𝕿𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 Bulletin for Thursday, December 24, 2020
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Generated Fri 25 Dec 03:04:53 GMT 2020
Created by Dr. Roy Schestowitz (𝚛𝚘𝚢 (at) 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚣 (dot) 𝚌𝚘𝚖)
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╒═══════════════════ 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐗 ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════╕

⦿ The Case of UPC Misinformation and Propaganda Campaigns: The Web (and Google News) as a Noise and Disinformation Machine of Lobbyists and Oligarchy | Techrights

⦿ [Meme] EPO Personal Targets | Techrights

⦿ EPO Scandals Are Closely Connected to the UPC Folly | Techrights

⦿ Nobody Needs GitHub for Anything | Techrights

⦿ Video: GitHub is Not Git and It’s Definitely Not Better Than Git | Techrights

⦿ IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 23, 2020 | Techrights

⦿ Video: If Only Judges and Scientists Governed Today’s EPO... | Techrights

 ䷼ Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login):
		http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/epo-customers-and-upc-lies/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/epo-personal-targets/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/epo-scandals-and-upc-folly/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/github-not-needed/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/github-versus-git/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/irc-log-231220/#comments
		http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/video-if-only-judges-and-scientists-governed-todays-epo/#comments

 ䷞ Followed by Daily Links (assorted news picks curated and categorised):
		http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/libreoffice-7-1-rc1/#comments

                    ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 64

╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕

(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/epo-customers-and-upc-lies/#comments

⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 12.24.20⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧


✐ The_Case_of_UPC_Misinformation_and_Propaganda_Campaigns:_The_Web_(and_Google
News)_as_a_Noise_and_Disinformation_Machine_of_Lobbyists_and_Oligarchy⠀✐


Posted in Europe, Patents at 4:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


http://techrights.org/videos/upc-news.ogv


Summary: This morning we’re seeing lots of misleading and misinforming ‘news’
coverage regarding the Unified Patent Court (UPC), including many paid-for or
financially-motivated puff pieces that drown out the signal (actual information
that is accurate and up to date)


THIS morning I stumbled upon some truly ridiculous flood of misinformation from
Team UPC, perhaps as should be expected based on past events. They totally
dominate the media (or all media coverage regarding the UPC). The video above
gives one notable example of this, but we’ll have more in the next batch of
Daily Links.


“Is it merely a political apparatus used for financial gain by few
Eurocrats?”In the meantime we’ve also taken note of the latest spammy ‘news’
from the EPO’s site (EPO.org), which apparently acts like EPO is a corporation
now and merits an EPO.COM domain. They posted a ‘news’ item on the 23rd of the
month, prefaced with text and containing many new links about ‘ViCo’ (we’ll
spare the link/s).


🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇EPO customers⦈ The image on the right shows what the reader
is presented with when clicking on at least one of those links. Other than the
unnecessary personification (making António_Campinos, who is very new at the
EPO, seem like a patent guru), pay careful attention to the choice of words,
which we’ve highlighted. Benoît_Battistelli did not know patents until he was
in his fifties and as far as we can tell Campinos too barely has any experience
with them. Why does the EPO make such people ‘flag bearers’ for the Office? Is
it merely a political apparatus used for financial gain by few Eurocrats? Or is
that a scientific institution?


As side notes to the above issues, as we’ll note in Daily Links, this_page says
that the “European Patent Office (EPO) has released updated information on
conducting remote oral proceedings before the Boards of Appeal,” never mind if
they’re legal or not (based on the EPC). As the ‘news’ from EPO.org makes clear
(posted a day before Christmas Eve), they’ve quit caring about legality. They
think they can just do everything over webchats (they cannot, at least not
legally) and patent scope no longer seems to exist or matter to the Office.


Marks & Clerk LLP, a patent litigation firm, is (as usual) promoting_illegal
software_patents_at_the_EPO using a bunch of buzzwords and meaningless hype
waves (“on a computer” or “tech” as ‘novelty’ in its own right — akin to “over
the Internet” or “in a car”). This one marketing piece uses two propaganda
terms from the EPO, “Digitisation” and “MedTech”… (both seem to increasingly
exploit the pandemic to make patents on software seem like a “public good”).


It has also been noted that the “European Patent Office has announced that its
offices in Berlin, Munich and The Hague will remain closed atleast until the
10th of January 2021 from December 24th, 2020 due the COVID situation across
most of Europe. Most countries in Europe such as Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece
to name a few have already announced a lockdown between now and the 7th of
January 2021.”


“Lobbying for the UPC is rapidly becoming an awful public relations
strategy.”That does not say that they force everyone to work from home
regardless. Here in the UK many receive pay leave if there are severe closures.
The EPO doesn’t offer anything like that…


Speaking of the UK, with the expiry of the Brexit transition period one law
firm_has_just_noted that the “European Patent Office (EPO) is not an EU
institution and hence European patents will be unaffected by Brexit. European
patent applications will continue to designate the UK, and we will remain
European Patent Attorneys able to represent clients at the EPO.”


They don’t mention the UPC (EU), do they? Well, why would they? They too
realise that it’s dead and buried; even the article shown above (link_here) was
changed as soon as the constitutional complaints became publicly known. They’re
trying to save face now, as did many other boosters of the UPC. Lobbying for
the UPC is rapidly becoming an awful public relations strategy.


As for Google News, it’s gamed by lobbyists and law firms. It’s not news. For
many topics it is marketing noise. █



                    ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 165

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(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/epo-personal-targets/#comments

⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 12.24.20⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧


✐ [Meme]_EPO_Personal_Targets⠀✐


Posted in Europe, Humour, Patents at 5:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇What would you like for Xmas? New EPO Management. Why? So
mommy can sit at the dinner table and quit chasing 'production targets'; Can't
                             'HEY HI' chase it?⦈


            🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇One day 'targets' will be patents⦈


Summary: The sorts of EPO ‘holidays’ one enjoys when working from home with EPO
surveillance on one’s personal computer



                    ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 193

╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕

(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/epo-scandals-and-upc-folly/#comments

⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 12.24.20⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧


✐ EPO_Scandals_Are_Closely_Connected_to_the_UPC_Folly⠀✐


Posted in Europe, Patents at 12:25 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


                      🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇Cuno Tarfusser⦈


Summary: The lack of law at the EPO, Europe’s second-largest institution, is a
symptom of the sorts of things we saw in Germany since summertime until
Christmas (lobbyists of the lucrative patent litigation sector have infiltrated
and captured agenda-setting seats)


THIS ought to be said more often, but Team UPC will never admit that its
mischief is deeply connected to EPO_abuses, which are excused by the very same
entities that enabled Benoît_Battistelli and nowadays censor/suppress comments
critical of António_Campinos. The last thing they want is someone like a former
ICC judge (true_story_by_the_way, that’s Cuno Tarfusser at the top) entering
the EPO and following the paper trail/paperwork, only to find endless instances
of corruption, misuse of power, and even serious crimes that merit long prison
sentences. If the EPO restores lawfulness, far fewer patents will be granted,
examiners will do their job more properly (as they used to and still long for),
and patent maximalist agenda will be ended, including the unlawful and
unconstitutional UPC.


“The last thing they want is someone like a former ICC judge (true story by the
way, that’s Cuno Tarfusser at the top) entering the EPO and following the paper
trail/paperwork, only to find endless instances of corruption, misuse of power,
and even serious crimes that merit long prison sentences.”PEB profiteers like
CIPA would rather carry on cheering for the likes of Iancu and Breton
(basically de facto ‘moles’ of theirs) and actively prevent a scientist or a
judge regaining power of Europe’s second-largest institution (check early
presidents of the EPO — ones who governed it when it was still about science
rather than grifting, bribery, politics, and buzzwords).


🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇Siegfried Broß⦈ We know it’s Christmas Eve already and
examiners would rather focus on their family (personal life than than work).
But the news about UPC is very fresh and rather refreshing. Any time actual
judges (and Justices) step in they express the sorts of horrors they find. That
includes retired judges, such as one who openly and stubbornly defended SUEPO
(Siegfried Broß, on the right). Where is he now?


Sometimes we hope he can step up and appear again in the German media; but if
the media too has been thoroughly corrupted, will it offer a platform (air
time) to Broß? █



                    ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 255

╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕

(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/github-not-needed/#comments

⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 12.24.20⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧


✐ Nobody_Needs_GitHub_for_Anything⠀✐


Posted in Free/Libre_Software at 10:27 am by Guest Editorial Team


Summary: vZS1 explains why Rust is wrong to use GitHub and why the reasoning/
excuses of many such projects are inherently flawed if not intentionally
dishonest


This article is a discussion around the_following_thread.


Let’s bust some myths here.


§ Myth 0: GitHub is the only way to develop software in a distributed
fashion.⠀➾


“Software was developed in a distributed fashion since the dawn of
software.”Let’s list things that were developed in a distributed fashion long
before the existence of GitHub:


0) Git itself
1) GNU C compiler
2) GNU utilities
3) Linux Kernel
4) GnuPG
5) FreeBSD


Need we go on? Software was developed in a distributed fashion since the dawn
of software.


§ Myth 1: GitHub is the only distributed development system.⠀➾


Trying to market GitHub as the only way to develop software in a distributed
fashion is a display of such ignorance that it is revolting. Which is why the
statement “When there is a viable distributed alternative to guthub [sic] I am
sure it will be seriously considered” could only be propaganda.


The Rust committee are spoiled for choice when it comes to distributed
development systems. The market for interfaces built on top of Git is
incredibly saturated. Gitea and GitLab are among two of the systems that are
direct competitors to GitHub. So the problem here is not lack of a “viable
distributed alternative” to GitHub. If the Rust committee wanted to migrate,
they have many options available.


§ Myth 2: You need systems like GitHub or GitLab or Gitea to develop software
in a distributed fashion, in the first place.⠀➾


Distributed software development (DSD) is a social phenomenon; DSD is not tied
to any one tool/system. People with experience in DSD know that projects
usually have contributions coming in from several channels: email, forums,
dedicated bug-trackers, IRC chats, etc.


Contributions that are worth something will get accepted, regardless of how
they get into the hands of the maintainer(s) of a project.


Don’t believe the marketing propaganda that you NEED GitHub. If you want to use
GitHub, you are free to do so. Just don’t fall for the lie that GitHub is the
only option out there.


§ Myth 3: GitHub works for large projects.⠀➾


Once your codebase and the necessary tooling required to develop your software
gets complex enough, you will be met with the deficiencies of GitHub. GitHub
chokes on large diffs; you are forced into the automation workflows imposed on
you by GitHub; you can’t analyse the source code when something doesn’t work as
you expect; these are only some of the deficiencies.


§ Myth 4: Your project is safe on GitHub.⠀➾


Go browse the internet about what happened to the program youtube-dl. The
following links are informative (and entertaining):


● Free_as_in_Freedom_Should_Not_be_Associated_With_Cost


● Meme_#0


  🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇Robotnik Button: Microsoft loves Open Source, Microsoft
                                 loves RIAA⦈


● Meme_#1


 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇Dhmis argument: EFF: Youtube-dl takedown is RIAA's fault,
Youtube-dl: But Microsoft is in the RIAA, EFF: Look, it's not like we're going
 to tell people to delete GitHub, Elephant in the room: Didn't the EFF give an
                        award to Microsoft recently?⦈



                    ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 375

╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕

(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/github-versus-git/#comments

⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 12.24.20⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧


✐ Video:_GitHub_is_Not_Git_and_It’s_Definitely_Not_Better_Than_Git⠀✐


Posted in Free/Libre_Software, Microsoft at 1:51 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


The sun coming in and out (the sky was partly cloudy today) ruined the video
somewhat, but it’s more about voice than visuals anyway


http://techrights.org/videos/github-versus-git.ogv


Summary: Unscripted new video (one take) about what GitHub actually is and why
people oughtn’t touch it, except to occasionally fetch something from there (if
no other repo/mirror exists)


THE previous_post_about_GitHub — a guest post we might add — was a rebuttal to
weak arguments we occasionally hear from people who use (or are rather used by)
GitHub and defend this dependence on Microsoft’s ‘mercy’ (it has none).


“It’s CodePlex “take 2″…”This morning I turned on the camera and recorded a
quick video (no preparations) about reasons why GitHub isn’t just unneeded but
likely undesirable in all cases (except for Microsoft employees). It’s CodePlex
“take 2″…


Will Git go away because of GitHub? Unlikely. But we need to make sure more
people and more projects use and properly understand Git, not proprietary
tooling of monopolistic Microsoft. Don’t let Embrace, Extend, Extinguish
(E.E.E.) tactics take advantage of those too ‘sheepish’ to understand
Microsoft’s history.


              🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇Goat joke; Free as in freedom⦈


Microsoft could not gain any market share, so eventually it bought market share
and it still_pays_a_lot_for_it.


🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GitHub users⦈ The unfortunate thing is, right now it’s not
exactly safe to roam around town, so getting a better camera is not a priority
and lighting is a big problem, a longstanding issue, not just the appalling
crispness. If we persist with this publication form, which seems likely, then
some time after the server migration we’ll get better equipment. █



                    ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 435

╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕

(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/irc-log-231220/#comments

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✐ IRC_Proceedings:_Wednesday,_December_23,_2020⠀✐


Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:28 am by Needs Sunlight


                                      🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇H                                     🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇HTML5_logs⦈_


                                         #techrights_log_as_HTML5                                                                                  #boycottnovell_log_as_HTML5


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                                      🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇t                                      🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇text_logs⦈_


                                          #techrights_log_as_text                                                                                   #boycottnovell_log_as_text


                                      🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇t                                      🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇text_logs⦈_


                                     #boycottnovell-social_log_as_text                                                                                #techbytes_log_as_text


                          Enter_the_IRC_channels_now


===============================================================================
§ IPFS Mirrors⠀➾


CID                                              Description     Object type


                                                 IRC log for
 QmNhftuV66NcrnMANtuh7HApe3ZEudH9DroFdXMu19JASq #boycottnovell  🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
                                                 (full IRC log
                                                 as HTML)


                                                 IRC log for
                                                 #boycottnovell
 Qmd43pgdvms9gFkkDmEgY6SfjHcYRpVeeCaGmx3Nz4Qr8H (full IRC log   🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
                                                 as plain/ASCII
                                                 text)


                                                 IRC log for
                                                 #boycottnovell-
 QmS8WgEKAStA58DJHygPzgLTuhak3bAAn1beFEzWMkaLuP social          🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
                                                 (full IRC log
                                                 as HTML)


                                                 IRC log for
                                                 #boycottnovell-
 Qme9ZEck6urvta1wSzTMQjnTrJ6rTcmv6ga7y1RjLW9KyL social          🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
                                                 (full IRC log
                                                 as plain/ASCII
                                                 text)


                                                 IRC log for
 QmRt6SRBZGgRn4YWL9D2jNfetdZi3iK8TnGDoDYHHdRBN4 #techbytes      🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
                                                 (full IRC log
                                                 as HTML)


                                                 IRC log for
                                                 #techbytes
 QmVa4EfhEHd7F3MBgQ7rATZAweWE18MgEAFHq6Syh3erAp (full IRC log   🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
                                                 as plain/ASCII
                                                 text)


                                                 IRC log for
 QmVbzUmSZDMAYAG1kE2QWcWjNgG16vUSTXUqSUJ5hgJUny #techrights     🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
                                                 (full IRC log
                                                 as HTML)


                                                 IRC log for
                                                 #techrights
 QmbJX5qLxcw8PJgg2GaukuLj8xHoFd3ytLuXcXQHkfaAff (full IRC log   🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
                                                 as plain/ASCII
                                                 text)


🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇IPFS logo⦈


§ Bulletin for Yesterday⠀➾


Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmfVbepdUPJyP7uetx4BJryV4hgoNKQfrTCxSWgQPN1Rdx



                    ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 548

╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕

(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2020/12/24/video-if-only-judges-and-scientists-governed-todays-epo/#comments

⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 12.24.20⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧


✐ Video:_If_Only_Judges_and_Scientists_Governed_Today’s_EPO…⠀✐


Posted in Europe, Patents at 3:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


http://techrights.org/videos/suepo-upc-and-epo.ogv


Summary: A reading of the latest EPO article and some thoughts on this new form
of delivery (more efficient in terms of time and perhaps a little more
interesting)


THE latest EPO article is ‘annotated’ (verbally) somewhat on the go. Scientists
and_judges_ought_to_have_been_put_in_charge. If it’s a scientific institution,
then they should elevate successful examiners (with good track record of
accuracy, not something like so-called ‘production’) to_management_positions,
not import a bunch of incompetent and deeply_corrupt buddies from former
employers of existing managers (INPI in the case of Benoît_Battistelli and
EUIPO in the case of António_Campinos).


“Techrights unwittingly became a vector for informants, communications, and
dissemination of hard evidence.”The video above isn’t long; it’s a little more
than a simple reading — the first attempt at such a thing. The delivery is done
in one take, the first take, based on mental ‘notes’ (thoughts) and hopefully
adds some context to the aforementioned story/text.


Over the past six and half years I’ve grown sufficiently close to EPO insiders
and want to help them at least communicate with one another (knowing that EPO
management tries to make that rather tough and increasingly scary while trowing
lots of misinformation into the mix to breed mistrust, e.g. painting union
leaders as unruly nazis who constantly look to seed institutional chaos).
Techrights unwittingly became a vector for informants, communications, and
dissemination of hard evidence. It’s difficult to muzzle us (they’ve threatened
me repeatedly and still block the site; when blocking backfired because
examiners can access the Web outside the workplace they started with malicious,
baseless, ill-spirited blackmail). Typical union-busting tactics are employed,
with military-connected (sometimes_outright_fascistic) elements actively
deployed to make it scary to organise, to politely speak to staff
representatives, and discreetly communicate with the press (what’s left of it
to cover this; they play whack-a-mole to discourage transparency through media
coverage by independent/investigative publishers). █



                    ䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 605

╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕

⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 12.24.20⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧


✐ Links_24/12/2020:_Krita_4.4.2_Beta_2_and_LibreOffice_7.1_RC1_Released⠀✐


Posted in News_Roundup at 4:00 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇GNOME bluefish⦈


§ Contents⠀➾


    * GNU/Linux
          o Distributions
          o Devices/Embedded
    * Free_Software/Open_Source
    * Leftovers
    * § GNU/Linux⠀➾


          o § Desktop/Laptop⠀➾


                # ⚓ How_The_Gates_(Almost)_Stole_Christmas⠀⇛


          o § Server⠀➾


                # ⚓ 10_of_our_favorite_sysadmin_stories_|_Enable_Sysadmin⠀⇛


                       Mastering scrum, remote work tips, advice for the
                       junior admins, and how to identify failure are some
                       of the top stories impacting sysadmin careers.


                # ⚓ Server_failure,_Linux_comprise_2020_data_center_management
                  tips⠀⇛


                       Linux is an industry standard for server and data
                       center management, but there are some questions
                       about what it is exactly and what it does in the
                       data center. At the most basic level, Linux is an
                       OS that you can run on your servers across your
                       infrastructure.


                       Linux is unusual because it is an open source OS,
                       which affects licensing. The GNU General Public
                       License states the terms under which you can use,
                       modify and distribute the OS. With this license
                       model, the idea is that this OS remains open source
                       and is free for all to use.


                       The other main distinction Linux has from macOS and
                       Windows OS is the kernel. Because the open source
                       community constantly maintains and updates the
                       kernel, it is an ideal choice for a server
                       infrastructure that requires real-time upkeep. The
                       Linux kernel contains subsystems for memory
                       management, process management, network stack,
                       virtual file system and a system call interface, as
                       well as arch and device drivers.


          o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾


                # ⚓ The_Linux_Link_Tech_Show_Episode_886⠀⇛


                       icewm, xfce, sansa clip, toys, happy holidays


                # ⚓ The_2020_Tuxies_|_LINUX_Unplugged_385⠀⇛


                       Mike details his favorite python tools and his
                       tricks for performance concerns.


                       Plus a bunch of workspace improvment ideas,
                       feedback, and more.


                # ⚓ OBS_V4l2Sink:_Turn_OBS_Into_A_Virtual_Camera⠀⇛


                       Screensharing is various apps can be kind of a pain
                       so instead of doing that why you just turn OBS into
                       a camera and then just do everything from OBS
                       instead, and we’re doing this with a simple plugin
                       known as obs v4l2sink which will soon be a main
                       part of OBS.


                # ⚓ Open_Source_Security_Episode_249_–_Door_24:_Information
                  wants_to_be_free⠀⇛


                       Josh and Kurt talk about the idea of information
                       wanting to be free. It’s Christmas, we should give
                       it what it wants!


                # ⚓ The_SolarWinds_Attack⠀⇛


                       Doc Searls and Katherine Druckman talk to Kyle
                       Rankin and Petros Koutoupis about the SolarWinds
                       hack, and Facebook’s reaction to Apple privacy
                       initiatives.


                # ⚓ 5_reasons_to_use_the_Atom_text_editor [Ed: IBM's Red Hat
                  says use a Microsoft text editor used to leverage Microsoft’s
                  proprietary software monopoly, GitHub.]⠀⇛


                # ⚓ (Audio_Only)_Interview_with_Igor_Seletskiy_on_“Project
                  Lenix”,_an_upcoming_CentOS_Replacement_–_YouTube⠀⇛


                       With the recent demise of CentOS (as we knew it)
                       many companies are struggling to determine which
                       direction they should go to keep their servers
                       supported. In this interview, I sat down with Igor
                       Seletskiy from CloudLinux to discuss their plans of
                       releasing their own fork of RHEL as early as first
                       quarter 2021.


                # ⚓ Ubuntu_Podcast_from_the_UK_LoCo:_S13E40_–_Ravens⠀⇛


                       This week we have been fixing network and audio
                       noise and playing Hotshot Racing. We look back and
                       celebrate the good things that happened in 2020,
                       bring you some GUI love and go over all your
                       wonderful feedback.


                       It’s Season 13 Episode 40 of the Ubuntu Podcast!
                       Alan Pope, Mark Johnson and Martin Wimpress are
                       connected and speaking to your brain.


                # ⚓ 382:_BSDNow_Q&A_2020⠀⇛


                       We asked for it, you answered our call. This
                       episode features you interviewing us with questions
                       that you sent in. JT, Allan, and Benedict answer
                       everything that you ever wanted to know in this
                       week’s special episode of BSDNow.


          o § Kernel Space⠀➾


                # ⚓ Linux_5.11_Intel_P-State_Schedutil_Tuned_For_Better
                  Efficiency._Avoid_Running_“Too_Fast”_–_Phoronix⠀⇛


                       Last week the Linux 5.11 power management updates
                       were merged while on Tuesday some additional new
                       material was merged, primarily around Intel’s P-
                       State CPU frequency scaling governor when running
                       with the “Schedutil” governor that makes use of the
                       kernel’s scheduler utilization data.


                       With this pull request for P-State is a rework to
                       its passive-mode fast-switch path so it avoids
                       “running some workloads too fast” and will now side
                       with better energy efficiency in select cases while
                       still providing sufficient power for handling the
                       current work. There is also another change to P-
                       State to allow the guaranteed performance value for
                       a given CPU to be increased after boot time.


                # ⚓ Linux_5.11_Finally_Flushes_Out_Its_Qt4_Code_For_Configuring
                  Kernel_Builds_UI⠀⇛


                       Linux 5.11′s Kconfig build configuration updates
                       are bringing some long overdue improvements to its
                       “Qconf” Qt toolkit user interface option for
                       configuring Linux kernel builds.


                       Qt 5.0 was released eight years ago and earlier
                       this month Qt 6.0 was christened. Most software was
                       converted from Qt4 to Qt5 years ago but the Linux
                       Kconfig code when firing up the Qt interface has
                       retained support going back to Qt4. But for Linux
                       5.11 that is being remove to now focus on providing
                       just a Qt5 interface (and presumably Qt 6, in due
                       course) alongside the other Kconfig user interfaces
                       from ncurses to GTK.


                # ⚓ Reducing_page_structures_for_huge_pages⠀⇛


                       Kernel development is a constant exercise in
                       reducing overhead; any resources taken by the
                       kernel are not available for the workload that
                       users actually want to run. As part of this, the
                       page structure used to manage memory has been kept
                       as small as possible. Even so, page structures
                       typically take up just over 1.5% of the available
                       memory, which is too much for some users. LWN
                       recently looked at DMEMFS as one approach to reduce
                       this overhead, but that is not the only work
                       happening in this area. Two developers are
                       currently working independently on patches to
                       reduce the overhead associated with huge pages in
                       particular.


                # ⚓ Statistics_from_the_5.10_kernel_development_cycle⠀⇛


                       Linus Torvalds released the 5.10 kernel on December
                       13 at the end of a typical nine-week development
                       cycle. At that point, 16,174 non-merge changesets
                       had been pulled into the mainline; that makes 5.10
                       a larger cycle than 5.9, but it falls just short of
                       the record set by 5.8, which ended with 16,308
                       changesets. For the most part 5.10 is just another
                       routine kernel release, but there are a couple of
                       interesting things to be seen in the overall
                       statistics.
                       A total of 1,971 developers contributed to 5.10 —
                       again, just short of the record set by 5.8. Of
                       those developers, 252 (just under 13%) made their
                       first contribution in 5.10; that is the lowest
                       number seen since 5.6.


                # ⚓ Reiser4_Updated_For_Linux_5.10_Compatibility,_Reiser5
                  Effort_One_Year_Old_–_Phoronix⠀⇛


                       The out-of-tree Reiser4 file-system has now been
                       ported to the week-old Linux 5.10 kernel code-base.
                       This also comes days ahead of the one year
                       anniversary since the “Version 5″ announcement.


                       For those still relying upon this out-of-tree file-
                       system, Reiser4 saw its port released today for the
                       Linux 5.10.2 kernel. It was a straight-forward port
                       from Linux 5.9 to 5.10 while in the process was a
                       change around removing a legacy flushing flag.


                # ⚓ AMD_S2idle_Support_For_Linux_Getting_Squared_Away_–
                  Phoronix⠀⇛


                       Just in time for the upcoming AMD Ryzen 5000 series
                       mobile processors, it’s looking like the S2idle
                       support is finally coming together on Linux for
                       increased power savings.


                       As previously covered, Linux 5.11 picked up an AMD
                       SoC PMC driver that is responsible for handling
                       S2idle transactions driven by the platform firmware
                       on the SMU. Sent in on Tuesday as part of a
                       secondary set of ACPI changes for Linux 5.11 is
                       more AMD S2idle enablement work.


                       This latest code is about providing initial support
                       for S2idle (suspend to idle S0ix) while largely
                       relying upon the existing kernel code written by
                       Intel. The bit needed wrangling with this code was
                       the BIOS implementation for ACPI methods like _DSM
                       (device specific methods) not being standardized
                       and thus needing vendor-specific handling. So with
                       this code now in the kernel as of yesterday, the
                       Linux S2idle code can correctly use the proper _DSM
                       methods on Linux.


                # ⚓ Linux_5.11_Is_Looking_Like_A_Wild_And_Bumpy_Ride_On_AMD
                  CPUs_So_Far⠀⇛


                       A few days ago I noted nice AMD EPYC performance
                       improvements with PostgreSQL when running on Linux
                       5.11 compared to prior kernels. I’ve confirmed that
                       for even more AMD EPYC servers now that the
                       PostgreSQL uplift is there, but other workloads are
                       unfortunately regressing for both Ryzen and EPYC.
                       Here’s the start of an exciting Christmas
                       benchmarking adventure looking at this change with
                       Linux 5.11…


                       [...]


                       What the heck?! A number of the workloads
                       regressing are mostly user-space applications not
                       interacting with the kernel much or even much in
                       the way of I/O… But that ended up jiving with my
                       hypothesis in regards to the Linux 5.11 improvement
                       for PostgreSQL. It’s about the CPU frequency
                       invariance support in Linux 5.11 for AMD Zen 2 and
                       newer.


          o § Applications⠀➾


                # ⚓ The_Review_of_GUI_LVM_Tools⠀⇛


                       The LVM is a powerful storage management module
                       which is included in all the distributions of Linux
                       now. It provides users with a variety of valuable
                       features to fit different requirements. The
                       management tools that come with LVM are based on
                       the command line interface, which is very powerful
                       and suitable for automated/batch operations. But
                       LVM’s operations and configuration are quite
                       complex because of its own complexity. So many
                       software companies including Red Hat have launched
                       some GUI-based LVM tools to help users manage LVM
                       more easily. Let’s review them here to see the
                       similarities and differences between individual
                       tools.


                # ⚓ Darktable_3.4_Gives_Open_Source_Photographers_New_Toys_to
                  Play_With⠀⇛


                       Users of the “virtual lighttable and darkroom” will
                       find a more stable tethering view (with histogram
                       support re-enabled) in Darktable 3.4, as well as a
                       new module grouping feature and handy presets to
                       get started with.


                       “The module grouping feature allows users to create
                       their own groups of modules. A number of pre-
                       defined module groups are included as presets […]
                       as well as a new default module group tab layout
                       (technical / grading / effects), which beter
                       organizes the modules according to their purpose,”
                       (sic) Darktable devs explain.


                # ⚓ Darktable_3.4_Released_For_Leading_Open-Source_RAW
                  Photography_Software⠀⇛


                       Darktable 3.4 is out in time for dealing with any
                       of your RAW holiday photos.


                       The open-source, cross-platform Darktable software
                       continues as one of the leading free, non-
                       destructive RAW photo post-production software
                       solutions available. Darktable 3.4 reworks the
                       program’s camera tethering view, a new module
                       grouping feature has been added, a new color
                       calibration module has been added with better color
                       correction abilities, an enhanced map view, reworks
                       to some areas of the GUI, and dozens of other
                       changes as well as bug fixes. There are also new
                       additions to the supported camera list.


                # ⚓ Darktable_3.4_Released_with_Revamped_Tethering_View,_Module
                  Grouping_Feature⠀⇛


                       Coming more than four months after Darktable 3.2,
                       the new release introduces a revamped tethering
                       view that now supports histogram, a new module
                       grouping feature that lets you create your own
                       groups of modules, and an enhanced module masking
                       feature with scene-referred workflows and fully
                       unbounded blending modes, supporting parametric
                       masking in linear RGB or JzCzHz color spaces.


                       A new color calibration module has been implemented
                       as well in this release and stands as a full-
                       featured hub for all your color correction needs.
                       Moreover, Darktable 3.4 improves the Map view with
                       support for grouping images that are close to each
                       other and displaying a counter at the bottom-left
                       corner, which boosts the performance when
                       manipulating a large collection of images and makes
                       movement of images easier.


                # ⚓ [Zenwalk]_AppImage_for_VLC_3_Media_Player⠀⇛


                       Maybe you like VLC and don’t want to install Qt5
                       just for that ?


                       Here’s the fully platform independent AppImage for
                       VLC 3.x :


                       vlc-3.0.11.1-x86_64-1alien.AppImage


                       Hopefully it should work on any distribution
                       without any dependency.


                # ⚓ [Sparky_Linux]_Cozy⠀⇛


                       There is a new application available for Sparkers:
                       Cozy


                       What is Cozy?


                       A modern audio book player for Linux using GTK+ 3


                # ⚓ Ventoy_1.0.31_–_Neowin⠀⇛


                       Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable
                       USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files. With
                       Ventoy, you don’t need to format the disk over and
                       over, you just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD
                       (x)EFI files to the USB drive and boot them
                       directly. You can copy many files at a time and
                       ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them.
                       Both Legacy BIOS and UEFI are supported in the same
                       way. Most type of OS supported (Windows/WinPE/
                       Linux/Unix/Vmware/Xen…)


          o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾


                # ⚓ How_to_Print_from_Your_Chromebook⠀⇛


                       In Windows, you can install the driver for your
                       printer and print document on your PC. What about
                       Chromebook? With a lack of dedicated software for
                       printing, it may seem confusing at first glance.
                       Fortunately, it’s not confusing at all, and in just
                       a few easy steps, Chromebook users will be on their
                       way to printing documents, photos and more. Keep
                       reading for all of the steps you need to know to
                       print from your Chromebook. Addin


                # ⚓ How_to_Install_XWiki_on_CentOS_7⠀⇛


                       In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to
                       XWiki on CentOS 7. XWiki is a free and open-source
                       advanced wiki software platform written in Java. It
                       runs on servlet containers like JBoss, Tomcat, etc.
                       which uses a database such as MySQL or PostgreSQL
                       to store its information.


                       We will use a VPS with CentOS 7 but you should be
                       able to install XWiki following this tutorial on
                       all Red hat based Linux distributions. Installing
                       XWiki on CentOS 7 is a fairly easy task and it
                       shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to finish it.


                # ⚓ How_To_Install_IonCube_Loader_on_Debian_10_–_idroot⠀⇛


                       In this tutorial, we will show you how to install
                       IonCube Loader on Debian 10. For those of you who
                       didn’t know, IonCube Loaders is basically an
                       encryption/decryption utility for PHP applications
                       that also assists in speeding up the pages that are
                       served. It is often required for a lot of PHP-based
                       applications.


                       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 through the step by
                       step installation of IonCube Loader on a Debian 10
                       (Buster).


                # ⚓ How_to_Install_Linux_on_Windows_With_Dual_Boot⠀⇛


                # ⚓ dig_Command_in_Linux_with_Useful_Examples⠀⇛


                       dig stands for Domain Information Groper, is a
                       command line network tool for gathering domain name
                       server information. The dig command is another
                       powerful tool similar to nslookup for diagnosing
                       dns related problems.


                       We can use dig command to query various dns servers
                       to fetch records like address record, CNAME, TXT,
                       Mail exchange records etc… I also found an useful
                       website showmydns.net to search dns records from
                       multiple locations world wide.


                # ⚓ How_to_Install_and_Uninstall_a_List_of_Packages_From_a
                  File⠀⇛


                       In some case you may need to install list of
                       packages from one server to another server.


                       For example, You have installed 15 packages on
                       Server-A, and those packages needs to be installed
                       on Server-B, Server-C, etc.,


                       We can manually install all the packages but it’s
                       time consuming process.


                       It can be done for one or two servers, think about
                       if you have around 10 servers.


                # ⚓ Hestia_Installation_on_Ubuntu_20.04:_An_open-source_Linux
                  web_server_control_panel⠀⇛


                       HestiaCP is based on another open-source project
                       called Vesta Control panel, which is also free to
                       download and use either from the official website
                       or GitHub page.


                       The users who want to create, configure, and handle
                       Apache or Nginx web servers with PHP-FPM but via
                       Graphical user interface can install the HestiaCP
                       in just a few commands. Apart from the web servers,
                       it also offers DNS server, Multiple PHP versions;
                       MariaDB or PostgreSQL databases; POP/IMAP/SMTP mail
                       services with Anti-Virus and Firewall with brute-
                       force attack detection.


                # ⚓ How_to_Install_Xfce_Desktop_4.16_in_Ubuntu_20.04,_Linux
                  Mint_20⠀⇛


                       Xfce Desktop 4.16 was announced as the new major
                       release a few days ago. Here’s how to install it in
                       Ubuntu 20.04, Linux Mint 20 for testing.


                # ⚓ Building_Encrypted_Images_for_Confidential_Computing [Ed:
                  Confidential Computing is typically just a misleading
                  euphemism of surveillance companies that steal your data and
                  then pretend to value your privacy by encrypting the stolen
                  data for themselves and their data brokers⠀⇛


                       With both Intel and AMD announcing confidential
                       computing features to run encrypted virtual
                       machines, IBM research has been looking into a new
                       format for encrypted VM images. The first question
                       is why a new format, after all qcow2 only recently
                       deprecated its old encrypted image format in favour
                       of luks. The problem is that in confidential
                       computing, the guest VM runs inside the secure
                       envelope but the host hypervisor (including the
                       QEMU process) is untrusted and thus runs outside
                       the secure envelope and, unfortunately, even for
                       the new luks format, the encryption of the image is
                       handled by QEMU and so the encryption key would be
                       outside the secure envelope. Thus, a new format is
                       needed to keep the encryption key (and, indeed, the
                       encryption mechanism) within the guest VM itself.
                       Fortunately, encrypted boot of Linux systems has
                       been around for a while, and this can be used as a
                       practical template for constructing a fully
                       confidential encrypted image format and maintaining
                       that confidentiality within a hostile cloud
                       environment. In this article, I’ll explore the
                       state of the art in encrypted boot, constructing
                       EFI encrypted boot images, and finally, in the
                       follow on article, look at deploying an encrypted
                       image into a confidential environment and
                       maintaining key secrecy in the cloud.


                       [...]


                       Traditionally grub is actually installed into the
                       disk master boot record, but for EFI boot that
                       changed and the disk (or VM image) must have an EFI
                       System partition which is where the grub.efi binary
                       is installed. Part of the job of the grub.efi
                       binary is to find the root partition and source the
                       /boot/grub1/grub.cfg. When you install grub on an
                       EFI partition a search for the root by UUID is
                       actually embedded into the grub binary. Another
                       problem is likely that your distribution customizes
                       the location of grub and updates the boot variables
                       to tell the system where it is. However, a cloud
                       image can’t rely on the boot variables and must be
                       installed in the default location
                       (\EFI\BOOT\bootx64.efi). This default location can
                       be achieved by adding the –removable flag to grub-
                       install.


                # ⚓ Jenkins_dynamically_parameterized_pipelins_for_terraform
                  execution⠀⇛


                       Jenkins in the Ops space is in general already
                       painful. Lately the deprecation of the multiple-
                       scms plugin caused some headache, becaue we relied
                       heavily on it to generate pipelines in a Seedjob
                       based on structure inside secondary repositories.
                       We kind of started from scratch now and ship
                       parameterized pipelines defined in Jenkinsfiles in
                       those secondary repositories. Basically that is the
                       way it should be, you store the pipeline definition
                       along with code you’d like to execute. In our case
                       that is mostly terraform and ansible.


                # ⚓ Listing_Linux_Services_with_Systemctl_|_Linuxize⠀⇛


                       In Linux, a service is a program that runs in the
                       background . Services can be started on-demand or
                       at the boot time.


                       If you are using Linux as your primary operating
                       system or development, platform you will deal with
                       different services such as webserver, ssh or, cron
                       . Knowing how to list running services or check the
                       service status is important when debugging system
                       issues.


                       Most of the recent Linux distributions are using
                       systemd as the default init system and service
                       manager.


                # ⚓ Monitoring_Linux_system_resources_using_SAR_(System
                  Activity_Report)_–_LinuxTechLab⠀⇛


                       Once the servers have created & have been deployed
                       to development or production etc, main task of
                       system admin is to make sure that servers keep
                       running by continuously monitoring its resource
                       usage like memory utilization, CPU utilization etc
                       with the help of various utilities. One such
                       utility that is used for monitoring RHEL/CentOS
                       servers is, SAR.


                       SAR or System Activity Report is used for
                       monitoring Linux system resources . It can be used
                       to generate reports relating to performance of a
                       system i.e CPU reports, Memory reports, Disk
                       reports etc. It saves reports in the form of log
                       files on the system.


                # ⚓ Netcat_:_The_swiss_Army_knife_You_must_have_–_The_Linux
                  Juggernaut⠀⇛


                       Netcat (also known as ‘nc’) is a networking tool
                       used for reading or writing from TCP and UDP
                       sockets using an easy interface. It is designed as
                       a dependable ‘back-end’ device that can be used
                       directly or easily driven by other programs and
                       scripts. Therefore, this tool is a treat to network
                       administrators, programmers, and pen-testers as
                       it’s a feature rich network debugging and
                       investigation tool.


                # ⚓ Alan_Pope:_Snap_Tips⠀⇛


                       As you may or may not be aware, I work for
                       Canonical on Snapcraft and Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu as
                       my daily driver, and spend a lot of time
                       maintaining snap packages, and listening to
                       developers and users talk about software packaging,
                       publishing, delivery and use.


                       Over time I’ve collected a bunch of virtual notes
                       in my head. Much of it has been turned into
                       documentation, but often the information is rather
                       spread out. I wanted to “brain dump” a bunch of
                       notes, for common things people ask me about snap,
                       snapd and snapcraft. Here’s the first set, about
                       snap / snapd. A later post will focus on snapcraft.


                # ⚓ Does_NVMe_use_PCIe?⠀⇛


                       Data processing is at the core of every business. A
                       PC with mediocre specs is decent enough for simple
                       data processing, but on a larger scale, it will not
                       suffice. As data continues to grow, businesses are
                       always searching for the latest technologies that
                       can accelerate data processing. High-speed computer
                       components are crucial in processing big chunks of
                       data real-time. One of the key components that
                       require upgrading is the internal secondary storage
                       device. These devices play a vital role in
                       capturing, accessing, processing and transforming
                       data, and these have evolved significantly to meet
                       business demands. NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory
                       Express) drive is the latest and by far the fastest
                       evolution of storage devices. Before we delve
                       deeper into NVMe, let’s briefly look at the
                       different internal secondary storage media utilized
                       today.


                # ⚓ Linux_Head_command_Tutorials_and_Examples_for_Beginners⠀⇛


                       The Linux head command is a simple command-line
                       utility that allows users to display the first few
                       portions of a file. Most people use it for viewing
                       the topmost part of configuration files. But you
                       can also use it for inspecting any files. In this
                       guide, we have illustrated a few examples of how to
                       use the head command.


                       By the end of this guide, you should be able to
                       learn its proper usage. Once you do so, you will
                       become much fluent at navigating files directly
                       from the terminal. So, continue reading to find out
                       more about the head command in Linux.


                # ⚓ How_to_Install_and_Configure_SeaweedFS_Cluster_on_Ubuntu
                  20.04⠀⇛


                       SeaweedFS is an open-source, simple, and highly
                       scalable distributed file system to store and serve
                       billions of files fast. It is very similar to other
                       file systems including, Ceph, GlusterFS, and HDFS.
                       It can be easily integrated with the cloud and
                       achieve both fast access time without any client-
                       side changes. It has a rich set of features
                       including, Automatic master servers failover,
                       Automatic entry TTL expiration, Parallel
                       processing, Handle large and small files, Low-
                       latency access to any file, and many more.


                # ⚓ How_to_install_Gimp_2.10.22_and_plugins_on_a_Chromebook⠀⇛


                       Today we are looking at how to install Gimp 2.10.22
                       and plugins on a Chromebook. Please follow the
                       video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain
                       the process step by step and use the commands
                       below.


                # ⚓ How_to_Find_a_File_in_Linux_Using_the_Find_Command_–_Make
                  Tech_Easier⠀⇛


                       The Linux find command is one of the most important
                       and handy commands in Linux systems. It can, as the
                       name suggests, find files on your Linux PC based on
                       pretty much whatever conditions and variables you
                       set. You can find files by permissions, users,
                       groups, file type, date, size and other possible
                       criteria using the find command. Here we show you
                       how to find a file in Linux using the find command.


                # ⚓ How_To_Install_LAMP_With_PHP_7.4_on_Ubuntu_20.04⠀⇛


                       In this guide, we will show you how to install LAMP
                       With PHP 7.4 on Ubuntu 20.04.


                # ⚓ How_to_Use_GnuPG_for_Encryption_on_Linux⠀⇛


                       Have you ever had sensitive information such as
                       passwords or server login information you needed to
                       send someone via email, but didn’t know how to send
                       it securely to avoid the information falling into
                       the wrong hands?


                       Here you’ll learn how to securely transmit messages
                       and files encrypted with PGP via the popular gnupg
                       tool. Let’s dive right in, and learn how to secure
                       our communications!


                # ⚓ How_to_create_an_inventory_configuration_in_S3⠀⇛


                       S3 Inventory configuration helps to manage the
                       storage on AWS. It generates audit reports on the
                       replication and encryption status of S3 objects for
                       business, compliance, and regulatory needs. S3
                       Inventory configuration generates comma-separated
                       values (CSV), Apache optimized row columnar (ORC)
                       or Apache Parquet (Parquet) output files.


                # ⚓ How_to_play_Among_Us_on_your_Chromebook⠀⇛


                       Another way to play Among Us on a Chromebook is to
                       install the Linux version through Steam. Google
                       still classifies Linux support as “beta,” and it’s
                       not available on all Chromebooks. If you’re not
                       sure if your Chromebook can handle Linux, Google
                       provides a list of supporting devices.


                # ⚓ Connect_to_Ubuntu_20.04_from_Windows_10_[Beginner's
                  Guide]⠀⇛


                       This beginner’s guide helps you remotely connect to
                       Ubuntu 20.04 from Windows 10. We show you the easy
                       steps with an example.


          o § Games⠀➾


                # ⚓ Art_of_Rally:_Artful_Enough?⠀⇛


                       Ever wondered what happened to racing games viewed
                       from above? They used to be huge hits back in the
                       heydays of 2D (or even the very beginning of 3D
                       games, the first GTA was viewed from above). Yet
                       they have completely disappeared by now. Well,
                       almost. With Art of Rally, we get a surprising new
                       take on a very popular racing genre. And despite
                       what the trailer might have suggested, it does not
                       play at all like Dirt Rally or anything in the Dirt
                       series for that matter.


                       The whole game takes a very minimalist approach.
                       Menus are simple (black text on white without any
                       kind of decoration), and all tracks use few main
                       colors and almost no textures to depict the race
                       and its environment. Visually, I do find it
                       pleasant. It helps you focus on the core of the
                       game, the driving, like the early 8-bit games which
                       could not display much apart from the road.


                # ⚓ Go_to_Canada_with_Promods_for_American_Truck_Simulator⠀⇛


                       Instead of adding a trinket or two, changing some
                       graphics or lighting, Promods is a huge project
                       that practically gives you a new, much bigger game,
                       adding over 80 new cities and several countries to
                       the map, not to mention new cosmetics, skins,
                       trailers, companies and so on. It is nearly 8 GiB
                       in size and composed of about 15 mods (the number
                       may vary depending on your options) that must be
                       added in the right order with the mod manager.


                       Since it’s that big of an undertaking, it is not in
                       the Steam workshop and it is sort of a pain to
                       update:you have to remove all previous versions of
                       the mods and then add the new versions in the same
                       order. Also, they need exact game versions and
                       every new version of the modset takes 1-2 weeks to
                       appear after each new version on Steam or GOG (it
                       is suggested on their pages to use the “betas”
                       properties tab for the game on Steam to select an
                       older build while the synchronized version is not
                       out).


                       The modset also requires all official map DLCs to
                       work — probably a very smart way to prevent
                       conflicts of interest with SCS Software — and in
                       the download page, it only allows you to download
                       the mods at 300 kB/s if you do not wish to pay 1
                       Euro for the “premium” download.


                       Even then, on thing can be said with confidence:
                       passing all the obstacles, this modset is one of
                       the best you can add to Euro Truck. It is worth
                       every byte. It is not only a matter of quantity; it
                       adds an enormous amount of quality to the game,
                       more believable scenarios, companions, roads that
                       actually offer alternate paths, meaningful missions
                       and so much life to the landscape.


                # ⚓ Nearly_half_a_billion_users_played_Among_Us_in_November⠀⇛


                       The success is even more remarkable because
                       InnerSloth — the company that makes Among Us — only
                       has four employees. That’s roughly 125 million
                       players per person who works on the game. It’s
                       proven to be so popular that the studio decided to
                       cancel a sequel that was in the works and just put
                       all its effort into improving the original. It even
                       caught the attention of sitting congresswoman
                       Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who livestreamed herself
                       playing it to try to encourage people to vote, with
                       an audience on Twitch that peaked at over 400
                       thousand viewers.


                # ⚓ How_the_Video_Game_Industry_Quietly_Powered_Through_a
                  Pandemic⠀⇛


                       Nielsen reported a bump in video game usage as
                       stay-at-home orders went into effect across the
                       globe. Over the week of March 23-29, a survey of
                       roughly 3,000 game-playing individuals indicated a
                       spike amid quarantine, with the U.S. seeing the
                       highest increase at 45 percent, followed by France,
                       the U.K. and Germany. After six long months of the
                       pandemic, video game enthusiasm did not wane. In
                       the third quarter overall, industry consumer
                       spending hit $11.2 billion, an increase of 24
                       percent compared to a year earlier.


                # ⚓ [Older]_Valve’s_made_Cyberpunk_2077_playable_on_Linux⠀⇛


                       Among Valve’s many, many projects is Proton, a
                       piece of software that acts as a compatibility
                       layer, allowing Windows games to run on Linux
                       operating systems. Originally launched in 2018,
                       Proton integrates with Steam and makes playing
                       supported titles on Linux as simple as pressing
                       ‘play.’


          o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾


                # ⚓ New_Xfce_4.16_Stable_Version_Is_Out_For_UNIX-Like_Operating
                  Systems⠀⇛


                       new stable version 4.16 of Xfce, the most popular
                       lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like
                       operating systems, has finally been released to
                       supersedes the previous version 4.14.


                       [...]


                       The most important update that version 4.16
                       includes is a drop of Gtk2 dependency support. With
                       the removal of Gtk2, it has moved to GTK3 UI
                       toolkit for modern user interface and better
                       maintainability.


                       Along with UI toolkit version, it has created a set
                       of new icons for all core applications to make it
                       consistent and extend Xfce visual identity.


                # § K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Manjaro_ARM_Plasma_Mobile_Beta_1_is_now_available_for
                        the_PinePhone⠀⇛


                             The Manjaro ARM team has been rapidly
                             cranking out new builds of their smartphone
                             operating system in recent months, with four
                             public beta releases of Manjaro ARM with the
                             Phosh user interface so far.


                             But the developers have also been working on
                             versions of Manjaro ARM featuring different
                             user interfaces, having released alpha builds
                             with the Lomiri and Plasma Mobile user
                             interfaces earlier this year.


                             Now the team has released Manjaro ARM Plasma
                             Mobile Beta 1 for the PinePhone, marking the
                             first beta release of this operating system
                             to ship with something other than phosh.


                      # ⚓ Second_Beta_for_Krita_4.4.2⠀⇛


                             The Krita team is releasing the second beta
                             of Krita 4.4.2. Ramon Miranda has just
                             released a video of one of the star features
                             of this release: mesh transforms…


                             Compared to the first beta, the following
                             issues have been fixed…


          o § Distributions⠀➾


                # § Screenshots/Screencasts⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Linspire_10_Public_Beta_1_Run_Through⠀⇛


                             In this video, we are looking at Linspire 10
                             Public Beta 1.


                      # ⚓ Linspire_10_Public_Beta_1⠀⇛


                             Today we are looking at Linspire 10 Public
                             Beta 1. It comes with Linux Kernel 5.4, XFCE
                             4.14, and uses about 1GB of ram when idling.


                # § Arch Family⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Kubernetes_in_Arch_Linux⠀⇛


                             Arch Linux got kubernetes packaged into the
                             [community] repository the past week with the
                             hard work of David Runge. I contribute to
                             testing the packages so I thought it would be
                             interesting to write up quickly the testing
                             that was done. Originally I did the testing
                             with docker but with the dockershim
                             deprecation I rewrote the blog to utilize
                             containerd instead.


                             David has reworked the kubernetes archwiki
                             article as well. It currently doesn’t cover
                             all use cases and contributions welcome. I
                             will try cover the containerd parts of this
                             page to the wiki.


                      # ⚓ aurutils_3.0.0⠀⇛


                             With the amount of changes, details spread
                             over pull requests, git commit logs, and the
                             documentation, I’ve written this post to
                             detail the most important changes in aurutils
                             3.0.0. If you’ve used aurutils 2.3 before, I
                             highly recommend reviewing the Transition
                             table. Happy hacking!


                # § IBM/Red Hat/Fedora⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Rocky_Linux:_First_release_is_coming_in_Q2_2021_say
                        developers⠀⇛


                             Rocky Linux, which aims to provide a new
                             alternative for projects using Red Hat’s
                             CentOS, should be available to test by the
                             second quarter of 2021, according to its
                             creators.Red Hat, CentOS’s Linux parent
                             company, announced this month that it was
                             moving its focus from CentOS Linux to CentOS
                             Stream.


                             Some users didn’t like the move and CentOS
                             co-founder, Gregory Kurtzer, responded
                             promptly with intentions to create his own
                             CentOS alternative called Rocky Linux, with
                             the aim of creating “seamless continuity of
                             business operations for companies running
                             CentOS 8 far beyond 2021.”


                      # ⚓ Changing_CentOS_in_mid-stream⠀⇛


                             CentOS was born out of an effort to build and
                             distribute packages from the RHEL source
                             provided by Red Hat. The initial CentOS
                             release — CentOS 3.1 (based on the RHEL 3
                             release), came out in March 2004. There was
                             also a CentOS 2 release (based on RHEL 2),
                             but that showed up two months later. CentOS
                             quickly attracted attention from users
                             looking for a relatively stable system during
                             a time when distributors were doing their
                             best to separate free “community”
                             distributions from the paid-for “enterprise”
                             variants. LWN first mentioned CentOS in
                             February 2004, and looked more closely in
                             early 2005.


                             CentOS proved to be the stable base it
                             promised to be; that CentOS 2 release, for
                             example, was supported until June 2009 and
                             CentOS 3 had support until November 2010.
                             There were some challenges, though; also in
                             2009, project co-founder Lance Davis
                             disappeared, along with his control over the
                             project’s domain name and bank account. That
                             situation was eventually worked out, happily,
                             but not before the project survived some
                             significant turbulence, forcing it toward
                             more transparency in its governance and
                             finances.


                             The project also had trouble making timely
                             releases in 2009, a problem that would
                             resurface the following year — and often
                             thereafter. Creating a CentOS release is not
                             a simple or particularly fun job, so
                             volunteers have often proved hard to come by.
                             In 2011, this problem caused the project to
                             fall dangerously behind on security updates
                             while trying to produce the CentOS 6.0
                             release — a problem that would plague the
                             project for much of the year. In 2012, Oracle
                             tried to use the update delays as a way to
                             market Oracle Linux to CentOS users.


                             At the beginning of 2014, Red Hat acquired
                             the CentOS project, taking ownership of the
                             trademarks and hiring several CentOS
                             developers. At the time, a governing board
                             was set up, and Red Hat promised that the
                             project would be run in a “public, open, and
                             inclusive” way. A small fuss over version
                             numbers raised concerns about how a post-
                             acquisition CentOS would be run but, for the
                             most part, things continued as before, just
                             on a more solid footing. The project
                             announced a rolling release at the end of
                             that year.


                      # ⚓ Red_Hat_Ceph_Storage_5:_Introducing_Cephadm⠀⇛


                             We’re delighted to announce availability of
                             the new Alpha 4 release of Red Hat Ceph
                             Storage 5, built on the upstream project’s
                             Pacific release cycle. This post is the first
                             of a series that will walk you through the
                             enhancements coming with the next major
                             upgrade of Red Hat Ceph Storage—well ahead of
                             their production release—and give the details
                             needed to facilitate testing with early-
                             access releases.


                             Today’s post centers on the new Cephadm
                             interface to the orchestration application
                             programming interface (API), which is
                             intended to become the preferred bare-metal
                             installation and management method for Ceph
                             across the broader vendor community. You can
                             find download details for early access
                             releases at the end of this blog. Now,
                             without further ado, on to what is new…


                      # ⚓ Forrester_study_indicates_95%_of_insurance_firms
                        realize_benefits_from_cloud-native_development
                        initiatives⠀⇛


                             As insurers strive to differentiate
                             themselves, many have come to the realization
                             that adding front-end innovation, while
                             patching the core, is not a sustainable
                             development model. To meet policyholders’
                             expectations for a connected and personalized
                             experience, organizations are flocking to
                             cloud-native development, with the desire to
                             take advantage of DevOps principles to
                             accelerate and expand delivered features and
                             services with greater flexibility.


                             The Critical Value of Cloud-Native
                             Development for Insurance Firms, a Forrester
                             Consulting industry snapshot commissioned by
                             Red Hat, verifies an overwhelming majority of
                             surveyed developers at insurance companies in
                             North America, Europe and Asia Pacific
                             reported benefits from cloud-native
                             development initiatives, and recognized more
                             work needs to be done.


                      # ⚓ DNF/RPM_Copy-On-Write_Eyed_For_Fedora_34_To_Speed_Up
                        Package_Installation_–_Phoronix⠀⇛


                             Fedora 34 is shaping up to be another
                             exciting Fedora Linux release on the feature
                             front. Among the material to look forward to
                             in this spring 2021 Linux distribution
                             release is routing all audio through PipeWire
                             by default, enabling systemd-oomd by default,
                             an independent XWayland package, and more.
                             The latest proposal involves making use of
                             DNF/RPM copy-on-write support atop Btrfs with
                             Fedora 34.


                             Fedora Workstation 33 initiated the move to
                             the Btrfs file-system by default. With Fedora
                             34 is further taking advantage of Btrfs and
                             its reflinking capabilities for supporting
                             RPM copy-on-write to speed up package
                             installations/upgrades.


                # § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Session_Messenger_On_Ubuntu_Desktop_And_Android
                        Phone⠀⇛


                             Try Session! This new Australia based
                             messenger is like a combination of Signal
                             security and Tor anonymity and BitCoin
                             network plus requiring no phone number. It’s
                             available for both your desktop and phone
                             platforms. Interesting, right? So now this
                             tutorial will show you how to have Session in
                             both devices Ubuntu desktop and Android
                             phone.


          o § Devices/Embedded⠀➾


                # ⚓ Open_Automation_Software_Platform_now_runs_on_Raspberry
                  Pi⠀⇛


                       Open Automation Software OAS has announced that its
                       OAS Platform supports the Raspberry Pi 4, enabling
                       low-cost, remote Pi-based data logging devices on
                       multiplatform OAS automation networks.


                       Open Automation Software (OAS) announced that its
                       Full OAS Platform supports the Raspberry Pi 4 with
                       4GB or 8GB of RAM. The addition of the Pi enables
                       customers with OAS Platform software to deploy Pi-
                       based devices for “on-site data logging in remote
                       locations with limited power or connectivity.”


                # ⚓ Raspberry_Pi_Imager_update⠀⇛


                # ⚓ Hands-On:_Kali_Linux_on_the_Raspberry_Pi_4⠀⇛


                       Over the past few weeks, I have tried out Ubuntu,
                       Manjaro, openSUSE and the latest Raspberry Pi OS
                       release on the Raspberry Pi 4. I am going to
                       complete this series with a look at Kali Linux, one
                       of my favorite specialist Linux distributions. Kali
                       is specifically made for security analysis and
                       penetration testing, and is preloaded and
                       configured for that purpose. The combination of the
                       inexpensive and portable Raspberry Pi hardware and
                       the Kali Linux distribution has seemed extremely
                       promising to me for several years now, but so far
                       it hasn’t really fulfilled my expectations.
                       Hopefully the more powerful Raspberry Pi 4 and the
                       more mature Kali Linux 2020.4 will remedy that.


                       Kali Linux for the Raspberry Pi can be downloaded
                       from the Offensive Security ARM Images web page
                       (not the main Kali Downloads page, although there
                       is a link to the correct page there). There are
                       four download images there…


                # § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Piunora_has_the_guts_of_a_Raspberry_Pi_4_with_Arduino
                        form_factor,_M.2_PCIe_socket⠀⇛


                             The Raspberry Pi 4 is a pretty cool board,
                             but if you wished it was just a bit smaller,
                             and you could use the PCIe interface exposed
                             by the Broadcom BCM2711 processor more
                             easily, Timon has designed Piunora carrier
                             board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4.
                             The solution provides a board with the guts
                             of Raspberry Pi 4 SBC but using the Arduino
                             form factor including access to the six ADC
                             pins, and an M.2 socket with the PCIe signal
                             from the Broadcom SoC.


                      # ⚓ Arduino_Blog_»_Mesmerize_your_holiday_guests_with
                        these_motor-driven_rheoscopic_fluid_ornaments⠀⇛


                             We’ve all see Christmas ornaments shaped like
                             a ball – interesting, but a bit passive. Will
                             Donaldson, however, has created an amazing
                             enhancement for these “orbaments,” adding a
                             rheoscopic fluid inside that shows turbulent
                             swirling patterns as it moves.


                             The fluid is simply tap water and food
                             coloring, plus the special rheoscopic
                             concentrate that contains an array of light
                             reflecting particles. To maintain a state or
                             turbulence, Donaldson affixed a small drone-
                             style motor to the hanger assembly on top of
                             each orb using hot glue.


                             Motors were inserted with propellers
                             attached, which were bent to fit inside. To
                             vary the speed of the turbulence, Donaldson
                             included an Arduino Nano, along with an L293
                             driver, using the analogWrite() function for
                             PWM control.


                      # ⚓ Notecard_LTE_Cat-M_/_NB-IoT_M.2_modem_sells_for_$49+
                        with_10_years_of_connectivity⠀⇛


                             The company also offers a range of carrier
                             boards for people not wanting to design their
                             own custom baseboards for Notecard M.2 module
                             that include support for LiPo or AA battery,
                             Raspberry Pi HAT, a minimal board with micro
                             USB, and one model designed for “embedded
                             design”, meaning integration into end
                             products.


                      # ⚓ Himax_WE-I_Plus_EVB_AI_development_board_supports
                        TFLite_for_microcontrollers⠀⇛


                             The low power consumption technology of the
                             development board reduces the current
                             requirements. This significantly improves the
                             design by eliminating the heat factor. The
                             ASIC optimized for DSP intensive deep
                             learning applications makes it
                             multifunctional to perform voice, vision, and
                             vibration detection and recognition. The all-
                             in-one EVB contains many inbuilt devices that
                             make it a good option over other “high
                             profile boards such as the Arduino Nano 33
                             BLE Sense and ESP32” The support for the
                             Tensorflow Lite Microcontrollers adds an
                             additional feature of easy deployment. In
                             terms of performance, the latency time for
                             the 250KB TensorFlow Lite for
                             Microcontrollers “Person detection” example
                             is only 40ms, while the latency time of the
                             20KB TensorFlow Lite for Microcontrollers
                             “Micro speech” example is only 6ms.


                # § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Motorola_announces_plans_to_upgrade_21_phones_to
                        Android_11⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ [Update:_Global]_Samsung’s_popular_Galaxy_S20_FE
                        starts_getting_its_Android_11_update⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Let’s_Encrypt_comes_up_with_workaround_for
                        abandonware_Android_devices⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Dragon_Touch_Notepad_102_10_inch_Android_tablet
                        review⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Google_Assistant_Voice_Search_on_Chrome_is_Expanding
                        to_Android⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Android_beginner’s_guide:_how_to_download_apps_and
                        launchers_on_your_new_Google_smartphone⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ 20_Android_tips_you_shouldn’t_miss_from_2020⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ 10_Best_Reminder_Apps_for_Android_You_Should_Use⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Latest_HBO_Max_update_delivers_4K_HDR_support_on
                        Android_TV,_Chromecast_with_Google_TV⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Samsung_opens_Android_11_beta_to_Galaxy_A51,_M31
                        devices⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ UMIDIGI_A9-_First_Android_11_Smartphone_with_Infrared
                        Temperature_Measurement_Launches_Globally⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ [Update:_Dec._24]_Realme_UI_2.0_(Android_11)_update
                        tracker:_Devices_that_have_received_the_beta/stable_OS
                        so_far⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Xperia_1_II_is_the_first_Sony_phone_to_get_Android_11
                        update_in_the_UK⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Xiaomi_Mi_11_to_offer_night_mode_video,_could_pack
                        astrophotography_mode⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Vivo_V20_(2021)_silently_launched_with_Snapdragon
                        730G,_44MP_selfie_camera,_64MP_triple_camera_and
                        Android_11_OS_in_India⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Android_security:_The_last_piece_of_advice_you’ll
                        need_for_2020⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ How_to_Use_Google_Assistant_Voice_Search_in_Chrome
                        for_Android⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Apocalypse_deferred:_These_Android_devices_will_no
                        longer_go_offline_next_fall⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Google,_Qualcomm_partnering_to_hasten_process_of
                        Android_phones_getting_latest_software_updates⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Meizu_17_series_will_commence_Android_11_beta
                        recruitment_on_December_23rd⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ [Update:_Also_available_for_Xiaomi_Mi_A3]_Paranoid
                        Android_releases_new_Android_11_alphas_for_the_OnePlus
                        8T,_OnePlus_8_series⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ The_Xiaomi_Redmi_7_receives_global_Android_10_update
                        but_misses_out_on_MIUI_12⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Nokia_2.4_gets_new_Android_Build_while_Nokia_6.1_and
                        7_Plus_December_security_update⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ The_30_best_Android_games_of_2020_for_your_new_phone,
                        tablet,_or_Chromebook⠀⇛


          o § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾


                # ⚓ Easily_manage_your_company_orders_with_this_free_Libre_app:
                  Hydra_OMS⠀⇛


                       If you have hundreds or thousands of orders every
                       month and you suffer from a complicated business
                       process for your accounting system or ERP solution,
                       then Hydra OMS is for you.


                       Hydra OMS is an open-source order management system
                       (OMS) for small and medium-size companies. It helps
                       company owners to manage hundreds of orders without
                       breaking a sweat.


                       It is a great option for support-based companies
                       where they can manage support orders, track
                       customer requests and follow-up with tasks with a
                       straightforward procedure.


                       It features full order automation, customizable
                       business process models, a user-friendly interface
                       and over-all simple flow-alike wizard.


                       Hydra OMS offers a configurable process flow with a
                       rich wizard system, which works is beneficial for
                       companies with different workflows.


                # ⚓ Inventory_Manager:_Free_open-source_warehouse_manager⠀⇛


                       Inventory Manager is a simple free inventory and
                       stock manager for small and medium-size companies.


                       It features several stock management tools which
                       include asset tracking, advanced search, barcode/QR
                       code scanner support and invoice manager.


                # ⚓ State_of_the_Source_Presentations_Available_to_Watch⠀⇛


                # ⚓ Why_I_rewrote_my_open_source_virtual_reality_server⠀⇛


                       Look! I wrote a virtual reality (VR) server and
                       published it on GitHub! But why?


                       Well, I’m your typical introverted hacker. I like
                       to play with technology. Whenever something new
                       comes out, I have to lay my hands on it and get
                       them dirty. So, when I gifted myself Oculus Quest
                       last year, I played a few games before I wanted to
                       code something myself. And guess what? Everything
                       is proprietary!


                       Alright, this may be a bit of an overstatement. But
                       my overall impression of the VR industry is exactly
                       that—it’s all proprietary! Hardware and software
                       vendors are trying to lock developers in to sell
                       more devices and development tools than their
                       competitors—deja vu, like the Unix wars in the last
                       century.


                # § Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra⠀➾


                      # ⚓ LIBREOFFICE_7.1_RC1_IS_AVAILABLE_FOR_TESTING⠀⇛


                             LibreOffice 7.1 will be released as final at
                             the beginning of February, 2021 ( Check the
                             Release Plan for more information ) being
                             LibreOffice 7.1 RC1 the third pre-release
                             since the development of version 7.1 started
                             at the end of May, 2020. Since the previous
                             release, LibreOffice 7.1 Beta1, 234 commits
                             have been submitted to the code repository
                             and 132 bugs have been fixed. Check the
                             release notes to find the new features
                             included in LibreOffice 7.1.


                             LibreOffice 7.1 RC1 can be downloaded from
                             here for Linux, MacOS and Windows.


                      # ⚓ LibreOffice_7.1-RC1_Released_For_Testing_This_Open-
                        Source_Office_Suite⠀⇛


                             For those with extra time around the
                             holidays, the first release candidate of
                             LibreOffice 7.1 is now available for testing.


                             After the alpha in October and beta in
                             November, LibreOffice 7.1 is ending out 2020
                             with their initial release candidate. There
                             have been more than 200 new commits that
                             landed ahead of the 7.1-RC1 release.


                # § FSF⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Replicant:_A_free_mobile_phone_OS_is_more_important
                        than_ever,_and_needs_your_help⠀⇛


                             In 2020, mobile devices such as phones and
                             tablets (which are full computers with
                             powerful hardware running complete operating
                             systems, with applications) are an
                             increasingly important part in our computing.
                             Hence, they are particularly subject to
                             freedom and security concerns. So-called
                             smartphones present a number of freedom,
                             privacy, security, ecological, and social
                             justice issues in a relatively small device.


                             Replicant works hard to address these issues
                             by enabling people to run fully free
                             operating systems on supported devices. You
                             can read more about the freedom, privacy, and
                             security issues that Replicant addresses on
                             the Replicant Web site. The site and wiki
                             also give further information about
                             Replicant, the devices it supports,
                             installation instructions, the latest info
                             about its limitations, and more.


                      # ⚓ Need_a_last-minute_gift?_Gift_an_FSF_membership!⠀⇛


                             Do you need a last-minute gift for the techie
                             or activist in your life? Want something that
                             will keep on giving for the rest of the year?
                             Concerned about spending money on yet another
                             dust collector or future regift? Is “retail
                             therapy” actually not that therapeutic for
                             you? Are the myriad options generating a
                             cloud of anxiety over your head?


                      # § GNU Projects⠀➾


                            # ⚓ A_new_release_for_GNU_Octave⠀⇛


                                   On November 26, version 6.1 of GNU
                                   Octave, a language and environment for
                                   numerical computing, was released.
                                   There are several new features and
                                   enhancements in this release, including
                                   improvements to graphics output, better
                                   communication with web services, and
                                   over 40 new functions. We will take a
                                   look at where Octave fits into the
                                   landscape of numerical tools for
                                   scientists and engineers, and recount
                                   some of its long history.


                                   [...]


                                   To understand Octave’s subsequent
                                   development requires some awareness of
                                   another tool, called MATLAB, which was
                                   also created as a Fortran alternative.
                                   MATLAB has an interesting origin story:
                                   it was created to enable students to
                                   use Fortran’s linear algebra routines
                                   without having to write Fortran
                                   programs. Its authors later turned it
                                   into a commercial product, which became
                                   quite successful. Now this powerful
                                   (and expensive) system is in use by
                                   millions of engineers and scientists
                                   all over the world. This created a
                                   market of people doing numerical
                                   computing who became used to MATLAB’s
                                   syntax, but lost access to it after
                                   leaving their employers or
                                   institutions; beyond that, some people
                                   were also interested in free-software
                                   alternatives.


                      # § Licensing/Legal⠀➾


                            # ⚓ What_makes_the_EUPL_unique?⠀⇛


                                   A new December 2020 presentation
                                   details the implications of the EUPL
                                   vision of sharing software based on the
                                   clarification of key concepts: Open
                                   source, Reciprocity, Compatibility,
                                   Interoperability, Compliance with EU
                                   law and support by a strong community
                                   on Joinup.eu.


                # § Programming/Development⠀➾


                      # § Perl/Raku⠀➾


                            # ⚓ Day_24:_Christmas-oriented_programming,_part
                              deux_–_Raku_Advent_Calendar⠀⇛


                                   In the previous installment of this
                                   series of articles, we started with a
                                   straightforward script, and we wanted
                                   to arrive to a sound object-oriented
                                   design using Raku.


                      # § Python⠀➾


                            # ⚓ Speeding_up_CPython⠀⇛


                                   Python, at least in the CPython
                                   reference implementation, is not a
                                   particularly speedy language. That is
                                   not at all surprising to anyone who has
                                   used it—the language is optimized for
                                   understandability and development
                                   speed, instead. There have been lots of
                                   efforts over the years to speed up
                                   various parts of the interpreter,
                                   compiler, and virtual-machine bytecode
                                   execution, though no comprehensive
                                   overhaul has been merged into CPython.
                                   An interesting new proposal could
                                   perhaps change that, though it is
                                   unclear at this point if it will take
                                   off.


                                   Mark Shannon posted a message about his
                                   ideas to the python-dev mailing list in
                                   late October. He noted that CPython is
                                   slow, “yet little is done to fix it”;
                                   he would like to change that. He has a
                                   four-phase plan to get there on the
                                   technical side, along with some ideas
                                   on how to fund the effort.


                      # § Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh⠀➾


                            # ⚓ How_to_build_a_multi-file_fields_concordance⠀⇛


                                   Suppose also I’d like to compare what’s
                                   in the shared fields, using a tool like
                                   AWK.


                      # § Rust⠀➾


                            # ⚓ 10_ways_we_learned_Rust_in_2020⠀⇛


                                   The Rust language is getting more and
                                   more popular, as the combination of
                                   memory safety and zero-cost
                                   abstractions makes it a good fit for
                                   handling many tasks.


                                   In addition, frequent releases,
                                   consideration for development
                                   ergonomics, and high-quality
                                   documentation are leading more people
                                   to learn Rust.


                                   Whether you’re new to Rust or have been
                                   using it for a while, you’ll learn
                                   something new in Opensource.com’s top
                                   10 articles about Rust in 2020.


                            # ⚓ This_Week_in_Rust_370⠀⇛


    * § Leftovers⠀➾


          o ⚓ Concrete_validation_Expert_Andrey_Kurilkin_explains_why_Russian
            officials_and_billionaires_are_building_monuments_and_buying
            doctorates⠀⇛


                 As some countries face disputes over the demolition of
                 monuments, others are seeing an increasing number of
                 figures on pedestals popping up. In Moscow, the
                 development of monument culture is especially intense.
                 The December news cycle has featured a dispute over a
                 memorial to actor Vladimir Etush, plans to create a
                 monument to singer Iosif Kobzon, sculptor Zurab Tsreteli
                 agreeing to memorialize actor Valentin Gaft, and the
                 unveiling of the “Atom of the Sun” statue in memory of
                 the Moscow Art Theater’s artistic director Oleg Tabakov.
                 Meanwhile, the leaders of the Russian Union of
                 Industrialists and Entrepreneurs — an organization that
                 unites the country’s billionaires — have been fighting
                 against the “Last Address” project, an initiative aimed
                 at memorializing the victims of Stalin’s Great Terror.
                 For Meduza, producer and publisher Andrey Kurilkin, the
                 director of the platform InLiberty and the author of the
                 project “New Monuments for a New History,” explains what
                 the creators of these new monuments want to tell society
                 — and what they are causing people to forget. 


          o ⚓ ‘Right_Vibration’_by_Farmer_Dave_&_The_Wizards_Of_The_West⠀⇛


          o ⚓ Top_10_Protest_Albums_Of_2020⠀⇛


                 *The following is a collection of some of the best albums
                 of protest music released in 2020. They were selected by
                 Kevin Gosztola and C.J. Baker, who publishes writing
                 regularly at Ongoing History Of Protest Songs. They are
                 in alphabetical order by artist.


          o ⚓ Esports_Milestone:_Esports_Becomes_A_Medal_Event_At_The_Asian
            Games⠀⇛


                 While we’ve continued to cover the rise of esports as an
                 emerging force in the competitive games marketplace, the
                 rise in popularity and adoption of it have started to
                 grow exponentially. Some of this has to do with the
                 COVID-19 pandemic, with esports first taking the place of
                 shut-down IRL sporting events and then cementing its
                 position as a viewing spectacle almost perfectly designed
                 to be consumed from home. But the fact is that the growth
                 and rise of esports was occurring prior to the pandemic
                 and was always going to continue its rise, with
                 professional sports organizations jumping on board, and
                 major marketing and apparel players in the sports world
                 jumping in as well.


          o ⚓ 2020_in_Review⠀⇛


                 It almost seems appropriate that EFF turned 30 this year,
                 a year of extreme highs and lows. A year where being able
                 to get and stay online became vital to everyday life. A
                 year where people took the streets in protest and in
                 celebration – and where mass surveillance often tracked
                 them at both.


                 We are grateful to our over 37,000 members at last count,
                 who allowed us to fight for digital rights this year and
                 the last 29. We always feel the importance of our work,
                 but we took on new challenges this year under very
                 difficult circumstances. And it was you, our supporters,
                 who helped us rise to meet them. Our goal this birthday
                 year is to welcome 30,000 new or renewing members before
                 July, and you have helped us get over halfway there so
                 far. 


                 We began the year with a fight that ended in a major
                 victory: saving .ORG from falling into the hands of
                 private equity. At the end of 2019, The Internet Society
                 (ISOC) announced that it intended to sell the Public
                 Interest Registry (PIR, the organization that oversees
                 the .ORG domain name registry) to a private equity firm.
                 Eventually, petitions to reject the sale received over
                 64,000 signatures, and nearly 900 organizations signed
                 on. Joining them in their concerns were Members of
                 Congress, UN Special Rapporteurs, and state charity
                 regulators. This culminated in an April decision by ICANN
                 to disapprove the sale of .ORG, representing a win for
                 the public interest Internet.


          o § Science⠀➾


                # ⚓ Scientists_discovered_a_radio_signal_from_the_nearest_star
                  and_want_to_know_if_it’s_from_aliens⠀⇛


                       A narrow beam of radio waves was detected over a
                       period of 30 hours in April and May 2019 by the
                       Parkes telescope in Australia, according to The
                       Guardian. The researchers studying the wave
                       emission have not yet been able to identify any
                       Earthly origin, whether a satellite in or something
                       on the ground. As a result, scientists at the
                       Breakthrough Listen project — an organization based
                       at the University of California, Berkeley that
                       searches for radio signals from intelligent
                       extraterrestrial life forms in the universe —
                       believe that the radio signal could originate from
                       extraterrestrial intelligent life.


          o § Education⠀➾


                # ⚓ Teachers’_Unions_See_Biden_Choice_of_Cardona_for_Education
                  Secretary_as_Promising_Choice⠀⇛


                       “Unlike Betsy DeVos, Secretary-designate Cardona
                       will ensure that the federal government’s role in
                       education is to ensure access and opportunity for
                       every student.”


                # ⚓ Opinion_|_Why_Biden_Nominee_Miguel_Cardona_Should_Make_Sure
                  Facial_Recognition_Stays_Out_of_Schools⠀⇛


                       The man Biden intends to nominate to lead the
                       Education Department cares deeply about racial and
                       class inequality. This is one way to show it.


                # ⚓ Biden’s_Education_Secretary_Pick_Must_Overturn_DeVos’s
                  Attack_on_Public_Schools⠀⇛


                # ⚓ Diane_Ravitch:_Biden’s_Pick_for_Education_Secretary_Must
                  Overturn_DeVos’s_Attack_on_Public_Schools⠀⇛


                       President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Connecticut
                       public schools commissioner Miguel Cardona for
                       secretary of education, tapping a third Latinx
                       person to join his Cabinet. Cardona is a former
                       teacher who represents a sharp break from outgoing
                       Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who urged career
                       employees at the Education Department earlier this
                       month to “be the resistance” to the incoming
                       administration. He is Puerto Rican and began his
                       career as a fourth grade teacher, becoming the
                       state’s top schools official just last August, the
                       first Latinx person to hold the position. “He’s not
                       Betsy DeVos, and every educator in America, or
                       almost every educator, will be thrilled about
                       that,” says Diane Ravitch, a writer and historian
                       of education who served as assistant secretary of
                       education under President George H.W. Bush. “He’s
                       been in public schools throughout his career, and
                       that’s a big plus for many people who’ve been
                       watching the attacks on public education, on
                       teachers, for the past four and more years.”


                # ⚓ ExamSoft_Flags_One-Third_of_California_Bar_Exam_Test_Takers
                  for_Cheating⠀⇛


                       It is clear that at least some of these flags are
                       technical issues with ExamSoft.


                       This is outrageous. It goes without saying that of
                       the 3,190 applicants flagged by the software, the
                       vast majority were not cheating. Far more likely is
                       that, as EFF and others have said before, remote
                       proctoring software is surveillance snake oil—you
                       simply can’t replicate a classroom environment
                       online, and attempting to do so via algorithms and
                       video monitoring only causes harm. In this case,
                       the harm is not only to the students who are
                       rightfully upset about the implications and the
                       lack of proper channels for redress, but to the
                       institution of the Bar itself. While examinees have
                       been searching for help from other examinees as
                       well as hiring legal counsel in their attempt to
                       defend themselves from potentially baseless claims
                       of cheating, the California Committee of Bar
                       Examiners has said “everything is going well” and
                       called these results “a good thing to see” (13:30
                       into the video of the Committee meeting).  


                       That is not how we see it. These flags have
                       triggered concern for hundreds, if not thousands,
                       of test takers, most of whom had no idea that they
                       were flagged until recently. Many only learned
                       about the flag after receiving an official “Chapter
                       6 Notice” from the Bar, which is sent when an
                       applicant is observed (supposedly) violating exam
                       conduct rules or seen or heard with prohibited
                       items, like a cell phone, during the exam. In a
                       depressingly ironic introduction to the legal
                       system, the Bar has requested that students respond
                       to the notices within 10 days, but it would appear
                       that none of them have been given enough
                       information to do so, as Chapter 6 Notices contain
                       only a short summary of the violation. These
                       summaries are decidedly vague: “Facial view of your
                       eyes was not within view of the camera for a
                       prolonged period of time”; “No audible sound was
                       detected”; “Leaving the view of the webcam outside
                       of scheduled breaks during a remote-proctored
                       exam.” Examinees do not currently have access to
                       the flagged videos themselves, and are not expected
                       to receive access to them, or any other evidence
                       against them, before they are required to submit a
                       response.


                # ⚓ Universities_say_student_cheating_exploding_in_Covid_era⠀⇛


                       The base-level problem, several experts said, was
                       that the sudden shift to virtual environments
                       rapidly increased student stress levels while
                       multiplying their opportunities for furtively
                       answering test questions with online assistance.


                       [...]


                       “Academic misconduct is not a micro-problem, it’s
                       not even a macro-problem – this is a mega-problem,”
                       said Sarah Eaton, an associate professor of
                       education at Calgary and a programme organiser with
                       the International Center for Academic Integrity.
                       “This is rippling across the globe right now.”


                # ⚓ Chicago_Teachers_Pledge_Collective_Action_as_January
                  Reopening_Approaches⠀⇛


          o § Health/Nutrition⠀➾


                # ⚓ Smoking_Meat,_Hoping_to_Survive⠀⇛


                       Columbia, South Carolina—Yeah, it is hard as hell
                       operating a restaurant in the midst of a pandemic.
                       Very f-ing hard.


                # ⚓ Opinion_|_The_Coming_Battle_Over_Vaccines⠀⇛


                       Natural scientists have done their part by creating
                       vaccines. To get people to take them, we need
                       social science.


                # ⚓ Paul_Farmer_on_How_We_Tell_the_Story_of_a_Pandemic⠀⇛


                       For more than three decades, Dr. Paul Farmer has
                       been on the front lines delivering medical care to
                       some of the most poverty-stricken regions in the
                       world, amid dire outbreaks of cholera, Zika, Ebola,
                       and now Covid-19. He first visited rural Haiti in
                       1983 to learn Creole and figure out what kind of
                       doctor he wanted to be, shortly before enrolling in
                       Harvard’s medical school, and throughout his
                       education, traveled between central Haiti and
                       Cambridge, Mass. The sharp contrast between the
                       resource-poor regions in Haiti and the abundant
                       resources available to him on campus, where he now
                       chairs the department of global health and social
                       medicine, has informed his entire career.


                # ⚓ “Worse_Than_Being_in_Iraq”:_Veteran_&_ER_Doctor_Says
                  Pandemic_Is_Pushing_Hospitals_to_Breaking_Point⠀⇛


                       As the U.S. averages more than 200,000 new COVID-19
                       cases per day, we speak with Dr. Cleavon Gilman, an
                       emergency physician who has been treating patients
                       since the beginning of the U.S. outbreak, first in
                       New York City and now in Yuma, Arizona. Dr. Gilman
                       is also an Iraq War veteran who served as a Marine
                       combat medic, and has kept a public diary of his
                       experiences treating COVID-19 patients. He was
                       fired after tweeting that Arizona’s ICU beds were
                       full, and then got his job back after public
                       outcry. “This pandemic is worse than being in
                       Iraq,” says Dr. Gilman. “This virus is a Trojan
                       horse, and it just hides in people, and you can
                       bring it home to your family and infect every
                       person in your house.”


                # ⚓ Helping_the_NYT_Understand_Its_Own_Reporting:_China_Was_not
                  the_Cause_of_the_Worldwide_Spread_of_Coronavirus⠀⇛


                # ⚓ US_Airports_Are_Portals_for_Disease_Spread._Venezuela_Shows
                  Another_Way.⠀⇛


                # ⚓ The_Justice_Department_Sues_Walmart,_Accusing_It_of
                  Illegally_Dispensing_Opioids⠀⇛


                       More than two years after the federal government
                       was preparing to indict Walmart on charges of
                       illegally dispensing opioids, the U.S. Department
                       of Justice is finally taking action. But it’s
                       seeking a financial penalty, not the criminal
                       sanction prosecutors had pushed for.


                       On Tuesday, the Department of Justice brought a
                       civil suit against Walmart in U.S. District Court
                       in Delaware, accusing the retailing behemoth of
                       illegally dispensing and distributing opioids,
                       helping to fuel a health crisis that has led to the
                       deaths of around half a million Americans since
                       1999.


                # ⚓ Medicare_Fraudster_Who_Exploited_the_Elderly_in_$1.3
                  Billion_Scheme_Embodies_‘Grotesque’_Corruption_of_Trump
                  Clemency_Orders⠀⇛


                       “The corrupt, the criminal, murderers of
                       children—that’s who Donald lets off the hook. We
                       can never forget and never forgive the unspeakable
                       cruelty.”


                # ⚓ ‘Our_Government_Needs_to_Protect_Workers,_Not
                  Corporations’⠀⇛


                       Janine Jackson interviewed Jessica Martinez about
                       worker safety and Covid relief for the December 18,
                       2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly
                       edited transcript. 


                # ⚓ FedEx_Prioritizes_Packages_Over_Employee_Safety,_Workers
                  and_Experts_Say⠀⇛


                       MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Fannie Stanberry had been on the
                       job for two months as a package handler at FedEx
                       Express’ massive World Hub when, toward the end of
                       her overnight shift, packages started to fall from
                       a huge shipping container that rolled past her.


                       As Stanberry, then 61, bent to pick up the
                       packages, she fell and became trapped between the
                       catwalk she’d been standing on and the wheeled
                       platform carrying the shipping container, also
                       known as a dolly. “I thought I was a goner,”
                       Stanberry said. She broke eight ribs and her left
                       arm and lacerated her liver, she said. “I had to
                       learn how to walk over again.”


                # ⚓ Wildfires_fueled_by_climate_change_threaten_toxic_Superfund
                  sites⠀⇛


                       With wildfires heightened by climate change
                       threatening 234 Superfund sites across the country,
                       according to the federal government, the OU3 Libby
                       Asbestos Site presents a kind of worst-case
                       scenario in which a wildfire could send asbestos-
                       contaminated ash into nearby communities. Some
                       firefighters worry a plume of smoke could carry the
                       forest’s toxins hundreds of miles away.


                # ⚓ The_Inside_Story_of_How_Sweden_Botched_Its_Coronavirus
                  Response⠀⇛


                       The Organization for Economic Cooperation and
                       Development’s Nov. 19 report concluded that Sweden
                       fared worst among 35 European countries in multiple
                       coronavirus management metrics including lowering
                       the spread of infection, reducing people’s
                       mobility, and discharging patients from intensive
                       care units.


                # ⚓ Colorado_COVID_numbers_continue_downward_as_potential
                  arrival_of_mutant_strain_looms⠀⇛


                       Colorado on Tuesday experienced its lowest new
                       daily COVID-19 case count since late October, as
                       the state’s seven-day average of new cases
                       continued to decline ahead of the holidays and the
                       potential arrival of a mutant new strain of the
                       virus.


                       Deaths, too, were down sharply, with Monday’s
                       seven-day average of nearly 15 deaths the lowest
                       since Nov. 1.


                # ⚓ ‘Mom’s_worth_it’:_US_holiday_travel_surges_despite
                  outbreak⠀⇛


                       Some are elderly and figure they don’t have many
                       Christmases left. Others are trying to keep long-
                       distance romance alive. Some just yearn for the
                       human connection that’s been absent for the past
                       nine months.


                       Millions of Americans are traveling ahead of
                       Christmas and New Year’s, despite pleas from public
                       health experts that they stay home to avoid fueling
                       the raging coronavirus pandemic that has killed
                       more than 320,000 nationwide.


                       Many people at airports this week thought long and
                       hard about whether to go somewhere and found a way
                       to rationalize it.


                # ⚓ 2020_in_review:_Food_security⠀⇛


                       Conflict, poverty, and economic shocks drove food
                       crises in “hotspots” in almost every region of the
                       world in 2020.


                       While Burkina Faso, northeastern Nigeria, and Yemen
                       are said to be on the brink of famine, “famine-
                       like” conditions were reported at the end of 2020
                       in the remote east of South Sudan as a result of
                       floods and intercommunal clashes.


                       In Yemen, 13.5 million people are facing “high
                       levels of acute food insecurity”, a number
                       predicted to rise to 16.2 million – more than half
                       the population – in the first six months of 2021.
                       The country’s severe hunger problem is the result
                       of a dangerous mixture that includes fighting, a
                       currency crash, and rising prices.


                       Burkina Faso has been one of the world’s fastest
                       deteriorating food crises. The violence between
                       jihadist groups, communty militia, and government
                       forces has seen the number of people in need of
                       emergency food aid triple to 3.2 million this year.
                       In what is a broader Sahelian conflict, more than
                       7.4 million people have also been displaced across
                       the region.


          o § Integrity/Availability⠀➾


                # § Proprietary⠀➾


                      # ⚓ A_Major_Wireless_Network_Flaw_Is_Still_Being
                        Exploited_To_Track_User_Locations⠀⇛


                             In 2017, hackers and security researchers
                             highlighted long-standing vulnerabilities in
                             Signaling System 7 (SS7, or Common Channel
                             Signalling System 7 in the US), a series of
                             protocols first built in 1975 to help connect
                             phone carriers around the world. While the
                             problem isn’t new, a 2016 60 Minutes report
                             brought wider attention to the fact that the
                             flaw can allow a hacker to track user
                             location, dodge encryption, and even record
                             private conversations. All while the
                             intrusion looks like ordinary carrier to
                             carrier chatter among a sea of other,
                             “privileged peering relationships.”


                      # ⚓ The_cyber_attack_that_rocked_the_nation [iophk:
                        Windows TCO]⠀⇛


                             “Mistakes were made,” acknowledged founder
                             and deposed CEO Ville Tapio—not “I made
                             mistakes,” but the passive voice dodge. Left
                             unmentioned was the fact that, as Mikko
                             Hyppönen, chief research officer at Finnish
                             cyber security firm F-Secure, pointed out,
                             the company left the door wide open to
                             [crackers].


                      # § Security⠀➾


                            # ⚓ Security_updates_for_Thursday⠀⇛


                                   Security updates have been issued by
                                   Debian (spip and sympa), Gentoo (c-
                                   ares, cherokee, curl, dbus, firefox,
                                   gdk-pixbuf, haproxy, libass, nss,
                                   openssl, pdns, pdns-recursor, php,
                                   samba, tomcat, and webkit-gtk), and
                                   SUSE (java-1_8_0-ibm, openexr, and
                                   python3).


                            # ⚓ Cross-layer_attacks:_New_hacking_technique
                              raises_DNS_cache_poisoning,_user_tracking_risk⠀⇛


                                   As many as one in 20 web servers could
                                   be vulnerable to a weakness in the
                                   Linux kernel, according to security
                                   researchers.


                                   The same weakness could also expose
                                   millions of Android device users to
                                   increased risk of tracking.


                            # § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾


                                  # ⚓ Proposed_FinCEN_regulation_would_create
                                    financial_surveillance_net_for
                                    cryptocurrency_transactions⠀⇛


                                         FinCEN is only able to attempt to
                                         exert control over
                                         cryptocurrencies by leveraging
                                         the licensed money service
                                         businesses (MSBs) that serve as
                                         the most used on and off ramps
                                         for cryptocurrencies: exchanges
                                         and other custodial wallets that
                                         are based in the United States
                                         and favored by users precisely
                                         because they are seen as
                                         regulated by American
                                         authorities.


                                  # ⚓ In_memoriam_of_Karsten_Loesing⠀⇛


                                         It’s with deep sorrow that we
                                         share that our dear friend,
                                         colleague, and Tor core
                                         contributor Karsten Loesing
                                         passed away on the afternoon of
                                         Friday, December 18, 2020. No one
                                         is prepared for such an
                                         unimaginable loss. Our deepest
                                         sympathies go to Karsten’s family
                                         at this moment, his wife and his
                                         children.


                                         Karsten was part of the Tor
                                         community for 13 years and an
                                         amazing, smart, thoughtful, and
                                         gentle person who has touched us
                                         all. Over the course of these
                                         years we saw him not only grow as
                                         a colleague at Tor but as a
                                         father to his family. His
                                         positive, attentive, and kind
                                         presence helped us grow as people
                                         as well.


                                  # ⚓ Facebook_Joined_by_Human_Rights_Groups_to
                                    Fight_Spyware_Maker⠀⇛


                                         Facebook last year initiated the
                                         lawsuit against NSO Group,
                                         accusing the company of reverse-
                                         engineering WhatsApp and using
                                         the popular chat service to send
                                         spyware to the devices of
                                         approximately 1,400 people,
                                         including attorneys, journalists,
                                         human rights activists,
                                         government officials and others.
                                         Facebook acquired WhatsApp in
                                         2014.


                                         NSO Group is now trying to
                                         overturn a federal court decision
                                         that allowed the case to proceed.


                                  # ⚓ Facebook_Worries_Smaller_Rivals_With
                                    Openness_on_Liability⠀⇛


                                         Facebook Inc. says it’s time to
                                         rethink the legal immunity that
                                         protects it from lawsuits over
                                         what users post online, a
                                         position that’s leaving smaller
                                         websites concerned about the cost
                                         of accepting more responsibility
                                         for what appears on their
                                         platforms.


                                         The social-media giant has been
                                         prominent in the debate in
                                         Washington over the liability
                                         shield contained in Section 230
                                         of the Communications Decency
                                         Act, which may be the subject of
                                         a proposal by the U.S. Federal
                                         Communications Commission in
                                         coming days.


                                  # ⚓ Telegram_gets_Discord-like_group_voice
                                    chats⠀⇛


                                         Telegram is adding a new group
                                         voice chats feature that’s
                                         similar to an always-on Discord
                                         room. Voice chats are now part of
                                         existing text chats, and operate
                                         as a persistent option to speak
                                         live with friends or family. As
                                         they’re always available, you can
                                         dip in and out of voice chats
                                         just like you would in a Discord
                                         room or call.


                                         Telegram is supporting “a few
                                         thousand participants,” so even
                                         bigger groups for things like
                                         live events will include voice
                                         chats. The feature appears at the
                                         top of an existing group chat, if
                                         enabled, allowing anyone to join
                                         the conversation freely. On the
                                         desktop versions of Telegram for
                                         Windows and Mac, you can also use
                                         a push-to-talk key for voice
                                         chats to control your microphone
                                         input.


                                  # ⚓ Telegram_to_Start_Putting_Ads_in_Public
                                    Channels_in_2021⠀⇛


                                         Telegram has been known for its
                                         good user experience that it
                                         provides for users wishing to
                                         have a WhatsApp alternative. With
                                         its many user-friendly features
                                         and being ad-free, millions of
                                         users migrated to it away from
                                         Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp,
                                         but that migration could start to
                                         face some issues in the future.


                                         Today, Telegram’s product manager
                                         and Co-founder Pavel Durov
                                         announced that the platform is
                                         approaching 500 million active
                                         users, and that they no longer
                                         can keep it ad-free. Starting
                                         from 2021, they will serve ads
                                         that are “user-friendly, respects
                                         privacy and allows us to cover
                                         the costs of servers and
                                         traffic”.


                                         The nature of these “user-
                                         friendly” advertisements are
                                         still unknown as of this moment,
                                         and the Telegram team is expected
                                         to start revealing details in the
                                         next few months of 2021. It is
                                         unclear whether they will take
                                         the look of native Telegram
                                         messages, or whether some extra
                                         data-collection mechanisms are
                                         going to be introduced to target
                                         users beneficial to certain
                                         advertisers.


                                  # ⚓ Zoom_Reportedly_Developing_Email_and
                                    Calendar_Services⠀⇛


                                         There’s no doubt Zoom achieved
                                         extreme popularity this year in
                                         the face of the global health
                                         pandemic. Workers and students
                                         were forced to turn to Zoom to
                                         communicate with bosses,
                                         teachers, and each other online
                                         and fell to various video-
                                         conferencing platforms, with Zoom
                                         being the undisputed king of them
                                         all. Zoom may be realizing that
                                         its run may be nearing an end
                                         once the pandemic has finally
                                         been extinguished as it is
                                         reportedly considering expanding
                                         to offer email, calendar, and
                                         messaging services.


          o § Defence/Aggression⠀➾


                # ⚓ FBI’s_Newest_Prerogative:_Shooting_Subway_Passengers⠀⇛


                       Thirty-six years ago, Bernie Goetz pulled a pistol
                       and shot four youths who were shaking him down on
                       the New York subway. This was front-page news for
                       weeks and spurred a deluge of anti-gun
                       denunciations as well as condemnations of routine
                       subway violence. Goetz was later acquitted by a
                       jury on criminal assault and attempted murder
                       charges.


                       Last Tuesday, an FBI agent pulled out his gun and
                       repeatedly shot a passenger on the Washington
                       subway. At the bottom of B6 in Saturday’s
                       Washington Post – buried past an article headlined,
                       “Despite the upcoming solstice, winter has already
                       arrived” is a short piece headlined: “Police:
                       ‘Verbal exchange’ preceded Metro shooting.” There
                       were zero news reports or disclosures for the two
                       days after the shooting – except for a brief FBI
                       note that there had been an “officer-involved
                       shooting” on the subway.


                # ⚓ Experts_on_Military-Industrial_Complex_Blast_Trump_Plan_to
                  Sell_Nearly_$750_Billion_in_Bombs_to_Criminal_Saudi_Regime⠀⇛


                       “The United States simply should not be selling
                       weapons to Saudi Arabia, especially given their
                       role in exacerbating the suffering in Yemen.”


                # ⚓ Senior_UN_Human_Rights_Official_‘Deeply_Concerned’_by
                  Trump’s_Pardons_for_Mercenaries_Who_Massacred_17_Iraqi
                  Civilians⠀⇛


                       “Pardoning them contributes to impunity and has the
                       effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes
                       in the future.”


                # ⚓ Leaving_Out_Assange,_Who_Exposed_US_War_Crimes,_Trump
                  Pardons_Blackwater_Guards_Jailed_for_Massacring_Iraqi
                  Civilians⠀⇛


                       “While U.S. Army contractors convicted of
                       massacring civilians in Iraq are pardoned, the man
                       who exposed such crimes against humanity, Julian
                       Assange, rots in Britain’s Guantanamo.”


                # ⚓ Trump_Pardons_Blackwater_Guards_Jailed_for_War_Crimes
                  Against_Iraqi_Civilians⠀⇛


                # ⚓ Inside_Trump_and_Barr’s_Last-Minute_Killing_Spree⠀⇛


                       In its hurry to use its final days in power to
                       execute federal prisoners, the administration of
                       President Donald Trump has trampled over an array
                       of barriers, both legal and practical, according to
                       court records that have not been previously
                       reported.


                       Officials gave public explanations for their choice
                       of which prisoners should die that misstated key
                       facts from the cases. They moved ahead with
                       executions in the middle of the night. They left
                       one prisoner strapped to the gurney while lawyers
                       worked to remove a court order. They executed a
                       second prisoner while an appeal was still pending,
                       leaving the court to then dismiss the appeal as
                       “moot” because the man was already dead. They
                       bought drugs from a secret pharmacy that failed a
                       quality test. They hired private executioners and
                       paid them in cash.


                # ⚓ Lawyer_Lyubov_Sobol_handed_petty_fine_following_arrest
                  outside_FSB_operative’s_home⠀⇛


                       Moscow’s Perovsky District Court has fined Lyubov
                       Sobol, a lawyer for Alexey Navalny’s Anti-
                       Corruption Foundation (FBK), 1,000 rubles (about
                       $13) following her arrest near the home of
                       Konstantin Kudryavtsev — one of the FSB operatives
                       allegedly involved in poisoning Navalny.


                # ⚓ German_physicians_publish_case_report_on_Navalny’s
                  treatment_for_‘Novichok’_poisoning⠀⇛


                       A team of physicians from the Charité Hospital in
                       Berlin, where Russian opposition figure Alexey
                       Navalny was treated following his poisoning in
                       August, have published an article in the scientific
                       journal The Lancet on the case of a 44-year-old man
                       from Russia suffering from Novichok nerve agent
                       poisoning. While the patient isn’t identified in
                       the scientific article itself, the Charité Hospital
                       confirmed in a press release that the case report
                       details Navalny’s treatment. 


                # ⚓ Armed_fascists_storm_Oregon_state_Capitol_building⠀⇛


                       Despite the violent nature of the protest, police
                       confirmed that they made only four arrests, mostly
                       for trespassing. Throughout the roughly six- hour
                       protest, Patriot Prayer founder Gibson was seen
                       conversing with police. In February 2019,
                       Willamette Week reported that Portland Police Lt .
                       Jeff Niiya kept in regular contact with Gibson,
                       including passing along information about upcoming
                       leftist protests and advising Gibson on how to
                       avoid being arrested during protests. Niiya also
                       tipped off Gibson when alleged “Antifa” protesters
                       were nearby.


                # ⚓ Nothing_to_see_here:_Why_media_keeps_downplaying_Trump’s
                  coup_attempt⠀⇛


                       In their efforts to downplay the dangers of Donald
                       Trump’s ongoing coup against democracy, too many
                       members of the commentariat and other “professional
                       smart people” are attempting to use a form of the
                       Jedi mind trick on the American people.


                       Based on the lack of broad public outrage about
                       Trump’s continuing effort to overturn the 2020
                       election, it would appear that many Americans may
                       in fact be vulnerable to such a ploy.


          o § Transparency/Investigative Reporting⠀➾


                # ⚓ UK_Spy_Agency_Fails_In_Attempt_To_Bury_Records_Of_Its
                  Criminal_Activity⠀⇛


                       Hi, kids! Do you like state-ordained violence? Want
                       to see me [redacted] in each one of my [redacted]?
                       Wanna copy me and do exactly like I did? [Bond
                       theme intensifies.]


          o § Environment⠀➾


                # ⚓ The_Revelator’s_Top_12_Environmental_Commentaries_of_2020⠀⇛


                # ⚓ Climate_Groups_Call_on_Biden_to_Nominate_Andy_Levin_as
                  Labor_Secretary⠀⇛


                       “He has a long record of fighting for working
                       people, and understands the climate imperative but
                       knows the transition won’t happen without proper
                       buy-in and support.”


                # ⚓ Climate_Cost_of_Organic_Meat_Is_Just_as_High_as_That_of
                  Conventionally_Grown_Animals:_Study⠀⇛


                       “The prices are lying,” said one of the study’s
                       researchers. “Climate costs are rising and we are
                       all paying these costs.” 


                # ⚓ India_has_an_(official)_climate_change_of_heart⠀⇛


                       India’s new approach seems to show a climate change
                       of heart by one of the world’s most populous
                       countries.


                # ⚓ ‘Our_Kids_Deserve_Better’:_Despite_Pandemic,_Trump_EPA
                  Refuses_to_Strengthen_Smog_Standards⠀⇛


                       “In the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans
                       are more keenly aware than ever of the need to take
                       care of our health.”


                # ⚓ 2020_Gulf_Coast_Hurricane_Season_in_Photos:_From_the_Front
                  Lines_of_Climate_Change⠀⇛


                       This selection of photos shows the devastating
                       impact hurricanes have had primarily in Louisiana
                       but also in Alabama and Florida, in an already
                       difficult year beset by a pandemic and subsequent
                       economic downturn. 


                # ⚓ EU_Ramps_Up_Fight_Against_Pollution_With_Ban_on_Plastic
                  Waste_Exports_to_Poorer_Countries⠀⇛


                       “This is an important milestone in fighting plastic
                       pollution, transitioning shifting to a circular
                       economy, and achieving the aims of the European
                       Green Deal.”


                # ⚓ Opinion_|_What_New_Institutions_Do_We_Need_for_an
                  International_Green_New_Deal_To_Be_Feasible⠀⇛


                       According to Varoufakis, global stability is
                       undermined by capitalism’s innate tendency to
                       create a wedge between surplus and deficit
                       economies. 


                # § Energy⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Another_Bomb_Train_Accident_Highlights_Regulatory
                        Failures⠀⇛


                             Matt Krogh of Stand.earth has been leading
                             efforts to keep these dangerous trains off
                             the tracks for years, so he was well aware of
                             the potential deadly consequences of oil
                             train accidents in populated areas. Krogh
                             could see the smoke from this latest accident
                             from his home in Bellingham, Washington. 


                # § Wildlife/Nature⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Coalition_Sues_Trump_Administration_Over_‘Outrageous
                        Assault’_on_Tongass_National_Forest_Protections⠀⇛


                             “Trump’s reckless plan to clearcut old-growth
                             trees in the Tongass will irreversibly damage
                             our climate, kill wildlife, and devastate
                             Southeast Alaska communities.”


          o § Finance⠀➾


                # ⚓ Opinion_|_The_Covid_Deal_Is_a_Welcome_Stopgap.
                  Congressional_Progressives_Aim_for_Much_More_in_2021.⠀⇛


                       The Progressive Caucus has unveiled a legislative
                       agenda designed to meet the scale of the pandemic
                       catastrophe and reduce our vulnerability to future
                       crises.


                # ⚓ In_‘Emblematic_Parting_Blow,’_Trump_Moves_to_Take_$700
                  Million_Per_Year_Out_of_Tipped_Workers’_Pockets⠀⇛


                       “This rule change will make tipped workers even
                       more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse,” said
                       Saru Jayaraman of One Fair Wage. “What workers need
                       now, more than ever is a full, fair minimum wage.”


                # ⚓ Opinion_|_The_Future_of_Social_Security_Is_on_the_Line_in
                  Georgia⠀⇛


                       Ossoff and Warnock understand that Americans of all
                       political backgrounds rely on our earned Social
                       Security benefits, and support protecting and
                       expanding them.


                # ⚓ Congressional_Progressives_Aim_for_Much_More_Than_Most
                  Recent_COVID_Deal⠀⇛


                # ⚓ ‘Yes,_Exactly,’_Say_Progressives_After_Pence_Warns
                  Democrats_Will_‘Make_Rich_Poorer_and_Poor_More_Comfortable’⠀⇛


                       “You have to be all sorts of twisted to think
                       ‘making poor people more comfortable’ is a bad
                       thing.”


                # ⚓ ‘$600_Is_a_Joke’:_Georgia_Democrats_Ossoff_and_Warnock
                  Embrace_Push_for_$2,000_Stimulus_Checks_as_Runoff_Nears⠀⇛


                       “We need additional, substantial direct Covid
                       relief and the only way we’ll get it is by winning
                       these two Senate races in Georgia.”


                # ⚓ Trump’s_Biggest_Opposition_on_$2,000_Stimulus_Checks?_His
                  Own_Party.⠀⇛


                # ⚓ ‘This_Is_a_No-Brainer’:_House_Democrats_Announce_Effort_to
                  Pass_$2,000_Payments_as_Trump_Demands_Bigger_Checks⠀⇛


                       “We can pass $2,000 checks this week if the Senate
                       GOP agrees to stand down,” said Rep. Alexandria
                       Ocasio-Cortez.


                # ⚓ ‘Move,_Mitch,_Get_Out_the_Way’:_McConnell_and_McCarthy
                  Under_Fire_for_Obstructing_$2,000_Relief_Checks⠀⇛


                       “If you don’t see that in your bank account, you
                       have Mitch McConnell to thank.”


                # ⚓ Ebenezer_McConnell⠀⇛


                       Charles Dickens sketched a dire portrait of
                       Ebenezer Scrooge as “a squeezing, wrenching,
                       grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old
                       sinner” who would “edge his way along the crowded
                       paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep
                       its distance.” The author gave us his Scrooge as
                       the very embodiment of a certain cruel disregard
                       for the misery of others that manifests in the most
                       loathsome of individuals.


                # ⚓ How_the_Richest_1_Percent_Came_Out_Big_Winners_in_the_Covid
                  Relief_Bill⠀⇛


                # ⚓ The_Trump_Administration_Keeps_Awarding_Border_Wall
                  Contracts_but_Doesn’t_Own_the_Land_to_Build_On⠀⇛


                       LA GRULLA, Texas — The federal government said it
                       needed Ociel Mendoza’s land on the outskirts of
                       this tiny Texas town — and it couldn’t wait any
                       longer.


                       Each additional day of delay was costing the
                       government $15,000 as contractors waited to begin
                       construction on the border fence slated to go
                       through Mendoza’s ranch, the Department of Justice
                       argued in court filings. By Nov. 24, the tab for
                       the delay had reached nearly $1.6 million, the land
                       acquisition manager for U.S. Customs and Border
                       Protection said in an affidavit.


                # ⚓ The_Trump_Admin_Is_Trying_to_Build_the_Border_Wall_on_Land
                  It_Doesn’t_Own⠀⇛


                # ⚓ Ralph_Nader:_He’s_a_Cookbook!⠀⇛


                       Well, Bette Davis in All About Eve (1950) did warn
                       us to strap ourselves in because it was gonna be a
                       bumpy night, and it’s almost like Ralph foresaw the
                       long night’s journey into day ahead, down a Lost
                       Highway full of potholes, loopholes and assholes —
                       the corporates and pollies — who pave the slick
                       roads of governance and taxation, and see democracy
                       as a roadblock to their getaway. But it wasn’t cops
                       at the roadblock, it was Ralph Nader, walking tall,
                       calmly asking to see some ID, asking if they knew
                       what he pulled them over for, and arranging a nice
                       big fat fine. So, I was all-too-ready to listen to
                       Ralph sprout like a green seed from a podcast.


                       So I found my way to Latitude Adjustment and Route
                       66 or, rather, Podcast 66, the one with Ralph
                       Nader. I saw that the pods were hosted by Eric
                       Maddox and Laila Mohhiber. Rummaged around first to
                       check out the universal resource locator (URL)
                       environment I was in. Said, hmm, me think me likey.
                       Scrolling through past podcasts there were
                       discussions of all types with personages of all
                       ilks. Stuff like Podcast 65, “On the Ground in
                       Idlib, Syria,” where Everyday People discuss the
                       polymorphous perversity of turning their lives into
                       a war zone — a place you may remember as the site
                       where Trump sent ISIS head al-Baghdadi on his way
                       toward outer space, and the Afterlife, allegedly
                       clutching two virgins, as if covering his bases
                       when he got there.


          o § AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾


                # ⚓ Stalemate⠀⇛


                       Stalemate, though, is not victory, in chess or
                       otherwise.  In a stalemate the game ends in a
                       draw.  That said, it seems likely Trump will
                       depart—in spite of the hysteria peddled by so many
                       in media and cyber-flackery—without anything
                       faintly resembling the Reichstag Fire, or even a
                       Proud Boys version of the shootout at the OK
                       Corral.  He’ll go with a whimper, not a bang.


                       So the crisis ends in victory?  Or has it indeed
                       been a sort of draw?  We’ve been assured from
                       authoritative quarters, in the most decisive terms,
                       that, in his mulish, petulant refusal to take no
                       for an answer to his grandiose ambitions, Trump has
                       done irreparable damage to the Great Institution of
                       our Electoral Democracy; that his dogged denial of
                       his loss, and utter rejection of the protocols of
                       cordial transition have sorely undermined, and
                       perhaps even fatally shaken, our collective faith
                       in the purity and justice of our Constitutional
                       process and its benign functioning.


                # ⚓ The_Myth_of_a_Golden_Age_of_American_Liberalism⠀⇛


                       Micklethwait and Woodridge write:


                       There is no doubt a grain of truth in that. But not
                       much more than a grain.


                # ⚓ Trump’s_Carnage:_Testing_America’s_“Democracy”⠀⇛


                       Alexander Hamilton, one of the least democratic
                       members among the Founding Fathers, nevertheless
                       made the case in the “Federalist Papers” for
                       establishing restraints in the government in order
                       to deal with the possibility of a corrupt president
                       and the abuse of power.  He favored a “complicated
                       system for choosing a president; a Congress to
                       restrain him; and impeachment to remove him.”


                       Donald Trump is the poster child for the corrupt
                       president that Hamilton feared.  For the past four
                       years, Trump has been at war with the tenets of our
                       democracy—particularly the rule of law, and our
                       elections.  His war against the Department of
                       Justice and the justice system itself, as well as
                       his abuse of the pardon power, have undermined the
                       foundations of our rule of law.  His war against
                       the intelligence community has politicized
                       intelligence and compromised our national
                       security.  His war against the military culminated
                       last month with an unprecedented purge of senior
                       leaders of the Department of Defense.  Worst of
                       all, his war against science and reason has
                       contributed to unnecessary deaths; the United
                       States is the global leader in cases and deaths
                       attributed to the pandemic.  Perhaps we should have
                       paid more attention to Trump in 2015, when he used
                       a campaign appearance in Iowa to proclaim, “I’ve
                       had a lot of wars of my own.  I’m really good at
                       war.  I love war….”


                # ⚓ The_Trump_Administration’s_Final_Push_to_Make_It_Easier_for
                  Religious_Employers_to_Discriminate⠀⇛


                       It was the hectic week before Thanksgiving, and
                       Amrith Kaur — the legal director of an advocacy
                       group called the Sikh Coalition — was not prepared
                       for a surprise update from the Equal Employment
                       Opportunity Commission that could have dramatic
                       consequences for her clients.


                       With little warning, the EEOC published a 112-page
                       overhaul of its guidance on religious
                       discrimination in the workplace. The feedback
                       period was proceeding with no time to spare — she
                       would have to file any comments by Dec. 17.


                # ⚓ Calling_Trump_to_Account_with_Sticks_and_Stones,_and_Words
                  As_Well⠀⇛


                       Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has sprouted a left
                       wing too extensive and organized for that wretched
                       party’s leaders and donors to marginalize. Even
                       after the Occupy movements of 2011 and the Sanders
                       campaign in 2016, this too was unexpected. It is
                       also, by far, the best thing that has happened in
                       American politics in decades.


                       It probably would not have happened but for Trump.
                       Who would have expected that? Who could have
                       imagined that his unmitigated vileness and his
                       incompetence would have had that unintended effect?


                # ⚓ Some_Republican_Senators_Are_Clinging_to_Election_Denial,
                  Fearful_of_Losing_Base⠀⇛


                # ⚓ How_the_Movement_for_Black_Lives_Helped_Defeat_Trump_in
                  Arizona⠀⇛


                       The same day police officer Derek Chauvin killed
                       George Floyd in Minneapolis, Department of Public
                       Safety Trooper George Cervantes shot and killed
                       Dion Johnson in Phoenix. In the weeks that
                       followed, protesters in Phoenix and other Arizona
                       cities joined those across the United States to
                       demand the abolition of the system that killed the
                       two men. Arizona has one of the highest rates of
                       police violence nationwide; in 2018, Phoenix police
                       fired their guns at more people than officers in
                       any other department in the nation. Now, the
                       movements to counter that violence are gaining in
                       numbers—so much so, they played a significant role
                       in mobilizing voters, activists say, and helped
                       turn the state blue in this year’s election.


                # ⚓ Bill_Barr_Accused_of_Arresting_Impeachment_Witnesses_to
                  Shield_Trump⠀⇛


                # ⚓ ‘Long_Awaited_and_Long_Overdue_Victory_for_Democracy’_as
                  New_York_Approves_Automatic_Voter_Registration⠀⇛


                       “At a time in our country when voting rights are
                       under assault, New York is living up to our
                       potential as a progressive leader.”


                # ⚓ Why_Progressives_Must_Not_Give_Biden_a_Political
                  Honeymoon⠀⇛


                       People on the left did very little to challenge
                       Bill Clinton after he won the presidency in 1992.
                       Two years later, a big Republican wave took control
                       of Congress.


                       People on the left did very little to challenge
                       Barack Obama after he won the presidency in 2008.
                       Two years later, a big Republican wave took control
                       of Congress.


                # ⚓ Opinion_|_Voters_Delivered_a_Progressive_Mandate._Now_Joe
                  Biden_Must_Deliver⠀⇛


                       “Embracing humanity and dignity is both a sound
                       moral choice and a winning electoral strategy.”


                # ⚓ The_Final_Days_of_Donald_Trump,_Absentee_President⠀⇛


                       The soaking seems to get worse every hour and day
                       that remains before the swearing-in of Joe Biden
                       and Kamala Harris, and for me and many others, that
                       sometimes creates a worn out feeling just from
                       being flooded by all the nutty news. As the Stevie
                       Smith poem goes, “I was much further out than you
                       thought, and not waving but drowning.”


                       This generates a funny kind of writer’s block—and
                       believe me, I know what I’m describing is the
                       mosquito bite-sized problem of a privileged white
                       guy, especially when compared to the tremendous
                       suffering so many of us have endured during the
                       year. But fact is, the source of so much of our
                       pain and fatigue, Donald Trump, is becoming more
                       and more frantic even as the writing on the White
                       House wall becomes impossible to obliterate with
                       bombast and bullshit. Do not ask for whom the bell
                       tolls, Diaper Don—the clanging you hear isn’t just
                       in your head, it’s the sound of more than 81
                       million voters who chose the “let’s save democracy”
                       option and cast you out.


                # ⚓ Boris_Johnson’s_Brexit_Deal_(Or_No?)_Undermined_By
                  Incompetence⠀⇛


                       “The markets were calm. The pound did not collapse.
                       The British government immediately launched a
                       highly effective and popular campaign across the
                       Continent to explain that this was not a rejection
                       of ‘Europe’, only of the supranational EU
                       institutions; and a new relationship was rapidly
                       forged based on free trade and with traditional
                       British leadership on foreign policy, crime-
                       fighting, intelligence-sharing and other
                       intergovernmental cooperation”.


                       Nearly everyone knows that BoJo’s avidity for his
                       own fictions and any attendant chicanery almost
                       rivals that of Donald Trump.


                # ⚓ A_Tale_of_Two_Elections:_U.S._and_Bolivia⠀⇛


                       But just over a year ago, a similar effort was
                       launched in Bolivia, and it actually prevailed. The
                       country’s democratically elected president, Evo
                       Morales, was toppled three weeks after the October
                       20 vote, before his term was finished. He left the
                       country after the military “asked” him to resign.


                       The similarities are remarkable. Leaders of the
                       Bolivian opposition indicated before the votes were
                       counted, as Trump did, that they would not accept
                       the result if they lost. Like Trump, they had no
                       evidence for their allegations of fraud when the
                       votes were counted. And as with Trump, the
                       falseness of their charges was obvious from day
                       one.


                # ⚓ Opinion_|_From_Trump_to_Bolivia_and_Back:_A_Tale_of_Two
                  Coups⠀⇛


                       Bolivian right would not have succeeded, where
                       Trump has failed, if not for an important
                       difference: the Bolivian right had powerful help
                       from outside the country in pulling off their coup.


                # ⚓ Trump’s_Chaos_Makes_Christmas_Come_Early_for_Nancy_Pelosi⠀⇛


                       Jeb Bush, even as a member of a political dynasty
                       distinguished for its verbal ineptitude, is not an
                       eloquent man. Yet one comment he made in 2015
                       during his run for the presidency is worth
                       preserving: He referred to Donald Trump as a “chaos
                       candidate” who is likely to become a “chaos
                       president.” Trump has indeed governed in a
                       tumultuous fashion—and with a month left to go, his
                       administration is only becoming more shambolic.


                # ⚓ An_unbeatable_disappearing_act_New_legislation_in_Russia
                  will_dramatically_reduce_transparency_when_it_comes_to_state
                  officials_and_their_relatives._We_asked_investigative
                  journalists_how_this_affects_their_work.⠀⇛


                # ⚓ Russian_State_Duma_adopts_law_expanding_‘foreign_agent’
                  concept⠀⇛


                       On Wednesday, December 23, the Russian State Duma
                       adopted a law on expanding the concept of “foreign
                       agent” in its third reading. The law makes it
                       possible for associations that aren’t registered
                       legal entities to be labeled as foreign agents, as
                       well as individuals, including foreign journalists
                       covering politics.


                # ⚓ As_Georgia_Senate_Runoffs_Near,_Sen._Kelly_Loeffler’s
                  Scandals_Are_Piling_Up⠀⇛


                # ⚓ A_Campaign_Under_Quarantine⠀⇛


                       A September 30 post on the Facebook feed of
                       Manuel’s Tavern shows two photos of the parking lot
                       outside the six-decade-old Atlanta bar and
                       restaurant, taken four years apart. In the first
                       photo, taken on election night of 2016, hundreds
                       are on their feet, covering every possible inch of
                       the pavement, except that occupied by tables to be
                       set with drinks or food, and a smoking, outdoor
                       grill. The second, taken hours before it was
                       posted, shows about two dozen people sitting, some
                       slouching, before a 75-inch screen, watching one of
                       the Trump-Biden debates.


                # ⚓ California_Is_40%_Latinx._In_Alex_Padilla,_It_Will_Finally
                  Have_Its_First_Latinx_Senator⠀⇛


                       California Secretary of State Alex Padilla has been
                       named by Governor Gavin Newsom to replace Vice
                       President-elect Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate,
                       making history as the first Latinx senator to
                       represent the state. Padilla was first elected to
                       public office at 26, when he joined the Los Angeles
                       City Council, and went on to serve two terms in the
                       state Senate, followed by two terms as the state’s
                       secretary of state. “This is really a reflection of
                       the historic importance of Latinos,” says Fernando
                       Guerra, professor of political science at Loyola
                       Marymount University. He is also the director of
                       the Center for the Study of Los Angeles.


          o § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾


                # ⚓ Once_Again,_Section_230′s_Authors_Feel_The_Need_To_Tell
                  Everyone_That_Section_230_Is_Not_The_Evil_You_Think_It_Is⠀⇛


                       For not the first time this year, Section 230′s
                       authors — Ron Wyden and Chris Cox — have felt the
                       need to speak up and debunk some of the many, many
                       myths around Section 230. Their team-up in a filing
                       to the FCC remains one of the most thorough and
                       comprehensive debunkings of 230 myths out there
                       that it should be required reading for anyone
                       criticizing the law. But apparently no one actually
                       reads FCC filings, so they’ve now taken to the
                       pages of USA Today (which recently ran a nearly
                       fact free attack on 230) to explain once again why
                       Section 230 is so important to the open internet.


                # ⚓ Trump_vetoes_$740_billion_defense_bill_after_Section_230
                  complaints⠀⇛


                       Earlier this month, Trump threatened to veto the
                       $740 billion spending bill, the National Defense
                       Authorization Act, unless Congress included a
                       provision that would repeal Section 230 of the
                       Communications Decency Act. Congress approved the
                       measure by veto-proof margins in December. House
                       lawmakers will return to Capitol Hill on Monday for
                       a vote to override the president’s veto, according
                       to Politico’s Connor O’Brien.


                # ⚓ Sharyl_Attkisson_and_Rachael_Jolley_–_The_Project_Censored
                  Show⠀⇛


                       Then Rachael Jolley, former editor-in-chief for the
                       Index on Censorship, joins the program from the UK
                       to explain how the coronavirus pandemic has changed
                       the work of reporters – in Europe and elsewhere.
                       She notes that even while the pandemic has squeezed
                       media outlets’ revenue, communities are searching
                       for reliable local news more than they previously
                       did.


          o § Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press⠀➾


                # ⚓ U.S._Considers_Granting_Immunity_to_Saudi_Prince_in
                  Suspected_Assassination_Attempt⠀⇛


                       The Trump administration is considering a request
                       to grant Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi
                       Arabia immunity from a federal lawsuit that accuses
                       him of trying to kill a former Saudi intelligence
                       official living in Canada, legal documents related
                       to the case show.


                       If the request is granted, the State Department’s
                       recommendation could potentially provide a legal
                       basis to dismiss other cases against the prince,
                       most notably one where he is accused of directing
                       the assassination of the Saudi dissident Jamal
                       Khashoggi in 2018, a person familiar with the case
                       said.


                # ⚓ ‘Freedom_Is_Blossoming’:_After_Dismembering_a_Journalist,
                  Saudi_Arabia_Goes_on_a_PR_Spree⠀⇛


                       “Freedom is blossoming.” That is how, without a
                       shred of irony, CNN International Diplomatic Editor
                       Nic Robertson describes Saudi Arabia in his recent
                       article (CNN, 12/5/20). Visiting the kingdom, he
                       informs us, it has “changed beyond recognition”
                       since his last stay. All around him, there was “a
                       sense of lightness, a freedom to make choices.” And
                       this is all thanks to one man: Crown Prince
                       Mohammed bin Salman. “Now our lives as Saudis
                       completely changed,” says one interviewee.
                       “Actually from all the decisions taken by Mohammed
                       bin Salman. All Saudis now is happy about all these
                       changes.”


          o § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾


                # ⚓ Alibaba_Says_It’s_Not_Going_After_Uighurs_(At_Least_Not
                  Yet)⠀⇛


                       Oh my. Be mindful about the suddenly sensitive
                       Chinese government. Let’s not accuse them of things
                       they want to do when those things haven’t been done
                       yet.


                # ⚓ Beyond_Prisons_Podcast:_Study_And_Struggle_Feat._Garrett
                  Felber⠀⇛


                       Garrett Felber joins the Beyond Prisons podcast to
                       discuss Study and Struggle, which he helped launch
                       in 2020 as “a bilingual political education program
                       on abolition and immigrant justice which supports
                       and collaborates with grassroots organizations in
                       Mississippi.”


                       (NOTE: This episode was recorded a few weeks before
                       Felber was wrongfully fired by the University of
                       Mississippi for speaking out against its racist
                       donors and role in perpetuating the carceral state;
                       you can find out more about what happened here.)


                # ⚓ ‘Not_just_a_drop_in_the_sea’:_Ten_years_ago,_riots_broke
                  out_in_Moscow._The_media_blamed_soccer_fans,_but_it_was
                  actually_right-wing_activists._This_is_the_story_of_their
                  violence.⠀⇛


                       On the night of December 6, 2010, twenty-eight-
                       year-old Spartak soccer fan Egor Sviridov was
                       killed in a street fight outside of a Moscow cafe.
                       The shooter and his friends, immigrants from the
                       North Caucasus, were all arrested and taken to the
                       police station, but in the morning, the police let
                       most of them go free. The following day, about a
                       thousand soccer fans gathered outside of the
                       Investigative Committee building and marched in
                       peaceful protest, covering Leningrad highway.


                # ⚓ The_USOPC_Defends_Olympic_Athletes’_Right_To_Protest⠀⇛


                       There is an old joke that floats through Olympic
                       circles: How many members of the International
                       Olympic Committee does it take to screw in a
                       lightbulb? The Answer? Zero. They are too busy
                       screwing over athletes who wish to express
                       political dissent. Indeed, the IOC has a long
                       history of punishing and threatening athletes who
                       have the temerity to speak out on social justice
                       issues, whether it’s John Carlos and Tommie Smith
                       after their iconic medal stand protest in 1968 or
                       Damien Hooper, the Australian boxer who at the 2012
                       Olympics wore a T-shirt into the ring celebrating
                       his Aboriginal roots.


                # ⚓ Opinion_|_Christians_as_Dangerous_Good_Samaritans⠀⇛


                       Honest Christians must unapologetically assert that
                       Jesus’s message is totally at odds with society’s
                       dominant culture. 


                # ⚓ Opinion_|_Restoring_the_Soul_of_America⠀⇛


                       It’s time for Democrats to matter: to become a
                       party that stands for something again, to be more
                       than simply safe, bipartisan Republicans-lite,
                       whose MO is to offer voters the lesser evil
                       candidate on Election Day.


                # ⚓ Moscow_lawmaker_Yulia_Galyamina_sentenced_to_two_years
                  probation⠀⇛


                       On Monday, December 23, Moscow’s Tverskoy Court
                       sentenced municipal deputy Yulia Galyamina to two
                       years probation.


                # ⚓ Amazon_workers_in_Alabama_inch_closer_to_union_vote⠀⇛


                       After three days of hearings that concluded
                       Tuesday, the union and Amazon came to an agreement
                       on which workers can participate in the upcoming
                       vote.


                       The NLRB has yet to set a date on a vote, but it is
                       expected to take place early next year.


                       If the push in Alabama is successful, it would
                       establish the first labor union representation at
                       an Amazon facility in the U.S.


                # ⚓ Black_Lives_Matter⠀⇛


                # ⚓ Air_Force:_Black_people_more_often_investigated,_punished⠀⇛


                       Black service members in the Air Force are far more
                       likely to be investigated, arrested, face
                       disciplinary actions and be discharged for
                       misconduct, according to a new report that looked
                       at racial disparities across the service.


                       The report by the Air Force inspector general,
                       released Monday, said Black members of the Air
                       Force and Space Force are less likely to be
                       promoted to higher enlisted and officer ranks, and
                       one-third of them believe they don’t get the same
                       opportunities as their white peers. And it
                       concluded that “racial disparity exists” for Black
                       service members, but that the data did not explain
                       why it happens.


          o § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾


                # ⚓ AT&T_Is_Sad_Because_Nobody_Wants_To_Overpay_For_DirecTV⠀⇛


                       U.S. Telecom providers, as companies that have
                       spent the better part of the last century as
                       government-pampered monopolies, are adorable when
                       they try to innovate or seriously compete in more
                       normal, competitive markets. Verizon’s attempt to
                       pivot from curmudgeonly old phone company to sexy
                       new ad media darling, for example, has been a
                       cavalcade of clumsy errors, missteps, and wasted
                       money.


                # ⚓ Apparently_Trump_Refuses_To_Allow_The_Government_To_Do
                  Anything_At_All_Until_The_Open_Internet_Is_Destroyed⠀⇛


                       Well, the government is closing out the year with
                       quite a mess. As threatened, President Trump today
                       vetoed the massive National Defense Authorization
                       Act, living up to his promise to veto it if it
                       didn’t include the complete revocation of Section
                       230 of the Communications Act, which has nothing to
                       do with funding our military. Trump, for no reason
                       at all, says that repealing Section 230 is
                       important for “national security”, which makes no
                       sense at all (nor does he provide any rationale for
                       this statement). Senate Armed Service chair and
                       Trump buddy Senator Jim Inhofe had already
                       threatened to override the veto should Trump go
                       this route — and has (correctly!) said that 230 has
                       nothing at all to do with the NDAA. Inhofe has
                       already responded to Trump’s veto by asking
                       Congress to “join me in making sure our troops have
                       the resources and equipment they need to defend
                       this nation.” In other words, he’s asking Congress
                       to override the veto.


                # ⚓ How_We_Saved_.ORG:_2020_in_Review⠀⇛


                       Nonprofits and NGOs around the world were stunned
                       last November when the Internet Society (ISOC)
                       announced that it had agreed to sell the Public
                       Interest Registry—the organization that manages the
                       .ORG top-level domain (TLD)—to private equity firm
                       Ethos Capital. EFF and other leaders in the NGO
                       community sprung to action, writing a letter to
                       ISOC urging it to stop the sale. What follows was
                       possibly the most dramatic show of solidarity from
                       the nonprofit sector of all time. And we won.


                       Oversight by a nonprofit was always part of the
                       plan for .ORG.


                       Prior to the announcement, EFF had spent six months
                       voicing our concerns to the Internet Corporation
                       for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) about the
                       2019 .ORG Registry Agreement, which gave the owner
                       of .ORG new powers to censor nonprofits’ websites
                       (the agreement also lifted a longstanding price cap
                       on .ORG registrations and renewals).


          o § Monopolies⠀➾


                # § Patents⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Bundesrat_passes_bill_of_UPC_ratification [Ed: This
                        'article' did not age well]⠀⇛


                             Should Germany ratify the UPC Agreement
                             without any issues, the provisional
                             application period will be able to commence
                             in 2021.


                      # ⚓ The_German_Federal_Constitutional_Court_receives
                        further_challenges [Ed: This is rebranded]⠀⇛


                             On 18th December 2020 the German government
                             approved the legislation required to ratify
                             the Unified Patent Court Agreement. This
                             allows the German government to trigger the
                             arrival of the new European patent court and
                             pan-European patent, which might now happen
                             in 2021. However, since the legislation was
                             approved, we hear that the German Federal
                             Constitutional Court has received two new
                             constitutional complaints. The last such
                             complaint delayed the new system by several
                             years, but it is currently not clear whether
                             the new complaints will cause a similar
                             length of delay.


                             The new system provides both the Unified
                             Patent Court (UPC) and the Unitary Patent
                             (UP). UPs would be a new option for the fate
                             of an application granted by the European
                             Patent Office (EPO) following prosecution as
                             at present. The UPC is planned to be a new
                             system for litigating UPs and some
                             conventional EPO patents in Europe. A UP
                             would have unitary effect across all
                             participating member states. The UPC would
                             have exclusive jurisdiction over UPs and,
                             eventually, all EPs granted by the EPO,
                             potentially including those already granted
                             (subject to transitional provisions). The
                             UPC’s rulings would be enforceable across all
                             of the participating member states. More
                             information on the new system can be found on
                             our website here.


                             The arrival of the new system was previously
                             delayed by a long running court battle in
                             Germany, where ultimately the German Federal
                             Constitutional Court largely dismissed a
                             constitutional complaint against the UPC
                             Agreement. The only reason the complaint was
                             upheld relates to a voting formality and that
                             issue has now been addressed by the new
                             legislative process completed on 18th
                             December 2020. Other delays were caused by
                             the UK’s decision to leave this new system,
                             which means at some point the participating
                             member states may need to reallocate some of
                             the UK’s UPC responsibilities, in particular
                             choosing a state to host the Central Division
                             for life science disputes. The German
                             government’s consultation document suggests
                             these amendments could be made once the new
                             system is up and running, with references to
                             the UK in the existing agreement simply being
                             struck through in the meantime. While the UK
                             government has stated that it will not be
                             seeking involvement in the UP/UPC system,
                             this will not impact the current European
                             patent system: patent applications filed at
                             the EPO will still cover the UK and will be
                             litigated in the UK national courts as usual.


                             We now wait with interest to see whether
                             these two new constitutional complaints
                             affect the possible timing for the arrival of
                             the UPC system. Regardless of how the UP and
                             UPC project develops there are no
                             implications for the current European patent
                             system run by the EPO, which is unconnected
                             to the EU. We are looking forward to offering
                             clients the chance to both obtain UPs using
                             the existing EPO procedure and enforce their
                             patents across Europe using the UPC when the
                             system is finally up and running.


                      # ⚓ A_post-CRISPR_perspective⠀⇛


                             For the past ten years or so the question of
                             whether the right to claim priority has been
                             validly transferred has been raised on a
                             fairly regular basis in contentious
                             proceedings in Europe and particularly the
                             EPO. The nature of the right to claim
                             priority is set out in Article 4A(1) of the
                             Paris Convention (which is mirrored in
                             Article 87(1) of the European Patent
                             Convention).


                             At its heart, the issue seems to be a very
                             simple one: when filing a subsequent patent
                             application (such as a PCT application) which
                             is claiming priority from an earlier patent
                             application (such as a US provisional
                             application), the party which is the
                             applicant for the subsequent application must
                             be the same as or the successor in title to
                             the party which was the applicant for the
                             earlier application.


                             This article explains the main principles
                             surrounding how priority rights are assessed
                             in Europe and by the EPO in particular, using
                             this year’s CRISPR case as a powerful
                             example. We also briefly look at the EPO’s
                             joint-applicants approach to rescue priority
                             entitlement in certain situations that US
                             applicants have frequently found themselves
                             in. Finally we touch on a remedial approach
                             which in some circumstances can be used to
                             safeguard the right to claim priority.


                      # ⚓ Most_popular_posts_in_2020⠀⇛


                             As topics such as the EPO and the UPC usually
                             – and also this year – dominate the top ten
                             of most popular articles, we’d like to start
                             with some posts ranked just a bit lower, but
                             in our eyes equally interesting and a good
                             display of the variety of articles on the
                             blog. To begin with the blogpost 2020 is set
                             to be a crucial year for Standard-Essential
                             Patent litigation in Europe. The article
                             discusses the divergences between various
                             states in their interpretation of CJEU
                             jurisprudence and the importance of the –
                             then – upcoming judgment of the UK Supreme
                             Court in Unwired Planet v Huawei. “The
                             subsequent litigation in Germany, the
                             Netherlands and the UK indicates that more
                             detailed guidance is required from the CJEU
                             in order for a harmonised approach to be
                             taken by national courts. It remains to be
                             seen what position the UK Supreme Court takes
                             on the issue of SEPs and FRAND, and whether
                             it will continue to reference the CJEU Huawei
                             guidance in future litigation that takes
                             place, post-Brexit.”


                      # ⚓ Board_of_Regents_of_the_University_of_Texas_System_v.
                        Baylor_College_of_Medicine_(Fed._Cir._2020) [Ed:
                        Boosters and profiteers of patent litigation over life
                        itself on "denying sovereign immunity from PTAB
                        proceedings for state universities"]⠀⇛


                             Any patent litigant unwilling to acquiesce to
                             an adverse judgment from the Patent Trial and
                             Appeal Board (PTAB) can appeal to the Federal
                             Circuit. 28 U.S. Code § 141. But the right to
                             appeal is not the same as the wisdom of
                             filing an appeal, as illustrated by the
                             decision of the Federal Circuit last week in
                             Board of Regents of the University of Texas
                             System v. Baylor College of Medicine.


                             [...]


                             It can only be surmised that UT is now
                             preparing a certiorari petition of its own to
                             test whether “the University of Minnesota
                             panel applied the wrong standards and reached
                             the wrong conclusion” in its decision denying
                             sovereign immunity from PTAB proceedings for
                             state universities. On the other hand,
                             perhaps UT has a licensee with a license
                             provision mandating an appeal on any matter
                             involving a licensed patent. More unlikely is
                             the possibility that being UT they believed
                             they could be more persuasive than MN in
                             making their case. But not having been the
                             beneficiary of a Christmas miracle, the IPR
                             proceeding should proceed against UT before
                             the PTAB in due course.


                      # ⚓ Request_for_Comments_on_the_National_Strategy_for
                        Expanding_American_Innovation [Ed: A typical expansion
                        of monopolistic agenda dressed up as the cause of
                        diversity]⠀⇛


                      # ⚓ Microsoft_accused_of_infringing_patents_related_to
                        cloud_computing,_EPO_extends_closure_of_offices_and
                        more⠀⇛


                             A company by the name of Daedalus Blue has
                             filed a lawsuit against Microsoft Inc. for
                             infringing its patents related to cloud
                             computing. Daedulus has named five patents in
                             its lawsuit against the tech-giant, namely –
                             U.S Patent Nos. – 7,177,886; 7,437,730;
                             8,381,209; 8,572,612 and 8,671,132. The
                             company has filed the lawsuit in the Western
                             District of Texas and is now seeking a
                             declaratory judgment, a permanent injunction,
                             an award for damages and royalty payments.


                             [...]


                             The European Patent Office has announced that
                             its offices in Berlin, Munich and The Hague
                             will remain closed atleast until the 10th of
                             January 2021 from December 24th, 2020 due the
                             COVID situation across most of Europe. Most
                             countries in Europe such as Germany, Spain,
                             Italy, Greece to name a few have already
                             announced a lockdown between now and the 7th
                             of January 2021.


                      # ⚓ Patent_Office_Updates_You_Need_to_Know⠀⇛


                             The European Patent Office (EPO) has released
                             updated information on conducting remote oral
                             proceedings before the Boards of Appeal,
                             available here.


                             [...]


                             The German Patent and Trademark Office will
                             be closed to visitors from December 24, 2020
                             to January 1, 2021. The Office has also
                             notified applicants to expect delayed
                             processing of all requests between December
                             16, 2020 and January 10, 2021.


                      # ⚓ What_does_the_expiry_of_the_Brexit_transition_period
                        mean_for_your_IP_[sic]_rights?_[sic]⠀⇛


                             The European Patent Office (EPO) is not an EU
                             institution and hence European patents will
                             be unaffected by Brexit. European patent
                             applications will continue to designate the
                             UK, and we will remain European Patent
                             Attorneys able to represent clients at the
                             EPO.


                      # § Software Patents⠀➾


                            # ⚓ Digitisation_and_medtech_–_threat_or
                              opportunity? [Ed: Marks & Clerk LLP, a litigation
                              firm, is (as usual) promoting illegal software
                              patents using a bunch of buzzwords and
                              meaningless hype waves ("on a computer" or "tech"
                              as 'novelty' in its own right)]⠀⇛


                                   Necessity is often the mother of
                                   invention and, whilst COVID-19 has been
                                   a significant challenge for the medtech
                                   sector, it has also put a spotlight on
                                   medtech innovation. As global demand
                                   for ventilators grew and supply chains
                                   failed, medtech manufacturers worked
                                   together to 3D print ventilator parts
                                   quickly, giving a lifeline to numerous
                                   intensive care units.


                                   This served to highlight the power of
                                   3D printing and other ‘Industry 4.0’
                                   technologies to the medtech sector.
                                   These technologies will be of
                                   increasing importance to medtech in
                                   coming years and this episode
                                   demonstrates how companies embracing
                                   these technologies can have an edge
                                   over those that do not.


                                   Industry 4.0 aims to merge physical
                                   production with smart digital
                                   technology to improve efficiency. It
                                   involves an increased reliance on
                                   computing systems to improve automation
                                   within manufacturing, supply chain
                                   logistics and industrial practices.


                                   The increased centrality of these
                                   digital technologies to innovation is
                                   reflected in recent statistics
                                   published by the European Patent
                                   Office. Whilst medtech has for a number
                                   of years been the largest single
                                   category for patent filing at the EPO,
                                   in the last 12 months for which full
                                   data is available it was overtaken by
                                   patent filings in the category of
                                   ‘digital communications.’


                            # ⚓ IP_Investments_Group_entity_patent_challenged
                              as_likely_invalid⠀⇛


                                   On December 22, 2020, Unified filed a
                                   petition for inter partes review (IPR)
                                   against U.S. Patent 6,560,613, owned by
                                   DataCloud Technologies, LLC, an NPE and
                                   an IP Investments Group entity. The
                                   ‘613 patent relates generally to
                                   disambiguating file types on a computer
                                   system. The patent has been asserted
                                   against Box, Extreme Networks, F5
                                   Networks, 1&1 Ionos, and Wix.com.


                # § Copyrights⠀➾


                      # ⚓ Content_Moderation_Case_Study:_Using_Copyright_To
                        Take_Down_A_Transformative_Criticism_Video_(2019)⠀⇛


                             Summary: In the fall of 2019, talk show host
                             Ellen Degeneres was criticized after being
                             seen attending a professional football game
                             with former President George W. Bush.
                             Degeneres addressed the controversy on her
                             show, saying she was invited by the Dallas
                             Cowboys’ owner, and also suggesting that she
                             was friends with the former President Bush
                             and that people should “be kind” to people
                             they disagree with politically.


                      # ⚓ Nintendo_Conducted_Invasive_Surveillance_Operation
                        Against_Homebrew_Hacker⠀⇛


                             Leaked Nintendo documents have revealed a
                             frightening surveillance operation carried
                             out against a hacker who was researching
                             exploits for the 3DS handheld. In addition to
                             monitoring his private life, including
                             aspects of his education, when he left the
                             house and where he went, the company followed
                             its target from his place of work in order to
                             pressure him into stopping his activities.


                      # ⚓ Opinion_|_The_CASE_Act_Is_Just_the_Beginning_of_the
                        Next_Copyright_Battle⠀⇛


                             Internet users and innovators, as well as the
                             basic legal norms that have supported online
                             expression for decades, are under attack.


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