● 07.16.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 16/07/2023: Climate Issues Dominate

Posted in News Roundup at 8:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Desktop/Laptop

• It’s official: Linux distros now run on 3% of global desktops – a figure that even rises to 7%, if we’re counting devices running Chrome OS.

• The news comes courtesy of new Statcounterdata, deriving its findings from tracking code embedded in browsers. Curiously, “desktops” also includes laptops, as it’s difficult to separate them given the nature of the telemetry.

• The past year has seen Windows drop from 76.33% of overall market share to 68.23%, while MacOS has seen a sharp rise from 14.64% to 21.32 percent, leaving Linux, ChromeOS, and the nebulous “unknown” category to make up the remaining 10.5%.

Instructionals/Technical

• If you are asking what is Tar.gz, then the tar file is an archive that contains files and folders into it, while the gz stands for the compressed file format.

• In the Linux environment, encountering errors during or after installing a bootloader like GRUB can be frustrating, especially when it involves the EFI directory. A common error is the ‘Cannot Find EFI Directory’ after running grub-install. The issue can occur due to several reasons, from incorrect booting mode to issues with the EFI System Partition (ESP). This guide aims to demystify these EFI directory troubles.

• Google Chrome is one of the most popular web browser nowadays, it supports Windows and Linux OSes such as : Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and Opensuse.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install FirewallD on Fedora 38. As a Fedora 38 user, you have access to a powerful firewall solution called FirewallD. This dynamic and efficient firewall not only provides robust protection but also offers easy configuration and management.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Python and PIP on Debian 12. For those of you who didn’t know, Python, renowned for its readability and ease of use, has become the language of choice for diverse applications, including web development, data analysis, and artificial intelligence.

• One of the most fundamental tools for testing and diagnosing network connectivity in any operating system is the Ping command. In Linux, Ping is often used by system administrators and users alike to troubleshoot internet connection problems, check the availability of websites, servers, or devices, or even measure network performance. But how do you install and use it?

• In the comprehensive universe of text editors, Neovim emerges as an unrivaled tool. It has gained significant traction among developers for its open-source nature and substantial improvements over Vim. Core to Neovim’s appeal is its key distinguishing features: Recognizing these unique features, installing and mastering Neovim can significantly boost your coding efficiency.

• GitHub Desktop, an intuitive platform for managing Git repositories, has won the favor of many developers for its user-friendly interface, ability to simplify complex Git commands, and enhanced productivity through automated tasks. Despite its remarkable features, it’s worth noting that an official version is unavailable for Linux users.

• the otherwise EXCELLENT (S)FTP client has no per default (GNU Linux) settings for file association. . /usr/bin/pluma %f html /usr/bin/pluma %f txt /usr/bin/pluma %f jpg /usr/bin/gimp %f png /usr/bin/gimp %f bmp /usr/bin/gimp %f webp /usr/bin/gimp %f

• A simple tutorial on how to install Jupyter Notebook in Ubuntu or Debian Linux. Jupyter Notebook is a powerful web-based interactive dev tool which allows you to create and share live code, visualizations, and interactive data.

• The dirty little secret regarding containers is that it’s not always as easy as you might expect to to be.

• Comprehensive tutorial on how to install and get started with the Snort IDS (Intrusion Detection System) in Debian-based Linux distributions including Ubuntu.

Games

• MangoHud is a Vulkan and OpenGL overlay to help you monitor FPS, temperatures, CPU/GPU load, and more besides.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• This will be a short one but it took significant time to get things done right.

• Renaming PlayAnswer to ClueGrid

• I made an initial change by renaming “PlayAnswer” to “ClueGrid” since we utilize a similar grid in the crossword editor and it sounds more appropriate. The “EditClueDetails” widget specifically uses a similar grid.

Distributions and Operating Systems

BSD

• The Colorado BSD Users Group (CoBUG) is planning to meet on the 22nd of this month.

Gentoo Family

• Some Elisp package compilation failures are caused by not setting the loadpath correctly. It mostly happens when you compile source from a directory that is not the current working directory.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

Dominique Leuenberger ☛ openSUSE Tumbleweed – Review of the weeks 2023/27 & 28Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,The vacation season is upon us, and the number of requests to Tumbleweed is slightly lower than normal. Nevertheless, there is a constant flow of updates coming your way. Due to my slacking off last week, this review again spans two weeks. In total, 11 snapshots have been published in this time (0701, 0703…0710, 0712, and 0713)These 11 snapshots brought you the following changes:GStreamer 1.22.4Network Manager 1.42.8linux-glibc-devel 6.4MariaDB 11.0.2Mozilla Firefox 115.0 & 115.0.1Python 3.11.4 & 3.12.0b3KDE Gear 23.04.3KDE Frameworks 5.108.0GNOME 44.3Linux kernel 6.4.2 (lockdown accidentally not enabled)wine 8.12Protobuf 23.4

Fedora Family / IBM

• Telemetry is one of the biggest controversial topics in the Linux community. Many people believe that telemetry is entirely meaningless, because developers can “just” ask their users. Some people also argue that users can opt into telemetry if they want to participate, but most of these users are in consensus that opt-out telemetry shouldn’t be there in the first place.

• However, I don’t believe that asking users or explicitly opting into telemetry helps to a degree where developers and designers can form educated conclusions, as both methods share many issues regarding gathering data accurately. In this article, we’re going to explore the issues around asking users and opting into telemetry, and then I will explain why opt-out telemetry is a better approach to gather accurate data and forming educated conclusions.

• Growing a community and making it easier for folks to contribute is a critical element of success. We are excited by the interest in working with the CentOS project.

• Since Spring 2023, the CentOS Board and members of the community have been working on a set of guidelines to help define what success means for CentOS and its deliverables. Building community and contribution has been a part of the guidelines from day one.

• Basically, the GPLv2 says there can be “no restrictions” placed on any use of the source code provided to any user of the software with its license.

• Red Hat’s EULA says that Red Hat reserves the right to terminate your business relationship (the Red Hat Subscription) if you redistribute the source code.

• This doesn’t restrict your right to share the source code that has been previously provided, since you are still free to do so.

Debian Family

• There is iso image of Sparky 7.0 MinimalGUI i686 available to download. As you know, Sparky 7 still supports i686 architecture (32 bit), but I created only MinimalCLI (text mode) i686 iso image before.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

• A new version of the popular Linux distribution Linux Mint is available. Linux Mint 21.2 is available on download servers, but the official website has not been updated to announce the new release.

• Linux Mint 21.2 is the second Linux Mint 21 point release. The original version was released in August 2022 and Linux Mint 21.1 followed in December of the same year.

• Upgrades are, as usually, not enabled yet, but they should not pose problems for most users if the built-in Upgrade Tool is used. Standalone ISO images are already available for all three flavors, Cinnamon, Mate and Xfce, on the official download mirrors.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• I’ve been thinking about how much I favour measurements in time vs. size and how the shift to a chronological perspective allows me to overcome my fear of engaging with large tasks. This week a few things have overlapped in my mind to reinforce this idea.

• First, during my summer holidays I’ve been binge-watching the Escape to Rural France YouTube channel, where Dan Preston is restoring a burnt-out château ruin (the Château de Chaumont).  My eldest daughter has long been a fan of various château restoration channels, which is partly why I suspect this series ended up in my YouTube recommendations.  “Dad, you’d love this,” and she’s right.  I initially watched one episode, then another, and now I’m hooked.  The task he’s taken on is enormous, and the hubris and total disregard for practicality is what makes it so engaging.

• A privacy-first, self-hosted, fully open source personal knowledge management software, written in typescript and golang.

• Research from OpenUK, a not-for-profit representing the British open source market, found that the sector contributed an estimated £13.59bn to the UK economy in 2022. The tech sector as a whole contributed £50.71bn to the UK economy, according to government figures.

• Open source refers to tech projects that rely on open collaboration and transparency from communities of developers.

• The UK has produced a number of notable firms in the sector, including Canonical, which developed the Linux-based operating system Ubuntu.

SaaS/Back End/Databases

• We have just released PGSpider v3.1.0.

• PGSpider is High-Performance SQL Cluster Engine for distributed big data. PGSpider can access a number of data sources using Foreign Data Wrapper(FDW) and retrieves the distributed data source vertically. Usage of PGSpider is the same as PostgreSQL. You can use any client applications such as libpq and psql.

Content Management Systems (CMS)

• The Gutenberg project has aimed to revolutionize how we manage web content as much as Johannes Gutenberg did the printed word. The project’s roadmap is comprised of four unique phases: With the upcoming release of WordPress 6.3, Phase 2 of the Gutenberg project is coming to a close; a journey worth celebrating. This video is […]

• The People of WordPress goes to the US to feature Allison Dye, who uses the software in her work and disability-advocacy.

Programming/Development

• A few days ago, I ran into an online post where someone pointed out the book “Learn to Program with Assembly” and asked if anyone had ever learned assembly language as a first programming language. I had to smile because, if you are a certain age, your first language may well have been assembly, even if it was assembly for machines that never existed.

Python

• Python provides various functions to insert/add rows in Pandas DataFrame. To add rows in Pandas DataFrame we can use the append() method or loc operator.

• Python offers built-in capabilities for generating random numbers. This guide will detail these functionalities, providing a range of examples to demonstrate their practical applications. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced programmer, this guide will be useful for understanding and implementing random number generation in Python.

• Python is a versatile language with a wide range of built-in functions and methods. One such method is the index() method for lists. This method is used to find the position of an element within a list.

Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

• In the realm of programming, decision-making is a fundamental concept. It’s the backbone of logic in any code, and Bash scripting is no exception.

Leftovers

• If your job entails sitting or standing at a computer all day, or if you have a home office, how do you orient yourself? Assuming you have a choice.

• I’ve never liked having my desk against a wall, as so much furniture is designed to be. It makes optimum use of limited space, but it means my view away from the computer monitor is of a wall. If you live in a rental, that’s probably going to be a plain white wall devoid of artwork. It’s… grim!

Science

• “We don’t yet understand exactly how it happens.”

Hardware

• The 802.11bb WiFi-like standard, also called LiFi, was ratified in June 2023. It enables data transmission up to 224GB/s at a few meters range within a room using light instead of RF signals used in most other wireless standards. The technology has been worked on for many years, and we first covered (a version of) LiFi in 2014 that was still part of the IEEE 802.15 standard with speeds up to 1 Gbps. But the Light Communications 802.11bb Task Group was only formed in 2018 chaired by pureLiFi and supported by Fraunhofer HHI, and led to be ratification of the IEEE 802.11bb standard last month. In a typical LiFi setup, you’d have a LiFi-capable router connected to your local network and the Internet, a LiFi-enabled light bulb on a ceiling, and one or more LiFi receivers.

• The 802.11bb WiFi standard, also called LiFi, was ratified in June 2023. It enables data transmission up to 224GB/s at a few meters range within a room using light instead of RF signals used in most other wireless standards. The technology has been worked on for many years, and we first covered (a version of) LiFi in 2014 that was still part of the IEEE 802.15 standard with speeds up to 1 Gbps. But the Light Communications 802.11bb Task Group was only formed in 2018 chaired by pureLiFi and supported by Fraunhofer HHI, and led to be ratification of the 802.11bb standard last month.

• [Matteo] has been a fan of the Casio F-91W wristwatch virtually since its release in 1989. And not without good reason, either. The watch boasts reliable timekeeping and extremely long battery life thanks to a modern quartz crystal and has just about every feature needed in a watch such as an alarm and a timer. And, since it’s been in use since the 80s, it’s also a device built to last. The only thing that’s really missing from it, at least as far as [Matteo] was concerned, was a contactless payment ability.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• More Americans across age, gender and race are seeking mental health treatment than they were just two decades ago.

• Why it matters: The boom in demand reflects a growing mental health crisis and a national uptick in anxiety and depression — but also reflects healthier attitudes about therapy and more honest conversations about mental health.

• The head of the Democratic party was one of many to distance himself from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Saturday after The Post revealed the presidential hopeful spewed conspiracies that COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.

• The long-shot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination has a history of embracing conspiracy theories. His latest comments claimed the virus spared certain ethnic and religious groups.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Over the past year, I have interviewed dozens of recruiters from leading companies like McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs, and Google and I have connected with other young workers who are turning away from Twitter towards LinkedIn, TikTok, and even newsletters

• Elon Musk says Twitter is still losing cash because advertising has dropped by half.

• In a reply to a tweet offering business advice, Musk tweeted Saturday, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to (about a) 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”

• “Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else,” he concluded.

• Getting fired or not, it’s still not in your hands. But you can know whether you are the next employee!

• A man who had been with the company for five years was laid off and turned to LinkedIn to find a new job. In his post, he stated that he is writing this with “eyes full of tears.”

Security

• Like each month, have a look at the work funded by Freexian’s Debian LTS offering.

• After Microsoft revealed that some signed Windows drivers are malicious, security researchers discussed how big the problem is.

Privacy/Surveillance

• Secure messaging apps could leave UK is Online Safety Bill passed.

Defence/Aggression

• The United Nations has warned that Sudan is on the brink of a “full-scale civil war” as fighting between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has forced over 3 million people from their homes. After multiple failed ceasefires, Egypt is hosting a summit this week with the goal to “develop effective mechanisms” with neighboring countries to settle the conflict. Sudanese activist Marine Alneel says Sudanese civilians are in the midst of a deadly healthcare crisis as hospitals have been shut down and medical supplies are severely limited. Alneel warns of an impending famine and a potential shelter and housing scarcity due to the upcoming rainy season. We also go to Cairo to speak with Khalid Mustafa Medani, chair of the African Studies Program at McGill University, who calls the fighting “a drastic escalation” and warns the ​​negotiations in Egypt are following the same fatal mistakes as those that occurred after the Sudanese military ousted President Omar al-Bashir by focusing on military leaders instead of including civil leaders, activists and neighbors in the region.

• ocial psychosis is widespread.  In the words of the British psychiatrist, RD Laing, “The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one’s mind, is the condition of the normal man.”

War in Ukraine

• Wagner Group fighters have begun working as instructors at new “training grounds” for territorial defense forces in Belarus’s Mogilev region, according to a segment aired by the Belarusian Defense Ministry’s TV network on Friday.

• The fireworks were unusual in a consensus-driven Alliance that values decorum and discretion. But the summit still yielded several strategic wins.

• A spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said Saturday that it had observed groups of Wagner fighters crossing from Russia into Belarus, after the Belarusian defence ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces to conduct joint military drills. An independent Belarusian monitoring group said that at least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles had crossed into the eastern European country.

• South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said his nation would increase the amount of humanitarian and nonlethal military assistance sent to Ukraine following a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv.

• An alleged Russian intelligence officer accused by the United States of smuggling U.S.-origin electronics and ammunition to Russia to help its war against Ukraine was extradited from Estonia, federal prosecutors said on July 14.

• To gain ground, Ukrainian forces have to make their way through a variety and density of Russian land mines they never imagined.

• The Ukrainian leader has secured new weapons pledges, but it was not clear when the aid would arrive, or how consequential it would be on the battlefield.

• Riley Waggaman The wait is over! The Bank of Russia’s centralized, programmable digital token officially received the State Duma’s blessing on Tuesday.

• The U.S. is beefing up its use of fighter jets around the strategic Strait of Hormuz to protect ships from Iranian seizures, a senior defense official said Friday, adding that the U.S. is increasingly concerned about the growing ties between Iran, Russia and Syria across the Middle East.

• Early in the counteroffensive, Ukraine lost as much as 20 percent of its weapons and armor. The rate dropped as the campaign slowed and commanders shifted tactics.

• A long convoy transporting Wagner troops entered Belarus from Russia on July 15, the independent Belarusian military monitoring project Belaruski Hayun reported.

• Some news outlets belonging to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s media holding may resume their work as the fallout from his mutiny last month dissipates, the Financial Times (FT) reported.

• Russian President Vladimir remained noncommittal on extending a UN-backed grain deal, claiming in a call with his South African counterpart that Moscow’s demands have not been met.

• Oilfield services company SLB — formally known as Schlumberger — on July 14 announced that it is halting shipments of products and technology into Russia from all SLB facilities worldwide in response to international sanctions.

• A road trip through Eastern Europe underscores how Putin has diminished Russia.

• Vilnius expects a plan for the stationing of Germany’s brigade in Lithuania to be ready by the end of September, according to Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas.

• Lithuania wants to agree on a German brigade deployment plan “as soon as possible” and not necessarily by the end of the year, Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas says after meeting with his German counterpart in Vilnius.

Environment

• John Kerry travels to Beijing for three days of talks, as the world’s two biggest economies, and two biggest polluters, try to cooperate on climate action.

• The heat wave affecting more than 110 million people in at least 15 states is poised to peak this weekend into early next week in the Southwest. But there are growing signs it will merely ebb and re-intensify as the month continues.

• The heiress to the Disney fortune was arrested on Long Island on Friday while protesting the use of small private jets with other climate activists at an airport.

• They accuse the government of “breaking its own climate law,” arguing that the Transport Ministry refused to present an emergency climate protection program.

• “New Zealand is not prepared… Climate and energy policies need to build resilience to a hotter local climate and the inevitability of heat stress,” professor Glavovic said.

• The unexpected presence of earthworms in the Far North could cause rapid changes in some of the planet’s most fragile ecosystems.

• The heat wave affecting nearly 115 million people in more than 15 states is going to intensify significantly before conditions improve.

• If there is not bold, immediate action to address the climate crisis, the quality of life that we are leaving our kids is very much in question

• A light dusting of snow coated many parts of Johannesburg on Monday, driving children and adults to nearby parks and playgrounds.

Energy/Transportation

• Inspired by the Latin phrase “ad astra,” which means “to the stars,” the U-M Solar Car Team unveiled, Astrum, its first three-wheeled, bullet-style vehicle, which will race in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge this fall.

• Countries and companies are in a fight between those that want to excavate minerals used in electric vehicles and others that warn the cost is too high.

• With a name inspired by the Latin phrase “ad astra,” which means “to the stars,” the U-M Solar Car Team unveiled its first three-wheeled vehicle, Astrum, which is scheduled to race in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge this fall.

• Developers are testing different technologies as offshore solar becomes a significant new segment in renewable energy.

• Dozens of insurance companies are suing Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy to recoup money paid out to homes and businesses lost in Colorado’s most destructive wildfire in 2021. The lawsuit was filed last week, after investigators announced that a sparking power line owned by Xcel was one of the causes of the fire. Another cause was a smoldering scrap wood fire that reignited. Together, the massive blaze destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and left two people dead. Xcel says it objects to the findings of the investigation and strongly disagrees with any suggestion that its power lines were one of the causes of the fire.

• Geoff Dembicki, an investigative climate reporter for DeSmog whose work has informed inquires in the Canadian Senate and earned high praise from outlets including the Washington Post was “denied” entry to a major global gas conference taking place in Vancouver this week.

• “The manager has exercised his right to refuse the registration application and you will not be able to participate in LNG2023,” reads an email from conference organizers to DeSmog contributor Dembicki, who is author of “The Petroleum Papers,” which was last year shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Non-Fiction and named a best book of 2022 by the Post.

Wildlife/Nature

• Canadian wildfires have burned more than 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) this year, a record-breaking figure that has surpassed scientists’ most pessimistic predictions, government data showed Saturday.

Overpopulation

• Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday called on the US to “reduce population” in an effort to combat climate change, but she meant to say “reduce pollution,” according to the White House.

Finance

• The German gross domestic product contracted 0.5 percent in Q4 2022 and 0.3 percent in Q1 2023.

• The bigger problem: The Department of Justice and the Securites and Exchange Commission appear to be oblivious to how markets work. Without short-selling — and it’s increasingly a dying art because of what happened to Left — you will have a market dominated by the guys in another movie.

• Dozens of families are in limbo or out of pocket after a Melbourne-based home-builder collapsed.

• Bentley Homes slid into liquidation on Friday, catapulting customers and creditors into an anxious wait for news.

Censorship/Free Speech

• A recent court ruling dramatically curtailed the federal bureaucracy’s ability to communicate with Internet platforms. What’s at stake when free speech harms the public?

• Six billion people live in places where freedom of expression is in crisis or restricted.

• A doctor and researcher are suing Associated Newspapers over articles suggesting they had caused “grave harm”.

Civil Rights/Policing

• The Biden administration’s proposal to change the English proficiency section of the U.S. citizenship test is drawing backlash from some immigration advocates.

Monopolies

Patents

• A group of legal experts are pressing patent agencies, courts and policymakers to address the question as generative A.I. seems on the brink of invading another uniquely human endeavor.

Trademarks

• The USPTO refused to register the proposed mark QONSENT (in standard character form) for consent management services, deeming the mark to be merely descriptive under Section 2(e)(1). Examining Attorney Gabrielle Rennie maintained that the mark is a slight misspelling of “consent,” which merely describes a feature or function of applicant’s services. Applicant Redniss argued that the mark combines the words “quality” and “consent,” and could be pronounced as “kwahn-sent,” with a soft “Q”. How do you think this appeal came out? In re Jesse Redniss, Serial No. 90622279 (July 12, 2024) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge David K. Heasley).

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