● 02.05.22

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 6/2/2022: NuTyX 22.02.4, GIMP Taught in Libraries

Posted in News Roundup at 9:10 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

• After six years, we finally have a new stable release of Slackware. Like many of you, I’ve been waiting for this release for awhile, and I’m looking forward to running through an installation and first look today! Let’s see if the wait was worth it!

• I’ve looked at Bashtop, and Bpytop but now this project has a new form, that form is Btop, a system resource monitor written in C which works incredibly and finally adds in features I’ve been requesting since the start.

Applications

• Engineer Nelson Elhage offers several reasons Kubernetes is so complex but this does at least mean that multiple companies offer tools to try to help you master it.

• The Google-backed container-management system is famously difficult, even to spell or pronounce. (It’s often called “k8s” for short: since “kubernetes” is 10 letters long, “k8s” signifies “k” + eight letters + “s”, and is pronounced “kates”.) The Mountain View mammoth even commissioned a comic to explain what it is. (It’s long, but quite good.)

• K8s is a set of tools for managing clusters – but not everyone has a spare cluster lying around that they can play with.

• Xtreme Download Manager is an advanced and feature-full download manager that’s designed to accelerate your download speeds by using a dynamic file segmentation system. It provides integration for most popular web browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, etc) through the installation of an addon. Xtreme Download Manager also supports downloading videos from YouTube and other streaming sites.

• Xtreme Download Manager’s interface has a very modern look, and is fairly easy and straightforward to use. On the left side are several categories to help you sort your downloads into their different file types. From the top-right corner, you can set the filters to show only complete, incomplete, or all downloads. From down in the lower-right corner, you can use a switch to enable and disable the web browser integration.

Instructionals/Technical

• Learn the steps to install the latest Linux kernel version on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal fossa or Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jelly Fish to change the default one using the command terminal.

• The kernel is the core program of any Linux -based operating system that offers meditation between software and hardware of the computer system. That implies on any hardware device running with some software. And when we wrap it with a layer of graphical user interface and other applications around the kernel, we have a full-fledged Linux operating system such as Ubuntu. Well, Kernel keeps work in the background and takes care that the operating system works and that hardware and software can be put into operation.

• I go to YouTube occasionally and watch graphics tutorials. A couple of my favorite posters are Logos by Nick and Davies Media Design. I saw one on Logos by Nick the other day that looked interesting so I thought I’d recreate it here. This might be a neat effect for a different artwork piece to give as a gift or something that might advertise your graphics skills.

• You want to start out deciding what photo you want to use, and what text you need. For this project, I’m going to use a photo I have, but I’m going to use the lorem ipsum generator in Inkscape.

• First, after opening Inkscape, import your image (my brother has the cutest dog!) I edited this one so the background was a single color.

• Most modern Linux Desktop systems such as Ubuntu have an NVIDIA driver pre-installed in the Nouveau open-source graphics device driver for Nvidia video cards. For the most part, this is acceptable; however, if you are using your Linux system for graphical design or gaming, you may get better drivers.

• Historically, the Nouveau drivers are slower than NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers, lacking the latest graphics card hardware’s latest features, software technology, and support.

• Currently, NVIDIA 510 Drivers are available to install, which bring many new features improvements to the very latest and existing supported graphic cards with better Linux Kernel support, ReBAR indicator, GBM API support, and much more.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install KDE Plasma on Fedora 35. For those of you who didn’t know, KDE (K Desktop Environment) is one of the most customizable and fastest desktop environments out there that boasts a stunning appearance with polished icons and an amazing look-and-feel. The KDE Community has developed a ton of high-quality applications that fit users Desktop needs.

• This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the KDE Plasma Desktop Environment on a Fedora 35.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Samba on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, Samba, a re-implementation of the popular SMB (server message block) protocol, is a stable and free application that allows sharing of files and print services across a network. Samba enables Linux/Unix machines to communicate with Windows machines in a network.

• 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 Samba file sharing on an AlmaLinux 8. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.

• As you may know, Ubuntu supports for displaying custom text message in the default GDM login screen. There’s now an extension to do the job for the lock screen!

• Similar to Android lock screen owner info functionality, it allows you to add your message to the GNOME lock screen.

• Are you a beginner in the domain of cybersecurity? Do you want to be on its offensive side? As a red teamer, you learn many techniques and tactics that help you perform the cyber kill chain activities. One such task is privilege escalation, where you get hold of password hashes.

• hashcat is a powerful and versatile tool that brute forces the stored credentials using known hashes by conducting various modes of attacks. The article covers this password cracking utility used by penetration testers, system administrators, spies, or hackers to find passwords.

• VIM is a text editor in the terminal that is presented as an improved version of the mythical Vi. That is why many developers and sysadmin prefer to use it rather than nano or other.

• Ubuntu 20.04 is the latest LTS version of Ubuntu, but it is almost two years since it has been released and some programs are becoming obsolete. That is why many people prefer to take advantage of this moment, to update certain applications.

• One of those applications is VIM that although it has a slow development is continuous and every so often presents us with a new stable version loaded with important improvements.

• This tutorial will be helpful for beginners to install NVIDIA Driver 510.47.03 on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04, and Linux Mint.

• Nvidia released a new Production branch version 510.47.03 for the Unix systems which includes FreeBSD, Solaris, and Linux (Linux x86_64/AMD64/EM64T)

• Butterfs or btrfs is a filesystem. First read the Arch Linux wiki for more background information.

Games

• While the Steam Deck is definitely bigger than most other handhelds, at 1.5 pounds it’s actually lighter than a first-gen iPad (1.6 pounds) or some other recent handhelds like the GPD Win Max or ONEXPLAYER (both are about 1.8 pounds). So the size doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be uncomfortable to hold. But it will certainly be less pocketable than some older devices like the Ngage.

• A new report from Business Insider has highlighted some continuing changes for Google’s cloud gaming service Stadia, and it doesn’t exactly sound good – but it’s also something that was mostly already announced. It’s doing the rounds right now across various other outlets of course, as Stadia has never exactly been popular.

• Get some top quality games, while also helping a charity doing good work in the Humble F*CK CANCER Bundle.

• The wording on the bundle is a bit rubbish, as it says you need to pay at least $10 for 100% to go to charity, but it doesn’t actually let you pay any less – so it will all go to the selected charity. This bundle supports Cancerfonden, a Swedish charity with a main aim to raise and distribute money for cancer research.

• This has become so easy in 2022. In the first 2 minutes of the video you will be setup, then config, and my personal settings on how to use retropi.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• Developer Nate Graham has highlighted more recent work for the KDE Plasma desktop environment (the one the Steam Deck will come with) and it’s all sounding great.

• Continuing their effort to prevent breakage, just like stopping the Discover software centre removing your desktop, Discover now cannot uninstall itself. That’s right, previously Discover was able to end up removing itself from your desktop! Now though, it won’t as there’s new checks in place.

• As a New Year’s resolution, I am taking baby steps to learn KDE Plasma 5.23.5, after installing Tex’s Darkstar minimal ISO (2021.11) on our trusty Dell Latitude E4300 laptop. I also decided to use this chance to reacquaint myself with Skrooge, the KDE-based personal finance program.

• I previously used Skrooge (ver. 0.6.0) as a stopgap in 2010, while KMyMoney became a bit stagnant as its developers ported the KDE 3 version of KMM to KDE 4. Skrooge served me well but I stopped using it when I moved away from KDE. Enough time has elapsed that I have forgotten many of the program’s finer points.

• The current version of Skrooge is 2.26.1. Skrooge was launched in March 2008, so it has been actively developed for 13 years. Its main developer is Stéphane Mankowski, a French engineer / programmer who works as a manager at Airbus, the multinational aerospace corporation. Mankowski is assisted by Guillaume de Bure, a programmer and engineer who is also an Airbus employee.

• Skrooge’s unusual name was inspired by Ebenezer Scrooge, the protagonist of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843). Some people might also catch the reference to Scrooge McDuck, the cartoon character created in 1947 for The Walt Disney Company.1 Ebenezer Scrooge, of course, needs no introduction in the English-speaking world, as the tale of his redemption by three spirits has become one of our most beloved Christmas stories. For non-comics readers, Scrooge McDuck (who happens to be Donald Duck’s uncle) is famous for his extreme thriftiness; he is reputed to own three cubic acres of cash which is stored in a skyscraper-sized Money Bin.

• Skrooge uses single-entry accounting (like HomeBank or Quicken) rather than double-entry principles (GnuCash or KMyMoney). The Skrooge Handbook clarifies that the program is not designed to manage taxes, nor does it have small-business functionality.2 However, Skrooge is robust and perfectly adequate for home / personal accounting.

• A complete tutorial is beyond the scope of this article; if you would like an in-depth presentation of Skrooge, please consult the “Additional Resources” section on the last page. Today I will limit myself to discussing some features not covered in the current documentation, or which I didn’t fully understand until I began experimenting with them.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• Yesterday, I finally merged the work-in-progress branch porting totem to GStreamer’s GTK GL sink widget, undoing a lot of the work done in 2011 and 2014 to port the video widget and then to finally make use of its features.

• But GTK has been modernised (in GTK3 but in GTK4 even more so), GStreamer grew a collection of GL plugins, Wayland and VA-API matured and clutter (and its siblings clutter-gtk, and clutter-gst) didn’t get the resources they needed to follow.

Distributions

• Dima has created a section of the forum for “Vanilla Dpup” and has itemized how his new pup differs from traditional Puppy…

New Releases

• The NuTyX team is happy to announce the new version of NuTyX 22.02.4 and cards 2.4.144.

• The xorg-server graphics server version 21.1.3, the Mesa 3D library in 21.3.5, Gtk4 4.6.0 and Qt 5.15.2.

• The python interpreters are en 3.10.2 et 2.7.18.

• The XFCE desktop environment is updated to version 4.16.0.

• The MATE desktop environment is a 1.26.0 version .

• The GNOME desktop environment is also updated to version 41.3

• The KDE desktop environment is available in Plasma 5.23.5, Framework 5.90.0 and applications in 21.12.2.

• Available browsers are: Firefox 96.0.3, Chromium 98.0.4758.80, Epiphany 41.3, etc

• Many desktop applications have been updated as well like Telegram-desktop 3.5.0, Thunderbird 91.5.1, Scribus 1.5.8, Libreoffice 7.3.0.3, Gimp 2.10.30, etc.

• Core NuTyX ships with Long Term Support (LTS) kernels: 4.9.299, 4.14.264, 4.19.227, 5.4.176 et 5.10.96 and 5.15.19

BSD

Screenshots/Screencasts

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

• Though I currently live in the Denver metro area, I’m originally from Texas. The longest that I’ve ever lived in a city was Marble Falls, TX for 18 years. (Growing up, we moved a lot!) At any rate, my “computer history” starts in the mid to late 70s, my Mom had an old Kaypro computer, with an old “distro” called “CP/M”. Anyone remember that one? I immediately became interested in it.

• My Mom must have noticed, because in the early 80s, she gave me a TI-994a console. It had cartridges that you could insert to play various games, mostly. If I’m recalling correctly, it boasted a 4KHz processor, along with a hefty 16K of memory. I used my TV as the monitor. I learned “Basic” programming on that computer. One of the first programs I ever wrote on it was a game: Yahtzee. I had a general idea of how to do it, and the crazy thing is, it actually worked! Though it did stress out the processor to go through the 5-nested loop to verify that it actually was a long straight, before awarding the points. Usually it took around 5 minutes — time enough to get a cup of coffee and go to the bathroom.

• From there I had my first IT experience at a gas measurement company, working on a Digital RS11 (if I remember that correctly) that had about 6-7 VT100 terminals connected to it. Though, as in most jobs I’ve had, that wasn’t my only duty, often, not even my primary one. (I was a bookkeeper from 1996 – 2011, mostly.) That’s despite the fact that all that I know comes from experience, not classes or any degree (my college degree was in Religion).

• Obviously, since I was a bookkeeper during those years, I was locked away into the Windows systems, since everyone I worked for used QuickBooks and that program could only run on Windows (as well as Macs, but I never used those much). That said, I did fiddle with Linux during those days. In 2001 or 2, I “attempted” an install of Debian from a stack of CDs I had ordered (that was back in the modem days, it would have taken a couple of days back then, tying up the phone lines, to even think of downloading 1 Gig, much less the 2-3+ of most ISOs now days). I failed to get it up and running, however, mainly because I was looking for starting up the X server, which I did. However, no graphical menu popped up! (Shows you how much I knew about Linux). Indeed, I did get it to boot up into the X environment, but I couldn’t do anything in it. Then, around 2006, I successfully installed Ubuntu onto my old laptop, played around with it for a while, but it was only a passing interest at that time. Around 2011, when my last client who used QuickBooks ended their professional relationship with me, I was free to think more about actually moving to Linux. I discovered dual-boot, so I did, installing Lubuntu alongside Windows. It took me around 2-3 months to figure out how to configure it to my liking, from shortcut keys to replacement programs. The hardest was a replacement for inventory as in Quickbooks. I never did find one, so I created a spreadsheet for it, which I’m in the middle of updating. That was also the time I first met Peter Patterson Mint Spider who I know resides on this forum. {waves} Hi Peter!

• At any rate, I’ve used several different distros since then, and reviewed several on my YouTube channel which I started in August of 2018. Then I came across BDLL, and the community there, and they have gratefully sucked me into their collective. Obviously, that is where I met Alie, or Aris. I mixed those two up as I didn’t realize they weren’t the same person until just yesterday. Hi! But if my memory serves me well (and frequently, it doesn’t) I believe it is Alie. Well, my introduction to PCLinuxOS was on that channel, where we recently, like 3 or 4 weeks ago, reviewed PCLinuxOS. Which has led me here, to this community.

• I currently have 8 computers (two of them my sons, and one of them the original computer I first installed Lubuntu on.) My “daily driver” computer is a fairly new Framework computer. I’ve installed PCLinuxOS BigDaddyTrinity on my son’s Lenovo Legion Gaming Desktop, out in our living room. More about that in Testimonials.

• So, I hope to be able to contribute here some, as well as learn some more about this distro. Thanks for inviting me to come here and post my questions, Peter.

IBM/Red Hat/Fedora

• The first CentOS Dojo of the year is, as usual, held as a FOSDEM Fringe event. It’s virtual – again – which is a blessing and a curse. It would be fun to travel and meet people in person again once the situation permits, then again, given my family situation that would have meant I would have to skip for the next year or two anyway.

• That being said, it was held on Hopin, which has a decent hallway track experience. Nothing much is changing on the platform front – linux.conf.au was on Venueless again, and FOSDEM is again using a bleeding edge Element web client at chat.fosdem.org. I like the Hopin and Element experience, though I admit to a bias – Element because I like decentralized platforms, and Hopin because I know more people among the attendees of events held there. And Hopin is still unpredictably buggy on Firefox!

• In a relatively few short years, Kubernetes has become the de facto orchestration platform for managing software containers, besting a lineup that included such contenders as Docker Swarm and Mesosphere. Since spinning out of Google eight years ago, Kubernetes has developed at a rapid pace, with new releases coming out as often as four times a year.

• Kubernetes also has spawned a range of platforms from the likes of Red Hat (with OpenShift, a key driver of IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat in 2019, VMware (Tanzu), and SUSE (Rancher) and its now being offered as a service via top public cloud companies Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as others.

• That said, there are continuing signs of maturation and stabilization in Kubernetes, which is under the auspices of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). For one, the torrid pace of the release cycle is beginning to ease, from four releases a year to about three. And now, there is talk among those within the Kubernetes project about possibly rolling out longer-term support releases, according to Brian Gracely, senior director of product strategy for OpenShift at Red Hat.

Debian Family

• This month I accepted 342 and rejected 57 packages. The overall number of packages that got accepted was 366.

• Lately I was asked: Is it ftpmaster’s opinion and policy that there is no difference in NEW queue review process between bin and src?

• One of the core components of the platform is the Linux kernel. In light of the earlier CentOS announcements, the community decided to move over to Debian in an incremental process. In the 6.0 release, this means to upgrade to the 5.10 version of the kernel.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

•  Ubuntu Linux has been synonymous with user-friendly for a very long time. With each release, the desktop offers something new along with the usual reliability found in Canonical’s operating system. And when Jammy Jellyfish (22.04) is unleashed, users will find a mixture of old and new, something that is especially salient within the realm of GNOME.

• Let me explain.

Devices/Embedded

Open Hardware/Modding

• Faced with an old console stereo from the 1960s that was barely functional, [Sherman Banks] aka W4ATL decided to upgrade its guts while keeping its appearance as close to the original as possible. This stereo set is a piece of mahogany furniture containing an AM/FM stereo receiver and an automatic turntable from JCPenny’s Penncrest line. As best [Sherman] can determine, it is most likely a 1965 model. The old electronics were getting more and more difficult to repair and the tuner was drifting off-station every 15 minutes. He didn’t want to throw it away, so he decided to replace all the innards.

• The first thing was to tear out the old electronics while retaining the chassis proper. The new heart of the entertainment center is a modern Denon AV stereo receiver. This unit can be controlled over Ethernet, has a radio tuner, inputs for SiriusXM and a turntable, and supports Bluetooth streaming. [Sherman] next replaced the 1965 turntable, and then turned his attention to connecting up the controls and indicators.

• I was on the FLOSS podcast (for the Episode of the Beast no less!) and we were talking all about Hackaday. One of the hosts, secretly Hackaday’s own Jonathan Bennett in disguise, asked me what the weirdest hack I’d ever seen on Hackaday was. Weird?!?!

• I was caught like a deer in headlights. None of our hacks are weird! Or maybe all of them are? I dunno, it certainly depends on your perspective. Is it weird to build a box that makes periodic meowing noises to hid in a friend’s closet? Is it weird to design new and interesting wheels for acrobats to roll themselves around in? Is it weird to want a rainbow-colored USB DIP switch? Is it weird that these are all posts from the last week?

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Another technique is for companies to extend R&D opportunities to young developers; then, when these creators present their innovations, the company cuts them loose and creates its own version. Google ATAP and X Labs, the R&D divisions of Google’s parent company Alphabet, have made this their speciality, but Facebook does it too.

• Why have copyleft licences such as the GPL failed to protect the open-source world from Big Tech predation? Partly because Google took them over and torpedoed them. Google built its domination by using the Linux kernel as the basis of the Android operating system for smartphones. But the public licence obliged Google to publish the source code of its modifications to this free software, so Google developed its own operating system, Fuchsia, which is not subject to a copyleft licence.

• The GPL has also suffered from the development of cloud computing: the storage and processing of data on remote servers rather than on users’ devices. Most copyleft licences, including the GPL, only guarantee access to, modification of, and redistribution of the source code of software if it is distributed to users — in other words, transferred and installed on their devices. But they do not apply when the software runs on Big Tech’s servers because the software is not downloaded, but used remotely.

• The FOSS world tried to create effective copyleft licences against ‘cloudification’ (with, for example, the Affero General Public Licence), but Google fought it tooth and nail. Had it been adopted by many players, this licence would have forced Google and others to share the source code of software running on their servers, even for users accessing the software remotely. As a result, Google has simply banned its use in its products.

• An application server is computer software which provides the business logic for an application program. It offers services such as management of large distributed systems, data services, load balancing, transaction support, and network security. The application server is one part of a three-tier application, consisting of a graphical interface server, an application (business logic) server, and a database / transaction server. Many application servers support the Java platform, but they can be found in other environments.

FSF

GNU Projects

• Milford Public Library is hosting a tutorial for the free image editing program, GIMP on Thursday, February 10.

• The GNU Image Manipulation Program is getting better with every release, even creeping up on Photoshop at this point! We will discuss how to read a histogram and apply that to make your images look better by using the tools, and menu options available. We will cover downloading and configuration, as well as cropping, color correction, contrast, sharpening, and the saving and exporting options available.

Programming/Development

• There are several reasons I like Rails’ fixtures for testing. One such reason is that modeling a small world gives you instant data for seeding your database.

• If you always skip fixtures for factories when working with Rails, you are missing out!

• A game engine is a framework that facilitates game development, using a range of tools designed for game development. Some game engines may call these tools nodes, others may call them APIs, but they all work together to enhance your game development experience.

• The last decade has seen a massive increase in both video gamers and the amount of time spent playing video games. So, there’s undoubtedly a lively market for new and exciting video games. If you have a development background, a small budget, and a great game idea—but don’t know where to start—you’re in the right place.

• Have you ever wished programming were more like an action movie? If you answered yes, then I have the language for you.

• While wandering the internet to find the most obscure and fun open source languages, I came across ArnoldC. ArnoldC is an imperative programming language where the basic keywords are replaced with quotes from various Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.

• For this tutorial, I’ll be using a Debian-based operating system with Terminator and the Vim editor. While you follow this tutorial, I would highly recommend rewatching some older Schwarzenegger films just for fun!

• I notice that this site has a tendency to extol the virtues of C++ as a programming language. As someone who has worked with C++ and who has followed the debate around its use for a long time, I think it’s time to set the record straight.

• The truth is that C++ is one of the worst languages ever foisted on the industry. Far from being used in modern trading systems, C++ should now only be used for legacy projects. It is based around machine thinking, which is not programming thinking.

• Major concerns of devs when choosing a Linux distro for programming are compatibility, power, and stability. Here are the top picks.

Java

• This week’s Java roundup for January 24th, 2021, features news from OpenJDK, JDK 18, JDK 19, Projects Loom and Panama, Jakarta EE, Groovy 4.0, Spring Framework updates, Micronaut 3.3.0, GraalVM 22.0 CE, Liberica NIK, MicroProfile Reactive Streams Operators 3.0-RC1, Hibernate updates, JHipster 7.6, IntelliJ IDEA 2021.3.2, JReleaser early-access, Apache Camel and Camel K, and Foojay.io at FOSDEM.

Leftovers

Science

• Exactly ten years ago, a BIG Wikipedia fan complained about one occurrence of a general issue that is still present, and should always be well known by any user of the great online encyclopedia.

• Believe it or not, exactly ten years ago a self-described “BIG Wikipedia fan” complained because pornstars were more notable than scientists on Wikipedia):

• “Despite my affection for Wikipedia this week I am annoyed about what’s going on for me on Wikipedia. I [did my best to master] the complexities of contributing articles. At present however my contributions on Wikipedia regarding scientists and projects I know about have all been flagged, either for deletion or for “notability”.

Hardware

• It’s a special gut-dropping, grumbly moment that most who use 3d printers know all too well. When you check on your 13-hour print, only to see that it failed printing several hundred layers ago. [Stephan] from [CNC Kitchen] has a few clever tricks to resume failed prints.

• It starts when you discover your print has failed and whether the part is still attached to the bed. If it has detached, the best you can do is whip out your calipers to get a reasonably accurate measurement of how much has been printed. Then slice off the already printed section, print the remainder, and glue the two parts together. If your part is attached to your print bed and you haven’t shifted the plate (if it is removable), start by removing any blemishes on the top layer. That will make it smooth and predictable as it’s starting a new print, just on top of an existing one. Measuring the height that has been printed is tricky since you cannot remove it. Calipers of sufficient length can use their depth function, but you might also be able to do a visual inspection if the geometry is unique enough. After you load up your model in a G-Code viewer, go through it layer by layer until you find what matches what has already been printed.

• We’re all aware that there are plenty of fake components to be found if you’re prepared to look in the right places, and that perhaps too-good-to-be-true chip offers on auction sites might turn out to have markings which rub off to reveal something completely different underneath. [IMSAI Guy] saw a batch of OP-07 laser-trimmed op-amps at a bargain price, so picked them up for an investigation. You can take a look at the video below the break.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• The pandemic was hard on the kids’ original Cub Scout pack. Through the attrition caused by the pandemic, their pack was merged with another pack in town. So this year, Ryan is a Wolf Cub Scout, and Lexi is old enough to be an official Lion Cub Scout.

• Their cars this year didn’t fare as well as they did the previous time they participated in the Pinewood Derby. And dad learned a lesson, as well. Get the cars as close as possible to the five ounce (about 140 grams) weight limit without going over. I tried to keep it under the five ounce weight limit, just in case the official scale at the weigh-in was off from my scale at home (they are both digital scales, so there shouldn’t be that much variance). I undershot the weight limit by too large of a margin, which sacrificed speed.

• Of course, there’s a whole “science” to making the Pinewood Derby cars so they go as fast as possible. Just search on YouTube, and you’ll find a lot of videos devoted to just this very topic. Applying slight bends to the axles, using graphite lubricant on the axles, raising one wheel ever so slightly so there are only three wheels in contact with the race track, placing your weights just so, paying attention to the center of balance. The list could go on and on and on.

• [...]

• My wife was in quarantine for a breakthrough COVID infection (that me and the kids, thankfully, never showed any symptoms of having).

Integrity/Availability

Proprietary

Security

• Network administrators and software developers with applications using the Samba suite of utilities are urged to install the latest patches after the discovery of a serious vulnerability.

• According to the U.S. CERT Co-ordination Center, the vulnerability (CVE-2021-44142) in the Samba vfs_fruit module allows out-of-bounds heap read and write via extended file attributes.

• CISA has added eight new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, based on evidence that threat actors are actively exploiting the vulnerabilities listed in the table below. These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors of all types and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise.

• Welcome to the January 2022 report from the Reproducible Builds project. In our reports, we try outline the most important things that have been happening in the past month. As ever, if you are interested in contributing to the project, please visit our Contribute page on our website.

Privacy/Surveillance

• Facebook tracks people. Facebook tracks EVERYONE. Even non-users. As it tracks you across the web, it vacuums up as much of your private personal data as it can, as fast as it can. Facebook … er, “Meta” … tracks your and my movement across the web by embedding small, invisible, 1×1 tracking pixels on web pages. When those pixels are loaded on a web page, they vacuum up all kinds of data that you probably don’t want shared, and that you have no idea may even be available.

• Well, a group of journalists from The Markup have teamed up with Mozilla researchers to try to map Facebook’s pixel-based tracking network. They want to try to gain an understanding of just what of your private personal data is being collected. The journalists from The Markup will use the anonymized data for an investigative report about the kinds of information Facebook, and where it collects it all from. The “study” runs until July 13, 2022.

• Facebook’s “privacy policy” (there’s an oxymoron) states that Facebook may collect information about you as you travel across the web, even if you don’t have a Facebook account. Now exactly how that’s legal is beyond me, since non-users (hello! … I’m over here!) never agreed to Facebook’s “privacy policy” or data collection mechanisms.

• “Three times faster than Chrome. Better privacy by default than Firefox. Uses 35% less battery on mobile.” This is how Brave Browser presents itself. But, is it really true?

• Brave browser was created as a derivative of Chromium, the open source version of Google Chrome Browser. It was released in 2016, and came with many promises: Privacy, speed, and rewards for users, BAT’s (Basic Attention Tokens), a form of cryptocurrency, which, according to the browser’s creators, rewards creators and users.

Environment

Energy

• Energy inequity is an issue of increasing urgency. Few policy-relevant datasets evaluate the energy burden of typical American households. Here, we develop a framework using Net Energy Analysis and household socioeconomic data to measure systematic energy inequity among critical groups that need policy attention. We find substantial instances of energy poverty in the United States – 16% of households experience energy poverty as presently defined as spending more than 6% of household income on energy expenditures. More than 5.2 million households above the Federal Poverty Line face energy poverty, disproportionately burdening Black, Hispanic, and Native American communities. For solar, wind, and energy efficiency to address socioeconomic mobility, programs must reduce energy expenditures by expanding eligibility requirements for support and access to improved conservation measures, efficiency upgrades, and distributed renewables. We recommend the United States develop a more inclusive federal energy poverty categorization that increases assistance for household energy costs.

Finance

• US Savings Bonds. If you were a kid in the 90s and you had parents that wanted to teach you about investing and interest rates, they probably took you down to the bank to buy some with your allowance or paper route money.

• Or maybe you got one when you won the spelling bee at school. You probably thought it was pretty lame back then. Instead of a Nintendo game, you had a bond that you had to hold onto to cash in at some point in the future. With interest, but kids, and many adults today, demand instant gratification. And compounding interest is a force of nature, but it accumulates over time.

• With the Federal Reserve Bank System keeping interest rates low, ostensibly to “stimulate” the economy, but really just continuing to “hit” a flatlined patient long after the doctors should have called the time, it’s time to consider income-based investments.

• The stock market is down. It’s still massively overvalued. We’re back to valuations we haven’t seen since the 90s, and it’s taking lots of inflation to keep this show apparently on the road. It’s like Japan’s Lost Decade.

• I got an ad on Facebook for an app called Jerry, to compare car insurance quotes. I tried it out so you don’t have to.

• I’m currently with Metromile, and I doubt anyone will do much better.

• It turns out that the Jerry app doesn’t do much better.

• It claims it found you “savings”, but then when you look at the quotes, they’re actually for state minimum policies from questionable companies.

• At first, Jerry told me it could get me a policy for $27 a month with Mercury Insurance, based in Vernon Hills, Illinois.

• But when I told it to quote me with the level of coverage I had with Metromile, it would actually be $57 a month. $17 more, on an average month.

• Operating costs, pollution, countless hours spent in traffic or hunting for parking spots, driving getting less glamourous every year… for hundreds of millions of people there are already LOTS of reason to stop owning a car, or to never do it if they are young. This year, another reason is getting closer: car companies hoping to make billions by charging monthly fees for add-on features like heated seats, that they could turn on or off remotely, depending on your payments:

Censorship/Free Speech

Civil Rights/Policing

• Responding to today’s sentencing of Moroccan journalist and government critic Omar Radi to six years in prison after a trial marred by blatant breaches of due process in relation to charges of espionage and rape, Amna Guellali, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director, said:

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• As you can see by yourself from the screenshot taken this year, after ten years only, NONE of those 45 “powerful photos” is visible anymore. In only ten years.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

• On behalf of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition (“The Repair Association”), an organization representing over 400 member companies across a variety of industries, I’m writing to ask for your support of consumer choice and right to repair by advancing H.R.3664 – Save Money on Auto Repair Transportation (SMART) Act. The Repair Association is centered around a simple principle: consumers should have the right to repair the products they own. We believe that competition is an essential component of any market, including automotive repairs, and is better for consumers. We are dedicated to fighting against anti-competitive practices that stifle innovation, restrict small businesses, and disadvantage consumers, regardless of industry.

• Right to repair is a growing, consumers-first movement that is expanding as more people recognize that the law should put consumers first. Growing momentum around repair restrictions for electronics and consumer appliances has spurred companies like Microsoft and Apple to commit to take action to expand their repair offerings. There’s much more work to be done. According to a new national survey from the CAR Coalition, an overwhelming majority (78%) of vehicle-owning voters support federal right to repair legislation that protects against design patent abuse in the automotive industry, such as the SMART Act, and makes vehicle data more readily available. The Repair Association believes the SMART Act is an essential step forward in answering consumers’ call for stronger right to repair protections in the automotive repair industry and would serve as an example to other industries.

• Right to Repair legislation is clearing new milestones as never before. We are 4 for 4 in committee hearings so far this year. MA, NE, MN and WA are moving ahead in the legislative process with increasingly strong support.

• More legislation was officially filed this week as well. Georgia filed a comprehensive Right to Repair bill, Maryland did the same. Colorado filed a wheelchair right to repair measure and Michigan added their efforts for farmers. This brings the total number of states with active legislation to 21 – far ahead of our expectations in what is normally an “off” year.

• Also new this week are several new federal efforts that have been in the works for several months. Rep Mondaire Jones (D-NY) and Rep Victoria Spartz (R-IN) teamed up in a non-partisan effort intended to remove the last lingering copyright office limitations on repair and repair tools.

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