● 08.23.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 23/08/2023: Kali Linux 2023.3

Posted in News Roundup at 7:36 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

• Star Labs has reconfigured its StarLite tablet into a laptop in the same vein as the Microsoft Surface.

• The new StarLite has a 12.5″ LED-backlit 10-point touch display with IPS technology and runs at 2880 X 1920 resolutions with 276 pixels/inch. The included processor is a 1.00 GHz quad-core Intel Alder Lake N200 with a turbo boost of up to 3.7 GHz and a 6MB smart cache.

• Internal storage is 512 GB Gen3 PCIe SSD and is configurable up to 1TB or 2TB Gen3 PCIe SSD. RAM is 16 GB of 4800 MHz LPDDR5 (which is onboard and not upgradable).

Linux Magazine’s New Issue

• WordPress is an incredibly popular tool for building websites, and don’t think the attackers haven’t noticed. We’ll show you what to watch for.

• The rename command is a powerful means to simultaneously rename or even move multiple files following a given pattern.

• The adequate command-line tool helps users pinpoint problems with installed DEB packages.

• Firewalls block shell access from outside the network. But what if the shell is launched from the inside?

• In kernel news: Heap Hardening Against Hostile Spraying; and Core Contention Improvements … or Not.

• This month Graham looks at Gyroflow, gRainbow, Polyrhythmix, mfp, Mission Center, and more!

• Last month I used this space to talk about IBM/Red Hat’s plan to restrict access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) source code. This eerie announcement, which seemed quite contrary to the ideals of free software, sent shock waves through the community.

• Data deduplication, encryption, compression, incremental backups, error correction, and support for snapshots and popular cloud storage services: Kopia delivers.

• AlmaLinux 9.2 and blendOS

• A local file inclusion attack uses files that are already on the target system.

• Linux is awash in desktop screenshot tools, but what if you want to take a quick screenshot from a terminal window?

• This month in Linux Voice and Elvie.

• In the news: Nitrux 2.9.1 Available and Uses a Newer Linux Kernel; Zorin OS 16.3; Mageia 9 RC1; Linux Mint 21.2; AlmaLinux Will No Longer Aim for 1:1 RHEL Compatibility; Canonical Announces Real-Time Ubuntu for Intel Core; EU-US Data Privacy Framework Ensures Safe Data Transfers; and IEEE Releases New Standard for LiFi Communications.

• With Reddit closing off access to its API, it is time to look to the Fediverse for an alternative.

• Even a small configuration error or oversight can create an opening for privilege escalation. These real-world escalation techniques will help you understand what to watch for.

• Have you found yourself following instructions on a device for repairing equipment or been half-way through a recipe, up to your elbows in grime or ingredients, then needed to turn or scroll down a page? Wouldn’t you rather your Raspberry Pi do the honors?

• The DietPi minimalist distribution improves the performance of the Raspberry Pi and other single-board computers as servers and desktops and comes with more than 200 specially chosen applications and services.

• Why is the WiFi not working? Instead of always typing the same steps to diagnose the problem, Mike Schilli writes a tool in Go that puts the wireless network through its paces and helps isolate the cause.

• CardStock provides a simple development environment for building a Python graphical application.

• Matthew Miller, Fedora Project Leader, discusses Fedora’s relationship with Red Hat and its role in the Linux community.

• The company behind SUSE Linux Enterprise, Rancher, and NeuVector recently announced that Marcel LUX III SARL (Marcel), its majority shareholder, intends to delist it from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange by way of a merger.

Audiocasts/Shows

• LabPlot is a FREE, open source and cross-platform Data Visualization and Analysis software accessible to everyone. Download LabPlot now.

• In this short video you’ll learn how to export publication-quality plots from LabPlot

• First up in the news: LXD-Linux Containers Forks LXD Project as “Incus”, Indian Defense Services are Switching to Linux, Mint’s birthday coming up, Messaging Layer Security, State of Solus, Alarm raised over MozillaVPN, EFF launches the TOR University Challenge, news on OpenZFS and ZFSBoot, and Devuan 5 is here

• In security and privacy: SkidMap and Downfall

• Then in our Wanderings: Bill and Majid have cloudy days

• Download

• Creating a magical shell history. Data mining an EV car. Going maximum Google with a new phone.

Kernel Space

Graphics Stack

• Conformant OpenGL® ES 3.1 drivers are now available for M1- and M2-family GPUs. That means the drivers are compatible with any OpenGL ES 3.1 application. Interested? Just install Linux!

• For existing Asahi Linux users, upgrade your system with dnf upgrade (Fedora) or pacman -Syu (Arch) for the latest drivers.

• Our reverse-engineered, free and open source graphics drivers are the world’s only conformant OpenGL ES 3.1 implementation for M1- and M2-family graphics hardware. That means our driver passed tens of thousands of tests to demonstrate correctness and is now recognized by the industry.

Applications

• QEMU is an open-source virtualization software that allows you to create and manage virtual machines. It provides a platform for running guest operating systems on a host system, regardless of the architecture of the host and guest systems.

• Additionally, QEMU can work with other virtualization technologies, such as KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), to provide hardware-assisted virtualization and improve performance for certain workloads.

• The just released QMEU 8.1 brings improvements among all architectures, so let’s see what’s new.

• Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. We recommend the finest console-based IRC clients.

• Immich is a self-hosted photo storage and sharing service. If you don’t want your photos firmly under someone else’s control, you might like Immich.

• Mission Center Updated, Now Lets You ‘Force Stop’ Apps is from OMG! Linux and reproduction without permission is, like, a nope.

• Cross-platform content sharing in a local network

• Open-source JS and HTML5 video player libraries are a popular choice for developers looking to add video playback functionality to their web applications. These libraries provide a customizable and flexible solution that can be integrated easily into a variety of projects.

• PDF4QT is a robust and feature-packed open source PDF editor that is based on the Qt framework. It comes complete with a C++ library, command line tool, and applications for viewing and editing PDF documents.

• UML, or Unified Modeling Language, is a standard language used in software engineering to create visual models of software systems. It provides a set of graphical notations to represent different aspects of a software system, such as its structure, behavior, and interactions.

Instructionals/Technical

idroot

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install XWiki on Debian 12. For those of you who didn’t know, XWiki is a powerful and versatile open-source collaboration platform that allows teams to create, organize, and share knowledge effectively.

• In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Homebrew on AlmaLinux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, Homebrew is a package manager designed to facilitate software management on Linux systems. With an extensive repository of software packages, Homebrew offers a streamlined approach to installing and maintaining software.

• A network interface transmission queue is said to be timed-out, if it is in stopped condition and the time since last transmission from this queue has exceeded the threshold which is being dictated by the driver to the watchdog timer. A transmission queue is a collection of data packets waiting to be transmitted by the corresponding networking device. During the initialization of the network device, the transmission queues and the scheduler of the network device are activated via dev_activate(). At the same time, the method dev_watchdog_up() starts a timer to detect transmission problems. This timer calls the method dev_watchdog() every dev->watchdog_timeo ticks to check that the network adapter is working properly. In case the routine dev_watchdog() identifies that a transmission queue is disabled (netif_queue_stopped() returns TRUE) and the time since last frame transmission has exceeded the amount of time to wait (dev→watchdog_timeo), the timer’s handler invokes a routine registered by the device driver to perform recovery. Details of these handlers are being discussed in the further sections of this article.

• DNS, or Domain Name System, is one of the most integral parts of the internet. Anyone who uses the internet uses the DNS service every day. However, it is also massively overlooked in comparison to other internet frenzies. In short, the DNS service converts URLs to IP addresses.

• In this tutorial, you will learn how to install OBS Studio on Ubuntu 23.04. OBS Studio is free and open source software.

• There are many reasons why you might want to take a screenshot on Linux: To showcase a problem, share something on your screen with a friend, or capture something appearing on your screen for memory. In any case, you will need to use special software for this task.

• Monitoring disk usage is an important system administration task to avoid running out of storage. This comprehensive guide covers multiple methods and commands to check disk space in Ubuntu 22.04. Why Check Disk Space in Linux?

• How will you install packages which are not available in the software center?

• In a previous article, as part of my Linux Mint 21.2 tutorial series, I already discussed one of the Cinnamon Spices, the Applet.

• The Xrdp server is the RDP tool (Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol) for Linux distributions. You can install it on your Linux system to connect your server or desktop over the internet. The Xrdp server lets you use the multi-channel connection through a graphical user interface (GUI).

• Find a file in windows is very easy just go in search bar and search file by name.

• For those prefer the classic .deb package format, here’s a new PPA for installing the latest Handbrake video transcoder 1.6.1 in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

• Do you log in to an Ubuntu Operating System first time?

• A tcindex tale

• This edition of LHB Linux Digest focuses on Docker and DevOps tutorials.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• We have been working on and using custom Qt theming in Fedora Workstation for many years now. By custom Qt theming, I’m talking about the QGnomePlatform and Adwaita-qt projects. If you haven’t heard of them, you can read my recent blog post explaining what they are. While these projects are in some ways better than what Qt upstream has to offer, there were also drawbacks/issues and that’s why I decided to make a final decision and discontinue both projects. The issues are explained in the aforementioned blog post, but one of the main drawbacks is that we are in this development alone and not working directly in the upstream makes it less attractive for other contributors. It’s also not used by default anywhere other than Fedora, so it’s not properly tested by other developers working on Qt applications using different distributions. These reasons led me to submit a Fedora 39 feature to remove our custom Qt theming in Fedora Workstation in favor of Qt’s defaults. The only problem is that if we just go with Qt’s default, we would go backwards a bit. This is because upstream Qt does not provide any decent client-side window decorations (problem #1), and the QGtkStyle in Qt5 (QGnomePlatform equivalent) is a bit behind its Qt6 version with many improvements and integration goodies (problem #2) recently made by Axel Spoerl of the Qt Group, whom I met during this year’s KDE Akademy.

• Much to my dismay, I figured out that my blog has been disabled on the Ubuntu planet since May. If you are curious about what I have been up to, please go to the handy links -> and read up! This post is a continuation of last weeks https://www.scarlettgatelymoore.dev/kde-a-day-in-the-life-of-the-kde-snapcrafter/

• IMPORTANT: I am still looking for a super awesome team lead for a super amazing project involving KDE and Snaps. Time is running out and well the KDE world will be a better a better place if this project goes through! I would like to clarify, this is a paid position! A current KDE developer would be ideal as it is a small team so your time will be split managing and coding alike. If you or anyone you know might be interested please contact me ASAP!

• Snaps: I am wrapping up the 23.04.3 KDE applications release! Head on over to https://snapcraft.io/search?q=KDE and enjoy! We are now up to 180 snaps! PIM snaps will be slowly rolling in as they go through manual reviews for D-Bus.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Kali Linux is a specialized, Debian-based distribution designed for digital forensics, penetration testing, and ethical hacking, developed, funded, and maintained by Offensive Security.

• The just released Kali Linux 2023.3 brings some exciting changes, so without further ado, let’s see what’s new.

• Powered by Linux kernel 6.3, Kali 2023.3 has a few changes, but unlike previous releases, they are mainly under the hood.

• In this light, the release is marked by the hard work of Kali developers on the project’s internal infrastructure, to which all efforts are dedicated, which is why the novelties in 2023.3 are not many.

• There is a new sub-domain, mirror-traces.kali.org, which aims to make it easier for Kali mirror administrators to keep them updated on the state of all of the project’s mirrors.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

• People using certain openSUSE services and tools will experience an interruption starting August 24 at 16:00 UTC since a significant shift will happen for the Open Build Service.

• The entire openSUSE OBS system is moving to a new data center and will be running on new hardware when it comes back online the following day.

• After the migration process, there might be some troubleshooting delays as the generic build system gets a new home and build service engineers manage disruptions.

• The initial phase of moving to the new data center involves a temporary shutdown of all services. This interval will facilitate the synchronization of file modifications to the new data center, and services are expected to resume on August 25.

• After almost five months without blogging we are back to confirm the YaST Team is still alive and kicking! Among many other things, we have been working lately on several internal aspects of Agama, the project previously known as D-Installer. And since SUSE is publishing an early preview of the first ALP-based product that will be released next year, we decided it was time to put a new version of Agama out, so you can use it to take a look to ALP Dolomite from a different angle.

• In case you already got lost, let us give you some context.

• What is ALP? The SUSE Adaptable Linux Platform is the base for future operating systems developed by SUSE.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

• The aim of the background is to make it “more obvious when testing the mantic daily that it is not lunar anymore”. There’s precedent for this; Ubuntu 23.04 included AI-generate lobster artwork for the bulk of its daily builds.

• It visual signpost doesn’t just remind developers and enthusiasts which release they’re working on/testing but makes those watching early-bird Ubuntu 23.10 reviews on YouTube etc aware that what they’re seeing is not the final, finished product.

• Anyway, here’s how Ubuntu 23.10 daily builds were looking…

• In the ever-evolving landscape of Linux distributions, Ubuntu stands as a beacon of innovation and usability. Within the expansive Ubuntu ecosystem, two variants reign supreme – Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop. This in-depth exploration will traverse the domains of these two editions, casting light on their divergent features, use cases, and merits.

Devices/Embedded

• Even though most gambling platforms work best on Windows and macOS, gamblers often prefer playing at online casinos using the Linux OS. Some may say it’s impossible, but we must dispel this myth. While before, only a few online casinos supported Linux, now the trend is growing. Reputable gambling operators expand their influence on users of this open-source OS and provide numerous benefits.

• Therefore, playing virtual slots and games on the Linux operating system is now more accessible than ever. It’s enough to download a suitable distribution like Ubuntu or Fedora to access the best online casinos. But remember to gamble responsibly, as it’s the key to a successful experience regardless of your OS.

• The company says the BPI-6202 runs Ubuntu Mate but does not provide any download link at this time. They also seem to provide some specific software (hence the encryption chip for the software license) with a communication protocol library that supports over 300 protocols including MQTT, BACNET, OPC-UA, IEC 60870-5-101/103/104, CDT, SPABUS, MODBUS, etc… and as well PLC connection to Siemens/AB/Schneider/Mitsubishi hardware. The wiki does not make that very clear as all they really share is a Linux 5.4 BSP hosted on GitHub.

• The company can also provide a complete industrial PC with the Allwinner A40i SBC housed in a metal enclosure that can also support DIN Rail mounting.

• This article was originally published in my weekly IoT newsletter on Friday August 18, 2023. It was my last newsletter. Most of y’all know that I am stepping back from producing the weekly Internet of Things podcast, and that I’m also stepping back from creating this newsletter focused on the internet of things.

Open Hardware/Modding

• Your dog has nerve endings covering its entire body, giving it a sense of touch. It can feel the ground through its paws and use that information to gain better traction or detect harmful terrain. For robots to perform as well as their biological counterparts, they need a similar level of sensory input.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

• We’ve reviewed the new Samsung Galaxy A54 5G and Samsung Galaxy A34 5G,

• alongside Google’s new Pixel, to find out which mid-range phone offers the best value for money

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• Paloma Oliveira ‘s reflections on the COSCUP conference in Taiwan where she shared a talk on 25 years of Open Source.

• Intel’s open-source monospace font (imaginatively titled ‘Intel One Mono’) has been updated. “You’re blogging about a frickin’ font update?!”, you scoff (justifiably perhaps). But hey: indulge me (if only so I can continue using words beginning with ‘I’). Font updates aren’t that exciting, granted. But Intel One Mono was created specifically for developers (which means it’s also ideal for terminals, which I know a lot of you use on the regular, thus making this post relevant).

Programming/Development

• Responsive UI design is a great way to adopt user interfaces for different display sizes and layouts. A few popular web pages do not use a responsive design. But is a responsive design all we need to create a delightful and meaningful customer experience? Instead of adjusting the UI layout based on available display real estate, shouldn’t we rather tailor it according to user preferences of different types of users?

Java

• Red Hat’s migration toolkit for applications 6.2 takes Java application modernization a step further with new integrations for Jira, migration waves management, and Red Hat OpenShift monitoring.

• With these integrations, the migration toolkit for applications can now help organizations create a backlog of work directly on Jira so that your engineering teams can pick up tickets. The support for migration waves enables you to process the backlog in batches and then plan for the whole application modernization at once. You can also make migration waves available directly on Jira.

Leftovers

• Pakistan’s military has rescued eight people trapped in a cable car dangling over a high ravine, after a line snapped early Tuesday morning, in a high-risk operation complicated by gusty winds, said caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Hardware

• SenseCAP T1000 is an ultra-thin credit-card-sized GPS tracker with Semtech LR1110 wireless chip with LoRaWAN, WiFi (scanning), and GNSS connectivity, plus two built-in sensors to monitor temperature, light intensity, and motion. We’ve covered several LTE IoT and LoRaWAN GPS trackers in the past and even tested the RAK811 LoRa GPS Tracker board with our own gateway, but the SenseCAP T1000 is particularly attractive due to its slim design. It works both indoors and outdoors with IP65 waterproof protection, looks quite easy to set up with its button and LED, and also integrates an SOS feature that can be triggered with a long press.

• SoftBank’s UK-based chip designer, Arm, is wary of the Chinese market, a feeling it made clear in its proposal to file for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq stock market next month.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• The buzz around the alt-news sphere the last few days has been that the establishment is planning to bring back pandemic restrictions. And, in fairness, this is some evidence this could be true.

• Michigan Medicine has updated its COVID-19 vaccination policy, no longer requiring the vaccine or an approved exemption as a condition of employment. The university also announced its flu vaccine clinic schedule.

• Japan will release water from the stricken Fukushima power plant into the Pacific Ocean from Thursday, 12 years after one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

• One Atlanta-area college has even reinstated a mask mandate and social distancing.

• Although the World Health Organization has ended the covid-19 public health emergency, people around the world still die from covid and lose hours at work because of the disease.

• As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations creep up during a summer wave of heightened virus activity, updated vaccines are still likely weeks away.

• Why it matters: Americans have largely tuned out COVID, but the latest COVID uptick is a reminder that the virus continues to circulate and mutate — though the threat is far below pandemic-era levels.

• On August 15 , the Food and Veterinary Service (PVD) received laboratory confirmation for an outbreak of African swine fever in a holding of the Nagļi parish, Rēzekne municipality. African swine fever is still spreading, and biosecurity measures for pig growers must be followed very closely, Latvian Radio reported on August 23.

Linux Foundation

• The Cloud Native Computing Foundation today announced the graduation of KEDA, an open-source tool created by Microsoft Corp. and Red Hat to make Kubernetes clusters more efficient. The milestone follows more than three years of development.

Security

• A while ago I was scouring Netflix and stumbled across the 2022 The most hated man on the internet docuseries.

• An unknown advanced persistent threat group has been observed attacking organizations in Asia, particularly Hong Kong, using commercial software to deploy “backdoor” malware.

• A hitherto unknown group of attackers has used legitimate certificates signed by Microsoft to attack companies in Asia, the security firm Symantec claims.

• It was discovered that ClamAV incorrectly handled parsing HFS+ files ( CVE-2023-20197 ). This bug is easy to exploit and poses a severe threat to the availability of impacted systems.

• Twenty-one severe vulnerabilities have been found in Chromium, including multiple use after frees and heap buffer overflows, among other security issues. These bugs have received a National Vulnerability Database severity rating of ”High” due to their ease of exploitation and their significant threat to impacted systems’ confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

• Energy One, an Australian company that provides software products and services to the energy sector, has been hit by a cyberattack.

• A new APT group called Carderbee has been observed deploying the PlugX backdoor via a supply chain attack targeting organizations in Hong Kong.

• CISA warns that CVE-2023-26359, an Adobe ColdFusion vulnerability patched in March, has been exploited in the wild.

• Vulnerabilities in the TP-Link Tapo L530E smart bulb and accompanying mobile application can be exploited to obtain the local Wi-Fi password.

Privacy/Surveillance

• We’ve noted a few times that there are two major reasons that the U.S. still hasn’t passed even a basic privacy law for the internet era or regulated data brokers. One, the government is corrupt, and has repeatedly buckled to the lobbying of multiple industries that find the current dysfunction very profitable. Two, the government loves the current lax system because it allows them to dodge warrants.

Defence/Aggression

• Belize and Guatemala are Taiwan’s only two remaining diplomatic partners in this region.

Environment

• The cork holding back the Atlantic Ocean’s tropical storm activity popped off this week, with a record set for the most tropical storms to form so quickly.

• Nearly 128 million people were under heat alerts Wednesday, as an “extremely dangerous” heat dome lingers over a major swath of the Midwest, South and Southwest.

• The big picture: The heat dome’s intensity is setting records dating back to at least 1950.

Energy/Transportation

• A shortage of bus drivers has made the return to school a logistical nightmare in some school districts across the U.S.

• The big picture: All 50 states have seen at least “one instance of a major school bus driver shortage” so far this year, per a USA TODAY analysis.

• This blog post accompanies episode 10 of Linux Matters Podcast where I talked about this subject for a bit. You can listen to the episode here once it’s out. If you’re a Patron you can listen ahead of time, and with no adverts.

• Hackathon In July at work, we had a short mid-week internal Hackathon. Everyone was encouraged to take part if they could. Here’s the blurb to introduce it, taken from our internal Notion.

Wildlife/Nature

• Photos can say a million words. In terms of light pollution, they can speak on how dark skies can change lives. It astounds us to think about how just one snapshot can power a movement for conservation efforts by showing how practical and awe-inspiring dark sky-friendly lighting can be.

Finance

• hares of Charles Schwab fell by nearly 5% to a one-month low on Tuesday after the U.S. brokerage unveiled a cost-cutting plan that came with steep one-time charges.

• Charles Schwab announced on Monday that it planned to layoff staff and close or downsize some corporate offices to save about $500 million.

• But Charles Schwab is expected to incur one-time charges of up to $500 million from the cost-cutting measure, potentially dampening its profit in the second half of this year.

• Charles Schwab’s stock fell as much as 5.3% to $56.26, the lowest level since July and the biggest one-day percentage drop since March. The stock, which is down 32% year-to-date, ended the session at $56.46.

• With the cost of living driving spikes in insurance fraud, are insurers doing enough to protect customers?

• I haven’t posted to this blog for a couple of days, so posting some thoughts about this question. Off-topic from my usual posts!

• My knowledge of economics is rudimentary, so this post is really just expressing my puzzlement. But then, many economic experts don’t seem to know what is going on either.

• A couple of years ago, after reading how massive is the US foreign debt, and that it grows bigger every year, with no hope of paying it off, I wondered how is it that the country keeps going? Back then, I did a search and found what looks like the answer: the US Dollar is the international currency, and most of the money that the USA owes to the rest of the world is in US Dollars.

• This means that if the US is on the verge of defaulting on repayments, all that it needs to do is devalue the US Dollar, that is, print more money.

• That is going to mean US citizens will become poorer; everything is going to cost more. But it also means that the entities that have loaned the money will be getting less back; in other words, the USA is sucking wealth out of the rest of the world.

• The “Tariff Man” promises to strike again.

• Senior doctors and dentists in New Zealand announced their intentions to strike Monday following unsuccessful pay negotiations with New Zealand’s public health agency, Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand. This will mark the first time that the union representing senior medical officials, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, has gone on strike.

• Teachers in Lithuania will stage a warning strike on September 15 and, if the desired results are not achieved, they will also walk out on September 29, the Lithuanian Education Employees’ Trade Union announced on Tuesday.

• Starbucks should be getting publicly roasted for union busting and refusing to even negotiate with unionized workers.

• You see, if there’s one thing I love more than coffee, it’s unions. Because unions perk up pay.

• And if there’s one thing I hate more than corporations who try to bust unions, it’s having to make my own coffee every morning.

• I may be known for a lot of things, but making a good cup of coffee isn’t one of them.

• I was thrilled to hear about workers in Starbucks’ stores across the country exercising their right to unionize.

• The public disclosure of the Aug. 11 proposal was an unusual step and suggested an attempt to go around union leadership and appeal to rank-and-file members.

• Fans hoped for an update on the development of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in the latest BioWare blog post. Instead, the developer announced a devastating series of layoffs.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Plus: Americans vote too much, Indiana abortion ban to take effect, and more…

• Hun Manet defended last month’s tightly controlled election in a speech to the National Assembly.

• BRICS leaders meet in South Africa on Tuesday as the loose association of major emerging economies seeks to assert its voice as a counterweight to Western dominance in global affairs. The so-called BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — represent a quarter of the global economy, and interest in joining the club has surged ahead of its three-day summit in Johannesburg.

• “Joining the BRICS will increase investments and trade exchange between its member states,” Ghobashy said.

• A photo showed Ms Matsukawa and two others mimicking the shape of the Eiffel Tower in front of the landmark.

• As you’ll surely recall, Elon’s first big brilliant idea upon taking over Twitter was to conflate two separate offerings that Twitter had: Twitter Blue, a premium upsell with extra features (some of which were useful) with Twitter’s blue check verification program, which was created to help more well known users avoid impersonation. The original blue check system was far from perfect, but it was actually a verification program, in which Twitter went through something of a process to make sure an account actually belonged to the person who claimed to be behind it.

• Look, I know some folks get annoyed that I write as much about Elon Musk and exTwitter as I do, but he’s really been the most fascinating case study in sheer wrongness regarding the running of a modern internet company and it’s just endlessly fascinating. And, really, if he just stopped doing stupid things, I could get to the very long list of other stuff I’d like to write about, but day after day after day, he just comes out with something new and stupid.

• Sponsored ads on Facebook lead to a series of scam retail sites

• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was “inconceivable” that the platform had responded to a new licensing law by blocking news links, as the country confronts its worst wildfire season on record.

• This is a bit of an oddity. We’ve seen lots of lawsuits against social media services filed by bigots who are upset their accounts have been banned or their content removed because, well, they’re loaded with bigotry. You know, “conservative views,” as they say.

• < African governments have a reputation for shutting down the internet to limit their people’s ability to communicate or stay informed.

• US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo will visit China next week, Beijing and Washington said Tuesday, adding to a slew of US officials dispatched in recent months to ease tensions between the world’s largest economies.

• National officials signed two agreements last week as Chinese and Mexican airlines look to reactivate direct flights, paused since 2020.

• This is just so painfully obnoxious. The legacy news media, spurred on by a welfare system that pretend free market supporter Rupert Murdoch dreamed up and convinced governments to implement, whereby the government would force internet companies, which had innovated and created new business models that worked, to suddenly be required to pay for sending traffic to legacy news media organizations which failed to innovate. It’s extreme corporate welfare, egged on by a guy who pretends to be against all kinds of welfare.

• Frans Timmermans is stepping down at a crucial time for European climate laws to become the lead candidate for a left-wing coalition in the Dutch elections in November.

• Over half of the discovery Trump has received either came from him originally or consists of overproduction of email from the Secret Service.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

• Painkiller reflects an indiscriminate anti-opioid bias that has caused needless suffering.

Censorship/Free Speech

• The government gets to pick and choose which speech it displays on its property, and doesn’t have to give others a right to reply (except in public fora, which don’t include school walls).

• Defendant had accused plaintiffs, “the King and Queen of [the Pittsburgh] Renaissance Faire,” of failing to properly deal with allegations of sexual harassment, and of retaliating against sexual harassment victims; the jury found that the defendant knew the statements were false, or at least recklessly disregarded the risk of falsehood.

• Twenty years ago, the Cato Institute published my book, You Can’t Say That!: The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws. The basic theme of the book was that as the scope of antidiscrimination laws has expanded, these laws increasingly infringe on bedrock constitutional liberties, especially freedom of expression.

• Plaintiffs sued for defamation, and also for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress stemming from the comments aroused by Baldwin’s posts.

• Bush is planning a press conference on Wednesday at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to discuss his suit.

• But Chris Tang declines to confirm whether a warrant is out for Jens Galschiøt under a draconian security law

• The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal refused university student Lui Sai Yu’s appeal for a one-third prison sentence reduction on Tuesday, despite him having pleaded guilty to violating the National Security Law. A one-third prison sentence reduction is typically granted to individuals that plead guilty in Hong Kong.

• The security guard who went viral for singing along at a Taylor Swift show was reportedly fired following the event. Calvin Denker, the security guard who went viral online after footage was posted of him singing along at a recent Taylor Swift “Eras” show, was reportedly fired after the event.

Civil Rights/Policing

• A former “white paper” movement protester describes being locked in a psychiatric hospital for holding up a sign.

• China Coast Guard again attempted to block and harass Filipino boats, officials said.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• The APrIGF 2023 begins soon, including worthwhile sessions on skills development and connectivity initiatives.

• Wita Laksono presented an update on APNIC Labs’ measurements at IDNOG 8, held from 24 to 27 July 2023 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

• Apple is introducing several new behind-the-scenes features for podcast creators to rival Spotify. Here’s the latest. One of the biggest new features is the ability for creators to see subscription analytics in the Apple Podcasts Connect platform.

Monopolies

• Microsoft Corp. announced it is restructuring its $69 billion acquisition of US digital media company Activision Blizzard, granting cloud streaming rights for all of the latter’s video games to rival Ubisoft in a gambit meant to appease British antitrust regulators reviewing the merger.

• Microsoft Corp. has restructured its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. to win regulatory approval for the deal in the U.K. The company announced the move this morning. Microsoft inked a $68.7 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard, one of the world’s largest video game developers, early last year.

Patents

• US-based licensing firm K.Mizra has failed with a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics over a technology to predict and determine power consumption in the batteries of mobile devices. Düsseldorf Regional Court rejected a claim for infringement of K.Mizra’s patent EP 2 174 201 B1 (case ID: 4c O 27/22).

• On August 18, 2023, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted trial on all challenged claims in an IPR filed by Unified against U.S. Patent 10,791,502, owned by Togail Technologies Ltd., a Magnetar Capital entity. The ’502 patent relates to error-handling procedures for system information requests in communications and has been asserted against 3GPP devices. It is currently being asserted against Apple and had been asserted against TCL Technology Group.

• The Supreme Court’s landmark 1950 decision in Graver Tank & Mfg. Co. v. Linde Air Products Co., 339 U.S. 605 (1950) is one of the court’s most cited patent cases.  The decision established important guideposts for applying the doctrine of equivalents (“DOE”), including consideration of the prior art and a focus on the substantiality of differences. While courts today emphasize evaluating equivalence on an element-by-element basis, Graver Tank‘s substantive analysis remains highly influential.

Copyrights

• Triller is preparing to go public, but something is fishy about its S-1 filing numbers. Here’s the latest. As spotted by TechCrunch, the company’s S-1 filing reveals the app had 550 million lifetime sign-ups.

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