● 04.09.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 09/04/2023: Still Slow News for Easter

Posted in News Roundup at 9:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

• In this video, we look at how capable this little tool has become at navigating Chromium with many new commands and an upgraded Speech recognition Engine.

• **qqc2-breeze-style** , **qqc2-desktop-style** , **rocs** , **sddm** , **sddm-

• kcm** , **skanlite** from the **kde** software series of Slackware.

• shasum -a256=2534394b7025909f67fe9f61446d4656e2ea8fbbfe1a6b1c3294f10d38522d1b

• Brandon, Bill, and Neal get together and discuss a brief history of the Linux Desktop and the obstacles in the past. They also talk about what is going on well in the Linux Desktop space and what is blocking adoption today.

Applications

• A good minimalist note-taking app is a treasure beyond pearls, and one which seamlessly integrates with your very own private cloud is even more valuable.

• Iotas is a good-looking Markdown editor for Linux which meshes with Nextcloud Notes and lets you get on with writing.

• Flameshot is a free, open-source, cross-platform tool for taking and annotating screenshots. It comes with a feature-rich built-in editor to immediately customize your screenshots.

Instructionals/Technical

• Xeact has succeeded in its goal of intergalactic domination of the attention space of frontend developers. Not only has it been the catalyst towards my true understanding of front-end development, it is the most popular frontend femtoframework as signified by this handy graph: [...]

• In this post, we’ll walk you through the steps to setup an SFTP server on Ubuntu 22.04. SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) is a secure way to transfer files between systems using an encrypted connection.

• I had completely forgotten about this. Many years ago, when using the Fossil repository, I created a file named ‘EMPTYDIRMARKER’ in every empty folder. However, when setting up woofQ on github.com in 2022, I forgot that git also has this limitation.

• While I am not the biggest fan of Docker, I must admit it has quite some reach across various service providers and can often be seen as an API for running things in isolated environments.

• One such service provider is GitHub when it comes to their Actions service.

• I have no idea what isolation technology GitHub uses on the outside of Actions, but inside you just get an Ubuntu system and can run whatever you want via Docker as that comes pre-installed and pre-configured. This especially means you can run things inside vanilla Debian containers, that are free from any GitHub or Canonical modifications one might not want

• VS Code or Visual Studio Code can be installed on Ubuntu Linux easily using the command terminal…

• Python 3.10 represented a crucial step forward in the evolution of Python programming, offering an array of new features and improvements compared to Python 3.9. However, it’s essential to note that Python 3.11 is now the current release, and Python 3.12 is under active development RC status.

• Needrestart is a highly efficient and user-friendly utility designed to identify and restart services, applications, and kernel modules that require a restart after an update. By managing these restarts, Needrestart helps maintain system stability, performance, and security on Linux-based operating systems.

• APT-Fast is a powerful, alternative package management tool for Ubuntu and other Debian-based systems that aims to improve the efficiency and speed of package downloads and updates.

• In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of creating custom shortcuts in Pop!_OS, from accessing the settings to assigning your preferred key combinations. Let’s dive in and transform your Pop!_OS experience with personalized shortcuts that will keep you in control and optimize your productivity!

• In this guide, we’ll explore the various commands and techniques to list files in a directory in Linux, including options for sorting, filtering, and displaying additional file information.

• Displaying a directory tree in the Linux terminal is a powerful way to visualize these structures, providing you with a hierarchical view of your directories and files. In this guide, we’ll explore various commands and techniques to display a directory tree in the Linux terminal, helping you gain valuable insights into your file organization.

• Will show you two simple steps to install boost library in c++ on Ubuntu/Linux Boost is a portable set of C++ programming language libraries. It contains libraries for pseudo-random number generation, linear algebra, multi-threading, image processing, regular expressions, and unit testing.

• Personal Package Archives (PPAs) are a convenient way for Ubuntu and Debian users to install and update software packages that are not available in the official repositories. While PPAs are a valuable resource, they can also become outdated, unsupported, or even potentially harmful.

• Monitoring the status of critical services running on your Linux system is essential for ensuring smooth and uninterrupted operation. One way to achieve this is by using cron jobs to periodically check the status of these services and send notifications when their status changes.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Cinnamon Desktop Environment on Rocky Linux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Cinnamon is a popular desktop environment that provides a modern and user-friendly interface for Linux users.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install FileZilla on Rocky Linux 9. Are you looking for a reliable and user-friendly file transfer protocol (FTP) client for your Rocky Linux 9 system?

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Inkscape on Debian 11. Are you a graphic designer or just someone looking for a powerful and free vector graphics editor?

• OpenShot Video Editor is a popular free and open-source video editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows. At the time of this article writing, OpenShot 3.1 is the latest version of the video editing software.

• How to Host a Game Server. In this guide, we will show you how to make a game server on your own dedicated server.

• How to Make a Minecraft Server on Linux and Windows.

• How to upgrade Elasticsearch 7 to 8? In this guide, you will learn how to upgrade ELK Stack 7.x to ELK Stack 8.x. ELK/Elastic 8 is an improvement version over Elastic 7 that brings about a number of performance improvements, security enhancements, and new features.

Games

• As I have been enjoying this well-built, hand held computer / gaming console, I have had to do some problem solving to get things to work.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• This is a call for people out there to help us test the major version upgrades on Fedora KDE via Discover.

• In short: no more Dnf System Upgrade for us!

• A bit of context/history: for those of you who follow Nate’s blog you might already know what I am talking about. Thanks to the awesome work done by aleasto on this MR, we closed this bug.

• There are, of course, a few quirks to solve but essentially it works.

• The @kdesig team has enabled a COPR repository for those who want to help us test the upgrades from F37 to F38.

• I will now explain shorty what are the steps you need to follow to perform the upgrade via Discover:

• First enable our COPR…

Distributions and Operating Systems

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Programming/Development

• Next.js is a React-based open-source framework used for building server-side rendered (SSR) web applications.  Next.js provides an excellent developer experience, thanks to its developer-friendly features like automatic code splitting, hot module replacement, and easy deployment.

• Archivy is an outstanding open-source knowledge repository that empowers you to learn and retain information using your own personal and extensible wiki. It is an exceptional bookmarking and archiving system that enables you to save any webpage content as soon as you bookmark it.

• Helios is a microkernel written in the Hare programming language and is part of the larger Ares operating system. You can watch my FOSDEM 2023 talk introducing Helios on PeerTube.

• Let’s take a look at the new Mercury driver development environment for Helios.

• As you may remember from my FOSDEM talk, the Ares operating system is built out of several layers which provide progressively higher-level environments for an operating system. At the bottom is the Helios microkernel, and today we’re going to talk about the second layer: the Mercury environment, which is used for writing and running device drivers in userspace. Let’s take a look at a serial driver written against Mercury and introduce some of the primitives used by driver authors in the Mercury environment.

Python

• Random RGB Colors can be generated in two formats in Python, one is the hex code and the other is the set of values for Red, Green, and Blue.

• Python decorators are a powerful and expressive feature that allows you to modify the behavior of functions or methods in a clean and maintainable way. They can be used to perform various tasks, such as logging, memoization, and access control, without modifying the code of the decorated function.

• I added support for label * (wildcard label). dnsresolver_V0_0_3.zip (http)MD5: 18958CEEB8CD62B50D6533A477008649SHA256: E8BB634C9D5562D640D23AA426948D166977193931794E67761F1BCD2436466E

• Decorators are a powerful concept in Python programming that allows you to modify the behavior of functions or classes in an elegant and reusable way. This article will provide an overview of Python decorators, discussing their core concepts and showcasing examples of creating and applying them in your code.

• To create a list of lists in Python, use the bracket notation used for list initialization or use the append() method to add lists into a list.

• This error is caused by passing a tuple instead of an index value or a range of index values to access the elements of the list.

Leftovers

• Hong Kong designer Toby Crispy used to own three floor-to-ceiling closets stuffed full of clothes, with more pieces lying around her home in red-white-blue nylon bags and paper bags.

• As we continue to navigate through the ever-evolving world of technology, it’s essential to keep an eye on the emerging trends that hold the potential to transform industries and redefine the way we live and work.

• Jazz saxophonist and music teacher Edward “Kidd” Jordan died in his sleep Friday, surrounded by family at his New Orleans home. Family publicist Vincent Sylvain said Jordan grew up in Crowley before moving to New Orleans where he became a professor at Southern University of New Orleans and later chaired the university’s Jazz Studies Program. Jordan also was an instructor at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation’s School of Music for 25 years. He also served as Artistic Director for the Louis Armstrong Satchmo Jazz Camp. Jordan’s survivors include his wife and seven children, four of whom are professional musicians. Jordan was 87.

• Jeremy Hansen, 47, will be one of four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II moon mission and the first from Canada to venture into deep space.

• Researchers are learning more about those who died after the Vasa sank, including a woman known as “G,” who was long believed by scientists to be a man.

• Looking for new music recommendations? Introducing an antidote to the algorithm.

• A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a powerful software tool that manages and maintains structured data in an organized and efficient manner. The relational model, introduced by Dr. E.F. Codd in 1970, laid the foundation for modern database management systems.

• After the Ministry of Education has hinted at plans to significantly reduce the teaching of Russian in Lithuanian schools, teachers are looking to retrain for fear of losing their job.

• Decorating eggs for Easter is an ancient tradition. Although today we can choose from a range of artificial dyes, in the past, people coloured Easter eggs using only natural ingredients. These methods are worth remembering for they are cheaper and more sustainable.

Science

• We can explain.

Hardware

• In 2021 I stated that as MSY had 2TB disks for $72 and 2TB SSD for $245 it was barely worth considering a 2TB disk and anything less than 2TB wasn’t worth considering. Now for 2TB storage from MSY NVMe starts at $129, SATA SSD starts at $143, and hard disks start at $75. I guess that NVMe is slightly cheaper due to some combination of economies of scale for manufacture/sales and having less postage costs. It really doesn’t make sense to consider hard disks for storing 2TB or less.

• Loongson launches the 3D5000, a domestic server processor with 32 cores and support for eight DDR4 memory channels.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• The British public health system is warning that a planned four-day strike by tens of thousands of doctors could lead to the postponement of a quarter-million medical appointments. A policy director with the National Health Service said Saturday that the impact of a strike planned for Tuesday by so-called junior doctors is expected to be far greater than a three-day walkout last month. The strike would be the latest in a wave disruptive labor actions by public sector workers demanding pay hikes to offset inflation exceeding 10%, as union wages have have fallen in real terms over the past decade.

• Probes are being conducted to identify the supplier, wholesaler and seller of the pufferfish.

• Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), also known as tick-borne meningitis, has become increasingly common in Finland over the past ten years, spreading rapidly throughout the country. Although there were fewer cases last year than in the record-breaking year of 2021, the long-term trend is upward. Additionally, the number of ticks has increased over the past few decades, and they are now found in almost all parts of Finland except for the northernmost Lapland region. At the same time, TBE virus-carrying ticks have been found in new areas.

• On Friday, a Texas judge used an 1873 law to ban sending abortion pills through the mail. Almost simultaneously, a Washington state judge issued a dueling opinion, likely meaning the issue will go to the Supreme Court. Here’s what the law says and how it’s being used.

• Put in the work.

Proprietary

Security

• It improves the Netlogon security by enforcing RPC sealing instead of signing off the communication with the Domain Controller. RPC sealing is a security measure that both signs and encrypts the messages sent over the wire by the Netlogon protocol.

Defence/Aggression

• The Russian mercenary group has extended its network for acquiring weapons — a sign of its reach, but also a possible indication that sanctions are forcing it to branch out from its Russian backers.

• An assessment that appears in a new batch of leaked classified documents appears to show that Ukraine was close to losing a key battle of the war in February.

• The documents showed the United States most likely spied on a key Asian ally as pressure built for South Korea to help Washington supply ammunition to Ukraine.

• Letters to the editor published in the April 17 magazine. Readers ponder the war in Ukraine, the UN High Seas Treaty, and the joys of curling.

• Some say Åland’s demilitarised status puts it at risk now that Finland is a Nato member.

• By James Edgar with Matthew Walsh in Pingtan China launched military drills around Taiwan on Saturday, in what it called a “stern warning” to the self-ruled island’s government following a meeting between its president and the US House speaker. Dubbed “United Sharp Sword”, the three-day operation — which state media said includes rehearsing an encirclement…

• By Matthew Walsh Chinese tourists on an island near Taiwan sunned themselves and snapped seaside selfies on Saturday, unaware — or at least unbothered — by Beijing’s launch of major military drills in the strait beyond.

• The United States on Saturday called on China to show restraint as Beijing launched military drills around Taiwan, stressing that Washington was ready to meet its security commitments in Asia. &

• By James Edgar, with Amber Wang in Taipei and Matthew Walsh in Pingtan China deployed dozens of fighter jets and warships around Taiwan on Sunday for a second day of large-scale military drills, in an angry show of force following a meeting between the island’s president and the US House speaker.

• Taiwan detects scores of Chinese warplanes, ships around it after Tsai Ing-wen returned from U.S., Central America.

• China calls military drills a “stern warning” to Taiwan’s government following meeting between its president and the US House speaker.

• Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has not gone according to plan but he still hopes to win a long war of attrition. However, Russia’s reliance on human wave tactics risks undermining morale within his invading army, writes Olivia Yanchik.

Environment

Wildlife/Nature

• The Chinese authorities said the 1,100 dead chickens were worth 13,840 yuan (S$2,680).

• Wait, what?

• Who’s a good kitty?

• It’s gaining ground.

Finance

• The 2008 financial crisis was caused, in part, by mortgage lenders taking on too much risk. Now, the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction that the private sector has all but ceased taking on mortgage risk any more.

• President López Obrador addressed the fentanyl crisis, fuel prices, easing inflation and more at the weekday morning pressers.

• “We are the working poor … there’s no work/life balance as I can’t afford a life.” Comments such as this, from a full-time retail assistant manager, are being put to the industrial umpire as it weighs up giving Australia’s low-paid a big boost in their pay packets.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• French president Emmanuel Macron met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing this week, in an attempt to bolster the deteriorating relationship between the West and China. Macron reportedly pressed Xi to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a closed-door meeting.

• Democrats are digging in their heels on debt ceiling and budget talks amid reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is struggling to wrangle his unwieldy conference.

• Why it matters: Time is running out for Congress and the White House to agree on a budget and increase the government’s debt ceiling to avert a potentially catastrophic default this summer.

• The best measure of how inadquate CJR’s attempt to explain the series Jeff Gerth made making false claims about the Russian investigation is that the even made no mention of Gerth’s undisclosed reliance on a Russian intelligence report of dubious reliability.

• It is to laugh: Elmo is pissing on one of his investors because his investor’s investment decided to launch a platform competing with Twitter.

• A growing number of companies are requiring workers to come back to the office — but not necessarily their managers.

• By the numbers: 62% of non-managers work exclusively onsite, compared to 45% of managers, according to an Axios analysis of recent survey data.

• Between the lines: There are several reasons managers are more able to work from home.

• John & Nisha Whitehead “We Americans are the ultimate innocents. We are forever desperate to believe that this time the government is telling us the truth.” Former New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg Let’s talk about fake news stories, shall we?

• Todd Hayen There’s a clinical term in psychology, which in the vernacular would be described with the phrase, “I think I am going crazy.” This is “cognitive dissonance.”

YouTube Disinformation/Propaganda

Censorship/Free Speech

• Yesterday, Elon Musk did to Matt Taibbi what Taibbi called an incredible scandal when Twitter throttled the NYPost story on a laptop claimed to be Hunter Biden’s.

Civil Rights/Policing

• A pair of conflicting federal court rulings on Friday created arguably the most contentious and chaotic legal flashpoint over abortion access since the Supreme Court’s ruling last summer that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the right to an abortion nationwide.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal

• BOB. Hey hey, folks, it’s time for another episode of the Cupid’s Chatline. I’m your host, Bob. Today we have a very special guest–Ilmarinen! That’s right, the Eternal Hammerer. Hi Ilmarinen!

• The city transport corporation apparently has recently purchased a new bus model. It is this bus that triggered a whole line of thoughts. There are a few additions on the bus that struck me as utterly pointless; progress for the sake of progress.

• Spring is here, but it can still be chilly. My SO and I were out early today, and it was cold in the shade, but warm in the sun. The cherry blossoms are all gone now, replaced by nice green leaves, and lots of nice flowers are out.

• I dumped a thought into my “Twtxt feed” (which needs a new name, as the original idea’s association with *Twitter* dissolved long ago) this morning concerning the drug problem in España. I don’t normally concern myself with such issues, but I’d had a conversation with Marisa, who is a partaker of Benzodiazepine, about the fact that Spain is shoulders and torso above all other countries on this ball of steel and greenery in the consumption of said chemical.

• April 2023 five questions from christyotwisty:[1]

• CoT: What is your most memorable recent dream?

Politics

• Over the last year we’ve seen countless bills proposed and passed across the United States targeting LGBTQIA+ people, primarily the transgender community. These laws affect all people, regardless of cis, or trans, het or queer. Sports bans open the door for cis girls to get inspected, or have their medical records invaded upon to “be sure”. We saw not too long after Florida passed laws against trans athletes and legalizing investigations by schools, a cis girl was questioned for beating some other child. It’s insane, and it’s important we protect all marginalized folks, and respect the freedoms of peoples bodies, and our rights to live our lives as we see fit (especially, when these decisions literally DO NOT AFFECT ANYONE BUT OURSELVES). As they’re often the gateway into more strict and invasive laws.

• Christians obsess with the cross: both the literal symbol of the crucifix and the message behind it. After all, it is the most prominent and universally understood mark of Christianity. The crucifix is a prominent feature in just about every Christian church regardless of denomination.

• The centrality of the cross in the Christian faith is sacrosanct among most believers throughout the history of the Church. The Apostle Paul made the cross the foundation of his message (cf., 1 Cor. 1:18; Gal. 6:14).

Technical

• I have made my home here again. After months of exploring, nothing has been as effective and fulfilling as this. I’ve searched for a place to display my thoughts, Twitter being the shining light. However, as I’m sure you’re aware, Twitter is not such a great place… leading me to find another solution. I’ve returned to the small-web and I have hope that I’ll stay a while.

• That’s so very right, prepping the adventure took me three hours or so. That was easy, mainly because I know my setting quite well, as I’ve written quite a few stories set on it. It’s also that I embrace making stuff up on the fly as I play solo. I don’t like this approach playing with a group, but in solo role-playing, I tend to play in small chunks, so there’s no concern about interrupting play, while I imagine things up to my heart delight.

• After the untimeliy and way to early demise of my Thinkpad (yes, the one i praised in another entry) i was forced to look into which machine i make my next daily driver. After diving into the big treasure chest that is my companies heap of used electronics i discovered an Acer Aspire Switch convertible. Its from 2018 if i remember correctly, sports an intel atom processor, 2GB of RAM and an tiny HD with only 32 GB disk space. But on the upside: It has an amazing battery life of nearly a full day (compare this to the < 2 hours of the Thinkpad) and due to its construction as a convertible its super portable.

• 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

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