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Mozilla To Bring Firefox Desktop Extension To Android Browser
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '23

12 Aug '23

'Scott DeVaney, writing at Mozilla blog: In the coming months Mozilla will launch support for an open ecosystem of extensions on Firefox for Android on addons.mozilla.org (AMO). We'll announce a definite launch date in early September, but it's safe to expect a roll-out before the year's end. Here's everything developers need to know to get their Firefox desktop extensions ready for Android usage and discoverability on AMO. For the past few years Firefox for Android officially supported a small subset of extensions while we focused our efforts on strengthening core Firefox for Android functionality and understanding the unique needs of mobile browser users. Today, Mozilla has built the infrastructure necessary to support an open extension ecosystem on Firefox for Android. We anticipate considerable user demand for more extensions on Firefox for Android, so why not start optimizing your desktop extension for mobile-use right away?' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/08/11/1234201 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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'The Open Source Licensing War is Over'
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '23

12 Aug '23

'It's time for the open source Rambos to stop fighting and agree that developers care more about software's access and ease of use than the purity of its license, reads a piece on InfoWorld. From the report: The open source war is over, however much some want to continue soldiering on. Recently Meta (Facebook) released Llama 2, a powerful large language model (LLM) with more than 70 billion parameters. In the past, Meta had restricted use of its LLMs to research purposes, but with Llama 2, Meta opened it up; the only restriction is that it can't be used for commercial purposes. Only a handful of companies have the computational horsepower to deploy it at scale (Google, Amazon, and very, very few others). This means, of course, it's not "open source" according to the Open Source Definition (OSD), despite Meta advertising it as such. This has a few open source advocates crying, Rambo style, "They drew first blood!" and "Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off!", insistent that Meta stop calling Llama 2 "open source." They're right, in a pedantic sort of way, but they also don't seem to realize just how irrelevant their concerns are. For years developers have been voting with their GitHub repositories to pick "open enough." It's not that open source doesn't matter, but rather it has never mattered in the way some hoped or believed. More than 10 years ago, the trend toward permissive licensing was so pronounced that RedMonk analyst James Governor declared, "Younger [developers] today are about POSS -- post open source software. [Screw] the license and governance, just commit to GitHub." In response, people in the comments fretted and scolded, saying past trends like this had resulted in "epic clusterf-s" or that "promiscuous sharing w/out a license leads to software-transmitted diseases." And yet, millions of unlicensed GitHub repositories later, we haven't entered the dark ages of software licensing. Open source, or "open enough," software now finds its way into pretty much all software, however it ends up being licensed to the end user. Ideal? Perhaps not. But a fact of life? Yep. In response, GitHub and others have devised ways to entice developers to pick open source licenses to govern their projects. As I wrote back in 2014, all these moves will likely help, but the reality is that they also won't matter. They won't matter because "open source" doesn't really matter anymore. Not as some countercultural raging against the corporate software machine, anyway. All of this led me to conclude we're in the midst of the post-open source revolution, a revolution in which software matters more than ever, but its licensing matters less and less.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/08/11/1221250 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The Eternal Sunshine Of The SEO-Focused Site
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Aug '23

11 Aug '23

This report <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/08/the-internet-is-not-…> says that CNET, and possibly other large sites, are deleting online archives of decades-old articles in an effort to improve their rankings with search engines like Google. Google, on the other hand, is saying that such behaviour makes no difference to their rankings. I found the closing paragraph particularly interesting: From time immemorial, the protection of historical content has required making many copies without authorization, regardless of the cultural or business forces at play, and that has not changed with the Internet. Archivists operate in a parallel IP universe, borrowing scraps of reality and keeping them safe until shortsighted business decisions and copyright protectionism die down. Hopefully, despite the link rot, future historians can piece together an accurate history of our fragile digital era. In there is a link to this item from the same author <https://www.technologizer.com/2012/01/23/why-history-needs-software-piracy/>, from over a decade ago, on “Why History Needs Software Piracy”: When viewed in a historical context, the benefits of software piracy far outweigh its short-term costs. If you care about the history of technology, in fact, you should be thankful that people copy software without permission.

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Abuses Of AI #397: Pak’N’Save’s Savey-Meal Bot Goes Off The Rails
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Aug '23

11 Aug '23

I wonder whose bright idea it was to offer an AI-powered recipe advisor that offered free-text input <https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/11/supermarket_reins_in_ai_recipebot/>. So naturally somebody tried entering such hazardous ingredients as ammonia and bleach, to see if the bot would make up a recipe from them. Which it did. Complete with glowing recommendations like “the perfect non-alcoholic beverage to quench your thirst and refresh your senses. It combines the invigorating scents of ammonia, bleach, and water for a truly unique experience!" It has since been revised to be a bit more, ah, conservative with its suggestions, and also only allow selection from a limited list of ingredients. Though a reader suggests that the list restriction is only implemented within the HTML page itself, not in the actual back end.

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Intel's GPU Drivers Now Collect Telemetry, Including 'How You Use Your Computer'
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '23

10 Aug '23

'ExtremeTech: Intel has introduced a telemetry collection service by default in the latest beta driver for its Arc GPUs. You can opt out of it, but we all know most people just click "yes" to everything during a software installation. Intel's release notes for the drivers don't mention this change to how its drivers work, which is a curious omission. News of Intel adding telemetry collection to its drivers is a significant change to how its GPU drivers work. Intel has even given this new collation routine a cute name -- the Intel Computing Improvement Program. Gee, that sounds pretty wonderful. We want to improve our computing, so let's dive into the details briefly. According to TechPowerUp, which discovered the change, Intel has created a landing page for the program that explains what is collected and what isn't. At a high level, it states, "This program uses information about your computer's performance to make product improvements that may benefit you in the future." Though that sounds innocuous, Intel provides a long list of the types of data it collects, many unrelated to your computer's performance. Those include the types of websites you visit, which Intel says are dumped into 30 categories and logged without URLs or information that identifies you, including how long and how often you visit certain types of sites. It also collects information on "how you use your computer" but offers no details. It will also identify "Other devices in your computing environment." Numerous performance-related data points are also captured, such as your CPU model, display resolution, how much memory you have, and, oddly, your laptop's average battery life. The good news is that Intel allows you to opt out of this program, which is not the case with Nvidia. According to TechPowerUp, they don't even ask for permission! As for AMD, they not only give you a choice to opt out but they also explain what data they're collecting.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/23/08/09/2030205 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft Visual Studio Code flaw lets extensions steal passwords
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '23

10 Aug '23

'Microsoft's Visual Studio Code (VS Code) code editor and development environment contains a flaw that allows malicious extensions to retrieve authentication tokens stored in Windows, Linux, and macOS credential managers. These tokens are used for integrating with various third-party services and APIs, such as Git, GitHub, and other coding platforms, so stealing them could have significant consequences for a compromised organization's data security, potentially leading to unauthorized system access, data breaches, etc. The flaw was discovered by Cycode researchers, who reported it to Microsoft along with a working proof-of-concept (PoC) they developed. Yet, the tech giant decided against fixing the issue, as extensions are not expected to be sandboxed from the rest of the environment.' -- source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-visual-studio-code… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Bram Moolenaar, Author of the Open Source Vim Code Editor, Has Died
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '23

08 Aug '23

'The creator of one of the most popular programming editors of all time, Vim, has died after a brief illness. :wq. You may not have known Bram Moolenaar’s name, but all developers know his open source programming editor, Vim. His family has reported to the Vim announcement list that Moolenaar has died. According to the note, “Bram Moolenaar passed away on 3 August 2023.” Bram suffered from a medical condition that progressed quickly over the last few weeks.” No further details are available at this time. They added Bram had “dedicated a large part of his life to VIM, and he was very proud of the VIM community that you are all part of.” This is true. Under his guidance, Vim became one of the most popular code editors in the world. Vim was based on Unix’s Vi, a screen-oriented text editor created by Bill Joy that proved to be immensely popular. Indeed, it was my first editor. Its command set, while often used in jokes, is powerful. It’s still embedded in my fingers today. I’m far from the only programmer who can say that.' -- source: https://thenewstack.io/bram-moolenaar-author-of-the-open-source-vim-code-ed… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Qualcomm—one of Arm’s biggest customers—starts a RISC-V joint venture
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '23

07 Aug '23

'Arm is facing down its biggest competition ever, with the up-and-coming RISC-V architecture threatening to unseat it as the CPU at the center of almost every portable device. Now, one of Arm's biggest customers is trying out RISC-V, as Qualcomm is getting involved in a joint venture dedicated to the architecture. The joint venture doesn't have a name yet, but Qualcomm, NXP, Nordic Semiconductor, Bosch, and memory giant Infineon are all teaming up to form a new company that Qualcomm's press release says is "aimed at advancing the adoption of RISC-V globally by enabling next-generation hardware development." At first, the group will be focused on automotive uses, with an "eventual expansion" to IoT and mobile, Qualcomm's biggest market. Arm doesn't manufacture any chips itself and instead exists as a design and licensing operation. It licenses both the Arm architecture, allowing companies to design an Arm-compatible chip themselves (this is what Apple does), and it also licenses completed CPU designs, allowing partners like Qualcomm, Samsung, and MediaTek to produce new SoCs year after year. Previously, we would have said Qualcomm's "next-generation hardware" project revolves around its acquisition of Nuvia, a chip design house that was founded by ex-SoC engineers from Apple, which currently makes the fastest mobile ARM chips available. Qualcomm's CPUs all use Arm's designs, and they are regularly a generation or two behind what Apple can do. If Nuvia lives up to its potential, Qualcomm's Arm chips would finally be competitive. The company says chips from Nuvia are expected to hit the market in 2024 for PCs, so Qualcomm will be sticking with Arm for a while longer. Qualcomm's "Snapdragon Automotive" products are usually based on 5-year-old phone designs, but it sounds like that's changing. A RISC-V transition, if one ever comes, is a few years down the line. RISC-V is threatening Arm for a few reasons. First is its open source licensing, which potentially lets companies avoid the fees Arm charges to make any chip compatible with its instruction set. Second is that RISC-V is also a way for companies to insulate themselves from Arm, which has become an increasingly unstable hardware partner. Arm is at the center of most mobile devices, but it doesn't make a ton of money off of this licensing business. ' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/qualcomm-one-of-arms-biggest-custom… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Asahi Linux’s new “flagship” distro for M-series Macs is a Fedora Remix
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '23

07 Aug '23

'Asahi Linux, the project aiming to bring a fully functional Linux system to Apple computers running on that company's own M-series chips, has announced that its new "flagship distro" is Fedora Asahi Remix. As announced at Fedora's Flock conference this week in Cork, Ireland, (and on Asahi Linux's blog), the Fedora Asahi Remix should be officially released by the end of August 2023. You can try it out now, but you should "expect rough spots (or even complete breakage)." The new distro will be "upstream-first," sending as many of its bespoke M-series tools back to Fedora's mainline offerings as possible. Hector Martin, writing on Asahi Linux's blog, notes that the existing project based on Arch Linux was "fully downstream." Asahi added its own package repository with scripts, forked kernel and Mesa packages, bootloader parts, and userspace support, but with "no significant involvement with upstream Arch Linux ARM or Arch Linux." Neal Gompa from Fedora reached out to talk about integrating Asahi with Fedora after the project's debut, and work began in late 2021. Now it's ready to spread a bit further. "Collaborating with distro integration experts and using distro infra(structure) like this frees us up to continue focusing on what we do best: reverse engineer hardware and develop bespoke drivers and software," Martin writes. Integration with a well-established distribution also means that bugs in desktop ARM64 Linux, "a niche platform (until now!)," Martin writes, can be addressed more quickly.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/asahi-linux-will-offer-a-flagship-f… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The State Of ARM
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Aug '23

06 Aug '23

Everybody knows that ARM dominates the embedded market, where it ships more units per year than the entire population of the Earth. But it is making inroads in, shall we say, more “niche” markets, too, like PCs and servers. According to this <https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/02/arm_server_china/>, Canalys boss Steve Brazier says ARM already makes up 16% of the public cloud (and an even higher proportion of servers in China). But another interesting figure he mentions is “nine percent of PCs”. Now, we know that Windows-on-ARM is not that popular. Therefore, that 9% must be almost entirely running Linux-based OSes, including ChromeOS.

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