Links 29/12/2023: "The Wikipedia Hustle" (Rogue Finances, Lies), Transplanting a Raspberry Pi into a C64
Contents
- Leftovers
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Transparency/Investigative Reporting
- Environment
- Finance
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Education
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Reason ☛ 2023 Brought More Evidence That Pandemic School Closures Damaged Students
Post-COVID educational declines are here to stay.
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Hardware
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Hackaday ☛ Modern Control Of A Logic Analyzer
When you think of a logic analyzer today, you might think of a little USB probe that can measure a few signals and decoding for various serial buses. But actual logic analyzers were high-speed multichannel hardware with sophisticated ways to clock and trigger. [Tom] picked up an HP1670G on the surplus market and was impressed that it could sample 136 channels at 500 MHz. The circa-2000 machine has a front panel, but if you really wanted to use it, you wanted to use an X terminal. [Tom] shows us how that works with modern Linux software.
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Zimbabwe ☛ I can’t help but miss the headphone jack, Bluetooth is not a worthy successor
Whatever we think we gained from losing the 3.5mm headphone jack on modern smartphones is not worth it. The main reason (or excuse) we were given for why we lost the useful jack was “it creates space inside the phone that could be used for all sorts of cool stuff.”
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CNX Software ☛ This New X-Fly drone mimics a bird’s flight (Crowdfunding)
Aeronautical engineer Edwin Van Ruymbeke has introduced X-Fly, a drone that emulates the flight pattern of a bird. The drone communicates via Bluetooth using the STM32WB15CC microcontroller, has a range of 100 meters, and can fly for 8-12 minutes with a swappable battery system.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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New York Times ☛ Covid Variant JN.1 Now Accounts for Nearly Half of U.S. Cases
Here’s what to know about the coronavirus variant, which was first detected in the United States in September.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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Trail Of Bits ☛ AI In Windows: Investigating backdoored Windows Copilot [Ed: Just more bloat, buzzwords, and utter junk sold by false marketing/hype]
Hey Hi (AI) is becoming ubiquitous, as developers of widely used tools like Microsoft's proprietary prison GitHub and Photoshop are quickly implementing and iterating on AI-enabled features.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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AntiWar ☛ The Quaint FISA Surveillance Debate
At 12:01am on January 1, 2024, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will expire unless Congress reauthorizes it. To say that the program has been controversial would be an understatement. It began life in a totally unregulated form as a component of President George W. Bush’s unconstitutional STELLAR WIND electronic mass surveillance...
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Defence/Aggression
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New York Times ☛ Israel, Citing Hezbollah Rocket Strikes, Warns of War in Lebanon
As rockets from Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces streamed in from Lebanon, Israeli officials said they were prepared to take the war to a second front.
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Techdirt ☛ Law Enforcement Officers Crash SUV Into Local Bar, Arrest Bar Owner For Being Angry About It
When law enforcement officers screw up, it’s always someone else’s fault. It’s the lack of trust or support for police officers, something that has steadily declined in the last half-decade. It’s a lack of funding, even though law enforcement agencies have rarely seen their budgets cut. It’s people emboldened by accountability efforts. It’s the hundreds of people willing to document police activity at all times everywhere with smartphones.
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BBC ☛ Israel Gaza war: Israel warns Hezbollah and Lebanon over border fighting
Israel will act to remove Hezbollah from the border with Lebanon if the militia group's attacks continue, an Israeli minister has warned.
Benny Gantz said the Israeli military would intervene if militants do not stop firing on northern Israel.
Time for a diplomatic solution was running out, he added.
Meanwhile, the head of the Israel Defense Forces said troops were in "very high readiness" for more fighting in the north.
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CS Monitor ☛ Ground offensive intensifies: Israeli strikes Gaza's refugee camps
The Israeli military broadens its ground offensive in Gaza, targeting densely populated urban refugee camps, including Nuseirat, Maghazi, and Bureij. These camps house Palestinians displaced during the 1948 war. Shelling and airstrikes are reported.
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The Straits Times ☛ Iran's supreme leader leads prayers during funeral of senior Guards adviser: State TV
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei led prayers on Thursday at the funeral of Sayyed Razi Mousavi, a senior Revolutionary Guards adviser who was killed in what Iran said was an Israeli air strike in Syria.
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RFERL ☛ Iran's Supreme Leader Leads Prayers During Funeral Of Senior IRGC Adviser
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers on December 28 at the funeral of Razi Mousavi, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) adviser who was killed in what Iran said was an Israeli air strike in Syria.
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Marcy Wheeler ☛ “Whether Others … Said Untrue Things on the Internet Does Not Exonerate” Trump
In a motion in limine attempting to prevent Trump from turning his trial into a political circus, Molly Gaston argued that Trump shouldn't be able to blame Russia for his lies, this time.
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New York Times ☛ Israel’s National Library Reopens After Delay From Hamas’s Oct. 7 Attacks
In a traumatized nation, the library has had to rethink its role and adapt its programming.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Latvia ☛ What has Latvia planned for Ukrainian integration in 2024?
In less than two months, it will be two years since Russia launched a full-scale war in Ukraine. Latvia is reminded of this daily not only by news headlines, but also by a large number of Ukrainian refugees – around 33 thousand. How have the support measures changed over time, and what is planned for the future? Latvian Radio sought answers December 28.
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The Strategist ☛ Editors’ picks for 2023: ‘RAAF Wedgetail to protect vital supply lines to Ukraine’
Originally published on 26 October 2023.
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The Straits Times ☛ Indian envoy meets Putin, bypassing Western pressure
It highlighted Russia’s attempts to break through its isolation from the West by pivoting to a powerful Asian nation.
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France24 ☛ US releases final tranche of authorised military aid for Ukraine
The US government on Wednesday announced what it said was the last remaining package of weapons available for Ukraine under existing authorization, with Congress now needing to decide whether to keep supporting Kyiv's battle against Russian invasion.
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France24 ☛ Russia attacks Ukraine’s Kherson with dozens of drones in deadly overnight strike
Russia fired almost 50 Shahed drones at targets in Ukraine and shelled a train station where more than 100 civilians were gathered to catch a train to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. The barrages killed at least five people and knocked out power in most of the southern city of Kherson.
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LRT ☛ Lithuanian MPs head to Poland to investigate hold-ups of Ukraine support shipments
A delegation of Lithuanian parliamentarians is going to Poland on Thursday to find out why support shipments to Ukraine are being held up at the border.
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LRT ☛ Defeat, counteroffensive, negotiations? Ukraine war in 2024
With Ukraine’s counteroffensive stalling and Western support showing signs of exhaustion, will the war take a tragic turn in 2024 for Kyiv and Europe?
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RFERL ☛ AP Concludes Hundreds Died In Floods After Ukraine Dam Collapse, Far More Than Russia Said
Russian occupation authorities vastly and deliberately undercounted the dead in one of the most devastating chapters of the 22-month war in Ukraine -- the flooding that followed the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the Kakhovka dam in the southern Kherson region, an AP investigation has found.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Announces Final Drawdown Of Military Aid For Ukraine; Future Assistance Up To Congress
The United States on December 27 announced the final drawdown of weapons and military equipment for Ukraine from U.S. stockpiles under existing presidential authorization.
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RFERL ☛ Prosecutors Seek Prison Terms For Two Russian Anti-War Poets
Prosecutors asked a Moscow court on December 27 to convict poets Artyom Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba on charges of "inciting hatred and calling for anti-state activities" and sentence them to seven and six years, respectively, for publicly reciting verses condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Moscow Theater Cancels Plays Of Anti-War Author Akunin
The Russian Academic Youth Theater in Moscow has canceled plays by prominent writer Boris Akunin amid a crackdown on institutions linked to the writer, who is known for publicly expressing his opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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RFERL ☛ Russia Charges Six Danes With Being Mercenaries Fighting For Ukraine
Six Danes have been charged by Russia for fighting in the war between Russia and Ukraine as foreign mercenaries, the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen said in a statement on December 27.
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RFERL ☛ Russian Supreme Court Confirms Anti-War Journalist Cannot Run For President
Russia's Supreme Court on December 27 upheld the Central Election Commission's decision to bar journalist Yekaterina Duntsova -- who has called for peace in Ukraine -- from running for president in the next election, citing alleged mistakes in her application to register as a candidate.
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teleSUR ☛ Ukraine Prepares Chemical Weapons Provocation, Russia Warns
The Ukrainians have acquired triethanolamine, a substance covered by the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
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YLE ☛ Reuters corrects translation error, Russia not sending artillery to Finnish border
The mistake was made over an acronym in Russian for both the war in Ukraine and a now defunct military district which bordered Finland.
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New York Times ☛ Indian Envoy Hails Ties With Russia, Despite Western Pressure
India’s foreign minister is on a five-day diplomatic trip to Moscow to reinforce economic and defense ties, though some strains in the countries’ relationship are showing.
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Meduza ☛ Over 30 Russian sailors reportedly missing after Ukraine’s strike on Russian landing ship in annexed Crimea — Meduza
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Latvia ☛ Over 1,200 Russians might have to be expelled from Latvia
At least 1,213 Russian citizens who have not complied with the requirements of amendments to the Immigration Law and submitted documents for requesting a residence permit for living in the country will be expelled from Latvia, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP) told LETA on December 27.
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Latvia ☛ Russian spice? No thanks!
You might like check the origins of your spice cabinet in 2024 with Eurostat figures published December 27 showing that in 2022 large quantities of food spices continued to be imported into the EU from aggressor state Russia.
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RFERL ☛ Moscow Court Says Blogger's 'Almost Naked' Party Propagated 'Nontraditional' Sexual Relations
A Moscow court on December 27 ruled that popular blogger Anastasia Ivleyeva's "Almost Naked” party for celebrities in a nightclub had "propagated nontraditional sexual relations."
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RFERL ☛ Russian Queer Blogger Gets Three Years In Prison On Pornography Charges
A Moscow court on December 27 sentenced noted queer blogger Khilmi Oleinik (aka Khilmi Forks) to three years in prison on a charge of producing and online distribution of pornographic images with his participation.
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Meduza ☛ Russian woman reportedly charged with violating protest rules after sending video message to Putin for presidential Q&A show — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Russian school apologizes after male teacher’s performance as cartoon wolf wearing ‘snow maiden’ costume at holiday event sparks backlash — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Regional Russian Justice Ministry department says statement about ‘belonging to LGBT movement’ equivalent to participation — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ U.S. announces $250 million military aid package for Ukraine, depleting allocated funding — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ At least three reportedly killed in Ukraine after overnight Russian drone attack — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ Financial Times: E.U. preparing contingency plan to fund Ukraine without Hungary’s participation — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ New video reportedly shows Russian soldiers executing three Ukrainian POWs — Meduza
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Transparency/Investigative Reporting
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Pro Publica ☛ Reports About Police Actions in Mass Shootings Often Leave Unanswered Questions
During an October conference to prepare law enforcement for dealing with an active shooter, Nevada State Police department Lt. Jacob Fisher played body camera footage that showed what he believed was a key misstep during the country’s deadliest mass shooting.
The footage from the 2017 massacre at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino showed a veteran Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer and his trainee waiting on the floor below the shooter instead of confronting him as he spewed gunfire into the crowd of concertgoers outside. Six years later, Fisher told the room full of law enforcement officers and firefighters at the conference in Grapevine, Texas, that he had trained the veteran officer and felt like he had failed.
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Environment
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Wildlife/Nature
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Science Alert ☛ Extremely Rare Rainbow Clouds Lit Up Arctic Skies For 3 Days: The Photos Are Breathtaking
A very rare sight!
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Finance
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Hong Kong Free Press ☛ Hongkongers’ outlook for future of city’s development takes ‘very significant drop,’ survey finds
Hongkongers have a net optimism rate of zero percentage points for the city’s development in the year ahead, an annual survey has found, a pessimism that one commentator said was fuelled by economic woes and unchecked governance.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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Shared post - Wikimedia profit, assets, and executive wages explode in 2023
The Wikimedia Foundation (the organization which runs and controls Wikipedia) has just published their annual financial report for the current year -- and they made a mountain of money. Revenue is up. Total assets are up. Everything, with Wikimedia, is up. Way, way up. Including salaries for their executives.
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Bryan Lunduke ☛ "The Wikipedia Hustle"
Many major Tech organizations accept donations for one thing... then use that money for something completely different. Mozilla. Wikipedia. The Linux Foundation. It's... ridiculous.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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The Straits Times ☛ Israeli embassy in South Korea takes down video imagining Hamas attack in Seoul
The video was put up on the embassy's Facebook (Farcebook) page on Dec 26.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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The Straits Times ☛ India targeting high-profile journalists with spyware: Amnesty International
The spyware is able to access messages and emails on a phone, eavesdrop on calls, track locations and even film with the camera.
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Civil Rights/Policing
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New York Times ☛ Eiffel Tower Closes for Labor Action on Creator’s Anniversary
Tourists could not ascend the tower on Wednesday, the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustave Eiffel, the civil engineer after whom it was named.
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France24 ☛ Eiffel Tower shut as workers go on strike
The Eiffel Tower was shut down to visitors Wednesday because of a strike over contract negotiations, the day the Paris monument marks 100 years since the death of its creator, Gustave Eiffel.
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Patents
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JUVE ☛ Top 10 most-read articles of the year 2023 [Ed: Many of these were fake news or bribed-for lobbying for a crime, the UPC. JUVE isn't reporting, it's posting SPAM (ads) for some firms and pushes illegal agenda.]
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Unified Patents ☛ Carucel Investments wireless automotive patent monopoly affirmed invalid by Federal Circuit
On December 26, 2023, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Office's final decision confirming that the challenged claims of U.S. Patent 7,979,023 unpatentable. The ‘023 patent monopoly is owned by Carucel Investments, an NPE, and relates to mobile communication systems for vehicles.
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Silicon Angle ☛ Court pauses import ban on Apple’s latest smartwatches
A court has paused a recently implemented import ban that prohibits Fashion Company Apple Inc. from selling its Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 wearables in the US. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit made the decision today following an emergency request from the iPhone maker.
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Trademarks
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TTAB Blog ☛ TTAB Affirms Refusal of CONCRETE PORN for Advertising Services Due to Inadequate Specimen of Use
The Board upheld a refusal to register the proposed mark CONCRETE PORN for "Advertising services, namely, providing a website for the promotion of concrete services and designs of others," finding that applicant's specimen of use failed to show a direct association between the mark and the recited services. In re SlurryMonster, LLC, Serial No. 90513717 (December 20, 2023) [not precedential] (Opinion by Judge Cheryl S. Goodman).
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Copyrights
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Tedium ☛ Not The Name That You Call Me With
The year-end Tedium awards continue with an excellent, breathtaking feature on Elliott Smith’s high-school bands. Yes, multiple.
[...]
For the uninitiated, the piece discusses Smith’s work with his band Stranger Than Fiction, which released a stunning four albums, all on cassette, along with two other albums under different band names. (That’s six albums in, like, a five-year period.) These albums show that Smith did not land on the lo-fi sound that defined his early records lightly or even suddenly. Rather, those records became a key part of his oeuvre only after he spent his teenage years with a group of high-school friends, testing the limits of what he could do musically. Lengthy songs with literally every musical trick in the book? Yes, that was Stranger Than Fiction’s bread and butter.
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Digital Music News ☛ ChatGPT Developer Faces Massive Copyright Lawsuit from the New York Times — ‘Microsoft and Proprietary Chaffbot Company Acted Jointly in the Large-Scale Copying of The Times’s Material’
ChatGPT developer Proprietary Chaffbot Company is officially facing yet another massive copyright monopoly infringement lawsuit, filed by the New York Times. The more than 170-year-old newspaper levied the firmly worded complaint – and reported as much in an article – today.
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Silicon Angle ☛ New York Times sues Microsoft, Proprietary Chaffbot Company over Hey Hi (AI) training copyright monopoly infringement
The New York Times sued Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Corp. and Abusive Monopolist Microsoft Chaffbot developer Proprietary Chaffbot Company today alleging that the two companies allegedly copied and used “millions” of its articles to train their artificial intelligence models without permission.
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Politics and World Events
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Whose side are they on?
It's often hard to understand the comments under the news, but when I see one that's particularly angry about policies that are disadvantageous to the rich, and I see so many people agreeing with it, it makes me feel sad, not to mention pathetic.
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Science
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The Good(?) News is We'll Never Need Another Planet
The billionaires are looking at Mars, saying that Earth might fail to keep us alive eventually. They're not wrong, as rampaging climate change indicates.
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Technology and Free Software
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Transplanting a Raspberry Pi into a C64
Well, readers of my phlog may already have heard about my trip down memory lane while playing around with BMC64, the bare metal C64 emulator. So, i got a C64 C case with keyboard for a few very cheap bucks on ebay and inserted the Raspberry Pi running BMC64 into it, wired the keyboard to the Raspberry GPIO and got a bit of a retro kick of it playing old games and testing software of yesteryear.
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Programming
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Monday the 25th
Someone was commenting on Monday the 25th and recollecting that it did not happen much. I had never much noticed the particular day, as in IT one will often end up working the 25th or 1st because invariably something breaks and someone must be on-call. One year it turned out that the programmers had used Pike, which broke across a new year, because date time code does that. What to do? Dive in and attempt to fix an unknown programming language on a newly discovered system? Try to drag in drunk, sleeping, or otherwise unavailable programmers to the party? Collect more information but mostly sit it out and hope that the error isn't too bad and does not impact too many systems?
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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.