Submission + - Slashdot still misloads due to typical adblockers 2
couchslug writes: Duplicated on my machine (Xubuntu LTS, Chrome, Chromium and Firefox browsers) before and after a post-update restart.
Submission Summary: 0 pending, 21 declined, 14 accepted (35 total, 40.00% accepted)
Submission + - Google, Cloudflare & Cisco Will Poison DNS to Stop Piracy Block Circumventio (torrentfreak.com) 1
couchslug writes: A French court has ordered Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco to poison their DNS resolvers to prevent circumvention of blocking measures, targeting around 117 pirate sports streaming domains. The move is another anti-piracy escalation for broadcaster Canal+, which also has permission to completely deindex the sites from search engine results.
Stopping someone from acting is not the same as censoring what others may see via search engines. If this becomes a common resort it could be applied to much more than streaming sites.
Stopping someone from acting is not the same as censoring what others may see via search engines. If this becomes a common resort it could be applied to much more than streaming sites.
Submission + - Broadcom cancels VMware licensing, hikes prices (itpro.com)
couchslug writes: "A European cloud trade body has called for an investigation into Broadcom amid concerns over changes it has made to VMware licensing structures.
The Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) consortium called on regulatory and legislative bodies across Europe to investigate the changes Broadcom has made to the VMware operating model, which it says will “decimate” the region’s cloud infrastructure.
“CISPE calls upon regulators, legislators and courts across Europe to swiftly scrutinize the actions of Broadcom in unilaterally canceling license terms for essential virtualisation software,” the trade body said in a statement. Since acquiring VMware in November 2023, Broadcom has embarked on a comprehensive overhaul of software licensing at the firm, which has drawn widespread criticism from customers. "
"Moreover, even if they are able to relicense the VMware software, a number of customers reported dramatic price hikes of as much as 12 times. Tan recently acknowledged the move had elicited ‘unease’ among customers and partners in a blog reflecting on the first 100 days since the Broadcom acquisition, but argued the changes were motivated by innovating faster and serving customers more effectively."
The Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) consortium called on regulatory and legislative bodies across Europe to investigate the changes Broadcom has made to the VMware operating model, which it says will “decimate” the region’s cloud infrastructure.
“CISPE calls upon regulators, legislators and courts across Europe to swiftly scrutinize the actions of Broadcom in unilaterally canceling license terms for essential virtualisation software,” the trade body said in a statement. Since acquiring VMware in November 2023, Broadcom has embarked on a comprehensive overhaul of software licensing at the firm, which has drawn widespread criticism from customers. "
"Moreover, even if they are able to relicense the VMware software, a number of customers reported dramatic price hikes of as much as 12 times. Tan recently acknowledged the move had elicited ‘unease’ among customers and partners in a blog reflecting on the first 100 days since the Broadcom acquisition, but argued the changes were motivated by innovating faster and serving customers more effectively."
Submission + - Mazda's DMCA takedown kills a hobbyist's smart car API tool (arstechnica.com)
couchslug writes: A new attack on the right to do with one's property as the owner sees fit. First step, threaten without providing evidence:
"Frequent Home Assistant contributor J. Nick Kolston, or bdraco on GitHub, was the first of many commenters confused by Mazda's code claims. "I couldn't find any of the copyrighted code in the pypi package that they reference in the notice so I'm not sure which code they are referencing (unless they mean the API itself?)," they wrote. Others noted that Rothweiler's extension, written in Python and JavaScript, was unlikely to have copied Mazda's mobile app code.
Reverse engineering for interoperability, such as exposing the Mazda app's particulars to Home Assistant, could be considered a fair use exception to the DMCA, as explained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. And while the Supreme Court declined to rule on whether APIs are subject to copyright, it ruled in Oracle v. Google in 2021 that, depending on certain factors, re-implementation of an API, particularly for the purpose of connecting and extending products, is protected under fair use."
"Frequent Home Assistant contributor J. Nick Kolston, or bdraco on GitHub, was the first of many commenters confused by Mazda's code claims. "I couldn't find any of the copyrighted code in the pypi package that they reference in the notice so I'm not sure which code they are referencing (unless they mean the API itself?)," they wrote. Others noted that Rothweiler's extension, written in Python and JavaScript, was unlikely to have copied Mazda's mobile app code.
Reverse engineering for interoperability, such as exposing the Mazda app's particulars to Home Assistant, could be considered a fair use exception to the DMCA, as explained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. And while the Supreme Court declined to rule on whether APIs are subject to copyright, it ruled in Oracle v. Google in 2021 that, depending on certain factors, re-implementation of an API, particularly for the purpose of connecting and extending products, is protected under fair use."
Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What should Mozilla do to regain Firefox market share?
couchslug writes: Mozilla market share was once impressive while today it's under a pitiful 5 percent. Google money removes need to compete from a management POV as they'll get paid either way but they're still leaving money on the table.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fbrows...
What should Mozilla do to regain Firefox market share? Even if you are a happy FF user consider normal non-techie uses as nerd referrals gave market share then took it away. Not so long ago Internet Explorer was only used to download Firefox when geeks reloaded Windows machines for others. Today Edge however pathetic still outranks Firefox. Were FF not arguably the best available browser for Linux share would be even less.
Were you king for a day what would you do to make Firefox great again? If you dropped or deprecated Firefox what chased you off? This is not about Firefox being good or bad but about regaining casually discarded market share.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.visualcapitalist.c... — 1996-2019
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statista.com%2Fstati... — 2012-2022
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fbrows...
What should Mozilla do to regain Firefox market share? Even if you are a happy FF user consider normal non-techie uses as nerd referrals gave market share then took it away. Not so long ago Internet Explorer was only used to download Firefox when geeks reloaded Windows machines for others. Today Edge however pathetic still outranks Firefox. Were FF not arguably the best available browser for Linux share would be even less.
Were you king for a day what would you do to make Firefox great again? If you dropped or deprecated Firefox what chased you off? This is not about Firefox being good or bad but about regaining casually discarded market share.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.visualcapitalist.c... — 1996-2019
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.statista.com%2Fstati... — 2012-2022
Submission + - Omnipotent BMCs from Quanta remain vulnerable to critical Pantsdown threat (arstechnica.com)
couchslug writes: Quanta not patching vulnerable baseboard management controllers leaves data centers vulnerable. Pantsdown was disclosed in 2019....
"The power and ease of use of the Pantsdown exploit are by no means new. What is new, contrary to expectations, is that these types of attacks have remained possible on BMCs that were using firmware QCT provided as recently as last month.
QCT's decision not to publish a patched version of its firmware or even an advisory, coupled with the radio silence with reporters asking legitimate questions, should be a red flag. Data centers or data center customers working with this company's BMCs should verify their firmware's integrity or contact QCT's support team for more information."
"The power and ease of use of the Pantsdown exploit are by no means new. What is new, contrary to expectations, is that these types of attacks have remained possible on BMCs that were using firmware QCT provided as recently as last month.
QCT's decision not to publish a patched version of its firmware or even an advisory, coupled with the radio silence with reporters asking legitimate questions, should be a red flag. Data centers or data center customers working with this company's BMCs should verify their firmware's integrity or contact QCT's support team for more information."
Submission + - Canon sued for $5 million for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink (techspot.com)
couchslug writes: "Canon, best nown for manufacturing camera equipment and printers for business and home users, is being sued for not allowing customers to use the scan or fax functions in multi-function devices if the ink runs out on numerous printer models. David Leacraft filed a class action lawsuit against Canon USA, alleging the company engaged in deceptive marketing and unjust enrichment practices."
Submission + - "Real Water" drinking water mass poisoning.
couchslug writes: Lethal snake oil is more like it:
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fscienc...
"At least five infants and children in Nevada have suffered acute non-viral hepatitis, resulting in liver failure, after drinking “alkalized” water by the brand “Real Water,” local and federal regulators reported this week. At least six others fell ill with less severe conditions after drinking the water—and additional reports continue to surface.
The initial five infants and children with liver failure fell ill in November 2020 and required hospitalization, but they have since recovered. They lived in four different households in southern Nevada. The other six ill people—three adults and three children—came from at least two of those same households and reported vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite, and fatigue, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.
The health district is working to investigate the cases with the Food and Drug Administration. It’s not yet clear what caused the illnesses but “to date, the consumption of ‘Real Water’ brand alkaline water was found to be the only common link identified between all the cases,” the health district said."
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fscienc...
"At least five infants and children in Nevada have suffered acute non-viral hepatitis, resulting in liver failure, after drinking “alkalized” water by the brand “Real Water,” local and federal regulators reported this week. At least six others fell ill with less severe conditions after drinking the water—and additional reports continue to surface.
The initial five infants and children with liver failure fell ill in November 2020 and required hospitalization, but they have since recovered. They lived in four different households in southern Nevada. The other six ill people—three adults and three children—came from at least two of those same households and reported vomiting, nausea, loss of appetite, and fatigue, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.
The health district is working to investigate the cases with the Food and Drug Administration. It’s not yet clear what caused the illnesses but “to date, the consumption of ‘Real Water’ brand alkaline water was found to be the only common link identified between all the cases,” the health district said."
Submission + - Accused murderer wins right to check source code of DNA testing kit (theregister.com) 1
couchslug writes: A New Jersey appeals court has ruled that a man accused of murder is entitled to review proprietary genetic testing software to challenge evidence presented against him. Attorneys defending Corey Pickett, on trial for a fatal Jersey City shooting that occurred in 2017, have been trying to examine the source code of a software program called TrueAllele to assess its reliability. The software helped analyze a genetic sample from a weapon that was used to tie the defendant to the crime. The maker of the software, Cybergenetics, has insisted in lower court proceedings that the program's source code is a trade secret. The co-founder of the company, Mark Perlin, is said to have argued against source code analysis by claiming that the program, consisting of 170,000 lines of MATLAB code, is so dense it would take eight and a half years to review at a rate of ten lines an hour. The company offered the defense access under tightly controlled conditions outlined in a non-disclosure agreement, which included accepting a $1m liability fine in the event code details leaked. But the defense team objected to the conditions, which they argued would hinder their evaluation and would deter any expert witness from participating.
Submission + - How many years is ideal for long term distro support?
couchslug writes: Howls of anguish from betrayed CentOS users highlight the value of its long support cycles. As distros become more refined how important are changes vs. stability for users running tens, thousands and hundreds of thousands of servers or who just want stability and security over change for its own sake? Should competitors like Ubuntu and SUSE offer truly LTS versions to seize that (obviously large thus important to widespread adoption) user base? Distro-hopping is fun but people with work to do and a fixed task set have different needs.
Why do you think distro leadership are so eager for distro life cycles? Boredom, progress or what mix of both?
What sayeth the hive mind and what distros do you use to achieve your goals?
Why do you think distro leadership are so eager for distro life cycles? Boredom, progress or what mix of both?
What sayeth the hive mind and what distros do you use to achieve your goals?
Submission + - Facebook tells academics to stop monitoring its political ads. (theregister.com) 1
couchslug writes: Facebook has ordered the end to an academic monitoring project that has repeatedly exposed failures by the internet giant to clearly label political advertising on its platform. The social media goliath informed New York University (NYU) that research by its Tandon School of Engineering's Online Transparency Project's Ad Observatory violates Facebook's terms of service on bulk data collection and demanded it end the program immediately. The project recruited 6,500 volunteers to install its AdObserver browser extension that collects data on the ads that Facebook shows them personally. It sends the information to the American university, allowing it to perform a real-time check that Facebook is living up its promise to clearly disclose not only who paid for political ads shown on the platform but also how much and when the adverts would be shown. “We launched the Online Transparency Project two years ago to make it easier to see who was purchasing political ads on Facebook,” said co-founder Laura Edelson, of the project.
Submission + - The exFAT filesystem is coming to Linux—Paragon software's not happy about
couchslug writes: When software and operating system giant Microsoft announced its support for inclusion of the exFAT filesystem directly into the Linux kernel back in August, it didn't get a ton of press coverage. But filesystem vendor Paragon Software clearly noticed this month's merge of the Microsoft-approved, largely Samsung-authored version of exFAT into the VFS for-next repository, which will in turn merge into Linux 5.7—and Paragon doesn't seem happy about it. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Finform...
Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What features would your ideal telework systems incorporate? 1
couchslug writes: Physical commuting has a horrific and enormously expensive carbon footprint. It's costly in lives (auto and other transportation accidents, pollution) and wasted time (billions of hours every year) better spent doing something else. What software and hardware features would your ideal telework systems incorporate to minimize physical interaction? How can we use technology to avoid costly, wasteful and sometimes dangerous meatspace gatherings? What don't you like about existing options?
Submission + - Severe Thinkpad USB-C firmware and driver flaw patch update
couchslug writes: Potential hardware damage alert:
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Fnews%2Fis-y...
"As reported by Notebookcheck and later posted to a Lenovo support page, the USB-C firmware issue affects more than a dozen ThinkPad laptops including the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen to 7th Gen), X1 Yoga (2nd Gen to 4th Gen), and P-series ThinkPads. It turns out that a firmware update issued in August 2019 corrupted the software controlling the port. "
Anyone with more information on this expensive problem please post. It's already taken out many system boards. The problem affects enough models that class action suit may be appropriate because failures due to the defect have occurred outside the warranty window.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fthink...
"Edit: From what u/ibmthink and others commented, it looks like the situation is even worse: the "critical firmware update" is only a mitigation for the hardware failure — keeping the machine going until the warranty expires..."
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Fnews%2Fis-y...
"As reported by Notebookcheck and later posted to a Lenovo support page, the USB-C firmware issue affects more than a dozen ThinkPad laptops including the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen to 7th Gen), X1 Yoga (2nd Gen to 4th Gen), and P-series ThinkPads. It turns out that a firmware update issued in August 2019 corrupted the software controlling the port. "
Anyone with more information on this expensive problem please post. It's already taken out many system boards. The problem affects enough models that class action suit may be appropriate because failures due to the defect have occurred outside the warranty window.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Fthink...
"Edit: From what u/ibmthink and others commented, it looks like the situation is even worse: the "critical firmware update" is only a mitigation for the hardware failure — keeping the machine going until the warranty expires..."
Submission + - Obama Plan Privatizes Astronaut Launchings (nytimes.com)
couchslug writes: President Obama will end NASA’s return mission to the moon and turn to private companies to launch astronauts into space when he unveils his budget request to Congress next week, an administration official said Thursday.The shift would “put NASA on a more sustainable and ambitious path to the future,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But the changes have angered some members of Congress, particularly from Texas, the location of the Johnson Space Center, and Florida, the location of the Kennedy Space Center.
“My biggest fear is that this amounts to a slow death of our nation’s human space flight program,” Representative Bill Posey, Republican of Florida, said in a statement.
“My biggest fear is that this amounts to a slow death of our nation’s human space flight program,” Representative Bill Posey, Republican of Florida, said in a statement.
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