revised letter):

Dear Rianne,

Thanks for your message.

As per our letter, you are entitled to be accompanied by either a work colleague or by a Trades Union representative.

Just to be clear, it is not Sirius’ responsibility to run or operate a Union. Trades Unions are independent bodies that operate separately to employers so that they can work for the benefit of their members.

It is also not Sirius’ responsibility to nominate a suitable Trades Union. It is a right under UK law for each employee to make an individual decision to choose whether or not they wish to join a Union. Sirius is an equal opportunity employer and makes no distinction at all between those who are members of a Trade Union and those who are not.

Kind regards,

There’s a lot wrong with that response and an upcoming video will elaborate some more. Rianne responded by stating that it was a false dichotomy and moreover the boss admitted that he would “tinker” with the witness prior to any meeting and be in a position to even deny the request. This means that any impartial or sympathetic (to Rianne) witness is deemed disqualified or subject to judgement (or warning) from the accuser. Cushioning a ‘kangaroo court’ with more kangaroos does not improve things — it merely gives the illusion of balance even where none exists. It’s like those notorious compositions in internal appeals at the EPO — compositions that were repeatedly deemed inadequate by the ILOAT.

Rianne never bothered with that stupid ‘kangaroo court’. She had already suffered enough for 4 years. She wasn’t planning to waste any more time in such a corrupt company. On Friday at 4PM a PDF was sent and on Saturday morning she formally resigned, having explained how she felt about the whole thing (see links in the relevant wiki for contents of the PDF).

“Sirius is a very fake company. It’s run by phonies who lie to the staff and to clients.”Our current plan is to explain these matters and in the coming fortnight or so we’ll be publishing many more blog posts (they’re semi-drafted already) — with many more later, according to any further issues that arise (like the company trying to silence us). We cross-post, add to wiki etc. in order to better preserve access to all this information. We won’t allow that to be censored. The long report, followed by a PDF version, was already seen by the company a very long time ago. They knew what was coming. They didn’t know what to do. All the writing was done only after the bullying. In recent weeks we had to check with pension providers if the company was trying to ‘punish’ us through pensions. This is still under investigation (the pension provider opened a ticket for this and keeps updating us). This series has not been easy to publish as the company attempted to prevent access to our own E-mails! The company failed at it, so we still have access to evidence that vindicates us. We have some long articles on the way and maybe then some more blog posts (remaining notes, more embarrassing examples). We’ve meanwhile learned about the impact on the company. It can pretend all it wants that it doesn’t care, but it hurts really badly. That’s karma. Think before you shoot. Check the law before you leap to conclusions.

In the next part we’ll take a look at Carbon Accounting, which is where Sirius claims to be based. As we showed before, not only the company Sirius but also its CEO use their accountants to pretend to have an office. Sirius is a very fake company. It’s run by phonies who lie to the staff and to clients. █

Links 17/01/2023: VirtualBox 7.0.6 and Uruk 3.0 (Iraqi GNU/Linux) ‘Cinnamon’ Released

Posted in News Roundup at 8:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  • GNU/Linux

    • Desktop/Laptop

      • Make Use Of ☛ 8 Reasons Why Linux Is Perfect for Older People

        Some mainstream operating systems are not ideal for seniors and older users. So what makes Linux distros stand out from the crowd?

        Linux distributions pride themselves on being extremely efficient, flexible, and user-friendly. Given these qualities, different Linux distros continue to please users with their tailor-made applications, user-friendliness, and customizations, making them an instant hit with the masses.

        The younger population loves using Linux in its different shapes and forms; the older generation is just a little behind, as they are also beginning to use these multi-faceted distributions. What are some of the features that make Linux distros stand out for the older generation?

        Whatever the case, you can learn more about how Linux distributions are becoming the next big deal for older people.

    • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Applications

      • Linux Links ☛ 12 Best Free and Open Source Linux Markdown Editors

        Markdown can be composed in any text editor. But I recommend an editor purposely designed for this syntax. The software featured in this roundup allows an author to write professional documents of various formats including blog posts, presentations, reports, email, slides and more. All of the applications are, of course, released under an open source license. Linux, OS X and Windows’ users are catered for.

        This article does not include general purpose text editors like Vim or Emacs. Of course, they are capable Markdown editors. There are also packages/plugins available for these editors (and others) that add Markdown functionality. But this Group Test focuses instead on dedicated markdown editors.

      • 9to5Linux ☛ VirtualBox 7.0.6 Adds Initial Support for Linux 6.2, RHEL 9.1, and UEK7 Kernels

        Oracle released today VirtualBox 7.0.6 as the third stable update to the latest and greatest VirtualBox 7.0 series of this powerful open-source and cross-platform virtualization software that brings support for newer kernels and various improvements.

        VirtualBox 7.0.6 comes two months after VirtualBox 7.0.4 and introduces initial support for the upcoming Linux 6.2 kernel series, as well as initial support for the kernel of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 operating system, and initial support for building the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 7 (UEK7) kernel on Oracle Linux 8.

      • Ubuntu Pit ☛ Yum vs Apt: A Comparison of Package Managers for Linux

        A package manager is an important tool in the Linux environment. It allows users to install, update, and remove software packages with a single command. Two of the most popular package managers available today are yum and apt. They both have unique features and allow system administrators to manage application installations more efficiently. Red Hat-based distributions rely on Apt package management, while Debian-based systems use Yum to manage their packages.

      • Make Use Of ☛ How to Create Mind Maps Within the Linux Terminal With h-m-m

        Mind maps help you brainstorm ideas or plan things out in detail. Here’s how to create mind maps on Linux with Hackers Mind Map.

        Coming up with new ideas and keeping track of them is hard. Mind maps make the process easier by allowing you to chart ideas from their origin, explore related concepts, and track through a visual tree, taking different forks to get you to your goal.

        Hackers Mind Map is complete mind mapping software to help you hack through the forking paths of creativity from your terminal.

      • Whisker Menu 2.7.2 released

        Fix missing version number
        Fix memory leak when adding launchers to panel
        Fix skipping first treeview item when switching modes
        Fix clipping when changing application icon size
        Fix missing NULL checks with String class
        Use Thunar for adding launchers to desktop
        Translation updates: Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Taiwan), Danish, Dutch, German, Greek, Esperanto, French, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian

      • Thomas Lange: FAI 6.0 released and new ISO images using Debian 12 bookworm/testing

        After more than a year, a new major FAI release is ready to download.

      • LinuxStans ☛ 3 Best VPNs for Linux [Ed: This one, for a change, does not seem like sponsored VPN spam]

        VPN (Virtual Private Network) is one of the methods of safe encrypted connection to the Internet when a standard connection provides only limited access, or you want to stay anonymous. In addition, VPN is a good solution to access essential files through a secure connection if you work remotely.

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Video ☛ How to install GoLand on KDE Neon – Invidious

        In this video, we are looking at how to install GoLand on KDE Neon.

      • How to Install Flutter and Dart on Any GNU/Linux Distro

        Flutter is a Framework/ToolKit and Dart is a scripting language, both from Google.

      • LinuxTechLab ☛ How to Get the Most Out of DuckDuckGo on Your Linux Terminal [Ed: Shusain is shilling a Microsoft proxy for Linux users. Terrible. DuckDuckGo isn’t privacy but a scam.]
      • Network World ☛ Commands and setting for managing user accounts on Linux | Network World

        To manage user accounts on Linux systems, you’ll need to be familiar with some important files and commands.

      • TechRepublic ☛ How to test website speeds with curl

        Website speed reductions may be too small to view, but you know it happens. Here’s how to get actionable details on website speed with curl.

      • nixCraft ☛ How to configure automated security updates on Debian automatically

        How do I keep my server/cloud computer powered by Debian Linux 11.x/10.x current with the latest security updates automatically? Is there is a tool to update security patches automatically?

        Yes, you can download and install all security updates/upgrades automatically in the background. It is done in an unattended way and installs security updates for you. Let us see how to configure automated security Debian Linux updates.

      • AddictiveTips ☛ How to get qBittorrent working on your Chromebook

        if you use torrents to download open-source software (which saves projects bandwidth,) download open-source operating system ISO files, or use the torrent protocol for large files (like a personal photo collection), and want to do all of this on your Chromebook, you’ll want to install a torrent client like qBittorrent.

        Please note: AddictiveTips does not advocate downloading unauthorized software with qBittorrent. Please only use this torrent client to download legitimate, legal software on your device.

      • ID Root ☛ How To Install Atom Text Editor on Rocky Linux 9 [Ed: Its development was halted by Microsoft. Why still help people install this?]

        In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Atom Text Editor on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Atom is a highly customizable and powerful text editor that is designed for developers, but it can also be used for general-purpose text editing. One of the main features of Atom is its flexibility and customizability. Users can install and use packages and themes to customize the look and functionality of the editor. There is also a wide range of community-made packages available, such as code linkers, debuggers, and autocomplete tools, which can be easily installed and configured. Atom is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.

        This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of Atom Text Editor on Rocky Linux. 9.

      • Linux Made Simple ☛ How to install ReRun on a Chromebook

        Today we are looking at how to install ReRun on a Chromebook.

      • Linux Made Simple ☛ How to install Discord on a Chromebook in 2023

        Today we are looking at how to install Discord on a Chromebook in 2023. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.

      • What is File Globbing in Linux?

        If you have ever used wildcard characters like (*) or (?) for global selection, then you are already interacting with file globbing, but let’s get a proper picture of it with its introduction.

    • Games

      • Godot Engine ☛ Dev snapshot: Godot 4.0 beta 13

        With the first Godot 4.0 Release Candidate on the horizon we continue to release beta snapshots frequently and relentlessly! Such cadence allows us to better measure the overall stability and quickly catch regressions, especially when a lot of features are worked on at the same time.

        This week we release a new batch of improvements and fixes, as well as some new features. Unfortunately, we also have to rollback one of the core animations features. After a lot of testing and consideration we’ve decided to postpone improvements to the inverse kinematics system until a future Godot 4.x release, removing the currently unstable SkeletonModificationStack3D. This decision allows us to better focus efforts of the Animation team on stabilizing other features.

    • Desktop Environments/WMs

      • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

        • DebugPoint ☛ KDE Plasma 5.27: Top New Features and Release Details

          The list of impressive features and enhancements of the KDE Plasma 5.27 desktop is arriving in February.

          In a way, KDE Plasma 5.27 is a milestone release.

          Firstly, it is the final LTS release of the Plasma 5 version and the last instalment of the Plasma 5 series. Initial porting work has already started for Plasma 6 series, which would be based on Qt 6 version.

          Release number-wise, it is the 29th version of the KDE Plasma desktop, followed by the prior plasma 5.26 release.

          Visible feature-wise, it’s of moderate size. However, the bug fixes, code refactoring, cleanup, and optimization are significant. Most are not visible on the deck, but you can feel the changes when using this fluid desktop.

        • KDE Videos ☛ Architecture Slideshow – Kdenlive + Glaxnimate Proof of Concept – Kockatoo Tube

      • GNOME Desktop/GTK

        • OMG! Linux ☛ Weather O’Clock GNOME Extension Does What it Says – OMG! Linux

          Weather O’Clock is a new GNOME extension that does something super simple, yet so supremely satisfying.

          See, like many, I want to know what the weather is doing as I use my computer (despite often being next to a window I could look out of). Rational or not; being able to look up and see the current weather conditions and temperature at-a-glance is something I like to do.

          Of course, being a user of GNOME Shell I am spoilt for choice in this regard.

          There are a ton of weather extensions for GNOME Shell that will, amongst other abilities, put the current conditions and temperature in the top panel, to the left or the right of the clock in a standard GNOME setup.

  • Distributions and Operating Systems

    • The Register UK ☛ Interview: Continuing the original native OS for Arm chips • The Register

      The mid-1980s codebase for RISC OS, the original native OS for the Arm processor, is still run on present-day hardware and actively maintained and developed. We spoke to RISC OS Open boss Steve Revill about its 26-bit origins, working to bring it to newer 32-bit Arm chips, efforts to update its BSD-based network stack, and more.

    • ZDNet ☛ Haiku is an open-source operating system for those who miss NeXTStep | ZDNET

      At the same time, Jean-Louis Gassée left Apple to create a company called Be Inc., who developed BeOS, which focused on creating the fastest disk I/O, rendering, and kernel on the market.

      Instead of competing with Jobs’ other company, Apple bought NeXT and then modified the OS to become the new OS X and iPhone OS 1.

      But what happened to BeOS? It now lives on as the Haiku Project.

      I first tested Haiku years ago and was thrilled that an OS opted to offer an AfterStep-like interface. Of course, it turns out AfterStep (which was my favorite Linux desktop back in the day) was actually based on NeXT, so it all kind of comes full circle.

    • Fedora Family / IBM

      • Red Hat Official ☛ The importance of automating the hybrid cloud

        During AnsibleFest 2022, Red Hat announced its hybrid cloud automation initiative. This is a focused product effort to better support automation use cases across public cloud, private cloud and cloud-native infrastructures.

        The Ansible content ecosystem team, together with Red Hat’s partners, has been working on a new set of Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collections and Ansible validated content to address the most common automation use cases across best-of-breed cloud technologies.

      • Red Hat Official ☛ New deep threat intelligence in Red Hat Insights: Helping to prioritize what matters the most with system vulnerabilities

        Red Hat Insights has added new functionality that helps users determine which of their registered Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems are “affected” with a vulnerability but are not “vulnerable.” Yes, “affected but not vulnerable” is a thing, and having this level of threat intelligence is meaningful and can make a significant difference when time is of the essence and you have to protect your organization against the next big vulnerability.

        Let’s break this down and look at it systematically. We’ll first define what “affected” and “vulnerable” mean in the context of Insights. We’ll then review the most common challenges enterprises typically face, and finally we’ll review how having this level of threat intelligence will help. Let’s define these terms:

      • Fedora Magazine ☛ Anaconda Web UI storage feedback requested! – Fedora Magazine

        As you might know, the Anaconda Web UI preview image has a simple “erase everything” partitioning right now because partitioning is a pretty big and problematic topic. On one hand, Linux guru people want to control everything; on the other hand, we also need to support beginner users. We are also constrained by the capabilities of the existing backend and storage tooling and consistency with the rest of Anaconda. Anaconda team is looking for your storage feedback to help us with design of the Web UI!

        In general, partitioning is one of the most complex, problematic, and controversial parts of what Anaconda is doing. Because of that and the great feedback from the last blog, we decided to ask you for feedback again to know where we should focus. We’re looking for feedback from everyone. More answers are better here. We’d like to get input if you’re using Fedora, RHEL, Debian, OpenSUSE, Windows, or Linux, even if it’s just for a week. All these inputs are valuable!

    • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

      • OMG Ubuntu ☛ Ubuntu’s New Installer is Shaping Up Nicely – OMG! Ubuntu!

        Ubuntu’s been working on its new OS installer for a couple years, now it looks like the upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 ‘Lunar Lobster’ release will finally ship it by default.

        The latest pending Ubuntu 23.04 daily builds use the reworked installer by default, and is expected to power the default install experience of the Ubuntu 23.03 beta in March.

        Thing is, despite the fact the installer is built using an entirely different toolkit (Flutter) and now leverages the Ubuntu’s server-based Subiquity and Curtin efforts, it doesn’t look that different to the existing one.

        In fact, if no-one told you the installer was rebuilt you’d probably never tell.

        The new installer was available to test in previous versions of Ubuntu using a special ‘canary’ ISO, and is also available as a Snap app you can run (but shouldn’t) on an existing Ubuntu install.

      • Ubuntu Handbook ☛ Kernel 6.1 (6.1.6) Available to Install in Ubuntu 22.04 via Mainline PPA | UbuntuHandbook

        For those who want to try out the latest Linux Kernel 6.1.x, the Mainline Kernel PPA finally works again.

        Ubuntu developer team maintains the Mainline Kernel PPA with latest Kernel packages. It however failed to build for all the Kernel releases since v6.0.10.

        After more than a month until the release of Kernel 6.1.4, the maintainers finally fixed the issue and built the kernel packages correctly for Ubuntu 22.04 +.

    • Open Hardware/Modding

      • Purism ☛ What We All Want – Purism

        What we don’t want is equally simple: We don’t want to be spied on, controlled, oppressed, forced nor exploited.

      • Arduino ☛ Multi-function device displays PC data and news | Arduino Blog

        While the typical computer user doesn’t need to worry about it, those of us who overclock our computers or run them hard like to know how they’re performing. If, for example, you overclock your CPU, then you probably want to keep an eye on its temperature to ensure that it doesn’t exceed a safe level. This multi-function device, designed by Mirko Pavleski, displays all kinds of PC data and even current news.

        This Arduino LCD Info Panel works with open source software (LCD Smartie) running on a Windows PC. That software monitors many data points, including CPU load, free disk space, memory usage, and much more. It can also download RSS news feeds and sync with other software, like Winamp. The software then sends the relevant data to the Arduino LCD Info Panel device via a USB connection. The unit displays the data on a 16×2 character backlit LCD screen and a pair of potentiometer knobs let the user flip through the data.

      • Arduino ☛ The Arduino Launch Control System is a model rocket enthusiast’s dream | Arduino Blog

        Conventional hobby model rockets get their thrust from disposable motors containing an explosive propellant, like black powder. But unlike the gun powder in a firearm’s cartridge that uses a concussion-activated primer to ignite, model rocket enthusiasts ignite their motors using an electric arc. Simple launch controllers consist of little more than a battery, boost converter, and cables. But if you want something fancy, you should check out the Arduino Launch Control System.

        This robust launch controller provides environmental data and a great deal of safety. Its built-in sensors provides three key data points: temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. That information can convey valuable insight when evaluating the performance of a rocket. On the safety side, this launch controller forces several layers of redundancy and checks. To launch a rocket, the user must connect two power supplies, insert and turn a key, push the safety and fire buttons at the same time, and hold those buttons for the entire countdown. That focus on safety makes this launch controller perfect for younger hobbyists.

    • Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

    • Events

      • OpenSUSE ☛ Learn More About openSUSE, ALP at FOSDEM – openSUSE News

        The openSUSE Project is planning activities for this year’s FOSDEM, which will take place Feb. 4 and 5 in Brussels.

        The project will be in with operating systems space in Hall H and at its exhibit will have contributors available to discuss all openSUSE related projects to include ALP, MicroOS, Tumbleweed, Leap, Open Build Service, openQA and more.

        SUSE released its second prototype late last month of its Adaptable Linux Platform (ALP). There will be experts from the on hand to discuss ALP.

        Two ALP prototypes have been released so far; Les Droites was the first one released in October and Punta Baretti is the current available prototype for testing. More prototypes are expected for spring and summer.

      • FSF ☛ Free Software Directory meeting on IRC: Friday, January 27, starting at 12:00 EST (17:00 UTC)

        Join the FSF and friends on Friday, January 27, from 12:00 to 15:00 EST (17:00 to 20:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory.

      • FSF ☛ Free Software Directory meeting on IRC: Friday, January 20, starting at 12:00 EST (17:00 UTC)

        Join the FSF and friends on Friday, January 20, from 12:00 to 15:00 EST (17:00 to 20:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory.

    • Web Browsers/Web Servers

      • Mozilla

        • LWN ☛ Firefox 109 released [LWN.net]

          Version 109.0 of the Firefox browser has been released. The headline feature this time is the enabling of Manifest Version 3 support — a new extension mechanism that, among other things, gives a higher degree of control over what extensions can do.

    • Programming/Development

      • E-ink Dev board to track Fetal Development

        Partner is pregnant, ultrasound looked cool. Had an e-ink dev board collecting dust. So here we are. Pretty simple stuff, the board is an Adafruit MagTag. And all we needed to do was have a progress bar, some graphics, and some text. There are some useful guides to making a progress bar and graphics for this e-ink board HERE and HERE.

      • Get Dumber – Mike Blumenkrantz – Super. Good. Code.

        Had one of those moments when you looked at some code, looked at the output of your program, and then exclaimed COMPUTER, WHY YOU SO DUMB?

        Of course not.

        Nobody uses the spoken word in the current year.

        But you’ve definitely complained about how dumb your computer is on IRC/discord/etc.

        And I’m here today to complain in a blog post.

        My computer (compiler) is really fucking dumb.

      • Jussi Pakkanen ☛ Nibble Stew: PDF, text and fonts, a design by The Devil & Associates

        PDF has a fairly straightforward model for rendering text. Basically you specify a font to use, define a transformation matrix if needed and specify the text string to render. The PDF renderer will then load the embedded font file, extract the curves needed for your letters and render them on canvas. And it works quite nicely.

        Assuming you are using plain ASCII. Because 127 glyphs should be enough for everybody.

        If, for some weirdo reason, you belong to that ~80% minority population of planet Earth whose native tongue uses characters beyond ASCII, you are not going to be in a happy place. The whole situation is nicely summarized in this Computerphile video.

      • Barry Kauler ☛ Learning SDL v1.2 Lesson 08

        If compiled for the desktop, with SDL using X11, then the example app runs in a window, and can be closed via the window close-box. On the framebuffer though, there is no close-box.

      • Collabora ☛ A brave new world: building glibc with LLVM [Ed: Sounds more like an effort to bury GPL and promote Microsoft GitHub (proprietary) instead]

        Common wisdom argues against putting all eggs in one basket, and this type of diversification is also important in software. Just like how programming languages ideally have multiple independent compiler implementations, a software project written in a specific language should ideally have multiple independent toolchains capable of building the project.

        Considering how many C language implementations and toolchains have been developed in the past 45+ years (yes, it’s been that long!), it is surprising that such a critical, central, and long-lived component of our modern systems, such as glibc, is still only buildable with a single toolchain, the venerable old GNU/GCC, despite LLVM becoming the clear dominant alternative.

        There are more technical and non-technical reasons for choosing GNU or LLVM, and it is up to each project and developer to decide. To be able to decide, however, a choice must be possible in the first place. This is what is changing and we believe that having this choice is worthwhile.

      • Collabora ☛ Labeling tools are great, but what about quality checks?

        Modern datasets contain hundreds of thousands to millions of labels that must be kept accurate. In practice, some errors in the dataset average out and can be ignored – systematic biases transfer to the model. After quick initial wins in areas where abundant data is readily available, deep learning needs to become more data efficient to help solve difficult business problems.

        [...]

        The video below shows a user quickly scrolling through 40 objects belonging to 5 classes and finding 6 mislabeled examples.

      • Perl / Raku

        • Perl ☛ My Family and Other Fish (PerlayStation Part 2) | Saif [blogs.perl.org]

          So the resultant path that Term::Graille has taken is this. It avoids the fancier toolkits that rely on libcurses or libtickit. It starts off as a graphical tool for a non-graphical interface. For practical applications it emulates real-time interactivity (instead of using things like libev) for an environment that is principally asynchronous using Term::Graille::Interact. This is inevitably weak and has to be to be stressed to to become optimised, and game development perhaps allows this stress, highlighting failures in other existing code. Just developing one game is a dead end, however and the diverse set of problems one might face requires more specialised assets. Term::Graille::Sprite, like my daughter’s roller skates, does not outwardly have any of the features that will be required for serious, useful applications. But who knows, it might reasonably stress the platform and may offer secondary entertainment for others.

      • Python

  • Leftovers

    • Hardware

      • IT Wire ☛ iTWire – Oppo kicks off new year with release of budget smartphone

        Chinese smartphone vendor Oppo has released another model from its budget range in Australia, aiming to attract buyers to the A17 through a combination of price and decent specs, plus a 30-day mobile subscription.

        As usual, the new model is built atop an SoC from MediaTek, with the MediaTek Helio G35 being the one in question. It has 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage and supports two SIMs.

    • Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

      • Video ☛ Lessons from China and Africa

        Infections, 900 million (64% of population)

        Major cities, infection rates, 70% to 90%

        Infection rates up to 91% in some provinces

        [...]

        One death per 15,015 infections

    • Proprietary

      • HC3 Publishes Threat Brief on Royal and BlackCat Ransomware [Ed: Microsoft Windows TCO]

        The Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center published a new threat brief on Jan. 12 regarding Royal and BackCat Ransomware—the groups are known to target the U.S. healthcare sector and are considered especially sophisticated

        [...]

        Royal Ransomware was first observed in early 2022 and is believed to have experienced operators that previously belonged to other cybercriminal groups, including Conti Team One. The U.S. is the most targeted country for Royal Ransomware. The group uses a 64-bit executable, writes in C++, and encrypts files and appends “.royal” or “.royal.w” extensions to filenames and creates a “README.TXT” type ransom note.

    • Linux Foundation

      • The New Stack ☛ AgStack: Linux Foundation Project Will Bring Farms Online – The New Stack

        Food sustains all of us, yet the information systems that support our food supply are 100 years old — if not older. The Linux Foundation plans to change that with its AgStack Project, said Sumar Johal, who is the executive director of the initiative. AgStack will create a common, neutral and open digital infrastructure, which can “in turn enable content creation and consumption at scale in the agricultural ecosystem,” Johal added.

    • Security

      • USCERT ☛ CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog [Ed: Control Web Panel under attack or exploit attempts]

        CISA has added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. This type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and poses a significant risk to the federal enterprise. Note: To view the newly added vulnerabilities in the catalog, click on the arrow in the “Date Added to Catalog” column, which will sort by descending dates.

      • CISA ☛ CISA Releases Four Industrial Control Systems Advisories | CISA

        CISA released four Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisories on January 17, 2023. These advisories provide timely information about current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits surrounding ICS.

      • CISA ☛ CISA Updates Best Practices for Mapping to MITRE ATT-CK® | CISA

        Today, CISA updated Best Practices for MITRE ATT&CK® Mapping. The MITRE ATT&CK® framework is a lens through which network defenders can analyze adversary behavior and, as CISA Executive Assistant Director Eric Goldstein noted in his June 2021 blog post on the framework, it directly supports “robust, contextual bi-directional sharing of information to help strengthen the security of our systems, networks, and data.” CISA highly encourages the cybersecurity community to use the framework because it provides a common language for threat actor analysis.

      • LWN ☛ Security updates for Tuesday [LWN.net]

        Security updates have been issued by Debian (tor) and SUSE (python-setuptools, python36-setuptools, and tor).

      • LWN ☛ Git 2.39.1 (and more) released [Ed: LWN links to a Microsoft site that shills an attack on Git... instead of the original from Git itself]

        Git 2.39.1 has been released with a set of security fixes; there are also updated versions of many older Git releases available.

      • Consider Open Source Software While Evaluating The Security Of Cloud Applications

        The pace of software development is accelerating. Devops teams are under more pressure to launch products rapidly, and they are able to do so in part because of open-source software (OSS) tools.

        According to estimates, OSS now makes up between 80 and 90 percent of all current software. However, OSS produces a big surface area that needs to be controlled because there are millions of packages published anonymously that developers utilise to build software, even though it has been a fantastic accelerator for software development.

      • Privacy/Surveillance

        • AccessNow ☛ Is the EU protecting people from Pegasus spyware? – Access Now

          Spyware is an extremely invasive surveillance tool and a global threat to human rights and democracy. Since the initial Pegasus Project revelations, we’ve learned that governments and private actors in over 46 countries worldwide, including EU member states, have used invasive spyware to target and silence journalists, human rights defenders, political opponents, and dissidents.

          Scandals involving European governments should have been a wake-up call for European institutions. Yet so far, they have taken very little action to prevent future abuses of power and to protect people from the harmful impact of such surveillance tools.

  • Gemini* and Gopher

    • Personal

      • On growing up in old places

        A few days ago I visited Bruges. Bruges is a city that was very prosperous during the end of middle age. Then it declined, mostly because it lived off trading, and the rivers went dry so the ships could not come the city anymore.

        In 500 years, the population was decreased by half.

        Now the city is more or less a museum, living from tourism off the greatness of it’s history.

      • Star Wars
      • 3/3/3

        I’m not big on New Years’ resolutions. I’ve been known to set myself up with some resolutions at the beginning of the year, and then a year goes by and I found that I’ve somewhat accomplished a few of them in a different way, not like I originally intended to. Like those stories where you get to ask a wish to a genie and the genie makes it true in a twisted way, with unforeseen consequences.

        I’m saying this as a preface to what comes next, because it might sound like a new years’ resolution, but it’s not.

      • Train trip day 1

        I’m on my way to the Southwest for some sightseeing! I saved some money and decided to take the train down. Unfortunately, this means that I’m already “late” by 6 hours (yay Amtrak!). The train had electrical problems where a car wasn’t routing power from the engines to the rest of the train, like a burned out bulb on a string of Christmas lights.

      • The Virgin Suicides

        When albums like today’s roll around, I’m more intrigued than ever to read the book. It’s not that I demand or deserve an explanation. It’s just hard to imagine how someone could rate this album so highly? Perhaps I’m taking the ‘Albums you should hear before you die’ title too literally. Billions of our ancestors died before this album was recorded. Are our lives so much better?

    • Technical

      • Breaking Free From Google Maps

        Over the holidays I did about 22 hours of driving altogether and finally hit my breaking point with Google Maps.

        We had carefully planned a route in Google Maps through an area we weren’t super familiar with to try and avoid the worst of the winter weather. At some point during our navigation Google Maps without notifying us did a major reroute which undid the route we had planned. This ended up adding a couple hours to our trip by getting us stuck in some mountains during a sudden winter storm. At least we made it out alright.

        Later when planning for the next leg of our trip, Google Maps really wanted us to take a route through some more mountains and just wouldn’t show any alternatives. I’d had it and started looking for other Android navigation apps (though I think all of these are also available for iOS).

      • Internet/Gemini

        • Re: Perception of what the Internet looks like today

          The one thing I’ve noticed when using reduced clients and services is just how generally deficient the content is on the internet today. It becomes very apparent very quickly just how much garbage is pushed as useful information.

          For example when running an console based RSS feed reader all of the noise in HTML deployed content goes away. Not just bad fonts and colors but all the ads, all the suggestions of other related content. You’re left with just the blog post or news article. Sadly, once the noise is gone you realize there really isn’t much there. You start to see that the sole reason for so much junk “information” is to sell ads and make money.

        • Where are the borders of a Gemini Capsule? A proposal for “docks”

          As we know, the whole gemini protocol is full of nomenclature from spaceflight. The name “Gemini” refers to a NASA manned spaceflight Programme in the 1960s, the sum of all content here is the “gemini space”, we, the publishers, are “geminauts” and we fly around in our capsules. So far, so good. But no, there is one detail I found: While in manned spaceflight it is clear, what a capsule is (a small enclosed structure where astronauts can reside in savely, while flying around in space, which is a “shitty place” [1]), it is actually not that clear in geminispace. There is some inconsistency in what a “capsule” actually is.

* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.

Techrights Was Right: 11,000 Workers to Be Culled in Microsoft Layoffs, According to Press Reports

Posted in Microsoft at 5:16 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Microsoft employees are bracing for more layoffs

Summary: Microsoft is “said to be contemplating cutting roughly 5% of its workforce, which if accurate would equate to approximately 11,000 jobs.” Also “Microsoft could cut recruiting staff by as much as one-third.” Another source says that “Microsoft declined to comment.” So it’s not denying it.

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