𝕿𝖊𝖈𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖘 Bulletin for Thursday, April 08, 2021
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⦿ EPOLeaks on Misleading the Bundestag - Part 10: A Faithful Lapdog Despised and Reviled by EPO Staff | Techrights
⦿ IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 07, 2021 | Techrights
⦿ [Meme] Self-styled Judges | Techrights
⦿ The Hate Letter Which Backfired | Techrights
䷼ Bulletin articles (as HTML) to comment on (requires login):
http://techrights.org/2021/04/08/bundestagate-part-10/#comments
http://techrights.org/2021/04/08/irc-log-070421/#comments
http://techrights.org/2021/04/08/meme-self-styled-judges/#comments
http://techrights.org/2021/04/08/people-hate-the-hate-letter/#comments
䷞ Followed by Daily Links (assorted news picks curated and categorised):
http://techrights.org/2021/04/08/xen-4-15/#comments
䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 56
╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
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✐ EPOLeaks_on_Misleading_the_Bundestag_—_Part_10:_A_Faithful_Lapdog_Despised
and_Reviled_by_EPO_Staff⠀✐
Posted in Europe, Law, Patents at 5:55 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Series index:
1. The_EPO_Bundestagate_—_Part_1:_How_the_Bundestag_Was_(and_Continues_to
be)_Misled_About_EPO_Affairs
2. The_EPO_Bundestagate_—_Part_2:_Lack_of_Parliamentary_Oversight,_Many
Questions_and_Few_Answers…
3. The_EPO_Bundestagate_—_Part_3:_A_“Minor_Interpellation”_in_the_German
Bundestag
4. The_EPO_Bundestagate_—_Part_4:_Parroting_the_GDPR-Compliance_Myth
5. The_EPO_Bundestagate_—_Part_5:_The_Federal_Eagle’s_Disconcerting
Metamorphosis
6. EPOLeaks_on_Misleading_the_Bundestag_—_Part_6:_Dr_Petri_Starts_the_Ball
Rolling…
7. EPOLeaks_on_Misleading_the_Bundestag_—_Part_7:_Ms_Voßhoff_Alerts_the
Bundestag…
8. EPOLeaks_on_Misleading_the_Bundestag_—_Part_8:_The_EPO’s_Tweedledum,
Raimund_Lutz
9. EPOLeaks_on_Misleading_the_Bundestag_—_Part_9:_A_Veritable_Virtuoso_of
Legal_Sophistry
10. You are here ☞ A Faithful Lapdog Despised and Reviled by EPO Staff
Summary: “In any event, the “Nazi” jibes directed against Lutz seem to have
triggered Battistelli who decided to take revenge on his perceived enemies
inside the EPO by smearing them as “Nazis”.”
Raimund Lutz was often regarded with awe and reverence by the more
impressionable delegates of the Administrative Council.
However, within the European Patent Office itself he was almost universally
despised and reviled among the rank and file of staff because of his perceived
intellectual duplicity and moral vacuity.
“Raimund Lutz was often regarded with awe and reverence by the more
impressionable delegates of the Administrative Council.”He was frequently at
the receiving end of anonymous letters from disgruntled EPO staff.
As reported by Techrights back in August_2017, in one such letter he was
depicted in unflattering terms as a “Nazi Officer” allegedly in charge of the
EPO’s “Nazi Department”.
This kind of vituperation seems misplaced because Lutz probably had more in
common with the kind of morally compromised socialist apparatchik who
flourished in the former East German_Democratic_Republic than with the
jackbooted “Nazi Officers” of the Third Reich.
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇EPO anonymous letter⦈
Sun-King Battistelli and his senior management team as seen through the eyes of
disgruntled EPO staff
In any event, the “Nazi” jibes directed against Lutz seem to have triggered
Battistelli who decided to take revenge on his perceived enemies inside the EPO
by smearing them as “Nazis”.
“In any event, the “Nazi” jibes directed against Lutz seem to have triggered
Battistelli who decided to take revenge on his perceived enemies inside the EPO
by smearing them as “Nazis”.”What does not appear to be widely known about
Battistelli is that he suffered from what has been called the “Vichy_Syndrome”.
Benoît Battistelli’s father, Michel, spent the duration of the Second World War
safely cocooned in his grandparent’s house in Pradines (Department_of_Lot) in
the territory of the Vichy_State where he attended school at the prestigious
Lycée Gambetta in Cahors.
Although several members of Battistelli’s family in the paternal line,
including his grandfather Georges_Henri_Léon_Battistelli, served in the French
military during the First World War, there is no record that any family member
served in the French_Resistance or in De Gaulle’s Free_French_Forces.
As a matter of fact, it is known that Battistelli’s grand-uncle Charles_Robert
Battistelli, a cavalry officer who died_in_1937, was closely associated with
the ultra-nationalist, pro-monarchist and anti-Semitic group Action_française.
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇AF_(Action_française)_22_May_1937_-_Robert_Battistelli⦈_
Action française was at its most prominent during the 1899-1914 period but it
still enjoyed some prestige and support among conservative elites in the inter-
war period. During the Second World War, Action française sided with the Vichy
Regime of Marshal_Philippe_Pétain. This gives some idea of the political milieu
in which Battistelli’s family was embedded.
A full exposé of Battistelli’s “Vichy Syndrome” would go beyond the scope of
the present series but we hope to cover it in more detail at a later date. It
is mentioned here en passant because it may help to explain the absurd
theatrics which he indulged in by playing the role of the EPO’s “Nazi-hunter-
in-chief” in defence of Lutz.
Battistelli’s actions in this regard seem to have been some kind of clumsy and
deranged attempt to compensate in public for the private shame of his own
Vichyist family background.
At any rate, it is clear that during Lutz’s tenure as Vice-President of DG5 he
enjoyed Battistelli’s protection and favour as one of his master’s most loyal
and subservient chamberlains.
In addition to regular excursions to Saint-Germain-en-Laye to attend Annual
Trilateral_Conferences and other junkets hosted there by deputy mayor
Battistelli, Lutz was also able to indulge in frequent foreign travel on “duty
missions” to IP extravaganzas around the globe from Berlin to Beijing and
beyond.
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇Lutz talking⦈
During his time as EPO Vice-President, Lutz was regular attendee at IP
extravaganzas around the globe from Berlin to Beijing and beyond
Although Lutz had reached the statutory retirement age of 65 in 2015,
Battistelli nevertheless prevailed upon the Administrative Council to grant_him
an_extension (warning: epo.org link) to his original five-year appointment in
order to allow him to remain at the EPO until the end of 2018.
“As Lutz departed from the EPO, staff were heard to emit an audible collective
sigh of relief.”And so it came to pass that at the end of 2018 Lutz sailed off
into the sunset with a well-padded retirement package: a juicy public sector
pension from the German state for previous service in the Justice Ministry and
Federal Patent Court, supplemented by a generous “top-up” courtesy of the EPO’s
managerial compensation fund, in recognition of his seven-year stint as Vice-
President of DG5.
As Lutz departed from the EPO, staff were heard to emit an audible collective
sigh of relief.
However, their joy was tempered by the realisation that things were unlikely to
change for the better as his successor entered the EPO premises via the
organisation’s notorious revolving door.
“In the next part we shall turn our attention to this second member of the
Tweedledum-Tweedledee duo responsible for derailing the Federal Data Protection
Commissioner’s efforts to reform the EPO’s data protection framework in
2015.”That successor was none other than Dr_Christoph_Ernst who – by a curious
coincidence – had previously succeeded Lutz as the head of the German
delegation to the EPO’s Administrative Council almost a decade earlier. Ernst
soon became a lapdog of António_Campinos, whom he had failed to oversee at the
Administrative Council. A reward?
In the next part we shall turn our attention to this second member of the
Tweedledum-Tweedledee duo responsible for derailing the Federal Data Protection
Commissioner’s efforts to reform the EPO’s data protection framework in 2015. █
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⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⣄⣠⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠛⠛⠃⢃⣿⡟⠋⠉⠙⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠛⠉⠈⢿⣿⡿⠛⠻⣿⣿⠁⠀⠀⠈⠉⡅⠀⠈⠹⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠿⠛⢻⣿⣿⠻⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠛⠋⠹⣿⣿⠉
⠉⠉⠉⠀⠀⠘⣿⣿⡏⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠈⢻⠃⠀⠀⠀⠈⠋⠉⠉⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠸⠉⠀⠀⠀⠈⠉⠀⢰⣴⠀⠀⠁⢀⡀⠀⠉⠉⡃⠇⠀⠀⠀⠈⣦⢰⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡷⠀⠀⠀⠋⠁⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠸⣿⣧⡆⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣼⠀⠀⠀⠈⢠⡆⣠⣠⠈⣿⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢠⠀⠈⣳⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠸⠏⠀⠀⢀⠀⠉⢸⢨⡿⠋⠀⠆⠀⠀⠀⢻⠘⡇⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⡀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣤⣤⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⠆⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⡎⠿⡟⠙⣿⣷⣿⢻⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢘⣶⣿⣿⣷⠶⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣀⣈⣧⣦⣿⣿⣧⠄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣘⣠⣿⣀⣀⣸⣿⣿⣟⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣤⣄
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⣿⣿⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣤⣦⣤⣤⣤⣧⣤⣤⣼⣾⣴⣾⣤⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣯⣤⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣀⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣤⣤⣤⣼⣤⣦⣤⣼⣤⣤⣴⡇⢸⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣯⠉⢹⣿⡉⢹⡏⠉⣿⡿⠉⣭⢹⢩⠉⢩⢹⠉⢩⡿⠋⡍⠻⡍⠉⢻⡍⣽⣿⣿⡍⠉⣭⠉⠉⢩⡉⢻⣿⠏⢹⣿⡍⠉⢿⢩⡿⢋⣝⢹⣿⠉⣿⣯⠉⢹⠋⣍⡛⣯⠛⢛⡛⢻⣿⣿⣿⡇⢸⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⢸⣿⢷⣿⢡⠀⢹⡃⠀⣿⣿⣾⠀⢸⣾⠀⢸⠃⢠⡇⠀⡇⣇⠈⠇⣿⣿⣿⡇⠀⡃⣧⠀⢘⠃⣼⡿⡀⠈⣿⣷⡄⠘⢸⠃⢸⣿⣼⡇⠀⢸⣿⠀⢸⣄⠈⠣⣿⠀⠚⢠⣼⣿⣿⣿⡇⢸⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠀⠸⠋⢸⠏⢶⠄⠘⣇⠀⠿⠀⣿⠀⠸⣿⠀⠸⣇⠘⡇⣠⡇⣿⡄⠀⣿⣿⣿⡇⠀⣷⣿⠀⢸⡀⠸⢇⣶⠀⢹⢸⣷⠀⢸⡆⠸⡿⢸⢰⡅⠀⣿⠀⢸⠸⣷⠀⣹⠀⣿⠌⢸⣿⣿⣿⡇⢸⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠿⡿⠿⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣾⣷⣾⣶⣿⣶⣶⣶⣿⣷⣾⣿⣆⢈⣶⣾⣷⣶⣶⣶⣾⣖⣶⣾⣷⣶⣶⣶⣿⣿⣿⣿⠁⢸⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣤⣿⣯⣽⣟⣀⣀⣤⣬⣤⣤⣤⣤⣬⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣢⣤⣨⣄⣤⣸⣇⣠⣺⣇⣌⣰⣀⣀⣠⣃⣐⣀⣀⣀⣺⣇⣀⣰⣀⣀⣈⣙⣘⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣏⣇⣀⣰⣀⠀⠈⠰⢀⣒⣆⣂⣘⣻⣿⠀⢸⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠉⠀⠀⠂⡠⠀⠺⢿⠃⠀⡟⠀⢺⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⠢⠸⠸⠠⠀⠼⠤⠄⠄⠧⠤⢤⠩⠯⠥⠽⠨⠭⠤⠤⠠⠤⠬⠿⡟⠿⡿⠿⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⠉⠉⠛⡍⠉⠉⠉⡙⠍⠉⠉⠙⠉⠍⣿⠀⢸⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣮⣬⣤⣥⣤⣦⣬⣴⣤⣭⣤⣬⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣤⣜⣀⣃⣀⣠⣀⣀⡠⠙⠈⢉⠉⡍⠙⠉⠽⠠⠥⠩⢬⠝⢻⠿⠟⠷⢻⠿⠻⠿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣉⣙⣩⣋⣍⣃⣙⣉⣅⣀⣥⣠⣄⣁⣿⠀⢸⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣏⣭⣉⣉⣹⣉⣉⣉⣉⣏⣉⣉⣉⣉⣉⣿⣛⣋⣙⣛⣛⣛⣋⣉⣛⣻⣋⣋⣉⣹⣉⣉⣉⣉⣩⣛⣋⣉⣉⣉⣉⣉⣙⠋⡉⢙⠋⢿⣻⠛⠛⠛⠛⡟⠛⠛⡛⡟⠟⠛⠛⠛⠛⡛⠛⠻⣿⣿⡀⣸⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣶⣴⣶⣦⣦⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣤⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣭⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣽⣿⣿⣿⣽⣿⣿⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣯⣾⡟⢛⡛⣿⣿⣿⣿⠛⠛⣿⣞⣾⣥⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣟⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣘⣃⡁⢄⠀⠐⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣟⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⡻⠿⢿⣿⡿⢿⠿⡿⢿⠿⡿⢿⠿⣿⢿⣿⡟⡿⢿⣿⡿⠿⢿⠿⡿⢿⢿⣿⣿⢻⢿⢿⣿⡿⣿⣿⠿⡿⡿⡿⢿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣯⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⢤⣤⣼⡿⣜⣰⣠⣸⣿⣔⣐⣄⣇⣰⣬⣆⣨⣀⣅⣸⣿⣇⣕⣸⣿⣇⣡⣨⣠⣧⣆⣻⣿⣐⣸⣀⣸⣿⣐⣆⡸⢐⣄⣇⣅⣀⣂⣆⣁⣾⣯⣑⣸⣀⣷⣿⣐⣂⣈⣭⣿⣾⡧⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⢀⣑⣈⡊⢨⢠⠀⠁⣽⣿⠇⡅⡋⠨⠈⡃⠉⢭⢸⣿⣿⠰⠈⠉⡧⡧⠇⠉⡇⡋⠹⠰⡇⡿⣿⣿⠩⡅⠨⠉⡍⢙⠉⠃⠡⠉⡍⣽⣿⡏⠡⠋⣽⣿⡇⡎⠩⣿⡿⠠⠟⢁⡛⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠋⡉⠏⢙⠛⣿⣿⢏⠩⡼⠙⢟⢛⠋⡏⢛⠋⡏⢟⢛⣻⣿⣿⢛⡟⡛⡛⢹⢛⣻⣿⡟⢋⠗⣿⣿⡟⢻⢻⠻⢛⢉⠛⡛⢻⣿⣿⡟⡋⡛⢻⣿⣿⡏⠛⣷⣿⠛⠛⠹⠺⡏⠷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠤⠷⠷⠶⠷⠞⣿⣶⠶⢳⢷⣶⡶⠷⠶⡶⢶⠳⡞⠾⣴⣿⠟⠶⢶⠷⡞⡶⠖⡿⢿⠷⡶⢶⣿⣿⡴⡼⣶⣶⣾⢾⡾⢷⠾⠼⡿⡷⢾⢾⣾⣿⣿⣦⢿⣿⡿⡼⠿⣆⣣⢳⣶⣿⣻⣏⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⡤⣤⢤⣧⣤⢬⡿⣿⢠⣥⣼⣿⣧⡜⣤⡤⣬⣤⣥⣤⣿⣿⣬⡴⣼⣤⢧⣅⣅⣥⢬⣤⣇⣌⣿⣿⣐⣇⣥⣿⡇⢂⣬⣬⣶⣨⣀⣇⣄⣢⣰⣸⣿⣇⡸⣿⣇⣨⢸⣐⣄⣐⢛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣏⣂⣁⣈⢂⣁⣄⣐⡁⣼⣿⣀⣇⡁⣐⣀⣇⣆⣘⣀⣠⣁⡆⡀⢰⣿⡏⡎⢹⣿⡯⢸⠀⣻⣿⣅⠐⠉⡢⢘⣿⡧⢸⠀⡗⢸⠂⣿⣿⠁⣿⣿⢏⠸⢫⡅⣣⡌⢙⣛⢁⢏⢙⣛⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⢐⡈⡋⠉⡏⢹⠉⠏⢹⠉⠏⠹⣿⡿⠋⢿⣻⢸⡝⠹⠛⡛⢻⣿⡟⢋⢛⣻⣿⠋⡟⢹⣿⠟⢻⠛⡟⢻⣿⣿⢉⠿⡛⣿⡟⣛⠟⡙⡻⢋⢛⠛⡟⠛⠛⡋⡟⢻⣿⡛⡻⠛⠿⣿⣿⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠙⠻⡻⢻⠛⡟⠿⠛⡿⢺⣿⣷⡿⠿⠶⡏⡟⠚⠳⢦⣴⣷⠞⡻⢷⣶⣶⠻⡛⡶⢿⠚⠿⡷⠾⠷⠷⠷⠞⠟⠶⡶⢶⣿⣿⠾⠶⠷⠷⡾⠶⠲⢷⠾⡖⡶⠷⢾⣿⣶⠷⡾⠿⣿⣿⡞⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣤⢤⢴⠴⡰⠦⠸⢢⢢⣇⣿⣿⣧⠤⠥⣧⢦⢆⡧⡽⣿⢿⣤⣧⣼⣿⣧⣼⣧⣥⣼⠤⢤⣥⣵⣬⣤⠴⣬⣬⣤⢥⠬⣿⣿⣠⣤⣾⣤⢧⣭⢤⡼⣤⢧⠵⣧⣼⣿⣿⣀⣇⣌⣿⣾⡶⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣂⣨⣌⣆⣅⣤⣅⣂⣺⣰⣁⣼⣯⣂⣽⣣⣘⣰⣆⣔⣆⡘⣻⣏⣀⣿⣏⣀⣀⣸⣿⣑⣸⣐⣇⣐⣿⣘⣀⣿⡟⢸⡃⣽⣿⣀⣆⣑⡀⣻⣿⠸⡎⣐⢕⡆⡟⣿⣿⣫⣿⣏⣯⣯⣯⣋⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣾⣿⣿⣷⣿⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
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⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
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⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢰⣿⣿⣟⣋⣀⣟⣻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣏⠉⣿⡹⢛⣻⣿⣛⣹⣿⣯⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣅⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⡿⣻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣼⡆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣛⣛⣟⣛⣛⣛⣟⣟⣛⣟⣻⣛⣛⣛⣛⢛⡏⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
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⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣾⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 309
╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/04/08/irc-log-070421/#comments
Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2021/04/08/irc-log-070421/
⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 04.08.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧
✐ IRC_Proceedings:_Wednesday,_April_07,_2021⠀✐
Posted in IRC_Logs at 2:49 am by Needs Sunlight
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇H 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇HTML5_logs⦈_
#techrights_log_as_HTML5 #boycottnovell_log_as_HTML5
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇H 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇HTML5_logs⦈_
#boycottnovell-social_log_as_HTML5 #techbytes_log_as_HTML5
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴_🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽_⦇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
QmRBR9bWA93Bfg1ScR5tqKjGu1Uk4QB5u2NQwk5SRr7Wjg #boycottnovell 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
(full IRC log
as HTML)
IRC log for
#boycottnovell
QmW8vMzNfYfckgxPcyuFaNGf2VJQSKdrwmdu2wRmyAZ1BN (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
as plain/ASCII
text)
IRC log for
#boycottnovell-
QmYxCZ7AeypFH1xyELG4TtkkSZtjTfH575MUWg5Fyqp5YE social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
(full IRC log
as HTML)
IRC log for
#boycottnovell-
QmQrvfPXAxp8YC1M76sk9XYoJ8cM1LVFkaJQbMTv8utPy9 social 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
(full IRC log
as plain/ASCII
text)
IRC log for
QmXEXP8gTx5PLRDXLnbLhJUhXBH4bpstZw4Cifx9Qc36GK #techbytes 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
(full IRC log
as HTML)
IRC log for
#techbytes
QmQiLkSGfcW7qxdSYHDhZKz46vqUk1AqtA1qBpZwZ8HF5X (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
as plain/ASCII
text)
IRC log for
QmZTT395CGnhXSuqNfJSKcDJ2mL8vG7wvgyKP8btVSPF3E #techrights 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇HTML5 logs⦈
(full IRC log
as HTML)
IRC log for
#techrights
QmUXUTeEPRButEWouCo9b43ybt1FnmxAQin3wPtiXJ2ofQ (full IRC log 🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇text logs⦈
as plain/ASCII
text)
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇IPFS logo⦈
§ Bulletin for Yesterday⠀➾
Local_copy | CID (IPFS): QmRECAKDtPGBk59mTWG5tjDDQMbPncttn2YvJhZgkBoihH
䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 423
╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/04/08/meme-self-styled-judges/#comments
Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2021/04/08/meme-self-styled-judges/
⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 04.08.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧
✐ [Meme]_Self-styled_Judges⠀✐
Posted in Europe, Humour, Patents at 6:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
🄸🄼🄰🄶🄴 🄳🄴🅂🄲🅁🄸🄿🅃🄸🄾🄽 ⦇Lutz and Roland Freisler⦈
Summary: To suit a recurring_theme at the EPO we hereby present Roland_Lutz, a
self-styled judge
䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 447
╒═══════════════════ 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 ═════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
(ℹ) Images, hyperlinks and comments at http://techrights.org/2021/04/08/people-hate-the-hate-letter/#comments
Gemini version at gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2021/04/08/people-hate-the-hate-letter/
⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 04.08.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧
✐ The_Hate_Letter_Which_Backfired⠀✐
Posted in Deception, Free/Libre_Software, FSF at 7:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Video_download_link
http://techrights.org/videos/hate-letter-backfired.webm
Summary: The FSF is more closely aligned with its founder’s vision, his
antagonists have left or are leaving, and that old hate letter turned out to be
a loud minority (made to appear louder by biased media) emboldened by a gish
gallop of lies
THE corporations and the corporate media that told us FSF was doomed, FSF must
shun its founder, and that this founder is some sort of abhorrent individual
(like a leper!) — so abhorrent he must never again show his face in public,
ever again! — are suddenly quiet. They didn’t quite expect it to end up this
way. The petition in support of the FSF’s decision so far massively exceeds the
hate letter (still growing steadily, without any signs of plateauing, so it can
massively exceed the hate letter, maybe 3-4 times over!), which was largely
fueled by the media that rallied irrational decisions (some people who signed
already express remorse; there’s_work_underway_to_make_more_such_remorse).
“They didn’t quite expect it to end up this way.”Today, more than a fortnight
later, I look back at what happened and what can be expected when starting a
campaign based on lies, outright libel in fact. It backfires spectacularly and
helps reaffirm the views long held by Techrights (about the OSI, the GNOME
Foundation, IBM and so on). Much damage or self-harm has been done over the
past 2.5 weeks, both for organisations and for individual signers. We will be
able to refer back to that infamous letter and point out what certain
organisations and individuals really stand for. █
䷩ 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 497
╒═══════════════════ 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 ═════════════════════════════════════════════╕
⠀⌧ █▇▆▅▄▃▂▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ 04.08.21⠀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█ ⌧
✐ Links_8/4/2021:_GnuPG_2.3.0,_Xen_4.15,_Xfdashboard_0.9.2⠀✐
Posted in News_Roundup at 1:35 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⠀➾
# ⚓ 10_Reasons_Why_You_Should_Switch_From_Windows_To_Linux⠀⇛
Raise your hand if you have been experiencing
countless Windows updates, virus attacks, malware,
ransomware, being limited with everything, or just
looking for some good options aside from Windows or
Apple? If you’re out there looking for some
answers, worry no more.
# ⚓ System76_Spotlight_with_Adam_Balla⠀⇛
When my roommate introduced me to Slackware in
1999, he was working as a Linux system admin and he
really got me interested in Linux. I was going to
the Art Institute of Houston at the time for a
Multimedia Design degree, and the thought that you
could create your own desktop operating system
really appealed to me. I didn’t need to stare at
the same old tacky operating system I’d used for
years.
I found myself, like many nerds of the era, at a
Micro Center in the early 2000s rummaging through
the discount software bins, trying to snag up
multi-CD Linux distributions. This journey exposed
me to several of today’s most popular Linux
distros. One of those was SUSE Linux 5.3, of which
I still keep the tattered book on a bookshelf as a
reminder. I did however finally find my place in
the world of Debian, which is where I essentially
live today. Honestly not much has really changed
other than using Pop!_OS as my main
distribution—though like any Linux diehard, I still
love to download, test, and sometimes install all
the Linux.
o § Server⠀➾
# ⚓ Equinix_Expanding_Open_Source_Bare_Metal_Automation_Tool
Tinkerbell_|_Data_Center_Knowledge⠀⇛
More enterprises are said to be taking interest in
the platform now that it’s been open sourced as a
Cloud Native Computing Foundation project.
o § Audiocasts/Shows⠀➾
# ⚓ Ubuntu_Podcast_S14E05_–_Newspaper_Scoop_Carrots⠀⇛
This week we’ve been spring cleaning and being
silly on Twitter. We round up the news from the
Ubuntu community and discuss our favourite stories
from the tech news.
It’s Season 14 Episode 05 of the Ubuntu Podcast!
Alan Pope, Mark Johnson and Martin Wimpress are
connected and speaking to your brain.
# ⚓ BSDNow_397:_Fresh_BSD_2021⠀⇛
Customizing the FreeBSD Kernel, OpenBSD/loongson on
the Lemote Fuloong, how ZFS on
397: Fresh BSD 2021 Linux brings up pools and
filesystems at boot under systemd, LLDB: FreeBSD
Legacy Process Plugin Removed, FreshBSD 2021, gmid,
Danschmid’s Poudriere Guide in english, and more
# ⚓ The_Linux_Link_Tech_Show_Episode_901⠀⇛
github actions, 3d printing woes, mesh networking,
cooking
o § Kernel Space⠀➾
# ⚓ Patching_until_the_COWs_come_home_(part_2)⠀⇛
Part 1 of this series described the copy-on-write
(COW) mechanism used to avoid unnecessary copying
of pages in memory, then went into the details of a
bug in that mechanism that could result in the
disclosure of sensitive data. A patch written by
Linus Torvalds and merged for the 5.8 kernel
appeared to fix that problem without unfortunate
side effects elsewhere in the system. But COW is a
complicated beast and surprises are not uncommon;
this particular story was nowhere near as close to
an end as had been thought.
Torvalds’s expectations quickly turned out to be
overly optimistic. In August 2020, a bug was
reported by Peter Xu; it affected userfaultfd(),
which is a subsystem for handling page faults in a
user-space process. This mechanism allows the
handling process to (among other things) write-
protect ranges of memory and be notified of
attempts to write to that range. One use case for
this feature is to prevent pages from being
modified while the monitoring process writes their
contents to secondary storage. That write can,
however, result in a read-only get_user_pages()
(GUP) call on the write-protected pages, which
should be fine. Remember, though, that Torvalds’s
fix worked by changing read-only get_user_pages()
calls to look like calls for write access; this was
done to force the breaking of COW references on the
pages in question. In the userfaultfd() case, that
generates an unexpected write fault in the
monitoring process, with the result that this
process hangs.
The initial version of Xu’s fix went in the
direction of more fine-grained rules for breaking
COW by GUP, as had been anticipated in the original
fix, and added some userfaultfd()-specific
handling. But during the discussion, Torvalds
instead proposed a completely different approach,
which resulted in another patch set from Xu. These
patches essentially revert Torvalds’s change and
abandon the approach of always breaking COW for GUP
calls. Instead, do_wp_page(), which handles write
faults to a write-protected page, is modified by
commit 09854ba94c6a (“mm: do_wp_page()
simplification”) to more strictly check if the page
is shared by multiple processes.
# ⚓ Lockless_patterns:_some_final_topics⠀⇛
So far, this series has covered five common
lockless patterns in the Linux kernel; those are
probably the five that you will most likely
encounter when working on Linux. Throughout this
series, some details have been left out and some
simplifications were made in the name of clarity.
In this final installment, I will sort out some of
these loose ends and try to answer what is arguably
the most important question of all: when should you
use the lockless patterns that have been described
here?
[...]
ions are. In these cases, applying lockless
techniques to the fast path can be valuable.
For example, you could give each thread a queue of
requests from other threads and manage them through
single-consumer linked lists. Perhaps you can
trigger the processing of requests using the cross-
thread notification pattern from the article on
full memory barriers. However, these techniques
only make sense because the design of the whole
system supports them. In other words, in a system
that is designed to avoid scalability bottlenecks,
common sub-problems tend to arise and can often be
solved efficiently using the patterns that were
presented here.
When seeking to improve the scalability of a system
with lockless techniques, it is also important to
distinguish between lock-free and wait-free
algorithms. Lock-free algorithms guarantee that the
system as a whole will progress, but do not
guarantee that each thread will progress; lock-free
algorithms are rarely fair, and if the number of
operations per second exceeds a certain threshold,
some threads might end up failing so often that the
result is a livelock. Wait-free algorithms
additionally ensure per-thread progress. Usually
this comes with a significant price in terms of
complexity, though not always; for example message
passing and cross-thread notification are both
wait-free.
Looking at the Linux llist primitives, llist_add()
is lock-free; on the consumer side, llist_del_first
() is lock-free, while llist_del_all() is wait-
free. Therefore, llist may not be a good choice if
many producers are expected to contend on calls to
llist_add(); and using llist_del_all() is likely
better than llist_del_first() unless constant-time
consumption is an absolute requirement. For some
architectures, the instruction set does not allow
read-modify-write operations to be written as wait-
free code; if that is the case, llist_del_all()
will only be lock-free (but still preferable,
because it lets the consumer perform fewer accesses
to the shared data structure).
In any case, the definitive way to check the
performance characteristics of your code is to
benchmark it. Intuition and knowledge of some well-
known patterns can guide you in both the design and
the implementation phase, but be ready to be proven
wrong by the numbers.
# ⚓ GDB_and_io_uring⠀⇛
A problem reported when attaching GDB to programs
that use io_uring has led to a flurry of potential
solutions, and one that was merged into Linux 5.12-
rc5. The problem stemmed from a change made in the
5.12 merge window to how the threads used by
io_uring were created, such that they became
associated with the process using io_uring. Those
“I/O threads” were treated specially in the kernel,
but that led to the problem with GDB (and likely
other ptrace()-using programs). The solution is to
treat them like other threads because it turned out
that trying to make them special caused more
problems than it solved.
Stefan Metzmacher reported the problem to the io-
uring mailing list on March 20. He tried to attach
GDB to the process of a program using io_uring, but
the debugger went “into an endless loop because it
can’t attach to the io_threads”. PF_IO_WORKER
threads are used by io_uring for operations that
might block; he followed up the bug report with two
patch sets that would hide these threads in various
ways. The idea behind hiding them is that if GDB
cannot see the threads, it will not attempt to
attach to them. Prior to 5.12, the threads existed
but were not associated with the io_uring-using
process, so GDB would not see them.
It is, of course, less than desirable for
developers to be unable to run a debugger on code
that uses io_uring, especially since io_uring
support in their application is likely to be
relatively new, thus it may need more in the way of
debugging. The maintainer of the io_uring
subsystem, Jens Axboe, quickly stepped in to help
Metzmacher solve the problem. Axboe posted a patch
set that included a way to hide the PF_IO_WORKER
threads, along with some tweaks to the signal
handling for these threads; in particular, he
removed the ability for them to receive signals at
all.
# ⚓ AMD_Finally_Flipping_On_ASPM_For_Navi_1x_To_Lower_Power
Consumption_–_Phoronix⠀⇛
AMD engineers have a patch pending to improve the
idle power consumption for Radeon RX 5000 “Navi 1x”
GPUs on Linux.
While the Radeon RX 6000 “Navi 2x” hardware already
can enjoy Active State Power Management (ASPM) on
Linux, the AMDGPU kernel driver up to now hasn’t
enabled ASPM for Navi 1x graphics processors. That
though looks to be changing with a pending patch
that would allow these original Navi GPUs to enjoy
this important PCIe power-savings feature.
# ⚓ Reiser4_Ported_Early_To_The_Linux_5.12_Kernel_–_Phoronix⠀⇛
Normally we don’t see the out-of-tree Reiser4 file-
system ported to new Linux kernel releases until
after the inaugural stable release, but this time
around Reiser4 has seen an early port to the near-
final Linux 5.12 kernel.
Reiser4 didn’t end up seeing a proper patch release
to Linux 5.11 but now to succeed its Linux 5.10
port the code is now re-based against the current
Linux 5.12 Git state.
# ⚓ BleedingTooth:_Google_drops_full_details_of_zero-click
Linux_Bluetooth_bug_chain_leading_to_RCE⠀⇛
A security researcher at Google has disclosed long-
awaited details of zero-click vulnerabilities in
the Linux Bluetooth subsystem that allow nearby,
unauthenticated attackers “to execute arbitrary
code with kernel privileges on vulnerable devices”.
Dubbed ‘BleedingTooth’, the trio of security flaws
were found in BlueZ, the open source, official
Linux Bluetooth protocol stack found on Linux-based
laptops and IoT devices.
# ⚓ Torvalds’_Bug_Warning_is_a_Lesson_for_Linux_Users⠀⇛
Linux does, occasionally, raise security concerns.
While many users see it as the most secure, robust
and versatile operating system available — that’s
this writer’s opinion, as well — security
precautions still have to be taken.
A recent, widely publicized case illustrated this
point; Linux creator himself, Linus Torvalds,
warned against the use of the Linux 5.12 release.
He described a “nasty bug,” and wrote that the
situation is a “mess,” due to the use of swap files
when adding Linux updates. This nasty bug, in fact,
had the potential to destroy entire root
directories.
Some of the main takeaways following this “mess”
include: tread very carefully when installing early
Linux releases, especially those that involve
swapping files instead of partitions, and
especially, despite Linux’s well-known security
advantages, avoid becoming complacent, because
Linux security is not always foolproof.
# ⚓ Xen_Project_ships_version_4.15_with_Focus_on_Broader
Accessibility,_Performance,_and_Security⠀⇛
The Xen Project, an open source hypervisor hosted
at the Linux Foundation, today announced the
release of Xen Project Hypervisor 4.15, which
introduces a variety of features allowing for
improved performance, security and device pass-
through reliability. The Xen Project community
continues to be active and engaged, with a wide
range of developers from many companies and
organizations contributing to this latest release.
Additionally, community-wide initiatives, including
Functional Safety, VirtIO for Xen and Xen RISC-
V port, continue to make valuable progress.
# ⚓ Xen_Project_Hypervisor_4.15_now_Available⠀⇛
# ⚓ Xen_4.15_Hypervisor_Brings_Live_Updates_To_Xenstored⠀⇛
Out today is version 4.15 of the open-source Xen
hypervisor. The focus of Xen 4.15 is on “broader
accessibility, performance and security” with a
number of noteworthy additions.
Among the work in store for the Xen 4.15 hypervisor
is Arm support for device models in Dom0 as a tech
preview, support for exporting Intel Processor
Trace Data into tools within Dom0, Viridian
enlightnements for guests with more than 64 vCPUs,
Xenstored/Oxenstored now supports the “LiveUpdate”
tech preview for deploying security fixes without
restarting the host, a PV Shim mode for legacy PV
guests on HVM-only systems, and support for unified
boot images. With unified boot images, it’s now
possible to boot with a single EFI binary rather
than going through GRUB multi-boot.
o § Applications⠀➾
# ⚓ XScreenSaver_6.0_Released_With_Increased_Security,_Better
EGL_&_GLSL/GLES_3.0_Support⠀⇛
XScreenSaver as the open-source screensaver
solution for Linux as well as macOS systems this
last week reached version 6.0. With XScreenSaver
6.0 comes increased security and other
enhancements.
Jamie Zawinski announced XScreenSaver 6.0 back on 1
April, which turned out not to be an April Fools’
prank. The greater XScreenSaver security comes by a
major refactoring to the XScreenSaver daemon, and
splitting up the code into separate xscreensaver /
xscreensaver-gfx / xscreensaver-auth components.
# ⚓ Best_Free_and_Open_Source_Software_–_March_2021_Updates⠀⇛
For our entire collection, check out the categories
below. This is the largest compilation of
recommended software. The collection includes
hundreds of articles, with comprehensive sections
on internet, graphics, games, programming, science,
office, utilities, and more. Almost all of the
software is free and open source.
# ⚓ Myxer_–_A_Modern_GTK_Volume_Mixer_for_PulseAudio⠀⇛
Myxer is a modern new volume mixer application for
the PulseAudio sound server. It’s a lightweight and
powerful replacement for your system Volume Mixer
written in Rust with GTK toolkit.
Myxer can manage audio devices, streams, and even
card profiles. And it offers option to show
individual audio channels.
# ⚓ Protect_external_storage_with_this_Linux_encryption_system
|_Opensource.com⠀⇛
Many people consider hard drives secure because
they physically own them. It’s difficult to read
the data on a hard drive that you don’t have, and
many people think that protecting their computer
with a passphrase makes the data on the drive
unreadable.
This isn’t always the case, partly because, in some
cases, a passphrase serves only to unlock a user
session. In other words, you can power on a
computer, but because you don’t have its
passphrase, you can’t get to the desktop, and so
you have no way to open files to look at them.
The problem, as many a computer technician
understands, is that hard drives can be extracted
from computers, and some drives are already
external by design (USB thumb drives, for
instance), so they can be attached to any computer
for full access to the data on them. You don’t have
to physically separate a drive from its computer
host for this trick to work, either. Computers can
be booted from a portable boot drive, which
separates a drive from its host operating system
and turns it into, virtually, an external drive
available for reading.
The answer is to place the data on a drive into a
digital vault that can’t be opened without
information that only you have access to.
Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) is a disk-encryption
system. It provides a generic key store (and
associated metadata and recovery aids) in a
dedicated area on a disk with the ability to use
multiple passphrases (or key files) to unlock a
stored key. It’s designed to be flexible and can
even store metadata externally so that it can be
integrated with other tools. The result is full-
drive encryption, so you can store all of your data
confident that it’s safe—even if your drive is
separated, either physically or through software,
from your computer.
# ⚓ Repo_Review:_MiniTube⠀⇛
Minitube is a desktop YouTube client designed with
privacy in mind, and with the intention of
providing a more TV-like experience to YouTube,
instead of simply duplicating the regular web
interface. No Google account is required for adding
subscriptions, and no ads will play when watching
videos. Minitube has a well designed interface,
making it very easy to watch videos without a lot
of distractions.
The main screen you’re presented with when opening
Minitube is the Search page. Below the search box,
you can see the previous keywords you’ve searched
for, and the channels that you have recently
visited. From here you can also set the maximum
video resolution, enable Restricted Mode to block
videos containing inappropriate content, and set
videos to only start playing manually, rather than
automatically.
# ⚓ Xfdashboard_0.9.2_Is_Released⠀⇛
xfdashboard is a nice switcher and launcher
primarily for the Xfce desktop environment. It
looks a bit similar to the GNOME and macOS
launchers. The latest release supports linear
gradient, the algorithm for detecting what programs
are running in open windows is improved and a bug
that would cause xfdashboard to immediately crash
in some cases, introduced in xfdashboard 0.9.1, is
fixed.
# ⚓ The_Apache_Software_Foundation_Announces_Apache®
DolphinScheduler™_as_a_Top-Level_Project⠀⇛
The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-
volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of
more than 350 Open Source projects and initiatives,
announced today Apache® DolphinScheduler™ as a Top-
Level Project (TLP).
Apache DolphinScheduler is a distributed,
extensible visual Big Data workflow scheduler
system. The project was first created at Analysys
in December 2017, and entered the Apache Incubator
in August 2019.
“We learned a lot about becoming a strong Open
Source project during our time in the Apache
Incubator,” said Lidong Dai, Vice President of
Apache DolphinScheduler. “Our incubation mentors
helped guide us with developing our project and
community the Apache Way. We are pleased to have
graduated as an Apache Top-Level Project.”
o § Instructionals/Technical⠀➾
# ⚓ How_To_Install_Pritunl_VPN_Server_on_Ubuntu_20.04_LTS⠀⇛
In this tutorial, we will show you how to install
Pritunl VPN Server on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those
of you who didn’t know, the Pritunl VPN server is a
free, open-source enterprise VPN server that anyone
can use to set up a secure VPN tunnel across
networks. It provides a simple and user-friendly
web interface and has the ability to create a wide
range of cloud VPN networks. It provides an
official client package and supports all OpenVPN
clients for most devices and platforms.
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 the Pritunl VPN Server on
Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same
instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other
Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
# ⚓ Ravgeet_Dhillon:_Deploy_Strapi_on_VPS_with_Ubuntu,_MySQL⠀⇛
So you have built your Strapi project and the next
thing you need to do is to deploy it on a
production server. In this blog, we will learn
about how to set up a Virtual Private Server(VPS)
and then deploy our Strapi application.
# ⚓ How_to_use_FreeRADIUS_for_SSH_authentication⠀⇛
You might have a large number of Linux machines in
your data center, most of which are managed by a
team of admins. Those admins probably use secure
shell to access those servers. Because of that, you
might want to use a centralized location to manage
the authentication of those admins. For that, you
can employ a FreeRADIUS server.
FreeRADIUS is a tool for authentication that is
used by over 100 million people daily. This tool
includes support for more authentication protocols
than any other open source service.
I’m going to show you how to use FreeRADIUS for the
authentication of SSH over your LAN.
# ⚓ How_to_deploy_your_own_Docker_registry_to_ease_your_cloud-
native_development⠀⇛
If you’re a cloud-native developer, you know how
important a Docker registry can be. Without a
registry, you’d have no place to store the images
you’ll use for Docker or Kubernetes deployment.
# ⚓ Install_Flameshot_Screenshot_Tool_in_Ubuntu_20.04⠀⇛
Flameshot is an open-source screenshot and
annotation tool designed for Linux, macOS, and
Windows systems. The best thing about this
screenshot tool is that it operates with both the
graphical user interface as well as the command-
line interface. It is a very easy-to-use screenshot
tool that provides the users with a high level of
flexibility and customization. In today’s article,
we will be installing Flameshot on a Ubuntu 20.04
system.
# ⚓ What_is_Shebang_and_How_to_Use_this_Character_Sequence_in
Linux⠀⇛
One of the best features of Linux is that you can
easily create scripts that are designed to automate
and simplify tasks. This can help when processing
large groups of files, like log files if you’re a
Systems Administrator or CSV and TXT files if
you’re doing some kind of research. However,
there’s one very specific set of characters that
you have to understand to get scripting – the
Shebang or #!. We answer all your questions about
the Shebang in this tutorial, a guide on how to use
this character set in Linux.
[...]
The Shebang, or #!, is a character set used to
direct your system on which interpreter to use. If
you’re not familiar with what an interpreter is,
it’s basically the program that reads the commands
you enter into the terminal on your Linux system.
You probably know it as Bash, but you also could
use Fsh, Zsh, or Ksh.
This is a binary program that reads the commands
you put into it, like ls or xargs, and figures out
what to do with them. The full path is usually /
bin/bash or something like that. Check out our
guide on the Linux virtual directory structure if
you’re confused what that means.
# ⚓ How_To_Install_Telegram_In_Ubuntu⠀⇛
In this video tutorial we are going to install
telegram on ubuntu linux. Telegram delivers
messages faster than any other application.
Powerful. Telegram has no limits on the size of
your media and chats.
# ⚓ How_to_Customize_Crostini_Linux_Terminal_on_a_Chromebook⠀⇛
If you use Crostini on a Chromebook in order to
work on Linux, you might wonder how to change the
terminal settings such as the fonts, colors, or
even terminal behavior.
Here in this article, we will discuss in brief
customizing the Linux terminal on a Crostini Linux
installation.
# ⚓ How_to_Install_Nessus_on_Kali_Linux_Complete_Guide_for
Beginners⠀⇛
We are studying of Penetration Testing Tutorial
This article will cover how to download, install,
activate, and access the web interface of Nessus on
Kali Linux.
This post is origin How to Install Nessus on Kali
Linux Move forward and start your tutorial. In a
previous post you have completed Nessus
Vulnerability Scanner Tutorial If you did not read
it, please read now.
# ⚓ How_to_get_your_submicron_wallpapers_back_and_install_the
new_mirrorlist_for_pacman.conf_|_ArcoLinux⠀⇛
You can still install the old wallpapers from
Submicron. The repository still exists.
It is just not in the /etc/pacman.conf anymore for
one obvious reason. Everyone has their own set of
wallpapers.
You will need to change your /etc/pacman.conf if
you want to install them via pacman.
# ⚓ How_to_Fix_WordPress_Error_Missing_MySQL_Extension
Problem⠀⇛
If you have received the “Your PHP installation
appears to be missing the MySQL extension which Is
required by WordPress” error, then this tutorial
will be able to help you fix that. This error is
triggered when the PHP code in your site is not
compatible with the version of PHP your WordPress
site is currently using.
More specifically, this problem is related to the
outdated MySQL extension which was removed as of
PHP 7.0. In this tutorial, we will help you fix the
problem with the PHP missing MySQL extension error,
and help you complete the WordPress installation
successfully.
# ⚓ MySQL_SHOW_USERS:_List_All_Users_in_a_MySQL_Database⠀⇛
A common question that most beginner MySQL users
ask is “How do I see all of the users in my MySQL
server?” Most of them assume that there is a show
users command in MySQL, but there isn’t one. This
is a common mistake because there are other MySQL
commands for displaying information about the
database. For example, SHOW DATABASES will show us
all of the databases that are present in our MySQL
Server, and SHOW TABLES will show us all the tables
in the MySQL database that you have selected.
It’s not unusual for people to assume that there
should be a SHOW USERS command in MySQL. Even
though there isn’t a specific command for it, there
are several ways to actually see the list of users
and even filter them to see exactly what you need.
This can all be done with the MySQL command line
tool – let’s get started.
Once you are logged in to your Linux server,
execute the following command to log in to the
MySQL command line interface.
# ⚓ Head_And_Tail_Commands_In_Linux_Explained_With_Examples⠀⇛
Getting a portion of text from input files in Linux
is a common operation. However, sometimes, we are
interested in viewing only a few lines of a file.
Linux provides us the head and tail commands to
print only the lines in which we are interested in.
Linux head and tail commands are very similar. They
are by default, installed in all Linux
distributions. Let’s first understand what they are
and what they are used for.
# ⚓ 5_commands_to_level-up_your_Git_game_|_Opensource.com⠀⇛
If you use Git regularly, you might be aware that
it has several reputations. It’s probably the most
popular version-control solution and is used by
some of the biggest software projects around to
keep track of changes to files. It provides a
robust interface to review and incorporate
experimental changes into existing documents. It’s
well-known for its flexibility, thanks to Git
hooks. And partly because of its great power, it
has earned its reputation for being complex.
You don’t have to use all of Git’s many features,
but if you’re looking to delve deeper into Git’s
subcommands, here are some that you might find
useful.
# ⚓ How_to_Host_a_Website_on_NGINX_Web_Server⠀⇛
NGINX (pronounced as Engine-X) is a free and open-
source web server software, load balancer, and
reverse proxy optimized for very high performance
and stability. NGINX offers low memory usage and
high concurrency — which is why it is the preferred
web server for powering high-traffic websites.
# ⚓ Exploring_the_new_Podman_secret_command_|_Enable_Sysadmin⠀⇛
Use the new podman secret command to secure
sensitive data when working with containers.
# ⚓ Comparing_SSH_Keys_–_RSA,_DSA,_ECDSA,_or_EdDSA?⠀⇛
What makes asymmetric encryption powerful is that a
private key can be used to derive a paired public
key, but not the other way around. This principle
is core to public-key authentication. If Alice had
used a weak encryption algorithm that could be
brute-forced by today’s processing capabilities, a
third party could derive Alice’s private key using
her public key. Protecting against a threat like
this requires careful selection of the right
algorithm.
There are three classes of these algorithms
commonly used for asymmetric encryption: RSA, DSA,
and elliptic curve based algorithms. To properly
evaluate the strength and integrity of each
algorithm, it is necessary to understand the
mathematics that constitutes the core of each
algorithm.
# ⚓ How_To_Install_TensorFlow_Machine_Learning_System_on_Ubuntu
Linux⠀⇛
In advanced mathematics, the word Tensor is a
multi-dimensional array, and flow is the operations
graph. The TensorFlow machine learning system is an
open-source library function tool for machine
learning. It is used to create models using data,
create graphs with nodes, edges, and multi-
dimensional arrays. You can install the TensorFlow
machine learning system on Ubuntu without any
special hardware. Integrated functions are also
available to use Tensorflow with the Anaconda
Navigator or Jupyter notebook on a Linux system.
# ⚓ Inkscape_Tutorial:_Chrome_Text⠀⇛
I saw this tutorial a few months ago and thought it
was nice. When you get finished, your text should
look like polished chrome.
First, open Inkscape and select a font. My example
uses “God of War” stretched to 144 points. The
original tutorial used Impact. This probably works
better on a thicker, poster-type font, rather than
a thin, handwriting-type font, but try whatever you
want!
The original tutorial put each text clone on a
separate layer. Layer 1 will be the basic text.
After you get it written, select your basic text
and choose Path > Linked Offset from the path menu
(the paths tool will have to be on). This will
create a ‘cloned’ offset attached to your basic
text. Inkscape will locate the clone below the
basic shape. After selecting the clone, fill it
with pure white and raise it to the top of the
stack. I gave it a hairline black stroke, too, but
you do what you want. Cut this object and paste it
into a new Layer 2 above Layer 1. Create a three
dimensional effect by slightly shifting the white
object up and to the left.
# ⚓ FTP_With_Double_Commander:_How-To⠀⇛
Despite its spartan, old-school GUI, the program is
fast and sophisticated. It incorporates a powerful
search tool (Alt+F7). It can perform complex tasks,
such as copying files from directories which have a
certain extension or file size, or have a certain
text pattern in them. Double Commander is also
highly customizable. Most functions have a keyboard
shortcut to increase efficiency and allow you to
configure DC the way it suits you best.
Below is a tutorial on configuring Double Commander
for FTP use. In all of the screenshots, I opted to
have the FTP activity take place in the left-hand
panel.
# ⚓ Analog_Video_Archive_Project⠀⇛
Today, modern DSLR cameras shoot video content as
easily as they shoot stills. Video data can be
loaded directly into an editor like Kdenlive, or
Openshot for final preparation of rendering and
viewing. However, not so long ago, shooting video
meant also using the available media of the day.
Back then, that meant plastic magnetic analog tape.
At first for consumers, it came in large VHS
cassettes, and then later in smaller forms VHS-
C and then 8mm. By the time 8mm was popular, here
came Digital Video over the horizon.
Most people shoot and record memories on still
cameras and video cameras. This process has a habit
of getting out of control very quickly. In a few
short years, folks are left with more than a few
issues about how to easily display and save their
precious memories for future generations to enjoy.
Let’s first look at the display options. In the
past, pictures and photos were either framed and
hung up, or they languished in a shoebox until
future generations showed an interest in them.
Depending on how much effort they want to put into
the project, they save some in an album, and either
toss the remainder or return them to the shoebox
for more time travelling.
Today, with computers, there’s many more ways to
display and use still images. With video memories,
we have the option to connect the camera to the TV
for viewing, or maybe saving the data to a
networked drive for later streaming, or up to
social media.
[...]
So there I was, believing I was ready to get
started capturing memories from the tapes. After
doing some research about what software to use, and
trying some testing to determine which was best to
depend on, I opted for a Linux command line program
by the name dvgrab. It’s a small application that
does what it was designed to do, very well. Dvgrab
is in the PCLinuxOS repo and has a powerful set of
options to use with the basic command.
# ⚓ What_is_the_best_file_format_for_web_shortcuts⠀⇛
Links primarily exist on the web, but they can also
exist as files in your local file system. There are
several formats for storing links as files that
open in your web browser. Here’s a quick comparison
of the available formats, and a recommendation for
which to use for your link files.
Link files — not to be confused with file system
links (“symlinks”) — are plain-text files in a
structured format that compatible programs can
open. The user profile folder in Windows comes with
two default folders for storing such links — Links
and Favorites — but they’re just regular files that
can be stored anywhere on your file system.
The different operating systems call these
different things; including Internet Shortcuts, Web
Location files, and Web Link files. Windows has its
.url files; macOS has its .webloc, .webbookmark,
and .webhistory files; and Linux has .desktop
files. They’re essentially the same thing.
o § Games⠀➾
# ⚓ Tyrant’s_Blessing_will_offer_up_slick_tactical_battles
inspired_by_Into_the_Breach⠀⇛
Into the Breach is a fantastic game that really
hits the mark for turn-based strategy fans and now
Mercury Game Studio are doing their own take on
that style with Tyrant’s Blessing.
Set on a fantasy island of Tyberia, the focus of
the game is the tactical combat with you being able
to choose from a roster of unique heroes to fight
against some sort of undead army. You will need to
use the environment to your advantage while you
work out enemy weaknesses and eventually take down
the enemy Tyrant.
# ⚓ 2D_first-person_point-and-click_adventure_The_Wild_Case_is
out_now_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛
2D and yet first-person? Imagine playing a hidden
object game but it’s a point and click adventure,
that’s sort of what you get with the new release of
The Wild Case. Developed by a small indie outfit
from Ukraine, Specialbit Studio, the same team
behind Angelo and Deemon: One Hell of a Quest.
In The Wild Case you follow the adventures of a
sort of paranormal detective, on a journey to a
remote village deep in the forest, where strange
creatures with glowing eyes terrorize the
inhabitants. Sounds pretty spooky overall and it
does have some pretty great artwork.
# ⚓ Upcoming_cyberpunk_point_and_click_Invasive_Recall_has_an
awesome_vibe_to_it⠀⇛
Another high quality point and click adventure has
been announced with Invasive Recall, a cyberpunk
game set in the not-so-distant future where there’s
a device that can scan and interpret thoughts of
the human mind. Sadly though, it appears this
device completely screws with peoples minds and so
they become completely demented or insane – sounds
pretty rough.
[...]
The full game is due out in 2022, with Linux
support confirmed nice and clearly.
# ⚓ Game_Zone:_Streets_Of_Rage_4:_Finally_On_PCLinuxOS!⠀⇛
Nostalgia… Ahhh, nostalgia. The whole world looks
different with nostalgia glasses. Let’s intoxicate
ourselves with nostalgia now. Ladies and gentlemen,
finally, Streets of Rage 4, review, from the
version sold on GOG, running natively on PCLinuxOS!
Streets of Rage 4, a game that took (too) long to
come out…
Twenty-five years. This is how long it has been
since Streets of Rage 3 (Bare Knuckle 3 in Japan)
was released for the MegaDrive. The saga developed
its three main chapters in a very short period of
time, from 1991 to 1994. From then on, nothing was
done, except for the conversions that were made for
other systems. Fans of the franchise received a
pleasant surprise in August 2018, when DotEmu, a
studio specialized in retro titles, officially
announced that it was working on a new chapter,
Streets of Rage 4.
# ⚓ Classic_Zelda-styled_multiplayer_brawler_Steelbreakers_is
out_now_and_free⠀⇛
Out for your next local multiplayer experience?
Steelbreakers takes the style of classic Zelda
games and turns it into an arena-styled brawler
with different maps and modes. Covered by us last
Summer when it had a demo up, the development on it
continued and a 1.0 release is out now.
An extremely charming and polished little brawler
and one that’s a lot of fun if you manage to get
someone to play with. One that shouldn’t need much
of an introduction. It’s a 2D fighting game where
you pick your map, mode, character and weapons and
then go head-to-head to see who is the best. It
looks absolutely fantastic and really brings back
the feel of some classics with nice little modern
touches.
# ⚓ Arcade_Spirits:_The_New_Challengers_announced_as_a_follow-
up_to_2019′s_Arcade_Spirits_|_GamingOnLinux⠀⇛
Ready for a little romance and some classic arcade
gaming? Well, Fiction Factory Games and PQube
Limited recently announced Arcade Spirits: The New
Challengers as a follow-up to the 2019 title Arcade
Spirits.
In the previous game you worked in an arcade while
trying to find friendship and romance but this time
around, you’re playing in an arcade so it’s all
been flipped around. Not only is it giving a
different perspective but you will also be able to
import decisions made from the original game to
shape the world. It’s a standalone game though and
can be played entirely by itself.
[...]
The developer continues using the great open source
Ren’Py, so it should all work nicely on Linux. The
full game is due out sometime in early 2022.
# ⚓ Fast-paced_futuristic_Wipeout-like_racer_Metric_Racer_adds
Linux_support⠀⇛
If you need a new fast-pacing racing fix, check out
the promising looking Early Access game Metric
Racer which has recently added Linux support on
Steam. A game that looks a lot like Wipeout and
BallisticNG, it’s nice to see more developers
attempt such a racer as there’s not all that many.
Metric Racer offers up a highly stylized version
with a fancy cartoon-like visual style for the
ships, along with plenty of customization options
to really make it your own. There’s also a full
level editor so you can let out your creative side
with Steam Workshop support.
o § Desktop Environments/WMs⠀➾
# § K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt⠀➾
# ⚓ KDE_Is_Now_Offering_A_Qt_5.15_LTS_Branch_Patch-set
For_The_Free_Software_Community⠀⇛
The Qt Company, the corporation behind the Qt
toolkit used by the KDE desktop environment
and numerous other free software projects,
has been restricting updates to Qt Long Term
Support (LTS) releases to paying customers
since January 2020. KDE e.V. has announced
that they will be maintaining their own Qt 5
“patch collection” for free software users
and projects using the Qt 5.15 LTS release.
[...]
Qt 6.0 was released in December 2020 and the
last Qt 5 version, Qt 5.15, is now a in
practice unsupported Qt version.
Free free software users were faced with two
choices when Qt 5 became a LTS release: They
could either run a potentially insecure Qt
5.15 version without the latest security
patches, or switch to the latest Qt 6 branch.
The latter is not a realistic alternative if
you are using a piece of software meant to be
built against Qt 5 since there are
significant differences between Qt 5 and Qt
6. You can port Qt 5 software to Qt 6, but
you can’t just replace Qt 5 with Qt 6 and
expect that to work without a hassle.
The KDE e.V. foundation, in partnership with
the now very profitable Qt Company, is now
offering free software users a third option:
A Qt5PatchCollection repository for Qt 5.15
with fixes for security issues, crashes and
“functional defects”.
# § GNOME Desktop/GTK⠀➾
# ⚓ Floating_Dock_Is_the_Perfect_Dock_for_the_GNOME_40
Desktop⠀⇛
Floating Dock is not a new extension for the
GNOME desktop, but it was recently updated by
its creator to work on the latest GNOME 40
desktop environment, allowing you to have an
always visible (or hidden) dock on your
screen for launching apps.
As you may be aware, the GNOME 40 desktop
environment comes with a major redesign of
the Activities Overview that also moves the
dock from left side of the screen to the
bottom. For me, that makes navigating much
easier, but I have to admit that I miss
having an always-on dock.
# ⚓ New_GNOME_Designs_Explore_a_‘Bottom_Bar’_Layout_for
GNOME_Shell⠀⇛
For the past 10 years GNOME shell has been
based around a single panel stripped across
the top of user’s screens — but is this
fundamental feature about to change?
Well, to quell whatever dim intrigue I just
stirred: no, it’s not. However, GNOME
designer Tobias Bernard, a key architect of
the well-received GNOME 40 release, is
playing around with a concept in which —get
this— GNOME’s famous top bar is moved to the
bottom of the screen.
Kind of crazy, huh? It’d be the most major
‘major’ design change made to GNOME Shell
since it debuted. After all, the top bar is
an anchor in the GNOME Shell experience. It’s
where the status menu, notification center,
clock/calendar applet, app menu, and oh-so-
important Activities button all sit.
# ⚓ 10_Awesome_gedit_Text_Editor_Features_to_Make_You
More_Productive⠀⇛
Here’s a list of the top 10 cool gedit
features which you probably not aware of,
until now. Take a look.
o § Distributions⠀➾
# ⚓ 5_Exciting_Linux_Distro_Updates_to_Look_Forward_to_in
2021⠀⇛
We’re four months into 2021 and a lot of major
Linux distribution updates are right around the
corner after constant development over the past few
months.
These updates are expected to bring an assortment
of new features, performance improvements, and
better hardware support alongside the latest Linux
kernel.
Here are some of the most exciting Linux
distribution updates to look forward to this year.
# § Reviews⠀➾
# ⚓ Hands-On_with_Kali_Linux_on_the_Raspberry_Pi_4:_A
Match_Made_in_Heaven⠀⇛
think everyone knows Kali Linux these days,
so let’s get straight on with the review,
shall we? Kali Linux supports a wide-range of
ARM (32-bit and 64-bit) devices, among which
the popular Raspberry Pi family of single-
board computers (SBCs).
For Raspberry Pi 4 devices, Kali Linux is
available in two variants, a 32-bit image and
a 64-bit image. For this review, I’ve
downloaded the 64-bit (AArch64/ARM64) image
due to the obvious reason that the 64-bit
processor in Raspberry Pi 4 performs best
with 64-bit software, and my model has 8GB of
RAM.
# § BSD⠀➾
# ⚓ [Older]_WireGuard_Is_Coming_To_Your_pfSense_Router⠀⇛
Even after a herculean amount of effort by
Wireguard’s founder, Jason Donenfeld and
developers Kyle Evans and Matt Dunwoodie,
WireGuard will not be included in the
upcoming release of FreeBSD 13.0. This will
also mean that Netgate’s announcement of the
inclusion of WireGuard in the next release of
pfSense was premature, as that router OS is
based off of FreeBSD. All three developers
did their best to polish the existing code
and bring it up to their high standards but
unfortunately there was simply not enough
time.
If you haven’t run into WireGuard before, it
is an open source VPN similar to OpenVPN or
closed source ones, with a bit of a
difference. The developers of WireGuard take
their coding very seriously, while OpenVPN
consists of 400,000 lines of code added to
the kernel, WireGuard is a mere 4000. This
makes it significantly faster and more robust
than OpenVPN or other VPN programs, but is
also why the release is delayed. Until the
crew can reduce the current footprint of
WireGuard they are not comfortable adding it.
# § PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family⠀➾
# ⚓ PCLinuxOS_Screenshot_Showcase⠀⇛
# § SUSE/OpenSUSE⠀➾
# ⚓ Become_a_SUSE_Certified_Administrator_or_Engineer
[Ed: Memorise one_particular_vendor’s_stuff for some
virtual badge of “capability”]⠀⇛
# § IBM/Red Hat/Fedora⠀➾
# ⚓ Fedora_35_Looking_To_Make_Use_Of_Debuginfod_By
Default⠀⇛
Red Hat engineers spearheaded the work on
Debuginfod for being able to fetch debuginfo/
sources from centralized servers for a
project to cut-down on manually having to
install the relevant debug packages manually
on a system as well as that occupying extra
disk space and just being a hassle. The
Fedora project is now getting their
Debuginfod server off the ground and for
Fedora Linux 35 are planning to make use of
it by default.
Debuginfod was plumbed last year into GNU
Binutils and has seen support by the likes of
the GNU debugger and other toolchain
components. Debuginfod is quite nice for the
reasons mentioned around transparently
getting necessary debugging data and source
code on-demand rather than dealing with the
mess of debug packages.
# ⚓ Fedora_Community_Blog:_Help_wanted:_program
management_team⠀⇛
I’d love to spend time in different Fedora
teams helping them with program management
work, but there’s only so much of me to go
around. Instead, I’m putting together a
program management team. At a high level, the
role of the program management team will be
two-fold. The main job is to embed in other
teams and provide support to them. A
secondary role will be to back up some of my
duties (like wrangling Changes) when I am out
of the office. If you’re interested, fill out
the When Is Good survey by 15 April, or read
on for more information.
[...]
Fill out the When Is Good survey by 15 April
to indicate your availability for a kickoff
meeting. This will be a video meeting so that
we can have a high-bandwidth conversation.
I’m looking for four or five people to start,
but if I get more interest, we’ll figure out
how to scale. If you’re not sure if this is
something you want to do, come to the meeting
anyway. You can always decide to not
participate.
# ⚓ sevctl_available_soon_in_Fedora_34⠀⇛
sevctl is an administrative utility for
managing the AMD Secure Encrypted
Virtualization (SEV) platform, which is
available on AMD’s EPYC processors.
# ⚓ Partner_Experience_at_Red_Hat_Summit⠀⇛
Each year at Red Hat Summit we look forward
to showcasing unique partner stories and our
joint successes in helping customers achieve
open hybrid cloud innovation. This year, we
are pleased to introduce the Partner
Experience: an integrated, immersive
experience for partners within the Red Hat
Summit 2021 event. Partner Experience
provides partner-centric messages and content
throughout each part of Red Hat Summit for
partners to expand their knowledge and
understanding around Red Hat’s portfolio.
Partner Experience is an opportunity for
partners to access tailored content, share
insights and hear directly from Red Hat
leaders on key initiatives and updates. Here
is an overview of the Partner Experience at
Red Hat Summit and tips for navigating this
year’s event.
# § Debian Family⠀➾
# ⚓ Two_developers_in_race_for_Debian_project_leader
post⠀⇛
Two of the three candidates who contested
last year’s election for the post of Debian
project leader are set to fight it out again
this year.
Jonathan Carter won the election last year
and is running for re-election, while Sruthi
Chandran has opted to take another tilt at
becoming the project’s first female leader.
Voting began on 4 April and will wind up on
17 April. The new term for the project leader
will begin on 21 April.
In her platform statement, Chandran said she
was running because she was concerned about
the skewed gender ratios within the free
software community.
# ⚓ How_To_Install_Brave_Browser_on_Debian_10_–_idroot⠀⇛
In this tutorial, we will show you how to
install Brave Browser on Debian 10. For those
of you who didn’t know, Brave is adapted from
the Chromium project and runs smoothly on
Linux Distributions. Brave browser is a free
and open-source browser. it’s Fast, speed,
security, and privacy by blocking trackers
and still based on chromium so you have all
the extension and features you might be
looking for.
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 the Brave browser on
a Debian 10 (Buster).
# ⚓ Thorsten_Alteholz:_My_Debian_Activities_in_March
2021⠀⇛
Things never turn out the way you expect, so
this month I was only able to accept 38
packages and rejected none. Due to the
freeze, the overall number of packages that
got accepted was 88.
# § Canonical/Ubuntu Family⠀➾
# ⚓ Time_to_get_testing_Ubuntu_21.04_ahead_of_release,
plus_Canonical_loses_another_face⠀⇛
We seem to have missed the actual Ubuntu
Testing Week but a late reminder is better
than none at all right? With Ubuntu 21.04
coming soon it’s time to report the bugs.
Now is a good time to get testing, as the
Beta version is out now and a Release
Candidate is due around April 15 so this is
your chance to make one of the top Linux
desktop distributions as good as possible for
the 21.04 release due on April 22. According
to Steam stats and our own stats, Ubuntu is
in the top three most used for gaming.
[...]
Additionally, announced today, is that Alan
Pope is set to leave Canonical. Pope has been
a huge force in the Ubuntu community over the
years and recently as a Developer Advocate,
along with their work on Snap packages and
much more. Good luck for the future popey!
This follows on from Canonical losing Martin
Wimpress, their previous desktop lead back in
February.
# ⚓ How_to_make_your_first_snap⠀⇛
Snaps are a way to package your software so
it is easy to install on Linux. If you’re a
snap developer already or you’re a part of
the Linux community, and you care about how
software is deployed, and you’re well versed
in how software is packaged, and are tuned
into the discussions around packaging
formats, then you know about snaps and this
article isn’t for you. If you’re anyone who
is not all of those things, welcome. Let me
tell you how I packaged my first snap to make
it easier for people to install on Linux.
# ⚓ Canonical_announces_full_enterprise_support_for
Kubernetes_1.21⠀⇛
Canonical, the firm behind the Ubuntu
operating system, has announced full
enterprise support for Kubernetes 1.21. It
said that support ranges from public cloud to
edge and covers Charmed Kubernetes, MicroK8s,
and kubeadm. According to Canonical, MicroK8s
is suited for workstations, DevOps, edge and
IoT, Charmed Kubernetes is aimed at multi-
cloud clusters, and kubeadm is designed for
manual operations.
Notable changes in Kubernetes 1.21 include a
memory manager which will improve the
performance of some applications, new
scheduler features, improvements to
ReplicateSet downscaling, support for indexed
jobs, and the deprecation of Pod Security
Policy before its complete removal in
Kubernetes 1.25.
o § Devices/Embedded⠀➾
# ⚓ Toughened_up_Xavier_NX_edge_AI_system_has_four_GSML_cam
links⠀⇛
Eurotech’s rugged “BoltGPU 10-31” edge AI and
transport computer runs Linux on a Jetson Xavier NX
and supplies 2x GbE, 2x USB 3.1 Gen2, DP, WiFi 6,
3x M.2, isolated CAN and DIO, and 4x GSML cam
inputs.
Eurotech announced a BoltGPU 10-31 “subsystem” for
rugged edge AI applications including rolling
stock, automotive, and heavy-duty transportation
systems. The rugged computer has the same form
factor and expansion module interface as last
year’s Apollo Lake based BoltGate 20-31, but with
significant feature differences, including 4x GSML
camera inputs. There is also a different processor
in the form of Nvidia’s AI-enabled Jetson Xavier NX
module.
# ⚓ BOXER-8230AI_AI_Edge_Fanless_Embedded_Box_PC⠀⇛
This model offers a mid-range alternative between
the Jetson Xavier AGX NX-based BOXER-8250AI
embedded box PC and the Jetson Nano-powered BOXER-
8220AI mini PC both of which offer the same ports.
# ⚓ Raspberry_Pi_Zero_W_turns_iPod_Classic_into_Spotify_music
player⠀⇛
# § Open Hardware/Modding⠀➾
# ⚓ Dunfell_recompile_commencing_in_OpenEmbedded⠀⇛
So decided to drop my badly-hacked source.
Now have the latest source from wdlkmpx’s
github repo in OpenEmbedded.
There is another chap who is an audiophile
and wants to use the ‘jack’ server in EasyOS.
So I have added the jack package to the
build-list, and enabled support for jack in
these packages:
ffmpeg mpv xine-lib mhwaveedit audacious
From a bit of reading, it seems that ideally
the kernel needs to have some real-time
features enabled for jack to work well.
As far as I know, having support for jack in
those apps doesn’t mean we have to use it. It
is an optional server.
# ⚓ simpleRTK2B-SBC_packs_3_u‑blox_ZED-F9P_RTK_GNSS
receivers_for_centimeter-level_GPS_positioning⠀⇛
The company can provide a “ready-made
software”, but you can also design your own
solution through a Micropython API, or
program directly the STM32F7 MCU with C/C++.
You’ll find additional details on the
documentation website.
# ⚓ ArduinoShrink_library_slashes_code_size,_boosts_speed
of_Arduino_AVR_firmware⠀⇛
Arduino AVR Core is supposed to be already
efficient, as the resulting code will run on
AVR ATmega168 and ATmega328 MCUs with just 16
to 32KB of internal flash storage and 8 to 16
MHz clock speeds.
But Nerd Ralph felt there was space for
improvement as for instance the Blink sample
takes 924 bytes of flash storage when
compiled for the Arduino Uno. So he developed
ArduinoShrink library with the same functions
as Arduino AVR Core but enabling smaller and
faster firmware files.
# § Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications⠀➾
# ⚓ Google_now_supports_Rust_for_Android_OS_development_–
9to5Google⠀⇛
# ⚓ Google_turns_to_Rust_to_remedy_Android
vulnerabilities_|_TechRadar⠀⇛
# ⚓ Google_Launches_Four_New_Augmented_Reality
Experiments_for_Android⠀⇛
# ⚓ Android_12_Developer_Preview_2.2_is_here_with_April
2021_security_patches⠀⇛
# ⚓ Vivo_Y19_starts_getting_the_Funtouch_OS_11_(Android
11)_update⠀⇛
# ⚓ OnePlus_has_updated_these_phones_to_Android_11_–
9to5Google⠀⇛
# ⚓ Galaxy_Tab_S5e_starts_receiving_Android_11_update_–
SamMobile⠀⇛
# ⚓ Android_TV_on_Raspberry_Pi_4:_How_to_Make_It_Work_|
All3DP⠀⇛
# ⚓ How_to_Enable_and_Use_Google_Chat_in_Gmail_on_Android
–_Gadgets_To_Use⠀⇛
# ⚓ How_to_install_a_Nintendo_3DS_emulator_for_Android_|
Android_Central⠀⇛
# ⚓ How_to_enable_Reading_List_in_Google_Chrome_on
Android⠀⇛
# ⚓ Lenovo_Legion_Phone_Duel_2_is_the_ultimate_5G_Android
gaming_smartphone⠀⇛
# ⚓ Android_phone_tuneup:_5_easy_steps_that_are_worth
your_time_–_CNET⠀⇛
# ⚓ LG_Promises_to_Deliver_3_Years_of_Android_Updates_to
Phones_After_Exiting_Business⠀⇛
# ⚓ e/OS_review:_Privacy-focused_Android_without_Google_|
Android_Central⠀⇛
# ⚓ Google_accused_of_tracking_Android_users_without
their_consent⠀⇛
# ⚓ Google_is_now_writing_low-level_Android_code_in_Rust
|_Ars_Technica⠀⇛
# ⚓ Android_to_Support_Rust_Programming_Language_to
Prevent_Memory_Flaws⠀⇛
# ⚓ Google_is_finally_fixing_one_of_the_worst_things
about_Android_Auto_|_Android_Central⠀⇛
# ⚓ Developers_can_now_publish_Android_Auto_apps_for
charging,_navigation,_and_parking_to_Google_Play⠀⇛
# ⚓ Google_rolls_out_a_big_Android_12_preview_bug-fix
update_today⠀⇛
# ⚓ Nokia_8.1_and_Nokia_2.3_get_Android_11_–_GSMArena.com
news⠀⇛
# ⚓ [Updated]_OxygenOS_11_(Android_11)_for_OnePlus_7:
Here’s_what_we_know⠀⇛
# ⚓ How_to_check_for_software_updates_on_Android_10_|
AndroidGuys⠀⇛
# ⚓ How_adjust_your_lock_screen_settings_on_Android_10_|
AndroidGuys⠀⇛
# ⚓ How_often_do_you_restart_your_Android_phone?_|
Android_Central⠀⇛
# ⚓ How_to_Transfer_Photos_From_an_Android_Device_to_a
Computer⠀⇛
# ⚓ How_to_play_GTA_5_on_Android_using_PS_Remote_Play_in
April_2021:_Step-by-step_guide⠀⇛
# ⚓ GTA_5_on_Android:_Players_will_be_able_to_play_the
game_on_Android_using_Xbox_Game_Pass⠀⇛
# ⚓ Gigaset_Android_phones_infected_by_malware_via_hacked
update_server⠀⇛
# ⚓ Sygic_becomes_first_third-party_Android_Auto
navigation_app_alternative_–_Android_Community⠀⇛
# ⚓ Best_Android_app_deals_of_the_day:_Underworld_Office,
more_–_9to5Toys⠀⇛
# ⚓ Best_Cheap_Android_Tablet_Deals_for_April_2021_|
Digital_Trends⠀⇛
# ⚓ You_are_being_redirected…⠀⇛
# ⚓ 11_Best_Android_Bluetooth_Headphones_And_Earbuds_In
2021⠀⇛
# ⚓ LG_makes_a_‘three_year_pledge’_on_updates_for_its
Android_phones_|_Engadget⠀⇛
# ⚓ UTP_Group_launches_new_android_payment_terminal⠀⇛
o § Free, Libre, and Open Source Software⠀➾
# § Web Browsers⠀➾
# § Mozilla⠀➾
# ⚓ Reflections_on_One_Year_as_the_CEO_of_Mozilla⠀⇛
If we want the internet to be different
we can’t keep following the same
roadmap.
I am celebrating a one-year anniversary
at Mozilla this week, which is funny in
a way, since I have been part of
Mozilla since before it had a name.
Mozilla is in my DNA–and some of my DNA
is in Mozilla. Twenty-two years ago I
wrote the open-source software licenses
that still enable our vision, and
throughout my years here I’ve worn many
hats. But one year ago I became CEO for
the second time, and I have to say up
front that being CEO this time around
is the hardest role I’ve held here. And
perhaps the most rewarding.
On this anniversary, I want to open up
about what it means to be the CEO of a
mission-driven organization in 2021,
with all the complications and
potential that this era of the internet
brings with it. Those of you who know
me, know I am generally a private
person. However, in a time of rapid
change and tumult for our industry and
the world, it feels right to share some
of what this year has taught me.
# ⚓ Mozilla_weighs_in_on_political_advertising_for
Commission_consultation⠀⇛
Later this year, the European
Commission is set to propose new rules
to govern political advertising. This
is an important step towards increasing
the resilience of European democracies,
and to respond to the changes wrought
by digital campaigning. As the
Commission’s public consultation on the
matter has come to a close, Mozilla
stresses the important role of a
healthy internet and reiterates its
calls for systemic online advertising
transparency globally.
In recent years political campaigns
have increasingly shifted to the
digital realm – even more so during the
pandemic. This allows campaigners to
engage different constituencies in
novel ways and enables them to campaign
at all when canvassing in the streets
is impossible due to public health
reasons. However, it has also given
rise to new risks. For instance, online
political advertising can serve as an
important and hidden vector for
disinformation, defamation, voter
suppression, and evading pushback from
political opponents or fact checkers.
The ways in which platforms’ design and
practices facilitate this and the lack
of transparency in this regard have
therefore become subject to ever
greater scrutiny. This reached a high
point around the U.S. presidential
elections last year, but it is
important to continue to pay close
attention to the issue as other
countries go to the polls for major
elections – in Europe and beyond.
At Mozilla, we have been working to
hold platforms more accountable,
particularly with regard to advertising
transparency and disinformation (see,
for example, here, here, here, and
here). Pushing for wide-ranging
transparency is critical in this
context: it enables communities to
uncover and protect from harms that
platforms alone cannot or fail to
avert. We therefore welcome the
Commission’s initiative to develop new
rules to this end, which Member States
can expand upon depending on the
country-specific context. The EU Code
of Practice on Disinformation, launched
in 2019 and which Mozilla is a
signatory of, was a first step in the
right direction to improve the scrutiny
of and transparency around online
advertisements. In recent years, large
online platforms have made significant
improvements in this regard – but they
still fall short in various ways. This
is why we continue to advocate the
mandatory disclosure of all online
advertisements, as reflected in our
recommendations for the Digital
Services Act (DSA) and the European
Democracy Action Plan.
# ⚓ This_Week_in_Rust_385⠀⇛
# § FSF⠀➾
# § GNU Projects⠀➾
# ⚓ GnuPG_2.3_Released_With_New_Experimental_Key
Database_Daemon,_TPM_2.0_Daemon⠀⇛
Werner Koch announced the availability
today of GnuPG 2.3 as the start of the
(fairly stable, effectively production
ready) test releases leading up to the
GnuPG 2.4 stable update.
GnuPG 2.3 introduces a new experimental
key database where the keys are stored
in an SQLite database and allow for
much faster key look-ups. This
experimental key database can be
enabled with the “use-keyboxd” option.
Also significant with GnuPG 2.3 is the
new “tpm2d” daemon to allow physically
binding keys to the local machine using
Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM2)
hardware. This new GnuPG 2.3
functionality allows leveraging of TPM
2.0 hardware for protecting private
keys as a nice security improvement
that can be enjoyed with most modern
systems.
# ⚓ GnuPG_2.3.0_released⠀⇛
Hello!
We are pleased to announce the
availability of a new GnuPG release:
version 2.3.0. This release marks the
start of public testing releases
eventually leading to a new stable
version 2.4.
Although some bugs might linger in the
2.3 versions, they are intended
to replace the 2.2 series. 2.3 may
even be used for production purposes
if either the risk of minor regressions
is acceptable or the new
features are important.
What is GnuPG
=============
The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG, GPG) is a
complete and free implementation
of the OpenPGP and S/MIME standards.
GnuPG allows to encrypt and sign data
and communication, features a
versatile key management system as well
as access modules for public key
directories. GnuPG itself is a command
line tool with features for easy
integration with other applications.
The separate library GPGME provides
a uniform API to use the GnuPG engine
by software written in common
programming languages. A wealth of
frontend applications and libraries
making use of GnuPG are available. As
an universal crypto engine GnuPG
provides support for S/MIME and Secure
Shell in addition to OpenPGP.
GnuPG is Free Software (meaning that it
respects your freedom). It can
be freely used, modified and
distributed under the terms of the GNU
General Public License.
Three different versions of GnuPG are
actively maintained:
- This version (2.3) is the latest
development with a lot of new
features. This announcement is about
the first release of this
version.
- Version 2.2 is our LTS (long term
support) version and guaranteed to
be maintained at least until the end
of 2024.
See https://gnupg.org/download/
index.html#end-of-life
- Version 1.4 is maintained to allow
decryption of very old data which
is, for security reasons, not anymore
possible with other GnuPG
versions.
Noteworthy changes in version 2.3.0
(2021-04-07)
================================================
* A new experimental key database
daemon is provided. To enable it
put "use-keyboxd" into gpg.conf and
gpgsm.conf. Keys are stored
in a SQLite database and make key
lookup much faster.
* New tool gpg-card as a flexible
frontend for all types of
supported smartcards.
* New option --chuid for gpg, gpgsm,
gpgconf, gpg-card, and
gpg-connect-agent.
* The gpg-wks-client tool is now
installed under bin; a wrapper for
its old location at libexec is also
installed.
* tpm2d: New daemon to physically
bind keys to the local machine.
See https://gnupg.org/blog/
20210315-using-tpm-with-gnupg-2.3.html
* gpg: Switch to ed25519/cv25519 as
default public key algorithms.
* gpg: Verification results now
depend on the --sender option and
the signer's UID subpacket.
[#4735]
* gpg: Do not use any 64-bit block
size cipher algorithm for
encryption. Use AES as last resort
cipher preference instead of
3DES. This can be reverted using -
-allow-old-cipher-algos.
* gpg: Support AEAD encryption mode
using OCB or EAX.
* gpg: Support v5 keys and
signatures.
* gpg: Support curve X448 (ed448,
cv448).
* gpg: Allow use of group names in
key listings. [e825aea2ba]
* gpg: New option --full-timestrings
to print date and time.
* gpg: New option --force-sign-key.
[#4584]
* gpg: New option --no-auto-trust-
new-key.
* gpg: The legacy key discovery
method PKA is no longer supported.
The command --print-pka-records and
the PKA related import and
export options have been removed.
* gpg: Support export of Ed448 Secure
Shell keys.
* gpgsm: Add basic ECC support.
* gpgsm: Support creation of EdDSA
certificates. [#4888]
* agent: Allow the use of "Label:" in
a key file to customize the
pinentry prompt. [5388537806]
* agent: Support ssh-agent extensions
for environment variables.
With a patched version of OpenSSH
this avoids the need for the
"updatestartuptty" kludge.
[224e26cf7b]
* scd: Improve support for multiple
card readers and tokens.
* scd: Support PIV cards.
* scd: Support for Rohde&Schwarz
Cybersecurity cards.
* scd: Support Telesec Signature
Cards v2.0
* scd: Support multiple application
on certain smartcard.
* scd: New option --application-
priority.
* scd: New option --pcsc-shared; see
man page for important notes.
* dirmngr: Support a gpgNtds
parameter in LDAP keyserver URLs.
* The symcryptrun tool, a wrapper for
the now obsolete external
Chiasmus tool, has been removed.
* Full Unicode support under Windows
for the command line. [#4398]
Release-info: https://dev.gnupg.org/
T5343
Getting the Software
====================
Please follow the instructions found at
or
read on:
GnuPG 2.3.0 may be downloaded from one
of the GnuPG mirror sites or
direct from its primary FTP server.
The list of mirrors can be found at
. Note that GnuPG is not
available at ftp.gnu.org.
The GnuPG source code compressed using
BZIP2 and its OpenPGP signature
are available here:
https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/gnupg/
gnupg-2.3.0.tar.bz2 (7380k)
https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/gnupg/
gnupg-2.3.0.tar.bz2.sig
An installer for Windows without any
graphical frontend except for a
very minimal Pinentry tool is available
here:
https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/binary/
gnupg-w32-2.3.0_20210407.exe (4560k)
https://gnupg.org/ftp/gcrypt/binary/
gnupg-w32-2.3.0_20210407.exe.sig
The source used to build the Windows
installer can be found in the same
directory with a ".tar.xz" suffix.
A new version of Gpg4win featuring this
version of GnuPG will be
released soon. In the meantime it is
possible to install this GnuPG
version on top of Gpg4win 3.1.15.
Checking the Integrity
======================
In order to check that the version of
GnuPG which you are going to
install is an original and unmodified
one, you can do it in one of
the following ways:
* If you already have a version of
GnuPG installed, you can simply
verify the supplied signature. For
example to verify the signature
of the file gnupg-2.3.0.tar.bz2 you
would use this command:
gpg --verify gnupg-
2.3.0.tar.bz2.sig gnupg-2.3.0.tar.bz2
This checks whether the signature
file matches the source file.
You should see a message indicating
that the signature is good and
made by one or more of the release
signing keys. Make sure that
this is a valid key, either by
matching the shown fingerprint
against a trustworthy list of valid
release signing keys or by
checking that the key has been
signed by trustworthy other keys.
See the end of this mail for
information on the signing keys.
* If you are not able to use an
existing version of GnuPG, you have
to verify the SHA-1 checksum. On
Unix systems the command to do
this is either "sha1sum" or
"shasum". Assuming you downloaded the
file gnupg-2.3.0.tar.bz2, you run
the command like this:
sha1sum gnupg-2.3.0.tar.bz2
and check that the output matches
the next line:
44d06ef6625378e2d135420543e5fb06b62437ab
gnupg-2.3.0.tar.bz2
6069b70870cb378b1937a79a752ccc3e9951e0a1
gnupg-w32-2.3.0_20210407.tar.xz
2c1a25a57a785cc96ae7ec317de9d1fb513161b7
gnupg-w32-2.3.0_20210407.exe
Internationalization
====================
This version of GnuPG has support for
26 languages with Chinese
(traditional and simplified), Czech,
French, German, Italian,
Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Russian,
and Ukrainian being almost
completely translated.
Documentation and Support
=========================
The file gnupg.info has the complete
reference manual of the system.
Separate man pages are included as well
but they miss some of the
details available only in the manual.
The manual is also available
online at
https://gnupg.org/documentation/
manuals/gnupg/
or can be downloaded as PDF at
https://gnupg.org/documentation/
manuals/gnupg.pdf
You may also want to search the GnuPG
mailing list archives or ask on
the gnupg-users mailing list for advise
on how to solve problems. Most
of the new features are around for
several years and thus enough public
experience is available. https://
wiki.gnupg.org has user contributed
information around GnuPG and relate
software.
In case of build problems specific to
this release please first check
https://dev.gnupg.org/T5343 for updated
information.
Please consult the archive of the
gnupg-users mailing list before
reporting a bug: https://gnupg.org/
documentation/mailing-lists.html.
We suggest to send bug reports for a
new release to this list in favor
of filing a bug at https://
bugs.gnupg.org. If you need commercial
support go to https://gnupg.com or
https://gnupg.org/service.html.
If you are a developer and you need a
certain feature for your project,
please do not hesitate to bring it to
the gnupg-devel mailing list for
discussion.
Thanks
======
Since 2001 maintenance and development
of GnuPG is done by g10 Code GmbH
and still mostly financed by donations.
Three full-time employed
developers as well as two contractors
exclusively work on GnuPG and
closely related software like
Libgcrypt, GPGME and Gpg4win.
We like to thank all the nice people
who are helping the GnuPG project,
be it testing, coding, translating,
suggesting, auditing, administering
the servers, spreading the word, or
answering questions on the mailing
lists.
The financial support of the
governmental CERT of Luxembourg
(GOVCERT.LU) allowed us to develop new
and improved features for
smartcards (Yubikey, PIV and Scute) as
well as various usability
features. Thanks.
Many thanks also to all other financial
supporters, both corporate and
individuals. Without you it would not
be possible to keep GnuPG in a
good and secure shape and to address
all the small and larger requests
made by our users.
Happy hacking,
Your GnuPG hackers
# § Licensing/Legal⠀➾
# ⚓ Proposal_and_Steps_To_Dual-License_Gutenberg
Under_the_GPL_and_MPL⠀⇛
The GPL is so embedded into WordPress
that it is not just the license the
platform is under but a part of the
community’s culture. Friends have been
gained and lost over discussions of it.
Bridges burned. Battles waged. People
cast out to the dark corners of the web
that “we don’t talk about.” There was
even a time when one could expect a
fortnightly GPL dust-up in which the
inner WordPress world argued the same
points over and over, ad nauseam.
It might be hard to imagine a world
where — outside of third-party
libraries — direct contributions to the
software are under anything other than
the GPL. However, the wheels are now in
motion. The Gutenberg project, which is
the foundation of WordPress going
forward, may soon be under both the GNU
General Public License (GPL) v2 and the
Mozilla Public License (MPL) v2.0.
# ⚓ Návody.Digital_the_Global_Portal_of_the
Slovenian_Administration⠀⇛
Licensed on GitHub under the EUPL-1.2
the portal Návody.Digital covers most
life situations in Slovenia: health
(and COVID-19), family, construction,
taxation, employment, residence,
wedding, mobility etc.
The aim of the Slovenian eGovernment
portal is to deliver electronic
government services to all, at no or
small legal cost, through comprehensive
menu-driven selection, based on the
various real life situations.
# § Public Services/Government⠀➾
# ⚓ German_Town_Dortmund_Will_Use_Open-Source_Software
Wherever_Possible⠀⇛
We have witnessed many German cities (like
Munich) switching back and forth between
open-source software and proprietary
solutions for their administrative workplace
and public offerings.
Now, it looks like another German town
“Dortmund” is going open-source and for all
good reasons.
It is interesting to note that it is the 8th
largest city of Germany as per Wikipedia.
Let’s take a brief look at what they had to
say about it.
# § Programming/Development⠀➾
# ⚓ dLeyna_updates_and_general_project_things⠀⇛
As for all the other things I do. I was
trying to write many versions of this blog
post and each one sounded like an apology,
which sounded wrong. Ever since I changed
jobs in 2018 I’m much more involved in coding
during my work-time again and that seems to
suck my “mental code reservoir” dry, meaning
I have very little motivation to spend much
time on designing and adding features,
limiting most of the work on Rygel, GUPnP and
Shotwell to the bare minimum. And I don’t
know how and when this might change.
# ⚓ Qt_for_MCUs_1.8_released⠀⇛
A new feature update of Qt for MCUs is now
available. Download version 1.8 to get access
to additional MCU platforms, more options to
limit the memory footprint, new APIs to
create advanced and scalable user interfaces,
and a solution to simplify the integration of
Qt into existing projects.
Newcomers can get a free evaluation here,
while others can run the Qt Installer to
update to the latest version.
The full list of changes included in version
1.8 can be found in the changelog in the
online documentation. Continue reading for
more information on the content of this
release.
# ⚓ GCC_10.3_Compiler_Released_With_AMD_Zen_3_Tuning
Backported,_Nearly_200_Bug_Fixes_–_Phoronix⠀⇛
GCC 10.3 is out today as the latest stable
release of the GNU Compiler Collection, weeks
ahead of the GCC 11.1 feature release as the
first stable version of GCC 11.
GCC 10.3 back-ports various fixes to the GCC
10 stable series, which was minted last year.
The brief release announcement for the GCC
10.3 compiler notes 178 bug fixes over the
GCC 10.2 release from a half-year ago.
# ⚓ LLVM_12.0_Delays_Drag_On_With_RC5_Now_Shipping_–
Phoronix⠀⇛
LLVM 12.0 was supposed to ship at the start
of March but now more than one month later
and some 6,660+ commits to LLVM 13.0 already,
LLVM 12.0 has not yet shipped but on
Wednesday 12.0.0-rc5 was issued.
Lingering bugs keep holding back the LLVM
12.0 release. The delay of more than one
month is significant in that LLVM
traditionally operates on a half-year release
cadence and this code for v12.0 was branched
all the way back towards the end of January,
thus the 6k+ commits already accumulating for
LLVM 13.0 this autumn.
# ⚓ A_swarm_in_May_is_worth_a_load_of_hay,_is_it?
JetBrains_Code_With_Me_collaborative_programming_tool
released_•_The_Register⠀⇛
JetBrains today pushed out Code With Me,
formerly in preview, a plugin to support
remote collaborative coding, as well as
updates to its Java and Ruby IDEs.
All the JetBrains IDEs are based on IDEA, a
Java IDE, but the range is extensive and
includes adaptions for Android (Java and
Kotlin), Python, JavaScript, PHP, C#, C/C++,
Ruby, and more. Google’s Android Studio is
based on the free Community Edition of IDEA.
Code With Me lets two or more developers work
in the same IDE using a remote connection.
JetBrains competes with Microsoft’s free
Visual Studio Code, as well as Visual Studio,
and the new feature is somewhat similar to
Microsoft’s Live Share, which supports
collaborative coding, debugging and audio
calls, with a web client in preparation.
# ⚓ IBM_Creates_a_COBOL_Compiler_For_Linux_On_x86⠀⇛
IBM has announced a COBOL compiler for Linux
on x86. “IBM COBOL for Linux on x86 1.1
brings IBM’s COBOL compilation technologies
and capabilities to the Linux on x86
environment,” said IBM in an announcement,
describing it as “the latest addition to the
IBM COBOL compiler family, which includes
Enterprise COBOL for z/OS and COBOL for AIX.”
# ⚓ IBM_COBOL_for_Linux_on_x86_1.1_brings_COBOL
capabilities_to_the_Linux_on_x86_environment⠀⇛
# ⚓ Short_Topix:_New_Linux_Malware_Making_The_Rounds:
Despite_Age,_COBOL_Remains_Productive,_Useful⠀⇛
Despite getting its start in 1959, the COBOL
computer language remains useful and
productive nearly 62 years later. Partly
based on Cmdr Grace Hopper’s FLOW-MATIC
language, COBOL (which stands for “common
business-oriented language) has found a home
on many mainframe computers. But, because of
its age, COBOL doesn’t attract the developers
the way it used to, back in the 60s, 70s, and
80s.
According to an article on TechRepublic,
COBOL proved its value during the COVID-19
pandemic. Originally designed to handle large
volumes of transactions and generate reports
in the business world, its 220 billion lines
of code would likely cost at least between $4
and $8 TRILLION to replace. And replace it
with what?
Most of the COBOL systems exist in the back
offices of banks, insurance companies,
brokerages, and government offices,
continually churning out massive amounts of
transactions quickly and efficiently. Many
retail giants, such as Walmart, Home Depot,
Target and many others, rely on COBOL running
on mainframes to process point of sale credit
card transactions. Replacing these massive
software systems would be risky, as well.
After 60 years, COBOL has these tasks
handled. Easily.
The COBOL language is very structured and the
machines it runs on are typically fairly easy
to maintain. COBOL’s usefulness shined
through in its use by various government
agencies, who still rely on it to process
large numbers of unemployment benefits.
During the pandemic, the numbers of those
seeking unemployment benefits exploded. So,
the need for those mainframes that process
those unemployment benefits soared right
along with the exploding demand for
unemployment benefits.
Many of the programmers trained in COBOL are
starting to reach retirement age, so the
demand for COBOL programmers is rising. The
median income for COBOL programmers is just
over $92K per year, and those with 10 years
or more of COBOL programming experience can
expect wages around $100K per year. Those are
not-too-shabby wages for knowing how to work
with a 60+ year-old programming language.
# ⚓ Run_one_specific_clang-tidy_check_on_your_entire
codebase⠀⇛
Recently I did a major refactor on a piece of
code that involved thousands of lines of code
which were in one way or another related to
string handling. All of the code handled
char* (C style character pointer arrays) and
the concept of const or ownership was
literally unknown in that part of the
codebase. The refactored code uses std::
string’s, but due to the legacy nature, a
large number of methods returned nullptr’s
instead of empty strings (like “”). I
understand why this was done, but finding all
those instances and the fact it only gives a
runtime error was a bit of a bummer.
Luckily clang-tidy is here to save the day.
In my IDE, CLion, it gives a warning when you
return a nullptr. It however does that only
in the file you’re currently editing, and
since we’re talking millions of files, I
wasn’t going to open them by hand. You can
run clang-tidy easily on one file, and it’s
not hard to run it on an entire codebase as
well, using the script run-clang-tidy.py,
provided in their packages.
# ⚓ Update_on_git.php.net_incident⠀⇛
The following is a more detailed explanation
of what happened and which actions were
taken.
When the first malicious commit was made
under Rasmus’ name, my initial reaction was
to revert the change and revoke commit access
for Rasmus’ account, on the assumption that
this was an individual account compromise. In
hindsight, this action didn’t really make
sense, because there was (at the time) no
reason to believe that the push occurred
through Rasmus’ account in particular. Any
account with access to the php-src repository
could have performed the push under a false
name.
When the second malicious commit was made
under my own name, I reviewed the logs of our
gitolite installation, in order to determine
which account was actually used to perform
the push. However, while all adjacent commits
were accounted for, no git-receive-pack
entries for the two malicious commits were
present, which means that these two commits
bypassed the gitolite infrastructure
entirely. This was interpreted as likely
evidence of a server compromise.
# ⚓ PHP_project_says_security_hiccup_likely_due_to_leak
of_main_database⠀⇛
# ⚓ GNU_Guix:_Outreachy_‘guix_git_log’_internship_wrap-
up⠀⇛
Magali Lemes joined Guix in December for a
three-month internship with Outreachy. Magali
implemented a guix git log command to browse
the history of packaging changes, with
mentoring from Simon Tournier and Gábor
Boskovits. In this blog post, Magali and
Simon wrap up on what’s been accomplished.
# § Python⠀➾
# ⚓ HPy:_a_better_C_API_for_Python?⠀⇛
There are other efforts to improve the
C API, notably, Victor Stinner’s PEP
620 (“Hide implementation details from
the C API”), but those have generally
been incremental improvements, with the
intent of keeping the existing
extensions working. In some sense HPy
is similar, because it does not seek to
replace the existing API, at least
anytime soon. But the project does seek
to make sweeping changes to the API in
pursuit of its goals.
The current Python C API is closely
tied to the CPython implementation of
the language, which is part of what
makes it hard to adapt the API to other
implementations, such as PyPy. The C
API effectively embeds the reference-
counting garbage collector into the
language extensions, which means that
alternative garbage-collecting
approaches cannot be used (or only used
painfully) when trying to run those
extensions. It also holds back CPython
because it is well-nigh impossible to,
for example, remove or alter the global
interpreter lock (GIL) without changing
the API, thus requiring changes to the
extensions.
So HPy seeks to provide a more
streamlined C API that is not
intimately tied to CPython, but that
can run extensions with the same
performance as those that use the
existing API. Extensions written to use
HPy will be “much faster” on
alternatives like PyPy or Python on
GraalVM, according to the home page.
HPy also provides a way to build
“universal binaries” for extensions
that will run unmodified on various
Pythons, and a “debug mode” that is
intended to catch common mistakes made
in extensions.
[...]
In addition, HPy adds an explicit
context parameter (an HPyContext) for
each call in order to explicitly manage
the local state of the interpreter. It
is meant to allow future versions where
different threads each have their own
interpreter or a process contains
multiple interpreters (such as
different versions or implementations).
It also allows current features like
the universal binaries.
[...]
The ideas behind HPy seem sound, but it
is a sprawling project that will
require a great deal of development
effort to get far. The existing Python
C API has hampered a number of
initiatives for Python, while, of
course, that same API has contributed
greatly to the huge and growing
ecosystem around the language. In
particular, though, projects aimed at
improving the performance of Python
tend to run aground on the need to
support the API. HPy looks like a
project to keep an eye on to see how
things might change in that area down
the road.
# § Java and JS⠀➾
# ⚓ What’s_happening_in_the_Node.js_community⠀⇛
Curious about what’s going on in the
Node.js community?
Node.js 16 will be released in April
2021 and promoted to long-term support
in October 2021. We’re also rapidly
approaching the end-of-life date for
Node.js 10. After April 2021, there
will be no further patches or security
fixes made available for the Node.js 10
release line. If you haven’t already,
you should plan to upgrade to Node.js
12 or Node.js 14 as soon as possible.
See the Node.js release schedule in
Figure 1.
# ⚓ Edge_computing_optimization_with_open_source
technologies⠀⇛
Optimizing Java code using Quarkus (an
open source, Kubernetes-native Java
framework) can help reduce runtime
memory requirements by an order of
magnitude while dropping initial
startup times from seconds to
milliseconds.
Low startup times reduce infrastructure
usage by making it practical to scale
down significantly when an application
or process is idle. Longer startup
times necessitate an application or
process remaining continuously “hot,”
executing in-memory and using resources
even when idle.
# ⚓ Build_even_faster_Quarkus_applications_with
fast-jar_–_Red_Hat_Developer⠀⇛
Quarkus is already fast, but what if
you could make inner loop development
with the supersonic, subatomic Java
framework even faster? Quarkus 1.5
introduced fast-jar, a new packaging
format that supports faster startup
times. Starting in Quarkus 1.12, this
great feature became the default
packaging format for Quarkus
applications. This article introduces
you to the fast-jar format and how it
works.
* § Leftovers⠀➾
o ⚓ Shahid_Buttar_and_Dan_Kovalik_–_The_Project_Censored_Show⠀⇛
o ⚓ Thick_as_Thieves⠀⇛
In the soft light of what looks like early morning or the
fleeting minutes before sunset, a woman stumbles out of a
brick-walled, vine-covered house and struggles to find
her footing. Her friend, sitting on the front steps,
catches her and ushers her into a cab. It’s a familiar
image of female camaraderie, but in Jacques Rivette’s
Céline and Julie Go Boating, from 1974, familiar feelings
emerge from otherworldly contexts.
The stumbling woman is Céline (Juliet Berto); her friend,
Julie (Dominique Labourier). This moment comes at the
halfway mark of the sprawling 193-minute film, where, in
the previous scenes, we’ve followed the daily lives of
these Parisian women: Céline, a magician, and Julie, a
librarian, meet, move in together, and frolic around the
city and fool men. But then suddenly, their story is
interrupted, depositing them into a possibly haunted
mansion located at 7 bis, rue du Nadir-aux-Pommes, to
which the two inexplicably keep returning. Here,
cinematic hallucinations unfold, and afterward they are
spit out from the house with bloody handprints on their
bodies and a drug-like candy in their mouths, their
memories foggy, left to piece together the happenings
inside. In Proustian fashion, they ingest more of the
candy to go deeper, not just into the mysterious house
but into the corners of their shared dreams and memories.
The closer Céline and Julie become, the more they “go
boating” down their stream of collective consciousness.
(The French title, Céline et Julie vont en bateau, is a
pun; the phrase can also mean getting caught up in a
story.) We also immediately get caught up in the women’s
relationship.
o ⚓ Reaching_Out⠀⇛
Arlo Parks’s lyrics achieve what so many earnest, self-
conscious adolescents aim for when they scribble solemnly
in a journal, hoping to arrive at profundity by
documenting the familiar confusions of youth. But while
some teen diaries are heavy with self-indulgent
melodrama, Parks is a quiet writer, and her observations
tend to be plainspoken and disarming. “Let’s go to the
corner store and buy some fruit,” she sings on “Black
Dog.”
The song, from her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams, is
a sincere message to a friend battling depression. “I
would do anything to get you out your room / Just take
your medicine and eat some food.” Her work has a private
tenderness to it, as if it weren’t meant for our ears.
o ⚓ Protest_Song_Of_The_Week:_‘I_Pity_The_Country’_By_Leanne
Betasamosake_Simpson⠀⇛
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is an acclaimed novelist,
poet, scholar, and singer. She is also a member of the
Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg people, native to southern
Ontario, Canada. She recently released her stunning new
album “Theory Of Ice.”
One of the issues heavily dealt with on the album is
climate change. For example, the opening track “Break Up”
poignantly declares, “There is euphotic rising and
falling / Orbits of dispossession and reattachment /
Achieving maximum density: 39 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Another example is the tragically gorgeous “Failure Of
Melting,” where she sings, “The caribou sit measuring
emptiness/The fish study giving up.”
o ⚓ Lianne_La_Havas:_Tiny_Desk_(Home)_Concert⠀⇛
o ⚓ Make_Digital_Preservation_Easier⠀⇛
But on the other hand, as digital preservationist David
Rosenthal has pointed out, in the grand scheme,
preservation is not really all that expensive. The
Internet Archive has a budget—soup to nuts—of around $20
million or less per year, around half of which goes to
pay for the salaries of the staff. And while they don’t
get all of it (in part because they can’t!), they cover a
significant portion of the entire internet, literally
millions of websites. They have a fairly complex
infrastructure, with some of its 750 servers online for
as long as nine years and petabyte capacity in the
hundreds, but given that they are trying to store decades
worth of digitized content—including entire websites that
were long-ago forgotten—it’s pretty impressive!
So the case that it costs too much to continue to simply
publicly host a site that contains years of historically
relevant user-generated content is bunk to me. It feels
like a way of saying “we don’t want to shoulder the
maintenance costs of this old machine,” as if content
generated by users can be upgraded in the same way as a
decade-old computer.
o § Science⠀➾
# ⚓ Journals_fail_to_take_action_over_‘fatally_flawed’
experiments⠀⇛
In a paper in Scientometrics, researchers from
Australia and France explain how they contacted 13
separate journals to report concerns over 31
published articles on genetics, all of which had
relied on a control reagent from the same supplier
that had been wrongly identified.
According to the paper’s authors, the inadvertent
use of the wrong chemical substance would “almost
certainly invalidate any experiment that uses such
reagents”, with the faulty results likely to be
“incorporated into future studies, potentially
leading to failed experiments”.
While the identified error was deemed serious
enough for 14 of the 31 papers to be retracted,
author corrections were sufficient for seven of the
papers while five papers were made subject to
expressions of concern. However, for six of the
papers, it was stated no action should be taken.
o § Education⠀➾
# ⚓ The_Future_of_Australian_Universities⠀⇛
His sombre words were recorded in The Age: “If we
are serious about tackling climate change with
technology, if we are serious about preventing more
pandemics, then research and the study of science
of technology need to be right up there as a
national priority and properly funded.” Australia
risked “becoming the bogans of the Pacific.”
A touch harsh, perhaps, given that “bogan” is a
word defined in the Australian National Dictionary
as “an uncultured and unsophisticated person”,
“boorish” and “uncouth”. But both meaning and
consequence are clear enough. Australian teaching
and research institutions are being ravaged by the
razor ready commissars of administration who cite
one alibi for their hazardous conduct: the
pandemic. Little time is spent on focusing on why
the Australian university sector, bloated as it is,
began to cannibalise funding and focus on single
markets, such as that of China, sacrificing, along
the way, standards.
o § Health/Nutrition⠀➾
# ⚓ ‘We_Must_Do_More’:_Hundreds_of_Advocacy_Groups_Urge_Biden,
G20,_and_IMF_to_Increase_Pandemic_Aid⠀⇛
“Unless we take immediate action to solidify more
aid and relief, we face lost decades of development
and millions more will suffer.”
As international financial institutions convene
virtually to discuss the world’s response to the
ongoing coronavirus pandemic, 260 faith, labor, and
development groups on Wednesday sent letters to
U.S. President Joe Biden and the heads of the
International Monetary Fund and G20 urging them to
provide more aid to developing nations and enact
policies to avert future crises and protect the
environment.
# ⚓ G20_Nations_Slammed_for_Calling_Covid_Vaccines_a_‘Public
Good’_While_Denying_Them_to_the_World⠀⇛
“They should have taken this moment to commit to
putting the health of people across the world ahead
of Big Pharma’s profits.”
Progressive campaigners on Wednesday denounced G20
nations for offering lip service to the importance
of treating coronavirus vaccines as a “global
public good” while simultaneously blocking an
effort to lift restrictive patent protections and
share vaccine recipes with the developing world.
# ⚓ The_Broken_Front_Line⠀⇛
It was 4:32 p.m. and Mike Diaz was almost halfway
through another punishing 24-hour shift when the
call came over the ambulance radio. Nine miles
away, a man had lost consciousness. “We’re en route
from Palmdale Regional,” Diaz told the dispatcher,
pushing away the thought of grabbing some food, as
he flicked on the lights and sirens and sped off
into the suburban maze of the Antelope Valley. He
had worked as an emergency medical technician here
in the northernmost part of Los Angeles County for
over a decade, but he still experienced the same
thrum of adrenaline on urgent calls. Lately,
however, on January afternoons like this one, his
excitement was overpowered by a sense of futility
and dread.
A few minutes after the dispatcher’s call, Diaz
backed the ambulance into the driveway of a single-
story house with a white picket fence. He and his
partner, Alexandra Sanchez, followed a paramedic
from the fire department into a dim living room,
where an old man was stretched out on a cot,
grimacing in pain. As Diaz crouched to check the
man’s vitals, a middle-aged woman said that she had
first noticed her father, who was 88, becoming less
coherent around a week ago. The man was more
confused than usual, and contractures had stiffened
his thin legs into tent poles. Their primary care
doctor wasn’t picking up the phone. Still, the
family held off on dialing 911 because they feared
that sending him to the hospital would expose him
to the coronavirus. Only now that his condition had
worsened had they decided to make the call.
# ⚓ EU_Regulator_Endorses_AstraZeneca_Covid-19_Vaccine_While
Warning_of_‘Possible’_Blood_Clot_Risk⠀⇛
The European Medicines Agency assessment came the
same day as the U.K. restricted use of the vaccine
to people over age 30.
The European Union’s pharmaceutical regulatory
agency on Wednesday endorsed continued use of the
Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for all
adults, even while confirming a “possible link” to
blood clots that, while “very rare,” have killed a
small number of people.
# ⚓ Jailed_ex-governor_Sergey_Furgal_tests_positive_for_COVID-
19⠀⇛
The Khabarovsk territory’s jailed former governor,
Sergey Furgal, has been hospitalized in the medical
unit of Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina remand prison
after testing positive for COVID-19, RIA Novosti
reported on Wednesday, April 7.
# ⚓ Kenya_Lashes_Out_at_UK_Over_‘Discriminatory’_Travel_Ban_and
‘Vaccine_Apartheid’⠀⇛
“This vaccine apartheid, coupled with the reckless
calls for vaccine passports while not making the
vaccines available to all nations, widens existing
inequalities and makes it near impossible for the
world to win the war against the pandemic,” the
ministry said.
Kenya has sharply criticized the United Kingdom for
eschewing “solidarity and collaborative
partnership” in the fight against the global Covid-
19 pandemic by instituting a “discriminatory”
travel ban and accused the nation of carrying out
“vaccine apartheid.”
# ⚓ Opinion_|_Six_Months_to_Prevent_a_Hostile_Takeover_of_Food
Systems,_and_25_Years_to_Transform_Them⠀⇛
A misguided technological revolution is about to
sweep through food systems, but civil society and
social movements can stop it in its tracks.
Imagine a world where algorithms are used to
optimize growing conditions on every fertile square
metre of land. Where whole ecosystems are re-
engineered. Where drones and surveillance systems
manage the farm. Where farmers are forced off the
land into e-commerce villages .
# ⚓ Bolsonaro_a_‘Threat_to_the_Planet,’_Says_Lula_as_Brazil’s
Daily_Covid_Death_Toll_Hits_All-Time_High⠀⇛
“Unfortunately, our country is today considered a
global threat, due to the uncontrolled circulation
of the virus and the emergence of new mutations.”
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva on Wednesday called far-right President Jair
Bolsonaro a grave “threat to the planet” after the
nation’s daily Covid-19 death toll topped 4,000 for
the first time since the pandemic began last year,
a sign that the public health crisis is worsening
as Bolsonaro continues to downplay the virus and
undercut potential solutions.
# ⚓ Another_Win_for_Health_Insurers,_a_Big_Loss_for_this
Patient⠀⇛
My OCD has cost me jobs and threatened my marriage
and contributed to my divorce.
When I heard about a relatively new therapy for
treatment-resistant OCD patients called
transmagnetic stimulation (TMS), I was excited. The
treatment sounded promising. For the first time in
decades there was hope that my days of suffering
might soon be over. I am 57. Perhaps I could live
my last ten or twenty years free from this terrible
disorder.
# ⚓ Welcome_From_The_Chief_Editor⠀⇛
Besides limited availability of the vaccines, the
other driving force in the slow vaccination rates
is people’s hesitancy to get the vaccine. That
hesitancy is rooted in a number of fallacies making
the rounds, such as “it was developed too fast,
with not enough testing,” that it “alters our
cellular DNA,” and that it “contains microchips to
track people,” among others.
# ⚓ With_COVID_Cases_Soaring_in_France,_Macron_can_No_Longer_be
in_Denial⠀⇛
The president may no longer be in denial, but the
situation in some parts of France appears to be
very much out of control. Daily Covid cases have
reached 59,000 compared with the UK’s 4,000, and
hospitals are straining under the pressure; some
doctors worry that they may soon need to start
prioritising those who will have the greatest
chance of successful treatment.
The issue of intensive care bed capacity has been a
thorn in Macron’s side for the past year. In March
2020, the health minister promised to increase the
number of beds to 14,000. One year later, doctors
and nurses are accusing the government of having
largely broken its pledge. Most of these beds
never materialised, and France’s hospitals appear
unable to cope with the challenges of the
pandemic.
o § Integrity/Availability⠀➾
# § Proprietary⠀➾
# ⚓ EU_investigating_‘IT_security_incident’_involving
multiple_agencies⠀⇛
Cybersecurity experts at the European Union
are investigating an “IT security incident”
involving multiple institutions, though “no
major information breach” has been detected,
EU officials said Tuesday.
The scope and nature of the incident were not
immediately clear, but a spokesperson for the
European Commission, the EU’s executive
branch, said the commission had set up a “24/
7 monitoring service” in response to the
incident.
# § Security⠀➾
# ⚓ Concerns_emerge_about_Facebook’s_disclosure_of
user_data_breach⠀⇛
New concerns have emerged about whether
Facebook Inc. properly disclosed a data
breach through which about 553 million
of its users’ personal information
ended up on hacker forums.
The breach started making headlines
after Business Insider reported it over
the weekend. In a Tuesday blog post
responding to the Business Insider
report, Facebook stated that the
“methods used to obtain this data set
were previously reported in 2019.”
However, a story published by Wired
later on Tuesday raises the possibility
that users and regulators may in fact
not have been properly informed about
the incident in 2019.
# ⚓ Facebook_isn’t_planning_to_tell_you_if_you’re
one_of_the_533_million_people_whose_data_leaked⠀⇛
Facebook is responding to the recent
news that data from 533 million
accounts leaked online for free, but
perhaps not in the way users might have
hoped: the company doesn’t plan to
notify the users whose data was exposed
online, a Facebook spokesperson told
Reuters.
In the dataset, there’s apparently a
lot of information that you might not
want floating around the internet —
including birthdays, locations, full
names, and phone numbers — so it’s
disappointing to hear that Facebook
doesn’t plan to notify users that might
be affected. The company cited two
reasons to Reuters as to why it’s not
telling users proactively: it says it’s
not confident it would know which users
would need to be notified, and that
users wouldn’t be able to do anything
about the data being online.
# ⚓ Facebook_does_not_plan_to_notify_half-billion
users_affected_by_data_leak⠀⇛
Facebook Inc did not notify the more
than 530 million users whose details
were obtained through the misuse of a
feature before 2019 and recently made
public in a database, and does not
currently have plans to do so, a
company spokesman said on Wednesday.
Business Insider reported last week
that phone numbers and other details
from user profiles were available in a
public database. Facebook said in a
blog post on Tuesday that “malicious
actors” had obtained the data prior to
September 2019 by “scraping” profiles
using a vulnerability in the platform’s
tool for synching contacts.
# ⚓ Goodbye_LastPass,_Hello_BitWarden!⠀⇛
Well … that didn’t take long! To
explain what I mean, we’ll have to dive
head first into some fairly recent
history.
Back in 2003, a company was created. It
called itself LogMeIn. Over the years,
it created such familiar cloud-based
programs such as GoToMeeting,
GoToConnect, GoToMyPC, Rescue, and of
course, the namesake LogMeIn.
In 2006, Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) was
created as a bookmark synchronizer for
Firefox users. It later expanded to
help manage the many unique passwords
users were supposed to be creating when
logging into websites.
In 2010, LastPass purchased Xmarks.
LastPass and Xmarks ran concurrently,
until Xmarks was shut down on May 1,
2018. Then, in 2015, LogMeIn, Inc.
purchased LastPass for $110 million
(U.S.), and added it to their software
offerings.
Fast forward to December 2019, when two
private investment capital firms teamed
up to purchase LogMeIn for a reported
$4.3 billion (U.S.). The sale was
finalized in August 2020. The latest
figures put LogMeIn’s annual revenues
around $1.3 billion (U.S.) per year,
has around 3,500 employees, and
approximately 200 million users across
the globe.
[...]
Without a doubt, LastPass users are up
in arms over the decision to extract
money from them for something that they
have enjoyed for free over the years,
and rightfully so. But, in the process,
they have found an alternative that is
cheaper and does everything that
LastPass does. That alternative,
BitWarden, is also an open source
solution. Around these parts, we like
to support open source projects.
I wonder how many of those 200 million
users that the two investment firms are
salivating over remain with LastPass
after everything is said and done.
LastPass users are fleeing in droves to
BitWarden. That $4.3 billion investment
may not have been all that good of an
investment, after all. If you have no
users, it’s a bit difficult to recoup
your investment.
# ⚓ Security_updates_for_Thursday⠀⇛
Security updates have been issued by
Fedora (chromium, libldb, rpm, samba,
and seamonkey), openSUSE (isync),
Oracle (kernel), Red Hat (openssl and
squid), SUSE (ceph, flatpak, libostree,
xdg-desktop-portal, xdg-desktop-portal-
gtk, fwupd, fwupdate, and openexr), and
Ubuntu (curl, linux-lts-trusty, and
lxml).
# ⚓ Microsoft’s_Windows_10,_Exchange,_and_Teams
hacked_at_Pwn2Own⠀⇛
# ⚓ Windows_10_hacked_again_at_Pwn2Own,_Chrome_and
Zoom_also_fall⠀⇛
# ⚓ eBook:_Six_best_practices_for_effective_Linux
security_management⠀⇛
Securing endpoints can an overwhelming
routine for system administrators,
especially when they’re remote.
Considering much of the world is now
working remotely and may continue to do
so in the future, the demand for
security has increased exponentially.
Though Windows and Mac devices are
popular targets for cyber criminals,
Linux devices can fall victim as well;
Linux-targeted malware can easily
affect your critical devices. In some
instances, Linux systems have been
compromised and configured to
distribute malware.
# ⚓ New_Windows_ransomware_Cring_attacks_Fortigate
VPN_servers⠀⇛
A relatively new strain of Windows
ransomware known as Cring has been
noticed attacking Fortigate VPN servers
using a vulnerability which has the
reference CVE-2018-13379.
Vyacheslav Kopeytsev, a senior security
researcher at global security firm
Kaspersky’s Industrial Control Systems
Computer Emergency Response Team, said
in a blog post that threat actors had
conducted attacks using Cring in the
first quarter of this year, but at that
stage it was unclear as to what the
infection vector was.
# § Privacy/Surveillance⠀➾
# ⚓ Documents_Show_Hundreds_Of_Cops_Have_Run
Clearview_Searches,_Often_Without_Their
Employers’_Knowledge_Or_Permission⠀⇛
An impressive trove of public
records obtained by BuzzFeed
shows just how pervasive facial
recognition tech is. Law
enforcement agencies are
embracing the tech, often with a
minimum of accountability or
oversight. That’s how toxic tech
purveyors like Clearview — whose
software relies on a multi-
billion image database scraped
from the web — get their foot in
the door to secure government
contracts.
# ⚓ Cryptowars_and_migration:_Great_Britain
continues_to_influence_EU_policy⠀⇛
The British exit from the
European Union strengthens
cooperation in informal circles.
One of these questionable
alliances is now launching
measures to decrypt secure
communications. This also
involves the US government.
# ⚓ How_a_30-year-old_technology_–_WiFi_–
will_turn_into_our_next_big_privacy
problem⠀⇛
Since then, WiFi has become an
increasingly important part of
modern life, with hotels,
restaurants and many other venues
providing it for free as an
expected part of their services.
Over the years, the technology
has improved, mostly in terms of
speed and range. But there is a
new iteration of the WiFi
standard being developed that
will have massive implications
for privacy and surveillance. It
goes by the unmemorable name of
802.11bf. Here’s how the IEEE,
the organization that is drawing
up the new standard, describes
it:
# ⚓ YouTube_user_growth_outpaces_social_media
rivals:_poll⠀⇛
YouTube’s popularity since 2019
has increased more than other
social media sites, according to
a new Pew Research Center poll.
Eighty-one percent of respondents
said they use the Google-owned
video-sharing site, up from the
73 percent who said the same in
2019.
# ⚓ Buy_a_phone,_get_a_tracker:_unauthorized
tracking_code_illegally_installed_on
Android_phones⠀⇛
As reported by the Financial
Times, noyb launched further
action against Google’s AAID
(Android Advertising Identifier),
following similar complaints
against Apple’s IDFA. The
somewhat hidden ID allows Google
and all apps on the phone to
track a user and combine
information about online and
mobile behaviour. While these
trackers clearly require the
users’ consent (as known from
“cookie banners”), Google
neglects this legal requirement.
noyb therefore filed a complaint
against Google’s tracking code
AAID.
# ⚓ The_uninvited_Internet_of_things⠀⇛
The abuses associated with
“smart” televisions are well
understood. They phone home to
report on one’s viewing habits.
They have cameras and microphones
to record the environment and
send that data back home as well.
[...]
By putting a cellular modem and
SIM directly in a device, the
problem of it never coming online
can be solved; it will be able to
report home whether the “owner”
wants it to or not. The vendor
will retain control and will be
able to, for example, disable the
device at will. People who
purchase such devices and bring
them into their homes will not be
able to control that
connectivity; indeed, they may
not ever even know that it
exists.
This problem can already be seen
in the area of automobiles, many
of which have had their own
cellular connectivity for some
time. Tesla famously uses that
link to track its cars, push
software updates, and remotely
disable features when cars are
resold. Location data from many
car brands is continuously fed
upstream where it is put to any
number of undisclosed uses,
including being sold to military
organizations. Some vendors give
owners some control over this
data stream; others explicitly do
not.
Can there be any doubt that the
purveyors of other connected
devices will be attracted by
network connectivity that does
not require the customer’s
cooperation? The sorts of data
streams that we see from cars now
will soon be generated by
household appliances, cameras,
medical implants, lawn mowers,
sex toys, water faucets, articles
of clothing, and many other
things that product designers are
surely thinking of right now.
These streams will not flow over
networks we control; short of
living in a Faraday cage, there
will be little we can do about
them. We have not begun to see
the kinds of spectacular security
issues, including surveillance,
stalking, fraud, and repression,
that will result.
# ⚓ Beware!_A_New_Tracker_You_Might_Not_Be
Aware_Of⠀⇛
Well, the new exploit I only
recently discovered is that there
are also email trackers. These
“invaders” of your Inbox track
and report back on what you do
with an email. It reports back
that your email was read, what
links you clicked on, the browser
and OS you are running, when and
how often an email is read, how
long you have the email open,
your IP address, if you
downloaded anything connected
with the email, and on and on and
on. In their simplest form, email
trackers allow senders to know
when a recipient has received
and/or read an email. I truly
never knew this was a “thing”
until recently.
Email trackers used to be the
playground for the marketing
guys. But, increasingly, ordinary
users are also using them to tell
when a recipient has received
and/or read an email. And you
will definitely be surprised by
the very high percentage of
emails you receive that have a
tracker embedded in them. In my
case, over 90% of the emails I
receive have embedded trackers.
The trackers were so prevalent
that I was more shocked by some
of the ones that did not have
trackers embedded in them, to be
perfectly honest.
[...]
Users could take the most
draconian measure, and just tell
the email program to NOT
automatically download external
images. In fact, that is the
default setting in Thunderbird,
and should still be set that way,
unless you changed it at some
point. If you did change it so
that external images can be
downloaded, it’s a trivial task
to change it back.
Preventing the downloading of the
invisible/transparent 1×1 image
in the first place is the best
protection. If you use a web
based email solution, such as
Gmail, you can turn off the
automatic downloading of external
images. Yes, it will make your
email look a LOT more boring, but
then you also won’t have to worry
about the email trackers. They
were never downloaded to start
with.
[...]
It’s your data, and no one is
going to protect it for you.
Instead, “they” are going to try
to mine, steal and thieve all the
data you allow “them” to steal.
While many who insert trackers
into emails feel that they have a
“right” to harvest the data
provided, it does not supersede
your rights to privacy. When so
much personal data is harvested
from your actions with your
emails, it can only invade your
privacy.
This never has been and never is
about whether you have anything
to hide. “They” have no more
rights to YOUR data than some
stranger has coming into your
home and taking a bath.
It’s your data. It’s YOUR
responsibility to do whatever you
deem necessary to protect it.
o § Defence/Aggression⠀➾
# ⚓ Do_Prisons_Keep_Us_Safe?_Author_Victoria_Law_Busts_Myths
About_Mass_Incarceration_in_New_Book⠀⇛
As the first anniversary of the police killing of
George Floyd approaches, we speak with author and
journalist Victoria Law, who says despite the mass
movement to fight systemic racism sparked by
Floyd’s death, persistent myths about policing,
incarceration and the criminal justice system still
hinder reform. “Why do we think prisons keep us
safe? Obviously, Derek Chauvin wasn’t afraid of
being arrested or imprisoned when he killed George
Floyd,” says Law, who examines these issues in her
new book, “’Prisons Make Us Safer’: And 20 Other
Myths About Mass Incarceration.”
# ⚓ Warnings_of_Attempt_to_‘Sabotage’_Diplomacy_as_Israel
Reportedly_Attacks_Iranian_Ship⠀⇛
“Israel appears to be stepping up attacks on Iran
to undermine diplomacy.”
This is a developing story… Check back for possible
updates…
# ⚓ Dozens_of_House_Dems_and_Progressive_Groups_Push_Biden_to
Curb_Militarization_of_Police⠀⇛
“It is absurd that the Pentagon has so much funding
they can send their ‘excess’ weaponry to police
departments around the country. We need to
demilitarize our police and defund the Pentagon
now.”
Backed by more than 50 progressive advocacy groups,
dozens of House Democrats are urging President Joe
Biden to issue an executive order to prevent the
transfer of military-grade weaponry from the
Pentagon to federal, tribal, state, and local
police departments.
# ⚓ The_US_Military_Is_an_Extremism_Incubator⠀⇛
It was around noon and I was texting a friend about
who-knows-what when I added, almost as an
afterthought: “tho they seem to be invading the
Capitol at the mo.” I wasn’t faintly as blasé as
that may sound on January 6, especially when it
became ever clearer who “they” were and what they
were doing. Five people would die due to that
assault on the Capitol, including a police officer,
and two more would commit suicide in the wake of
the event. One hundred forty police would be
wounded (lost eye, heart attack, cracked ribs,
smashed spinal disks, concussions), and the
collateral damage would be hard even to tote up.
I’m not particularly sentimental about anyone-can-
grow-up-to-be-president and all that—in 2017,
anyone did—but damn! This was democracy under
actual, not rhetorical, attack.
# ⚓ ‘Yemen_Is_Being_Starved’:_70+_Democrats_Urge_Biden_to
Demand_End_to_Saudi-Led_Blockade⠀⇛
“Every day that we wait for these issues to be
resolved in negotiations is another day that pushes
more children to the brink of death.”
Nearly 80 House Democrats on Tuesday urged
President Joe Biden to exert public pressure on
Saudi Arabia to immediately lift its blockade that
has been strangling Yemen for years, depriving the
nation of food and medicine and exacerbating the
world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
# ⚓ Opinion_|_No,_Biden_Is_Not_Pushing_the_Saudis_Hard_Enough
to_End_Yemen_Blockade⠀⇛
The Biden administration has multiple avenues of
leverage over Riyadh that can be used to press for
an unconditional lifting of the blockade. It must
use them.
Amidst growing reports of the devastation caused by
the Saudi blockade of Yemen, a letter from a
coalition of over 70 groups* representing tens of
millions of people is calling on the Biden
administration to do everything in its power to
press Riyadh to bring that blockade to an end and
open the way to distribution of fuel, food, and
medical supplies to all parts of the country.
# ⚓ Questions_about_BBC_producer’s_ties_to_UK_intelligence
follow_‘Mayday’_White_Helmets_whitewash⠀⇛
# ⚓ Stop_Using_Our_Tax_Dollars_for_Human_Rights_Abuses:_Pass
the_Philippines_Human_Right_Act⠀⇛
Under Duterte, over 30,000 Filipinos have been
killed by their government. The killings began as a
so-called “War on Drugs,” targeting poor drug users
and drug dealers. Under the nebulous provisions of
the Anti-Terror Law, the Armed Forces of the
Philippines and the Philippines National Police are
now targeting social activists, accusing (red-
tagging) them of being Communists and terrorists.
Indigenous people, human rights workers, peasant
and labor organizers, environmental activists,
journalists, health workers, local elected
officials, and clergy have been red-tagged,
imprisoned, and extrajudicially killed.
The Duterte government has used COVID-19 lockdown
measures to further militarize the country and
repress labor and people’s organizations. His
police and military have arrested individuals
delivering relief and food to those in need,
further increasing the number of political
prisoners in the country. This militarist approach
has worsened the Philippine public health situation
while miserably failing to provide a comprehensive
health response and adequate economic support to
the suffering people amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
# ⚓ Court_documents_shed_new_light_on_coordination_between
Trump_White_House_and_fascist_militias_in_January_6_coup
attempt⠀⇛
The release of superseding indictments within the
last two weeks points to coordinated planning
between far-right militias and the Trump White
House in the January 6 assault on the US Capitol.
In a new indictment released last Thursday, US
prosecutors allege that previously charged Oath
Keepers militia members and a leader of the group,
Stewart Rhodes, exchanged 19 phone calls over a
nearly five-hour period during the January 6
attack. The phone calls indicate that Rhodes, who
was on Capitol grounds during the siege, but did
not enter, was directing Oath Keepers to breach the
Capitol in coordination with still unnamed persons.
# ⚓ Indoctrinated_in_Hate:_‘This_Is_the_Start_of_the_New
Caliphate’⠀⇛
Hate-filled indoctrination and training in violence
is not limited to the “schools” of ISIS or Boko
Haram. Public schools all around the Muslim world
share elements of this indoctrination. Most
recently, a March 2021 study exposed how the school
curriculum of Turkey — for decades one of the
Muslim world’s most secular nations — is also
increasingly full of jihadi propaganda.
“The Turkish curriculum has been significantly
radicalized in recent years. Jihad war is
introduced as a central value; martyrdom in battle
is glorified…. Concepts such as “Turkish World
Domination” … are emphasized. The curriculum adopts
an anti-American stance and displays sympathy
toward the motivations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda….
Christians and Jews are characterized as infidels
instead of People of the Book…. The curriculum
demonizes Zionism and verges on anti-Semitic…” —
“The Erdoğan Revolution in the Turkish Curriculum
Textbooks,” IMPACT-se, March 2021.
# ⚓ The_Left’s_Refusal_To_Condemn_The_Nation_Of_Islam_As_A_Hate
Group⠀⇛
The NOI’s Islamic teachings of innate black
superiority over whites — something ironic since
Arab Muslims justify the ongoing enslavement of
Africans — to say nothing of its fundamentally
racist and antisemitic rhetoric of its leaders,
including top minister Louis Farrakhan, have earned
the NOI a prominent position in the ranks of
organized hate by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Farrakhan’s statements in favor of violence are
numerous. He once said: [...]
# ⚓ Five_ISIS_terrorists_arrested_from_mosque_for_distributing
hate_material_among_people:_Officials⠀⇛
Five terrorists belonging to the banned Islamic
State outfit were arrested from a mosque in
Pakistan’s Punjab province where they were
distributing hate material among people and
collecting funds from them, officials said on
Tuesday.
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab
Police said that it received credible information
that the members of ‘Daesh’ (the ISIS) were present
near Bhatta Chowk in Lahore’s Defence Housing
Authority (DHA).
o § Environment⠀➾
# ⚓ ‘Ecocide’_movement_pushes_for_a_new_international_crime:
Environmental_destruction⠀⇛
Now, a small but growing number of world leaders
including Pope Francis and French President
Emmanuel Macron have begun citing an offense they
say poses a similar threat to humanity and remains
beyond the reach of international criminal law:
ecocide, or widespread destruction of the
environment.
# ⚓ ‘Wall_Street_Is_a_Primary_Villain’_in_Climate_Crisis,
Analysis_Shows⠀⇛
DeSmog’s investigation found that at least 65% of
directors from 39 global banks had 940 connections
to “climate-conflicted” industries.
“The boardrooms of the world’s largest banks are
polluted to the core… How are we ever meant to stop
the climate crisis if the world’s most powerful
decision-makers are in bed with the companies
behind the wheel!?”
# ⚓ Revealed:_The_Climate-Conflicted_Directors_Leading_the
World’s_Top_Banks_–_DeSmog⠀⇛
# ⚓ Coalition_Calls_for_‘Building_a_Fairer,_Healthier_World’
Through_Climate_Action⠀⇛
“The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that health
must be part and parcel of every government
policy—and as recovery plans are drawn up this must
apply to climate policy.”
Faced with “a world in disarray,” from over 2.87
million global Covid-19 cases and 556,500 deaths to
rising atmospheric carbon and inadequate emissions
reduction plans, an international coalition on
Wednesday urged world leaders to learn from the
coronavirus pandemic and “make health a central
focus of national climate policies.”
# ⚓ Opinion_|_5_Ways_Liberty_Mutual_is_Threatening_Communities
and_Our_Climate⠀⇛
We’re ramping up the campaign demanding this
insurance giant cut ties with destructive fossil
fuel companies.
Every new dirty energy project needs insurance.
With Liberty Mutual’s support, fossil fuel
companies are digging new coal mines, building tar
sands pipelines, and expanding oil and gas drilling
in some of the most sensitive ecosystems in the
world, often without the consent of impacted
communities.
# ⚓ City_motorists_in_UK_buy_most_off-road_cars⠀⇛
Most UK buyers of off-road cars designed for rural
use are urban motorists, worsening city congestion
and air pollution.
# ⚓ The_Climate_Elephant_in_the_Atmosphere_(and_in_the_Room)⠀⇛
The Sun bathes the Earth with life-giving light
and energy. In addition, in the past billions of
years, these solar blessings have been giving rise
to temperature, winds, storms, oceans, seas,
rivers, lakes, drinking water, forests, deserts,
animals, plants and flowers.
We also use weather to understand the phenomena of
rain, cold, hot and other changes in the atmosphere
(sphere of steam). NASA defines weather and
climate in terms of time: “Weather is what
conditions of the atmosphere are over a short
period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere
“behaves” over relatively long periods of time.”
# ⚓ The_Life_and_Death_of_a_Pioneering_Environmental_Justice
Lawyer_–_DeSmog⠀⇛
# § Energy⠀➾
# ⚓ ‘The_People_Have_Spoken’:_Left-Wing,_Indigenous-Led
Party_Vows_to_Stop_Greenland_Uranium_Mining_Project
After_Historic_Win⠀⇛
“Greenlanders are sending a strong message
that for them it’s not worth sacrificing the
environment to achieve independence and
economic development.”
Members of the left-wing and Indigenous-led
Inuit Ataqatigiit (AI) party in Greenland
celebrated late Tuesday after winning a
majority of parliamentary seats in national
elections and vowed to use their new power to
block controversial rare-earth mining
projects in the country.
# ⚓ L.A._City_Council_Unanimously_Votes_on_Resolution
Urging_Governor_Newsom_to_Shut_Down_Playa_Del_Rey_Gas
Facility⠀⇛
The Los Angeles City Council voted
unanimously in favor of a resolution seeking
a firm timeline and leadership from Governor
Gavin Newsom to shut down SoCalGas’ facility
at Playa Del Rey. Initially put forward by
Councilmember Mike Bonin, the resolution
centers equity and community voices, calling
for a just transition plan. While Gov. Newsom
has repeatedly touted the need to move away
from fossil fuels, he has yet to commit to a
firm timeline to shut down California’s
natural gas facilities.
“Los Angeles has made it clear that gas
facilities like Playa del Rey are
incompatible with community health and
safety,” said Food & Water Watch L.A.
Organizer Ethan Senser after the vote. “The
local community is united in wanting to see
gas facilities like Playa del Rey and Aliso
Canyon closed, and now is the time to roll up
our sleeves and start planning for a just
transition. The governor needs to listen to
his constituents, bring stakeholders
together, and follow the community’s
leadership in determining real solutions for
its future.”
# ⚓ Former_Employee:_Transocean_Nearly_Caused_Oil_Rig
Catastrophe_During_Hurricane_Zeta⠀⇛
The post originally was published as part of
The Dissenter Newsletter. When Hurricane Zeta
hit the Gulf of Mexico in October 2020, the
storm nearly resulted in another catastrophe
similar to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. A
lawsuit [ PDF]—one of several civil
lawsuits—was filed by Christopher Pleasant, a
former employee of Transocean and Triton
Voyager Asset Leasing assigned to the
Deepwater Asgard. He claims the corporations
delayed disconnecting from a deepwater well
until it was unsafe to “unlatch the vessel.”
The United States Bureau of Safety and
Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is supposed
to regulate offshore drilling but declined to
act. They also issued no public statements
about the incident that could have had
devastating consequences. Jeff Ruch, the
Pacific director of Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility (PEER),
urged Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to
“order an in-depth inquiry” into the
Deepwater Asgard incident. “This incident
raises serious questions as to how effective
our offshore drilling safety rules are and
whether they are adequately enforced,” Ruch
suggested. As PEER noted in their press
release, the Deepwater Asgard was drilling in
the Green Canyon area “on the Gulf of Mexico
continental slope.” On October 22, the crew
“experienced a significant kick of
hydrocarbon fluids up the well due to a
failed cement job, similar to Deepwater
Horizon’s Macondo well.” The lawsuit was
filed under maritime law and the Jones Act,
which is supposed to offer crew members like
him protection. Hurricane Zeta hit the Gulf
of Mexico on October 28. The day before
Transocean and Beacon Offshore Energy
allegedly instructed the crew to “stay
latched and continue operations.” “Plaintiff,
along with other crew members on board,
strongly disagreed with the decision to stay
latched but had no other options but to obey
orders,” the lawsuit claims. In the morning
on October 28, the captain of the Deepwater
Asgard ordered the crew to unlatch the vessel
“with no destination in mind.” But the former
Transocean employee maintains the current was
too fast and it was impossible to control the
vessel. “The vessel lost an engine and began
taking on water in two of the thrusters.
Engineers aboard the vessel had to rig tarps
to stop the water from reaching the remaining
thrusters so the captain could control the
vessel.” Tension rods were allegedly not
operating properly because the corporations
refused to stop production in May 2020,
despite the fact that inspections in 2019
determined replacements were needed. Eleven
people were killed in the Deepwater Horizon
disaster. It is estimated over 3 million
barrels of oil gushed into the Gulf of
Mexico. Recalling this tragedy, Pleasant
alleges the corporations failed to inspect,
monitor, and repair equipment; failed to
maintain a safe work environment; failed to
provide an adequate crew; failed to maintain
the vessel; and failed to maintain safe
mechanisms for work and life on the vessel.
He contends Transocean, Triton, and Beacon
issued orders that “directly placed the crew
of the Deepwater Asgard in extreme danger.”
This gross negligence allegedly had such a
physical and severe mental impact on
Pleasant. He is no longer able to engage in
any work offshore. PEER requested that the
inspector general’s office for the Interior
Department investigate. A complaint [ PDF]
the group submitted to the IG states, “There
was significant damage to ship and drilling
components, and extreme risk to the crew and
to the [Gulf of Mexico] marine ecosystem from
a potential wellhead blowout.” The agency
responsible for so-called offshore drilling
safety “has not been transparent with the
American public about this incident.”
# ⚓ Greenpeace_Says_Biden_Tax_Plan_for_Fossil_Fuel
Subsidies_‘Simply_Not_Good_Enough’⠀⇛
“Not a dime of our tax dollars should go
towards corporations that poison our
communities and wreck our climate.”
Greenpeace USA responded critically on
Wednesday after the U.S. Department of the
Treasury released a new report offering more
details about President Joe Biden’s Made in
America tax plan—part of the $2 trillion jobs
and infrastructure proposal that the
president unveiled last week.
# § Wildlife/Nature⠀➾
# ⚓ Species_Snapshot:_The_Asian_Small-Clawed_Otter_—_A
Victim_of_the_Pet_Trade⠀⇛
# ⚓ A_Welcome_Change!_Forest_Service_Halts_Trump_Plan_to
Burn_Down_the_Targhee_National_Forest⠀⇛
The Targhee Prescribed Fire project was
stuffed through in the closing days of the
Trump administration and would undoubtedly
have been ruled illegal since the agency
attempted to use a Categorical Exclusion to
avoid environmental analysis on the project,
which would have burned a million acres of
the Targhee portion of the Caribou-Targhee
National Forest. It is indicative of the
total disregard for the law that Trump and
his political appointees would even propose a
project that included recommended wilderness,
the Palisades Wilderness Study Area, and
Inventoried Roadless Areas on the western
side of Yellowstone National Park.
To put it in perspective, one million acres
is 1,562.5 square miles, nearly the size of
the entire Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex –
which is the fifth largest in the Lower 48
states. That’s a million acres of carbon-
absorbing forests with functioning ecosystems
that are home to grizzly bears, lynx, and
wolverines and which the Trump administration
wanted to destroy.
o § Finance⠀➾
# ⚓ Beyond_Bridges_and_Roads,_Bowman_Makes_Case_for_‘Care
Infrastructure’⠀⇛
“What we need to understand better as a nation is
that our infrastructure does not just look like
steel, concrete, and transport—it is also the
nurturing, patience, and diligence of care
workers.”
In response to the GOP’s misleading accusations
that only a small portion of President Joe Biden’s
overwhelmingly popular American Jobs Plan is
devoted to “real infrastructure,” Rep. Jamaal
Bowman argued Tuesday that the United States would
benefit from adopting a more expansive
understanding of infrastructure—one that includes
not only building roads but also expanding public
goods and investing in care workers who sustain the
country.
# ⚓ Progressive_Democrats_Face_Resistance_on_Infrastructure⠀⇛
In perhaps his most ambitious move since taking
office, President Joe Biden just unveiled the
centerpiece of his economic agenda, a
multitrillion-dollar public investment plan for
improving the nation’s neglected physical
infrastructure and confronting the climate crisis.
The first half of the proposal, called the American
Jobs Plan, includes billions for traditional
infrastructure like roads, bridges, and energy
grids, as well as funds to create new
infrastructure for electric vehicles and
incentivize wind and solar projects.
A second element of the package, which was omitted
from the jobs plan and won’t be introduced until
next month, will deal with “care infrastructure,”
and is expected to include measures to expand child
care, provide paid family leave, and extend the
child allowance, among other proposals. Overall,
it’s the most ambitious public spending plan the
country has seen in decades, and the green stimulus
spending itself is five times the amount the Obama
administration passed in 2009. The American Jobs
Plan is so expansive—from the Protecting the Right
to Organize Act to significant investments in home
care for the elderly—that it can be difficult to
capture its whole scope. At the same time,
progressives and activists say the package, which
its advocates regard as the best way to pass
aggressive climate policy, is not nearly enough.
# ⚓ Moth-Eaten_Eviction_Moratorium_Leaves_Hundreds_of_Thousands
Without_a_Roof⠀⇛
“Raise your hand if you can’t pay rent,” she yelled
sharply and resolutely into a microphone. A Spanish
translation echoed her words as hands shot up
across the crowd. “Now make that into a fist.
Because we gotta fight! It’s only when we fight
that we can win!” Cheers and hollers muffled by
face masks reverberated off the brick facades. Cars
honked as they drove by, throwing solidarity fists
at the “Cancel Rent” posters lined up along the
sidewalk. A woman with a “Food not Rent” banner
waved back with encouragement.
# ⚓ Nearly_Two-Thirds_of_US_Voters_Back_Corporate_Tax_Hike_to
Fund_Biden_Infrastructure_Plan⠀⇛
Support for the American Jobs Plan’s proposed 7%
corporate tax increase ranged from 42% among
Republicans to 85% of Democrats.
Roundly rejecting Republican and conservative
Democratic lawmakers who oppose President Joe
Biden’s proposed corporate tax increase to fund the
American Jobs Plan, a poll published Wednesday
revealed nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters favor
higher taxes on businesses to pay for the
administration’s $2.25 trillion infrastructure and
employment legislative proposal.
# ⚓ A_Manchester_Boldly_United_for_a_More_Equal_Metropolis⠀⇛
All the early indicators are pointing to reversion
— and worse. Our richest haven’t just survived the
last year. They’ve absolutely thrived. Over the
course of the pandemic’s first year, a new
Institute for Policy Studies analysis details, the
combined wealth of the world’s 2,365 billionaires
has soared by an astounding $4 trillion, a 54
percent increase. This explosion of wealth at our
global economic summit has come at the same time as
the world’s economy was shrinking by 3.5 percent
and leaving countless millions in misery.
The pessimists among us, in short, have plenty of
reasons to fear for our collective future.
# ⚓ The_March_Jobs_Report_and_the_State_of_the_Recovery [Ed:
This is distracting from a distressing "big picture", wherein
only about half the working age population can participate in
labour]⠀⇛
Most obviously, the economy created 914,000 jobs in
March. In addition, the January and February
numbers were revised up by a total of 156,000.
There was a decline of 0.1 percentage point in the
overall unemployment rate, with the employment to
population ratio rising by the same amount. The
improvements were pretty much across the board. The
unemployment rate for Blacks fell by 0.3 percentage
points, the unemployment rate for Hispanics dropped
by 0.6 percentage points, and the unemployment rate
for workers with just a high school degree fell by
0.5 percentage points.
But to say things are moving in the right direction
does not mean that they are good. We are still down
8.4 million jobs from last February, and if we add
in the jobs that should have been created over this
period, we are missing more than 10 million jobs.
Six percent unemployment means 9.7 million people
are looking for work and can’t find it. In
addition, another 4.7 million have dropped out of
the labor force, either because they have given up
hope of finding a job or because family
responsibilities in the pandemic are keeping them
from working.
o § AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics⠀➾
# ⚓ Opinion_|_On_Baseball_As_A_Communist_Plot:_794_Idiotic_GOP
Strikes_And_They’re_Out⠀⇛
# ⚓ A_Common_Love_Lost⠀⇛
Chicago—Loss is the story of the pandemic. For me,
over the past year, that has meant losing a
relative to Covid, losing a job, an apartment,
health insurance, and a romantic relationship. But
there was another loss, a common love lost on the
American left, that we haven’t fully grieved. I am
reminded of that now because April 8 marks the
anniversary of the end of Bernie Sanders’s 2020
campaign.
Around the time that the first Covid case appeared
in Seattle, some friends and I packed a car and
drove four hours to Muscatine, Iowa, to campaign
for Bernie in the Democratic caucuses. It was
January. At a makeshift field office—a detached
garage warmed by space heaters—three women
volunteers arranged piles of yard signs, canvassing
scripts, and clipboards on a plastic folding table.
As her mom trained us, a toddler waddled across the
cement floor in a blue Bernie onesie and stretched
her arms out to us, total strangers. Hours later
when, exhausted and frozen, we returned from door-
knocking, it was dark. The women were still there,
the mom and her baby, too.
# ⚓ The_Game_Has_Changed⠀⇛
If both Theresa May and Boris Johnson had not
refused formal requests for a S30 agreement for an
Independence referendum, Scotland would already be
independent. Alex Salmond was absolutely right
yesterday to insist that other paths of democratic
legitimacy are open to Scotland, as a referendum is
being unreasonably refused. The start of such
alternative pathways is this very election and the
chance to vote for Alba and demonstrate commitment
to this view.
Indeed, the tactical stupidity of the SNP, in
accepting in terms that Westminster has a veto,
cannot be overstated. To accept a Westminster veto
is logically incompatible with the claim to be a
people with the right of self-determination under
the UN charter. It thus undermines the argument we
need to make to the international community to be
recognised as a state. The notion that the Tories
will give way and grant an S30, for a referendum
they know they will lose, is entirely fanciful. I
find it remarkable that some people purport to
believe that London will relinquish Scotland’s
resources without a tremendous struggle and in the
spirit of fair play.
Here is Alex Salmond’s speech yesterday, on the
anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, setting
out alternative routes to Independence. You will
see no fair reflection of this in mainstream media,
so I am unapologetic about hosting it on my blog.
Alex starts talking about seven minutes in.
# ⚓ Yes,_Virginia_Gubernatorial_Candidate_Justin_Fairfax_Just
Compared_Himself_to_Emmett_Till⠀⇛
The first televised debate among the five Virginia
Democrats running to be the party’s gubernatorial
nominee should have been more exciting. It featured
a Democratic Socialist (Delegate Lee Carter), a
popular, well-funded, fairly centrist former
governor (Terry McAuliffe), two Black women
(liberal state Senator Jennifer McClellan and
progressive Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy), and
finally, the state’s Black Lieutenant Governor,
Justin Fairfax, who might have been the front-
runner but for two allegations of sexual assault
that came out two years ago.
Polling is scarce, but McAuliffe is leading in
every survey anyone knows about. His rivals needed
to put him back on his heels—and mostly, they did
not. Carroll Foy, the progressive favorite (despite
Carter’s DSA credentials), did a lot with stories
of her rough childhood, helping her grandmother
decide “between paying our mortgage, and medication
keeping her alive.” The contrast with the wealthy
former governor went unspoken but came out clearly.
McClellan, with almost two decades in the
legislature, touted her many years of experience
and called herself “Harry Byrd’s worst nightmare,”
a reference to the racist Democratic boss who ran
Virginia politics for decades. McAuliffe bragged
about having the most Black support in his race
against three Black candidates. Carter talked about
his gigs as a Lyft driver, to make the case that
he’s the only candidate who knows how tough this
Covid economy is.
# ⚓ Take_It_From_Boehner,_Republicans_are_Proving_They_Can’t
Govern⠀⇛
From the state house to Congress, the GOP is in a
tailspin of horrific disarray, supporting and
passing laws to curtail voting rights, discriminate
against virtually everyone who doesn’t fit their
image of “us” and promoting unfounded hatred and
violence against “them.” In the meantime, what’s
left of their shattered post-Trump ideology seems
incapable of grasping just how deep they are in the
whirlpool of rampant hypocrisy.
Not a single Republican member of Congress voted
for the massive COVID relief bill – not one. Why
they wouldn’t want to help their own constituents
in one of the most difficult periods in the history
of the nation remains unknown, although they did
blather something about liberal giveaways.
# ⚓ ‘We_deeply_doubt_it_will_help’_Kremlin_warns_that_Ukraine
joining_NATO_would_exacerbate_Donbas_conflict⠀⇛
Following Ukraine reiterating its desire to take
the next step toward joining NATO this week, the
Kremlin has warned that this would only exacerbate
the conflict in Donbas. Nevertheless, on Wednesday,
April 7, Lithuania announced that it will call on
its NATO allies to support a Membership Action Plan
for Ukraine. This comes amid a growing escalation
of the conflict in Donbas, and rising concerns as
Russia amasses troops near Ukraine’s border. Though
Ukraine doesn’t meet NATO’s membership standards as
of yet, the United States has expressed its support
for Kyiv’s ongoing efforts to carry out the
necessary reforms.
# ⚓ Intimidation_tactics_Open_data_analysis_points_to_highest
concentration_of_Russian_troops_near_Ukraine’s_borders_since
2015⠀⇛
The build-up of Russian troops near the border with
Ukraine is the largest concentration seen since
2015, according to a report from the Conflict
Intelligence Team (CIT) published by The Insider.
Using open source data, CIT’s analysts tracked the
movements of Russian troops and determined that
they’re headed towards the Crimean Peninsula and
the vicinity of Voronezh. According to CIT, these
transfers are indicative of strategic military
exercises, not local ones. However, the analysts
also underscored that these aren’t signs that a
Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent.
# ⚓ Biden_to_Ukraine:_“Unwavering_Support_for_Euro-Atlantic
Aspirations”⠀⇛
Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called
his counterpart in Kyiv. According to the Pentagon
readout, “Secretary Austin reaffirmed unwavering US
support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial
integrity, and Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”
(See for reference Victoria Nuland’s description of
the U.S.’ $ 5 billion investment in regime change
in Ukraine as of 2014 as one in its “European
aspirations.” The talking point term remains
“aspirations.” But no reference to Pentagon
aspirations to throttle Russia.)
# ⚓ China’s_rulers_want_more_control_of_big_tech⠀⇛
A second set of questions concerns the government’s
designs for the firms’ most valuable resource—data.
Its objective is to pool data and impose more state
ownership and control, which could eventually
amount to a kind of nationalisation. The digital
firms have built some of the world’s largest and
most advanced databases, which assess everything
from users’ loan repayments to their friend
networks, travel histories and spending habits. Ant
alone is said to hold data on more than a billion
people, on a par with Facebook and Google, and
because of the breadth of services that many
Chinese “super-apps” encompass they have a richer
picture of users.
Credit-scoring is the front line of the battle with
the government over who controls data. Over the
years the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has made
feeble attempts to create a centralised scoring
system. Now the central bank appears to have
decided to grab more control over those of the tech
firms. It has approved two personal-credit
companies, most recently in December, in which the
technology groups and state-controlled entities
hold stakes. The state has so far refrained from
explicitly commanding the companies to share data.
In China personal data belong to the individual,
not companies, so laws would need to change in
order for such data to be shared with the
government. But that is hardly an insurmountable
obstacle for an authoritarian regime.
# ⚓ The_world_is_kicking_its_coal_habit._China_is_still
hooked⠀⇛
China’s affinity for coal, the biggest source of
greenhouse gases, may be surprising given the
country’s recent pledge to cut emissions to net-
zero by 2060. There are, however, other mitigating
factors. Local government officials, whose
performance is often measured against targets for
economic growth, have long used infrastructure
projects—especially coal plants—to inflate their
GDP figures. In 2020, when China was one of the few
countries in the world to register any growth,
three-quarters of the coal-fired capacity approved
for construction was sponsored by local governments
and firms. Regulators did not get in their way.
China’s National Energy Administration gave several
provinces the nod to approve new coal power plants.
# ⚓ US_lawmakers_suggest_letting_Taiwan_fill_void_left_by
Confucius_Institutes⠀⇛
As more Confucius Institutes are shuttered at
university campuses across the U.S. due to concerns
over Chinese influence, scholars and politicians
are advocating getting Taiwan to fill the Mandarin-
teaching vacuum. American Institute in Taiwan
Director Brent Christensen has said the shift would
allow Taiwanese Mandarin instructors to share
democratic narratives with American students.
In a letter addressed to U.S. Education Secretary
Miguel Cardona in March, 21 members of Congress
suggested having Taiwanese teach Mandarin lessons
at universities as a “censorship-free alternative”
to Chinese cultural centers. Led by Senator Marsha
Blackburn and Representative Michelle Steel, the
signatories urged Washington to expand the U.S.-
Taiwan Education Initiative and develop more
educational programs with Taiwan to meet the demand
for Mandarin studies in the U.S.
# ⚓ Upcoming_RCV_Votes_for_April⠀⇛
Howie has been involved in organizing for RCV since
the election and has been working a lot with the
organization Rank the Vote.
o § Misinformation/Disinformation⠀➾
# ⚓ Covid-19:_The_disinformation_tactics_used_by_China⠀⇛
In response, Beijing has tried to take greater
control of what is said about its role in the
pandemic – sometimes with questionable tactics.
# ⚓ India’s_Strict_Rules_For_Online_Intermediaries_Undermine
Freedom_of_Expression⠀⇛
The 2021 Rules, ostensibly created to combat
misinformation and illegal content, substantially
revise India’s intermediary liability scheme. They
were notified as rules under the Information
Technology Act 2000, replacing the 2011
Intermediary Rules .
The 2021 Rules create two new subsets of
intermediaries: “social media intermediaries” and
“significant social media intermediaries,” the
latter of which are subject to more onerous
regulations. The due diligence requirements for
these companies include having proactive speech
monitoring, compliance personnel who reside in
India, and the ability to trace and identify the
originator of a post or message.
“Social media intermediaries” are defined broadly,
as entities which primarily or solely “enable
online interaction between two or more users and
allow them to create, upload, share, disseminate,
modify or access information using its services.”
Obvious examples include Facebook, Twitter, and
YouTube, but the definition could also include
search engines and cloud service providers, which
are not social media in a strict sense.
o § Censorship/Free Speech⠀➾
# ⚓ North_Carolina_State_Senators_Read_Section_230_Completely
Backwards,_Introduces_Laughably_Confused_Bill_In_Response⠀⇛
What is it with state legislators not having anyone
around them who can explain to them how Section 230
works, leading them to push incredibly stupid state
bills? We’ve written about both Republicans and
Democrats pushing bills to modify Section 230,
ignoring how 230 likely pre-empts those attempts
(if the 1st Amendment doesn’t already).
# ⚓ Free_Dr._Seuss!⠀⇛
Shut out of the White House and reduced to a
minority party in Congress, Republicans think they
have found a path back to power in the unlikely
form of The Cat in the Hat. On March 2, Dr. Seuss
Enterprises announced it was taking six books
written and drawn by the late Theodore Seuss Geisel
off the market because “these books portray people
in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”
Republicans were quick to jump on the story. “Now 6
Dr. Seuss books are cancelled too?” Florida Senator
Marco Rubio tweeted. “When history looks back at
this time it will be held up as an example of a
depraved sociopolitical purge driven by hysteria
and lunacy,” he proclaimed. A slew of other
Republicans rose to defend the allegedly threatened
author. With typical smarminess, Texas Senator Ted
Cruz tweeted a photo showing Dr. Seuss dominating
the Amazon best-seller list. Cruz commented, “Who
knew Joe Biden was such a great book seller”—the
big lie being that Biden was in any way responsible
for the decision of Dr. Seuss Enterprises. On March
24, Republican Congressman John Joyce of
Pennsylvania introduced the Grinch Act to, in his
words, “safeguard kids’ access to historic stories
and characters.”
# ⚓ Content_Moderation_Case_Study:_NASA_Footage_Taken_Down_By
YouTube_Moderation_(2012)⠀⇛
Summary: NASA’s historic landing of a mobile rover
on the surface of Mars created many newsworthy
moments. Unfortunately, it also generated some
embarrassing takedowns of NASA’s own footage by
YouTube’s copyright flagging system, ContentID.
# ⚓ Organizations_Call_on_President_Biden_to_Rescind_President
Trump’s_Executive_Order_that_Punished_Online_Social_Media_for
Fact-Checking⠀⇛
The organizations, Rock The Vote, Voto Latino,
Common Cause, Free Press, Decoding Democracy, and
the Center for Democracy & Technology, pressed
Biden to remove his predecessor’s “Executive Order
on Preventing Online Censorship” because “it is a
drastic assault on free speech designed to punish
online platforms that fact-checked President
Trump.”
The organizations filed lawsuits to strike down the
Executive Order last year, with Rock The Vote, Voto
Latino, Common Cause, Free Press, and Decoding
Democracy’s challenge currently on appeal in the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The
Center for Democracy & Technology’s appeal is
currently pending in the U.S. Court of Appeal for
the D.C. Circuit. (Cooley LLP, Protect Democracy,
and EFF represent the plaintiffs in Rock The Vote
v. Trump.)
As the letter explains, Trump issued the
unconstitutional Executive Order in retaliation for
Twitter fact-checking May 2020 tweets spreading
false information about mail-in voting. The
Executive Order issued two days later sought to
undermine a key law protecting internet users’
speech, 47 U.S.C. § 230 (“Section 230”) and punish
online platforms, including by directing federal
agencies to review and potentially stop advertising
on social media and kickstarting a federal
rulemaking to re-interpret Section 230. From the
letter:
# ⚓ Twitch_Outlines_Policy_to_Address_Severe_Misconduct_That
Happens_Off-Service⠀⇛
For actions that occur entirely off the platform,
the company will now enforce “against serious
offenses that pose a substantial safety risk to the
Twitch community.”
# ⚓ Twitch_will_ban_people_for_harassment,_even_when_it_doesn’t
happen_on_the_site⠀⇛
Twitch is bringing on a third-party law firm to
assist with off-platform investigations. “These
investigations are vastly more complex and can take
significant time and resources to resolve,” the
company wrote in a blog post. “For behaviors that
take place off Twitch, we must rely more heavily on
law enforcement and other services to share
relevant evidence before we can move forward.” A
spokesperson for the company declined to give the
name of the law firm.
# ⚓ Twitch_will_now_start_banning_users_for_what_they_do
offline⠀⇛
The updated policy will mean that those using the
livestreaming platform could find themselves in
trouble for harassing people face-to-face or on a
social media platform such as Twitter or Facebook.
The misconduct policies that the company introduced
earlier this year will remain in place, but with
its new expanded policies, Twitch might just going
to a place no social media company has gone before.
o § Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press⠀➾
# ⚓ Novaya_Gazeta_discloses_substance_used_in_suspected
chemical_attack_on_their_office_last_month⠀⇛
The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta has
determined that the substance sprayed near the
entrance of their editorial office last month was
mainly composed of 4-ethylphenol and 3-methylindole
(otherwise known as skatole).
# ⚓ Protected:_International_Symposium_of_Parliamentarians_on
the_Julian_Assange_extradition_case⠀⇛
# ⚓ Open_judicial_season_on_Moroccan_journalists⠀⇛
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns what it
regards as a dangerous manipulation of the judicial
system in Morocco, where three distinct criminal
cases are to be heard against four prominent
journalists in the space of less than ten days.
o § Civil Rights/Policing⠀➾
# ⚓ Fourth_Circuit_Appeals_Court_Takes_Aim_At_Police_Officers’
‘Training_And_Expertise’_Assertions⠀⇛
It doesn’t happen often, but it’s always good to
see a federal court push back against claims of
“training and expertise.” This phrase is often used
to excuse rights violations and horrendous judgment
calls — somehow asserting that the more cops know,
the less they should be held directly responsible
for their acts.
# ⚓ Opinion_|_Will_the_United_States_Ever_Become_a_Strong
Nation_for_the_Common_Good?⠀⇛
Even more transformative than the particular
components is Biden’s back-to-the-future method of
paying for the Rebuild America agenda: returning to
highly progressive taxation.
It’s time for America to go back to the future — a
future of true greatness created by a people united
to build a strong nation for the Common Good.
# ⚓ Equality⠀⇛
# ⚓ How_eliminating_private_prosecution_will_help_domestic
violence_victims_in_Russia⠀⇛
Russia’s Supreme Court has submitted a draft law to
the State Duma on eliminating so-called “private
prosecution,” wherein criminal proceedings are
launched by victims, who are then expected to
gather evidence and lay charges in the case
themselves (as opposed to law enforcement agencies
doing it for them). Currently, Russia has three
felony statutes that allow private prosecution, two
of which often apply to domestic violence
incidents. To find out more about how this
amendment will affect the prosecution of domestic
violence cases and whether it will help protect
victims, Meduza spoke to the lawyer Maria Davtyan,
the co-author of a bill on preventing domestic
violence.
# ⚓ Moscow_court_lifts_house_arrest_for_some_of_Navalny’s
associates⠀⇛
The Moscow City Court has granted the appeals of
four defendants in the so-called sanitary case,
releasing them from house arrest and placing them
under alternative preventive measures, the court’s
press service told Meduza on Wednesday, April 7.
# ⚓ Prison_doctors_diagnose_Alexey_Navalny_with_two_herniated
discs⠀⇛
Doctors at Pokrov’s Penal Colony No.2 told Alexey
Navalny that his MRI results revealed two herniated
discs, the opposition politician’s lawyer, Olga
Mikhailova, told TV Rain on Wednesday, April 7.
# ⚓ Navalny’s_lawyer_denies_reports_that_the_he_was_moved_from
Pokrov_prison⠀⇛
A local news outlet in the Vladimir region has
reported that jailed opposition politician Alexey
Navalny has been transferred out of Pokrov’s Penal
Colony No. 2. This report has yet to be officially
confirmed.
# ⚓ Biden_Pushed_to_Permanently_Scrap_‘Trump’s_Xenophobic_and
Racist_Wall’⠀⇛
“The wall doesn’t even begin to address any of the
injustices plaguing the borderlands. It’s nothing
but a political prop for the GOP. Biden must stop
it for good.”
Although President Joe Biden vowed on the campaign
trail to stop the construction of the southern
border wall promoted by his predecessor, the White
House as of this week has not yet asked Congress to
revoke the project’s funding, and a Cabinet member
reportedly admitted that the administration may
still authorize additional work to fortify some
unfinished sections of the barrier, including
installing surveillance technologies in certain
areas.
# ⚓ Opinion_|_Please_Stop_Calling_Humans_Seeking_Safety_a
‘Border_Crisis’⠀⇛
People escaping violence have a right to seek
safety. If they can’t, that’s the real crisis.
Over the last several weeks, Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) has reported a rise in the number
of migrant children seeking refuge in the United
States.
# ⚓ Can_Biden_Fix_the_Courts_That_Trump_Broke?⠀⇛
When President Joe Biden finally took the oath of
office on January 20, he inherited not merely the
White House, the nuclear codes, and the reins to
the most powerful government on earth, but also a
mess. 1
The fact of that mess wasn’t altogether unusual.
It’s become something of a trend in recent decades
for Republicans, who don’t think government can
work, to spend their years in power breaking it in
order to fulfill their own prophecy; it then falls
to Democrats to spend their years in power fixing
what Republicans destroyed. 2
# ⚓ Living_in_a_Country_Haunted_by_Death⠀⇛
In his sermon, Dr. King openly wrestled with a
thorny problem: how to advance nonviolent struggle
among a generation of Black youth whose government
had delivered little but pain and empty promises.
He told the parishioners of Riverside Church that
his years of work, both in the South and the North,
had opened his eyes to why, as a practitioner of
nonviolence, he had to speak out against violence
everywhere — not just in the U.S. — if he expected
people to take him at his word. As he explained
that day:
A Global Pandemic Cries Out for Global Cooperation
# ⚓ “This_Agreement_Protects_Jobs”:_Four_Unions_at_Rutgers
University_Reach_Historic_Deal_to_End_Layoffs⠀⇛
After a year of layoffs, cuts and austerity, the
faculty and staff of four unions at Rutgers
University have voted in support of an unusual and
pioneering agreement to protect jobs and guarantee
raises after the school declared a fiscal emergency
as a result of the pandemic. A key part of the deal
is an agreement by the professors to do “work
share” and take a slight cut in hours for a few
months in order to save the jobs of other lower-
paid workers. “The historic nature of this
agreement is that it encompasses all four unions,”
says Christine O’Connell, president of the union
representing Rutgers administrators. “This
agreement protects jobs.” We also speak with Todd
Wolfson, president of the Rutgers Union of graduate
workers, faculty and postdocs, who says the unions’
core demand was stopping further layoffs. “That
core demand was met, and there’s no layoffs through
the calendar year and into next year.”
# ⚓ Retired_Black_NYPD_Detective:_Derek_Chauvin_Trial
Highlights_“Race-Based”_Police_Brutality_Problem⠀⇛
This week at the trial of former Minneapolis police
officer Derek Chauvin, numerous members of the
Minneapolis Police Department have taken the stand
and testified that Chauvin violated policy by
kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine-and-a-half
minutes, and the emergency room doctor who tried to
save Floyd’s life said his chances of living would
have been higher if CPR had been administered
sooner. The trial is putting a spotlight on “the
disproportionate killing of Black people by police”
in the United States, says Marq Claxton, a retired
New York Police Department detective who is now
director of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance. He
argues that until police officers are arrested,
charged and convicted for such killings, “these
tragedies will continue to occur.”
# ⚓ The_UK’s_Official_Report_on_Racism_is_a_Travesty⠀⇛
The setting-up of the Commission on Race and Ethnic
Disparities (CRED, a sardonic appellation worthy of
George Orwell’s 1984) by Boris “BoJo” Johnson was a
version of an age-old strategy, namely, appoint a
commission of trusties who can then be guaranteed
to deliver a whitewash (even though the 10-person
commission had only 1 white member).
The 258-page report, commissioned last year and
published last Wednesday, came to conclusions that
beggared belief and prompted widespread public
derision. A sample of CRED’s conclusions:
# ⚓ The_EU_Online_Terrorism_Regulation:_a_Bad_Deal⠀⇛
Ideas such as this one have been around for some
time already. In 2016, we first wrote about the
European Commission’s attempt to create a voluntary
agreement for companies to remove certain content
(including terrorist expression) within 24 hours,
and Germany’s Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG)
requires the same. NetzDG has spawned dozens of
copycats throughout the world, including in
countries like Turkey with far fewer protections
for speech, and human rights more generally.
Beyond the one hour removal requirement, the TERREG
also contained a broad definition of what
constitutes terrorist content as “material that
incites or advocates committing terrorist offences,
promotes the activities of a terrorist group or
provides instructions and techniques for committing
terrorist offences”.
Furthermore, it introduced a duty of care for all
platforms to avoid being misused for the
dissemination of terrorist content. This includes
the requirement of taking proactive measures to
prevent the dissemination of such content. These
rules were accompanied by a framework of
cooperation and enforcement.
# ⚓ 4th_Circuit_panel_rejects_rights_to_travel_and_to_due
process⠀⇛
In one of the worst court decisions on the right to
travel since Gilmore v. Gonzales, a three-judge
panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has
reversed the decision of a U.S. District Court
that the U.S. government’s system of extrajudicial
administrative blacklists (euphemistically and
inaccurate called “watchlists” although the
consequences for the people who are listed include
much more then merely being “watched”) is
unconstitutional.
The decision comes in a class-action lawsuit
brought on behalf of blacklisted Muslim American
travelers in 2018 by the Council on American
Islamic Relations (CAIR). It folows a disturbing
trend of decisions in similar cases by courts in
the 6th Circuit and the 10th Circuit.
According to Gadeir Abbas, the CAIR attorney who
has led the national campaign of lawsuits (many
others of which are still pending) against post-9/
11 blacklists, CAIR plans to petition for
“rehearing en banc” by the 4th Circuit Court of
Appeals:
# ⚓ Amazon_Union_Election_Attracted_3,215_Voters,_Union_Says⠀⇛
If the winning margin in the count exceeds the
challenged ballots, a victor will be declared. If
not, the National Labor Relations Board will hold a
hearing to determine the validity of challenged
ballots and add those deemed acceptable to the
final tally. Both sides also have an opportunity to
contest the election before the NLRB certifies it
as final.
o § Internet Policy/Net Neutrality⠀➾
# ⚓ The_Trump_DOJ/FCC_‘Fix’_For_The_Crappy_T-Mobile_Merger
Isn’t_Looking_So_Hot⠀⇛
Economists repeatedly warned that the biggest
downside of the $26 billion Sprint T-Mobile merger
was the fact that the deal would dramatically
reduce overall competition in the U.S. wireless
industry. Data from around the globe clearly shows
that the elimination of one of just four major
competitors sooner or later results in layoffs and
higher prices due to less competition. It’s not
debatable. Given U.S. consumers already pay some of
the highest prices for mobile data in the developed
world, most objective experts recommended that the
deal be blocked.
# ⚓ Driven_Mad_By_Its_Hatred_For_Big_US_Internet_Companies,
French_Government_Implements_EU_Digital_Services_Act_Before
It_Even_Exists⠀⇛
The future Digital Services Act (DSA), dealing with
intermediary liability in the EU, is likely to be
one of the region’s most important new laws for the
online world. At the moment, the DSA exists only as
a proposal from the European Commission. In due
course, the European Parliament and the EU’s Member
States will come up with their own texts, and the
three versions will ultimately be reconciled to
produce legislation that will apply across the
whole of the EU. As Techdirt reported last month,
the Commission’s ideas are something of a mess, and
the hope has to be that the text will improve as
the various arms of the EU start to work on it over
the coming months.
o § Monopolies⠀➾
# ⚓ U.S._Fires_Back_at_Facebook’s_Move_to_Kill_Monopoly
Lawsuit⠀⇛
The suit initiated last year under the Trump
administration makes a valid claim that Facebook
holds monopoly power over personal social
networking in the U.S. and maintains it by
“acquiring competitive threats and deterring or
hindering the emergence of rivals,” the FTC said in
a filing late Wednesday in Washington federal
court.
The FTC’s request is the latest exchange at the
start of a high-stakes battle over Facebook’s
future — its attempt to hold onto Instagram and
WhatsApp and to defeat the government’s attempt to
force a breakup. The filing is a response to
Facebook’s argument last month that the FTC is
attempting a “do-over” by trying to unwind
acquisitions that won regulatory approval years
ago.
# ⚓ Amazon_is_snapping_up_disused_shopping_malls_and_turning
them_into_fulfillment_centers⠀⇛
Malls that buckled due to e-commerce or suffered
during the pandemic are being given new life by the
very entity that precipitated their decline —
Amazon.
Over the last several months, the retail giant has
gone on a shopping spree of its own, buying up
disused malls across the country and turning them
into distribution centers.
# ⚓ Colorado_Denied_Its_Citizens_the_Right-to-Repair_After
Riveting_Testimony⠀⇛
A right-to-repair bill died in the Colorado state
legislature on March 25, 2021. After almost three
hours of testimony from business leaders, disabled
advocates, and a 9-year-old activist, legislators
said there were too many unanswered questions and
that the proposed law was too broad.
Half the country is now considering right-to-repair
laws. As electronics have become a more important
part of people’s lives, tech companies have
attempted to tighten the control over how we use
their devices.
# ⚓ FOSS_Patents:_Epic_Games_and_Apple_file_proposed_findings
of_fact_and_conclusions_of_law:_688_pages_in_total⠀⇛
We’re only three weeks and a half away from the
kickoff of the Epic Games v. Apple App Store
antitrust trial in Oakland (Northern District of
California). The parties just filed their proposed
findings of fact and conclusions of law around
midnight Pacific Time. Knowing that many of my
readers in many different time zones may be
interested in taking a look at these documents, I’m
making them available now. It will, of course, take
me some time to digest and comment on them, and I
can’t even predict how many blog posts (whether
just one follow-up post or a whole bunch) will be
needed as it depends on how interesting the
information I discover in those “books” turns out
to be.
# ⚓ FOSS_Patents:_In_its_latest_court_filing,_Apple_gives_the
term_“commission”_a_new_meaning_unsupported_by_dictionary
definitions_and_commercial_reality⠀⇛
Sooner than I would have thought when I publshed
the latest Epic Games v. Apple filings (688 pages
in total), I already feel an irresistible urge to
comment on something because it is just
intellectually dishonest.
There’s nothing wrong per se with Apple comparing
the iOS app distribution situation to the old days
of software publishing: I, too, remember the
“shrink-wrapped software” business. You can find
some game credits from the mid to late 1990s that
list me in sales & marketing and localization
functions (Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness,
Starcraft, Diablo). In 1996, I served on the board
of the Software Publishers Association (SPA)
Europe, and even though the World Wide Web existed
at the time, we were all still selling software in
boxes. Apple accurately notes that consumers “had
to drive to the store, find it on the shelf, buy it
in the shrink-wrapped box, and load it up onto
their device.” It’s also plausible that, according
to Apple pointing to his testimony, Epic CEO Tim
Sweeney “found it difficult to sell games through
traditional retail channels in the early 1990s.” At
the same time, I also dealt with publishers,
distributors, and retailers. I had to negotiate
discounts, cooperative advertising allowances, or
grant early-payment discounts when payments would
actually arrive only months later, making mockery
of the term. It wasn’t a land of milk and honey for
sure (though at least you had multiple retailers
and not just one per platform)–and Apple has every
right to point that fact out.
But there’s everything wrong with Apple’s reality
distortion field. Let’s have this debate. Let’s
talk honestly about how software distribution
changed over the course of time. But if we want to
have an honest conversation, then we must face the
facts, including those facts that don’t support
Apple’s App Store feudalism.
# ⚓ FOSS_Patents:_Full_text_of_the_injunction_Epic_Games_is
seeking_against_Apple’s_App_Store_terms_and_policies⠀⇛
Earlier today I published the findings of fact and
conclusions of law that Epic Games and Apple
propose. Also, I had just read a few dozen pages
when I already found something so outrageously
misleading in Apple’s filing that I just had to
comment on it.
By now I’ve read both documents cursorily (to my
own surprise, not feeling dizzy yet), and I’ve
shared a number of observations and tidbits on
Twitter. All in all, I’m favorably impressed–and
not just because I am myself at loggerheads with
Apple over its App Store terms and policies–by how
compelling Epic’s case is. I’d like to draw a
comparison to the FTC’s case against Qualcomm in
2019. The FTC’s strength was all that testimony
from smartphone and chipset makers–but the FTC’s
lawyers hardly elicited any major concessions from
Qualcomm’s current and former employees, all of
whom stayed very much on message and denied
everything but the absolutely undeniable.
Relatively speaking, the most useful statements by
Qualcomm executives that the FTC found were in a
transcript of an IRS interview with Qualcomm.
Epic’s lawyers, however, have managed to get Apple
players to confirm key facts. Also, from what I can
see so far, Epic is in far better shape than the
FTC was with respect to economic expert testimony.
It’s a euphemism to label Apple’s security and
privacy arguments as “pretextual.”
# ⚓ Partners_reveal_how_they_hone_junior_litigator_talent⠀⇛
# § Patents⠀➾
# ⚓ Valuation_and_Licensing_of_Standard_Essential_Patents
in_a_British_Context [Ed: A worrying parade of patent
trolls (or trolling proxies) across Europe and the UK
in particular. We know who profits from this mess -
- firms like this author's]⠀⇛
In the aftermath of the landmark decision
‘Unwired Planet vs Huawei’, a series of other
FRAND litigations have followed suit. Cases
such as Conversant vs ZTE/Huawei, Philips vs
TCL, TQ Delta v ZyXel or Optis v Apple
pertain equally to the licensing of standard
essential patents.
From an economic perspective this raises the
question as to how the British Courts may
want to continue addressing the valuation of
standard essential patents. To shed further
light on this question, this article offers a
short overview of key valuation and
principles. These reflect the state of play
of English law and also found their
application in the Unwired Planet vs Huawei
Court.
In Unwired Planet vs Huawei two principal
methods were applied to determine the FRAND
royalty rate. The Top Down Approach and the
Comparable licenses approach served as the
toolkits to come to grips with the FRAND
value of standard essential patents. The Top
Down Approach seeks to determine the
aggregate royalty rate for patents that read
on a given standard. As such, the method
lends itself well to understand the value of
given standard essential patents (SEPs) in
relation to the entire standard. The
advantage of the method is that it helps
mitigate the peril of royalty stacking.
Royalty stacking describes the risks
associated with a potential cumulative
royalty rate a licensee may have to bear if
it were to pay respective licensing rates
also to all other holders of patents that
read on a given standard. In Unwired Planet
vs Huawei the Court recognized that even the
hypothetical risk of a royalty stack can
jeopardize the FRAND-ness of a licensing
rate.
# ⚓ Allen_&_Overy_hires_Life_Science_Litigator_from_Hogan
Lovells [Ed: Site funded by litigation giants posts
marketing plug/spam for litigation giants, hardly_even
pretends_to_be_a_news_site_anymore]⠀⇛
# ⚓ An_IP_guide_to_winning_investors_for_biotech_start-
ups [Ed: Site funded by litigation giants perpetuating
an old lie/myth, show below]⠀⇛
To get investors, they need patents. To get
patents, they need money.
# ⚓ Broad_Files_Motion_Opposing_CVC_Motion_for_Misjoinder
of_Inventorship_under_35_U.S.C._§_102(f) [Ed: Why does
the ambition of patenting life itself even getting the
time of day? Clear abuse of patent law.]⠀⇛
Last December, Junior Party University of
California/Berkeley, the University of
Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier
(hereinafter, “CVC”) filed its Substantive
Motion No. 3 under 37 C.F.R. § 41.121(a)(1)
asking for judgment of unpatentability for
all claims in interference under 35 U.S.C. §
102(f) or (if post-AIA) 35 U.S.C. § 115(a)
for “failure to name all inventors of the
alleged invention” against Senior Party The
Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and Harvard University
(hereinafter, “Broad”) in Interference No.
106,115. In support of its motion, CVC argued
that Broad deliberately misidentified the
inventors on its involved patents and
applications in the interference. These
allegations were based on differences between
the named inventors in the patents- and
applications-in-interference and the
inventors named in a declaration by the
Broad’s patent attorney during a European
opposition (EP 277146); it may be recalled
that such irregularities involving a
Rockefeller University inventor (Dr. Luciano
Marraffini) not named in the European
application were the basis for that patent to
be invalidated (see “The CRISPR Chronicles —
Broad Institute Wins One and Loses One”).
Proper inventorship is important in the
interference, inter alia, because the Board
needs to know whose testimony can corroborate
and whose needs to be corroborated under
interference practice, where the
uncorroborated testimony of an inventor is
given no weight; see, Kolcraft Enters. v.
Graco Children’s Prods., Nos. 2018-1259,
2018-1260, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 19751 (Fed.
Cir. July 2, 2019).
[...]
Another deficiency Broad alleges in CVC’s
motion is that CVC did not perform any
(“zero”) inventorship analysis; Broad argues
that “the appropriate legal test for
inventorship barely makes a cameo appearance
in CVC’s motion—if you blink you’d miss it”
before setting forth its objections to CVC’s
inventorship arguments with particularity.
These include not construing the claims and
not providing factual support for why certain
individuals were not named as inventors in a
“claim-by-claim, element-by-element
comparison.” Rather, CVC improperly relied on
Mr. Kowalski’s declaration in the European
Opposition which was not directed at the
issues CVC used it to support, according to
the brief. Broad uses Mr. Bailey’s complaint
that performing this analysis would have been
a “mammoth task” to argue that the remedy CVC
requests — invalidating all of the involved
claims in all of the involved patents —
requires performance of this task no matter
how “mammoth’ it may be in scope. Of course,
Broad further argues that such a proper
analysis assessment would have found no error
(thus providing a reason why CVC didn’t make
the argument).
The brief also notes that CVC “both relies
upon and rejects Kowalski’s inventorship
analysis,” calling this treatment
“inconsistent” and providing specific
examples. The brief also argues that CVC does
not provide support for its allegations that
Mr. Kowalski’s declaration should be
considered conclusive, other than treating
the declaration as a “judicial admission.”
Which it is not, Broad argues, because it
fails the definition that a judicial
admission is a “formal statement[] of fact
made in judicial proceedings that have the
effect of deeming facts conclusively
established, eliminating the need for proof,”
citing Barnes v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas
Corp., 201 F.3d 815, 829 (6th Cir. 2000), as
well as failing the definitional evidentiary
tests used to establish a judicial admission.
# ⚓ Todos_Medical_gets_notice_of_allowance_from_European
Patent_Office⠀⇛
# ⚓ Medlab_Clinical’s_(ASX:MDC)_NanoCelle_awaits_European
patent⠀⇛
# ⚓ Immutep_Announces_European_Patent_Grant_For_LAG525
Antibody_In_Combination_Therapy⠀⇛
# ⚓ Pending_Opposition_Case_with_the_EPO_Raises_Caution
Over_Generalized_Assignment_Language_Within_Employment
Agreements [Ed: Patents are for large corporations, not
for inventors]⠀⇛
The year 2020—and now 2021—has been a busy
year for the European Patent Office (EPO) as
it works through several oppositions and
appeals involving a number of CRISPR patents
belonging to The Broad Institute, Inc.,
Harvard College, and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (hereinafter
“Patentee”). The EPO Boards of Appeal has
already revoked a patent applied for by the
Patentee for failing to list all of the
inventors from a priority application. See
author’s previous blog post here. However,
there is a pending opposition case with the
EPO (application EP 2825654) which involves a
potential priority issue that applicants
should be aware of in cases where an
employment contract or agreement has included
a generalized provision requiring the
assignment of all future rights stemming from
an inventor’s inventions to the employer.
# ⚓ InDex_Pharmaceuticals_gets_patent_for_additional_DIMS
compounds_granted_in_Europe⠀⇛
# ⚓ Medlab_Clinical_to_be_granted_European_patent_for
NanoCelle_drug_delivery_platform⠀⇛
# ⚓ Auris_Medical_is_trading_higher_on_patent_win⠀⇛
# ⚓ Allowance_by_Entity_Size [Ed: Large corporations and
monopolists with the USPTO in their back pockets (and
sometimes their own staff in charge) dominate the
system]⠀⇛
The chart above is an update on yesterday’s
data that also includes patent applicant
entity size status (Large, Small, Micro).
Large entities substantially outperform their
counterparts in terms of allowance rates.
# § Software Patents⠀➾
# ⚓ Another_look_at_USPTO_Allowance_Rate⠀⇛
Here is a different look at the USPTO
grant rate that looks at two numbers
for each quarterly period: how many
patents issued, and how many
applications were abandoned. These can
be added together as a total number of
applications disposed-of during the
period. The percentage reported in the
chart below is the percent of patents
out of that total disposal.
[...]
One caveat on this data. I only used
published applications because those
records are open. Unpublished
applications tend to have a somewhat
lower allowance rate.
# ⚓ Fintech_trends_and_tribulations [Ed: Push for
bad old software patents using buzzwords like
"Fintech"]⠀⇛
# § Trademarks⠀➾
# ⚓ EUTMs_face_distinctiveness_challenge_in_new_language
rules⠀⇛
Updated EUIPO examination guidelines could
pose problems for brands seeking to prove
distinctiveness, say counsel
# § Copyrights⠀➾
# ⚓ Rojadirecta_Wins_Lawsuit_Against_News_Agency_Over
Inaccurate_Anti-Piracy_Reporting⠀⇛
Popular sports streaming site Rojadirecta has
won a lawsuit against reputed news agency
Europa Press. Based on information provided
by copyright holders, the Spanish news
service inaccurately reported that the site
was declared illegal by a Danish court.
Europa Press was ordered to print a prominent
rectification and must also pay the costs of
the proceeding.
# ⚓ Sky_Wins_Injunction_to_Stop_Reddit_Moderator_Sharing
Pirated_TV_Shows⠀⇛
UK broadcaster Sky has won a court injunction
to prevent links to its TV shows from being
illegally shared online. Handed down by a
court in Scotland, the interim order targets
a man who moderated several TV-focused
communities on Reddit while raising funds
through Patreon and PayPal.
# ⚓ TorrentFreak_Continues_To_Get_DMCA_Takedown_Notices
Despite_Not_Hosting_Infringing_Material⠀⇛
It’s no secret that TorrentFreak, a mainstay
news site covering copyright and filesharing
issues, gets more than its fair share of
errant DMCA takedowns and other wayward
scrutiny. This is almost certainly a function
of the site’s chosen name, though the sheer
volume of mistaken targeting of the site also
serves as a useful beacon for just how bad
policing copyright has become. If you can’t
get past a news site having the word
“torrent” in its name, then we should
probably all admit we’re operating at a very
silly level of IP enforcement.
# ⚓ What_Movie_Studios_Refuse_to_Understand_About
Streaming⠀⇛
Back in the ‘30s and ‘40s, the problem was
that the major film studios—including Warner
Bros. and Universal which exist to this
day—owned everything related to the movies
they made. They had everyone involved on
staff under exclusive and restrictive
contracts. They owned the intellectual
property. They even owned the places that
processed the physical film. And, of course,
they owned the movie theaters.
In 1948, the studios were forced to sell off
their stakes in movie theaters and chains,
having lost in the Supreme Court.
The benefits for audiences were pretty clear.
The old system had theaters scheduling
showings so that they wouldn’t overlap with
each other, so that you could not see a movie
at the most convenient theater and most
convenient time for you. Studios were also
forcing theaters to buy their entire slates
of movies without seeing them (called “blind
buying”), instead of picking, say, the ones
of highest quality or interest—the ones that
would bring in audiences. And, of course, the
larger chains and the theaters owned by the
studios would get preferential treatment.
# ⚓ Supreme_Court_Finds_Google’s_Use_of_Oracle’s_Java
Code_in_Android_Operating_System_to_Be_Fair_Use⠀⇛
On April 5, 2021, the Supreme Court of the
United States held that Google’s use of
certain Java Application Programming
Interfaces (API) in its Android operating
system was not copyright infringement and
instead constituted fair use of Oracle’s Sun
Java API because Google used “only what was
needed to allow users to put their accrued
talents to work in a new and transformative
program.” In its decision, the Supreme Court
articulated important policy considerations
underlying its decision, noting that, “given
programmers’ investment in learning the Sun
Java API here would risk harm to the public.
Given the costs and difficulties of producing
alternative APIs with similar appeal to
programmers, allowing enforcement here would
make of the Sun Java API’s declaring code a
lock limiting the future creativity of new
programs” and interfere with the basic
objectives of copyright law. In sum, the
Supreme Court relied on policy considerations
relating to the ability of programmers to use
existing code to support the interoperability
of software, a common practice that many in
the industry advocated as a practice
necessary to sustain the feasibility of
mobile computing.
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