Links 15/12/2023: Train DRM and Finland's Russia-route Trains Re-purposed for Domestic Use
Contents
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Leftovers
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BIA Net ☛ Director Yılmaz Atadeniz passes away
Atadeniz adapted Hollywood science fiction and Western productions to Turkish cinema employing his unique methods in the earlier years of his directing career that he started in 1963.
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Hackaday ☛ Public Power, WiFi, And Shelter
In the US, we’re starting to see some pushback against hostile architecture, and in this vein, [benhobby] built a swanky public power and Wi-Fi access point.
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Hackaday ☛ Bluetooth As Proxy For Occupancy
During [Matt]’s first year of college, he found in a roundabout way that he could avoid crowds in the dining hall by accessing publicly available occupancy data that the dining hall collected. Presumably this was data for the dining hall to use internally, but with the right API calls anyone could use the information to figure out the best times to eat. But when the dining hall switched providers, this information feed disappeared. Instead of resigning himself to live in a world without real-time data on the state of the dining hall, he recreated the way the original provider counted occupancy: by using Bluetooth as a proxy for occupancy.
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Science
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Federal News Network ☛ How the Education Department could help improve falling math scores
Education performance in developed countries, and in the United States, is a mixed bag. That is according to the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a periodic project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the U.S., math performance by 15-year-olds was worse than in 2018, among the lowest ever. Reading and science held steady. For analysis of what the results mean, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke with Ryan Tauriainen, the Executive Director of Teach For America's D.C. region.
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Science Alert ☛ Weight Gain Common After Stopping New Obesity Drugs, Study Shows
Results may be temporary.
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Science Alert ☛ Arctic Permafrost Hides Migrating Methane That Could Skyrocket Emissions
A climate time bomb.
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Science Alert ☛ Huge First: Physicists 'Entangle' Individual Molecules With Staggering Precision
New possibilities for quantum computing.
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Federal News Network ☛ Los Alamos looks to the edge of complex data management challenges
LANL is building computer systems to take on the "unsolved problems," according to the leader of the High Performance Computing division.
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Science Alert ☛ The World's Most Productive Space Telescope Is Back in Action
We can't wait for more discoveries.
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Science Alert ☛ There's One Easy Strategy to Reduce Alcohol Intake, Scientists Say
Just knowing it's 'bad for you' is not enough.
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New York Times ☛ Morning Person? You Might Have Neanderthal Genes to Thank.
Hundreds of genetic variants carried by Neanderthals and Denisovans are shared by people who like to get up early.
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Hardware
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Ruben Schade ☛ Using an old computer for new writing
This is my first post written in a while with the Toast Vim theme by Jsit. It’s rather delightful, even if my lower-carb diet right now precludes me from eating it. The’re toasting some right now in the kitchen, and it smells incredible.
This pointless distraction is an example of something I want to avoid with a dedicated writing device. How’s that for a segue!? While such a theoretical device couldn’t be used to block the smell of freshly-baked sourdough (or… could it?), the lack of on-screen or other-hyphenated distractions might help me focus and write better.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ U.S. officials doubt China's SMIC foundry can produce enough 7nm chips to satisfy Huawei's demand
U.S. officials say that while SMIC can make 7nm chips, their performance is lower than those of rivals, and their volumes may be lower than Huawei needs.
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RFA ☛ Seoul beefs up efforts to diversify supply chain amid China concerns
The move comes as S Korea increasingly voices concerns about issues sensitive to Beijing.
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Hackaday ☛ The Geometry Of Transistors
Building things in a lab is easy, at least when compared to scaling up for mass production. That’s why there are so many articles about fusion being right around the corner, or battery technology that’ll allow aviation to switch away from fossil fuels, or any number of other miraculous solutions that never come into being. They simply don’t scale or can’t be manufactured in a cost effective way. But even when they are miraculous and can be produced on a massive scale, as is the case for things like transistors, there are some oddities that come up as a result of the process of making so many. This video goes into some of the intricacies of a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and why it looks the way it does.
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Hackaday ☛ Porting CP/M To A Z80 Thing
It is hard to describe the Brother SuperPowerNote. It looks like a big old Z80-based laptop, but it says it is a notebook. The label on it says (with lots of exclamation marks) that it is a word processor, a communications system, a personal scheduler, and a spreadsheet organizer. Brother also promises on the label that it will “Increase your power to perform on the job, on the road or at home!” Plenty of exclamation marks to go around. The label also touts DOS or Windows, but [Poking Technology] didn’t want that. He wanted CP/M. See how he did it in the video below.
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Hackaday ☛ When Is A Typewriter A Printer? When It Has A Parallel Port
If you want to talk to a typewriter using something other than your fingers on the keys, you could do a lot worse than to pick up a specimen featuring a Centronics parallel port. That’s what happened to [mlupo], who came across an old Swintec 1146 CMP and decided to hack it into an art installation.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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WhichUK ☛ The battle to reduce road traffic noise – are noise cameras the answer?
Studies show that the sound of roaring engines and wailing sirens endured by those living near busy roads can have major health impacts
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Latvia ☛ Major hospital to lose millions of EU funding over missed deadlines
Pauls Stradiņš' Clinical University Hospital will lose €23 million in European Union co-financing due to delays in the construction of the new building complex, the hospital's interim board told Latvian Radio on December 13.
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European Commission ☛ Joint Statement by Executive Vice-President Šefčovič and Commissioner Kyriakides on health cooperation between the EU and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway
European Commission Statement Brussels, 14 Dec 2023 We welcome the wish by the EEA EFTA States, namely Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, to foster closer cooperation with the EU on health preparedness and response as part of a strong European Health Union, building on our existing close relationship.
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Digital Music News ☛ Warner Music Trials ‘Musical Medicine’ for Pain, Anxiety, and Stress
Warner Music partners with a medical tech company to trial ‘musical medicine’ to ease pain, stress, and anxiety. Warner Music Group (WMG) has announced a partnership with British health tech startup MediMusic to help trial “music as medicine” to relieve pain, anxiety, and stress.
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The Straits Times ☛ Restaurant staff in China jailed, fined for serving meals using oil in leftover hotpot broths
They were handed prison terms of up to 12 years and fined more than five million yuan (S$938,000).
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The Straits Times ☛ Cold wave grips northern China, with south bracing itself for big chill
By Dec 17, temperatures south of the Yangtze could reach zero deg C.
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The Straits Times ☛ Cold wave grips northern China, south bracing for big chill
Cold weather gripped large swathes of China on Thursday, forcing closures on some parts of the highways surrounding its capital that are linked to other major hubs, as the weather proves unusually frigid for December.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Silicon Angle ☛ Tesla rolls out Autopilot update to 2M+ vehicles after NHTSA safety investigation
Tesla Inc. is releasing a software update to practically all the vehicles it has sold in the U.S. to address a safety issue affecting its Autopilot partly autonomous driving system. The patch will become available for 2,031,220 vehicles, according to a filing released today by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Adobe’s stock falls on soft guidance and news of FTC investigation
Shares of Adobe Inc. traded almost 5% lower after-hours today after the company provided soft revenue guidance for its February quarter and fiscal 2024 year. The disappointing forecast came as Adobe said separately it may face significant costs or penalties relating to a Federal Trade Commission probe into its disclosure and subscription cancellation policies.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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Techdirt ☛ UK Commissioner Who Pushed Controversial Facewatch Tech Leaves Post To… Work For Facewatch
Call it “regulatory capture.” Call it “the revolving door.” Just don’t call it acceptable.
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Defence/Aggression
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The Straits Times ☛ North Korea may use provocations to impact S. Korea, US elections: South Korean report
North Korea may resort to military provocations and psychological warfare to escalate tensions.
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The Straits Times ☛ Taiwan’s last generation to fight China
Some veterans of Taiwan's last battles with China say they remember the horrors all too clearly.
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The Straits Times ☛ China condemns Canada's support for Philippines on South China Sea incidents
China condemned Canada's support for the Philippines over what it said were violations of China's sovereignty in the South China Sea, according to a statement by a Chinese embassy spokesperson in Canada.
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The Straits Times ☛ China mediated Myanmar junta peace talks with rebels: Foreign ministry
The parties agreed on a temporary ceasefire and to maintain dialogue.
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RFA ☛ What are Chinese vessels doing at Ream?
Visiting Chinese warships have been training Cambodian sailors at the Ream Naval Base.
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YLE ☛ Finnish police to quit using X for operational communications
A police spokesperson said the decision was made because of the social control media platform's reduced reach.
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ China debuts homegrown C919 jet in Hong Kong ahead of Victoria Harbour fly-past
China’s new domestically produced passenger jet made its debut outside the mainland on Wednesday, with international media in Hong Kong getting their first up-close look.
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Atlantic Council ☛ China’s de-dollarization message finds a receptive audience in North Africa
A coordinated and concerted de-dollarization effort in North Africa poses a significant threat to US interests in the region and the African continent at large by existing regional trade groupings and agreements.
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The Straits Times ☛ India police file terrorism charges against four over Parliament security breach
Opposition lawmakers shouted slogans demanding the Interior Minister address the incident.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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New York Times ☛ Putin Tells Annual News Conference Russia’s Aims in Ukraine Haven’t Changed
The Russian leader suggested that Western support for Ukraine was drying up and also gave his first comments about Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter detained in Russia.
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The Straits Times ☛ Putin says he hopes for prisoner swap for Gershkovich, Whelan but talks are "not simple"
December 14, 2023 8:02 PM
Russian President Vladimir Putin, asked on Thursday about a possible prisoner swap for the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan, said that he hoped an agreement would be reached, but that the U.S. had to listen to Russia's conditions.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Nationalist Putin Critic Girkin Pleads Not Gulity At Extremism Trial
Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov), once a leader of Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, pleaded not guilty to the charge of public calls for extremist activities as his trial opened in Moscow on December 14.
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YLE ☛ Two eastern border checkpoints ready for re-opening Thursday
Additional support has been called in for the opening of the Vaalimaa and Niirala border checkpoints on Thursday.
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Meduza ☛ Finland reopens two border crossings with Russia — Meduza
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YLE ☛ Russia-route trains to be re-purposed for domestic use
Finnish state railway firm VR has taken possession of the joint-venture Allegro trains that operated between Helsinki and St. Petersburg and will put them into domestic service in 2025.
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France24 ☛ Putin unveils new Russian nuclear submarines to flex naval muscle beyond Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated two new nuclear-powered submarines this week, promising to reinforce the country’s “military-naval might”. The submarines will be assigned to Russia’s Pacific fleet, underscoring Moscow's desire to project its naval power well beyond Ukraine.
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France24 ☛ Putin says Russia can 'move forward' despite Western sanctions, political isolation
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia can "move forward" despite Western economic sanctions and political isolation stemming from its Ukraine offensive, opening a long-awaited end-of-year news conference.
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NYPost ☛ Putin says Russia in talks with US on exchanging jailed Gershkovich and Whelan
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow speaking with the U.S. on the issue of bringing Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich home.
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Meduza ☛ Kadyrov says it ‘would have been good’ if his son had killed defenseless prisoner instead of just beating him — Meduza
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Environment
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Energy/Transportation
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YLE ☛ Finland welcomes 'historic' COP agreement on transition away from fossil fuels
Nearly 200 countries have reached agreement on a climate deal after days of negotiations at the UN summit in Dubai.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Payments industry faces rising fraud challenges as crypto fraud drops
A new report released today by identity verification company AU10TIX Ltd. has found an interesting shift in identity fraud away from cryptocurrency and toward the payment sector. >
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Wildlife/Nature
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The Straits Times ☛ No touching, no mounting: South Korea bans cafes exhibiting exotic animals
The ban aims to better protect the animals.
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Finance
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New York Times ☛ Struggling Cruise Cuts About 25 Percent of Its Workers
Cruise, the embattled self-driving car subsidiary of General Motors, said on Thursday that it would eliminate about 900 jobs, roughly a quarter of its work force, as the company looked to rein in costs after an October incident led California regulators to shut down its robot taxi operations.
Most of the job cuts are in corporate and commercial roles, which have become less important since the company voluntarily suspended all its driverless operations across the country in October. The shut down came two days after California’s Department of Motor Vehicles said that the company “misrepresented” its technology and ordered Cruise to stop operating in the state.
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GM's Robotaxi Unit Cruise Fires COO, Other Key Executives Amid Safety Probe
Cruise LLC, the autonomous vehicle company owned by General Motors Co., has dismissed nine key executives amid an ongoing safety investigation, Reuters reported, citing a memo.
Chief Operating Officer Gil West, Chief Legal and Policy Officer Jeff Bleich, and Senior Vice President of Government Affairs David Estrada are among those dismissed.
The decision was taken related to an investigation of an October 2 incident in which a pedestrian was struck and dragged by a Cruise vehicle in San Francisco.
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In cutting off Baldur's Gate 3's GOTY speech, the Game Awards cut the show's only real mention of mass layoffs
Larian's CEO and founder Swen Vincke has shared the rough full text of his Game Awards 2023 acceptance speech for Baldur's Gate 3's Game of the Year trophy, after having his thoughts cut short by the event's crowded scheduling, which allotted more time to Kojima chitchat, trailers and celebrity cameos than the actual award-winners.
On the night, Vincke got halfway through honouring the memory of friends and family members lost during Baldur's Gate 3's development, including lead cinematic animator Jim Southworth and Vincke's own father, before being told to "wrap it up" over teleprompter, so as to make room for the next avalanche of game reveals. Had he been allowed to continue, he would have also have paid tribute to the Wizards of the Coast employees Larian collaborated with earlier in development of Baldur's Gate 3, who were laid off by Hasbro this year. The toy manufacturer chopped around 800 jobs in January 2023, and plan to lay off 1,100 more people over the next six months.
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Larry Magid: 2023 has been a tumultuous year for tech
As we approach the end of the year, it’s a good time to look back on 2023. The word that comes to mind is tumultuous, which, says Merriam Webster’s online dictionary, means “loud, excited, and emotional.”
[...]
I don’t usually write about financial matters, but the scandal and subsequent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and subsequent arrest and trial of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried were dominant tech stories this year. Silicon Valley Bank, which financed and provided banking services for many small and large tech companies, was shut down by California in March 2023. Later, the company and all its assets and liabilities were purchased by North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank, which is trying to revitalize the relaunched bank.
Speaking of financial matters, a number of tech companies had a tough time through much of 2023, resulting in cutbacks and layoffs. Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft were among the many companies that laid off a substantial number of employees. Most of the layoffs were near the beginning of the year, though some continue to struggle and reduce their workforce. But there have been some bright spots. Meta, which laid off thousands of workers in 2023, has hired some back as its fortunes have improved. Meta stock is up more than 250% for the year. Google, Amazon and Apple stockholders have also had a good year, at least in relation to the beginning of 2023, but that doesn’t mean that the headwinds are behind us. I’m only cautiously optimistic about 2024. There remains the possibility of another downturn.
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RFA ☛ Beijing blasts US report accusing China of economic aggression
Congressional report calls for ‘reset’ of economic ties, warns US investors of supporting China’s defense industry.
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New York Times ☛ Bank of England Keeps Interest Rates at 5.25%, a 15-Year High
The British economy has showed signs of slowing down, with inflation dropping below 5 percent in October, but the bank gave no sign of a rate cut anytime soon.
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YLE ☛ Drop in electricity prices keeps inflation at 3.3% year-on-year during November
The inflation rate was also affected by reductions in the prices of owner-occupied flats and diesel, Statistics Finland noted.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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The Straits Times ☛ Senior Taiwan opposition leader Andrew Hsia visits China a month before elections
He is in China for meetings with the Taiwanese community there.
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Reason ☛ Trump Waived Presidential Immunity Defense in Jean Carroll's Libel Case Against Him
So holds the Second Circuit today, in an opinion (Carroll v. Trump) by Judge José Cabranes, joined by Judges Denny Chin and Maria Araújo Kahn. The defense, the court held, isn't one of the rare subject-matter-jurisdiction-based defenses that can be raised at any stage of the case, and thus aren't waivable.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hong Kong man with autism pleads not guilty to insulting national anthem at volleyball match
An 21-year-old man with autism has pleaded not guilty to insulting the Chinese national anthem at a volleyball game in Hong Kong between China and Bulgaria.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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Meduza ☛ Reporters Without Borders: Russia was world’s fifth-largest jailer of journalists, Belarus was third-largest in 2023 — Meduza
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RFA ☛ On eve of trial, UK 'stands by' jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai
Lai's son Sebastien calls on the British government to demand his father's immediate release.
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Digital Restrictions (DRM)
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Hackaday ☛ Polish Train Manufacturer Threatens Hackers Who Unbricked Their Trains
A week ago we covered the story of a Polish train manufacturer who was caught using software to brick their products after they had been repaired by in independent railway workshop. Now 404 Media has a follow-up story with more information, including the news that the hackers responsible for the discovery are now being threatened by the manufacturer.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Finds "GIGANTOSAURUS" Descriptive of Cartoon Dissemination Services, but Registrable Under Section 2(f)
The Board overturned a Section 2(e)(1) refusal to register the mark GIGANTOSAUROS for, inter alia, "cartoon dissemination services, namely, streaming of video material on the Internet," finding the mark to be "merely descriptive of a featured character with the name of the type of dinosaur depicted as used in connection with Applicant’s ... services," but further finding that applicant proved that the mark has acquired distinctiveness under Section 2(f). In re Cyber Group Studios, Serial No. 79303731 (December 12, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Cheryl S. Goodman).
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Right of Publicity
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The Straits Times ☛ China’s court hears nation’s first Hey Hi (AI) voice rights case
The litigant is a voice-over artist whose voice was used in audiobooks without her consent.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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🔤SpellBinding: ABGILNZ Wordo: CORKY
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Adept Press, Adept Play, Ron Edwards in 2023
I've got the physical books Sorcerer, Sorcerer & Sword, The Sorcerer's Soul, and Sex and Sorcery, but I completely missed out on getting the newer edition of Sorcerer, and didn't have PDFs of any of them. Now I've at least got PDFs of all of them, and now have the opportunity to get his other books.
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How is everyone planning to celebrate the holidays?
I'll be going over to Chicago for a little solo trip tonight for a few days before making my way over to Japan to spend Christmas (and New Year's Eve) in Hokkaido with my boyfriend. I'll probably put on some pounds but it's okay at this rate, since I'll be moving so much and hopefully the change in scenery will do me good. I get restless with how nice the weather is in my state all year long. The autumn leaves, followed by heaping snow (and the cold) reminds me that the world is changing.
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Technology and Free Software
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Modern OS design is addictive
I noticed something yesterday while I was working on something with my Pinebook. I had an itch, somewhere between the front and the back of my brain. Not a real itch, obviously, but there was this feeling of buzzing. An uneasiness.
I shook it off. It had been a long day, surely there was nothing to worry about. I kept on doing what I was doing.
Going to bed, I had a thought pop into my mind.
"You haven't used your Windows 11 laptop at all today."
[...]
I literally caught myself in the goings-on of what I can only either describe as some kind of weird, ephemeral anxiety about how stable my Pinebook is or isn't - which is silly, because it's meant to be my simple tool device that doesn't NEED to always work right.
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record the screen and save as .gif
A relatively simple program to record a section of the screen and store it as animated gif
The commands available on the Linux shell are *much* more powerful than one thinks. Case in point:
I had the need to record a small section of my screen and convert that into an animated .gif to share in an online forum.
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Text flow smorgasbord
Is it just me (ha), or is the nucleus of comedy typically in the general vicinity of the ridiculousness of individuality?
Then again, so is sorrow.
Is that why the pair of masks - one smiley, one frowney - associated with theater?
Posts seem fits of ego, ego boiling over.
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Internet/Gemini
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re: why gemini is boring
Having read a couple of posts about Gemini being boring I wanted to join the conversation.
I think that for me, even if Gemini in intentional about this, I can’t just write something that I don’t think people will read. It might be still being contaminated by social media dirt and the pursue of views/likes/relevance, but just writing what I find interesting, i.e. talking to the void, is kind of scary.
While it’s freeing to not have views or likes or upvotes or whatever, using Gemini as a notepad to put stuff interesting to me that nobody else might see is kind of, idk, weird to me (which, if I’m completely honest, is probably why I’m writing a re: instead of just a plain post)
At the same time I came here today amidst a career change in which I need to be a lot more intentional about my big internet presence, and I thought to myself “hmmm… in Gemini I can speak my mind and the likelihood that any prospective client might ever see this is almost nil!” (not that I’m planning to say anything particularly inappropriate)
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.