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● 05.11.21


● Links 11/5/2021: Bodhi Linux 6.0, Coreboot 4.14, and DragonFly BSD 6.0


Posted in News Roundup at 4:42 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceLeftovers

GNU/Linux


Desktop/Laptop


↺ Huawei’s New ARM Laptop Runs Linux, But Don’t Get Excited …Yet


Huawei is launching a new ARM laptop in China, and it comes preinstalled with a Linux-based OS.


While ARM laptops aren’t new — you could buy Ubuntu ARM netbooks back in 2010 — such devices have struggled to offer an experience comparable to that available on Intel and AMD machines.


↺ Huawei Qingyun L410 Linux laptop is powered by Kirin 990 Arm processor


While it’s already possible to purchase an Arm Linux laptop like PineBook Pro, the Rockchip RK3399 processor, and 4GB RAM may be limiting to some, especially when wanting to multitask.


But most likely out of necessity, Huawei has unveiled a more powerful Arm Linux laptop with Huawei Qingyun L410 powered by a 7nm Kirin 990 octa-core Cortex A76/A55 processor, coupled with 8GB RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and a 14-inch display.


Audiocasts/Shows


↺ LHS Episode #411: We Named the Dog Indiana


Hello and welcome to the 411th installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this short-topics episode the hosts discuss youths on the air, operations on rare IOTA sites, the future of Audacity, LibreOffice, the continued existence of OpenSolaris, cheap CubeSats, Fedora 34 and much more. Thank you for listening and have a great week!


↺ Late Night Linux – Episode 124 – Late Night Linux


Big news for everyone’s favourite audio recorder and editor Audacity, KDE Korner, and the various ways we all follow the news.


↺ 225: Jill’s Treasure Hunt, Shells.com & Matt of DLN’s Game Sphere – Destination Linux


This week’s episode of Destination Linux, we have a special guest joining us, Matt the host of DLN’s Game Sphere podcast to talk to us about ‘Playstation’s recent announcement with Discord’ and what that might mean for Linux gamers. Then we’ll take a field trip to Jill’s Museum for another rendition of a segment everyone loves, Jill’s Treasure Hunt. We’re also going to be covering a cloud based desktop solution. Cloud . . . Desktop? That’s right. We’ll let you know what that seemingly contradictory sentence means later in the show. Plus we’ve also got our famous tips, tricks and software picks. All of this and so much more this week on Destination Linux. So whether you’re brand new to Linux and open source or a guru of sudo. This is the podcast for you.


↺ Nitrux Is An Impressive Linux Distribution


Nitrux is a Debian-based Linux distribution that does some unique things. First, they have a customized KDE Plasma desktop that is simple and attractive. Second, they have swapped out a lot of the standard KDE apps for MauiKit apps. And third, they have several appImages installed out of the box.


Kernel Space


↺ OpenZFS 2.1-rc5 Released With Linux 5.12 Support, Many Bug Fixes


Two weeks have passed since OpenZFS 2.1-rc4 while today a fifth release candidate was issued for this open-source ZFS file-system implementation for Linux and FreeBSD systems.


OpenZFS 2.1 is notable in adding Distributed Spare RAID “dRAID” functionality along with a compatibility property for Zpool feature-sets and various other enhancements over last year’s OpenZFS 2.0 release.


↺ Everything You Need to Know About Linux


Linux is a Unix-based operating system that was developed by Linus Torvalds and launched in September 1991. The profile of Linux has grown a great deal since its conception in the early 1990s, and now Linux is one of the largest open-source projects in the world.


What is Linux?


Linux is an operating system like Windows or Apple’s iOS. Just because you might not have heard the name Linux before, that does not necessarily mean that you haven’t used the system; Linux actually powers one of the most popular platforms currently in use today: Android.


To understand what Linux is, you first need to learn what an operating system is. An operating system is a powerful program that essentially controls and manages all of the other software and hardware on your computer, phone, tablet, or laptop. All your technological devices, from your PC to your smartwatch, will use an operating system.


Graphics Stack


↺ NVIDIA Adding Experimental Vulkan Support For Executing CUDA Binaries – Phoronix


Today’s Vulkan 1.2.178 specification update notes a rather peculiar vendor extension in the works: VK_NVX_binary_import.


NVIDIA’s experimental binary import extension (VK_NVX_binary_import) is about allowing applications/games to import CuBIN binaries and execute them.


Applications


↺ You Can Now Share Files Between Android and Linux With Warpinator


You can now get the Android version of Warpinator, an app originally developed by the Linux Mint team for easy file sharing between Linux machines over a local network. With the Warpinator app on the Google Play Store, you can now seamlessly move files between your Linux and Android devices.


[...]


Once Warpinator identifies a device on the network, sharing is as simple as dragging and dropping a file into Warpinator’s interface. By default, the app will ask you to approve any requests to transfer files before they happen. If you feel safe and don’t want to approve every transfer, you can switch this feature off in the settings as well.


If you don’t trust everyone on your network, you can also set a unique group code on your devices in Warpinator’s settings. The default group code is simply Warpinator. Devices without matching group codes cannot connect to each other.


Are you already using KDE Connect to share files between Android and Linux? One thing Warpinator offers that KDE Connect doesn’t is the ability to transfer entire directories. Ready to hit maximum warp?


↺ Test Your Typing Speed in Linux Terminal With Ttyper


There are several ways to test and improve your typing speed. You can use online tools, install dedicated applications on the desktop or test in the Linux terminal.


Linux terminal? That’s right. From browsing internet to playing games, you can do so many fun things in the mighty Linux terminal. Testing your typing speed is one of them.


Instructionals/Technical


↺ How to Install WebERP On CentOS 8


webERP is a free, open-source, and complete web-based accounting and business management system. You just need a web browser and PDF reader to use the webERP. With webERP, you can manage many things including, purchase orders, web store, manufacturing, sales, general ledger, and shipping. It is written in PHP and uses MariaDB as a database backend. This tutorial will show you how to install webERP with Apache and Let’s Encrypt SSL on CentOS 8.


↺ How to install HaxeFlixel on a Chromebook


Today we are looking at how to install HaxeFlixel (Haxe, Haxelib, Visual Studio Code (and then connect HaxeFlixel to VS Code as an IDE)) on a Chromebook. Please follow the video/audio guide as a tutorial where we explain the process step by step and use the commands below.


↺ How To Install WordPress on AlmaLinux 8 – idroot


In this tutorial, we will show you how to install WordPress on AlmaLinux 8. For those of you who didn’t know, WordPress is a free and open-source CMS based on the PHP programming language, with MySQL or MariaDB being used for the backend where the data is stored. It is the simplest way to create a Blog, Portfolio Website, webshop, etc.


This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you through the step-by-step installation of the WordPress content management system on an AlmaLinux 8.


↺ How to Use BigBlueButton for Web Conferencing on Linux – Make Tech Easier


In today’s online world, we’re becoming more and more connected with web conferencing. School, work, and even friendships are taking place over platforms like Zoom, WebEx, and Google Hangouts. However, for those of us looking for an open-source option, there aren’t all that many. That’s where BigBlueButton comes in, which is an open-source web-conferencing and e-learning platform that you build yourself. Here we show you how to use BigBlueButton for web conferencing on Linux.


↺ How to create a custom rpm repository on Linux


Rpm is the acronym of RPM Package Manager: it is the low-level package manager in use in all the Red Hat family of distributions, such as Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.


An rpm package is a package containing software that is meant to be installed using this package management system, and rpm packages are usually distributed via software repositories. In this tutorial we learn how to create a custom rpm repository and how to configure our distribution to use it as a software source.


↺ Linux 101: How to search for files from the Linux command line – TechRepublic


Where did you leave that one particular configuration file you were just working on? You could start poking around in the directories that you assume might house the file using the ls command, but that could take far more time than you’d like to spend on this quest. Your best bet is to make use of the built-in CLI search tools, such as find.


The find command is a powerful search command that can easily help you find the files you’re looking for. Let me show you how to use this built-in command.


↺ Linux Beginners: Manage files using the terminal on CentOS 8


Every user that is new to the Linux environment, must need to know about the basic directory navigation and file management commands. In Linux, each command is used for a particular purpose that performs well for the specified task. The tool ‘mc’ known as Midnight Commander is a file manager that is used for Linux terminal. It acts as a good front end for executing all commands related to file management.


In this article, you will learn how to manage files using commands like ls, cd, rm, etc., and how to install the Midnight Commander file manager on CentOS 8. The following commands are used for file management on CentOS 8.


↺ Still Learning tmux


It’s only taken me a year, but I finally migrated all of my tmux and posts from the old Unix Tutorial website.


↺ Configuration of the APC UPS Daemon on my Linux server


For obvious reasons my Linux home server supplying NAS and Web services 24/7 is connected to a UPS. The UPS model (now discontinued) I use is a 700VA 230V APC Back-UPS ES-BE700G-UK. It is connected to one of the server’s USB ports via an APC-supplied cable so that the server can interrogate the UPS and so that the UPS can send unsolicited messages to the server (e.g. mains power supply interrupted, mains power supply restored, shut down the server now, and so on). The open-source APC UPS Daemon apcupsd that I installed on the server enables the server to react automatically to UPS events. apcupsd provides a Bash script apccontrol and various other Bash scripts to act on these events. All these scripts can be customised by the user. As users with an APC UPS that supports this functionality are likely to be interested in configuration of apcupsd, I think it might be useful for me to explain how I configured apcupsd.


An Ethernet switch in the same room as the server is also connected to the UPS. If my router were in the same room as the server then it would be connected to the same UPS as the server but, as it has to be in a different room next to the broadband provider’s master socket, it is instead connected to a separate mini UPS so that the server can still send e-mails after an interruption to the mains power supply.


↺ 15 things to do after installing Manjaro


Manjaro is by far one of the most popular and widely recommended Linux distros for beginners. This is why we see so many new users pick up Manjaro as their introductory distro to the Linux space. However, despite Manjaro’s user-friendly and welcoming environment, absolute beginners might be a little lost on what to do after a clean installation.


For example, updating your system is always a good idea, and we all know that. But did you know pointing to the fastest mirrors before an update can significantly boost the update speed? Similarly, if you’re coming from Windows, you might not know that you have free control over which Linux Kernel you use. And depending on the kernel, you will get varying levels of system performance. Cool right?


↺ How to install Puppy Linux [Comprehensive Guide]


Another day, just another Linux distro installation article? That’s not the case with Puppy Linux. If you are looking for an ultra-light Linux distro where the entire system can be run from random-access memory, Puppy Linux is a strong contender. The latest version takes about 300 MB of space, allowing the boot medium to be removed after the distro has started.


↺ How to create and enable Swap Partition on Centos / RHEL 8


Have you experienced a memory spike? A moment where your system is getting slower due to lack of physical memory. Linux has a mechanism to overcome this issue. It introduced a Swap Space. Swap Space is a space on hard disk which is a substitute of physical memory. The kernel will search the idle memory pages in the RAM, then the kernel will write the idle page to the swap area.


↺ Kafdrop – WebUI for Kafka


Kafdrop is a webUI for Apache Kafka. Kafdrop is an open-source tool which displays the information like broker details, creates a topic, delete a topic, browses messages and view ACLs. It is a lightweight tool and very easy to set up.


What is Kafka?


Apache Kafka is an open-source platform. Kafka was originally developed by Linkedin and was later incubated as the Apache Project. It can process over 1 million messages per second.


↺ How to run Virtual Machines on your Linux Server (Ubuntu/RHEL/CENTOS 7)


What is a Virtual Machine (VM)?


A virtual machine (VM) is a virtual environment that functions as a virtual computer system with its own CPU, memory, network interface, and storage, created on a physical hardware system (located off- or on-premises). Software called a hypervisor separates the machine’s resources from the hardware and provisions them appropriately so they can be used by the VM.


How do VMs Work?


Virtualization technology allows you to share a system with many virtual environments. The hypervisor manages the hardware and separates the physical resources from the virtual environments. Resources are partitioned as needed from the physical environment to the VMs.


↺ Puppet Server 6+ Client Ubuntu 20.04/21.04


Puppet is a configuration management tool to automate infrastructure management and configuration i.e., it manages configuration data on other systems, including users, packages, processes, services. It helps in the concept of Infrastructure as code. Puppet written in Ruby DSL language, which can be easily managed and configured. Puppet follows client-server Model, where one machine acts as server known as puppet master and the other acts as client known as slave or agent machine. The Puppet Master is a Machine where all manifests will be developed and ready to be implemented on the agents. The agent implements Puppet manifests, or files containing Puppet configuration language that declare the desired state of the node..


Special Features And Work Flow n Puppet, one can safely run the same set of configuration multiple times on the ;ame machine. In this flow, Puppet checks for the status of the target machine and Nill only make changes when there is any specific change in the configuration.


↺ How to install and configure Chef server on ubuntu


Chef is a ruby based technology which makes the work of developers easy and smooth. Like if a developer wants to push an update of its working application on a running server he has to go through all the node server of the company to get the job done. But what if there are 100 of node servers in the company, that’s an havoc. He has to go through all the server nodes and push that update in each of that nodes separately. That’s an Hectic, tedious and time consuming stuff. So now ‘CHEF’ comes into play .Using the chef technology the developer has to push and configure the update to the CHEF server from his chef workstation and the node servers will automatically extract the update from the chef server using the ‘Knife tool’.


Desktop Environments/WMs


K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt


↺ Plasma Mobile Gear May 2021


Plasma Mobile team is happy to announce PlaMo Gear release service.


This releases are aimed towards providing monthly release for smaller applications which make important part of Plasma Mobile experience.


↺ KDE e.V. AGM at Akademy


The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of KDE e.V., the association that supports the KDE community financially and organizationally, has been announced. As usual, it takes place at Akademy – online again this year, and the AGM is on monday june 21st, the longest day in the northern hemisphere – and will hopefully consist of quick and boring financial stuff, followed by a spirited discussion on the goals and activities and working groups of the e.V.


GNOME Desktop/GTK


↺ Matthias Clasen: Adventures in graphics APIs


Various people are working on porting desktop virtualization UIs to GTK4. This typically involves virgl, and the GTK3 solution was to use GtkGLArea.


With GTK4, rendering is happening in GL anyway, so it should be enough to just wrap your content in a GdkTexture and hand it to GTK, either by using it as a paintable with GtkPicture, or with a GskTextureNode in your own snapshot() implementation.


Distributions


↺ Beelink GK Mini is a compact desktop for about $200


Beelink’s newest little computer is a 4.5″ x 4″ x 1.7″ PC with a quad-core Intel Celeron J4125 Gemini Lake Refresh processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD.


The Beelink GK Mini also has two HDMI ports and an Ethernet jack. And while the system ships with Windows 10, it should support other operating systems – Beelink is an official partner of the Manjaro Linux team, and developer say they’re already working to ensure that Manjaro runs smoothly on the GK Mini.


New Releases


↺ Bodhi Linux 6.0 Released with Fresh New Look, Based on Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS


Last year in March, I talked here on 9to5Linux about Bodhi Linux’s new maintainer Robert Wiley that took over the awesome work done by Jeff Hoogland and the first release that he published under his maintenance, Bodhi Linux 5.1, after a year and a half of hard work.


Now, thirteen months, the Bodhi Linux team lead by Robert Wiley is still small, but they released a major version, Bodhi Linux 6.0, which is derived from the Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (Focal Fossa) operating system. This comes as a major update since the previous version was based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver).


↺ Bodhi Linux 6.0 available for download


There are way too many Linux distributions nowadays. Some of them are unique, but for the most part, they are largely repetitive and don’t all need to exist. One Linux-based operating system that manages to stand out, however, is Bodhi, which uses the Moksha desktop environment (a fork of Enlightenment).


If you aren’t familiar with Bodhi, please know it is a lightweight operating system that is based on the great Ubuntu. Today, Bodhi 6.0 becomes available. This release comes nearly three years after version 5.0 became available. This is the first release of Bodhi Linux to be based on Ubuntu 20.04.


↺ Freespire 7.5


Today we are looking at Freespire 7.5. It uses Linux Kernel 5.4, based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, XFCE 4.16, and uses about 1GB of ram when idling. It is clean and lean with a good look!


↺ Freespire 7.5 Run Through


BSD


↺ DragonFly BSD 6.0


DragonFly version 6.0 is the next step from the 5.8 release series in 2020. This version has a revamped VFS caching system, various filesystem updates including HAMMER2, and a long list of userland updates.


The details of all commits between the 5.8 and 6.0 branches are available in the associated commit messages for 6.0.0rc1 and 6.0.0.


↺ DragonFly BSD 6.0


DragonFly BSD 6.0 has been released. “This version has a revamped VFS caching system, various filesystem updates including HAMMER2, and a long list of userland updates.”


↺ DragonFlyBSD 6.0 Released With Many Kernel Optimizations, Other Improvements


DragonFlyBSD 6.0 has officially launched today as the newest version of this popular BSD operating system.


Following the recent launches of FreeBSD 13.0 and OpenBSD 6.9, DragonFlyBSD 6.0 has made it out as the latest version of this BSD operating system forked long ago from FreeBSD.


Slackware Family


↺ Is Slackware the Right Linux Distribution for You? What You Need to Know


Debian might be the oldest popular distribution but it’s tied with Slackware as the oldest one still in existence. The Slackware project started in 1992, a year after Linux was initially released, as a way to install a Linux system that already included some core packages: the kernel, the X Window System, and other utilities.


Since then, the distribution honestly hasn’t changed much. Its maintainers seem to have an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality in their design decisions.


Patrick Volkerding created Slackware out of his frustrations with what was the most popular early Linux distro, Softland Linux System (SLS). SLS was widely used among the early Linux community, but it was buggy. Volkerding, a computer science student at Minnesota State University Moorhead, decided to start his own distribution.


Debian and OpenSUSE have similar roots in their founders becoming frustrated with SLS, so SLS in some way may be a common ancestor to most modern Linux distros.


Volkerding was a member of the parody religion, Church of the SubGenius, and decided to name his new distro “Slackware” in reference to the SubGenius concept of “slack,” and the rest is history. The SubGenius connection furthered with the logo of Tux with SubGenius mascot J.R. “Bobb” Dobbs’ iconic pipe.


Volkerding still exerts a lot of influence over the project to this day as its BDFL or Benevolent Dictator For Life. The pace of releases slowed down in the 2000s owing to Volkerding’s health issues. The current LTS release as of this writing is 14.2, released in 2016.


IBM/Red Hat/Fedora


↺ Elizabeth K. Joseph: The Big Iron Hippo


It’s been about a year since I last wrote about an Ubuntu release on IBM Z (colloquially known as “mainframes” and nicknamed “Big Iron”). In my first year at IBM my focus really was Linux on Z, along with other open source software like KVM and how that provides support for common tools via libvirt to make management of VMs on IBM Z almost trivial for most Linux folks. Last year I was able to start digging a little into the more traditional systems for IBM Z: z/OS and z/VM. While I’m no expert, by far, I have obtained a glimpse into just how powerful these operating systems are, and it’s impressive.


[...]


Several updates to the kernel! A great, continued focus on virtualization and containers! I can already see that the next LTS, coming out in the spring of 2022, is going to be a really impressive one for Ubuntu on IBM Z and LinuxONE.


↺ Node.js Reference Architecture: Logging in Node.js


Understanding what tools to use for logging in your Node.js applications and deployments is a critical step to ensuring they run well in production. This article discusses why the Node.js Reference Architecture recommends Pino as a great tool for logging in your Node.js application. The article concludes by walking you through an example of logging in a Node.js application in production.


Because the Node.js ecosystem offers so many packages in the npm registry, the Node contributors at Red Hat and IBM collaborated to create a reference architecture for Node.js where we highlight our recommendations based on our use. Read our intro Welcome to the Node.js Reference Architecture. It’s important that we stress that this recommendation is only meant to be a starting point for teams who want an opinion. There are other good logging options, and we don’t think teams need to change what they are already using in production and understand there can be good reasons to use something else.


↺ Fedora Has Too Many Security Bugs 2


A year (and change) later, this is a followup to my previous post on how Feodra has too many security bugs. The code and methodology I’m using are unchanged from that post – this is just new numbers and some thoughts on the delta.


Right now, there are 2,089 open CVE bugs against Fedora. This is a decrease of 247 from last year – so that’s good news. My gratitude toward maintainers who have been reducing their backlog.


Debian Family


↺ Fix for JWMDesk in container


Forum member ‘williwaw’ reported an error in JWMDesk when click on “Icons layout”:


https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=24931#p24931


JWMDesk was created by forum member ‘radky’ and is a great little GUI for configuring the JWM window manager. It is found in the “Desktop” menu.


↺ Fatdog64 running in a container


I copied SM out of XenialPup, that works in Fatdog. Fatdog 811 has SM 2.49.5, XenialPup has 2.49.4. I needed to provide a couple of missing libs, libvpx* and libhunspell*.


Canonical/Ubuntu Family


↺ Ubuntu Server installation checklist


If you’re an admin who’s been tasked with installing Ubuntu Server to your data center, you’ll quickly realize how easy it is to deploy this enterprise-ready platform. The operating system itself is incredibly easy to install and will take you maybe 10 minutes tops. After the initial deployment is complete, however, the real work begins. It is at this point your Linux skills might be tested.


Fortunately, they don’t have to, as we have a handy checklist, from TechRepublic Premium, for you to use to ensure your Ubuntu Server deployment not only runs well but is secured before you start installing the necessary applications, services, and connect the server to your network.


↺ The Fridge: Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 682


Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 682 for the week of May 2 – 8, 2021.


Devices/Embedded


↺ GIGABYTE GB-BMCE-4500C fanless mini PC features Celeron N4500 Jasper Lake processor


The mini PC will ship with 75x75mm and 100x100m VESA mounting brackets, and according to FanlessTech, will be sold barebone in a few weeks for 159 Euros, meaning you’d need to add the memory, storage, and operating system to get a complete system. The company expects the mini PC to be used for IoT applications, as a desktop computer, a 4K HTPC, a digital signage, and/or an entry-level system for education.


↺ The all-new Hello World podcast for educators interested in computing and digital making


Open Hardware/Modding


↺ Librem 14 Runtime and Charging


The Librem 14 has a powerful 66.8Wh battery; let’s dig into what that means for runtime and charging.


The Librem 14 gets around 9 hours and 48 minutes with the screen on max brightness and all sensors enabled. This is the uptime you can expect with light use, like reading a text document or other simple low CPU programs.


↺ Mr Innovative’s resistor cutting machine is ‘reely’ awesome | Arduino Blog


If you need some help separating out lots of resistors, then Mr Innovative’s latest automated rig is the perfect solution for you. At the heart of his homemade device is an Arduino Nano, along with a multipurpose PCB for electrical connections and a touchscreen user interface.


The machine advances the reel of resistors through a slot via a stepper-driven rod and o-ring friction wheel assembly. When properly positioned, it cuts off the correct number of resistors using a pair of razors, set in motion by two stepper motors and corresponding linkage systems.


↺ Arduino plays the Chrome Dinosaur Game on another Arduino | Arduino Blog


There has been a trend over the past few years to automate certain games using microcontrollers — especially mobile ones. But none are perhaps as popular as the Dinosaur Game that shows up whenever the Chrome browser lacks an Internet connection. The game is simple: just tap or click to make the little T-Rex jump over various obstacles. And even though Arduino projects already exist that play perfectly for you and run the game, what about combining the two? This exactly what Michael Klements did with his Arduino Uno that plays the dino game on another Uno.


Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications


↺ Samsung’s next Android tablet will be the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus Lite, and it will come in at least two colours – NotebookCheck.net News


↺ Samsung to release several new Android smartphones this August – Android Community


↺ Huawei responds to rumors of phone brands ditching Android for HarmonyOS | TechRadar


↺ OPPO, Xiaomi And Vivo May Move Over From Android To Huawei’s Harmony OS Soon – Tech


↺ CarDongle Android PC client review | TechRadar


↺ The 5 Best Android Apps for Taking Care of House Plants


↺ Best Android TV devices to replace every kind of Roku – 9to5Google


↺ The 5 Top Video Editing Apps For Android


↺ [Techie Tuesday] From failing Java in college to being an Android tech lead with Snapchat and Airbnb – Vinay Gaba’s journey


↺ Indian cyber agency warns Android users about fake COVID-19 vaccine registration message – Technology News


↺ PUBG Mobile 1.4 update: APK file size for Android devices REVEALED! Check launch date, new features and more | Zee Business


↺ Vivo promises three years of Android updates for upcoming flagships – The Verge


↺ Samsung Galaxy A12 and A02s get Android 11 – GSMArena.com news


↺ Nokia updates its Android 11 update timeline


↺ Android 11 Arrives To T-Mobile’s OnePlus 7T Pro 5G


↺ How to play GTA 5 on Android devices using Steam Link in May 2021: Step-by-step guide


↺ Android apps on Oculus Quest could help us ditch our work laptops – here’s how | TechRadar


↺ Android vs. iPhone: 7 things Apple phone owners wish they could do – CNET


↺ Android Automotive OS review: Under the hood with Google’s car OS | Ars Technica


↺ [Poll] You’re still interested in Samsung’s Android Wear watches? – SamMobile


↺ Xiaomi’s PC Mode turns Android into a desktop OS on the Mi Mix Fold – Liliputing


Free, Libre, and Open Source Software


↺ Announcing coreboot 4.14


↺ Coreboot 4.14 Released With 42 New Motherboards Added, AMD Cezanne APU Support – Phoronix


It’s been a half-year already since Coreboot 4.13 was released so out now is Coreboot 4.14 that is represented by over thirty six hundred new commits adding dozens of new motherboards now supported.


Coreboot 4.14 brings initial support for AMD Cezanne APUs, though the current focus on the AMD APU support appears to be in the context of support for Google Chromebooks as opposed to seeing much in the way of consumer device/motherboard support. Meanwhile Coreboot 4.14 now considers its Intel Xeon Scalable processor support to be mature. Coreboot 4.14 supports Xeon Scalable Cascade Lake and Cooper Lake platforms.


↺ 8 Best Free and Open Source Graphical Email Clients


Email remains the killer information and communications technology. Email volume shows no sign of diminishing, despite the increasing popularity of collaborative messaging tools. There were over 4 billion email users in 2020.


Messages are exchanged between hosts using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol with software programs called mail transfer agents, and delivered to a mail store by programs called mail delivery agents, frequently referred to as email clients.


Email clients offer a variety of features. Many email clients offer a slew of features, some stick with just the basics. At the end of the day, what is important is that you find an email client that offers what you need, it is reliable, and works well on your computer.


↺ Call for Nominees for Two Open Library Foundation Board Positions


The Open Library Foundation is accepting nominations to fill two Board of Directors seats. The Foundation is looking for proven leaders who support open source projects and open source software development and are interested in enabling discovery and research. Nominees are welcome either from within the Open Library Foundation community or the open source development community at large.


The Board of the Open Library Foundation sets the policies and strategic direction of the Foundation. Board members serve a three-year term and will be able to advocate on behalf of the Foundation. Board members also serve as active members of the Open Library Foundation’s Roundtable which brings the Foundation’s projects together for collaboration and decision making.


↺ Call for Nominees for Two Open Library Foundation Board Positions


The Open Library Foundation is accepting nominations to fill two Board of Directors seats. The Foundation is looking for proven leaders who support open source projects and open source software development and are interested in enabling discovery and research. Nominees are welcome either from within the Open Library Foundation community or the open source development community at large.


Events


↺ AlpineConf 2021 server is UP


Web Browsers


Mozilla


↺ William Lachance: mozregression update May 2021


One of the persistent issues with mozregression is that it seems to be persistently detected as a virus by many popular anti-virus scanners. The causes for this are somewhat complex, but at root the problem is that mozregression requires fairly broad permissions to do the things it needs to do (install and run copies of Firefox) and thus its behavior is hard to distinguish from a piece of software doing something malicious.


↺ Mozilla Security Blog: Beware of Applications Misusing Root Stores


We have been alerted about applications that use the root store provided by Mozilla for purposes other than what Mozilla’s root store is curated for. We provide a root store to be used for server authentication (TLS) and for digitally signed and encrypted email (S/MIME). Applications that use Mozilla’s root store for a purpose other than that have a critical security vulnerability. With the goal of improving the security ecosystem on the internet, below we clarify the correct and incorrect use of Mozilla’s root store, and provide tools for correct use.


↺ Support.Mozilla.Org: What’s up with SUMO – May 2021


The second quarter of 2021 is underway and we can’t be more excited about lots of stuff that we’ve been working on in this quarter.


↺ Spidermonkey Development Blog: TC39 meeting, April 19-21 2021


In this TC39 meeting, the updates to JavaScript Classes around private state have moved to stage 4. Other proposals of note this meeting were proposals related to ArrayBuffers, notably resizable ArrayBuffers and a new proposal, introducing read-only ArrayBuffers and fixed views into ArrayBuffers. Read-only ArrayBuffers are not a new ArrayBuffer, but rather a way to freeze existing ArrayBuffers so that they are not modified accidentally. Fixed views into ArrayBuffers would have the goal of not exposing more than the intended view of an ArrayBuffer to a third party.


↺ Nick Fitzgerald: Hit the Ground Running: Wasm Snapshots for Fast Start Up


I gave a (virtual) talk at the WebAssembly Summit this year titled “Hit the Ground Running: Wasm Snapshots for Fast Start Up”.


Productivity Software/LibreOffice/Calligra


↺ LibreOffice Community Member Monday: Dante Doménech


I’m working on updating the suite’s formula editor to be fully compatible with MathML. This would increase the strength of our formula editor, by backing it with a solid standard.


Additionally, I’m working on adding support for Kahan summation, for handling sums in LibreOffice Calc. This would increase the accuracy of statistical operations – in particular sum, average, standard deviation …


CMS


↺ People of WordPress: Fike Komala


WordPress is open source software, maintained by a global network of contributors. There are many examples of how WordPress has changed people’s lives for the better. In this monthly series, we share some of the amazing stories that are not as well known.


Creating content with WordPress and blogging helped Fike Komala, from Indonesia, build a career where she can work remotely from different locations in the world.


In 2020, Fike joined a US-based company that specializes in form building to work as a content marketer. Using her experience as a freelancer and later a full time employee, she encourage others, particularly women in Asia, to consider remote work as a career option. She is so impressed by remote working benefits, that she is now considering writing about it for a thesis for her Master’s Degree, which she started this year in Europe.


As a keen blogger, WordPress immediately impressed Fike. Her dad is a programmer, and he helped her create the first of many blogs at the early age of 10 years old. She had private and public blogs, and even an English language one to help her practice and learn better English skills.


Programming/Development


Perl/Raku


↺ Rakudo Weekly News: 2021.19 Out Of Beta Pod


Alexandr Zahatski has released version 0.1.0 of Podlite, an editor for Pod6, the documentation slang of the Raku Programming Language. An associated blog post describes the features, one of which is export to PDF. A more interesting feature is support for different types of diagrams as described in Synopsis 26 (/r/rakulang comments).


Rust


↺ Joshuto: Why Not Clone Ranger In Rust!


Everything needs a Rust clone, doesn’t matter what it is and Ranger is the exactly the same. Today we’re looking at Joshuto a terminal file manager, it’s not my favourite but there’s certainly a good base here for the future.


↺ The Rust Programming Language Blog: Announcing Rust 1.52.1


The Rust team has prepared a new release, 1.52.1, working around a bug in incremental compilation which was made into a compiler error in 1.52.0. We recommend all Rust users, including those currently using stable versions prior to 1.52.0, upgrade to 1.52.1 or disable incremental compilation. Guidance on how to do so is available below.


If you have a previous version of Rust installed via rustup, getting Rust 1.52.1 is as easy as:


rustup update stable If you don’t have it already, you can get rustup from the appropriate page on our website.


Leftovers


↺ Accidentally wiped an app’s directory? Hey, just play the ‘unscheduled maintenance’ card. Now you’re a hero


The oversized rear of Monday is obstructing our view of the receding weekend. Never mind, pour yourself a beverage, select a pastry and settle in for a morning with the Regomiser and another edition of Who, Me?


We skip back a few decades this week, to 1990 and the misadventures of “Terry”, a student of computer science at a US state university.


To make ends meet, Terry had a side gig as IT support for the College of Law. “We were running a network copy of WordPerfect 5.0 on a Banyan VINES server running either Windows 3.0 or QEMM as appropriate for the application manager,” he recalled.


Two names to conjure with. These days it is hard to remember the dominance of WordPerfect (now owned by Corel). While version 5.1 was arguably the pinnacle of the DOS incarnation of the product, 5.0 turned up in 1988 with all manner of enhancements, including improved graphics handling. Using it required commitment – no helpful menus for the faint-hearted here – but it did the job when it came to churning out documents.


Health/Nutrition


↺ Funeral smoke adds to South Asia’s woes


With the sub-continent battling a vicious Covid onslaught, the worst fires in years are adding to South Asia’s woes.


Integrity/Availability


Proprietary


↺ Pipeline [crackers] say they want money, not mayhem


Reuters reports that the group, dubbed DarkSide, posted on its website that “our goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society.” The group did not say how much money they were demanding. They added they were “apolitical,” saying observers “do not need to tie us” to any particular government.


↺ EnergyPipeline [crackers] say their aim is cash, not chaos


The ransomware gang accused of crippling the leading U.S. fuel pipeline operator said on Monday that it never meant to create havoc, an unusual statement that experts saw as a sign the cybercriminals’ scheme had gone awry.


↺ Biden leading ‘whole of government’ response to Colonial Pipeline attack


Biden’s remarks came days after Colonial Pipeline, which transports around 45 percent of oil used on the East Coast, announced it had been forced to shut down all operations after its IT systems were hit by a ransomware attack.


The FBI said Monday that the company had been targeted by the “DarkSide” ransomware variant, and that cyber criminals were behind the incident, which is likely the largest successful cyberattack on a U.S. utility in history.


↺ Colonial hack: How did cyber-attackers shut off pipeline?


In the past, criminals have cause mayhem after finding their way into the software programs responsible for operational technology.


↺ Ransomware Attack That Halted US Fuel Pipeline a ‘Criminal Act,’ Biden Says


Biden, responding to a reporter’s question after he concluded his prepared statement about whether there is any evidence of involvement of Russia’s government, replied: “I’m going to be meeting with President (Vladimir) Putin. And so far, there is no evidence based on — from our intelligence people that Russia is involved.”


↺ US pipeline attackers appear to have bitten off more than they can chew


The affiliate of ransomware operator DarkSide, the Windows malware that was used to attack the US Colonial Pipeline Company, appears to have taken on a target that was outside the parameters set down by the operator, judging from a statement made by the operator on its site on the dark web.


↺ The cybersecurity ‘pandemic’ that led to the Colonial Pipeline disaster


The frequency and severity of attacks against utility systems is on the rise, according to the National Regulatory Research Institute. Fifty-six percent of utility professionals surveyed by Siemens in 2019 said they had experienced at least one attack over the previous year that led to an outage or a loss of private information. More than a third of the 796 “cyber incidents” reported to the Department of Homeland Security between 2013 and 2015 took place in the energy sector.


↺ Online Cheating Charges Upend Dartmouth Medical School


At the heart of the accusations is Dartmouth’s use of the Canvas system to retroactively track student activity during remote exams without their knowledge. In the process, the medical school may have overstepped by using certain online activity data to try to pinpoint cheating, leading to some erroneous accusations, according to independent technology experts, a review of the software code and school documents obtained by The New York Times.


Dartmouth’s drive to root out cheating provides a sobering case study of how the coronavirus has accelerated colleges’ reliance on technology, normalizing student tracking in ways that are likely to endure after the pandemic.


While universities have long used anti-plagiarism software and other anti-cheating apps, the pandemic has pushed hundreds of schools that switched to remote learning to embrace more invasive tools. Over the last year, many have required students to download software that can take over their computers during remote exams or use webcams to monitor their eye movements for possibly suspicious activity, even as technology experts have warned that such tools can be invasive, insecure, unfair and inaccurate.


↺ Apple Faces U.K. Class Action for Overcharging 20 Million Users


Apple’s 30% standard fee is “excessive” and “unlawful” the claimants said in a press release Tuesday. The claim, filed at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal on Monday, calls for the U.S. firm to compensate U.K. iPhone and iPad users for years of alleged overcharging.


↺ Epic and Apple are now fighting over a naked banana


And despite Apple and Epic’s often very funny debate over the definition of a game, the case will probably hinge on drier-sounding questions like those discussed by Epic’s first expert witness, the economist David Evans.


Evans argued that Apple is running an unfair single-brand monopoly: basically, it sells pricey devices that lock users into an ecosystem with no reasonable alternatives for getting certain apps, beyond tossing their phone or tablet and spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a new one. Developers can offer cheaper in-app purchases on the web or a different platform, but Apple won’t let iOS apps direct users to these savings.


Pseudo-Open Source


Privatisation/Privateering


Linux Foundation


↺ Linux Foundation, NGMN Collaborate on E2E 5G and Beyond


Security


↺ LFCA: Basic Security Tips to Protect Linux System – Part 17


Now more than ever, we are living in a world where organizations are constantly bombarded by security breaches motivated by the acquisition of highly sensitive and confidential data which is highly valuable and makes for a huge financial reward.


It’s rather surprising that despite being at a high risk of suffering from a potentially devastating cyberattack, most companies are not well prepared or simply overlook the red flags, often with devastating consequences.


↺ Fintech Startup Offers $500 for Payroll Passwords


Privacy/Surveillance


↺ DHS launches warning system to find domestic terrorism threats on public social media


The Department of Homeland Security has begun implementing a strategy to gather and analyze intelligence about security threats from public social media posts, DHS officials said.


The goal is to build a warning system to detect the sort of posts that appeared to predict an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 but were missed or ignored by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the officials said.


The focus is not on the identity of the posters but rather on gleaning insights about potential security threats based on emerging narratives and grievances. So far, DHS is using human beings, not computer algorithms, to make sense of the data, the officials said.


Defence/Aggression


↺ Republicans Tried to Overturn the Election. We Must Not Forget


This can be a strength. We don’t get bogged down in outmoded traditions, old grudges, obsolete ways of thinking. We constantly reinvent. We love innovation and disruption.


↺ Afghanistan in Mourning After School Bombing in Kabul Kills 85, Mostly Hazara Shiite Girls


At least 85 people, mostly young girls, were killed in Afghanistan after several bomb blasts outside a school in the capital Kabul. Survivors said the bombs were timed to go off as the girls left school for the day. The neighborhood where the attack occurred is mostly populated by the minority Hazara Shia community, and the Afghan government blamed the Taliban, though the group denies responsibility. The massacre came one week after U.S. and NATO forces started their military withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid a surge in violence. We go to Kabul to speak with Basir Bita, a mentor with Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers whose brother is a survivor of the attack, and Afghan American scholar Zaher Wahab. “Women and children continue to be the main victims of this occupation and invasion and the mayhem,” Wahab says, but he dismisses justifications for the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan as “protecting women and girls.”


↺ ‘We will kill you’: Thousands of Afghans who helped U.S. want to evacuate before the Taliban finds them


The Biden administration is under mounting pressure from lawmakers, veterans groups and refugee organizations to organize a large-scale evacuation of endangered Afghan interpreters and others who worked for the U.S. government before U.S. troops withdraw from the country in September.


Advocates say that the Biden administration is moving far too slowly to protect tens of thousands of Afghans whose lives are in mortal danger because of their association with the U.S. and Western organizations and that action must be taken now before the last troops pull out as scheduled in four months.


↺ UN Team Says Islamic State Committed Genocide Against Yazidis


The Islamic State terrorist group committed genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq, a U.N. team said Monday.


The investigators called the evidence of genocide “clear and convincing,” according to Karim Khan, who leads the team and added that it had identified the perpetrators “that clearly have responsibility for the crime of genocide against the Yazidi community.”


Environment


Wildlife/Nature


↺ We Need to Talk About Spider Conservation


Finance


↺ Nike, USPS Reach A Licensing Deal For USPS-Inspired Sneakers


What a wild trademark ride for Nike over the past few weeks. You will recall that Nike found itself on our pages after its trademark dispute with MSCHF over the so-called “Satan Shoes” being pushed by Lil Nas X. What had all the makings of a very interesting case that would have involved questions about resale rights, free speech, and property rights instead ended in a mostly meaningless settlement that saw MSCHF agreeing to offer to buy back shoes that are now wildly famous and valuable and will almost certainly never be bought back. Almost immediately afterwards, interestingly, Nike found itself on the flip side of the trademark coin with the United States Postal Service, after Nike produced an experimental Air Force 1 sneaker that was clearly inspired by the postal service.


↺ In the craziness of NFTs, a builders’ culture emerges on the blockchain


One of them is Edward Snowden. The former National Security Agency intelligence consultant, who gained worldwide notoriety when he leaked classified information from the secretive organization in 2013, recently held an online auction to raise money for his nonprofit, the Freedom of the Press Foundation.


As part of the auction, an NFT sold for $5.4 million. It was an image of Snowden’s face composed of pages from a court decision that the former NSA consultant had violated U.S. law.


That’s a tidy sum for a digital collage. Yet, in an appearance during Decrypt’s two-day Ethereal Summit in early May, Snowden expressed a wider perspective on the world of decentralized finance and cryptocurrencies.


AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics


↺ Sanders, Omar Introduce Bill to Permanently Provide Kids With Free School Meals


↺ GOP Lawmaker Who Backed AZ Ballot Audit Now Says It’s Ridiculous & Embarrassing


↺ Weaponizing Trump’s Big Lie: Ari Berman on GOP’s War on Democracy & Voting Rights


Extreme voting restrictions have advanced in several Republican-led states across the U.S., including in Florida, where Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a sweeping voter suppression bill that will make it harder to vote by mail, limit ballot drop boxes, impose new voter ID requirements and criminalize giving food and water to voters waiting in line at polling places. Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman says these efforts are an extension of former President Trump’s “big lie” about voter fraud. “They’re trying to make it harder for Democratic constituencies to be able to vote in future elections, and they are trying to institutionalize voter suppression in a way that they couldn’t do in 2020,” Berman says. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a key Senate panel is set to take up the sweeping voting rights and election overhaul bill known as the For the People Act.


Censorship/Free Speech


↺ Excerpts From “The Long Sili-CON: Power and Censorship in the Digital Era” – The Project Censored Show


Notes: Andy Lee Roth is Associate Director of Project Censored, and co-editor of the annual Project Censored books. Alison Butler is senior lecturer and Director of the Media Literacy Certificate Program in Communications, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. John K. Wilson is Contributing Editor to Academeblog.org, a project of the American Association of University Professors. Maximillian Alvarez is Editor-in-Chief at the Real News Network.


Freedom of Information/Freedom of the Press


↺ Missing ex-hospital head who treated Navalny found alive


After being reported missing over the weekend, Omsk regional health minister Alexander Murakhovsky — the former head of the Siberian hospital where Alexey Navalny was treated after his August 2020 poisoning — was found alive.


Civil Rights/Policing


↺ Rush of Arkansas executions that included Ledell Lee’s comes under renewed scrutiny


But four years later, Lee’s case and the circumstances that led to his execution face new scrutiny after lawyers working on behalf of his family said last week that DNA testing of the murder weapon showed another man’s genetic material.


↺ Opinion | By Supporting Trump’s Move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, Biden Enabled Israeli Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians


The Biden administration gives lip service to a negotiated settlement and a two state solution. But Washington has done nothing at all to prevent the gradual colonization of the Palestinian West Bank.


↺ Israel’s Pogroms in Jerusalem Could Spark the Destruction of al-Aqsa


As the holy month of Ramadan comes to a close, it is becoming clear that the violence against Palestinians in Jerusalem has been ramped up in a coordinated effort by the Israeli government, the Jerusalem municipality, the Israeli police, and violent Zionist gangs.


↺ “Ethnic Cleansing”: Amid Protests of Palestinian Evictions in Jerusalem, Israel Raids Al-Aqsa Mosque


Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded after Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the second time in four days, with reports showing police fired rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian worshipers. Palestinians have been staging weeks of protests to block Israel from evicting dozens of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem to give their homes to Jewish settlers, which the United Nations has described as a possible war crime. Mohammed El-Kurd, a writer and poet who is organizing to save his family’s home in Sheikh Jarrah, says the world is seeing colonialism in action in Palestine. “What’s happening in Sheikh Jarrah today is nothing short of ethnic cleansing,” El-Kurd says in an interview from Jerusalem. “We are seeing the Israeli government literally doing everything it can to terrorize Palestinians, whereas Israeli settlers can just walk around our neighborhoods, steal our homes and wield their guns, no questions asked whatsoever.”


↺ ‘Where’s the Outrage, POTUS?’ Rashida Tlaib Demands US Action as Israeli Forces Assault Al-Aqsa


As Israeli police wounded more than 300 Palestinians, Tlaib said U.S. lawmakers “must condition the aid we send to Israel, and end it altogether if those conditions are not followed.”


↺ Opinion | It Is Not Time for Progressives to Be Giving Joe Biden an ‘A’ Grade


If we’re going to get maximum reforms in this crucial period, President Biden needs focused pressure—not the highest rating.


↺ The Right to Repair


Many electronics manufacturers are making it harder and harder for individuals and independent repairers to fix their broken kit. There are claims that programmed obsolescence is alive and well, with mobile phone batteries designed to wear out after just 400 charges. The manufacturers say it’s for safety or security reasons, but it drives the consumer model of constant replacement and upgrades. But people are starting to fight back. Mark Miodownik talks to the fixers and repairers who are heading up the Right to Repair movement which is forcing governments to act and making sustainability and value for money part of the consumer equation. He goes online for help replacing his broken mobile phone screen and dead battery and finds out how easy it is to dare to repair.


Internet Policy/Net Neutrality


↺ The Stunning Inability Of Canada’s Heritage Minister To Answer Questions About His Internet Regulation Bill


We’ve written about Bill C-10, the Canadian government’s attempt to bring online services under the auspices of the country’s broadcast regulator, the CRTC, and the way the story about the bill keeps shifting and the promises about what it supposedly won’t do keep being broken.


↺ Minister Behind Canada’s Social Media Bill Now Says It Will Regulate User Generated Content


Update: The Minister has now attempted to backtrack these latest comments and repeated his insistence that the bill will not apply to social media users, though the impact the regulatory powers — which he says will apply to the platforms — will have on users remains unclear.


↺ U.S. broadband industry accused in ‘fake’ net neutrality comments


The broadband industry in 2017 funded a campaign that generated millions of fake comments to create the impression of grassroots opposition to net neutrality rules while the U.S. Federal Communications Commission considered repealing the policy, New York state’s attorney general said on Thursday.


Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said her office reached agreements with three companies involved in the scheme – Fluent Inc (FLNT.O), Opt-Intelligence Inc and React2Media Inc – imposing penalties of $4.4 million and requiring them to adopt comprehensive reforms in future advocacy campaigns.


↺ Opposition to Net Neutrality Was Faked, New York Says


Internet providers, working through a group called Broadband for America, spent $4.2 million on the project, Attorney General Letitia James said. The effort generated roughly nine million comments to the agency and letters to Congress backing the rollback, almost all signed by people who had never agreed to the use of their names on such comments, according to the investigation. Some of the names had been obtained earlier, in other marketing efforts, officials said. The agency approved the repeal in late 2017.


↺ Open Access Networks Key To Affordability Question, House Committee Hears


Chris Lewis, president and CEO of Public Knowledge, a D.C. based non-profit that advocates for consumer rights and education, argued that open access networks improve competition by lowering the barriers to building much of the infrastructure necessary to sustain a network.


“When those networks are open, any provider can use that infrastructure to offer services. This allows providers to save on [cost], and hopefully see lower prices [for consumers],” Lewis explained. He added that when open access infrastructure is available and a certain baseline level of service is established, companies can then focus on other areas of competition.


“Once a provider does not have a monopoly on a territory, they really have to compete for the attention and the loyalty of consumers,” he added. Lewis gave the example of customer service and responsiveness as an area that broadband providers could focus with the resources that they save from not having to establish their own infrastructure.


Digital Restrictions (DRM)


↺ Federal Court in Canada Rules that TV Boxes With KODI Aren’t Intrinsically Pirate Enablers


The Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta has ruled that TV boxes cannot be banned from being sold on Canada’s large retail shops on grounds of them being piracy-enablers because this concerns only a small portion. As such, the court dismissed Allarco’s request for a permanent injunction after determining that the plaintiff could not provide sufficient evidence that buyers of these boxes engaged in activities that constitute a violation of the Copyright Act. And finally, the court has found that none of the units sold by official retailers came pre-configured with pirate software.


Monopolies


↺ Apple sues Russia’s antimonopoly agency over $12 million fine


The American tech giant Apple has filed a lawsuit against Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), challenging a $12 million fine.


Patents


↺ America wants to waive patent protection for vaccines


American support for a waiver is the first step in what could be a lengthy process. Several countries, including members of the European Union, Britain and Switzerland, which opposed such a move at the WTO last year, must be persuaded to change their minds. They will struggle to hold the line against America, so may agree to a narrow exception to trade rules. A broader waiving of the rules, as proposed by India and South Africa, to include the removal of patent and trade-secret protections for all covid-related products, including therapeutics and diagnostics, is not on the table. In her comments Ms Tai mentioned waiving intellectual-property [sic] protections, but only for vaccines.


↺ Say hello or waive goodbye? The life and death issue of Covid vaccine equity


You may have felt a cold chill from the storm brewing among member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), resulting from inequality in the sale and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.


↺ Pimpolois running for the European Inventor Award


Fifty pictures per second. It is the speed at which the eye sees the world. So what is trying to create a machine that can read data more quickly? Yet this is what the French achieved Michael Tanter and Matthias Fink. The first Pimpol, In Quotes-de Armor.


“The disappearance of ultra-fast is bound to give something”


All of this goes back twenty years. The two men meet in the late 1990s and start a thesis together at school. ESPCI – PSL Absolutely “The concept of a mirror with time reversal, for waves”, Traces Mickel Tanter, remained in Pimpol until finishing college before entering Navy High School Breast And start a preparation for it Rennes To go to the Supalik in Paris.


↺ Indian American Chemist Sumita Mitra Named Finalist for European Inventor Award


↺ infesting the media with ridiculous puff pieces that distract from EPO crimes


The European Patent Office May 4 announced that Indian American chemist Sumita Mitra was nominated as a finalist for its 2021 European Inventor Award in the Non-EPO countries category.


↺ A Few More Thoughts on Normality


Once upon a time, the “nemo iudex” principle was a fundamental cornerstone of EPO Board Appeal proceedings, even though EPO management did not always appreciate it (do you still remember R 19/12?).


[...]


With this mindset, I stumbled about an interesting contribution by two previous EPO Vice Presidents, Jacques Michel and Willy Minnoye, here. This blogpost contained many thoughts that I found worthy of careful deliberation. As the original is in French, I am happy to provide an English translation under the following link:


Contribution J Michel & W Minnoye New Normal EPO English translation


I particularly liked the authors’ emphasis on quality by cooperation and discussion among examiners, both during their education period and thereafter. It seems plausible to me that thorough discussion of a case by the three examiners of an examination or opposition division is one of the best means to secure and enhance what I understand to be “quality”. Clearly, such discussions take time, but I would think this is time well spent. And I am quite skeptical that the EPO will be able to secure the same quality once such discussions are supposed to mostly take place by videoconference. I hope that this will not become the “New Normal” of the EPO without prior careful investigation and thorough testing.


Software Patents


↺ Clash of Clans: $92 million and Eligibility Issues


SuperCell is a Finnish company that makes and distributes the mobile game “Clash of Clans.” SuperCell is owned primarily by the Chinese multinational Tencent, the “world’s largest video game vender.” The patentee GREE is a Japanese mobile game developer and holds a number of mobile-device game related patents.


On May 7, 2021 a jury sided with Gree in a patent infringment lawsuit, holding SuperCell liable and awarding $92 million in infringement damages.


[...]


The jury also found the infringement willful and that the patent claims were not invalid.


[...]


Today, the Federal Circuit decided a parallel case involving a separate GREE patent — not one subject to the recent jury verdict. U.S. Patent Number 9,897,799. For this patent, SuperCell filed a petition for Post Grant Review. The PTO granted the petition and eventually found the claims invalid under Section 101. On appeal here, the Federal Circuit has affirmed that judgment. In particular, the appellate panel agreed that the claims are directed to “the abstract idea of associating game objects and moving one or more of the objects.” Further, the claims did not include any inventive step going beyond the routine and conventional.


↺ JP opposition filed against ETRI patent


On May 10, 2021, Unified Patents filed a Japanese opposition against JP6783355. The JP’355 patent is owned by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI). This patent has been designated essential to the HEVC Advance patent pool and it is related to patents that have been designated as essential to SISVEL’s AV1 and VP9 pools.


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