Link – Page 48 – The Death of the Mind

Deeplinks – Not Just San Francisco: Police Across the Country are Retaining and Searching DNA of Victims and Innocent People

Feb 162022

This week we learned that San Francisco Police used a woman’s own DNA—collected years earlier as part of an investigation into her sexual assault—to charge her for an unrelated property crime. What’s worse—it appears the S.F. police routinely search victims’ DNA in criminal investigations.
This practice is possible because San Francisco has been storing DNA gathered from rape survivors in the same local database where it stores DNA from rape assailants and other suspects. The San Francisco District Attorney stated the database potentially includes thousands of victims’ DNA profiles, with entries over “many, many years.”
This is not the first time San Francisco has had problems with its DNA crime lab. In 2010, the SF Weekly reported…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/not-just-san-francisco-police-across-country-are-retaining-and-searching-dna

2022-02-16 Comments Off

The Onion – Boston Dynamics Dog Unstoppable At Puppy Bowl

Feb 142022

GLENS FALLS, NY—Breaking its own record after scoring a touchdown to rack up its 600th point within the first quarter, the Boston Dynamics dog appeared unstoppable at the Puppy Bowl, sources confirmed Sunday. “It looks like Nacho is headed into the end zone, and—oh no, another brutal tackle from Spot, the robotic…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/super-bowl-boston-dynamics-dog-unstoppable-at-puppy-bow-1848516968

2022-02-14 Comments Off

Planet PostgreSQL – Hubert ‘depesz’ Lubaczewski: How much disk space you can save by using INT4/INT instead of INT8/BIGINT?

Feb 132022

Lately there have been couple of discussions on IRC, Slack, and Reddit that showed that people assume that by using int4/integer they use 4 bytes less than they would in case of int8/bigint. This is not really the case. Let me explain why. First quick test. On my computer, which is running some Ryzen processor, … Continue reading “How much disk space you can save by using INT4/INT instead of INT8/BIGINT?”

External feed Read More at the Source: https://postgr.es/p/5fT

2022-02-13 Comments Off

Phoronix – GNU/Hurd Continues Effort To Use NetBSD’s Drivers For Better Hardware Support

Feb 062022

Besides all of the Linux-focused talks at the annual FOSDEM conference, another favorite track of mine is that on micro-kernels and other operating systems. While there wasn’t the GNU/Hurd status update in 2022 as there has been in some recent years, there was a talk over GNU/Hurd using NetBSD kernel drivers in order to expand its hardware coverage…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-Hurd-NetBSD-Drivers-2022

2022-02-06 Comments Off

Hackaday – CadQuery Comes Of Age

Feb 052022

Now, we know what some of you are going to say — “Oh man, not another programmatic CAD tool, what’s wrong with OpenSCAD?” — and you may be right, but maybe hold on a bit and take a look at this one, because we think that it’s now pretty awesome! OpenSCAD is great, we use it all the time round these parts, but it is a bit, you know, weird in places. Then along comes CadQuery, and blows it out of the water ease-of-use and functionality wise. Now, we’ve seen a few mentions of CadQuery over the years, and finally it’s become a full-blown toolset in its own right, complete with a graphical frontend/editor, CQ-editor. No…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2022/02/04/cadquery-comes-of-age/

2022-02-05 Comments Off

Ballot Access News – North Carolina Supreme Court Strikes Down New U.S. House and Legislative Districts

Feb 052022

On February 4, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the new U.S. House and legislative district boundaries. The vote was 4-3. The majority said the districts are an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, which the State Constitution does not permit. The majority depended on the clause in the State Constitution that says elections must be “free and equal.” Because the decision is based on the State Constitution, the case cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here is the opinion in Harper v Hall, 413PA21.
The decision affirms that the 2022 primary will be on May 17. That is also the independent petition deadline. The court says the legislature must draw new districts by February 23.
Independent candidates…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/02/04/north-carolina-strikes-down-new-u-s-house-and-legislative-districts/

2022-02-05 Comments Off

Techdirt. – Nintendo Hates You: More DMCA Takedowns Of YouTube Videos Of Game Music Despite No Legit Alternative

Feb 042022

I guess this is nearly an annual thing now. In 2019, we talked about how one YouTuber, GilvaSunner, had over one hundred YouTube videos blocked by Nintendo over copyright claims. GilvaSunner’s channel is dedicated to video game music, mostly from Nintendo games. Those videos consist of nothing but that music, as in no footage of video game gameplay. Nintendo, which certainly can take this sort of action from an IP standpoint, also doesn’t offer any legit alternative for fans to enjoy this music on any streaming service or the like. Then, in 2020, GilvaSunner had another whole swath of videos consisting of game music blocked by Nintendo over copyright claims. Still no legit alternative for those…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20220201/09563748398/nintendo-hates-you-more-dmca-takedowns-youtube-videos-game-music-despite-no-legit-alternative.shtml

2022-02-04 Comments Off

World Socialist Web Site (en) – Declassified NSA oversight report shows illegal surveillance by US government continues unimpeded

Feb 042022

The semiannual report from the Office of the Inspector General shows that illegal surveillance of Americans is continuing and that claims that it has been stopped are lies.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/02/04/nsai-f04.html

2022-02-04 Comments Off

Deeplinks – SHOP SAFE Will Stomp Out Online Sales of Used and Homemade Goods

Feb 032022

The House of Representatives has inserted SHOP SAFE—a piece of legislation that would make it extremely difficult for any individual to sell things online and equally difficult for any online platform to compete with Amazon—into a 3,000-page trade bill. It cannot remain there.
The “Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in E-Commerce” (SHOP SAFE) is a bill that claims to be about protecting consumers but is more likely to enrich big brands at consumers’ expense. SHOP SAFE would force pretty much any online service that allows people to buy and sell items to institute a draconian trademark protection system. If they don’t, they risk crushing liability for the actions of their users.
Take Action
Tell Your…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/shop-safe-will-stomp-out-online-sales-used-and-homemade-goods

2022-02-03 Comments Off

Ballot Access News – Vermont Ranked Choice Voting Bill Has 8 Sponsors

Feb 022022

Eight Vermont State Senators have introduced SB 229, which would provide for ranked choice voting for primaries and general elections, for president and congress. The sponsors include six Democrats and two Progressives. The Vermont Senate has 30 members. … Continue reading →

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/02/01/vermont-ranked-choice-voting-bill-has-8-sponsors/

2022-02-02 Comments Off

The Register – America’s EARN IT Act attacking Section 230 is back – and once again threatening the internet, critics say

Feb 022022

Legislation to punish online services for users’ illegal content would damage speech and encryption, it’s claimed

The EARN IT Act, a legislative bill intended “to encourage the tech industry to take online child sexual exploitation seriously” has been revived in the US Senate after it died in committee back in 2020.…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/02/02/earnit_act_section230/

2022-02-02 Comments Off

Phoronix – Redis 7.0 Is Near With “Significant Performance Optimizations”

Feb 012022

The first release candidate of Redis 7.0 was made available today. Getting us excited about this updated in-memory key-value database are “significant performance optimizations” among other improvements…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Redis-7.0-rc1

2022-02-01 Comments Off

Ballot Access News – During 2022, Montana Party Petition Will Not Require Any Distribution Requirement

Jan 222022

As already noted, last year the Ninth Circuit struck down the Montana distribution requirement for petitions to create a qualified party. The Montana legislature is not scheduled to meet during calendar year 2022, so there is no likelihood that the legislature can restore the distribution requirement until 2023 at the earliest. Presumably if the legislature restores it, it will require an equal number of signatures from legislative districts, avoiding the constitutional problem.
Therefore, for 2022, the petition to qualify a new party will be easier than it has been since 1969. The petition still needs 5,000 signatures, but signatures can be gathered anywhere in the state. However, the petition deadline is in late February.
Before 1969, Montana allowed…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/01/22/during-2022-montana-party-petition-will-not-require-any-distribution-requirement/

2022-01-22 Comments Off

Planet KDE – Reviving and reworking the KRunner help

Jan 222022

Reviving and reworking the KRunner help
Currently KRunner does not provide any usage information itself, there
is only an bit of documentation on the user base wiki. Back in the KDE4 days KRunner had
help button, but fundamental changes in the architecture meant that the code could not simply be ported to the current version.

Since the help system required reimplementation, it was decided to implement it as a plugin for KRunner’s powerful plugin infrastructure.
This plugin produces results when one types ? or help. To make this more discoverable a button is added, which
puts the text ? in the search field.

By having it as a plugin it is reusable in every case KRunner is used,
for example the KWin overview effect,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://write.as/alexander-lohnau/reviving-and-reworking-the-krunner-help

2022-01-22 Comments Off

What’s New – Fairvote – Americans of All Parties Love RCV

Jan 222022

Ranked choice voting (RCV) improves representation, increases participation, and improves our democracy. Some may have you believe that RCV is a tool for helping one party over another; however, recent legislation and elections prove that ranked choice voting is a cross-partisan reform with support on both sides of the aisle.
In 2019, New York City voted to amend their charter to implement RCV in primaries and special elections. FairVote Action Board Member Andrew Yang, a long-time supporter of RCV and founder of the Forward Party, tweeted, “Ranked choice voting would let us express our true preferences and make our politics more dynamic and responsive. We should make it the norm throughout the country.” Fast forward to 2021,…

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.fairvote.org/americans_of_all_parties_love_rcv

2022-01-22 Comments Off

The Onion – Timeline Of Joe Biden’s First Year In Office

Jan 222022

Joe Biden has completed the first year of his presidency, a tenure that has seen its share of controversy and political gridlock. The Onion looks at the highlights of President Biden’s first year in office.

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/timeline-of-joe-biden-s-first-year-in-office-1848402189

2022-01-22 Comments Off

Techdirt. – Vice Publishes Bullshit Nonsense Article Blaming DEFCON Voting Village For ‘Stop The Steal’ Idiots

Jan 222022

Vice News has some really great reporters on tech issues who work for its Motherboard publication. For reasons that don’t make sense, last week they had some other reporter write an absolutely ridiculously bad story trying to argue that the “stop the steal” idiots were helped along by the amazingly important work done by folks in the famed “Voting Village” at the DEFCON conference. The full article is long and bad and has the ridiculous and misleading title: How an “Ethical” Hacker Convention Is Fueling Trump’s Big Lie. But the very premise of this story is not just wrong, but dangerously stupid. It’s shameful that anyone at Vice thought this was an appropriate story to publish.

The…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20220115/01065948289/vice-publishes-bullshit-nonsense-article-blaming-defcon-voting-village-stop-steal-idiots.shtml

2022-01-22 Comments Off

Shelterforce – Real Estate Firms Take Federal Aid, Evict Tenants Anyway

Jan 212022

When the pandemic hit, real estate firms gladly took government assistance to keep their businesses afloat as they faced financial hardships. Then they turned around and evicted scores of tenants enduring the same COVID-induced difficulties.

The post Real Estate Firms Take Federal Aid, Evict Tenants Anyway appeared first on Shelterforce.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://shelterforce.org/2022/01/20/real-estate-firms-take-federal-aid-evict-tenants-anyway/

2022-01-21 Comments Off

Planet Emacsen – Irreal: Corner Quotes

Jan 212022

John D. Cook has a useful post on using “corner quotes” (⌜ ⌟) to delimit regular expressions in text. As Cook says, it makes a lot of sense especially when the regular expression begins or ends with a space. Cook’s port deals with using Unicode for the corner quotes but it’s also easy to do in Emacs.
In vanilla Emacs, the way to do it is to specify TOP LEFT CORNER and BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER with insert-char through the Ctrl+x 8 binding. If you have Ivy installed, you can also use the lceil and rfloor entities through ivy-insert-org-entity a handy function that I stole from John Kitchin’s Scimax.

(defun ivy-insert-org-entity () “Insert an org-entity using ivy.” (interactive) (ivy-read…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://irreal.org/blog/?p=10265

2022-01-21 Comments Off

Ballot Access News – North Carolina Legislature Passes Bill Moving 2022 Primary from May 17 to June 7

Jan 212022

On January 19, the North Carolina legislature passed HB 605, which moves the 2022 primary from May 17 to June 7. If the bill becomes law, that would also give independent candidates more time to petition. Independent candidate petitions in … Continue reading →

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/01/20/north-carolina-legislature-passes-bill-moving-2022-primary-from-may-17-to-june-7/

2022-01-21 Comments Off

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