● 09.04.23

Gemini version available ♊︎

● Links 04/09/2023: fwupd 1.9.5 and Linux Lite 6.6

Posted in News Roundup at 11:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Graphics Stack

• Wayland does not support screen savers: it does not have any provision that allows screen savers to even exist in any meaningful way. If you value screen savers, that’s kind of a problem.

Applications

• This release enables firmware upgrading on the System76 Launch 3, Launch Heavy 3, and Thelio IO 2 devices, HP Rata/Remi BLE mice, Genesys GL3525S USB hub, Luxshare Quad USB4 dock, as well as EPOS ADAPT 1×5, Fibocom FM101, and Foxconn T99W373 devices.

• A couple of new features have been introduced in this update, namely optional support for the Passim local caching server and support for using the fwupdtool get-devices –json command.

• Many challenges in NLP involve natural language understanding. In other words, computers learn how to determine meaning from human or natural language input, and others involve natural language generation.

• Java is one of the most widely used programming languages owing part of its popularity to its extensive ecosystem. Programming in Java provides the access to this ecosystem that consists of several libraries, frameworks, and APIs.

• Java runs Python and R close when it comes to NLP. Our recommendations are captured in this ratings chart. Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion.

Instructionals/Technical

• Gzip is a widely used algorithm that compresses files while retaining original properties, commonly applied to speed up web page loading.

• Files those compressed with gzip ends with extension .gz or .z.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• The GNOME desktop environment has long been a choice for Linux users. It is known for its elegant design, user-friendly interface, and vibrant ecosystem of extensions that allow users to customize their desktop experience. However, as technology evolves, so must the software that relies on it.

• In a significant shift, the upcoming release of GNOME 45, slated for release on September 20, is set to bring a substantial change that will affect the compatibility of extensions with earlier versions of GNOME.

Distributions and Operating Systems

• Being one of the best-looking Linux distros around, Nitrux is a very intriguing offering that features a beautiful user interface coupled with the power of immutability.

• It’s been some time since we last took a look at Nitrux. With a recent announcement, Nitrux 3.0 has added many improvements under the hood.

• Let’s take a brief look at the release.

• Coming five months after Linux Lite 6.4, the Linux Lite 6.6 release is derived from Canonical’s recently released Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) operating system and it’s powered by the long-term supported Linux 5.15 LTS kernel series. However, users will also be able to upgrade to the latest Linux 6.5 kernel series.

• The biggest change in this release is support for 22 new languages, including Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese Brazilian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Sweden, and Ukrainian.

New Releases

• As the name suggests, Linux Lite is a lightweight, user-friendly Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. It is designed to be a beginner-friendly operating system that provides a familiar and easy-to-use environment for users transitioning from Windows or other operating systems.

• Today, five months after the previous 6.4 release, the team behind the distro announced Linux Lite 6.6 as a continuation of the 6.x series. So, let’s have a look at what has changed.

• You know, it’s often hard to get people to leave their comfort zones. But, sometimes, staying where you’re comfortable is the biggest impediment to progress. This is especially true when it comes to operating systems. While Windows 11 has been generating buzz with its new features and revamped UI, let’s not forget the other contenders that are pushing boundaries. Linux Lite 6.6 is one such alternative, and dare I say, it’s one of the most inviting Linux distributions out there for those looking to make a switch.

Canonical/Ubuntu Family

• The next stable update to the world’s most-used Linux desktop environment isn’t due to be released until later this month, so what’s made it in Mantic shouldn’t be considered final, finished, or forgone.

• But Ubuntu 23.10 isn’t due to be released until October anyway, so it all jives nicely.

• Improvements to libadwaita aimed at enhancing consistency and adaptability bring new full-height sidebars to many of GNOME’s core apps, including Nautilus, Settings, and Calendar…

Devices/Embedded

• The Milk-V Mars CM is a 55 x 40mm (2.2″ x 1.6″) computer-on-a-module that looks a lot like a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, and features the same dual 100-pin connectors, which should make it usable with carrier boards designed for the CM4.

• But while Raspberry Pi’s compute module features an ARM-based Broadcomm processor, the Milk-V Mars CM packs a 1.5 GHz StarFive JH7110 quad-core chip based on RISC-V architecture.

• Software support for RISC-V is still very much a work in progress, but Milk-V says that the board should work with GNU/Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and openSUSE.

Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

Leftovers

Hardware

• GlobalFoundries also wants some government money.

• According to the CEO China’s Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment (AMEC), the Chinese market for semiconductor manufacturing tools is relatively unscratched by US sanctions, with aims of replacing as many as 80% of the restricted tools by the end of 2023 and recovering a full 100% operational capability by the second half of 2024.

• If there’s something more tedious than winding coils, we’re not sure what it is — possibly rolling and wrapping coins; that’s really a bother. But luckily, just like there are mechanical ways to count coins, there are tools to make coil production a little less of a chore, but perhaps none that have as much charm as this all-mechanical coil winder.

Health/Nutrition/Agriculture

• Food really is medicine.

Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• While Microsoft Visio is a powerful piece of diagramming software, its price point is well beyond what the average home user is willing to spend at $180 per year. Even the online version starts at $5/month.

• There may come a time when journalists around the world are left to point at massive datacenters housing AI journo-bots that have perfectly replicated what human journalists can do, screaming “Dey took ‘er jerbs!” like a South Park episode, but today is not that day. And frankly, it doesn’t feel particularly close to being that day. Over the past few months, as AI platforms have exploded in number and notoriety, as have genuinely interesting ways for using those tools exploded, so too have we written a number of posts on attempts to have bots write journalistic articles only to find them to be sub-par in the extreme.

• Despite starting 2023 well, tech companies are right now on the verge of a big wave of layoffs. The layoff surge is affecting the gaming industry the most. Big names in the world of gaming like Ubisoft, Take-Two, Riot Games, and CD Project Red have joined this wave by laying off their employees to a massive extent.

• SkyKick, recognised for its migration and backup products for Microsoft 365, has announced a global workforce reduction of over 100 people.

• Todd Schwartz, one of SkyKick’s co-CEOs based in Seattle, described the layoff as a difficult decision made in reaction to market conditions in a statement given to CRN.

• “We are well positioned and remain steadfastly committed to ensuring our partners’ success in the cloud over the long-term,” Schwartz said.

• While the statement did not identify the specific percentage of employees affected by the layoffs or provide a post-layoff headcount, it did reveal that 140 people were released globally, with 98 of these workers situated in the United States.

Security/SANS

• A reader submitted a suspicious PDF file. TLDR: it&#;x26;#;39;s a defective phishing PDF.

• Here is an overview of content I published in August: Blog posts: Update: sortcanon.py Version 0.0.3 Update: emldump.py Version 0.0.12 Quickpost: Analysis of PDF/ActiveMime Polyglot Maldocs Quickpost: PDF/ActiveMime Maldocs YARA Rule SANS ISC Diary entries: PDFiD: False Positives Revisited Analysis of RAR Exploit Files (CVE-2023-38831)

• This update to emldump.py adds a new feature to fix (-F) some obfuscations. For the moment, only one obfuscation method is fixed (many are already ignored with option -f –filter), used in polyglot PDF/Word files. emldump_V0_0_12.zip (http)MD5: 3847B92460C0485E1238C47C29EF9DE1SHA256: AFDFB8E78AE7DE56F50EA73D69705B6DACB425FFBD40D6997D64C7C75E3D8A0D

Privacy/Surveillance

• The company offered the explanation to Heat Initiative, a group that focuses on child safety, after it requested that the tech giant create a tool to find, notify and delete such material from iCloud.

• Cops and cop tech providers like to pretend the things they use and the things they do are so black ops the public should not be allowed to discuss them with anyone, much less the defendants, judges, and juries being asked to weigh evidence and render verdicts in criminal trials.

• I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone, but the SEC and the CFTC combined to issue fines on a bunch of Wall Street firms for execs communicating across encrypted messaging in a manner that wasn’t recorded and preserved as required. Being in a regulated industry means having to deal with all sorts of compliance requirements, that includes preservation of communications. But, of course, that freaks people out, so… they do what everyone does, and figure out ways to communicate outside of “official” channels such that it’s not recorded.

• Today, we are officially introducing a proof-of-work (PoW) defense for onion services designed to prioritize verified network traffic as a deterrent against denial of service (DoS) attacks with the release of Tor 0.4.8.

• Tor’s PoW defense is a dynamic and reactive mechanism, remaining dormant under normal use conditions to ensure a seamless user experience, but when an onion service is under stress, the mechanism will prompt incoming client connections to perform a number of successively more complex operations. The onion service will then prioritize these connections based on the effort level demonstrated by the client. We believe that the introduction of a proof-of-work mechanism will disincentivize attackers by making large-scale attacks costly and impractical while giving priority to legitimate traffic. Onion Services are encouraged to update to version 0.4.8.

• Clearview has suffered tons of self-inflicted damage during its relatively short life as a viable, if execrable, product.

• In the last four days, two independent Novosibirsk City Council deputies have reported discovering that hidden cameras were installed in their offices.

Defence/Aggression

• The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned of “outbreaks of violence” and “increased humanitarian needs” in eastern DRC.

• Twenty-four United Nations (UN) entities combined to form a strong front calling for immediate action to protect women and girls and prevent the use of sexual violence in and around internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

• Now in its thirteenth year of existence, the United Nations (UN) mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has for the past three years worked at “transformation” of the world body’s presence rather than a handover.

• Despite medical intervention at the hospital, D.Ç. could not be saved.

• The coup was announced hours after President Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose family has controlled the country for a half-century, was declared to have been re-elected for a third term in a disputed election.

• Pressure mounted on coup leaders in Gabon to hand back power to a civilian government on Friday, two days after they overthrew President Ali Bongo and announced their own head of state.

• The Vatican is one of only 13 countries to maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

• A piece missing from Australian conversations on the China–US tangle over Taiwan is the island’s growing strategic importance to other countries in the region.

• President Joe Biden’s administration has for the first time approved direct US military aid to Taiwan under an assistance program aimed at foreign governments, officials said Wednesday, as worries grow over China.

• The trial has begun in Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court of Mohammad Saleh Nikbakht — the famed lawyer for the family of the 22-year-old Iranian woman whose death in police custody has led to months of mass protests, local media reported on August 30.

• “The age of warfighting robots is upon us.”

Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

• If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide, right? That’s what law enforcement and surveillance agencies tell us, coaxing us into letting our guard down so they can dig into our stuff without worrying about little things like probable cause.

Environment

• Tens of millions of people in the densely populated coastal areas of southern China had sheltered indoors on Friday.

• Tens of millions of people in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and other southern Chinese megacities sheltered indoors Friday as Super Typhoon Saola threatened to become the strongest storm to hit the region in decades.

Energy/Transportation

• The European Union’s trade balance has made a noteworthy turnaround in the second quarter of 2023, transitioning from six consecutive quarters of deficit to a surplus, primarily attributed to a reduction in energy costs. The latest report released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, revealed this promising shift in trade dynamics.

• Trade data from the second quarter of 2023 indicated a decline of 2.0 percent in exports and 3.5 percent in imports, resulting in a modest trade surplus of €1 billion.

• Two-thirds of the directors who run the Conservative Party’s multi-million-pound endowment fund have interests in fossil fuel firms or polluting industries, DeSmog can reveal.

• The Conservative Party Foundation Limited was founded in 2009 with the purpose of raising and managing “legacy funds to support the long term finance of the Conservative Party”.

• Humanity has been harvesting energy from the wind for centuries. The practice goes back at least to 8th century Persia where the first known historical records of windmills came, but likely extends even further back than that. Compared to the vast history of using wind energy directly to do things like mill grain, pump water, saw wood, or produce fabrics, the production of electricity is still relatively new. Despite that, there are some intriguing ways of using wind to produce electricity. Due to the unpredictable nature of wind from moment to moment, using it to turn a large grid-tied generator is not as straightforward as it might seem. Let’s take a look at four types of wind turbine configurations and how each deal with sudden changes in wind speeds.

• China’s energy policies have a huge impact on the pace of global climate change.

• We speak with climate activist and water protector Mylene Vialard, whose trial for peacefully protesting the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline began this week in Minnesota. Vialard faces up to five years in prison for her 2021 protest, when she attached herself to a 25-foot bamboo tower erected to block a pumping station in Aitkin County. Vialard, who lives in Colorado, had come to Minnesota to take part in a wave of Indigenous-led acts of civil disobedience to stop the pipeline. Between December 2020 and September 2021, police in Minnesota made more than 1,000 arrests. Mylene Vialard is just the second water protector facing felony charges to go to trial. “We’re destroying our planet. We’re destroying our way of life,” says Vialard. We also speak with Indigenous lawyer and activist Tara Houska, who was also arrested in 2021 for participating in a nonviolent action against Line 3. She says police violence against environmental and Indigenous activists has gotten “exponentially worse” since the 2016 Dakota Access protests at Standing Rock. “The crackdown on environmental protests is nationwide,” says Houska.

• Also, the U.S. resists engaging with the Taliban.

Wildlife/Nature

Finance

• The government had presented the first offer for the pay rise concerning 4 million civil servants and 2.5 million retired civil servants on August 15.

• The business climate in Germany’s renowned automotive industry has taken a hit as companies report a worsening situation, as per the latest ifo Business Survey. The key indicator dropped to 12.7 points in August, a significant decline from the 22.1 points recorded in July. Analysts have noted that this decline has been most pronounced among automakers, while suppliers, in contrast, have remained relatively content with their present circumstances.

• The project’s future is in doubt because of financial problems.

• In a further blow for China’s property market, Evergrande’s bigger rival feels the pinch.

• Mr Xi said China would also focus on reforming the country’s basic data system.

• Australia is more exposed to a downturn in the Chinese economy than any other advanced country. So far, however, commodity markets provide no evidence of a Chinese recession around the corner.

• The country’s current struggles show the problems of the Beijing way—and make the case for freedom.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

• Three opposition parties called for the vote over the Finns Party minister’s links to far-right groups and past statements.

• In wake of a new China map and friction with India, Xi turns his back on leaders of world’s leading economies.

• China’s Premier Li Qiang will attend a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) being held Sept. 5-8, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

• Manila slams ‘latest attempt to legitimize China’s purported sovereignty’ in the South China Sea.

• The court cited a video where he “cursed and uttered profane remarks” at a woman journalist.

• Prosecutors in Illinois have dropped at least 15 court cases that hinged on the word of a former Chicago police officer who’s now charged with perjury and forgery after he got dozens of traffic tickets dismissed by testifying each time that his girlfriend had stolen his car.

• Jeffrey Kriv is accused of lying under oath 44 times to get out of speeding, parking and red light camera tickets involving his personal vehicles.

Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda

• By exaggerating the risks from Japan’s discharge of treated wastewater, Beijing hopes to cast Japan and its allies as conspirators in malfeasance, analysts say.

Censorship/Free Speech

• Welp, here we go again. Last month I wrote about how Techdirt had been deleted from both Bing and DuckDuckGo. Over on the discussion at HackerNews, DDG’s CEO and founder, Gabriel Weinberg, jumped in to the conversation to note that this wasn’t intentional (which we never suspected it was). The resulting conversation on HackerNews is actually pretty interesting, as it appears there was some level of misunderstanding among many users about how much DuckDuckGo relies on Bing for its underlying web search.

Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

• Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) on Wednesday announced that former New York Times and BBC executive Mark Thompson will lead CNN as the network’s new worldwide chairman and CEO.

• Why it matters: The appointment ends a period of uncertainty and brings new leadership to the network at a critical time.

• Last July, we noted how media reform activists had petitioned the FCC to revoke Fox News’ local broadcast license in Philadelphia. More specifically, the group argued that Fox News’ rampant election fraud propaganda technically violated the “character clause” embedded in the Communications Act the FCC is supposed to use to determine whether an organization should hold a broadcast license.

• One can only assume the Marion, Kansas police department felt this would never be this big. Overconfidence is a killer, as the MPD can surely attest, albeit after the fact.

• Last week, cops in a small Kansas town decided they’d just toss aside the First Amendment and raid a local newspaper.

Civil Rights/Policing

• In his first policy speech as SDP leader, Antti Lindtman criticised the government for its racism scandals.

• Chongqing, recognized as China’s largest city with 32.12 million residents, has taken a monumental step in bolstering national security by introducing on Friday a localized Anti-Espionage Regulation. With its population outstripping even that of Shanghai’s 24.89 million and Beijing’s 21.88 million, Chongqing’s move sets an impactful precedent for other major Chinese cities.

• From a Thursday article by CNN (Hande Atay Alam & Celine Alkhaldi): Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a 54-year-old retired Saudi teacher, was sentenced “following 5 tweets criticizing corruption and human rights violations,” his brother Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi tweeted last week.

• The complaint to the United Nations against my imprisonment for contempt of court has now been submitted. This is the first time I have been able to state the case without the compulsory use of Scottish counsel, who were astonishingly timid of criticising Lady Dorrian or detailing Sturgeon’s conspiracy, its personnel, and how it worked.

• Just after a judge granted an injunction against Texas’ adult content age verification law on 1st Amendment grounds, a judge in Arkansas did the same to that state’s social media age verification law. Trade organization NetChoice had challenged the law, and the court basically gave them a complete and total victory.

• For years, the UK government has sought to expand its surveillance powers. And, for years, it has rarely been prevented from doing so. Sure, there’s been a bunch of bureaucratic inactivity and unforced errors (like Brexit) that make it a bit more difficult to push legislation through, but the UK government’s thirst for more power has never been slaked.

• Pretextual stops are law enforcement’s favorite way to fish for larger catches. Any minor moving violation can predicate a stop. That leads to conversations — often non-consensual — with drivers and passengers. Any number of factors can be opportunistically read by officers to add up to “reasonable suspicion.”

• Myanmar’s military junta is committing indiscriminate atrocities. We shouldn’t look away.

• Late last month, a report was released showing Connecticut State troopers were routinely faking stop data to avoid further scrutiny over biased policing efforts. According to the state governor’s own statements, it appeared clear “hundreds” of troopers faked “tens of thousands” of traffic stops in order to make it look like they weren’t just targeting minorities with pretextual stops.

• China’s clout at the UN makes it hard to press Beijing, analysts say a year after the damning report was released.

• UN’s 2022 report detailed alleged violations against Uighurs, other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

• Such visits could help convey Beijing’s interest in stabilizing ties with Washington. But China has been noncommittal.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

• Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut wrote an NY Times op-ed piece a few weeks ago (there’s so much nonsense all the time that it takes a little while to find the time to respond to all of it), claiming that “Algorithms are Making Kids Desperately Unhappy.” He wrote this in support of his “The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act” (a ridiculous unconstitutional monstrosity we discussed earlier this year).

• The 2021 infrastructure bill did some very good things for broadband. Not only did it include a massive, $42 billion investment in broadband deployment and require better mapping, it demanded that the FCC impose a new “nutrition label for broadband,” requiring that ISPs be transparent about all of the weird restrictions, caps, fees, and limitations of modern broadband connections.

Digital Restrictions (DRM)

• Raising a likely somewhat contentious topic, iFixit and Public Knowledge have challenged the manufacturer behind McDonald’s ice cream machines to make them easy to diagnose and repair . This is a subject that’s probably familiar to anyone who is vaguely familiar with US news and the importance of ice cream at McDonald’s locations to the point that a live tracker was set up so that furtive customers can catch a glimpse at said tracker before finding themselves staring in dismay at an ‘Out of Order’ sign on one of these Taylor ice cream machines.

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