● 07.04.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Leftover Links 04/07/2023: Trouble at Microsoft, Openwashing From Canonical

Posted in News Roundup at 3:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Leftovers

• The US Coast Guard says it has likely recovered human remains from the wreckage of the Titan submersible and is bringing the evidence back to the United States. The submersible imploded last week, killing all five people on board. The vessel was on a voyage see the wreck of the Titanic.

• At least 50 more courts in Odisha turned ‘paperless’ on Monday, July 3, 2023, taking the total number of paperless courts in the State so far to 84. It was in September 2022 that the paperless courts concept was introduced in the State.

• In the same month, then Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit inaugurated 34 paperless courts covering all 30 districts of the State.

• Draw.io desktop releases in a few different formats: Windows Installer, Windows No Installer, macOS Universal, Linux deb, Linux snap, Linux AppImage, Linux rpm, and Google Chrome OS.

• Let’s see how we can crack open all of these!

Science

• This could explain some things.

• The remains of the prehistoric Tethys Ocean are now inside the Earth, causing a massive gravity anomaly in the Indian Ocean.

Education

• Top Illinois officials agreed last year that police shouldn’t ticket students for minor misbehavior at school and pledged to make sure it didn’t happen anywhere in the state. But a bill to end the widespread practice fizzled this spring because of disagreement over whether it would accomplish its goal and confusion about whether police would still be able to respond to crime on campus.

• Now, legislators and activists are regrouping with a goal of rewriting the bill and passing it in the next legislative session. They say they are committed to changing state law because not all school districts complied when the Illinois State Board of Education superintendent implored them to stop working with police to issue municipal citations for noncriminal matters — tickets that can lead to fines of up to $750.

Hardware

• A Model T Ford customer could famously get their car “in any color he wants, so long as it’s black.” Thus begins a deep dive into the history of car paint from [edconway]. See the article here on substack for a recounting of the incremental improvements in car paint and its surprising role in mass production, marketing, and longevity of automobiles.

• When you want to write software for a system like the Commodore 64, the obvious and safe choice is to create an image that can be used with a tape or floppy drive emulator. Yet these come with the obvious disadvantage of loading time and manual steps, much like with the original hardware. Unfortunately, if you crave that instant-on experience that cartridges offer – courtesy of them being plugged directly into the system’s CPU bus – you better get an EE diploma to figure it all out. Or maybe not, as [Linus Åkesson] found out when he created a custom cartridge to boot his Commodordian project from.

• For the last 10 years, I have been interested in hi-DPI monitors, and recently I read about an interesting new monitor: Dell’s 32-inch 6K monitor (U3224KBA), a productivity monitor that offers plenty of modern connectivity options like DisplayPort 2, HDMI 2 and Thunderbolt 4.

• I tossed this news to a group chat and my friends just posted a link towards a class action lawsuit and mocked me for having a Hyundai. I did vaguely remember getting a letter in the mail about that mentioned lawsuit.

• Part of the excitement of fireworks is how archaic they are. But, like many dangers of the past, it might be time to retire rocketing gunpowder into the sky. Now with extra concerns over air quality drones seem to be the next obvious choice for jubilee.

• They zoom instead of boom. They flash instead of flare. They assemble into shapes so sophisticated — a swimming whale, a spinning globe, a marching robot — that traditional pyrotechnics can seem a little lackluster in comparison.

• Maybe most importantly, the drones being employed by more and more cities for Fourth of July celebrations don’t leave behind a blanket of smoke at a time when America’s air quality is already at its worst in decades.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• IT people like me, and perhaps you, are a bit strange. We’ll spend hours slaving over technical specifications for keyboards, cameras, and headphones to get the best possible device for a given budget and requirement… then interface them with our body without a second thought.

• I was at my local GP for an unrelated issue, when as a matter of procedure he checked my ears. In short, he claimed I probably had compromised hearing for quite some time. It would muffle sound, make vertigo from migraines worse, and would make flight landings more painful.

*

• Uzbekistan said in 2022 that the firm’s cough syrup had poisoned 19 children.

• Even the safest hospitals still display wide gaps in health outcomes based on patients’ skin color.

• It’s one of the most crucial questions people have when deciding which health plan to choose: If my doctor orders a test or treatment, will my insurer refuse to pay for it?

• After all, an insurance company that routinely rejects recommended care could damage both your health and your finances. The question becomes ever more pressing as many working Americans see their premiums rise as their benefits shrink.

• But experts are worried.

• A look at the science.

• This could lead to new treatments.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Gurdeep Pall, a 33-year Microsoft corporate vice president who helped build and promote key products like Windows, Skype and Bing, recently informed colleagues that he plans to retire from the company in September, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Pseudo-Open Source

Openwashing

Defence/Aggression

• The federal Greens have been accused of politicising the nation’s new anti-corruption watchdog, just days after it become operational.

• The National Anti-Corruption Commission, which officially started on July 1, is headed by Paul Brereton who led a previous investigation into criminal misconduct on the battlefield by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan.

• A state district judge this week ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to begin the process of releasing records related to the May 2022 Uvalde school shooting that the agency has shielded from the public for over a year.

War in Ukraine

• Wagner mercenaries may pose as irregular migrants from Belarus and the EU must be ready for that, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has told Politico. He admits, however, that there is no evidence of Wagner troops moving to Belarus after their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

• Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says he has not yet given up hope that Sweden will be admitted to NATO ahead of the alliance’s summit in Vilnius, despite Hungary’s postponement of the ratification of the Nordic country’s accession.

Environment

*

• Pakistan is an avatar for how changed weather conditions affect climate-vulnerable countries that are not climate-resilient.

• Lawmakers in Michigan have long fought tough pollution controls. But the toll of flooding, lost crops and damage to the Great Lakes appears to be changing minds.

• Torrential rains flooded Chicago’s streets and forced NASCAR officials to postpone a race through the city, as the National Weather Service issued hazardous weather alerts for over 110 million Americans during the extended July Fourth holiday weekend.

Energy/Transportation

• What’s the scam with Labor’s $200m Community Batteries for Household Solar program? Is it as bad as Coalition pork barrelling rorts? No. Does the batteries program have merit? Unlike the Coalition Carparks rort, yes.

• The bus hit a pole and overturned, causing its diesel tank to catch fire.

• Report says rubbish mismanagement ranges between 50% and 75% in India and five Southeast Asian countries.

Wildlife/Nature

• Startups using computer technology are positioning themselves as part of the wildfire solution. It can’t succeed without Indigenous technology that’s existed for millennia.

• The EU Parliament’s environment committee knife-edge vote was 44-44, failing to gain the required simple majority to urge in favour of the bill. The final vote deciding the proposal’s fate will now occur in July.

Overpopulation

• A large proportion of Vidzeme farmers are likely to end this harvest season with losses. The only hope is a decent rain, but even then the harvest will be smaller than in other years. Livestock farmers, too, have difficulty getting fodder due to drought, and may have to take a painful decision on the reduction of herds, Latgale regional television reported June 29.

• Grain farmers could only get half of the planned yield this year, estimates the Agricultural Organizations Cooperation Council. The damage caused by the prolonged drought is all over the country. Latvia wants to derogate from the European Union (EU) rules in order to make it easier to obtain cattle feed, Latvian Radio reported on June 28.

• Australia is growing rapidly, in large part due to immigration. This causes strain on both infrastructure and the environment. By Sustainable Population Australia Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) considers Australia’s population growth rate in 2022 too high and called on the federal government to put a brake on immigration.

• Satellite imagery, sealed court documents and interviews with survivors suggest that hundreds of deaths were preventable.

• Elián Gonzalez, who was at the center of a high-profile US-Cuba custody battle during his childhood, has now taken a significant political role in Cuba’s congress. As a congressman, he hopes to help Cuba amid record emigration and rising US-Cuba tensions.

Finance

• The first specialist unit made up of experts from government, law enforcement and the private sector has been unleashed on investment scams.

• The “fusion cell” units are designed to react quickly to specific swindles and squash them before fraudsters try them out on Australians.

• The housing market recovery is still humming along but the prospect of more interest rate rises could be keeping the pace of growth in check.

• National home prices as calculated by CoreLogic rose 1.1 per cent last month but growth decelerated across most markets.

• Musk has been shoved as Twitter’s worst year of decisions after he decimated the workforce, alienated its users, and solidified his intentions of solely monetizing the platform.

• Australia’s new anti-corruption watchdog has received more than 40 referrals after becoming operational two days ago.

• The National Anti-Corruption Commission, which officially started on July 1, is headed by former NSW Court of Appeal judge Paul Brereton.

• An influx of migrants has contributed to record numbers of people entering the city’s shelter system.

• “Same tax, same treatment, that’s what we’re saying,” protest organiser Ufoka Eugene said.

• Byju’s glory days seem to be behind it, and its fall from grace is unfolding very much in public. India’s largest edtech company, valued at $22 billion until last year, has seen growth drop sharply from the highs of the pandemic—a decline that its competitors have experienced too.

• Roughly half a million people took an annual test for a public service commission for a total of 281 jobs.

• “I wanted to go on vacation in Kosovo this summer, but I don’t have the money,” one of five Kosovan workers explained.

• AS MANY AS 270 construction companies were declared bankrupt in the first five months and change of this year, reveal statistics compiled for Helsingin Sanomat by Asiakastieto.

• A California law that would have raised wages for fast-food workers has been delayed for the past two years. Now, by activating a long-dormant commission, lawmakers may have found a different way to boost worker pay.

• In some places, educated young people are desperate for steady employment in the world’s most populous nation. In others, factory owners struggle to retain workers.

• According to a recent study by the Housing Foundation, over half of Finns (54%) are worried about the increasing housing costs. The shortage of affordable housing is expected to worsen in the coming years if the plans of Petteri Orpo’s government to reduce the production of subsidized housing (ARA housing) are implemented.

• The study, titled “Emotions and Housing 2023,” conducted by the Housing Foundation, reveals that the general rise in housing costs is most concerning for Finns aged 35 to 44 (63%).

• Eight partners have been shown the door by major consultancy firm PwC following a high-profile confidentiality breach involving secret federal tax information.

• Former chief executive Tom Seymour, who has already stepped down ahead of his retirement date, was on the list of eight names either directly involved with the information breach or in the firm’s handling of the incident.

• Most mortgage holders have been pinching their pennies as interest rates rise but about half have already maxed out their options for cost-cutting.

• Older borrowers, those more than 65, were the most likely to be out of options for managing their personal finances to afford ballooning mortgage repayments.

• More than 150 workers have lost their jobs and a further 45 employees are at risk after Queensland miner Aurora Metals entered voluntary administration following an unsuccessful public offering and plummeting zinc price.

• Liquidator KordaMentha has been appointed to oversee the sale and recapitalisation of the group’s mining and processing assets, which include zinc, copper, lead, gold and silver production facilities.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• In his way, India’s prime minister is as bad as some of the old Latin American dictators who got plenty of American support but never an evening meal — and certainly no cardamon-flavored strawberry shortcake for dessert.

• A Brazilian court on Friday barred far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro from holding public office for eight years over making unfounded claims against the country’s voting system.

• The change on Saturday came as thousands of users complained about getting an error message that they had “exceeded” their “rate limit.”

Censorship/Free Speech

• I continue to be fascinated in watching how the various decentralized protocol-based social media systems are evolving — in particular how they’re dealing with the challenges of content moderation. There was an interesting discussion a recently on nostr over whether or not moderation should be best handled by relays or clients*.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• Sakal Media Group reports huge gains from swapping ‘vintage’ CMS for Quintype.

• The reports volated Erdoğan’s personel rights, a judge has ruled.

• Please see below the Statement from the Interim Deputy Director-General of RTÉ, Adrian Lynch, as well as the Grant Thornton Report to the RTÉ Audit and Risk Committee.

Civil Rights/Policing

• The Administrative Tribunal of Paris handed down a judgment on Friday to overturn the decision of the French police to ban the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) from holding demonstrations.

• The ABC News/Ipsos poll reports 52%-32% support for the decision (“Do you approve or disapprove of the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court restricting the use of race as a factor in college admissions”): The majority includes majorities of both white (60%) and Asian (58%) Americans.

• Iran will refrain from sending a new ambassador to Sweden in protest over the burning of a Koran outside a mosque in Stockholm, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on July 2.

• At the ACLU of Wisconsin, our focus recently turned to two electoral cycles: the gubernatorial election in November 2022, and the April 2023 state supreme court election. I’m proud to say that there were many lessons learned, capacity built, and positive outcomes that we are happy to share with our teammates in the ACLU universe.

• The outcomes of this work include a crucial veto for defending against assaults on our rights and a pivotal turn towards a court that will protect abortion access and democracy.

• Yangon college student jailed for 7 years

• An anonymous Louisiana cop who sued, in this order: [...]

• In his “ultimate exoneration,” Yusef Salaam, one of the once-vilified Central Park Five black and brown teenage boys falsely charged with raping a woman jogger in 1989, has evidently won a key Harlem seat on the New York City Council by defeating two longtime incumbents. Cleared after 7 years in prison – “I was 15 (when) I was run over by the spiked wheels of justice” – Salaam cogently argues, “Those who’ve been close to the pain should have a seat at the table.”

• Hundreds of refugees died when their ship sank off the coast of Greece. Sixteen survivors accuse the Greek Coast Guard of having caused the disaster – and inconsistencies in the investigation file raise even more questions: Are the Greeks trying to cover up their role?

• The UK Court of Appeal Thursday ruled that the UK Government’s “Rwanda Plan” is unlawful. In the ruling the Lord Chief Justice Burnett reversed the High Court’s finding, writing, “Unless and until the deficiencies in its asylum processes are corrected, removal of asylum seekers to Rwanda will be unlawful.”

• Why should lost billionaires get an international rescue effort while hundreds of refugees are left to die at sea?

• LRT received a question from a listener after a radio programme on migrant detentions – “why is Lithuania the only country blamed for restricting the rights of migrants? Did Latvia and Poland follow the rules of the EU Court of Justice, but Lithuania did not?” Let’s look into it.

• The disparity in coverage prompted a debate around news values.

• Days after the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean in years, an E.U. official said that Greek authorities continue violating the rights of migrants.

• The UN refugee agency (UNCHR) said Tuesday that the estimated number of people fleeing from the ongoing conflict in Sudan is expected to surpass one million sooner than previously projected.

• The leader of Germany’s Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, said on July 1 that he has been told he cannot visit the German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, who has been sentenced to death.

• Hushed and visibly anguished, hundreds of mourners from France’s Islamic community formed a solemn procession from a mosque to a hillside cemetery on Saturday. They were burying a 17-year-old whose killing by police has shaken the nation and triggered days of rioting and looting. Underscoring the gravity of the crisis, President Emmanuel Macron scrapped an official trip to Germany after a fourth straight night of unrest across France. Officials were again deploying 45,000 police to the streets nationwide as evening fell. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted late Saturday that 200 riot police would be mobilized in the port city of Marseille, where French television showed footage of tear gas and officers in some streets.

• More than 1,300 people were arrested overnight as riotous protests again gripped France over the police killing of a 17-year-old and the country’s president stayed home to deal with the crisis.

• More than 1,300 people were arrested overnight as riotous protests again gripped France over the police killing of a 17-year-old and the country’s president stayed home to deal with the crisis.

• French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Sunday condemned as “particularly shocking” an attack on the home of a mayor of a Paris suburb, urging tough punishments for the perpetrators. Vincent Jeanbrun’s home was ram-raided and set alight while his wife and children were asleep inside during the unrest that has gripped the country following Tuesday’s shooting of a teenager by a police officer.

• French President Emmanuel Macron is to meet on Tuesday with some 220 mayors of towns that have witnessed riots that broke out since the death of the 17-year-old Nahel M. at the hands of a police officer. Seeking to suppress the violent unrest that has swept across major cities the past five nights, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Sunday announced that 45,000 police and gendarmerie officers will be deployed across France for a third consecutive night.

• The fashion world is on edge as haute couture week kicks off on Monday in Paris, which has seen nights of violent riots over the police killing of a teenager.

• Sweden’s government on Sunday condemned this week’s burning of a Koran outside Stockholm’s main mosque, calling it an “Islamophobic” act, after an international Islamic body called for measures to avoid future burnings.

• The grandmother of 17-year-old Nahel told BFM TV she was angry at the officer who killed her grandson but expressed faith in the justice system, as France faces its worst social upheaval in years.

• “…45 police officers and gendarmes were injured…”

• The almost simultaneous police killing of Nahel Merzouk and a ban on head scarves in soccer were coincidental, but they illuminate France’s crisis of identity and inclusion.

• Despite a generally calmer evening of demonstrations over the police killing of a 17-year-old, two attacks aimed at civic leaders highlighted the tinderbox situation.

• The killing of 17-year-old Nahel M. during a police traffic stop this week was a depressingly familiar addition to France’s list of police brutality cases. But when the UN called on the government to address racial discrimination in its police force, the official reaction was just as familiar and depressing for France’s minorities.

• He was “everything” to his mother, a quiet boy in his Paris neighbourhood, struck down by a policeman’s bullet that has sparked riots and soul searching in a country where police have long faced accusations of singling out minorities.

• French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Saturday announced the mobilisation of 45,000 police officers who will be deployed across France Saturday night. More than 2,000 people nationwide have been arrested for rioting over the killing of teenager Nahel M. by police, the interior ministry said Sunday. The victim was buried Saturday in his hometown of Nanterre where family and friends gathered to mourn. Read our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).

• British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he was “sad” to read a damning report that claimed racism and sexism are rife within English cricket.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• APNIC moderated a panel session on IPv6 success stories at CommunicAsia 2023, held from 7 to 9 June 2023 in Singapore.

Monopolies

Patents

Trademarks

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