● 08.25.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 25/08/2023: The Internet of Things Podcast Comes to an End

Posted in News Roundup at 8:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Server

• For the past year or so, I’ve increasingly been using mainline Linux kernels on my various servers and eventually laptop and desktop machines too.

• That was transitioning from Ubuntu’s generic kernel which I feel has sadly decreased in quality over time. The Ubuntu kernel includes a lot of backported fixes and occasionally, those backports go bad, resulting in missing commits, introducing bugs and regressions. Unfortunately the way the Ubuntu kernel is built, tested and published comes with a lot of delays, making fixing such regressions often take weeks if not months (depending on whether security updates show up in between).

• So I started taking the latest stable bugfix release of the mainline kernel, generate a configuration that’s very close to an Ubuntu generic kernel, cherry-pick a few small changes that aren’t upstream yet and then build that and push it to my machines.

Kernel Space

• Linux is one of the most popular operating systems besides Windows and MacOS. Its high focus on security, customizability, and portability, together with low hardware usage, make it highly versatile for casual users and developers alike.

• Linux wasn’t always a large ecosystem comprising hundreds of distributions. In fact, the OS was originally created by a 21-year-old Linus Benedict Torvalds as a kernel that mimicked Unix, and on August 25, 1991, he publicly announced his plans to create a free operating system. Little did he know that 32 years down the line, this hobby project of his would end up becoming one of the most successful innovations to grace the tech industry.

Instructionals/Technical

• Don’t like KDE Wallet popping up every now and then? Here’s how to disable it.

• Control who can access files, search directories, and run scripts using the Linux’s chmod command. This command modifies Linux file permissions, which look complicated at first glance but are actually pretty simple once you know how they work.

• File systems in Linux and Unix-like operating systems like macOS can be mounted, unmounted, and remounted using the terminal. This is a powerful and versatile tool—here’s everything you need to know.

• The top command has been around since 1984, and there are many variants of it. For this article, we’re running Ubuntu 18.04 with all patches applied, and version 3.3.12 of top. As of Ubuntu 23.04, very little has changed. We also cross-referenced everything on two other test computers, one running Fedora and the other Manjaro.

• The default top display crams as much information as possible in the terminal window. Information is a prerequisite to administration, so this is a good thing. One of the traits of a good system administrator is the ability to identify emerging problems and deal with them before they affect service. top gives you a dashboard of many different system metrics that help you do just that.

• The display is best described as functional, rather than intuitive, and abbreviations abound. When you first encounter top, it feels cramped, cryptic, and off-putting. With a few keypresses, though, you can tune the contents and format of the display according to what’s important to you.

• The rm and rmdir commands delete files and directories on Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like operating systems. They’re similar to the del and deltree commands in Windows and DOS. These commands are very powerful and have quite a few options.

• It is important to note that files and directories deleted using rm and rmdir do not get moved to the Trash. They are immediately removed from your computer. If you accidentally delete files using these commands, the only way you’ll be able to restore them is from a backup.

• Your Linux computer relies on a lot of background tasks called services or daemons. On systemd-based distributions you have built-in commands that let you see which services are running, disabled, or failed.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• Your desktop environment isn’t just a workspace; it’s a canvas waiting to be painted with your personal style. Choosing the perfect icon theme is one of the most impactful ways to make your Linux desktop truly yours. Icons are the visual language of your computer, and selecting the right theme can transform your experience from ordinary to extraordinary.

• This article presents the 20 best icon themes that resonate with your aesthetic sensibilities. You can pair these with any GTK or KDE Plasma themes for the best experience.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• The GNOME desktop environment is the default desktop for many Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Fedora. Even distributions that have a different default desktop still have a version available with GNOME as its desktop. That’s not that surprising, GNOME is almost as old as Linux, and it has spread far and wide during its 24-year life.

• GNOME 45 is the latest version, and it’s due to hit the streets on September 20th, 2023. All the GNOME versions since the iconoclastic GNOME 40 have boasted improvements in performance and appearance alike, and tighter integration to GTK4. This release carries on that tradition.

• It should be noted that we’re previewing the beta release here, not the finished article. Some things might change between the time of writing and the release date, although that’s unlikely. The release that comes after this beta is the release candidate, which acts as a sort of trial run for the final release itself.

• The content should be pretty much firmed up by now, and the developers will know what has and hasn’t made the cut. For something to be bumped out at this stage would require a serious defect to be discovered during testing that couldn’t be fixed without introducing further risk.

• A long requested feature for Sysprof (and most profiler tools in general) is support for visualizing data as FlameGraphs. They are essentially a different view on the same callgraph data we already generate. So yesterday afternoon I spent a bit of time prototyping them to sneak into GNOME 45.

Distributions and Operating Systems

New Releases

• Bodhi Linux 7.0 is the latest release of one of the oldest Ubuntu-based distros, with one of the more unusual desktops.

• The latest version is based on Ubuntu 22.04, with the Moksha desktop, which is a fork of Enlightenment 17. There’s a choice of four editions: three 64-bit ones, and a 32-bit edition which is still based on Ubuntu 18.04, the last Ubuntu LTS which supported x86-32. The 64-bit editions differ chiefly in the kernel they use. You can have either the basic Ubuntu “Jammy” 5.15, or the current HWE version with kernel 6.2, or for those with shiny, very new kit, an “s76″ edition with the latest kernel 6.4.

BSD

• A lucky 13 people, myself included, joined the first meeting of the new FreeBSD Enterprise Working Group last week. Here’s the recap. After the housekeeping, including a reminder of the FreeBSD Code of Conduct, I provided background on the WG.

• The FreeBSD Project is proud to have participated in the Google Summer of Code program since its inception in 2005. As we near the completion of the 2023 season, the Foundation asked a few of our GSoC students to share more about themselves and their experience working with the Project.

• The FreeBSD Project is proud to have participated in the Google Summer of Code program since its inception in 2005. As we near the completion of the 2023 season, the Foundation asked a few of our GSoC students to share more about themselves and their experience working with the Project.

SUSE/OpenSUSE

• Cue the fireworks, the long awaited unveiling of NeuVector on AWS Marketplace is finally here!

• Roughly six weeks ago, we launched our new yearly documentation survey on documentation.suse.com. Participation to date We are very grateful for all the responses that are coming in.  KUDOS to our SUSE partners: As of now, you are very active and make up two thirds of the survey participants.

Fedora Family / IBM

• Red Hat Insights cost management enables you to track your cloud spend and understand the cost of your Red Hat OpenShift clusters running in the cloud or on-premises. Using the underlying cloud infrastructure costs or a user-defined cost model, you can gather insights to better understand how much projects or applications cost, how much unallocated costs exist from excess capacity on the cluster, or how much the platform control plane costs.

• In this video, ‌Rob McManus, marketing manager at Red Hat, explains how service providers can use automation to deploy and operate their radio access network (RAN) networks at scale, and how cloud technology can facilitate a distributed RAN, increasing flexibility and reducing costs.

• As the tech industry continues to innovate, more technology gets classified as outdated—often referred to as legacy. But younger IT professionals often start their careers working on legacy hardware and software, and upgrades aren’t always an option. How can they learn and grow, while still working on older tech?

• Christopher Yates is DoD Army chief architect for Red Hat, for which he collaborates with systems integrators, independent software vendors, and partners to develop solutions. He has more than 15 years of experience in the high-tech industry.

Debian Family

• For the first time, the city of Belo Horizonte held a Debian Day to celebrate the anniversary of the Debian Project.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

• Accordingly, a DEB-based printing stack will feature in Ubuntu 23.10 “Mantic Minotaur” and in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Switching to the CUPS Snap will now aim to take place during the Ubuntu 24.10 development cycle.

• The CUPS Snap got added to Ubuntu 23.10 development builds early and has recieved a decent bout of testing – but issues remain…

Devices/Embedded

• Each model has then variant as a DIY kit, a fully assembly unit for indoor use, or a weatherproof unit for systems designed to operate outdoors. Shake OS, based on Raspberry Pi OS, must be installed on the Raspberry Pi to support the sensors and process the data in real-time which can be accessed through web tools such as Station View or standard seismological software like the ShakeNet mobile app.

• This is the final episode of The Internet of Things Podcast, and to send us off after eight years, we don’t discuss the big news of the day such as Arm’s planned IPO, a new display option from Brilliant, or new gear from Leviton >

Open Hardware/Modding

• Pixelpanic has created a Raspberry Pi Badger 2040 UK Departure Board with a little extra help from a Raspberry Pi Pico.

• NoSegfaultPlz is using a Raspberry Pi Pico and a Raspberry Pi Zero to power this CyberKeeb 2040 project.

• In a world where energy bills are climbing and the environment is on our minds, keeping tabs on how we use energy at home has become a smart move. Every gadget we plug in impacts our wallets and the planet.

• Our four-legged friends don’t walk on tarmac the same way as they do on ice or sand as they can see and feel the floor with their eyes and nerve endings and adapt accordingly. The TRACEPaw open-source project, which stands for “Terrain Recognition And Contact force Estimation through Sensorized Legged Robot Paw“, aims to bring the same capabilities to legged robots. Autonomous Robots Lab achieves this through the Arduino Nicla Vision board leveraging its camera and microphone to run machine learning models on the STM32H7 Cortex-M7 microcontroller in order to determine the type of terrain and estimate the force exercized on the leg.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

• This article examines the best Python microframeworks. Micro means the framework is small, with little or no tools and libraries. Microframeworks are designed with extensibility in mind. They provide an essential set of features and rely on extensions to do the rest. Microframeworks have the advantage of making no or fewer decisions for you, making it easy to start development.

• When it comes to web development, there are a wide range of Python microframeworks to choose from. The choice actually helps you find the right tool for the job. Here’s our pick of the finest open source microframeworks captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart.

• Linux and business intelligence are a good match in part because Linux has powerful toolkits for interacting with other systems, with open source databases (such as MySQL) to act as the data source.

• This article highlights the best business intelligence software that runs under Linux. Although there is not a wide range available, all of the applications featured below are useful for any business which wants to access, format and deliver information to their staff, their customers, and their commercial partners.

• Here’s our verdict on the 12 business intelligence software captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart.

• What if you are looking to move away from Google and embark on a new world of online freedom, where you are not constantly tracked, monetised and attached to Google’s ecosystem.

• In this series we explore how you can migrate from Google without missing out on anything. We recommend open source solutions.

• Google Groups is a service that provides discussion groups for people sharing common interests.

• We recommend the best free and open source alternatives to Google Groups.

• Mass File Renamer is a powerful and user-friendly desktop application that is designed to make file renaming easier and more efficient. With its intuitive interface and advanced features, this app provides a comprehensive solution for users who need to rename multiple files quickly and easily.

• FileMasta is a federated search application that allows you to discover a wide variety of files being shared online. Whether you’re looking for video, music, books, software, games, subtitles, or anything else, FileMasta has you covered.

• XODA is a simple yet powerful system for organizing documents using AJAX. It was designed with the KISS principle (Keep It Simple and Stupid) in mind, which means that it is easy to use and understand.

• TagSpaces is a comprehensive, versatile, and user-friendly application designed to help users organize and manage their local files with ease. This open-source software is free to use, and it doesn’t involve any vendor lock-in.

• Distributed Peer-to-Peer Web Search Engine and Intranet Search Appliance

• The fediverse (a blend made from “federation” and “universe”) is a group of social media consisting of a multitude of platforms and software, each of them communicating with the others using a common protocol. Mastodon is one of the software applications used to offer an instance on the fediverse1More information on the fediverse on fediverse.party.. Last June, Meta announced its arrival on the fediverse, with the launch of a Twitter challenger called Threads, which will eventually be able to interoperate with other instances of the fediverse. For several years now, La Quadrature du Net has been calling for mandatory interoperability for these major social networks. So, is the interoperability of a service from Meta good news? Certainly not.

• Cloud-fueled technology change is happening at the federal level—but it is not without challenges, including K8s.

SaaS/Back End/Databases

• Add support for Contentless-Delete FTS5 Indexes. This is a variety of FTS5 full-text search index that omits storing the content that is being indexed while also allowing records to be deleted.

Programming/Development

• The latest patch release for Android Automotive 6.5.2 is just released. This release is based on Qt LTS 6.5.2 with 290 bug fixes, security updates, and other improvements to the top of the Qt 6.5.1 release.

• When writing large graphics applications in Vulkan or OpenGL, there’s many data structures that need to be passed from the CPU to the GPU and vice versa. There are subtle differences in alignment, padding and so on between C++ and GLSL to keep track of as well.

Standards/Consortia

• Dave Rupert recently made a bit of a stir with his post “If Web Components are so great, why am I not using them?”. I’ve been working with web components for a few years now, so I thought I’d weigh in on this.

Leftovers

• With strike threats, cancellations and delays, many passengers think they should arrive at the terminal extra early, but airports tell us that’s not necessary

• The recent emergence of an out-of-nowhere chart-topper offers a great opportunity to talk about the music industry’s new favorite trick for gaming the Hot 100.

• Today was fun. Having set up shop in the office, my manager informed me that we were to have a meeting at a rendering studio. They were in need of burst capacity, and we’d delivered compute in this space before for clients in the US.

• Their office was spectacular. You know that cliché image of a creative space with unpainted concrete walls, polished wooden floors, plants, and art hanging everywhere? It was even more than that.

Science

• Complete at last.

• The United States said Wednesday it wanted to extend a science agreement with China but only for six months as it seeks revisions, following criticism from US lawmakers that it boosts an adversary.

• As surveillance tightens in Chinese society, the ruling party pushes more freedom for researchers in basic science. The faltering economy needs free thought for scientific breakthroughs.

Hardware

• Yesterday, the drive cages arrived. Today, the 2x (new-to-me 12TB HDD) arrived. They are already mounted in their drive cages and installed. Let’s look at them. This post is similar to Testing two 12TB drives to a Dell R730 on FreeBSD. If you want to know most about the tests, see that.

• South Korean and Taiwanese chip companies have obtained an additional year’s extension to ship advanced chip technology and related equipment to China, the Nikkei Asia website claims.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• After a year of scrutinizing fraud in the hospice industry, Medicare dropped the hammer this week: The agency warned nearly 400 hospices are at risk of being bounced from the program if they can’t prove they’re a legitimate enterprise.

• China announced a complete ban on the import of Japanese seafood after the Fukushima nuclear power plant began releasing wastewater into the Pacific Ocean today (Aug. 24).

• It says sea salt accounts for only 10 per cent of the salt people consume.

Security

Axios ☛ A new ransomware gang is claiming it hacked a U.S. hospital systemThe Rhysida ransomware gang claimed responsibility Thursday for a recent cyberattack on Prospect Medical Holdings, according to a dark web listing reviewed by Axios.Why it matters: The new ransomware gang alleges it stole more than 500,000 Social Security numbers and photocopies of employees’ driver’s licenses and passports, along with other legal and financial documents. Axios was able to confirm that at least some of the stolen data is legitimate using public records.

• Microsoft is investigating reports that a Windows 11 update released this month is causing the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) to appear due to an “unsupported processor” error.

• Target Audience The target audience for this blog post is individuals who have a basic understanding of cybersecurity concepts and terminology and looking to expand their knowledge on adversary emulation.

• Cisco has released patches for three high-severity vulnerabilities in NX-OS and FXOS software that could lead to denial-of-service (DoS) conditions.

• My first DEF CON talk was nerve-racking but something I would definitely put myself through again.

• By Benjamin Samuels Many security-critical off-chain applications use a simple block delay to determine finality: the point at which a transaction becomes immutable in a blockchain’s ledger (and is impossible to “undo” without extreme economic cost).

• The need to scale services and enforce cybersecurity polices are the top two reasons for adopting the open source Calico networking software.

• The FBI says that the patches Barracuda released in May for an exploited ESG zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2023-2868) were not effective.

• A UK court has found a teenager responsible for a hacking campaign that included one of the biggest breaches in the history of the video game industry.

• Microsoft warns that Chinese spies are hacking into Taiwanese organizations with minimal use of malware and by abusing legitimate software.

• A group dubbed Flax Typhoon has targeted “dozens” of Taiwanese organizations, according to new research from Microsoft.

• University of Minnesota confirms data was stolen from its systems, says no malware infection or file encryption has been identified.

• Mysterious Whiffy Recon malware scans for nearby Wi-Fi access points to obtain the location of the infected device.

• The Guardian is reporting about microchips in wheels of Parmesan cheese as an anti-forgery measure.

• Rockwell Automation ThinManager ThinServer vulnerabilities could allow remote attackers to  take control of servers and hack HMIs.

• Cybersecurity companies have released a dozen ransomware reports in recent weeks and most of them show a surge in attacks.

• While initially it was unclear if the Ivanti Sentry vulnerability CVE-2023-38035 has been exploited, the vendor and CISA have now confirmed it.

• A financially motivated cybercrime group has exploited a WinRAR zero-day to deliver malware to traders and steal their money.

• Danish cloud hosting provider CloudNordic says most customers lost all data after ransomware shut down all its systems and servers.

• Last month, I received a letter that my spouse’s data had been stolen from a “vendor” that was involved in the MOVEit breach.

• This time I complained to the Illinois Department of Insurance that CUNA Mutual Group should be held completely responsible for their poor security practices.

• They replied telling me they were doing nothing again.

• The letter from CUNA Mutual Group’s “Compliance Officer” basically said that they don’t have to secure their systems, because they “complied with Illinois law” simply by reporting all of the data breaches to the IDOI and Attorney General and offered a little bit of “complimentary identity theft monitoring”.

• [...]

• As victims of CUNA Mutual Group, CMFG, TruStage, whatever they CALL THEMSELVES, I want to post this so that anyone considering doing business with them knows that their security practices are appalling, they simply do not care if there is a data breach because NOBODY will punish them for it, and they consider the matter closed (as does the State) simply for informing the State every time there was a breach.

• You should not do business with CUNA Mutual, CMFG, TruStage, because their business practices are awful.

• They do not even verify that the insurance policies being written are actually requested by the victim. In this case, my husband.

• They just go ahead and write the policies without doing any sort of basic ID check, which can easily be accomplished with security questions from a credit file and asking for a photograph of your State ID.

Privacy/Surveillance

• As smart cities evolve with more and more integrated connected services, cybersecurity concerns will increase dramatically.

• When installing security cameras and smart doorbells, you do need to consider privacy.

Defence/Aggression

• The government of Ethiopia announced on Tuesday a joint investigation with the government of Saudi Arabia into the alleged mass killings of Ethiopian migrants at the Saudi-Yemeni border. In a statement posted on the Ethiopian foreign ministry’s official X (Twitter) account…

• The Niger coup – the fifth in the Sahel and sixth in the broader west Africa region in three years – has pushed the region further into political unrest and insecurity. Several interests converge there at the intersection of international, regional and local security dynamics.

• A 50% spike in fatalities linked to militant Islamist groups in the Sahel and Somalia over the past year eclipsed the previous high in 2015 when Boko Haram was at its most lethal phase, according to the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS).

• The African Union’s (AU) Peace and Security Council announced Tuesday that Niger has been suspended from participating in all AU activities following a military coup in the country. The suspension will remain in effect until Niger’s constitutional order is fully restored.

• Beijing pays Solomon Star to ‘promote the truth about China’s generosity,’ intentions in Pacific region.

• This comes amid Taiwan’s tensions with China.

• Friday’s joint drills took place at a naval base about 240km east of Scarborough Shoal.

• Dozens of protests have taken place in regime-held areas in southern Syria since mid-August. People took to the streets after the government announced that the price for fuel would be increased by 200%. However, the protesters’ demands are not just economic – they are also calling for an end to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Our team spoke to a protester in As-Suwayda, a city with a large population of people from the Druze religious minority, where the recent protest movement has been especially strong.

• The State Security Service (VDD) has initiated criminal proceedings against a Latvian citizen in connection with suspicions of public justification of terrorism and terrorist training, as well as recruitment and training of other persons for terrorism, the VDD said in a statement August 24.

Environment

Energy/Transportation

• The FBI has published information on six crypto wallets in which North Korean hackers moved roughly 1,580 Bitcoin from various heists.

• In a new lawsuit, Maui County said Hawaiian Electric acted negligently by failing to disconnect power lines that were at risk of toppling in high winds.

• Attorneys representing a group of young people suing the United States government in a groundbreaking constitutional climate lawsuit are pressing a federal district court in Oregon to deny the Department of Justice’s attempts to quash the case before trial, citing the recent ruling out of Montana in favor of youth plaintiffs as a “persuasive” example of the importance of letting youth voices and climate science be heard at trial.

• In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon on Monday, attorneys with Our Children’s Trust – the Oregon-based nonprofit law firm spearheading youth-led constitutional climate litigation in the U.S. – pointed to last week’s historic decision in Held v. State of Montana as supportive of their request that District Judge Ann Aiken “set an immediate trial date” for their case against the federal government. That case, Juliana v. United States, seeks to hold the U.S. government accountable for perpetuating a fossil fuel-based energy system and worsening the climate crisis.

• This piece is a collaboration between DeSmog and ExxonKnews, a project of the Center for Climate Integrity.

• In May, NGOs and citizens sued Italian oil giant Eni for its decades of lobbying and greenwashing to delay climate action. Barely two months later, Eni has laid the groundwork for a lawsuit of its own, alleging it has been harmed by a “massive campaign” of “serious defamatory declarations.”

Wildlife/Nature

• The octopus’s garden is real.

Finance

• International financial institution the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) said August 24 it has opened a new regional hub in Rīga.

• They are betting live streaming will become the path to win over buyers.

• The recent announcement that ESPN was laying off a number of high-profile on-air personalities only added to a growing trend in 2023 of large, well-known companies being forced to reduce staff. ESPN joined a list that includes Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon this year, and with a potential recession still looming, it is reasonable to assume this trend will continue.

• End of the countdown. Web giants have been subject since Friday in the European Union (EU) to reinforced obligations of transparency and the fight against illegal content, under penalty of heavy fines, under new legislation without equivalent in the world. /p>

• The Digital Services Act (DSA) now applies to the 19 largest social networks, marketplaces and search engines, including Google, YouTube, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, X (ex-Twitter) or even TikTok.

• The bigger-than-expected rate increase, to 25 percent, is aimed at curbing stubbornly high inflation that exceeded 80 percent last year.

• U.S. mortgage rates keep going up, inching closer toward 8%.

• Driving the news: The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 7.49% this week, Mortgage News Daily reports, only days after rates soared to their highest levels since 2001.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Other voters in Zimbabwe had to return the next day to vote for president, and the police raided election observers. The main candidates both predicted victory.

• Elon Musk, the enigmatic CEO of X, has taken Twitter by storm once again, this time with an announcement that the block feature on the social media platform will be phased out, with the exception of direct messages (DMs). Musk’s tweet, posted on Friday, unveiled the unexpected decision and triggered discussions among users.

• A conversation cut in half.

• The Australian Associated Press

• New Zealand has been urged to reconsider membership of Australia by an outgoing MP, citing cost-saving and economic benefits.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Byu Har, the son of a prominent musician, also called the junta’s leader an ‘incompetent fool’ in a Facebook video.

• Law students and law graduates in Pakistan are reporting for JURIST on events in that country impacting its legal system. Izhar Ahmed Khan is a 2022 LL.B. graduate of the Pakistan College of Law (University of London International Program).

• Oulu politician Anna Koskela of the Finns Party wrote a Facebook post over the weekend complaining about how men ”from underdeveloped countries” cross the road near a local supermarket.

• Tencent’s social media platform WeChat permanently closes 6 major accounts.

• Martinez will assume the position on Oct. 1, after four years in her role as a law school dean.

• >

• The motion allows early dismissal of a lawsuit, here the lawsuit that aimed to block UC Irvine from responding to a public records request from the Center for Scientific Integrity (the Retraction Watch people).

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• A virtual protest against the planned extradition of WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange will be held on 26 August at 5pm London time (2am AEDT 27 August), the organisers have announced.

• Well-known Kyrgyz opposition writer and journalist Oljobay Shakir was summoned by the State Committee for National Security on August 23.

Civil Rights/Policing

• The opinion was decided July 21, but was originally issued sealed; it was just unsealed today, in response to my motion to unseal.

• A Hong Kong man has been jailed for six months after pleading guilty to inciting others to harm the police with intent. He was said to have left comments on an online forum a day after a man stabbed an officer on the city’s Handover anniversary before taking his own life in 2021.

• ‘Economic coercion’ keeps Organization of Islamic Cooperation from criticizing Beijing, experts say.

• The Times reports that a Chinese spy used LinkedIn to target informants ‘on an industrial scale.’

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• Have your say on the policy proposals up for discussion at the APNIC 56 OPM.

• This has been a recurring theme here of late. If you care about something, archive it. You may not end up being any more reliable than the service you love, but it’s worth giving it a shot.

• I’ve had regular monthly donations set up for the Internet Archive for years, and have been an advocate for the invaluable service they’ve offered the web over the past decades. There isn’t anywhere else online like it, whether it be their forward-thinking Wayback Machine, or their online library of materials.

Monopolies

Patents

• This alleged scientific breakthrough has some new evidence to support its discoverers claims.

• By: Suzanne Harrison, Chair of the Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) at the USPTO.

• This post is part of a series by the Diversity Pilots Initiative, which advances inclusive innovation through rigorous research. The first blog in the series is here, and resources from the first conference of the initiative are available here.

• A new PATROLL contest, with a $2,000 cash prize, was added seeking prior art on at least claim 1 of U.S. Patent 7,669,236, owned by Biogy, Inc., an NPE. The ‘236 patent specification generally relates to cybersecurity and preventing access to an entity by unauthorized entities.

• The nexus requirement serves as a threshold that must be met before secondary indicia will be even considered as relevant to the obviousness inquiry.  In its recent Volva Penta decision, the Federal Circuit found that the PTAB had  (1) created too high of a burden to prove nexus and (2) been unduly dismissive of the patentee’s evidence of commercial success and copying.  The case reinforces the notion that patentees should attempt to include some claims that are largely coexistive with its product line, especially in today’s world of likely copying. The case also serves as a reminder that product copying still caries significant weight in the obviousness analysis. Volvo Penta of the Americas, LLC v. Brunswick Corp., 22-1765, — F.4th — (Fed. Cir. August 24, 2022).

Copyrights

• As a child, nothing warmed me more than my mother’s “Three C’s Soup”: Cabbage, Carrot, Carraway from Jane Brody’s Good Food Book: Living the High Carbohydrate Way (published in 1980 and still in print, no ebook version has yet been licensed). And when my mother died in late fall 2018, there was nothing I wanted to cook more, but her copy had gone missing.

Gemini* and Gopher

Personal/Opinions

• Howdy! It’s been a while. I’d order mocktail margarita but it would defeat the point of my post. …Although it’s just virtual drinking right? Fine, I’ll pretend to not be a hypocrite and order one.

• I’ve realized that I’m somewhat bored of sugar and I think these days the packaged snacks they sell is crap. It’s just SUGAR without any care for actual quality. I like desserts where there’s thought over flavors involved but I find that most packaged sweets dump sugar in their product out of fear customers might not find it tasty. Companies…the problem isn’t less sugar! It’s just that your formula tastes like trash.

• There are some sugary products I tolerate though because the product isn’t just for “sugar overload” but it has its own flavor. I think good strawberry shortcake is a good example. Buttercream frosting paired with cake and paired with something fruity is just *chef’s kiss*. I can’t explain it but basically it’s obvious they didn’t just dump sugar for the sake of it, as the cake is good in it’s own right. Maybe I should try out more tea cakes haha.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

----------

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