● 04.03.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 03/04/2023: FreeBSD 13.2 RC6 and Haiku Depot Server Technology Modernisation

Posted in News Roundup at 3:21 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

• User accounts are a key concept on Linux. Primarily, they help you manage access control on your system. In addition, they allow multiple users to log in at any given time, and they are critical for the security of a system.

• Without user accounts, it would be hard to control who has access to what part of a Linux system. Linux has four main types of user accounts. Here’s everything you need to know about them.

• The last week of March was full of great news, especially for Ubuntu users who got the beta version of the upcoming Ubuntu 23.04 release, a major Ubuntu Touch update for their Linux phones and tablets, and a new official flavor, namely Ubuntu Cinnamon.

• But this week brought a lot of other goodies like a new major Blender update, a new Linux laptop for gamers from System76, and much more. Check out the hottest news of this week and access all the distro and package downloads in 9to5Linux’s Linux weekly roundup for April 2nd, 2023, below.

• We cover user groups that are running in the US state of Illinois. This article forms part of our Linux Around The World series.

Audiocasts/Shows

• Musing about command names, replacement commands, and system-wide functions.

• shasum -a256=fba235f6df4d8b4e8403d42d1f10e777ed9ed2594a74074e1db62f952d7bc7ee

• A Fully Automated voice control system for MakuluLinux, this is our second Teaser Video, Enjoy …

• Listen now (48 min) | Modular laptops! Tech Layoffs! Linux-powered Street Curbs! Pure insanity!

Kernel Space

• The 6.3-rc5 kernel prepatch is out for testing. “”This release continues to appear very normal and boring, which is just how I like it. The commit count says that we’ve started calming down right on schedule, and the diffstat looks normal too.””

Applications

• Collabora Online is an open source office suite for the cloud or on-premises that protects your privacy and allows you to keep full control of your data. The software is developed by Collabora Productivity Ltd, in Cambridge, with its team working in locations worldwide. Collabora Online is based on LibreOffice Technology and is primarily licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.

• Collabora Online works in any modern web browser, requiring no additional plug-ins or add-ons. It features a complete cloud-based office suite, including a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet program (Calc), presentation software (Impress), and an application for designing vector graphics (Draw).

• We recommend the best free and open source software for taking screenshots.

• We wrote 2 diary entries about new features in release candidates of YARA 4.3.0.

Instructionals/Technical

• Many of us are exiting another drab, grey winter season. As Spring ramps up and the colors of the world awaken all around us, maybe now is the time to make your Xubuntu desktop just a bit more colorful. Since Xubuntu uses GTK, you can quickly spice up your writing with emoji by using the Ctrl + . keyboard shortcut.

• If you’re looking for a Kubernetes platform that is tailored for hybrid multicloud, KubeSphere might be just the tool…

• In this tutorial, we will walk you through the process of generating SSH keys on Linux, which is one of the most common operating systems used for server administration and development. By following these steps, you will be able to generate SSH keys and use them to securely access remote servers.

• This comprehensive guide will take you through the installation process and introduce you to the essential aspects of using Fish Shell on your Ubuntu machine. By the time you’re done, you’ll be navigating the command line with unparalleled ease and efficiency.

• Are you looking to enhance your Pop!_OS experience by seamlessly switching between light and dark modes? Look no further! This guide will walk you through the simple process of toggling between these two themes, allowing you to optimize your display for any lighting environment.

• The current MySQL server version to install through the Ubuntu 22.04 repository is 8.0, however, for some reason, if you need MySQL 5.7 then in this tutorial we learn how to install that.

• Business owners should consider website security as one of their top priorities. The security of Websites can be implemented in many ways, and SSL/TLS certificates are a key part. Through these protocols, sensitive information transmitted between clients and servers is encrypted to prevent unauthorized access.

• Go, also known as Golang, is an open-source programming language developed by Google engineers Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson. First released in 2009, it has since gained popularity due to its simplicity, efficiency, and modern features. Go is particularly well-suited for concurrent programming, which enables it to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

• BBR, or Bottleneck Bandwidth and Round-trip propagation time, is a congestion control algorithm developed by Google. It aims to improve network performance by effectively managing the available bandwidth and minimizing latency, resulting in a faster, more stable, and smoother internet experience.

• As a Linux Mint user, you know this operating system’s many advantages: stability, security, and customizability.

• Krita is a powerful, open-source digital painting and illustration software that has become popular among artists, designers, and creators. It offers a rich feature set, including: Linux Mint users may find Krita particularly appealing due to its seamless compatibility with the Linux environment and its commitment to open-source principles.

• If you’re a Linux Mint user looking for a versatile and powerful digital painting application, look no further than MyPaint. This open-source application is designed to provide a smooth and intuitive painting experience while harnessing the full potential of your creativity.

WINE or Emulation

Wine development release 8.5 is now available for Linux FreeBSD and macOSThe Wine development release 8.5 is now available. What’s new in this release: Bundled vkd3d upgraded to version 1.7.Better error reporting in the IDL compiler.Support for shared Wow64 Classes registry key.More cleanups in IME support.Support for configuring a WinRT dark theme.Various bug fixes.The source is available now.

• Even if you’re not a Windows user, you never know when you might need Windows to run a certain software. For instance, did you know TurboTax for Business is only available on Windows?

Games

• It’s time for another Crosswords release. This is a somewhat quieter release on the surface as it doesn’t have as many user-visible changes. But like the last release, a lot happened under the hood in preparation for the next phase.

• This release marks a change in focus. I’ve shifted my work to the editor instead of the game. I hadn’t given the editor much attention over the past year and it’s overdue for updates. I have a lot of features planned for it; it’s time to make progress on them.

• As a gaming enthusiast, the rush of hosting your dedicated server is unmatched.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• GNOME’s philosophy is sophisticated and there is a lot of room for forgetting important information, as design and user experience are, in my opinion, really difficult to understand, while being really easy to misunderstand as well.

• For starters, I will explain the key focus of GNOME. Then, I will be explaining and elaborating on how GNOME approaches it. I will also share my opinion on that matter.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Something which regularly floated through my mind while using Alpine Linux was this experience reminded me of why I started using Linux regularly in the first place, back in the 1990s. Back then, when Windows 98 was king of the desktop market, I was running a minimal Linux distribution at home. The Linux experience was unusually light, clean, flexible, and transparent. It was something I could examine, tweak, and it just did what I told it to do, nothing more or less. There was a pleasant simplicity to the experience.

• Alpine Linux is like that. It’s small, light, and super fast. There are utilities which make the system easier to use (such as the APK package manager and OpenRC), but these tools just perform one task – well and quickly. They don’t try to add a lot of features or guess what I want them to do. Alpine has an unusually clean design while also supplying tools to make our lives easier.

• Dear Gable, If you just wanted to place a plug for your system of choice, like any good fan-boy would, you are welcome to do so.  But when this plug (a form of an informal advertisement for free in web-land) includes inaccuracies, false characterizations, and right-out lies, you open up an area of criticism….

EasyOS

• I have updated these two pages:

• https://easyos.org/tech/how-easy-works.html

• https://easyos.org/tech/how-easy-works-part-2.html

• Something that perhaps not everyone knows, especially if you come from a background of using SeaMonkey. Clicking the “page refresh” or “reload” button in Firefox and Chromium, does not completely refresh that page. It is perhaps unfortunate, but to get a complete page refresh, you have to hold down the CRTL key then click the “page refresh” button.

• A few days ago, don570 reported mhWaveEdit sound recorder and editor not working properly:

• https://bkhome.org/news/202303/appimage-installer-now-parsing-json-file.html

• Thanks to Jon (scsijon in the forum), who found a couple of alternatives, including gWaveEdit:

• https://github.com/wdlkmpx/gWaveEdit

• gWaveEdit is a fork of mhWaveEdit, and ‘wdlkmpx’ is a long-time contributor to Puppy Linux.

• This article is cross-posted from Andrew Lindesay’s blog here.

• Java technology has been moving forward much faster in recent years with more frequent updates. Java 17 Long Term Support (LTS) was introduced in September 2021 and will be followed by Java 21 LTS in September 2023.

• With HaikuDepotServer (HDS) still on Java 11 introduced in September 2018, it was time to upgrade to 17 and then also make the transition from Spring 5 to SpringBoot 3 which was released in November 2022. Spring is a base technology for SpringBoot with SpringBoot providing more configuration and functionality by convention.

• These upgrades will bring HDS up to date with the current state of the art in backend Java and allow HDS to be maintained more easily going forward.

• The following are the main blocks of work undertaken to complete this modernisation.

BSD

Slackware Family

• News for people who no longer read paper books!

Fedora Family / IBM

• Fedora 38 Breaks Accelerated Video Playback in Firefox.

• WordPress.com breaks logins in SeaMonkey.

• It’s a double feature today.

• Apparently, in Fedora 38, they’ve made it so if you’ve already performed surgery on the rest of Fedora to re-enable accelerated video decode on your computer, with the new mesa-drivers-freeworld package on RPM Fusion (if you have non-Intel hardware) or the pile of Intel-media-driver packages, as well as the gstreamer1-vaapi packages, Firefox as an RPM or Fedora Flatpak won’t play video using hardware acceleration, so things become a slideshow.

Debian Family

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Events

• The KDEPIM team like most got impacted by the pandemic and had to let go of lovely traditions. One of those being to meet in Toulouse at the beginning of spring. The last one was in 2019 so reviving that meeting was long overdue.

• The Call for Refereed Presentation Proposals for the 2023 edition of the Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC) is now open. We plan to hold LPC in Richmond Virginia on November 13-15, 2023.

• Submitters should ideally be able to give their presentation in person, although presenting remotely will be possible if necessary. Expectation is that the presentation will be done live in either case, to maximize audience interaction. Please see our website or social media for regular updates.

Web Browsers/Web Servers

• So this week I landed a few patches that completely removed XUL layout from the Firefox codebase.

• This means that (modulo a few exceptions documented below) all the Firefox UI is using regular web technology to render (mostly CSS flexbox).

Programming/Development

• “Life is what happens in the space between”. Indeed, since the last update article a world pandemic has passed, truces have been signed in some countries, new wars have started in others, climate is going increasingly haywire, and the global political and economic turmoils have led to protests and revolts in countless places. The world keeps moving and I’m but a tiny spec in the grand scheme of things. Yet, you’re reading this article, so you’re interested about what I’ve been up to!

• A new major revision of the C language standard, C23, is due out this year. We’ll tour the highs and lows of the latest draft9 and then drill down on the mother of all breaking changes. Sidebars celebrate C idioms and undefined behavior with code and song, respectively.

• My learning project was a Wordle Guess Generator. I will show you how I used this project to create a self-guided learning plan. Motivated partly by my desire to have good guesses for Septle (a seven-letter guessing game), this project has been a crucial part of my journey to learn R. Practicing and learning coding skills were more important to me than devising the optimal strategy; if you are interested in “the best” Wordle strategy, then you will probably find much better answers by Googling.

• I learned how to put functions in a separate file and call them from my many script. This can make long code much easier to read. Here, I’ve included the helper functions in-line and commented out the source(“code/helper-functions.R”) in the main code. I’ve also set up switchable troubleshooting help with verbose and debug_detail parameters in my functions. Setting them to TRUE provide more info as the functions are executed.

• After two and a half decades in information security, I’ve witnessed countless failures in security efforts. Most of them can be traced back to either asking the wrong questions or lacking the necessary context for effective action. Enter AI, which promises to address these shortcomings with two fundamental advantages: Context and Question-based security products.

Python

• Lambda functions are a powerful feature in Python that enables you to create small, anonymous, single-use functions. They are often used when a simple operation is required, like sorting or filtering a list.

• Lambda functions, also known as anonymous functions, are a powerful feature in Python that allows you to create small, single-use functions without the need for a full function definition. They are particularly useful for simple operations, making your code more concise and readable.

• A small update to plugin_msi_info to change the output format a bit. And you can select your preferred hash algorithm with environment variable DSS_DEFAULT_HASH_ALGORITHMS. oledump_V0_0_74.zip (http)MD5: FD4D73F0C1A6BE43406381C13C128D5ESHA256: 1683635FD3250DF43E2CA31C60C2C81B507B1E233C5D91C2671D147C7FD8BD14

• By now, you know that your idea has been rejected, but it came with suggestions for any future ideas. You thought you could be more useful if everyone gets it in the same way, but that will also cause more maintenance burden to the upstream authors in the future. I personally tried to stay with you during this 5 year+ long journey. A lot happened in life during that time. You helped me to make new friends, and helped many young ones during the workshops.

Standards/Consortia

• Barcodes were initially patented by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver in the United States in 1952.

• But it wasn’t until nearly two decades later, in 1971, that US engineer George Laurer perfected the technology and moves towards its commercialisation began.

• On April 3, 1973 the standard to identify products was agreed by a number of large retailers and food companies. It later became known as EAN-13, which stands for European Article Number and the number of digits in the barcode.

Leftovers

• I am surprised what you can do with QRP if the band conditions are going up to the sun spot maximum … It is really fun to work only with 10 Watts.

• Papua New Guinea struck by 7 magnitude earthquake.

Science

• Apps like DALL-E and Midjourney are making it easier and easier to create realistic-looking images using artificial intelligence. In this video, Derek Thomson shares four tips on how to detect them, but warns that the technology is improving fast.

Education

• Over 50 Finnish researchers in education sociology and education policy have written a comprehensive analysis of Finnish primary schools. The openly available book reveals the truth about Finland’s famous primary school education system, highlighting the key issue of segregation and offering solutions to tackle the problem.

• As previously celebrated for its success in PISA rankings, Finland is now seeing a decline in learning outcomes,

• After floating the idea pre-election, Labor said it won’t try using phone jammers to target students.

Hardware

• AMD stands behind JEDEC to help push the adoption of MRDIMM, an open standard that will substantially boost bandwidth on buffered DIMMs.

• In my retro collection is a Pentium 3 based computer which I will be blogging about once I finish building it completely.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• Autistic journalist Kay Kerr has followed the love lives of five autistic people in her new book Love & Autism.

• Fungi are a public health blind spot.

• The prevalence of work-related stress has increased significantly during the COVID-19 years, according to a follow-up study conducted by the Turku University occupational health department with the support of the Finnish Work Environment Fund. The researchers found that perceived stress has become more common, especially among teaching and healthcare professionals. About 40% of employees in these fields experience work-related stress.

• Danes have experienced one of the biggest increases in life expectancy in Europe over the past two decades, according to figures from the European statistical office Eurostat, analysed by Sampension.

• Ramadan has just begun, and I’ve noticed an increase in non-Muslims saying they are participating. Whenever I ask any of them what their rationale is for subjecting themselves to a full month of fasting, they say it’s about showcasing their willpower, establishing solidarity with their Muslim friends or attempting to lose weight.

Proprietary

• Authorities in Italy have blocked chatbot ChatGPT with immediate effect in the country.

• With this, Italy became the first European country to block the advanced Artificial Intelligence software, which is capable of emulating and elaborate human conversations among other actions.

Security

• A ransomware attack targeted the Jefferson County School System over Spring Break.

• A news release states the district’s technology team took immediate steps to stop the attack and notified state and local authorities. Preliminary investigations have not revealed any evidence of a breach of sensitive personally identifiable information. However, the district will continue to investigate any possibility of compromised data and notify stakeholders accordingly if discovered. Outside cybersecurity experts and law enforcement officials are assisting.

• DataBreaches has not reviewed the entire leak but has seen employee-related files with personnel and payroll information for former and current employees, such as Social Security numbers, pay rate, etc., patient files with medical histories, diagnoses, treatment plans, test results, and health insurance billing records with policy information, dates of services, CPT codes, and amounts charged. No large employee-related or EMR databases were seen in the cursory review of files.

• DataBreaches will continue to monitor the situation, but it is already clear that MGH will have some notifications to make to employees, patients, and regulators.

• Josh and Kurt talk about OpenAI having a bug in ChatGPT, then they tried to blame open source. It didn’t go very well. In this episode Josh and Kurt argue a lot, maybe someday we’ll know who was the least wrong.

Privacy/Surveillance

• The Biden administration has been trying to choke off use of hacking tools made by the Israeli firm NSO. It turns out that not every part of the government has gotten the message.

Defence/Aggression

• A federal judge for the US District Court of Minnesota Friday struck down a Minnesota law requiring individuals to be at least 21 to obtain a permit to carry a handgun in public.

• The multi-purpose Patria AMV vehicles are manufactured in Poland under a license from the Finnish defence contractor.

• The head of Russia’s Wagner private military company on Monday claimed the capture of the east Ukraine town of Bakhmut “in a legal sense”, saying his units had taken the main city administration building. The fight for Bakhmut is the longest battle of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Russian and Ukrainian forces have invested heavily in the struggle for Bakhmut even though analysts say the city carries little strategic value. Follow our live blog for all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine.

• Huddled in basements just over a mile away from the front lines of Avdiivka, over 1,800 residents are refusing to be rescued from one of the most active battlegrounds in eastern Ukraine.

• The attack came after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that permitting Moscow its monthlong presidency of the Security Council showed “the complete bankruptcy of such institutions.”

• Maria Lvova-Belova says she is running a humanitarian evacuation of abandoned Ukrainian children. The International Criminal Court accuses her of abducting them wholesale.

• Known for her quiet pragmatism, Tsai Ing-wen has ushered in a new era of American cooperation as worries about Chinese aggression rise.

• I learned Ukrainian just like my grandparents learned Russian—only there was no shame or pressure for me. I was restoring what my family had lost.

• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), General Secretary on Friday said that Finland’s inclusion will strengthen the intergovernmental military alliance and added that the body hopes to welcome Sweden as full member soon.

• In a video shared by the official Twitter account of NATO Spokesperson, Oana Lungescu, the NATO General Secretary, Jens Stoltenberg, is heard welcoming and congratulating Finland.

• More than 280,000 Ukrainians have escaped the war through a program meant to resettle them into the homes of Americans. But not everyone has found a safe or welcoming place to stay.

• Huddled in basements just over a mile away from the front lines of Avdiivka, over 1,800 residents are refusing to be rescued from one of the most active battlegrounds in eastern Ukraine.

• Vladlen Tatarsky represented a radical wing of pro-invasion bloggers and activists who backed Moscow’s war but also criticized what they saw as the flaws in the Russian Army.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has blasted Russia’s assumption of the presidency of the UN Security Council as an “absurd and destructive” development and said that it proves “the complete bankruptcy of international institutions.”

• Ukraine expressed outrage as Russia assumed its monthlong presidency of the UN Security Council on April 1.

• Russia’s war against Ukraine has claimed the lives of 262 Ukrainian athletes and destroyed 363 sports facilities, the country’s sports minister, Vadym Huttsait, said on April 1.

• A military adviser to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) died of his injuries after an Israeli air strike near Syria’s capital, the Iranian semiofficial Mehr news agency reported on April 2.

• Protesters took to the streets of Kosovo’s capital in support of ex-President Hashim Thaci and other former Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) leaders who are set to face trial on war crimes charges in The Hague beginning on April 3.

• Well-known Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed by a bomb blast in a St. Petersburg cafe on April 2 in what appeared to be the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure closely associated with the war in Ukraine.

• A Moscow court has suspended the work of the Anglo-American School (AAS) for 90 days for allegedly violating Russian educational requirements.

• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Russia to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained last week, and American Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018.

• Burial (Kapinynas), directed by Emilija Škarnulytė

• The similarities between Ukraine’s war with Russia today and that experienced by Finland some eighty years ago are hard to ignore. While Moscow continues its attempts to stop Kyiv joining NATO, its aggression has only encouraged Helsinki to join the alliance. Alex Gordon writes for the New Eastern Europe magazine, partners of LRT English.

• Russia will not send fencers to an Olympic qualifier event in Poland this month because of “unacceptable” conditions, the head of Russia’s Fencing federation was quoted by Russian media as saying on April 2.

• The British Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update on April 2 that alcohol abuse was among the noncombat causes of many deaths among Russian troops deployed in Ukraine.

• Ukrainian officials say about two dozen civilians were killed and wounded as Russia continued its shelling of civilian-populated areas in the east and south of the country.

• U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who was freed from a Russian penal colony in a prisoner exchange last year, has urged the Biden administration to keep using “every tool possible” to win the release of a U.S. reporter accused of spying in Russia.

• Richard Sharp, aka “Famous Richard,” a reputed gangbanger who has been taunting and threatening the NYPD on social media, wasn’t letting up on Sunday.

• Three British men have been detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan, UK non-profit group the Presidium Network said on Saturday. The group said on Twitter it had been “working closely with two of the families”.

• Three British men have been detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan, U.K. nonprofit group the Presidium Network said on April 1.

• Satellite imagery has indicated a high level of activity at North Korea’s main nuclear complex after leader Kim Jong Un ordered the production of weapons-grade nuclear material be ramped up, a US think tank said.

• By Edgar Calderon Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and her Guatemalan counterpart, Alejandro Giammattei, on Saturday took in the jungle ruins of a Mayan civilization citadel where they observed an ancient ritual before a massive stone pyramid known as El Gran Jaguar.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

• The South Australian District Court has dealt a fatal blow to public sector whistleblowing, basically making it impossible for anyone to safely blow the whistle. Rex Patrick explains the public interest travesty.

Environment

• Dozens of nearby homes were evacuated as firefighters hurried to contain the blaze on one of Seoul’s most popular hiking sites.

Energy/Transportation

• Parisians voted Sunday in a referendum to ban for hire e-scooter rentals in the French capital. While they have become commonplace since they were first introduced in 2018, a rising accident toll has hardened attitudes towards the “trottinette”.

• Self-service e-scooters have become commonplace on the streets of Paris since they were first introduced five years ago, but irresponsible use and a rising accident toll have hardened city hall’s attitude towards the popular mode of transport. On April 2 residents in the capital will vote on whether to ban them altogether.

• Dan Gertler, an Israeli billionaire, is pressing President Biden to remove sanctions that were imposed on him for bribe-fueled transactions in the impoverished African country.

• Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other OPEC+ oil producers on April 2 announced additional cuts to production of more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd), with Moscow and Riyadh each vowing to cut output by 500,000 bpd through the end of 2023.

Overpopulation

• The European Union’s population will decrease by 6 per cent between 1 January 2022 and 1 January 2100, equivalent to 27.3 million fewer people, according to the latest population projections issued by Eurostat.

• After a decrease in 2020 and 2021 due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the population of the EU started recovering during the course of 2022.

Finance

• In Finland, a quarter of people with disabilities are at risk of poverty or exclusion, according to the latest living conditions statistics from Statistics Finland. Those with disabilities are more likely to experience low income, underemployment, and severe material and social deprivation than the general population. The risk of poverty or exclusion is primarily due to low income for the majority of people with disabilities. Among working-age individuals with disabilities, underemployment is as common as low income.

• In 2022, the EU trade in goods balance registered a large deficit of Euro 432 billion, reaching its lowest level since the start of the time series in 2002.

• The deficit was due, in particular, to a steep rise in the value of energy imports, which started towards the end of 2021 and continued through most of 2022, according to Eurostat.

• Mortgage holders will be crossing their fingers for a pause in interest rate hikes as Reserve Bank board members meet for the April cash rate decision.

• Sydney has led a turnaround in national property prices after the market tracked down for 10 straight months. The 0.6 per cent uptick in national home values as measured by CoreLogic marks the first positive result after rising interest rates began forcing prices down last year.

• Tax breaks for retirees will soon cost more than the age pension, requiring a rethink in the federal budget, a new report says. The Grattan Institute report showed superannuation tax breaks cost the budget $45 billion a year, or about two per cent of GDP.

• McDonald’s Corp is temporarily closing its US offices this week as it prepares to inform corporate employees about layoffs, according to a report.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

Axios ☛ Cohen lawyer: New York Trump case may include Karen McDougal payment caseFormer Trump lawyer Michael Cohen provided Manhattan prosecutors with documentation about a Trump hush-money payment to a second woman who claims to have had an affair with him, Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, told CNN this morning.Why it matters: That suggests the case by District Attorney Alvin Bragg could be broader than the Stormy Daniels payment.Davis told Axios that — while he can’t discuss conversations with the D.A.’s office — he infers “100%” that Karen McDougal — the second woman and a former Playboy model— is part of Bragg’s case, whether as part of the charges or the narrative, perhaps showing a pattern of behavior.

• We talk with a Trump reporter to prepare you for the week when he will likely be arrested.

• Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the most extreme voices in the Israeli government, had long sought to create a national guard. Ministers agreed on Sunday to set up a committee to discuss next steps.

• At the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting on 3 March in New Delhi, the four principals reaffirmed their countries’ ‘steadfast commitment to supporting a free and open Indo-Pacific, which is inclusive and resilient’.

• Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and Bill Cassidy, a Republican, both voted to convict Donald Trump after Jan. 6. They expressed concern on Sunday that the criminal case against him is political.

• Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s party was outpolled by a rival that stressed economic concerns. Petteri Orpo of the National Coalition Party may now come to power, but coalition talks will be daunting.

• The soft underbelly of the Proud Boys defense at the seditious conspiracy trial was exposed day in, day out after a tough week in court

• West Australian Premier Mark McGowan will lead a five-day trade mission to China to reconnect with the state’s largest trading partner, and unlike his Victorian counterpart he’s taking the media.

• A Swiss court this week convicted four Russian bankers for allowing Sergei Roldugin to deposit tens of millions of euros in bank accounts – colossal sums for a man who is, officially, a professional cellist. But it has long been suspected that Roldugin is tasked with looking after the enormous wealth of his close friend, President Vladimir Putin.

• Montenegro’s former economy minister Jakov Milatovic declared victory in a presidential election run-off on Sunday, over long-standing incumbent Milo Djukanovic, ending more than three decades of his rule in the small Balkan republic.

• Voters in Bulgaria are casting their ballots on April 2 in the country’s fifth parliamentary election in two years with opinion polls suggesting this latest vote will again fail to deliver a result that will break the political gridlock gripping the EU’s poorest nation.

• Montenegrins are casting ballots on April 2 in a runoff presidential election that is a battle between a long-serving pro-Western incumbent and a newcomer promising changes in the small NATO member state in Europe that has been locked in political turmoil.

• The Israeli government approved Sunday the formation of a national guard, which opponents warn would function as a “private militia” of firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who had pushed for the decision.

• Can posing for Playboy be a feminist statement? A French government minister thinks so and has defended her decision to appear – clothed – on the front cover of the magazine amid a crisis in French politics not seen for several years.

• Sen. Fetterman spoke to CBS Sunday Morning about the depths of his depression and how he had become “indifferent” about living.

• Indigenous leader Yunupingu has died aged 74.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

• John Whitehead “This country has been having a nationwide nervous breakdown since 9/11. A nation of people suddenly broke, the market economy goes to shit, and they’re threatened on every side by an unknown, sinister enemy.

Censorship/Free Speech

• In Ron’s Florida, anything is possible.

• In a 10-page memo written to the Stanford Law School community, SLS Dean Jenny Martinez defended her decision to apologize to Judge Kyle Duncan after student-led protests interrupted his March 9 speech, garnering national scrutiny.

• Writing about Judge Kyle Duncan’s recent appearance at Stanford, John Riedel ’72 argues that “it would have been better to have a true debate, with someone of equal stature having the opposite point of view on stage debating the issue with the visiting judge.”

• Russian human rights organizations Memorial and OVD-Info have called on the EU to prevent the extradition to Russia of a Russian man detained in Belarus after his daughter’s anti-war drawing brought attention to his social media posts against the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• A court in Algiers sentenced a prominent journalist to five years in prison with two years suspended on Sunday

• Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with his Russian counterpart after the American basketball star Brittney Griner, who was detained for almost 10 months by Russia, urged the U.S. government to use “every tool possible” to secure Evan Gershkovich’s release.

• Burkina Faso has expelled correspondents from France’s ‘Le Monde’ and ‘Libération’ dailies, the newspapers said on Sunday, the latest move the junta running the west African country has taken against French media.

Civil Rights/Policing

• The kingdom used to send money to poorer countries like Egypt with few strings attached. But it is increasingly leveraging its economic power for influence in the Middle East and beyond.

• Melburnians have settled into a hybrid working routine with the majority heading into their CBD offices two or three days a week, the state’s largest business organisation says. Almost three-quarters of the city’s CBD workers are attending their offices two or three days a week, while the number of people working on-site….

Monopolies

• In the lawsuit, Arthur claimed that because of Google’s abuse of its position, ad-tech services were inflated, and publishers’ ad sales revenues were unlawfully reduced, the report said.

• “The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is currently investigating Google’s anti-competitive conduct in ad-tech, but they don’t have the power to make Google compensate those who have lost out. We can only right that wrong through the courts, which is why I am bringing this claim,” Arthur was quoted as saying.

• It is the second such lawsuit, following a similar one filed in November last year.

Copyrights

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

• Do you challenge yourself to do the right thing?

• Do you put yourself in situations where you might fail?

• Do you reflect enough to identify your mistakes, even in situations where you felt you were wronged?

• If a complex situation arose, would you do what serves you, or what serves the greater good?

• If you got a pet camel from your dead uncle, would you let your friends ride it?

• I am currently reaping the benefits of a tried and true technique of preventing an imminent cold and I wanted to share it with y’all.

• For some background, two days ago I felt a little tickle in the back of my throat. I didn’t have a fever, chills, or any other symptoms that would suggest I would be sick. However, I knew that I couldn’t be too careful when it came to stopping a cold.

• Those who’ve lived with me know that I’ve always worn the same type of shoes each day. During the years that I needed that style for use with my uniform I developed a preference for that particular style that stuck with me ever since. It took me a few years in the beginning to find which manufacturer’s black oxfords worked best for me, but I soon settled on the Red Wing Shoes Style 101. That’s what I’ve worn ever since, buying two pair at time so I can alternate between them — shoes last much longer if they dry thoroughly between wearings.

• In between the two photos, there was a few minutes of an amazing light shaft or candle effect, but unfortunately it was gone before I got to a convenient parking spot. Also, using a camera, it seems like much of the disc brightness and color vibrancy is lost. The true images will live on in my memory, at least.

Technical

• I’ve recently found myself becoming a big fan of voice notes. I’ll usually send rambling voice notes to my friends on signal when I want to convey a lot of random information and I’m too lazy to type.

• Voice notes are great in a lot of circumstances, but not always. For instance, when I’m with other people, it can be weird or even rude if I’m blabbering into my phone for a minute and a half instead of silently typing. There is also the issue of coherence. I prefer writing communication over verbal because I can better organize my thoughts, edit, and clarify as I type. When I send a voice note there could be six different tangents that lead to nowhere by the time I send it.

Programming

• It’s not too uncommon to come across tech folk managing their dotfiles in source control. Conceptually, this makes a lot of sense – you tailor your configurations for certain programs, you want to be able to bring those around with you and also make sure if you break something, you can revert it. Plus, they’re just text, so it makes sense, right?

• Sort of.

• I’m interested in a migration path from prototypes written in, e.g. Scheme or Prolog. So even though I really like ISLisp, it probably doesn’t satisfy the requirements for commercial, production-quality. Notably, I’ve ignored my own advice and two of these platforms are non-standardised languages. I justify this because this is deciding for a commercial product, whereas deciding for learning is better limited. Also, although it may have only been half-hearted, I never was quite satisfied with SML for a real project. For example, if I use compiler extensions (as is very likely), libraries I try to integrate may not know about these extensions to interwork with them.

• Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It’s like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

----------

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.