# rss_item

guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=337974
title: Bonanza of Keyswitch Datasheets Fills Our Decks with Clack
author: Kerry Scharfglass
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/26/bonanza-of-keyswitch-datasheets-fills-our-decks-with-clack/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Mechanical keyboards use switches of a few different types. But even those types include myriad variations. How&#8217;s a hacker to know just exactly what equipment is out there?</p>
<p>For example, if you grab a fellow cube-farmer&#8217;s mechanical keyboard (possibly because they clacked on their Cherry Blue&#8217;s just <em>one too many times)</em> and angrily rip off a few keycaps to show you&#8217;re serious, what do you see? In most cases you expect to see the familiar color and stem shape of a Cherry MX switch or one of its various clones. But you may find a square box around it like a Kailh Box switch. Or the entire stem is a box (with no +) like a Matias switch. Or sometimes it looks like a little pig snout, making it a Kailh Choc.</p>
<p>There is a fairly wide variety of companies which make key switches suitable for use in a keyboard. Many hew to the electrical and mechanical standards implicitly created by the dominant Cherry GmbH&#8217;s common switches but not all. So if you&#8217;re designing a PCB for such a keyboard and want to use odd switches, you need to check out the <a href="https://github.com/keyboardio/keyswitch_documentation" target="_blank">Keyboardio keyswitch_documentation repo</a>!</p>
<p><img data-attachment-id="338208" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/26/bonanza-of-keyswitch-datasheets-fills-our-decks-with-clack/screenshot-2018-12-22-10-30-49-themed/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed.png" data-orig-size="2024,620" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed.png?w=400" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed.png?w=800&#038;h=245" class="alignright wp-image-338208 size-large" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed.png?w=800&#038;h=245" alt="" width="800" height="245" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed.png?w=800&amp;h=245 800w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed.png?w=1600&amp;h=490 1600w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed.png?w=250&amp;h=77 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed.png?w=400&amp;h=123 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/Screenshot-2018-12-22-10.30.49-themed.png?w=768&amp;h=235 768w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></p>
<p>The keyswitch_documentation repo is an absolute treasure trove of hard to find keyswitch datasheets. Finding official information on Cherry MX switches isn&#8217;t too hard (keyswitch_documentation has <a href="https://github.com/keyboardio/keyswitch_documentation/tree/master/datasheets/Cherry" target="_blank">22 data sheets for MX series switches</a>, and four for ML). But those Kailh Choc&#8217;s? Good luck (<a href="https://github.com/keyboardio/keyswitch_documentation/blob/master/datasheets/Kailh/CPG135001D02%20BROWN.pdf" target="_blank">here it is</a> in keyswitch_documentation). Did you know Tai-Hao made Matias-esque switches as well as weird rubber keycaps? Well they do, and <a href="https://github.com/keyboardio/keyswitch_documentation/blob/master/datasheets/Tai-Hao/alps-spec-Tai-Hao_--_spec_--_APC_BSW_055WH.pdf" target="_blank">here&#8217;s the datasheet</a>.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re keeping this one handy until the next time we need data sheets for weird switches. Make sure to send a note if you find something interesting in here that&#8217;s worth noting!</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=337121
title: A Daring Search for Answers in Soyuz Mystery
author: Tom Nardi
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/26/a-daring-search-for-answers-in-soyuz-mystery/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>If you happened to tune into NASA TV on December 11th, you&#8217;d have been treated to a sight perhaps best described as &#8220;unprecedented&#8221;: Russian cosmonauts roughly cutting away the thermal insulation of a docked Soyuz spacecraft with a knife and makeshift pair of shears. Working in a cloud of material ripped loose during the highly unusual procedure, cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev were effectively carving out their own unique place in space history. <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2018/12/11/russian-spacewalkers-inspecting-crew-ship-today/" target="_blank">Their mission was to investigate the external side of the suspicious hole in the Soyuz MS-09 capsule</a> which caused a loss of air pressure on the International Space Station earlier in the year.</p>
<p><a href="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_hole.jpg" target="_blank"><img data-attachment-id="337534" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/26/a-daring-search-for-answers-in-soyuz-mystery/soyuz_hole/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_hole.jpg" data-orig-size="530,490" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="soyuz_hole" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_hole.jpg?w=350&#038;h=324" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_hole.jpg?w=530" class="alignright wp-image-337534" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_hole.jpg?w=350&#038;h=324" alt="" width="350" height="324" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_hole.jpg?w=350&amp;h=324 350w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_hole.jpg?w=250&amp;h=231 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_hole.jpg?w=400&amp;h=370 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_hole.jpg 530w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></a>That astronauts don&#8217;t generally climb out the hatch and use a knife to hack away at the outside of their spacecraft probably goes without saying. Such an event has never happened before, and while nobody can predict the future, odds are it&#8217;s not something we&#8217;re likely to see again. Keep in mind that this wasn&#8217;t some test capsule or a derelict, but a vehicle slated to return three human occupants to Earth in a matter of days. Cutting open a spacecraft in which human lives will shortly be entrusted is not a risk taken likely, and shows how truly desperate the Russian space agency Roscosmos is to find out just who or what put a hole in the side of one of their spacecraft.</p>
<p>Close inspection from the inside of the spacecraft confirmed the hole wasn&#8217;t made by an impact with a micrometeorite or tiny piece of space junk as was originally assumed. It appears to have been made with a drill, which really only allows for two possible scenarios: intentional sabotage or a mistake and subsequent cover-up. In either event, a truly heinous crime has been committed and those responsible must be found. As luck would have it the slow leak of air pressure was detected early and the hole was patched before any damage was done, but what if it hadn&#8217;t?</p>
<p><span id="more-337121"></span></p>
<h2>Non-Essential Hardware</h2>
<p>Even if you don&#8217;t consider yourself an armchair astronaut, it&#8217;s pretty clear that a spacecraft&#8217;s external insulation and shielding isn&#8217;t designed to be removed while in space, much less hacked at with improvised tools by a couple of spacewalking comrades. As a general rule, if the designer thought it was important enough to protect a part of the vehicle with multiple levels of thermal and micrometeorite protection, it&#8217;s probably not a great idea to take it off while the craft is still in operation.</p>
<p><img data-attachment-id="337859" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/26/a-daring-search-for-answers-in-soyuz-mystery/soyuz_diagram-with-background/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_diagram-with-background.jpg" data-orig-size="1090,696" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="soyuz_diagram-with-background" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_diagram-with-background.jpg?w=400&#038;h=255" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_diagram-with-background.jpg?w=800" class="alignleft wp-image-337859 size-medium" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_diagram-with-background.jpg?w=400&#038;h=255" alt="" width="400" height="255" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_diagram-with-background.jpg?w=400&amp;h=255 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_diagram-with-background.jpg?w=800&amp;h=510 800w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_diagram-with-background.jpg?w=250&amp;h=160 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_diagram-with-background.jpg?w=768&amp;h=490 768w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />That being said, the area being investigated by Kononenko and Prokopyev is on one of the few components of the Soyuz spacecraft which isn&#8217;t necessary for the craft to return to Earth. In fact, it&#8217;s actually a <i>deterrent</i> to the capsule&#8217;s return: if it doesn&#8217;t get jettisoned the Soyuz capsule won&#8217;t be able to slow down to safe landing speed since the added weight would exceed the capability of the main parachutes.</p>
<p>The hole is located in the most forward section of the craft, known as the &#8220;Orbital Module&#8221;, which houses ancillary systems such as the docking equipment and crew lavatory. A mission which somehow lost access to the Orbital Module would be potentially unpleasant and likely deemed a failure, but the crew wouldn&#8217;t be in immediate danger and could still return to Earth which is ultimately the most important thing. On ascent it&#8217;s used as a storage area for any payload being brought to the International Space Station, but once the craft has undocked from the Station it&#8217;s essentially dead weight.</p>
<p>During the Mir missions in the late 1980&#8217;s, the Orbital Module was actually jettisoned much earlier to reduce the vehicle&#8217;s mass and therefore the amount of propellant required to perform the retry burn. But <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-5" target="_blank">on the Soyuz TM-5 mission this lead to a troubling situation</a> in which the vehicle was unable to deorbit when planned but had already jettisoned the Orbital Module. While the crew eventually landed safely, the 24 hour period they spent without a lavatory or a way to dock with the Mir station was an unpleasant experience to say the least. Since then, the Orbital Module is not jettisoned from the Soyuz until the deorbit burn has already been performed and the vehicle is past the point of no return.</p>
<h2>A Difficult Commute</h2>
<p>Ultimately the danger posed to the Soyuz crew by opening up the outer skin of the Orbital Module was deemed minimal, since they wouldn&#8217;t be keeping it around for long anyway. In light of the potential gains, namely collecting evidence which may allow Roscosmos to determine how or when the hole in the craft was made, it was a calculated risk worth taking. But deciding to go ahead with the impromptu operation was the easy part, somebody still had to climb out there and do it.</p>
<p><a href="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_boom-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img data-attachment-id="337649" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/26/a-daring-search-for-answers-in-soyuz-mystery/soyuz_boom/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_boom-1.jpg?w=457&#038;h=342" data-orig-size="717,537" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="soyuz_boom" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_boom-1.jpg?w=457&#038;h=342?w=400" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_boom-1.jpg?w=457&#038;h=342?w=717" class="alignright wp-image-337649" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_boom-1.jpg?w=457&#038;h=342" alt="" width="457" height="342" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_boom-1.jpg?w=457&amp;h=342 457w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_boom-1.jpg?w=250&amp;h=187 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_boom-1.jpg?w=400&amp;h=300 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/soyuz_boom-1.jpg 717w" sizes="(max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px" /></a>Any time an astronaut leaves the relatively safe confines of their craft and goes out the hatch, there&#8217;s an element of risk. But in this case the problem was compounded by the fact that the Soyuz was never meant to be serviced from the outside. Unlike on the Space Station itself, there&#8217;s no convenient hand holds or tie off points for the astronauts to use. That meant the only way to reach the Orbital Module was to use an extendable boom. When attached to the end, the crew member can be moved into position by a colleague and can work in an area that doesn&#8217;t have any tie off points.</p>
<p>Interestingly, such a maneuver is not without precedent. A similar method was used in 2005 when astronaut <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/02/01/the-hard-learned-lessons-of-the-columbia-disaster/">Steve Robinson was sent out to repair the heat shield of Space Shuttle Discovery</a>. As the bottom of the Shuttle was perfectly smooth, he had to be moved into position on the end of the Shuttle&#8217;s robotic arm. Though in this case the operation was made quite a bit easier by the fact that the Soyuz being worked on was securely docked to the station, and not free floating as in the case of Discovery.</p>
<h2>Investigation Continues</h2>
<p>While they had some initial difficulty finding the tiny 2 mm diameter hole, Kononenko and Prokopyev expanded their search area a bit and were eventually able to take close-up photographs of the mysterious wound and even collect some samples which will be returned to Roscomos for analysis. As this is an active investigation with potentially criminal implications, little has been said about what the men found during their examination. But the fact that the external insulation and shielding of the Soyuz was intact is more proof that the hole was not put there by any external means.</p>
<p>As of this writing, Soyuz MS-09 has made a successful landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan; with crew members Serena Auñón-Chancellor, Alexander Gerst, and Sergey Prokopyev himself all in good health after 197 days in space. The safe return of the multinational crew is what&#8217;s ultimately most important, but the questions about what happened to MS-09 still need answers. A space capsule apparently damaged by human hands and <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/11/09/soyuz-failure-leaves-questions-unanswered/">the failure of the MS-10 booster due to an improperly installed sensor</a> have put the beleaguered Russian space industry in an exceptionally poor light, just months before SpaceX and Boeing are set to test their crewed spacecraft. Unless the blatant issues in production and quality assurance can be sorted out, the iconic Soyuz spacecraft may soon find itself pushed to the wayside over 50 years after its first flight.</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=337818
title: Bottom of the Barrel Connector: Tell Us Your Socket Hacks
author: Brian McEvoy
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/26/bottom-of-the-barrel-connector-tell-us-your-socket-hacks/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Sometimes you get an epiphany for a project that will change the world. A simple device, on a custom circuit board with inexpensive parts that will disrupt the status quo and make you a billion dollars in no time. Then there are the times where you need to throw scraps of copper at a prototyping board and strangle nine-volts out by any means necessary.</p>
<p><img data-attachment-id="337968" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/26/bottom-of-the-barrel-connector-tell-us-your-socket-hacks/2018-12-22-bottom-of-the-barrel-connector/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2018-12-22-Bottom-of-the-Barrel-Connector.jpg" data-orig-size="715,886" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="2018-12-22 Bottom of the Barrel Connector" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2018-12-22-Bottom-of-the-Barrel-Connector.jpg?w=323&#038;h=400" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2018-12-22-Bottom-of-the-Barrel-Connector.jpg?w=504" class="size-medium wp-image-337968 alignright" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2018-12-22-Bottom-of-the-Barrel-Connector.jpg?w=323&#038;h=400" alt="" width="323" height="400" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2018-12-22-Bottom-of-the-Barrel-Connector.jpg?w=323&amp;h=400 323w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2018-12-22-Bottom-of-the-Barrel-Connector.jpg?w=646&amp;h=800 646w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2018-12-22-Bottom-of-the-Barrel-Connector.jpg?w=202&amp;h=250 202w" sizes="(max-width: 323px) 100vw, 323px" /></p>
<p>This is about the latter. In one of our <a href="https://hackaday.io/project/5373-hack-chat" target="_blank">Hack Chats</a>, [<a href="https://hackaday.io/Jez.Boxall" target="_blank">Morning.Star</a>] shared a couple of images wherein a barrel connector was needed, but there was no time to wait for one in the mail. Necessity birthed the most straightforward solution which did not involve shredding a power adapter&#8217;s plug. There is no link, [Stuart Longland] aka [Redhatter] screen-capped the image exchange and reminded us on the <a href="https://hackaday.com/submit-a-tip/">tip line</a>.</p>
<p>Chances are you&#8217;ve faced this problem yourself. Everyone has a box of old wall warts somewhere, exhibiting a wide range of barrel connector sizes. If you can&#8217;t take the easy route of cutting off the connectors, what&#8217;s your go-to trick? Alligator clips are a horrid approach, and there aren&#8217;t really any clear winners that come to mind. [Morning.Star&#8217;s] hack is actually quite respectable! It appears to be a roll of copper (perhaps from tubing?) bent for a bit of spring tension on the outside of the barrel. The inside is contacted by thick copper wire with a kink to again provide spring action.</p>
<p>So, spill the beans. What&#8217;s your barrel connector trick and does it work reliably?</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=337925
title: Make an Impression at the Bar with a CNC Coaster Plotter
author: Dan Maloney
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/26/make-an-impression-at-the-bar-with-a-cnc-coaster-plotter/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>If you&#8217;re anything like us, your success with the opposite sex at the bar wasn&#8217;t much to brag about. But imagine if you had only had <a href="http://www.buildlog.net/blog/2018/12/polar-coaster-version-2/" target="_blank">this compact CNC polar plotter</a> and could have whipped up a few custom coasters for your intended&#8217;s drink. Yeah, that definitely would have helped.</p>
<p>Or not, but at least it would have been fun to play with. This is actually an improved version of [bdring]&#8217;s <a href="http://www.buildlog.net/blog/2017/08/the-polar-coaster-a-drink-coaster-drawing-machine/" target="_blank">original &#8220;Polar Coaster&#8221;.</a> Version 2 is really just a more compact and robust version of the original. The new one has a custom controller for the steppers and pen-lift servo, and everything is mounted neatly to the main PCB. Where the original used a timing belt to drive the platter, the new one uses 3D-printed helical gears, and the steppers have been replaced by slimmer motors. It even has an SD card and smartphone UI, and the coasters look pretty good.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s no video of the new one, but you can see its predecessor in action below and imagine the possibilities. Snap a picture and have a line art rendition of someone plotted while you&#8217;re waiting for drinks? Just remember not to take any <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/05/09/gorgeous-nickelbot-serves-up-lasered-wooden-nickels/">laser engraved wooden nickels</a>.</p>
<p><span id="more-337925"></span></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/7_aS0PbP8HY?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>


guid: 2e2e47e9-967f-478b-ab2a-92e4d1d66b51
title: How to set up Munki on macOS Server to manage your Apple computers
feedurl: https://www.techrepublic.com/rssfeeds/topic/open-source/
url:
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-set-up-munki-on-macos-server-to-manage-your-apple-computers/#ftag=RSS56d97e7

content:
Managing Apple computers doesn't have to be a tug-of-war between admins and end users. With Munki, IT can standardize Macs and allow users to manage their own devices.


title: Linux commands for measuring disk activity
author: Sandra Henry-Stocker
feedurl: https://www.networkworld.com/category/linux/index.rss
guid:
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3330497/linux/linux-commands-for-measuring-disk-activity.html#tk.rss_linuxThu, 27 Dec 2018 05:38:00 -0800

url:
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3330497/linux/linux-commands-for-measuring-disk-activity.html#tk.rss_linux

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>Linux systems provide a handy suite of commands for helping you see how busy your disks are, not just how full. In this post, we examine five very useful commands for looking into disk activity. Two of the commands (iostat and ioping) may have to be added to your system, and these same two commands require you to use sudo privileges, but all five commands provide useful ways to view disk activity.</p><p>Probably one of the easiest and most obvious of these commands is <strong>dstat</strong>.</p><aside class="fakesidebar"><strong> [ Two-Minute Linux Tips: <a href="https://www.networkworld.com/video/series/8559/2-minute-linux-tips">Learn how to master a host of Linux commands in these 2-minute video tutorials </a>] </strong></aside>
<h3>dtstat</h3>
<p>In spite of the fact that the <strong>dstat</strong> command begins with the letter "d", it provides stats on a lot more than just disk activity. If you want to view just disk activity, you can use the <strong>-d</strong> option. As shown below, you’ll get a continuous list of disk read/write measurements until you stop the display with a ^c. Note that after the first report, each subsequent row in the display will report disk activity in the following time interval, and the default is only one second.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3330497/linux/linux-commands-for-measuring-disk-activity.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Tech luminaries we lost in 2018
author: Ken Gagne
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3325212/networking/tech-luminaries-we-lost-in-2018.html#tk.rss_allThu, 27 Dec 2018 03:00:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3325212/networking/tech-luminaries-we-lost-in-2018.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article class="slideshow"><figure class="slide"><figcaption>Remembering our industry’s innovators</figcaption><img data-imageid="100782416" src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2018/12/cw_luminaries_2018_slide_01_cover_lights_by_freedommaster_getty_images-100782416-large.jpg" data-thumb-src="https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2018/12/cw_luminaries_2018_slide_01_cover_lights_by_freedommaster_getty_images-100782416-small.jpg" alt="CW &gt; In Memoriam 2018 &gt; Tech luminaries we lost this year [slideshow cover]" data-license="Getty Images"/><p class="slideCredit">Image by <span class="slideCreditText">FreedomMaster / Getty Images</span></p><div class="slideBody"><p>They were the founders of such household names as Atari and Microsoft. They built the hardware and software that powers the Internet. They used computers to give voice to the young and the disabled. And they rarely did so in the spotlight. Whether they ever achieved fame or fortune, these 13 women and men deserve a place in the history books for their lives, accomplishments, and contributions to science and information technology around the world.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3325212/networking/tech-luminaries-we-lost-in-2018.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Run. Boom! Repeat.
author: Sharky
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330577/application-development/run-boom-repeat.html#tk.rss_allThu, 27 Dec 2018 03:00:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330577/application-development/run-boom-repeat.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>Christmas: Pilot fish in IT operations is working the holiday so a critical mainframe application can go live by New Year's. Schedule is tight, and the programmers don't want to lose time the day after Christmas waiting for the work to come back from operations.</p><p>So the fish starts compiling and test-running job after job -- no problem. Gets down to the last set of 50 jobs. Runs the first one. It blows up.</p><p>Runs the second one. It blows up.</p><p>After job number 10 blows up, he gives up, scrawls across the remaining work orders "THIS PROGRAM MUST REALLY BE SCREWED UP!" in big red letters and sends the whole mess back to the programmers.</p><p>Next day he gets a call asking why he didn't just continue to run the jobs. Explains they were all blowing up.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3330577/application-development/run-boom-repeat.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Collaboration 2019: Teams, Slack and what’s coming
author: Matthew Finnegan
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3329540/collaboration/collaboration-2019-teams-slack-and-whats-coming.html#tk.rss_allFri, 28 Dec 2018 02:57:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3329540/collaboration/collaboration-2019-teams-slack-and-whats-coming.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>The booming team collaboration market is likely to continue booming in 2019 as companies roll out chat apps more widely across their operations.</p><p>With Microsoft leveraging the ubiquity of its Office suite to push Teams, and Slack doubling down on its still-evolving enterprise push, the two leaders in the market are likely to continue to try and one-up each other in the search for new customers. At the same time, a host of other firms, from Facebook to Google, Cisco and more, will continue to build out their own team chat platforms.</p><aside class="fakesidebar"><strong>[ Related: <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3298581/collaboration/10-ways-to-get-the-most-from-facebook-workplace.html#tk.ctw-infsb">10 ways to get the most from Facebook’s Workplace</a> ]</strong></aside>
<p>IDC, by the way, expects the collaboration market to generate $3.5 billion in revenues in the year ahead, up from $2.9 billion in 2018.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3329540/collaboration/collaboration-2019-teams-slack-and-whats-coming.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Broken, not broken, broken, not broken...
author: Sharky
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330596/computer-hardware/broken-not-broken-broken-not-broken.html#tk.rss_allFri, 28 Dec 2018 03:00:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330596/computer-hardware/broken-not-broken-broken-not-broken.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>Your software is lying down on the job, a customer accuses tech support pilot fish.</p><p>What do you mean? fish asks.</p><p>"The computer starts printing the form, but when it's halfway, it just stops," user says. "If we try to print it again, we get the same result."</p><p>Fish quickly exhausts the diagnostics he can do over the phone and makes the long drive out to the site.</p><p>On arrival at the office, he notices a big Christmas tree standing near the printer and decked out in lots of lights. He also notices that the cord to the Christmas lights isn't plugged in and remarks on it to the clerk.</p><p>"That's right," says clerk. "We don't have enough outlets in this room, so we had to unplug the printer in order to plug in the tree lights. But don't worry -- we've unplugged the lights and plugged the printer back in.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3330596/computer-hardware/broken-not-broken-broken-not-broken.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: How Microsoft lost the web
author: Gregg Keizer
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330239/web-browsers/how-microsoft-lost-the-web.html#tk.rss_allSat, 29 Dec 2018 03:19:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330239/web-browsers/how-microsoft-lost-the-web.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>Microsoft's announcement earlier this month that it was dumping its own browser technology for Google's - turning Edge into a Chrome clone - was a stunning acknowledgement that the company had lost its decades-long battle for browser supremacy.</p><p>"We intend to adopt the Chromium open-source project ... to create better web compatibility for our customers and less fragmentation of the web for all web developers," Joe Belfiore, a corporate vice president in the Windows group, wrote in a Dec. 6 <a href="https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2018/12/06/microsoft-edge-making-the-web-better-through-more-open-source-collaboration/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">post to a company blog</a>. But while Belfiore blew the open-source horn, he didn't bother to recap how Microsoft reached this point when earlier in the century, it was <i>the</i> dominant browser maker, accounting for more than 90% of all usage after it laid waste to Netscape Navigator.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3330239/web-browsers/how-microsoft-lost-the-web.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/top-security-advice
title: Top advice for securing your systems in 2019
author: MikeCamel
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/top-security-advice
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/OSDC_LIFE_ScarytoJoin_520x292_9059767_0312CS.png" width="520" height="292" /><p>It's been an interesting year for security and users. It all kicked off at the beginning of the year with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica causing people suddenly to think more seriously about their data and what they share on social media. In fact, the threat against personal data has been an important theme for the year. We've seen breaches at companies such as Marriott (in December) and British Airways (September) and Under Armour (March).</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/top-security-advice">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/top-devops
title: The people, processes, and tools of DevOps in 2018
author: chrisshort
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/top-devops
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/devops-gears.png" width="520" height="292" alt="     “Gears” by Andrew Magill is licensed under CC BY 2.0 " title="     “Gears” by Andrew Magill is licensed under CC BY 2.0 " /><p>I could not be happier with the band of merry DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and agile folks that have formed under the <a href="https://opensource.com/devops-team">Opensource.com DevOps</a> banner. Folks from around the globe have assembled to write about the people, processes, and tools they've encountered along their DevOps journeys. It is heartwarming to see so many people willing to share their experiences. This is what DevOps is all about! Better outcomes don't come from inside an organization. Better outcomes arise from shared continuous learning.</p>

<p></p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/top-devops">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/best-of-sysadmin
title: The mantra for this year&#039;s sysadmin: Work smarter, not harder
author: bcotton
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/best-of-sysadmin
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/cloud_tools_hardware.png" width="520" height="292" /><p>Being a systems administrator is not an easy job. Sysadmins often have to design, build, monitor, and maintain a large array of disparate services running on a patchwork of platforms. Most sysadmins come into the field by happy accident, so they sometimes lack formal, organized training on the toolsets.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/best-of-sysadmin">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/best-of-legal
title: Most-read coverage in 2018: Legal issues and the open source community
author: David Perry
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/best-of-legal
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/law_legal_gavel_court.jpg" width="520" height="292" /><p>In 2018, Opensource.com again tackled the intersection of open source and the law, with the most-read articles addressing topics from privacy to patents.</p>

<p>One of the most impactful legal changes in 2018 was the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), so it's not surprising that many readers were interested in <a href="/article/18/4/gdpr-impact" target="_blank">how the new law will affect open source communities</a>.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/best-of-legal">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/BigchainDB
title: What is BigchainDB?
author: sophiaArmstrong
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/BigchainDB
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/diversity_flowers_chain.jpg" width="520" height="292" /><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophia-armstrong-a86875173/" target="_blank">Sophia Armstrong</a>, a computer science major at East Carolina University, provided an overview of <a href="https://www.bigchaindb.com/whitepaper/bigchaindb-whitepaper.pdf" target="_blank">BigchainDB</a> in her Lightning Talk, "Blockchain database for a cybersecurity learning environment," at <a href="https://allthingsopen.org/" target="_blank">All Things Open 2018</a>, October 23 in Raleigh, NC.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/BigchainDB">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/calling-subs-and-typing-perl-6
title: Calling subs and typing in Perl 6
author: lizmat
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/calling-subs-and-typing-perl-6
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/programming_keys.jpg" width="520" height="292" /><p>This is the ninth article in <a href="https://opensource.com/users/lizmat">a series about migrating code from Perl 5 to Perl 6</a>. This article examines the subtle differences in visibility of subroutines between Perl 5 and Perl 6 and the (gradual) typing core feature of Perl 6.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/calling-subs-and-typing-perl-6">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/how-jump-start-career-open-source
title: Learn how to jump start your career in open source in 5 minutes
author: eschabell
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/how-jump-start-career-open-source
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/resume_career_document_general.png" width="520" height="292" /><p>In his Lightning Talk, "How to jump-start a career in open source," at <a href="https://allthingsopen.org/" target="_blank">All Things Open 2018</a>, October 23 in Raleigh, NC, <a href="https://twitter.com/ericschabell?lang=en" target="_blank">Eric D. Schabell</a> says the most important thing in advancing your career is a lesson most people learn in preschool: "Sharing is caring."</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/how-jump-start-career-open-source">read more</a>


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10421
title: Distribution Release: KaOS 2018.12
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10421
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 A new version of KaOS, a rolling-release Linux distribution with KDE Plasma as the preferred desktop environment, has been released. Version 2018.12 comes with the very latest that the KDE and Qt projects have on offer, including Plasma 5.14.4, KDE Applications 18.12.0 and Qt 5.12.0: " KaOS is....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10422
title: Distribution Release: Calculate Linux 18.12
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10422
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 Alexander Tratsevskiy has announced the release of Calculate Linux 18.12, an updated build of the project's Gentoo-based distribution for desktops and servers. This release updates the Linux kernel to version 4.19.9 and it also brings a new "Education" edition: "Calculate Linux 18.12 released. We have a bunch of....


guid: 1340384 at https://www.linuxjournal.com
author: Petros Koutoupis
feedurl: https://www.linuxjournal.com/news/feed
base: https://www.linuxjournal.com/news/feed
title:
Chrome OS To Test GPU Support for Linux Installed Apps, antiX Distro v17.3, OpenMandriva Project vLx4.0, Hummingboard CBi Released

url:
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/chrome-os-test-gpu-support-linux-installed-apps-antix-distro-v173-openmandriva-project

content:
<div data-history-node-id="1340384" class="row bs-3col-stacked node node--type-news node--view-mode-rss">
  

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            <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p><span>It seems that Chrome OS will soon start testing GPU support for <a href="https://9to5google.com/2018/12/26/chrome-os-linux-apps-gpu-support/">Linux installed applications</a></span><span>. This is good news for those who wish to run applications that require a bit more horsepower (e.g. games). You can view the code commits to these changes <a href="https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromiumos/platform2/+/1387842">here</a></span><span>.</span></p>

<p>Yesterday, the antiX Linux distribution announced the release of <a href="https://antixlinux.com/antix-17-3-released-2/">version 17.3</a>. It boasts an updated kernel that better mitigates<span> </span>the <span>L1TF/Foreshadow and Meltdown/Spectre</span><span> vulnerabilities, bug fixes and package updates.</span></p>

<p><span>Along those same lines, the OpenMandriva project just announced the first Alpha release of <a href="https://www.openmandriva.org/en/news/article/we-proudly-introduce-you-openmandriva-lx-4-0-major-release-alpha1">version Lx 4.0</a></span><span>.</span></p>

<p><span>SolidRun, a company focused on manufacturing Linux supported SBC and embedded boards, just announced the release of another addition to their Hummingboard series called the <a href="http://linuxgizmos.com/latest-hummingboard-sbc-adds-can-and-serial-ports/">Hummingboard CBi</a></span><span>. This <a href="https://www.solid-run.com/nxp-family/hummingboard-cbi">new model</a> swaps the original HDMI port for a CAN and serial ports</span> and is tailor more for industrial use<span>.</span></p></div>
      
      <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--items">
              <div class="field--item"><a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/news" hreflang="en">News</a></div>
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guid: 1340385 at https://www.linuxjournal.com
author: Petros Koutoupis
feedurl: https://www.linuxjournal.com/news/feed
base: https://www.linuxjournal.com/news/feed
title:
Freescale and NXP PowerPC Microprocessors Protected Against Spectre, Chromebook to Support Dual-Boot Mode, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Game Kickstarted Campaign Cancels Linux Port

url:
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/freescale-and-nxp-powerpc-microprocessors-protected-against-spectre-chromebook-support-dual

content:
<div data-history-node-id="1340385" class="row bs-3col-stacked node node--type-news node--view-mode-rss">
  

    <div class="col-sm-12 bs-region bs-region--top">
    
            <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p>One year later, the Freescale and NXP PowerPC microprocessors <a href="https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NXP-POWER-Spectre-V2-4.21">are now protected</a> against the variant 2 of the Spectre vulnerability.</p>

<p>For those who absolutely need those one or two applications from Windows, the Chromebook will soon officially supports a dual-boot mode in which users can install both Windows and Chrome OS <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-is-coming-to-your-chromebook">side-by-side</a>. Unlike the Linux app support within Chrome OS, this new feature will allow you to run one of operating systems at a time.</p>

<p>In upsetting news, Koji Igarashi's Kickstarter campaign for his yet-to-be released game, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, has officially announced that the ports to both the Mac OS and Linux <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/posts/2368304">are now cancelled</a>. Bloodstained is a Castlevania clone and I personally funded it, so I am extremely upset myself.</p></div>
      
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              <div class="field--item"><a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/news" hreflang="en">News</a></div>
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guid: http://www.linuxinsider.com-85760
title: Breaking Up the Crypto-Criminal Bar Brawl
author: Ian Eyberg
url: http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/85760.html?rss=1
feedurl: https://www.linuxinsider.com/perl/syndication/rssfull.pl
content:
			<a href="http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/85760.html?rss=1"><img src="http://www.linuxinsider.com/images/rw793431/cryptocurrency" align="left" alt="" hspace="7" border="0" /></a>
			As if e-commerce companies didn't have enough problems with transacting securely and defending against things like fraud, another avalanche of security problems -- like cryptojacking, the act of illegally mining cryptocurrency on your end servers -- has begun. We've also seen a rise in digital credit card skimming attacks against popular e-commerce software. Some of the attacks are relatively naive and un-targeted, taking advantage of lax security on websites found to be vulnerable, while others are highly targeted for maximum volume.
			
			


guid: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/?p=137175
title: Linux Release Roundup: Dash to Panel, Audacious, Linux 4.20 + More
author: Joey Sneddon
url: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/d0od/~3/fQNGeBjy_nA/linux-4-20-released
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/d0od
content:
<p><img width="406" height="232" src="https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/linux-release-roundup-406x232.jpg" class="attachment-post-list size-post-list wp-post-image" alt="linux release roundup thumbnail" srcset="https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/linux-release-roundup-406x232.jpg 406w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/linux-release-roundup-350x200.jpg 350w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/linux-release-roundup-300x171.jpg 300w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/linux-release-roundup-768x439.jpg 768w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/linux-release-roundup-750x429.jpg 750w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/linux-release-roundup.jpg 840w " sizes="(max-width: 406px) 100vw, 406px" />While most of us use the holiday season as an excuse to do as little as possible — while eating as much as possible — Linux developers tend to use their downtime to dive in to work on their personal pet projects. And ever grateful are we that they chose to do so! This week&#8217;s Linux [&#8230;]</p>
<p>This post, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/12/linux-4-20-released">Linux Release Roundup: Dash to Panel, Audacious, Linux 4.20 + More</a>, was written by <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/author/d0od">Joey Sneddon</a> and first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk">OMG! Ubuntu!</a>.</p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=fQNGeBjy_nA:uMh-9aN800o:wBxX2hOkimM"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=fQNGeBjy_nA:uMh-9aN800o:wBxX2hOkimM" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=fQNGeBjy_nA:uMh-9aN800o:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=fQNGeBjy_nA:uMh-9aN800o:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=fQNGeBjy_nA:uMh-9aN800o:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=fQNGeBjy_nA:uMh-9aN800o:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=fQNGeBjy_nA:uMh-9aN800o:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=fQNGeBjy_nA:uMh-9aN800o:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=fQNGeBjy_nA:uMh-9aN800o:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/d0od/~4/fQNGeBjy_nA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=119929
title: Fomu Is An Open Source FPGA Board That Fits Inside A USB Port
author: Adarsh Verma
url: https://fossbytes.com/fomu-open-source-fpga-board-usb-port/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) are integrated circuits that can be programmed as per desired application after their manufacturing. Due to their flexibility, they can be used in different areas to achieve the desired purpose. Fomu is one such tiny FPGA that can fit inside a USB port. It is a fully open-source device that [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/fomu-open-source-fpga-board-usb-port/">Fomu Is An Open Source FPGA Board That Fits Inside A USB Port</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=119957
title: High-end iPhones To Be Assembled In India Next Year
author: Vanshika Malhotra
url: https://fossbytes.com/high-end-iphones-assembled-india/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Taiwanese company Foxconn is set to begin production of top-end Apple iPhone models in India, preferably in early 2019. According to a report by Reuters, the company is likely to manufacture the high-end iPhone X series in India which will happen at Foxconn’s plant in Sriperumbudur town in Tamil Nadu. Foxconn will provide around INR 25 billion for the investment in its [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/high-end-iphones-assembled-india/">High-end iPhones To Be Assembled In India Next Year</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=119968
title: Instagram Accidentally Pushed An Update To Make Your Feed Horizontal
author: Anmol Sachdeva
url: https://fossbytes.com/instagram-update-feed-horizontal/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Earlier today, Instagram accidently released an update that made the feed go horizontal from its default vertical scrolling setting. The users were made to tap through newsfeed instead of scrolling through it vertically. Internet went berzerk and people were horrified at the new layout of Instagram. The accidental update affected only iPhone users and Android and [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/instagram-update-feed-horizontal/">Instagram Accidentally Pushed An Update To Make Your Feed Horizontal</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=119977
title: Firefox’s New Feature Is A Boon For Working On Multiple Tabs Simultaneously
author: Anmol Sachdeva
url: https://fossbytes.com/firefoxs-new-feature-multiple-tabs-simultaneously/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>If you are someone who opens multiple tabs while working and then scrolls through different open tabs for searching a particular tab, then Mozilla has made things easier for you. Mozilla will add a new feature in Firefox 66 (Via: BleepingComputer) that will allow you to find a particular tab from multiple open tabs by simply searching the [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/firefoxs-new-feature-multiple-tabs-simultaneously/">Firefox&#8217;s New Feature Is A Boon For Working On Multiple Tabs Simultaneously</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=119993
title: Google Pixel 3 Lite And 3 XL Lite To Launch Via Verizon This Spring
author: Vanshika Malhotra
url: https://fossbytes.com/google-pixel-3-lite-and-3-xl-lite-to-launch-via-verizon-this-spring/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>After the launch of the Pixel 3 Duo, Google has been speculated to unveil the laddered-down variants of the smartphones, dubbed the Pixel 3 Lite and the Pixel 3 XL Lite. In addition to the existing rumors, the new one tips at the possible launch time of the devices. According to a report by Android [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/google-pixel-3-lite-and-3-xl-lite-to-launch-via-verizon-this-spring/">Google Pixel 3 Lite And 3 XL Lite To Launch Via Verizon This Spring</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=119990
title: Windows 10 File Explorer And Paint Will Now Support AVIF Image Format
author: Charanjeet Singh
url: https://fossbytes.com/windows-10-file-explorer-and-paint-support-avif-image-format/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Microsoft might be a little busy fixing Windows 10 October Update issues, but that doesn&#8217;t mean it is not considering the little changes that need to be done to improve the overall user experience. Since the inception of AVIF image format, Windows 10 has never supported it. However, this is changing with the upcoming Windows [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/windows-10-file-explorer-and-paint-support-avif-image-format/">Windows 10 File Explorer And Paint Will Now Support AVIF Image Format</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120001
title: Motorola P40 Leaks In New Images, Hints At 48MP Camera
author: Vanshika Malhotra
url: https://fossbytes.com/motorola-p40-leaks-in-new-images-48mp-camera/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>It seems like the 48 is the new USP when it comes to cameras! After the Honor View 20 with 48-megapixel rear snapper made its entry, the alleged Motorola P40 is now expected to come with a similar arrangement. According to a report by 91Mobiles, via OnLeaks, apart from featuring a 48-megapixel rear camera, the [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/motorola-p40-leaks-in-new-images-48mp-camera/">Motorola P40 Leaks In New Images, Hints At 48MP Camera</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120017
title: Samsung’s New Remote Access Feature Will Allow You To Control PC With Smart TV
author: Vanshika Malhotra
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
url:
https://fossbytes.com/samsungs-new-remote-access-feature-will-allow-you-to-control-pc-with-smart-tv/

content:
<p>Samsung has introduced a new Remote Access feature which will allow users to connect their devices to the Smart TVs, without the use of a wire. The new Remote Access feature will ship in the upcoming 2019 Samsung Smart TVs, allowing users to view content on the larger screen via other devices such as PCs, [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/samsungs-new-remote-access-feature-will-allow-you-to-control-pc-with-smart-tv/">Samsung&#8217;s New Remote Access Feature Will Allow You To Control PC With Smart TV</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120026
title: This Fake Amazon Alexa Setup App Was Fooling iOS Users
author: Vanshika Malhotra
url: https://fossbytes.com/this-fake-amazon-alexa-setup-app-was-fooling-ios-users/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Since the time app stores have become a thing, the Apple App Store has arguably been the safest and difficult-to-get-to place for malicious apps. However, a fake Amazon Alexa Setup app still was able to get listed on the App Store and as a surprise, is listed in the &#8220;Top Free&#8221; apps section. As per [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/this-fake-amazon-alexa-setup-app-was-fooling-ios-users/">This Fake Amazon Alexa Setup App Was Fooling iOS Users</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120025
title: Woman Behind Siri’s Hebrew Voice Is Suing Apple
author: Anmol Sachdeva
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
url:
https://fossbytes.com/woman-behind-siris-hebrew-voice-is-suing-apple-for-improper-humiliating-speech/

content:
<p>The female broadcaster and voice artist whose voice is used for Siri&#8217;s Hebrew dialect is suing Apple for using her voice without permission. Galit Gura-Eini has filed a lawsuit against Apple and has claimed that her voice has been used for saying racist, violent and sexual things. Waze, a GPS navigation software app has used [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/woman-behind-siris-hebrew-voice-is-suing-apple-for-improper-humiliating-speech/">Woman Behind Siri&#8217;s Hebrew Voice Is Suing Apple</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264339
title: Operators In BASH - Learn BASH | Part 5
author: Mohd Sohail
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264339
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
In the previous decisions chapter, we came across many new operators while learning the if, if-else, and elif statements. Today this chapter will provide deep insight to operators and their various types in computer programming. Read on below to learn more about them.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264351
title: Headset – YouTube / Reddit desktop music player
author: Luke Baker
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264351
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Headset is a music player for the desktop that connects with the huge catalogue of music available from YouTube. Users can search through this collection of music, play what they find and save tracks/playlists. Headset can also read popular music subreddits and play the tracks in sequence.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264352
title: 41 of Steam's most played games in 2018 are supported on Linux
author: Liam Dawe
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264352
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Valve released some interesting lists today which show off some top games, these lists show some interesting details about Linux games.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264346
title: Best of 2018: Fedora for developers
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264346
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Building custom apps in Python on Fedora — using either a Python IDE that helps you learn understand the language, or a popular editor that also works with many other languages. And what about Rust — a very fast and safe programming language. Yes, it’s been a whole year again! What a great time to [&#8230;]


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264354
title: How to Install BookStack on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264354
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
BookStack is a free and open source knowledge management platform that can be used for creating documentation and wikis content for your users. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Bookstack with Apache in Ubuntu 18.04 server.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264359
title: Destination Linux EP101 – We Respin You A Merry Christmas
author: Destination Linux
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264359
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
On DL101, we discuss some distro news for Peppermint Linux, GParted Live & Ubuntu. We cover app news for Firefox, VirtualBox and discuss Photography on Linux and pros/cons of Headerbars & much more!


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264355
title: How to install Minecraft Server on Ubuntu 18.04
author: linuxize
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264355
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Minecraft is one of the most popular games of all time. It is a sandbox video game about placing blocks and going on adventures. This tutorial covers the installation and configuration of the Minecraft Server on Ubuntu 18.04.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264344
title: What is BigchainDB?
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264344
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Sophia Armstrong, a computer science major at East Carolina University, provided an overview of BigchainDB in her Lightning Talk, "Blockchain database for a cybersecurity learning environment," at All Things Open 2018, October 23 in Raleigh, NC.read more


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264348
title: How to Display When a File was Last Accessed in Ubuntu
author: Karim Buzdar
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264348
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
In this article, we will explain how you can use the stat command to view when a specific file was last accessed. We have run the commands and procedures mentioned in this article on a Ubuntu 18.04 LTS system.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264356
title: The Ceph Foundation and Building a Community: an Interview with SUSE
author: Petros Koutoupis
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264356
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
When dealing with large amounts of large data, treating them asobjects is the way to do it. It's also much easier to manage. In fact, thisis how the cloud functions—with objects. This object-drive model enablesCeph for simplified scalability to meet consumer demand easily. These objectsare replicated across an entire cluster of nodes, giving Ceph itsfault-tolerance and further reducing single points of failure.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264343
title: Calling subs and typing in Perl 6
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264343
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
This is the ninth article in a series about migrating code from Perl 5 to Perl 6. This article examines the subtle differences in visibility of subroutines between Perl 5 and Perl 6 and the (gradual) typing core feature of Perl 6.read more


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264361
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264361
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
title:
Freescale and NXP PowerPC Microprocessors Protected Against Spectre, Chromebook to Support Dual-Boot Mode, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Game Kickstarted Campaign Cancels Linux Port

content:
One year later, the Freescale and NXP PowerPC microprocessors are now protected against the variant 2 of the Spectre vulnerability.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264364
title: How to Install Anaconda on Ubuntu 18.04
author: Abhijeet
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264364
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Anaconda is the opensource package manager and distribution of Python and R Programming language. Anaconda is mainly designed for Data Science and Machine Learning and used for large-scale data processing, predictive analysis, and scientific computing.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264369
title: ExTiX 19.1 Screenshot Tour
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264369
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
I have made a new version of ExTiX - The Ultimate Linux System. I call it ExTiX 19.1 KDE/Kodi Live DVD. (The previous KDE version was 18.6 from 180602). The best thing with ExTiX 19.1 is that while running the system live (from DVD/USB) or from hard drive you can use Refracta Tools (pre-installed) to create your own live installable Ubuntu system...


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264374
title: How to Run Ubuntu 18.04 or 18.10 on Raspberry Pi
author: Nick Congleton
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264374
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
It's not that simple to install the latest Ubuntu on a Raspberry Pi, not unless you install RaspEX, an Ubuntu 18.04+ image built specifically for the Pi.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264368
title: Debian Popularity-Contest Program To Collect System Packages Data
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264368
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
In the following article, we will see how we can provide data on the use of our .deb packages to the Debian team through popularity-contest. Obviously, the fact of providing the data of the packages that we use the most will be optional and totally anonymous.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264365
title: How to Install Apache Tomcat 9 on Ubuntu 18.04
author: Abhijeet
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264365
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Apache Tomcat is an opensource web server used to server Java Applications. It is an opensource implementation of Java Servlet, Java Server Pages and Java Expression Language.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264370
title: How To Add Swap Space on Debian 9
author: linuxize
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264370
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Swap is a space on a disk that is used when the amount of physical RAM memory is full. When a Linux system runs out of RAM, inactive pages are moved from the RAM to the swap space. Swap space can take the form of either a dedicated swap partition or a swap file. Usually when running Debian virtual machine a swap partition is not present so the only option is to create a swap file.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264389
title: How to Install Tomcat on Ubuntu 18.04
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264389
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
In this guide we will show you how to install Tomcat on an Ubuntu 18.04 VPS. Tomcat is an open source web server and servlet container developed by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) that executes Java servlets and renders Web pages that include Java server page coding.


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410908
title: Android Pie now rolling out to OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/android-pie-oneplus5-5t/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
OnePlus is well known for many things, including building up massive hype around its (generally) powerful and (relatively) cheap handsets. But one of the reasons many people choose the company is that it has always been quick at rolling out Android updates to newer handsets -- and it has a great track record for supporting its phones for much longer than its rivals do with their handsets. The company may well be concerned about shifting its latest models, but owners of previous generations have not been forgotten when it comes to Android Pie. The latest version of Android is already&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/android-pie-oneplus5-5t/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410910
title: Here's what 2019 holds for Paint.NET
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/paint-net-2019/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
As 2018 draws to a close, it's a time not only for looking back over what the past year has offered, but also for looking forward to the new year and what's on the horizon. There's certainly a lot to look forward to in terms of hardware in 2019, but there's also a great deal on the software front. The developer of the popular image editing tool Paint.NET, Rick Brewster, has shared his vision of what the coming year holds for his software. The 2019 roadmap for Paint.NET is an exciting one, promising migration to .NET Core, support for brushes&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/paint-net-2019/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410914
title: The elements of cybersecurity hygiene and secure networks -- Part 2
author: Stéphane Donzé
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/the-elements-of-cybersecurity-hygiene-and-secure-networks-part-2/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
The blackhat hackers are evolving as quickly as technology is. To protect their sensitive information, companies can put documents in a public cloud. Why the public cloud? While it might seem that public cloud solutions are less reliable than traditional IT platforms, the reality is that they’re actually more secure. With the cloud, a company’s security team is able to monitor network audit logs more closely to detect any abnormalities. Furthermore, audit data can be easily centralized without having to navigate through inconvenient firewall interfaces and other closed proprietary systems. These components are essential for improving security procedures. The public&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/the-elements-of-cybersecurity-hygiene-and-secure-networks-part-2/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410917
title: Instagram accidentally rolls out new horizontally scrolling feed to much confusion
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/instagram-horizontal-feed-tap-to-scroll/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
Instagram users around the world were briefly thrown into a mixture of confusion, delight and anger today when timelines switched to a new horizontal scrolling mode. Greeted by a message that Instragram was "Introducing a New Way to Move Through Posts", users found that they could now tap to scroll through their feed horizontally. This is something that Instagram is known to have been testing for a little while now, but it seems that today's rollout was entirely accidental -- albeit one that gave a tantalizing glimpse into the future. The company has now reverted feeds to the familiar verticals&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/instagram-horizontal-feed-tap-to-scroll/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410919
title: Canonical shares the Top 10 Linux Snaps of 2018 -- Spotify, Slack, Plex, VLC, and more!
author: Brian Fagioli
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/canonical-10-snaps-linux-2018/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
As 2018 comes to a close, I find myself doing much reflecting. Linux consumes much of my thinking, and sadly, this was not the year that it overtakes Windows on the desktop. You know what, though? Windows 10 was an absolute disaster this year, while the Linux-based Chrome OS has slowly become more and more mature. Other desktop Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Mint and Fedora, continue to get better, and Android remains the undisputed king of mobile. As we all know, Linux powers many servers around the globe too. So yeah, maybe it isn't the year of the Linux&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/canonical-10-snaps-linux-2018/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410940
title: The Best Windows 10 apps of 2018
author: Martin Brinkmann
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/28/the-best-windows-10-apps-of-2018/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
Three-hundred-and-fifteen in a series. 2018 was an eventful year for Microsoft, the Windows Store, and applications for Windows 10. In this year's end part of the series, we will look back at apps and games released for Windows 10 in 2018. The list is a personal selection as always; if you think an app or game is missing let me and everyone else know about it in the comment section below. Discounts this week The following list is a selection of the best deals. Make sure you check out the Store for all offers. Some apps are discounted for more&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/28/the-best-windows-10-apps-of-2018/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410942
title: Mozilla Labs is back!
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/28/mozilla-labs-is-back/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
The popularity of software betas and the Windows Insider program show that people are keen to get their hands on things earlier. There is a certain delight in tinkering with experimental tools, utilities and apps, and if this is the sort of thing that excites you, you'll be pleased to hear that Mozilla has brought Mozilla Labs back from the dead with a new site. Not seen for a number of years, Mozilla Labs used to be home to experimental Firefox projects. Now, the relaunched version is home to more, including Project Things, Spoke, Hubs and more -- Firefox is&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/28/mozilla-labs-is-back/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410950
title: Grado Labs GW100 wireless headphones [Review]
author: Joe Wilcox
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/28/grado-labs-gw100-wireless-headphones-review/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
When I first opened the box containing the Grado Labs GW100 headphones, one word came to mind: "Cheap". The cans didn't look or feel like the classy Grado RS1i and RS1e, which I once owned, or the GS1000e that are still beloved and possessed. But after connecting to Google Pixel 2 XL (and later the 3 XL), via Bluetooth, I exclaimed: "Priceless". The first offering in the company's "Wireless Series" rises to an audiophile class unmatched by most competing cans; I prefer the GW100 to the GS1000e, which cost four times more to buy. Four words best describe the experience listening&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/28/grado-labs-gw100-wireless-headphones-review/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410958
title: Google rolls out spam protection to Android Messages
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/29/android-messages-spam-protection/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
Spam may be something that's most commonly associated with email, but it's also something that blights text messaging. Google is trying to do something about the problem with a spam protection feature for Messages on Android. This is a feature we learned about earlier in the year, and it is now starting to roll out to handsets. In order for the feature to work, "some" information about the messages you receive needs to be sent to Google -- something that it sure to raise a few eyebrows (and hackles) among the privacy-centric. See also: Google Assistant uses AI to predict&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/29/android-messages-spam-protection/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410961
title: Kodi 18 'Leia' RC4 available to download now
author: Wayne Williams
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/29/kodi-18-leia-rc4/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
If you were expecting the full and final release of Kodi 18 to arrive before the end of 2018, you’re going to be disappointed as it's now scheduled for very early 2019. However, the Kodi Foundation has rolled out the fourth and final release candidate today which should tide you over nicely until then. SEE ALSO: LibreELEC 9.0 Beta 1 Linux distro (based on Kodi 18 'Leia' RC3) now available New Kodi 18 'Leia' Release Candidate (RC3) available to download now! The focus of RC4, of course, is on fixing bugs and ironing out remaining issues. The most notable changes&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/29/kodi-18-leia-rc4/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410747
title: 4 critical steps to building an IoT network
author: Bruce Chatterley
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/29/4-critical-steps-to-building-an-iot-network/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
The biggest mistake often made in building an IoT network for the first time is in underestimating the complexity of IoT network design, operation and management -- and believing that legacy network technologies and engagement models will support the requirements of large-scale IoT deployments. Building an IoT network is not as easy as it sounds and the process of building your own tends to break down when confronted with massive scale. What may seem to be an easy task of deploying gateways and managing device provisioning and connectivity quickly becomes challenging with respect to scaled site and network operations. Some&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/29/4-critical-steps-to-building-an-iot-network/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: 1ca61223-e204-4a3d-ae2a-973724cca1eb
title: Windows is coming to your Chromebook
url: https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-is-coming-to-your-chromebook/#ftag=RSSbaffb68
feedurl: https://www.zdnet.com/topic/linux/rss.xml
content:
If there are a couple of Windows applications holding you back from using a Chromebook, Google will soon let you run Windows 10 on your high-end Chromebook.


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-2018-Highlights
title: GNU Highlights Of 2018 From Hurd To GCC
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-2018-Highlights
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
It was another busy year for the GNU with its massive collection of software projects. Of the 124 "GNU" original news articles on Phoronix during 2018, here is a look at the most popular ones...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ZynqMP-DDR-ECC-Linux-4.21
title: ECC Support For The ZynqMP DDR Controller Coming With Linux 4.21
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ZynqMP-DDR-ECC-Linux-4.21
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
On a niche hardware note for Linux 4.21, should you be using a ZynqMP DDR controller, there will now be Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) ECC support...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVC0-NV_shader_atomic_float
title: Nouveau Picks Up NV_shader_atomic_float For Fermi/Kepler GPUs
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVC0-NV_shader_atomic_float
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Longtime Nouveau contributor Ilia Mirkin has done some holiday hacking on this open-source NVIDIA driver and enabled support for another OpenGL extension in NVC0 Gallium3D...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27321
title: Windows Server 2019 Performance Benchmarked Against Linux On An Intel Xeon Server
url: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27321
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
A few days back I delivered the first of our Windows Server 2019 benchmarks against Linux (as well as FreeBSD). That initial testing was done with a dual socket AMD EPYC server while in this article the tables have turned with using a dual Intel Xeon Scalable server while benchmarking Microsoft Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2019 with its new Windows Subsystem for Linux, Windows Server 2016, and an assortment of Linux distributions including Fedora Server 29, openSUSE Leap 15, Ubuntu 18.10, CentOS 7.6, Debian 9.6, and Intel's own Clear Linux.


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Banana-Pi-Possible-24-ARM-Core
title: Banana Pi Might Be Rolling Out A 24-Core ARM Board
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Banana-Pi-Possible-24-ARM-Core
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Making the rounds overnight has been word that the folks at Banana Pi are preparing to release a 24-core ARM board. On the surface it's exciting for ARM Linux enthusiasts, but the pricing has yet to be announced and that will largely determine the success of this reported next BPi product...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NXP-POWER-Spectre-V2-4.21
title: NXP PowerPC Processors Finally Being Mitigated Against Spectre V2 With Linux 4.21
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NXP-POWER-Spectre-V2-4.21
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Nearly one year after the Spectre vulnerabilities were first published, Freescale/NXP PowerPC processors are being mitigated against Spectre Variant Two with the in-development Linux 4.21 kernel...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mesa-18.2.8-Released
title: Mesa 18.2.8 Released With Driver Fixes To End Out The Series
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mesa-18.2.8-Released
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Mesa 18.2.8 was released today as what is the final planned point release for the Mesa 18.2 series. In order to continue receiving OpenGL/Vulkan open-source driver updates, users are encouraged to transition to Mesa 18.3...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NetBeans-10.0-Released
title: Apache NetBeans 10.0 Released With JDK 11 & PHP7 Support
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NetBeans-10.0-Released
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The Apache NetBeans 10.0 release is now available as the latest release for this integrated development environment under the Apache incubator umbrella...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=XFS-RAID0-Twenty-SSDs
title: XFS RAID0 Benchmarks Across Twenty SSDs vs. EXT4 & Btrfs On Ubuntu Linux
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=XFS-RAID0-Twenty-SSDs
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Earlier this month were the FreeBSD ZFS vs. Linux EXT4/Btrfs RAID With Twenty SSDs. Besides interest in seeing ZOL tests (they're already planned upon the ZFS On Linux 0.8 release), there was also some interest by readers in seeing some XFS RAID tests side-by-side. Here are some of those XFS RAID benchmarks up against Btrfs and EXT4 from Ubuntu Linux...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Cage-Wayland-Compositor
title: Cage Is A New Wayland Compositor For Kiosk/Full-Screen-One-App Deployments
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Cage-Wayland-Compositor
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Jente Hidskes, the developer who last year overhauled the Piper mouse configuration utility as part of libratbag via GSoC 2017, announced that he recently began developing his own Wayland compositor to fill a void...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=DragonFlyBSD-5.4.1-HAMMER2
title: HAMMER2 File-System Performance On DragonFlyBSD 5.4.1
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=DragonFlyBSD-5.4.1-HAMMER2
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
With the newly released DragonFlyBSD 5.4.1 having a lot of HAMMER2 file-system work on top of all of the changes introduced by DragonFlyBSD 5.4 at the start of December, here is a fresh look at the HAMMER versus HAMMER2 file-system performance on this BSD operating system...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Andes-NDS32-Improvements-4.21
title: Andes NDS32 Architecture Seeing Many Additions With Linux 4.21
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Andes-NDS32-Improvements-4.21
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Early in the year with Linux 4.17 the kernel saw a port to the Andes NDS32 CPU architecture. With Linux 4.21, that CPU architecture is seeing a number of improvements...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Systemd-EOY2018-Stats
title: Systemd Hits A High Point For Number Of New Commits & Contributors During 2018
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Systemd-EOY2018-Stats
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
With the end of the year upon us, the latest project we're looking at the GitStats on and most popular milestones of the year is for systemd...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVIDIA-82-RTX-2080-Ti-TITAN-RTX
title: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti vs. TITAN RTX In 82 Linux Graphics / Compute Benchmarks
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVIDIA-82-RTX-2080-Ti-TITAN-RTX
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Complementing our initial NVIDIA TITAN RTX Linux benchmarks and follow-up collection of more GPU compute benchmarks on the TITAN RTX compared to other NVIDIA hardware going back to the GeForce GTX 680, here is an expansive collection of side-by-side tests to the RTX 2080 Ti in more workloads...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Xorg-Server-Entering-2019
title: The X.Org Server Continues Cruising Along As We Approach 2019
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Xorg-Server-Entering-2019
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
While it's been ten years now that Wayland has been in development, a majority of the Linux desktops at the end of 2018 are still relying upon the X.Org Server. In 2018 we saw much better Wayland support out of GNOME Shell and KDE Plasma, but many Linux distributions -- including Ubuntu -- haven't transitioned over (or in the case of Ubuntu, back-over) to running a Wayland session. While the xorg-server remains at the heart of most Linux desktops, its development pace remains very slow...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Char-Misc-Linux-4.21-PR
title: Binderfs Sent In For Linux 4.21 Plus Thunderbolt Updates, Intel Stratix10 Additions
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Char-Misc-Linux-4.21-PR
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Greg Kroah-Hartman began sending in his pull requests on Friday morning for the kernel code he maintains. With the char/misc changes does come the Binderfs file-system...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27324
title: Taking Radeon ROCm 2.0 OpenCL For A Benchmarking Test Drive
url: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27324
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Last week AMD officially released ROCm 2.0 as the newest major release of the Radeon Open Compute stack. Here are some initial benchmark figures for that Radeon Linux compute component on Polaris and Vega hardware.


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mesa-RadeonSI-Lands-FreeSync
title: Mesa RadeonSI Lands FreeSync / Adaptive-Sync Support That Pair With Linux 4.21
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Mesa-RadeonSI-Lands-FreeSync
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
With the FreeSync support for AMD GPUs having been merged this week into Linux 4.21, the associated user-space patches are landing now for rounding out this AMD Radeon FreeSync / Adaptive-Sync / VRR support as we enter 2019...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Wine-4.0-RC4-Released
title: Wine 4.0-RC4 Is Out For Testing While The Official Release Expected Next Month
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Wine-4.0-RC4-Released
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Lead Wine developer Alexandre Julliard has just posted the fourth weekly release candidate of the upcoming Wine 4.0 stable release for running Windows games and applications on Linux and other platforms...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Q4-2018-Highlights
title: Linux CoC, Debian, Speck & Kernel Happenings Rounded Out Q4-2018
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Q4-2018-Highlights
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Taking a break from our various year-end recaps, here is a look at the most popular Linux/open-source news from the quarter that's about to wrap up. So far there were more than 1,200 original news articles on Phoronix over the past three months and topping out reader interest in this time has been the latest Linux kernel happenings, various community controversies, new hardware fun, and several prominent new software releases...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27328
title: GCC 9.0 Compiler Benchmarks Against GCC7/GCC8 At The End Of 2018
url: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27328
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
In early 2019 we will see the first stable release of GCC 9 as the annual update to the GNU Compiler Collection that is bringing the D language front-end, more C2X and C++ additions, various microarchitecture optimizations from better Znver1 support to Icelake, and a range of other additions we'll provide a convenient recap of shortly. But for those wondering how the GCC 9 performance is looking, here are some fresh benchmarks when benchmarking the latest daily GCC 9.0 compiler against GCC 7.4 and GCC 8.2 atop Clear Linux using an Intel Core i9 7980XE Skylake-X system.


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=F2FS-Linux-4.21-Changes
title: F2FS Gets More Fixes In Linux 4.21 With The File-System Now Supported By Google's Pixel
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=F2FS-Linux-4.21-Changes
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The Flash-Friendly File-System (F2FS) has some new features for the current Linux 4.21 development cycle but it's mostly fixes stemming from increased testing with Google now supporting this flash-focused file-system for their Pixel device line-up...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.21-FONT_TER16x32
title: Linux 4.21 Picking Up New Console Font For HiDPI / Retina Screens
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.21-FONT_TER16x32
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
While there are existing ways of manipulating Linux console fonts/sizes from user-space, with the upcoming Linux 4.21 kernel there is a new in-tree console font...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Unigine-2.7.3-Released
title: Unigine 2.7.3 Released With Rendering Improvements But No Vulkan Support Yet
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Unigine-2.7.3-Released
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The high-end, Linux-friendly Unigine engine for powering games but seemingly more industrial/simulator applications these days is out with their last feature release of 2018...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNOME-2018-Highlights
title: The Biggest GNOME Stories Of 2018
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNOME-2018-Highlights
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The GNOME desktop environment advanced in 2018 especially when it came to its rather mature Wayland compositor support plus a lot of minor usability fixes ("paper cuts"), the PipeWire remote desktop/recording capabilities, continuing to mature Flatpak, performance improvements, and other changes to polish off the "GNOME 3" experience this year...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=PulseAudio-Linux-PulseEffects
title: PulseEffects: A System-Wide Equalizer For PulseAudio
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=PulseAudio-Linux-PulseEffects
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Should you not be familiar with it already, PulseEffects is a program that provides an equalizer and other effects controls for Linux systems running on PulseAudio...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27334
title: NVIDIA's Linux Driver Saw Some Nice Performance Gains In 2018
url: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27334
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The open-source Radeon Linux graphics driver stack saw some nice RADV Vulkan performance improvements over the course of this year as well as to the RadeonSI Gallium3D driver performance, but how did the NVIDIA Linux driver stack perform this year for gaming? Here are some benchmarks showing it too saw some nice Linux gaming performance boosts this year with subsequent driver updates.


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Calculate-Linux-18.12
title: Gentoo-Based Calculate Linux 18.12 Adds Btrfs Install Support With Zstd Compression
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Calculate-Linux-18.12
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The Gentoo-based Calculate Linux distribution is out with a final release before ringing in the new year...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.21-Staging-Changes
title: Linux 4.21 Staging Updates Have "Lots & Lots Of Tiny Patches"
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.21-Staging-Changes
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Greg KH on Friday submitted the staging changes for the Linux kernel where many drivers and other code continues maturing before being elevated to the normal area of the kernel...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDGPU-Fixes-For-Linux-4.21
title: A Lot Of AMDGPU DC Fixes, New VegaM PCI ID Line Up For Linux 4.21
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDGPU-Fixes-For-Linux-4.21
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
A few days back the DRM feature updates landed in Linux 4.21 with AMDGPU FreeSync support and a variety of other improvements. With all of the AMDGPU changes at play, it's now time to fix up the code with some early fallout...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-Local-Display-Direct-Flip
title: Intel Linux Graphics Driver Developers Working On More Efficient Display Presentation For GVT
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-Local-Display-Direct-Flip
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Local Display Direct Flip is a feature being worked on by the Intel developers working on the GVT-g graphics virtualization technology for Linux for more efficient display handling...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27343
title: Clear Linux Ending Out 2018 With Even More Performance Optimizations
url: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27343
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
With the Windows Server 2019 vs. Linux benchmarks this week on a dual socket Intel Xeon Scalable server and testing six different Linux distributions and three Windows Server configurations, Intel's open-source Clear Linux was the winner in nearly half of the dozens of benchmarks carried out across these Linux and Windows operating system tests. But the results did yield some areas they could improve upon for better performance and as a result have already landed some more performance optimizations.


title: HEARTBEAT is another sweet RPG that released with Linux support this month
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/heartbeat-is-another-sweet-rpg-that-released-with-linux-support-this-month.13238

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/heartbeat-is-another-sweet-rpg-that-released-with-linux-support-this-month.13238

content:
<p>Tags: Indie Game, Steam, Itch.io, RPG</p><p><p>Get your bag packed ready for another adventure, as the 2D RPG HEARTBEAT released with Linux support recently.</p>

<p>We actually gave this a highlight <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/heartbeat-a-monster-filled-rpg-looks-really-sweet-and-its-getting-a-linux-version.13140" target="_blank">earlier this month</a>, as the developer said they were planning Linux support. What we didn&#39;t expect is to see the Linux version arrive at release!</p>

<p>More about it:</p>

<blockquote>
<p><u>HEARTBEAT</u> is a <em>top-down RPG</em> where you traverse a land recovering from multiple strifes between humans and Mogwai. The unaware populace lives in a constant state of uncertainty and danger veiled by a tranquil facade. As a Conjurer, a human marked by Mogwai, it is your duty to maintain the peace and ensure balance between all who share the earth beneath your feet. Meet new friends and foes as you take on this strange and transcendent journey.</p>
</blockquote>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuM2tXUZdAI"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/IuM2tXUZdAI/0.jpg" alt="youtube video thumbnail"><br />Watch video on YouTube.com</a>

<p>Feature highlight:</p>

<ul>
	<li>20+ hours of a character-driven story that comes with multiple endings and a post-game.</li>
	<li>Explore a vast world with a huge cast of Mogs and humans you can befriend!</li>
	<li>Allies assist you&nbsp;<em>on and off</em> the battlefield with skills to navigate through puzzles and uncover secrets.</li>
	<li>From <em>fishing</em> to <em>card-collecting</em>, you can indulge in some respite if your heart wills it.</li>
	<li>Sidequests provide you with a deeper understanding of the game&#39;s lore... and they give out unique rewards to boot!</li>
	<li>Fight through the <em>arena </em>and<em> endurance modes</em> to really test your skills.</li>
</ul>

<p>So far users have reacted positively with the release. It doesn&#39;t have a lot of user reviews yet (less than 50) but what&#39;s there so far is a good indicator that it&#39;s quite good and probably worth checking out.</p>

<p>Find it on <a href="https://shepple.itch.io/heartbeat" target="_blank">itch.io</a> and <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/984560/HEARTBEAT/" target="_blank">Steam</a>.</p></p>


title: Reminder: Update your PC info for the next round of statistics updates
author: gamingonlinux
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/reminder-update-your-pc-info-for-the-next-round-of-statistics-updates.13236

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/reminder-update-your-pc-info-for-the-next-round-of-statistics-updates.13236

content:
<p>Tags: Site Info, Survey</p><p><p>This is your once a month reminder to make sure your PC information is correct on your user profiles. A fresh batch of statistics is generated on the 1st of each month.</p>

<p></p>

<p>You can see the statistics any time <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/users/statistics" target="_blank">on this page</a>.</p>

<p>If you want your details to actually be included in the monthly survey, be sure to <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/usercp.php?module=pcinfo" target="_blank">head here</a> and tick the box labelled &quot;Include your PC details in our Monthly User Statistics?&quot; and hit the &quot;Update&quot; button at the bottom, it&#39;s opt-in and you can uncheck it at any time not to be included in future statistics gathering.</p>

<p>PC Info is automatically purged if it hasn&#39;t been updated, or if you don&#39;t click the link to remain in for 2 years. This way we prevent too much stale data and don&#39;t hold onto your data for longer than required.</p>

<p>This time, we&#39;ve included a Steam Play question that was requested by the community. The Wine question has been adjusted, to make it clear that it includes derivatives of Wine excluding Proton directly in Steam Play.</p></p>


title: The massive 7 Days to Die update Alpha 17 is live now for everyone
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-massive-7-days-to-die-update-alpha-17-is-live-now-for-everyone.13239

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-massive-7-days-to-die-update-alpha-17-is-live-now-for-everyone.13239

content:
<p>Tags: Indie Game, Zombies, Open World, Survival, Humble Store, Steam, Early Access</p><p><p>Just before our holiday break, The Fun Pimps released a whopper of an update to their survival game 7 Days to Die.</p>

<p>Alpha 17 is a complete overhaul to many systems in the game, the amount of changes that came with the update is truly ridiculous. So large, to list it all here would be madness. You can find the <a href="https://7daystodie.com/a17-early-streaming-release-notes/" target="_blank">full update notes here</a>.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a data-fancybox="images" href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/18287570441545924677gol1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/18287570441545924677gol1.jpg" /></a></p>

<p>Some highlights of what&#39;s changed:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Updated Unity version: New lighting features, ambient lighting, more reflections</li>
	<li>A new party system to share XP, share quests and more</li>
	<li>A new quest system</li>
	<li>The Navezgane map is much bigger with many more locations</li>
	<li>An overhauled vehicle system with new vehicles including a Gyrocopter</li>
	<li>Overhauled enemy AI</li>
	<li>New animals</li>
</ul>

<p>And the list just keeps going on for a while. It&#39;s been some time since the last major alpha, so if you haven&#39;t played for a while it will be totally different.</p>

<p>7 Days to Die certainly looks a lot better with this update, it&#39;s a little harder too. My main wish is for them to do a serious performance pass on it, as it doesn&#39;t perform all that well for me and my hardware is pretty decent. Even so, I&#39;ve been able to enjoy quite a bit of it. Since the big update, I&#39;ve found it to be a much more rewarding game overall. I&#39;m quite astonished with just how much there is you can do in the game, time just washes away like nothing whilst playing it. I heard from our streamer Sin that it&#39;s a much more interesting game to play now, so there&#39;s that too.</p>

<p>Find it on <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/7-days-to-die?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> and <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/251570/7_Days_to_Die/" target="_blank">Steam</a> (64% off).</p></p>


title: The first beta for Lutris 0.5 is out with a refreshed UI and GOG support
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-first-beta-for-lutris-05-is-out-with-a-refreshed-ui-and-gog-support.13240

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-first-beta-for-lutris-05-is-out-with-a-refreshed-ui-and-gog-support.13240

content:
<p>Tags: Apps</p><p><p>Lutris, the &#39;open gaming platform&#39; has a new beta version out that features a refreshed UI and it&#39;s looking really sleek now.</p>

<p>For those not clued up on Lutris, it&#39;s a game manager. One that will allow you to bundle all your games from various places into one single handy user interface. It comes with tons of options including Steam, Wine, emulators and more.</p>

<p>Here&#39;s a look at the new UI with the dark theme:</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/1328666318id13240gol.jpg" /></p>

<p>While it&#39;s not massively different, it does feel a lot cleaner than the older version.</p>

<p>Lutris also now has support for installing games from GOG as well, which is pretty handy. You can add a game to your Lutris library and when you go to install it, an option for GOG is now available. It will bring up a little window to login to GOG and then download it directly for you&mdash;love it!</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a data-fancybox="images" href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/5227188851545926736gol1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/5227188851545926736gol1.jpg" /></a></p>

<p>If you grab the source file from <a href="https://github.com/lutris/lutris/releases/tag/v0.5.0-beta" target="_blank">this announcement</a>, you can then run the included file to test out the new version. Simply run the file located in &quot;/path/to/download/lutris/bin/lutris&quot; and have a play.</p>

<p>Impressed with their progress, good to see it continue to mature. This latest beta certainly feels like a good step for this handy application.</p></p>


title: The developer of 'Clone Drone in the Danger Zone' adjusted their game to help Steam Play users
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-developer-of-clone-drone-in-the-danger-zone-adjusted-their-game-to-help-steam-play-users.13242

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-developer-of-clone-drone-in-the-danger-zone-adjusted-their-game-to-help-steam-play-users.13242

content:
<p>Tags: Steam Play, Steam, Indie Game, Action</p><p><p>Clone Drone in the Danger Zone from Doborog Games seems like a rather fun third person sword fighter and the developer has made adjustments for Steam Play.</p>

<p>First, what is it exactly? In their words &quot;Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is a third person sword fighter where any part of your body can be sliced off. With your mind downloaded into a robot gladiator, you must survive the sinister trials of the arena.&quot;.</p>

<p>A reader emailed in (thanks!) to mention they developer was quick to respond to help Linux gamers playing it with Steam Play. After reaching out to the developer about it, they said this:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>I was elated to hear that the Steam Play version of the game worked for singleplayer, and I recently tweaked our multiplayer system to give Steam Play Linux players a workaround to connect to games. There is a known issue with Wine&#39;s ping library that causes games to crash when they try to run a ping. I added an override setting so players can now select a region and avoid triggering a ping.</p>

<p>I hope we can continue to serve Linux players, as I was a big Linux game player when I was growing up (BZFlag, GTetrinet, and Sauerbraten aka Cube aka OG multiplayer Minecraft :)).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This is a similar issue to one I noted in <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/recent-steam-play-updates-have-enabled-the-free-to-play-battle-royale-darwin-project-to-work-on-linux.13235" target="_blank">our Darwin Project article</a>, which also needs you to first manually pick a region. Worth looking into if you&#39;re unable to connect online in other Windows games played through Steam Play.</p>

<p>When asked if they will be doing a native Linux version or sticking with Steam Play, they said:</p>

<blockquote>
<div>We&#39;re not actively exploring a native version at the moment, partially because things are in flux with our multiplayer system and we&#39;re worried these changes could potentially break it or make it incompatible. If there&#39;s still demand for a native Linux version of the game (vs. just via Steam Play), I&#39;d love to hear from players as it will help me prioritize what we work on next. Reach out to me <a href="mailto:support@doborog.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">support@doborog.com</a> and I&#39;d love to hear why you&#39;re interested. There are a handful of things that were broken the last time we tested a native Linux build, but it&#39;s possible that&#39;s improved since our Unity upgrade!</div>
</blockquote>

<p>I think this is quite interesting. They&#39;re willing to adjust their game for users playing it on an unsupported system, while still being open to doing a native Linux version.</p>

<p>You can find Clone Drone in the Danger Zone on <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/597170/Clone_Drone_in_the_Danger_Zone/" target="_blank">Steam</a> (34% off during the sale).</p>

<p>For a quick look at what to expect, here&#39;s some of their footage:</p>

<div class="youtube-embed-wrapper" data-video-url="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/SNMs8FTouLk?rel=0" style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;padding-top:30px;height:0;overflow:hidden"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/SNMs8FTouLk?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%" width="640"><br />
</iframe></div></p>


title: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for Linux has been officially cancelled
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night-for-linux-has-been-officially-cancelled.13244

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night-for-linux-has-been-officially-cancelled.13244

content:
<p>Tags: Crowdfunding, Action, Platformer</p><p><p>Sad news for fans of action platformers, as Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night for Linux has been officially cancelled.</p>

<p>Bloodstained was crowdfunded on <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/description" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a> back in June of 2015, with that they managed to gain $5.5 million dollars. During the campaign, they confirmed Linux was going to be a supported platform, they even <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night-from-koji-igarashi-plans-a-sameday-linux-release.5417" target="_blank">told us</a> they were aiming for a simultaneous release.</p>

<p>However, that&#39;s all changed now. Sharing the news in a <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/posts/2368304" target="_blank">Kickstarter update</a> posted today, they said this:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>In this update, we have a very important announcement to make.&nbsp; Bloodstained will no longer be supported on Mac and Linux. We have made this tough decision due to challenges of supporting middleware and online feature support and making sure we deliver on the rest of the scope for the game. We will be offering backers who planned to play the game on Mac and Linux the option to change the platform of their order. If you would like to change your platform, please <a href="mailto:bloodstained@fangamer.com" rel="noopener" target="_blank">send an email</a> with your new platform request from the email address associated with your Kickstarter pledge.&nbsp;We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and we hope for your understanding.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>So not only are they cancelling the Linux version, they&#39;re seemingly not offering a refund and only allowing you the option to change your platform. I had to wipe my glasses and read it again to be sure! A refund simply isn&#39;t mentioned, only the chance to change your platform.</p>

<p>I didn&#39;t personally fund this one, so I don&#39;t have any personal grudges or anything like that. Even so, I find this extremely poor, to put it rather lightly. I just can&#39;t believe my eyes, given they had over eleven times their original funding goal!</p>

<p>I&#39;ve added it to our <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/index.php?module=crowdfunders" target="_blank">dedicated page</a> tracking individual crowdfunding projects, with 150 projects that puts individual projects that promise Linux support at around 89% that deliver.</p></p>


title: 41 of Steam's most played games in 2018 are supported on Linux
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/41-of-steams-most-played-games-in-2018-are-supported-on-linux.13243

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/41-of-steams-most-played-games-in-2018-are-supported-on-linux.13243

content:
<p>Tags: Steam, Misc</p><p><p>Valve released some interesting lists today which show off some top games, these lists show some interesting details about Linux games.</p>

<p>Here&#39;s some fun figures:</p>

<ul>
	<li>35/100 of Steam&#39;s overall top sellers in 2018 support Linux.</li>
	<li>28/150 of Steam&#39;s top-selling <em>new</em> releases (Early Access is counted) in 2018 support Linux.</li>
	<li>3/120 of Steam&#39;s top VR titles in 2018 supported Linux.</li>
	<li>18/50 of Steams top Early Access titles that graduated into a full game supported Linux.</li>
	<li>41/114 of Steam&#39;s most played games in 2018 support Linux - Games with the highest simultaneous peak.</li>
</ul>

<p>Obviously the sorest spot there is VR games, although VR is still relatively in its infancy overall. With the work Valve is doing through funding developers to work on various parts of the Linux graphics stack, hopefully from 2019 onward that might improve.</p>

<p>Apart from that, honestly I think we&#39;re doing pretty well considering we&#39;re still a very niche platform that currently accounts for only around 0.8% of the overall Steam market share. These are the only the top games as noted by Valve too, this is missing obviously hundreds of good titles that didn&#39;t figuratively fly off the digital shelves.</p>

<p>See more in <a href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/2796070940830504495" target="_blank">Valve&#39;s blog post</a>.</p></p>


title: Futuristic FPS Interstellar Marines is still alive with Update 28 to feature a new enemy
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/futuristic-fps-interstellar-marines-is-still-alive-with-update-28-to-feature-a-new-enemy.13247

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/futuristic-fps-interstellar-marines-is-still-alive-with-update-28-to-feature-a-new-enemy.13247

content:
<p>Tags: FPS, Action, Early Access, Indie Game, Steam, Humble Store</p><p><p>Interstellar Marines used to be one of the most promising first-person shooters which sadly died due to a lack of funding. It&#39;s limping along, with a new video to show off a new enemy.</p>

<p>The enemy is a Recon Drone, which will come with Update 28, take a look:</p>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMdN2tt2OlM"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/XMdN2tt2OlM/0.jpg" alt="youtube video thumbnail"><br />Watch video on YouTube.com</a>

<p>More about the Drone:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Introducing the Recon Drone, which will be introduced in Update 28 in both Cooperative and Wargames as a new enemy. The Recon Drone will have various abilities, including being able to call in reinforcements to your general location in the form of CTRs as well as being armed with mounted weapons.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Looks and sounds like it could certainly spice things up a bit! I haven&#39;t seen them post yet when Update 28 will be out, will keep you posted.</p>

<p>Honestly, I still think&nbsp;Interstellar Marines is more interesting than a lot of FPS titles coming out even recently, it has such a fantastic atmosphere and the game mechanics are pretty solid. I really do hope it sees a resurgence in 2019. Every time I jump in and manage to get a game online, I always have a good time.</p>

<p>Find&nbsp;Interstellar Marines on <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/interstellar-marines?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> and <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/236370/Interstellar_Marines/" target="_blank">Steam</a>.</p></p>


title: GOG are giving away SOMA, act fast to secure your copy of this great Linux game
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/gog-are-giving-away-soma-act-fast-to-secure-your-copy-of-this-great-linux-game.13248

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/gog-are-giving-away-soma-act-fast-to-secure-your-copy-of-this-great-linux-game.13248

content:
<p>Tags: Free Game, GOG</p><p><p>A nice way to end the week on, the DRM free store GOG are <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/soma?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec&amp;utm_medium=raffle&amp;utm_source=gol&amp;utm_campaign=ws18&amp;utm_term=en" target="_blank">giving away copies of SOMA</a> for 48 hours so act fast. <u>Note</u>: Apparently the claim button on the game&#39;s page doesn&#39;t work, there&#39;s also a banner you can use on the <a href="https://www.gog.com/?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG homepage</a>.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/1569385519id13248gol.jpg" /></p>

<p>For those not always a fan of the difficulty in horror titles like SOMA, they actually added an easier mode last year for those who prefer to follow the story. I always love the story-telling in&nbsp;Frictional Games&#39; titles, a few issues aside it&#39;s a brilliant game. Something for your weekend perhaps, it&#39;s free so you&#39;ve got nothing to lose. Just bring some spare pants.</p>

<p>As a reminder, the GOG Winter Sale is also still going until January 3rd. If you or a friend are looking for something new, we have a <a href="https://www.gog.com/partner/gamingonlinux?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_source=gol&amp;utm_campaign=ws18&amp;utm_term=en" target="_blank">curated collection available</a> to look over.</p>

<p>Plenty of Linux games are currently on sale not in our little list for those who prefer using GOG, find <a href="https://www.gog.com/games?page=1&amp;sort=popularity&amp;tab=on_sale&amp;system=lin_ubuntu,lin_mint,lin_ubuntu_18&amp;pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_source=gol&amp;utm_campaign=ws18&amp;utm_term=en" target="_blank">all Linux titles available here</a>.</p>

<p>There&#39;s also even more games available on <a href="https://www.gog.com/connect?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_source=gol&amp;utm_campaign=ws18&amp;utm_term=en" target="_blank">GOG Connect</a>, the service that allows you to grab a copy on GOG of selected titles you own on Steam.</p></p>


title: Voxel Turf, the block-based urban sandbox game adds in a Light Plane, Airfields and more
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/voxel-turf-the-block-based-urban-sandbox-game-adds-in-a-light-plane-airfields-and-more.13250

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/voxel-turf-the-block-based-urban-sandbox-game-adds-in-a-light-plane-airfields-and-more.13250

content:
<p>Tags: Sandbox, Open World, Action, Steam, Indie Game</p><p><p>I have to admit, I&#39;ve had a silly amount of fun in Voxel Turf. A game that combines the block-building that made Minecraft popular with vehicles, buildings, gang wars and all sorts.</p>

<p>The latest update is a pretty big one adding in a Light Plane, a Commercial Airfield along with a version for bandits, Steam Workshop support for maps, a massive map that covers the world which you can grab from the Steam Workshop to play, the ability to generate in-game maps from bitmaps and more.</p>

<p>Flying around in a plane is a pretty sweet way to travel the city:</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a data-fancybox="images" href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/3762561401546001752gol1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/3762561401546001752gol1.jpg" /></a></p>

<p>Have a look at the latest update video to see more in action:</p>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ZbfJiKiwo"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/M0ZbfJiKiwo/0.jpg" alt="youtube video thumbnail"><br />Watch video on YouTube.com</a>

<p>It&#39;s a rather strange game overall, one that blends together multiple genres into one. Surprisingly fun though, especially taking down a bandit base when you&#39;re having a break from building up your own commercial empire.</p>

<p>Find it on <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/404530/Voxel_Turf/" target="_blank">Steam.</a></p></p>


title: The big update to Dead Cells is out offering custom game modes and more
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-big-update-to-dead-cells-is-out-offering-custom-game-modes-and-more.13251

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-big-update-to-dead-cells-is-out-offering-custom-game-modes-and-more.13251

content:
<p>Tags: Steam, Indie Game, Action, Platformer, Roguelike, GOG, Humble Store</p><p><p>Dead Cells, the seriously good action-platformer &#39;RogueVania&#39; had a huge update pushed out recently making it ever more awesome. Now our little break is over, I&#39;ve sat down with it for a little while longer and came away impressed with the update.</p>

<p>The Custom Game feature is very interesting and by far the biggest feature in the update. This allows you to tweak a lot of different things in the game, to really play it how you want. Choose your starting gear, load the same seed as a friend, unlock all sorts of mutations and so on. They don&#39;t give you the keys to the kingdom easily though, you do need to progress a little in the game first to unlock it. As I understand it, you need to defeat a boss named Hand of the King to get access. Not that I&#39;ve gotten even close to doing so mind you, it&#39;s a real challenge.</p>

<p>There&#39;s also special doors to unlock, for killing multiple enemies without taking damage. These will reward you with cells, gold and weapons to help with the later levels. Additionally, the timed doors also moved to the in-between levels section.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a data-fancybox="images" href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/6953193411546003863gol1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/6953193411546003863gol1.jpg" /></a></p>

<p>There&#39;s plenty of other balance changes, including an increasing in the HP you gain from scrolls found&mdash;handy. If you&#39;ve not played for a while it&#39;s definitely worth going back for another few runs.</p>

<p>I will admit, the challenge of defeating even 30 enemies without getting hit to unlock that door has proven difficult. While the enemy behaviours are easy enough to learn, I repeatedly miss-judge what&#39;s going on and end up taking a hit when I&#39;m so close. It&#39;s going to be a while before I can open that door I think&hellip;</p>

<p>For me, it&#39;s the unlocking system that I love the most. While I openly admit to being terrible at the game, having the ability to unlock more each time for future runs is a really nice feature. Some of what you can unlock is awesome too, like the Broadsword III which makes your victims emit toxic fumes when slain.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a data-fancybox="images" href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/13052847771546005597gol1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/13052847771546005597gol1.jpg" /></a></p>

<p>Annoyingly, it still doesn&#39;t work natively with the Steam Controller. So you will need to use the nifty <a href="https://github.com/kozec/sc-controller" target="_blank">SC Controller</a> app to make it detect it as a gamepad.</p>

<p>You can see everything that&#39;s new <a href="https://dead-cells.com/patchnotes" target="_blank">here</a>. You can pick up a copy of Dead Cells on <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/dead-cells?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a>, <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/dead_cells?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> and <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/588650/Dead_Cells/" target="_blank">Steam</a>.</p></p>


title: The adventure platformer Celeste is going to get some new levels after selling 500K copies
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-adventure-platformer-celeste-is-going-to-get-some-new-levels-after-selling-500k-copies.13252

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-adventure-platformer-celeste-is-going-to-get-some-new-levels-after-selling-500k-copies.13252

content:
<p>Tags: Adventure, Platformer, Indie Game, Steam, Itch.io, Humble Store</p><p><p>The adventure platformer Celeste, from the same developer who gave us TowerFall is going to get a new set of levels next year.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/639213806id13252gol.jpg" /></p>

<p>These new levels will apparently be hard too! Announcing it all on Twitter, the developer Matt Thorson <a href="https://twitter.com/MattThorson/status/1076234222380113920" target="_blank">noted</a> how they managed to sell 500K copies in 2018, with the following Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/MattThorson/status/1076234281196736512" target="_blank">post</a> mentioning how they&#39;re &quot;working on some farewell Celeste levels, which should be ready in early 2019. They&#39;re very hard.&quot;.</p>

<p>I have to admit, I&#39;m pretty impressed with how well it&#39;s sold. Honestly, I still haven&#39;t taken a look at it. Perhaps I will have to when these new levels appear so I can play it through in one swoop. It certainly looks good, the <a href="https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/album/celeste-original-soundtrack" target="_blank">soundtrack</a> sounds awesome too.</p>

<p>Am I mad for not taking a look yet? Be sure to let me and others know how good it is.</p>

<p>For now, you can find it on <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/celeste?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a>, <a href="https://mattmakesgames.itch.io/celeste" target="_blank">itch.io</a> and <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/" target="_blank">Steam</a>.</p></p>


title: The survival roguelike 'Wayward' recently added some interesting new ways to play
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-survival-roguelike-wayward-recently-added-some-interesting-new-ways-to-play.13253

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-survival-roguelike-wayward-recently-added-some-interesting-new-ways-to-play.13253

content:
<p>Tags: Early Access, Indie Game, Roguelike, Survival, Steam, Humble Store</p><p><p>Wayward is a name I honestly hadn&#39;t heard for some time, after following it years ago I lost track. Development seems to be going well!</p>

<p>For those who&#39;ve not heard of it before, it&#39;s a (deep breath) &quot;challenging turn-based, top-down, wilderness survival roguelike&quot;.</p>

<p>With a recent update, the developers focused on making it more interesting to play through more than a few times. They&#39;ve introduced two new game modes to help with this. The first, is &quot;Custom Mode&quot; allowing you to tweak all sorts of things to your liking. The second, is the difficult &quot;Challenge Mode&quot; which adds in random modifiers aimed at quick games.</p>

<p>Additionally, there&#39;s a brand new server browser allowing you to find games with friends easier. This new system also allows you to copy a special code word to give to friends, so they don&#39;t have to rely on Steam&#39;s multiplayer features. There&#39;s also three new creatures, three new plants, tons of new items and new music tracks.</p>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZgjkHXiWEM"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/7ZgjkHXiWEM/0.jpg" alt="youtube video thumbnail"><br />Watch video on YouTube.com</a>

<p>Feature highlight:</p>

<ul>
	<li>5 distinct environment types to explore &ndash; all generated procedurally.</li>
	<li>Over 400 items to craft, discover and interact with.</li>
	<li>More than 30 nasty creatures and animals to combat and harvest.</li>
	<li>Sandbox game mechanics mixed with roguelike gameplay and heavy inventory management.</li>
	<li>Deep, multi-faceted skill system with over 25 skills.</li>
	<li>Open-ended and open-world gameplay.</li>
	<li>Online multiplayer with optional PVP mode.</li>
	<li>Optional permadeath (hardcore), or respawning (casual) modes.</li>
	<li>15+ hours of content and gameplay before reaching the &ldquo;end-game&rdquo;.</li>
	<li>Day and night system.</li>
</ul>

<p>There&#39;s so much to the game, that I&#39;m definitely going to be taking a closer look at it early next year and see what I think.</p>

<p>You can find it on <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/wayward?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> and <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/379210/Wayward/" target="_blank">Steam</a>.</p></p>


title: Wine not! The Wine 4.0 RC4 release bottle has been opened and is ready to serve
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/wine-not-the-wine-40-rc4-release-bottle-has-been-opened-and-is-ready-to-serve.13254

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/wine-not-the-wine-40-rc4-release-bottle-has-been-opened-and-is-ready-to-serve.13254

content:
<p>Tags: Wine</p><p><p>Wine 4.0 RC4 continues the polishing effort to make sure it has a nice full flavour ready for the final 4.0 release due next month.</p>

<p>Not quite the corker that previous releases have been, since they&#39;re not focusing on any new features right now. This latest release candidate only stated ten bug fixes and some of them are older bugs only now being noted as fixed. While it&#39;s not exactly exciting, it&#39;s good to have a clean-up of open bug reports so they know what to focus on for the next development cycle.</p>

<p>Comparing Wine 4.0 with the previous stable Wine 3.0 release, there&#39;s a lot of exciting changes ahead for those who don&#39;t test out the development versions. These features include: support for HID gamepads, Vulkan support, OpenGL core contexts enabled by default in Direct 3D, support for fetching BIOS information on Linux, subpixel font rendering support and much more.</p>

<p>Hopefully with the next development cycle once Wine 4.0 is out, they can pull in some changes from Steam Play&#39;s Proton and perhaps get Proton updated to Wine 4.0.</p>

<p>See the <a href="https://www.winehq.org/announce/4.0-rc4" target="_blank">official release announcement here</a>.</p></p>


title: Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation inches closer to a Linux release with Vulkan
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/ashes-of-the-singularity-escalation-inches-closer-to-a-linux-release-with-vulkan.13256

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/ashes-of-the-singularity-escalation-inches-closer-to-a-linux-release-with-vulkan.13256

content:
<p>Tags: RTS, Strategy, Steam, Vulkan, Coming Soon</p><p><p>Some fun weekend news for those wanting another RTS to play, as Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation is getting closer to a Linux release.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/44548467id13256gol.jpg" /></p>

<p>As a real-time strategy game nut, I&#39;ve been waiting to play it since I first laid my eyes on it. Back in May of 2017, Stardock Entertainment put up a <a href="https://steamcommunity.com/app/507490/discussions/0/1290691308574348748/" target="_blank">Steam post</a> themselves asking to see requests for a Linux version which caused some more excitement.</p>

<p>Back in <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/an-update-on-the-status-of-porting-ashes-of-the-singularity-escalation-for-linux.12613" target="_blank">September</a> this year, they mentioned the base game engine was on Linux but not the actual game itself. Seems it&#39;s moving along, as yesterday they updated that Steam post to say this:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Update: 12/28/2018:<br />
<br />
We now have the core engine compiling under Debian Linux and running via Vulkan. We still have a long, long way to go but this is a major step. Thanks for your continued interest and support!</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Only noticing it now, as it&#39;s a post I follow that the developer has no replied to mention it. Their wording isn&#39;t too different to what was said in September though, so keep that in mind.</p>

<p>I like their honesty with it, that we still have some ways to go but they&#39;re still working on it so that&#39;s great stuff.</p></p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=336581
title: See How Paper Maché Sculptor Uses Cloth for Tricky Spots
author: Donald Papp
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/28/see-how-paper-mache-sculptor-uses-cloth-for-tricky-spots/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>When is paper maché not paper maché? When it is cloth, of course. [Dan Reeder] has been putting his own spin on paper maché art since the 70s and <a href="https://papermacheblog.com/2018/12/06/paper-mache-ice-dragon-a-little-cloth-mache-before-the-horns/" target="_blank">demonstrates the technique of using cloth for tricky spots in his outstanding sculpture of an Ice Dragon</a>. Thin strips of cloth are used just as paper would be, but give a much different structure and grant natural-looking folds to spots like eyelids, nostrils, and lips.</p>
<p><img data-attachment-id="337178" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/28/see-how-paper-mache-sculptor-uses-cloth-for-tricky-spots/2cloth-mache-over-eye/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2cloth-mache-over-eye.jpg" data-orig-size="625,625" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4.5&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon PowerShot S95&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1542359993&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;18.189&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;320&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.01&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="2cloth-mache-over-eye" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2cloth-mache-over-eye.jpg?w=400" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2cloth-mache-over-eye.jpg?w=625" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-337178" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2cloth-mache-over-eye.jpg?w=250&#038;h=250" alt="" width="250" height="250" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2cloth-mache-over-eye.jpg?w=250&amp;h=250 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2cloth-mache-over-eye.jpg?w=500&amp;h=500 500w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/2cloth-mache-over-eye.jpg?w=400&amp;h=400 400w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px" />[Dan] feels that paper maché is an under-utilized and under-rated medium, and he puts out some stunning work on <a href="https://papermacheblog.com/" target="_blank">his blog</a> as well as his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/GourmetPaperMache" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>. What&#8217;s great to see are his frank descriptions and explanations of what does and doesn&#8217;t work, and he&#8217;s not afraid to try new things and explore different ways to approach problems.</p>
<p>Enterprising hackers may not pick paper maché as their first choice to create <a href="https://hackaday.com/2011/02/05/custom-enclosures-made-of-paper/">creating custom enclosures</a>, but it can be done and the accessibility and ease of use of the medium are certainly undeniable. One never knows when a tool or technique may come in handy.</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=336766
title: Can This Fire Fighting Robot Take The Heat?
author: Lewin Day
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/28/can-this-fire-fighting-robot-take-the-heat/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Firefighting is a difficult and dangerous job, which puts humans on the front line to save life and property on a regular basis. It&#8217;s a prime candidate for some robot helpers, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=badfpajRI5Q" target="_blank">[Ivan] has stepped in with a fun build</a> that, while it won&#8217;t be serving in your municipal department any time soon, gets us thinking about the possibilities.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a radio controlled robot with an Arduino Uno for the brains. A couple of motor driver boards are used to run four windscreen wiper motors for propulsion. Long before the days of online shopping, the wiper motor was a hacker staple &#8211; a cheap, readily available high torque motor that could be easily driven for a range of hobby projects. They say only 90&#8217;s kids remember.</p>
<p>As far as water delivery goes, this robot is a little short on credentials, carrying only 1 litre of water. However, we appreciate [Ivan]&#8217;s use of a Tupperware container as a tank &#8211; with a few add-on fittings, this could be a great way to hold water in other projects. The small DC-powered pump is controlled by an industrial solid state relay &#8211; a good choice for a robot that may get wet. There&#8217;s an onboard CO2 extinguisher as well, but it&#8217;s sadly not plumbed into anything just yet.</p>
<p>This build is an [Ivan] classic &#8211; big, fun, and 3D printed on a much larger scale then we&#8217;re used to. It&#8217;s a strong  follow up to his <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/05/03/3d-printed-tank-scores-suspension/">impressive tank build we saw earlier</a>. Video after the break.</p>
<p>[Thanks to Baldpower for the tip!]</p>
<p><span id="more-336766"></span></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/badfpajRI5Q?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=337665
title: Laser Harp Sounds Real Thanks to Karplus-Strong Wave Equation
author: Dan Maloney
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/29/laser-harp-sounds-real-thanks-to-karplus-strong-wave-equation/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>The harp is an ancient instrument, but in its current form, it seems so unwieldy that it&#8217;s a wonder that anyone ever learns to play it. It&#8217;s one thing to tote a rented trumpet or clarinet home from school to practice, but a concert harp is a real pain to transport safely. The image below is unrelated to the laser harp project, but proves that portable harping is begging for some good hacks.</p>
<figure id="attachment_338672" style="width: 260px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy.jpg" target="_blank"><img data-attachment-id="338672" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/29/laser-harp-sounds-real-thanks-to-karplus-strong-wave-equation/moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy.jpg" data-orig-size="600,600" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.2&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 6D&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1423733356&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;35&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;800&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.00625&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy.jpg?w=400" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy.jpg?w=600" class="wp-image-338672 size-thumbnail" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy.jpg?w=250&#038;h=250" alt="" width="250" height="250" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy.jpg?w=250&amp;h=250 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy.jpg?w=500&amp;h=500 500w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/moving-a-concert-grand-harp-with-a-harp-caddy.jpg?w=400&amp;h=400 400w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Concert grand harps are so big there&#8217;s special equipment to move them around. This thing&#8217;s called the <a href="https://harpcaddy.com/product/original-model/&quot;" target="_blank">HarpCaddy</a></figcaption></figure>
<p>Enter <a href="http://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece4760/FinalProjects/f2018/ajh322_glz6/ajh322_glz6/ajh322_glz6/index.html" target="_blank">this laser harp</a>, another semester project from [Bruce Land]&#8217;s microcontroller course at Cornell. By replacing strings with lasers aimed at phototransistors, [Glenna] and [Alex] were able to create a more manageable instrument that can be played in a similar manner. The &#8220;strings&#8221; are &#8220;plucked&#8221; with the fingers, which blocks the laser light and creates the notes.</p>
<p>But these aren&#8217;t just any old microcontroller-generated sounds. Rather than simply generating a tone or controlling a synthesizer, the PIC32 uses the Karplus-Strong algorithm to model the vibration of a plucked string. The result is very realistic, with all the harmonics you&#8217;d expect to hear from a plucked string. [Alex] does a decent job putting the harp through its paces in the video below, and the write-up is top notch too.</p>
<p>Unique musical instruments like laser harps are far from unknown around these parts. We&#8217;ve seen a few that look <a href="https://hackaday.com/2017/03/20/teensy-laser-harp-has-big-sound/">something like a traditional harp</a> and <a href="https://hackaday.com/2013/10/30/impressive-laser-harp/">one that needs laser goggle to play safely</a>, but this one actually looks and sounds like the real thing.<span id="more-337665"></span></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/kHuugv6sa_U?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=338472
title: Freeforming the Atari Punk Console
author: Roger Cheng
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/29/freeforming-the-atari-punk-console/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>This stunning piece of art is [Emily Velasco&#8217;s] take on the Atari Punk Console. It&#8217;s <a href="https://hackaday.io/project/162958" target="_blank">a freeform circuit that synthesizes sound using 555 timers</a>. The circuit has been around for a long time, but her fabrication is completely new and simply incredible!</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t [Emily&#8217;s] first rodeo. She previously built the <a href="https://www.instructables.com/id/Freeform-Mini-CRT-Sculpture/" target="_blank">mini CRT sculpture project</a> seen to the left in the image above. Its centerpiece is a tiny CRT from an old video camera viewfinder, and it is fairly common for the driver circuit to <a href="https://hackaday.com/2012/11/14/demystifying-camcorder-crt-viewfinders/">understand composite video</a>. And unlike CRTs, small video cameras with composite video output are easily available today for not much money. Together they bring a piece of 1980s-era video equipment into the modern selfie age. The cubic frame holding everything together is also the ground plane, but its main purpose is to give us an unimpeded view. We can admire the detail on this CRT and its accompanying circuitry representing 1982 state of the art in miniaturized consumer electronics. (And yes, high voltage components are safely insulated. Just don&#8217;t poke your finger under anything.)</p>
<p><a href="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco.jpg" target="_blank"><img data-attachment-id="338681" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/29/freeforming-the-atari-punk-console/rgb-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco.jpg" data-orig-size="1000,563" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.2&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;SM-G900V&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1545661370&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;4.8&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;40&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.00088652482269504&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco.jpg?w=400&#038;h=225" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco.jpg?w=800" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-338681" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco.jpg?w=400&#038;h=225" alt="" width="400" height="225" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco.jpg?w=400&amp;h=225 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco.jpg?w=800&amp;h=450 800w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco.jpg?w=250&amp;h=141 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/RGB-atari-punk-console-emily-velasco.jpg?w=768&amp;h=432 768w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /></a>With the experience gained from building that electrically simple brass frame, [Emily] then stepped up the difficulty for her follow-up project. It started with a sound synthesizer circuit built around a pair of 555 timers, popularized in the 1980s and nicknamed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Punk_Console" target="_blank">Atari Punk Console</a>. Since APC is a popular circuit found in <a href="https://hackaday.com/tag/atari-punk-console/">several other Hackaday-featured projects</a>, [Emily] decided she needed to add something else to stand out. Thus in addition to building her circuit in three-dimensional brass, two photocells were incorporated to give it rudimentary vision into its environment. Stimulus for this now light-sensitive APC were provided in the form of a RGB LED. One with a self-contained circuit to cycle through various colors and blinking patterns.</p>
<p>These two projects neatly bookend the range of roles brass rods can take in your own creations. From a simple frame that stays out of the way to being the central nervous system. While our <a href="https://hackaday.io/contest/162559" target="_blank">Circuit Sculpture Contest</a> judges may put emphasis the latter, both are equally valid ways to present something that is aesthetic in addition to being functional. Brass, copper, and wood are a refreshing change of pace from our standard materials of 3D-printed plastic and FR4 PCB. Go forth and explore what you can do!</p>
<p><span id="more-338472"></span></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/lbWWT75zkHA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/V6LF8RbRsvE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=338371
title: Adaptive Infotainment Plays Tunes To Match Your Dangerous Driving
author: Bryan Cockfield
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/29/adaptive-infotainment-plays-tunes-to-match-your-dangerous-driving/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Part of the fun of watching action movies is imagining yourself as the main character, always going on exciting adventures and, of course, being accompanied by the perfect soundtrack to score the excitement and drama of your life. While having an orchestra follow you around might not always be practical, [P1kachu] at least figured out how to <a href="https://p1kachu.pluggi.fr/project/automotive/2018/12/17/custom-ivi/" target="_blank">get some musical orchestration to sync up with how he drives his car</a>, Fast-and-Furious style.</p>
<p>The idea is pretty straightforward: when [P1kachu] drives his car calmly and slowly, the music that the infotainment system plays is cool and reserved. But when he drops the hammer, the music changes to something more aggressive and in line with the new driving style. While first iterations of his project used the CAN bus, he moved to Japan and bought an old Subaru that doesn&#8217;t have CAN. The new project works on something similar called Subaru Select Monitor v1 (SSM1), but still gets the job done pretty well.</p>
<p>The hardware uses an Asus Tinkerboard and a Raspberry Pi with the 7&#8243; screen, and a shield that can interface with CAN (and later with SSM1). The new music is selected by sensing pedal position, allowing him to more easily trigger the aggressive mode that his previous iterations did. Those were done using vehicle speed as a trigger, which proved to be ineffective at producing the desired results. Of course, there are <a href="https://hackaday.com/2013/10/22/can-hacking-the-in-vehicle-network/">many other things that you can do with CAN bus</a> besides switching up the music in your car.</p>
<p><span id="more-338371"></span></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/26vyWaAEJBI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=338404
title: Voice Controlled Camera for Journalist in Need
author: Tom Nardi
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/29/voice-controlled-camera-for-journalist-in-need/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Before going into the journalism program at Centennial College in Toronto, [Carolyn Pioro] was a trapeze performer. Unfortunately a mishap in 2005 ended her career as an aerialist when she severed her spinal cord,  leaving her paralyzed from the shoulders down. There&#8217;s plenty of options in the realm of speech-to-text technology which enables her to write on the computer, but when she tried to find a commercial offering which would let her point and shoot a DSLR camera with her voice, she came up empty.</p>
<p><a href="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/voicecam_detail.jpg" target="_blank"><img data-attachment-id="338411" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/29/voice-controlled-camera-for-journalist-in-need/voicecam_detail/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/voicecam_detail.jpg" data-orig-size="368,591" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="voicecam_detail" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/voicecam_detail.jpg?w=218&#038;h=350" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/voicecam_detail.jpg?w=368" class="alignright wp-image-338411" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/voicecam_detail.jpg?w=218&#038;h=350" alt="" width="218" height="350" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/voicecam_detail.jpg?w=218&amp;h=350 218w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/voicecam_detail.jpg?w=156&amp;h=250 156w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/voicecam_detail.jpg 368w" sizes="(max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px" /></a>[Taras Slawnych] heard about [Carolyn&#8217;s] need for special camera equipment and figured he had the experience to do something about it. With an Arduino and a couple of servos to drive the pan-tilt mechanism, he came up with <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/12/23/this-journalist-needed-a-voice-operated-camera-but-there-was-nothing-on-the-market-so-he-made-her-one.html" target="_blank">a small device which Carolyn can now use to control a Canon camera mounted to an arm on her wheelchair</a>. There&#8217;s still some room for improvement (notably, the focus can&#8217;t be controlled via voice currently), but even in this early form the gadget has caught the attention of Canon&#8217;s Canadian division.</p>
<p>With a lavalier microphone on the operator&#8217;s shirt, simple voice commands like &#8220;right&#8221; and &#8220;left&#8221; are picked up and interpreted by the Arduino inside the device&#8217;s 3D printed case. The Arduino then moves the appropriate servo motor a set number of degrees. This doesn&#8217;t allow for particularly fine-tuned positioning, but when combined with movements of the wheelchair itself, gives the user an acceptable level of control. [Taras] says the whole setup is powered off of the electric wheelchair&#8217;s 24 VDC batteries, with a step-down converter to get it to a safe voltage for the Arduino and servos.</p>
<p><a href="https://hackaday.com/2017/09/11/these-twenty-assistive-technologies-projects-won-1000-in-the-hackaday-prize/">As we&#8217;ve seen over the years</a>, assistive technology is one of those areas where <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/02/07/steam-fabrikarium-mumbai/">hackers seem to have a knack for making serious contribution&#8217;s to the lives of others</a> (and occasionally even themselves). The highly personalized nature of many physical disabilities, with specific issues and needs often unique to the individual, can <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/07/05/shooting-for-the-first-time-with-help-from-a-raspberry-pi/">make it difficult to develop devices like this commercially</a>. But as long as hackers are willing to donate their time and knowledge to creating bespoke assistive hardware, there&#8217;s still hope.</p>
<p><span id="more-338404"></span></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/HtOj2uKgcU0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/3N3c1zXT_os?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>
<p>[Thanks to Philippe for the tip.]</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=338083
title: Open Source IDE for FPGAs as QtCreator Learns Verilog
author: Al Williams
url: https://hackaday.com/2018/12/29/open-source-ide-for-fpgas-as-qtcreator-learns-verilog/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Classic battles: PC vs Mac, Emacs vs Vi, Tastes Great vs Less Filling, and certainly one that we debate around the Hackaday watercooler: command line or IDE? There&#8217;s something to be said for using good old command line tools, and even if you like to configure your favorite editor to be nearly an IDE, at least it is one you are familiar with and presumably leverage over several different uses.</p>
<p>Most commercial FPGA tools come with a heavy-weight IDE. The open source tools for Lattice (IceStorm) typically is driven by the command line or a makefile. Until now. [Rochus-Keller] <a href="https://github.com/rochus-keller/VerilogCreator" target="_blank">released VerilogCreator which is a plugin for QtCreator</a>.</p>
<p>We were impressed because as IDEs go, QtCreator is both useful and lightweight, two things that don&#8217;t go together for many similar tools. [FPGAwars] has had an IDE based on Atom (<a href="https://github.com/FPGAwars/apio-ide" target="_blank">apio-ide</a>) although it hasn&#8217;t been updated in nearly a year. IceStudio sees more updates, of course, but it isn&#8217;t so much an IDE as a GUI-based code builder.</p>
<p>[Rochus-Keller] says there&#8217;s more to come. However, even at this early stage the IDE does syntax coloring, tooltips, inline messages, and can analyze source code allowing you to cross-reference symbols as you&#8217;d expect. There are configurations for Icarus to do simulations or you can use Verilator or Yosys &#8212; the synthesizer behind IceStorm. It appears it can also interact with Tcl-based workflows like those used by most FPGA vendor IDEs.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s quite a bit still on the to-do list, so we are excited to see where this is going. QtCreator isn&#8217;t hard to learn and it doesn&#8217;t&#8217; feel as bloated as some of the big IDEs like Eclipse. If you want a quick introduction to QtCreator, <a href="https://hackaday.com/2016/07/08/join-the-gui-generation-qtcreator/">we did that already</a>. If you want to draw boxes instead of writing Verilog directly, try <a href="https://hackaday.com/2016/02/23/icestudio-an-open-source-graphical-fgpa-tool/">IceStudio</a>.</p>


guid: 1f2a02db-59a2-4c07-b215-5afed71158ac
title: How to install Elasticsearch on Ubuntu Server 18.04
feedurl: https://www.techrepublic.com/rssfeeds/topic/open-source/
url:
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-install-elasticsearch-on-ubuntu-server-18-04/#ftag=RSS56d97e7

content:
If you're looking for a powerful search engine that can display data via a user-friendly web-based dashboard, Elasticsearch is what you want.


title: Not change! Anything but change!
author: Sharky
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330559/it-industry/not-change-anything-but-change.html#tk.rss_allMon, 31 Dec 2018 03:00:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330559/it-industry/not-change-anything-but-change.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>This business owner was told years ago that a Microsoft Exchange server was too expensive to maintain for a network his size, reports a pilot fish who now has the business as a client.</p><p>"So even in 2018 they were still on POP email, with a copy of each message going to their cell phones," fish says.</p><p>"Client had internalized 'Exchange bad,' so there was no real discussion on this topic, even while experiencing really horrible customer service from their current email provider.</p><p>"Client received an email on Christmas Eve stating that the provider was shutting down the email server in one week, so my client needed to migrate over to the new server. This involved changing all the settings on both the phones and the PCs, as well as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MX_record" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">MX records</a>.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3330559/it-industry/not-change-anything-but-change.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Q&A: Experian exec says biometrics won’t save you from mobile hacks
author: Lucas Mearian
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3329716/mobile-wireless/qa-experian-exec-says-biometrics-wont-save-you-from-mobile-hacks.html#tk.rss_allMon, 31 Dec 2018 03:01:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3329716/mobile-wireless/qa-experian-exec-says-biometrics-wont-save-you-from-mobile-hacks.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>If you think your new iPhone's Face ID facial recognition feature or your bank's fancy new fingerprint scanner will guarantee privacy and block hackers from accessing sensitive personal or financial data, think again.</p><p>In the coming year, cyberattacks will zero in on biometric hacking and expose vulnerabilities in touch ID sensors, facial recognition technology and passcodes, according to a new report from credit reporting agency Experian Plc. While biometric data is considered the most secure method of authentication, it <em>can</em> be stolen or altered, and sensors can be manipulated, spoofed or suffer deterioration with too much use.</p><p>Even so, as much as 63% of enterprises have implemented or plan to roll out  biometric authentication systems to augment or replace less-secure passwords, Experian said in its report. The push toward biometric systems dates back to <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/2586119/security0/banks-eye-biometrics-to-deter-consumer-fraud.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">the turn of the century</a> in the financial services industry.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3329716/mobile-wireless/qa-experian-exec-says-biometrics-wont-save-you-from-mobile-hacks.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Tech event calendar 2018-19: Upcoming shows, conferences and IT expos
author: Ken Mingis, Sharon Machlis
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3313417/it-industry/tech-event-calendar-2018-19-upcoming-shows-conferences-and-it-expos.html#tk.rss_allMon, 31 Dec 2018 11:14:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3313417/it-industry/tech-event-calendar-2018-19-upcoming-shows-conferences-and-it-expos.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">

    <p>
    <input type="text" id="cwtablesearchbox" placeholder="Search the table below" size="35"/></p><h4>Tech Events</h4> 
<div class="table-wrapper"> 
<aside class="large"> 
<table id="cwsearchabletable" class="tablesorter" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <thead><tr><th>Event</th>
 <th>Description</th>
 <th>Starts </th>
 <th>Ends </th>
 <th>Location </th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
  <tr><th><a title="RStudio Conference 2019" href="https://www.rstudio.com/conference" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">RStudio Conference 2019</a></th>
<td>Hadley Wickham hosts this conference on all things R and RStudio aimed at helping attendees become better at data science with R.</td>
<td>2019-01-15</td>
<td>2019-01-18</td>
<td>Austin, TX</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="MWC Barcelona" href="https://www.mwcbarcelona.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">MWC Barcelona</a></th>
<td>The original Mobile World Congress, now renamed MWC Barcelona, addresses a wide range of mobile topics, from AI to Digital Wellness, Digital Trust and connectivity in general.</td>
<td>2019-02-25</td>
<td>2019-02-28</td>
<td>Barcelona, Spain</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="RSA Conference USA" href="https://www.rsaconference.com/events/us19" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">RSA Conference USA</a></th>
<td>Expert-led sessions, keynotes and seminars covering the latest cybersecurity developments.</td>
<td>2019-03-04</td>
<td>2019-03-08</td>
<td>San Francisco, CA</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="SXSW" href="https://www.sxsw.com/conference/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">SXSW</a></th>
<td>Covering everything from entertainment to entrepreneurship, this sprawling conference has tracks dedicated to Tech Industry &amp; Enterprise, Coding &amp; Development, Blockchain &amp; Cryptocurrency, Health &amp; Medtech, and VR/AR/MR.</td>
<td>2019-03-08</td>
<td>2019-03-17</td>
<td>Austin, TX</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Enterprise Connect" href="https://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Enterprise Connect</a></th>
<td>Aimed at companies looking to upgrade or replace legacy systems or deploy and integrate next-gen communications and collaboration systems, services, apps and networks.

</td>
<td>2019-03-18</td>
<td>2019-03-21</td>
<td>Orlando, FL</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="AGENDA19" href="http://www.agendaconference.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">AGENDA19</a></th>
<td>Each year the focus of IDG's business leadership conference aligns with the most pressing business and technology issues of the day.</td>
<td>2019-03-18</td>
<td>2019-03-20</td>
<td>Ponte Vedra Beach, FL</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Atlassian Summit" href="https://www.atlassian.com/company/events/summit-us" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Atlassian Summit</a></th>
<td>Atlassian's annual user conference and biggest global event of the year. Aimed at helping companies transform how their teams work, and tout the company's latest innovations.</td>
<td>2019-04-09</td>
<td>2019-04-11</td>
<td>Las Vegas, NV</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Google Cloud Next " href="https://cloud.google.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Google Cloud Next
</a></th>
<td>Google Cloud Next is where the company announces all the latest updates to the Google Cloud Platform. The conference also offers educational, networking and hands-on opportunities for its more than 10,000 attendees.</td>
<td>2019-04-09</td>
<td>2019-04-11</td>
<td>San Francisco, CA</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Slack Frontiers 2019 (SF)" href="https://slackfrontiers.com/2019" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Slack Frontiers 2019 (SF)</a></th>
<td>At Frontiers, Slack shares best practices to help leaders and their teams create the right conditions for collaboration. You'll explore how new ways of working through Slack can accelerate performance, bring bigger gains, and keep your organization competitive as you boldly chart the new frontiers of work.</td>
<td>2019-04-23</td>
<td>2019-04-25</td>
<td>San Francisco, CA</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Facebook F8" href="https://www.f8.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Facebook F8</a></th>
<td>Facebook's F8 event is where the company touts the most innovative product developments in the works, with a focus on what developers need to know.</td>
<td>2019-04-30</td>
<td>2019-05-01</td>
<td>San Jose, CA</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Computex Taipei" href="https://www.computextaipei.com.tw/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Computex Taipei</a></th>
<td>Based in Asia, this massive technology trade show and expo focuses on information and communications technology, supply chain and IoT ecosystems.</td>
<td>2019-05-28</td>
<td>2019-06-01</td>
<td>Taipei, Taiwan</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Microsoft Inspire" href="https://inspire.eventcore.com/auth/login" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Microsoft Inspire</a></th>
<td>Microsoft's partner-centric tech conference.</td>
<td>2019-07-14</td>
<td>2019-07-18</td>
<td>Las Vegas, NV</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Black Hat USA" href="https://www.blackhat.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Black Hat USA</a></th>
<td>Four days of hands-on security training followed by the two-day main conference covering the information security research, development and trends.</td>
<td>2019-08-03</td>
<td>2019-08-08</td>
<td>Las Vegas, NV</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="MWC Americas" href="https://www.mwcamericas.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">MWC Americas</a></th>
<td>MWC Americas focuses on how mobile is changing the world, with a look at areas such as innovation, policy, networks, media and entertainment and the coming "Fourth Industrial Revolution."</td>
<td>2019-10-22</td>
<td>2019-10-24</td>
<td>Los Angeles, CA</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Dreamforce" href="https://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Dreamforce</a></th>
<td>Annual conference for Salesforce customers, featuring keynotes, training, certification opportunities, hands-on demos, and more.</td>
<td>2019-11-19</td>
<td>2019-11-22</td>
<td>San Francisco, CA</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="WWDC" href="https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">WWDC</a></th>
<td>Apple's Worldwide Developers conference, where the company usually showcases updates to iOS and macOS.</td>
<td>NA</td>
<td>NA</td>
<td>San Jose, CA</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Google I/O" href="https://events.google.com/io/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Google I/O</a></th>
<td>Google's annual developer conference offers in-depth sessions on the company's latest developer tools and provides a sneak peek at upcoming products.</td>
<td>NA</td>
<td>NA</td>
<td>Mountain View, CA</td></tr> <tr><th><a title="Microsoft Build" href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/build" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Microsoft Build</a></th>
<td>Microsoft typically uses its annual developers' conference as a showcase for new products and technologies related to Windows and Azure. The event offers attendees hands-on workshops, demos, an expo hall, networking opportunities and more.</td>
<td>NA</td>
<td>NA</td>
<td>Seattle, WA</td></tr></tbody></table></aside></div>
	</section>
</article><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3313417/it-industry/tech-event-calendar-2018-19-upcoming-shows-conferences-and-it-expos.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Throwback Tuesday: In 1756 it was a very good year
author: Sharky
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330817/it-industry/throwback-tuesday-in-1756-it-was-a-very-good-year.html#tk.rss_allTue, 01 Jan 2019 03:00:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330817/it-industry/throwback-tuesday-in-1756-it-was-a-very-good-year.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>Pilot fish's company gets a new ERP package in early 1999. Implementation team works for nine months and hits the go-live date at the end of November.</p><p>A couple weeks into December, fish receives notice that the ERP vendor's tech support will be available over New Year's weekend to provide phone support -- for a premium price. "My company took a pass -- we felt pretty good about our level of Y2K readiness," says fish.</p><p>On the first business day of the year, there's a noncritical non-Y2K problem with the ERP package. Fish goes to the vendor's website and tries to create a Support Incident but can't. "I kept getting bounced out to a message stating, 'Incidents may not be created for dates prior to Dec. 1, 1756.' So I went to the phone," he says. "Their phone system was down."</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3330817/it-industry/throwback-tuesday-in-1756-it-was-a-very-good-year.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Android 2019 primer: 10 bits of telling analysis to mull over
author: JR Raphael
url: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3329749/android/android-2019-primer.html#tk.rss_all
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3329749/android/android-2019-primer.html#tk.rss_allTue, 01 Jan 2019 04:00:00 -0800

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>When it comes to mobile technology, trends mean so much more than any single event.</p><p>That's a notion we see reinforced time and time again here in the land o' Android — and that's why so much of our focus in this little corner of the internub is on the bigger-picture view of what's going on with Google. By looking at those broader trends, we can get a sense of how the company's strategies are shifting and what those changes suggest about the future of Android and other mobile tech efforts.</p><p>We had no shortage of such matters to consider in 2018 — and some of the trends we've observed over these past 12 months will almost certainly inform the patterns we'll see over the course of the coming year.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3329749/android/android-2019-primer.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: If the CTO says it's OK, what could go wrong?
author: Sharky
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330562/security/if-the-cto-says-its-ok-what-could-go-wrong.html#tk.rss_allWed, 02 Jan 2019 03:00:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330562/security/if-the-cto-says-its-ok-what-could-go-wrong.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>Medical rehab facility is facing a compliance deadline for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Insurance_Portability_and_Accountability_Act" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">HIPAA</a> privacy regulations, and that could be a problem, says a cybersecurity pilot fish working there.</p><p>"The HIPAA regulations are strewn with potential issues," fish says. "When some aspect isn't followed and a patient's data privacy is compromised, the fines can be substantial."</p><p>And that's the headache fish faces because of his facility's use of Gmail. As the site's cybersecurity engineer, fish knows that ordinary Gmail isn't HIPAA compliant.</p><p>Fortunately, there's a fix -- one that involves additional paperwork and agreements, along with some added security verification. But that's still easier and less complex than moving everyone off Gmail.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3330562/security/if-the-cto-says-its-ok-what-could-go-wrong.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: How blockchain may kill the password
author: Lucas Mearian
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3329962/blockchain/how-blockchain-may-kill-the-password.html#tk.rss_allWed, 02 Jan 2019 03:01:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3329962/blockchain/how-blockchain-may-kill-the-password.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>Imagine a company that can verify the background of a new employee and onboard them with the click of a single virtual button, or a banking customer who can verify their identity for a loan without exposing personally identifiable information – again with a click of a button.</p><p>That's the potential blockchain holds for decentralized identity management. It's done  by creating a digital wallet that serves as a repository for all kinds of personal and financial data, info that can only be shared after a specific request and only with the permission of the owner.</p><aside class="fakesidebar"><strong>[ Further reading: <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3191077/security/what-is-blockchain-the-most-disruptive-tech-in-decades.html#tk.ctw-infsb">What is blockchain? The most disruptive tech in decades</a> ]</strong></aside>
<p>Blockchain distributed ledger technology (DLT) – in combination with digital identity verification – holds the potential to solve online privacy issues that plague everything from consumer sales and bank know-your-customer regulations to employee credentials that allow access to confidential business systems.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3329962/blockchain/how-blockchain-may-kill-the-password.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Windows by the numbers: Windows 10 finally dethrones Windows 7
author: Gregg Keizer
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3199373/windows-pcs/windows-by-the-numbers-windows-10-finally-dethrones-windows-7.html#tk.rss_allWed, 02 Jan 2019 04:17:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3199373/windows-pcs/windows-by-the-numbers-windows-10-finally-dethrones-windows-7.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>Nearly three and a half years after its release, Windows 10 last month surpassed its enterprise predecessor, Windows 7, as the most popular operating system on the planet.</p><p>According to analytics vendor Net Applications, Windows 10 jumped by 1.1 percentage points in user share in December, climbing to 39.2% of all personal computers and 45.5% of all PCs running Windows. (The second number is larger than the first because Windows does not power all PCs; in December, Windows ran 86% of the world's systems. Most of the remainder ran macOS, Linux or Chrome OS, in decreasing order.)</p><aside class="fakesidebar"><strong>[ Related: <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3276311/microsoft-windows/windows-7-to-windows-10-migration-guide.html#tk.ctw-infsb">Windows 7 to Windows 10 migration guide</a> ]</strong></aside>
<p>Meanwhile, Windows 7 lost 2 percentage points last month, four times the loss of November and the largest one-month decline in over a year. Windows 7 ended 2018 on 36.9% of all personal computers and on 42.8% of all Windows PCs.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3199373/windows-pcs/windows-by-the-numbers-windows-10-finally-dethrones-windows-7.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Why Apple must make January great again
author: Jonny Evans
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330681/apple-mac/why-apple-must-make-january-great-again.html#tk.rss_allWed, 02 Jan 2019 05:17:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330681/apple-mac/why-apple-must-make-january-great-again.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>There was a time when Apple defined the future direction of the entire tech industry for the next 12 months when its annual January Macworld Expo event set the scene.</p><p>Even the first iPhone was announced Jan. 9, 2007.</p><aside class="fakesidebar"><strong>[ Related: <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3318243/apple-mac/apples-place-is-in-the-enterprise.html#tk.ctw-infsb">Apple's place is in the enterprise</a> ]</strong></aside>
<h2><strong>What this meant</strong></h2>
<p>The January event meant Apple commanded the attention of every tech media and industry thought leader at the beginning of each year.</p><p>Airports across the planet were filled with people making their quarterly journey to an Apple keynote (others took place in New York, France and Tokyo, with a fifth event WWDC in June).</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3330681/apple-mac/why-apple-must-make-january-great-again.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: IDG Contributor Network: CES 2019 should change name to CES 5G 2019
author: Jeff Kagan
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330685/mobile-wireless/ces-2019-should-change-name-to-ces-5g-2019.html#tk.rss_allWed, 02 Jan 2019 07:19:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3330685/mobile-wireless/ces-2019-should-change-name-to-ces-5g-2019.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>CES 2019 is coming to Las Vegas next week and from the pre-briefings I am taking, what I am learning is that it may be time for a name change. Instead of calling the show CES 2019, I think it should be called CES 5G 2019. The reason is simple. So much of the innovation and enhancements to the products and services at the show depend on 5G wireless networks, smartphones and other mobile gear going forward.</p><p>Wireless is becoming the heartbeat at the center of the massive consumer electronics industry. This is incredible to think about. Just ten years ago, 3G wireless played a smaller role at the CES shows.</p><h2>5G Wireless will play a growing role in every other industry</h2>
<p>Fast-forward to today and we can see how wireless is playing a crucial role in a growing number of consumer electronics technologies and companies. And that is rapidly growing.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3330685/mobile-wireless/ces-2019-should-change-name-to-ces-5g-2019.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: Top web browsers 2019: Microsoft needs to rebuild Edge before Edge disappears
author: Gregg Keizer
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3199425/web-browsers/top-web-browsers-2019-microsoft-needs-to-rebuild-edge-before-edge-disappears.html#tk.rss_allWed, 02 Jan 2019 11:40:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3199425/web-browsers/top-web-browsers-2019-microsoft-needs-to-rebuild-edge-before-edge-disappears.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>By the time Microsoft manages to refit its Edge browser with Chrome's engines, there might not be much of an Edge there.</p><p>Microsoft's browsers - Internet Explorer (IE) and Edge - jettisoned the most user share in over a year last month, falling to a record low. Meanwhile, Edge's share of all Windows 10 PCs, a metric <i>Computerworld</i> views as the most accurate reflection of user acceptance, also dropped to a new low.</p><aside class="fakesidebar"><strong>[ Related: <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3299429/web-browsers/get-serious-about-privacy-with-epic-brave-tor-browsers.html#tk.ctw-infsb">Get serious about privacy with the Epic, Brave and Tor browsers</a> ]</strong></aside>
<p>According to web analytics company Net Applications, IE's and Edge's combined share plunged by 1.5 percentage points to end 2018 at 12.4%. The decline was the largest since September 2017, excepting a larger share sell-off two months later when Net Applications purged its data of fraudsters' bots. Most of the drop-off was due to users fleeing IE; the obsolete browser lost 1.3 percentage points all by itself, slumping to 8.3 percentage points. Edge shed slightly more than one-tenth of a point, more-or-less tying its former record low, first set in September 2018.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/3199425/web-browsers/top-web-browsers-2019-microsoft-needs-to-rebuild-edge-before-edge-disappears.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


title: About Computerworld's Best Places to Work in IT
author: Computerworld staff
feedurl: https://www.computerworld.com/index.rss
guid:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2539833/it-management/it-management-best-places-to-work-in-it.html#tk.rss_allWed, 02 Jan 2019 11:48:00 -0800

url:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2539833/it-management/it-management-best-places-to-work-in-it.html#tk.rss_all

content:
<article>
	<section class="page">
<p>What do IT workers want? Fair paychecks, challenging work and ample opportunities for growth, for starters. Our annual listing showcases the organizations that excel at keeping their employees engaged and loyal with compensation, training and access to hot technologies. The report is published every June.</p><p>Nominations are now closed for the 2019 Best Places to Work in IT list. Our special report announcing the honorees will be published in June 2019.</p><p><strong>The <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3279887/it-careers/best-places-to-work-in-it-2018.html">2018 Best Places to Work in IT list</a></strong>, our 25th annual report, was published on June 18, 2018.</p><p class="jumpTag"><a href="/article/2539833/it-management/it-management-best-places-to-work-in-it.html#jump">To read this article in full, please click here</a></p></section></article>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/tech-skills-online-learning
title: Plans to learn a new tech skill in 2019? What you need to know
author: dbclinton
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/tech-skills-online-learning
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/learn-programming-code-keyboard.png" width="520" height="292" alt="Learning to program" title="Learning to program" /><p>Open source software is, by definition, free. But it can sometimes cost you a king's ransom to learn how to master it. The good news? The open source ethos is alive and well in the education sector, and there are plenty of high-quality learning resources available. You just need to know where to find them.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/tech-skills-online-learning">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/you-didnt-know-about-istio
title: 5 things you didn&#039;t know about Istio
author: linsun
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/you-didnt-know-about-istio
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/data_stack_blue_disks.png" width="520" height="292" alt="Data stack in blue" title="Data stack in blue" /><p>Microservices are <a href="https://lightstep.com/blog/microservices-trends-report-2018/" target="_blank">rapidly rising in utilization</a>, but their advantages are offset by the operational challenges reported by early adopters. <a href="https://istio.io/" target="_blank">Istio</a> is one of the platforms that has emerged to make microservices environments simpler for enterprise IT teams. Istio is an open service mesh platform that enables developers to connect, observe, secure, and control microservices.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/you-didnt-know-about-istio">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/troubleshooting-hardware-problems-linux
title: Troubleshooting hardware problems in Linux
author: Daniel Oh
url: https://opensource.com/article/18/12/troubleshooting-hardware-problems-linux
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/rh_003499_01_other11x_cc.png" width="520" height="292" /><p><a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/5/what-linux-server">Linux servers</a> run mission-critical business applications in many different types of infrastructures including physical machines, virtualization, private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud. It's important for Linux sysadmins to understand how to manage Linux hardware infrastructure—including software-defined functionalities related to <a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/11/intro-software-defined-networking">networking</a>, storage, Linux containers, and multiple tools on Linux servers.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/18/12/troubleshooting-hardware-problems-linux">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/best-of-python
title: Resolve to make Python your friend in 2019
author: moshez
url: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/best-of-python
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/python_snake_file_box.jpg" width="520" height="292" /><p>Wow! What a year 2018 has been for Python: A new <a href="http://pyfound.blogspot.com/2018/03/warehouse-all-new-pypi-is-now-in-beta.html" target="_blank">PyPI</a> software repository came out, it earned the <a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted" target="_blank">most wanted</a> language spot in Stack Overflow's survey, and <a href="https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-370/" target="_blank">Python 3.7</a> was released in June.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/19/1/best-of-python">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/linux-philosophy-poll
title: Is the Linux philosophy still relevant in 2019?
author: dboth
url: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/linux-philosophy-poll
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/BIZ_question_B.png" width="520" height="292" /><p>In August 2018, I published <a href="http://www.both.org/?page_id=903" target="_blank"><em>The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins</em></a>. It seems to be selling fairly well, and I started thinking about whether the original Linux philosophy (or my own version of it for system administrators) is still relevant.</p>

<p>In Chapter 1, I said:</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/19/1/linux-philosophy-poll">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/open-source-resolutions
title: 5 open source resolutions for 2019
author: MikeCamel
url: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/open-source-resolutions
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/fireworks-newyear-celebrate.png" width="520" height="292" alt="fireworks" title="fireworks" /><p>No matter how much of a cliché it may be, making New Year's Resolutions is hard to resist. There's something about the calendar flipping to a new year that causes even the most curmudgeonly, set-in-their-ways people to take stock of the year ending and make plans for improvements during the next trip around the sun.</p>

<p>To that end, here are my five resolutions for 2019. Some relate to my job and wider life, others to my place in the community, and I think each one will make the world a better place. Feel free to put any or all of these on your list of plans for 2019.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/19/1/open-source-resolutions">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/best-of-containers
title: What we learned about containers last year
author: mbbroberg
url: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/best-of-containers
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/osdc_Caption_Contest_520x292_0713cd_0.png" width="520" height="292" /><p>Containers have been front and center throughout 2018 on <a href="https://opensource.com/">Opensource.com</a>. While reviewing our top 13 most-read articles on the topic, I found a thread that ties them all together: the appreciation of small details. Two examples stand out to me.</p>

<p></p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/19/1/best-of-containers">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/best-of-cloud
title: How 2018 learned to do the cloud right
author: bcotton
url: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/best-of-cloud
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/rh_003601_05_mech_osyearbook2016_cloud_cc.png" width="520" height="292" alt="clouds in the sky with blue pattern" title="clouds in the sky with blue pattern" /><p>Over the last five years, I've worked in various roles bringing high-performance computing (HPC) into the public cloud. It's been fascinating to watch the industry change from saying "You can't do HPC in the cloud" to "How can I do HPC in the cloud?" to "Why <em>wouldn't</em> I do HPC in the cloud?"</p>

<p></p>

<p>Of course, HPC is just one narrow slice of the tech sector, but you can see that same pattern (albeit on different timelines) across the industry. In 2018, it's pretty clear that the cloud model—whether public, private, or hybrid—is the way to go.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/19/1/best-of-cloud">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/devops-guides
title: DevOps: Get up to speed with these handy guides
author: jhibbets
url: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/devops-guides
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/osdc-lead_books.png" width="520" height="292" alt="Book stack" title="book stack" /><p>In 2018, the <a href="/devops-team">Open Source DevOps</a> team helped produce two amazing guides to help advance our DevOps practices.</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/19/1/devops-guides">read more</a>


guid: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/hot-sysadmin-reads
title: Hot sysadmin reads for the new year
author: architmodi
url: https://opensource.com/article/19/1/hot-sysadmin-reads
feedurl: https://opensource.com/feed
base: https://opensource.com/frontpage
content:
<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://opensource.com/sites/default/files/lead-images/rh_003499_01_linux11x_cc.png" width="520" height="292" alt="People work on a computer server" title="People work on a computer server" /><p>The sysadmin job is challenging and requires a lot of firefighting.</p>

<p>Knowing that putting out fires is a big part of your job, what one thing would you save if your datacenter was literally on fire? Please share your answers in the comments below. P.S. You can only save ONE thing!</p>
<br>
<a href="https://opensource.com/article/19/1/hot-sysadmin-reads">read more</a>


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10423
title: Distribution Release: Nitrux 1.1.2
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10423
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 Nitrux Latinoamericana S.C. has announced the release of Nitrux 1.1.2, an Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution featuring the "Nomad" desktop which is developed in-house and which extends KDE's Plasma with a mix of aesthetics and functionality: "We are pleased to announce the launch of Nitrux 1.1.2. This new version....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10424
title: Distribution Release: RancherOS 1.5.0
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10424
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 Rancher Labs has published the release of RancherOS 1.5.0, an updated build of the company's minimalist Linux distribution designed for running Docker containers. This release brings a large number of new features, as well as bug fixes: "Release 1.5.0. Versions: Linux 4.14.85, Buildroot 2018.02.7, Docker 18.06.1-ce by default,....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10425
title: Development Release: Chakra GNU/Linux 2019.01 RC2
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10425
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 Luca Giambonini has announced the availability of the second release candidate for Chakra GNU/Linux 2019.01, an upcoming major new update of  project's desktop distribution featuring the latest KDE Plasma: "Chakra 2019.01 'Hawking' RC2 released. The second release candidate is ready; except for the Calamares bug, the RC2....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10426
title: Distribution Release: OLPC OS 13.2.10
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10426
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 James Cameron has announced the release of OLPC OS 13.2.10, an updated build of the project's specialist distribution developed under the initiative of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to provide children in developing countries with low-cost laptops. This version, still based on Fedora 18, is mostly....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10427
title: Distribution Release: Slackel 7.1 "Openbox"
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10427
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 Dimitris Tzemos has announced the release of Slackel 7.1 "Openbox", the latest version of this distribution based on Slackware and Salix. The new version is available in 64-bit builds only and features several application updates and a new icon theme. Persistent file encryption is also supported: "Persistent file....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10428
title: Distribution Release: Q4OS 2.7
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10428
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 Q4OS is a Debian-based desktop distribution featuring the Trinity desktop, a lightweight environment forked from KDE 3. The project's latest stable release is Q4OS 2.7 which improves scaling for high resolution screens. The release announcement states: "A significant update to the Q4OS 2 Scorpion stable LTS is immediately....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10429
title: Distribution Release: OviOS Linux 3.00
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10429
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 OviOS Linux is a storage operating systems based on the Linux kernel, with open-source software needed to create a fully functional, high-performance storage server. A major new update, version 3.00 (code name 'Arcturus'), was released yesterday: "OviOS Linux 3 comes with a few package upgrades, bug fixes and....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10430
title: Distribution Release: Grml 2018.12
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10430
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 Michael Prokop has announced the release of Grml 2018.12, a new version of the project's Debian-based Linux distribution focusing on the needs of system administrators: "So we did it again - we just released Grml 2018.12 'Gnackwatschn'. This Grml release provides fresh software packages from Debian 'Testing' which....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10431
title: BSD Release: GhostBSD 18.12
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10431
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 GhostBSD is a rolling-release desktop operating system based on TrueOS, which is in turn based on FreeBSD's development (-CURRENT) branch. The project has published an update to GhostBSD 18.10, GhostBSD 18.12, which includes a number of updates and which replaces the Oktopkg graphical package manager with Software Station....


guid: http://distrowatch.com/10432
title: Distribution Release: Septor 2019
author: distro@distrowatch.com
url: http://distrowatch.com/10432
feedurl: https://distrowatch.com/news/dw.xml
content:
 Happy New Year! The first announcement of the year 2019 comes courtesy of Septor, a new distribution in the DistroWatch database. It is part of the growing number of projects that focus on preserving the anonymity and privacy of the user while browsing the Internet. Septor is based....


guid: 1340387 at https://www.linuxjournal.com
author: Petros Koutoupis
feedurl: https://www.linuxjournal.com/news/feed
base: https://www.linuxjournal.com/news/feed
title:
F2FS Filesystem Enhancements (for Pixel Devices), Wine HQ Dev Release, Gzip v1.10, VideoLan v3.0.5, KaOS Linux Distro v2018.12

url:
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/f2fs-filesystem-enhancements-pixel-devices-wine-hq-dev-release-gzip-v110-videolan-v305-kaos

content:
<div data-history-node-id="1340387" class="row bs-3col-stacked node node--type-news node--view-mode-rss">
  

    <div class="col-sm-12 bs-region bs-region--top">
    
            <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p>To start things off, a ton of bug fixes alongside a few enhancements are coming to the F2FS filesystem (for Pixel devices) in the the <a href="https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/12/28/387">Linux 4.21 kernel</a>.</p>

<p>Wine HQ just officially announced the development release of <a href="https://www.winehq.org/announce/4.0-rc4">version 4.0 RC4</a> which also boasts numerous bug fixes.</p>

<p>The release of Gzip version 1.10 has been announced on the <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=9339">Savannah community site</a>.</p>

<p>All while VideoLAN published <a href="https://www.videolan.org/news.html#news-2018-12-27">VLC version 3.0.5</a>.</p>

<p>In distribution news, KaOS, the rolling release Linux distribution, just pushed out <a href="https://distrowatch.com/?newsid=10421">version 2018.12</a>.</p></div>
      
      <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--items">
              <div class="field--item"><a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/news" hreflang="en">News</a></div>
          </div>
  
  </div>
  

  
  
  
</div>


guid: 1340389 at https://www.linuxjournal.com
author: Jill Franklin
feedurl: https://www.linuxjournal.com/news/feed
base: https://www.linuxjournal.com/news/feed
title:
Google Gains Approval to Launch Project Soli, Sony's New 3D Sensors for Face Recognition, the GIMP Team Looks Back at 2018 and Shares Plans for 2019, Thunderbird Also Publishes a Retrospective and Look Forward, and xfce4-panel 4.13.4 Was Released

url:
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/google-gains-approval-launch-project-soli-sonys-new-3d-sensors-face-recognition-gimp-team

content:
<div data-history-node-id="1340389" class="row bs-3col-stacked node node--type-news node--view-mode-rss">
  

    <div class="col-sm-12 bs-region bs-region--top">
    
            <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p><em>News briefs for January 2, 2019.</em></p>

<p>
Google has received approval from the FCC to launch Project Soli, a
radar-based motion-sensing device. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-sensor/google-wins-u-s-approval-for-radar-based-hand-motion-sensor-idUSKCN1OV1SH">Reuters
reports</a> that the FCC "would grant Google a waiver to operate the Soli
sensors at higher power levels than currently allowed. The FCC said the
sensors can also be operated aboard aircraft.
The FCC said the decision 'will serve the public interest by providing
for innovative device control features using touchless hand gesture
technology.'" Originally Facebook had voiced concern that "the Soli sensors
operating in the spectrum band at higher power levels might have issues
coexisting with other technologies."
</p>

<p>
Sony is set to produce the "next generation of visual-processing chips with a set of
new 3D sensors". According to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/2/18164881/sony-tof-laser-depthsensing-3d-camera-report">The
Verge</a>, "the most intriguing aspect of this new tech would appear to be a
better form of face identification than we currently have". In addition,
Sony's 3D sensor "is said to deploy laser pulses, which, much like a
bat's echolocation, creates a depth map of its surroundings by measuring
how long a pulse takes to bounce back. Sony's sensor chief argues this
produces more detailed models of users' faces, plus it apparently works
from as far away as five meters (16 feet)."
</p>

<p>
The GIMP team has <a href="https://www.gimp.org/news/2019/01/02/gimp-and-gegl-in-2018">posted look
back at 2018 and an outline showing future plans for GIMP, GEGL and
babl</a>. Development has been focusing on refactoring, usability, smart
colorization, extension management and more. The team plans to ship 2.10.x
updates throughout 2019 and version 2.10.10 should be out this month or next.
See the <a href="https://www.gimp.org/news/2019/01/02/gimp-and-gegl-in-2018">blog
post</a> for ways you can contribute.
</p>

<p>The Thunderbird team has also published a 2018 retrospective and a look at
what's ahead for the new year. The team has added more full-time staff
members, and they are focusing on "making Thunderbird fly faster" and making
a "more beautiful (and useable) Thunderbird". See the <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2019/01/thunderbird-in-2019">Mozilla
blog</a> for all the details.
</p>

<p><a href="https://simon.shimmerproject.org/2019/01/02/new-xfce4-panel-development-release">xfce4-panel
4.13.4 was released today</a>. According to the Simon's Secret blog post,
this release includes a new plugin icon size feature, correct menu
positioning, tasklist fixes and small theming updates. You can get it from <a href="https://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/tag/?h=xfce4-panel-4.13.4">here</a>.
</p></div>
      
      <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--items">
              <div class="field--item"><a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/google" hreflang="en">Google</a></div>
              <div class="field--item"><a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/sony" hreflang="en">Sony</a></div>
              <div class="field--item"><a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/gimp" hreflang="en">GIMP</a></div>
              <div class="field--item"><a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/thunderbird" hreflang="en">Thunderbird</a></div>
              <div class="field--item"><a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/xfce" hreflang="en">XFCE</a></div>
              <div class="field--item"><a href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/tag/news" hreflang="en">News</a></div>
          </div>
  
  </div>
  

  
  
  
</div>


guid: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/?p=137185
title: 5 Linux Predictions for 2019
author: Joey Sneddon
url: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/d0od/~3/VNVWkogcG6s/linux-predictions-for-2019
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/d0od
content:
<p><img width="406" height="232" src="https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/linux-predictions-for-2019-406x232.jpg" class="attachment-post-list size-post-list wp-post-image" alt="linux-predictions-for-2019" srcset="https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/linux-predictions-for-2019-406x232.jpg 406w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/linux-predictions-for-2019-350x200.jpg 350w " sizes="(max-width: 406px) 100vw, 406px" />With a brand new year about to kick off my mind is in a contemplative mode, wondering what the next twelve months might hold for Linux and the wider open source community. So naturally, and without any shred of originality, I&#8217;m going to share my Linux predictions for 2019. Now, I am not psychic; whether [&#8230;]</p>
<p>This post, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/12/linux-predictions-for-2019">5 Linux Predictions for 2019</a>, was written by <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/author/d0od">Joey Sneddon</a> and first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk">OMG! Ubuntu!</a>.</p><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/d0od/~4/VNVWkogcG6s" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>


guid: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/?p=137249
title: VLC 3.0.5 Released with Improved YouTube, HDR & BluRay Support
author: Joey Sneddon
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/d0od
url:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/d0od/~3/bla44gGJMkU/vlc-3-0-5-released-with-improved-youtube-support-hdr-support

content:
<p><img width="350" height="200" src="https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/vlc-effects-350x200.jpg" class="attachment-post-list size-post-list wp-post-image" alt="VLC video effects" />A new version of the versatile VLC media player has been released — and would you believe it: the update is already available on Ubuntu! VLC 3.0.5 isn&#8217;t dramatic; a minor update in the 3.x series, this is the first release of the player since the summer. But the version uplift brings a bunch of [&#8230;]</p>
<p>This post, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/12/vlc-3-0-5-released-with-improved-youtube-support-hdr-support">VLC 3.0.5 Released with Improved YouTube, HDR &#038; BluRay Support</a>, was written by <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/author/d0od">Joey Sneddon</a> and first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk">OMG! Ubuntu!</a>.</p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=bla44gGJMkU:kcQsgq_rKX8:wBxX2hOkimM"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=bla44gGJMkU:kcQsgq_rKX8:wBxX2hOkimM" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=bla44gGJMkU:kcQsgq_rKX8:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=bla44gGJMkU:kcQsgq_rKX8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=bla44gGJMkU:kcQsgq_rKX8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=bla44gGJMkU:kcQsgq_rKX8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=bla44gGJMkU:kcQsgq_rKX8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=bla44gGJMkU:kcQsgq_rKX8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=bla44gGJMkU:kcQsgq_rKX8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/d0od/~4/bla44gGJMkU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>


guid: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/?p=137277
title: What to Expect From Ubuntu in 2019
author: Joey Sneddon
url: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/d0od/~3/9ARGepYM3Gg/what-to-expect-from-ubuntu-in-2019
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/d0od
content:
<p><img width="406" height="232" src="https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ubuntu-18.10-on-a-chromebook-406x232.jpg" class="attachment-post-list size-post-list wp-post-image" alt="photo of ubuntu on a laptop" srcset="https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ubuntu-18.10-on-a-chromebook-406x232.jpg 406w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ubuntu-18.10-on-a-chromebook-350x200.jpg 350w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ubuntu-18.10-on-a-chromebook-840x480.jpg 840w " sizes="(max-width: 406px) 100vw, 406px" />This year (2019) promises to be a bumper one for Ubuntu. We&#8217;ve got two all-new short-term releases ahead of us: Ubuntu 19.04 mid April and Ubuntu 19.10 in late October. Both release will be packed full of the latest software and kernel updates, though the latter release is of particular interest as it it will lay the groundwork [&#8230;]</p>
<p>This post, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/01/what-to-expect-from-ubuntu-in-2019">What to Expect From Ubuntu in 2019</a>, was written by <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/author/d0od">Joey Sneddon</a> and first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk">OMG! Ubuntu!</a>.</p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=9ARGepYM3Gg:J0V29rNLpc8:wBxX2hOkimM"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=9ARGepYM3Gg:J0V29rNLpc8:wBxX2hOkimM" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=9ARGepYM3Gg:J0V29rNLpc8:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=9ARGepYM3Gg:J0V29rNLpc8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=9ARGepYM3Gg:J0V29rNLpc8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=9ARGepYM3Gg:J0V29rNLpc8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=9ARGepYM3Gg:J0V29rNLpc8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=9ARGepYM3Gg:J0V29rNLpc8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=9ARGepYM3Gg:J0V29rNLpc8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/d0od/~4/9ARGepYM3Gg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>


guid: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/?p=137386
title: Thunderbird UI Refresh, Better Gmail Support Coming in 2019
author: Joey Sneddon
url: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/d0od/~3/YN_Tjd-mcwI/thunderbird-plans-2019
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/d0od
content:
<p><img width="406" height="232" src="https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/thunderbird-photon-406x232.jpg" class="attachment-post-list size-post-list wp-post-image" alt="Thunderbird 60 screenshot" srcset="https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/thunderbird-photon-406x232.jpg 406w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/thunderbird-photon-350x200.jpg 350w , https://aozoeky4dglp5sh0-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/thunderbird-photon-840x480.jpg 840w " sizes="(max-width: 406px) 100vw, 406px" />The dev team behind the Thunderbird e-mail client have detailed their ambitions for the coming year — and if you&#8217;re a fan of fast, pretty things, you&#8217;re gonna be pretty well pleased. Mozilla’s desktop email client might not be as popular as its desktop browser, but Thunderbird remains a venerable app with a large following. After [&#8230;]</p>
<p>This post, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/01/thunderbird-plans-2019">Thunderbird UI Refresh, Better Gmail Support Coming in 2019</a>, was written by <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/author/d0od">Joey Sneddon</a> and first appeared on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk">OMG! Ubuntu!</a>.</p><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=YN_Tjd-mcwI:sMJpS5QGL_s:wBxX2hOkimM"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=YN_Tjd-mcwI:sMJpS5QGL_s:wBxX2hOkimM" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=YN_Tjd-mcwI:sMJpS5QGL_s:I9og5sOYxJI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=I9og5sOYxJI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=YN_Tjd-mcwI:sMJpS5QGL_s:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=YN_Tjd-mcwI:sMJpS5QGL_s:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=YN_Tjd-mcwI:sMJpS5QGL_s:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=YN_Tjd-mcwI:sMJpS5QGL_s:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?i=YN_Tjd-mcwI:sMJpS5QGL_s:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?a=YN_Tjd-mcwI:sMJpS5QGL_s:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/d0od?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/d0od/~4/YN_Tjd-mcwI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120171
title: Sony’s CES 2019 Event Announced: Xperia XA3 Series In Pipeline
author: Vanshika Malhotra
url: https://fossbytes.com/sonys-ces-2019-event-announced-xperia-xa3/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>As the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2019) draws closer, rumors and speculations are in abundance. One such company (being a part of the rumor mill) is Sony, which has recently announced its CES 2019 event, hinting at possible devices to be launched. The Japanese company is set to host an event on January 7 in [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/sonys-ces-2019-event-announced-xperia-xa3/">Sony’s CES 2019 Event Announced: Xperia XA3 Series In Pipeline</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120188
title: India Could Change IT Laws To Shutdown Apps And Sites That Spread Fake News
author: Vanshika Malhotra
url: https://fossbytes.com/india-change-it-laws-shutdown-apps-sites-fake-news/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>The Indian Government has suggested that amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Act should be made to curb the spreading of fake news in the country. As per a report by The Times Of India, the government plans to make changes to the IT rules to charge penalty and pull down websites, causing the dissemination [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/india-change-it-laws-shutdown-apps-sites-fake-news/">India Could Change IT Laws To Shutdown Apps And Sites That Spread Fake News</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120172
title: This Driverless Train Is The “World’s Largest Robot”
author: Anmol Sachdeva
url: https://fossbytes.com/driverless-train-world-largest-robot/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Mining corporation giant Rio Tinto has announced that its autonomous rail system named AutoHaul is now completely operational in the remote Pilbara region of Australia. The company has dubbed the driverless mining train as the &#8220;World&#8217;s largest robot.&#8221; The automated train network costs $1.3 billion, and the company took just eight months for its rollout. [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/driverless-train-world-largest-robot/">This Driverless Train Is The &#8220;World&#8217;s Largest Robot&#8221;</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120200
title: The Very First Martian Could Be An AI, Suggests Elon Musk
author: Vanshika Malhotra
url: https://fossbytes.com/first-martian-ai-suggests-elon-musks/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Of late, the idea of traveling to Mars has been making headlines and could possibly become a reality in the future. While people are exploring ways to make the voyage a success, we have a new possibility hinting at the first-ever inhabitant on the planet. Replying to a tweet by a Twitter user questioning the [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/first-martian-ai-suggests-elon-musks/">The Very First Martian Could Be An AI, Suggests Elon Musk</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120210
title: LG Might Unveil Its First 5G Phone Under A New Series
author: Vanshika Malhotra
url: https://fossbytes.com/lg-unveil-first-5g-phone-under-new-series/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>South Korean tech company LG, much like various other companies, is rumored to unveil its first 5G smartphone in 2019. Among the various rumors going around, the latest one hints at a different picture altogether. According to a report by ET News, LG is expected to launch its 5G smartphone under a new series possibly [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/lg-unveil-first-5g-phone-under-new-series/">LG Might Unveil Its First 5G Phone Under A New Series</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=106165
title: 10 Best Kodi Addons You Should Install In 2019 | Legal Addons
author: Anmol Sachdeva
url: https://fossbytes.com/best-kodi-addons/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Kodi is one of the most popular media player software which enables you to access videos, music, and pictures via the internet or local storage on a host of platforms. Managed by XBMC foundation, Kodi is an open source software. However, its reputation has been soiled by labeling it as a piracy bearer, and that [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/best-kodi-addons/">10 Best Kodi Addons You Should Install In 2019 | Legal Addons</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120216
title: Sony’s 3D Sensors Could Change Face Scanning Tech In Smartphones
author: Vanshika Malhotra
url: https://fossbytes.com/sonys-3d-sensors-could-change-face-scanning-tech-in-smartphones/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Japanese company Sony is arguably the biggest producer of camera sensors, both for DSLRs and smartphones. Further uping its camera game in the tech world, the company is now going to manufacture new 3D camera sensors. According to a report by Bloomberg, Sony is expected to introduce new 3D sensors, heeding to the demand from various [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/sonys-3d-sensors-could-change-face-scanning-tech-in-smartphones/">Sony’s 3D Sensors Could Change Face Scanning Tech In Smartphones</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120225
title: This Gaming Platform Will Let You Play A New Game Everyday In 2019
author: Manisha Priyadarshini
url: https://fossbytes.com/meditations-new-game-everyday-2019/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Those who love playing random games online should try out Meditations; it&#8217;s a new gaming platform where you can play new games to unwind daily stress. Meditations promises to launch one new &#8220;tiny game&#8221; every day in 2019. Each of them will be accompanied by text which serves as a &#8220;meditation, distraction, lesson or inspiration.&#8221; Rami [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/meditations-new-game-everyday-2019/">This Gaming Platform Will Let You Play A New Game Everyday In 2019</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120241
title: Google Map For Android & iOS Adds ‘Messages’ Option To Interact With Businesses
author: Anmol Sachdeva
url: https://fossbytes.com/google-map-for-android-ios-adds-messages-option-to-interact-with-businesses/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>Google Map has silently pushed a new feature on its Android and iOS app that allows users to interact with businesses by sending them a message. The feature aims to boost the engagement between the end users and small business that are difficult to reach via telephone or their own website. The feature was announced [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/google-map-for-android-ios-adds-messages-option-to-interact-with-businesses/">Google Map For Android &#038; iOS Adds &#8216;Messages&#8217; Option To Interact With Businesses</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: https://fossbytes.com/?p=120152
title: Epic Could Launch An App Store To End Google And Apple’s Domination
author: Anmol Sachdeva
url: https://fossbytes.com/epic-could-launch-an-app-store-to-end-google-and-apples-domination/
feedurl: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fossbytes
content:
<p>If the app store marketplace is considered, we&#8217;re left with only two options &#8212; Google Play Store and Apple App Store. However, Epic could soon change the scenario. Many developers and apps, including Netflix and Spotify, are also ditching Google and Apple&#8217;s commission cut. Epic launched its own Epic Games Store in December for downloading [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com/epic-could-launch-an-app-store-to-end-google-and-apples-domination/">Epic Could Launch An App Store To End Google And Apple&#8217;s Domination</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://fossbytes.com">Fossbytes</a>.</p>


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264442
title: How to install Java on Debian 9
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264442
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Java is the popular programming language owned by Oracle. Java is used to build cross-platform applications. Over 3 billion devices run on Java. In this tutorial, we are going to install Java on Debian 9 using different methods.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264453
title: What Is Ubuntu? The Past and Present of the Ubuntu Linux Distro
author: Nick Congleton
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264453
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution in the world. Learn more about this favorite open-source operating system and its history.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264430
title: 5 things you didnt know about Istio
author: Lin Sun
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264430
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Microservices are rapidly rising in utilization, but their advantages are offset by the operational challenges reported by early adopters. Istio is one of the platforms that has emerged to make microservices environments simpler for enterprise IT teams. Istio is an open service mesh platform that enables developers to connect, observe, secure, and control microservices.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264439
title: The State of Desktop Linux 2019
author: Bryan Lunduke
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264439
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
A snapshot of the current state of Desktop Linux at the start of2019—with comparison charts and a roundtable Q&A with the leaders of three topLinux distributions.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264452
title: Namib 18.02 GNOME Screenshot Tour
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264452
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Namib 18.02 GNOME has been released. Namib GNU/Linux is a desktop operating system based on (and compatible with) the Arch Linux distribution. Namib is available in multiple desktop editions and can be set up using the Calamares system installer.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264454
title: How to Install Apache Tomcat 9 on Debian 9
author: Abhijeet
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264454
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Apache Tomcat is an opensource web server used to server Java Applications. It is an opensource implementation of Java Servlet, Java Server Pages and Java Expression Language. 


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264459
title: 5 open source resolutions for 2019
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264459
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
No matter how much of a cliché it may be, making New Year&#039;s Resolutions is hard to resist. There&#039;s something about the calendar flipping to a new year that causes even the most curmudgeonly, set-in-their-ways people to take stock of the year ending and make plans for improvements during the next trip around the sun.To that end, here are my five resolutions for 2019. Some relate to my job and wider life, others to my place in the community, and I think each one will make the world a better place. Feel free to put any or all of these on your list of plans for 2019.read more


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264468
title: How To Learn Fortran - Introduction
author: Mohd Sohail
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264468
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Fortran is a programming language specially designed to perform numerical calculations, in order to fully exploit the arithmetic capabilities of all types of computers, from home PCs to supercomputers. Its name is an abbreviation: Formula Translating System, which refers to the niche to which the language is addressed: to scientists and engineers who require an easy-to-use but powerful language.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264464
title: How to Install Anaconda on Debian 9
author: Abhijeet
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264464
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Anaconda is the opensource package manager and distribution of Python and R Programming language. Anaconda is mainly designed for Data Science and Machine Learning and used for large-scale data processing, predictive analysis, and scientific computing


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264461
title: Resolve to make Python your friend in 2019
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264461
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Wow! What a year 2018 has been for Python: A new PyPI software repository came out, it earned the most wanted language spot in Stack Overflow&#039;s survey, and Python 3.7 was released in June.read more


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264470
title: How To Install Webmin on Debian 9
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264470
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Webmin is an open source web control panel for administration of Linux servers. With Webmin you can manage the system users, groups, disk quotas as well as configure most popular services including web, ssh, ftp, email and database servers.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264451
title: MODICIA Desktop Ultimate 181229 Screenshot Tour
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264451
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
MODICIA Desktop Ultimate 181229 has been released. MODICIA OS is a desktop Linux distribution, based on Xubuntu. The operating system features an interface which should appear familiar to macOS users. Samba and WINE are pre-installed to make it easier to share resources over the network and run Windows applications.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264460
title: Is the Linux philosophy still relevant in 2019?
author: David Both
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264460
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
In August 2018, I published The Linux Philosophy for SysAdmins. It seems to be selling fairly well, and I started thinking about whether the original Linux philosophy (or my own version of it for system administrators) is still relevant.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264483
title: Best Free Linux SNES Emulators
author: Steve Emms
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264483
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Gamers have a few choices when it comes to playing their SNES games. They can whip out their ageing SNES console, purchase the Nintendo Classic Mini SNES (where you’re limited to the included games), or play with a PC emulator.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264479
title: How 2018 learned to do the cloud right
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264479
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Over the last five years, I&#039;ve worked in various roles bringing high-performance computing (HPC) into the public cloud. It&#039;s been fascinating to watch the industry change from saying "You can&#039;t do HPC in the cloud" to "How can I do HPC in the cloud?" to "Why wouldn&#039;t I do HPC in the cloud?"Of course, HPC is just one narrow slice of the tech sector, but you can see that same pattern (albeit on different timelines) across the industry. In 2018, it&#039;s pretty clear that the cloud model—whether public, private, or hybrid—is the way to go.read more


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264481
title: Installing and Configuring OpenSSH on Ubuntu and Debian-based Distributions
author: Seeni
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264481
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Here’s how to enable SSH on Ubuntu and Debian based Linux distributions. Also learn how to properly configure the SSH daemon on a Linux server to allow remote logins.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264486
title: 5 Linux commands for measuring disk activity
author: Sandra Henry-Stocker
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264486
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Linux distributions provide quite a few useful commands for gauging disk activity. Here's a look at a few of them, including dtstat, iostat, and iotop.


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264492
title: Fedora classroom: LaTeX 101 for beginners
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264492
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Fedora Classroom sessions continue with an introductory session on LaTeX. The general schedule for sessions is available on the wiki, along with resources and recordings from previous sessions. Topic: LaTeX 101 LaTeX is a typesetting system that the de-facto standard for scientific publishing. It is Free software, and enables the generation of a multitude of high [&#8230;]


guid: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264498
title: How to Install Microweber CMS on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
author: bob@lxer.com
url: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/ext_link.php?rid=264498
feedurl: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/headlines.rss
content:
Microweber is a free and open source drag and drop CMS and website builder written in the PHP programming language and the Laravel 5 Framework. In this tutorial, we will explain how to install Microweber CMS on Ubuntu 18.04 server.


guid: https://itsfoss.com/?p=33171
title: New Leads for Malaria Discovered: Open Source Pharma FTW!
author: Avimanyu Bandyopadhyay
url: https://itsfoss.com/malaria-open-source-pharma/
feedurl: https://itsfoss.com/feed/
content:
We look into a recent Open Source Discovery in the field of Anti-Malarial Research and its significance in the scientific and medical research community.


guid: https://itsfoss.com/?p=35405
title: Using Yarn on Ubuntu and Other Linux Distributions
author: Abhishek Prakash
url: https://itsfoss.com/install-yarn-ubuntu/
feedurl: https://itsfoss.com/feed/
content:
This quick tutorial shows you the official way of installing Yarn package manager on Ubuntu and Debian Linux. You'll also learn some basic Yarn commands and the steps to remove Yarn completely.


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410967
title: Major US newspapers hit by cyberattack, disrupting printing and distribution
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/30/cyberattack-us-newspapers/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
A number of major US newspapers -- including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and New York Times -- have been hit by a cyberattack that is said to originate from another country. Malware was first detected on Thursday by Tribune Publishing, the owner of some of the affected titles, but unsuccessful attempts at quarantining meant that there was disruption well into Saturday. The Department of Homeland Security is currently investigating the incident which is not thought to have exposed any personal customer details. See also:  Marriott's Starwood Hotel database hacked, putting 500 million customers at risk&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/30/cyberattack-us-newspapers/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410971
title: Europe to fund bug bounties for 15 open source programs, including VLC, Drupal and Notepad++
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/30/european-commission-bug-bounty-open-source/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
Starting in January, the European Commission is going to fund bug bounty programs for a number of open source projects that are used by members of the EU. The initiative is part of the third edition of the Free and Open Source Software Audit (FOSSA) project, which aims to ensure the integrity and reliability of the internet and other infrastructure. In all, the Commission will fund 15 bug bounty programs, with rewards ranging from €17,000 ($19,400) to €90,000 ($103,000). See also: Microsoft confirms plans to use open source Chromium to develop Edge Facebook API bug may have exposed 6.8 million&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/30/european-commission-bug-bounty-open-source/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410974
title: Microsoft tries to put lipstick on a pig with Chinese 'Year of the Pig' Windows 10 theme
author: Brian Fagioli
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/30/microsoft-lipstick-pig-chinese-windows-theme/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
Tomorrow is New Year's Eve in America (and other countries that use the Gregorian calendar), meaning many people will be out partying with friends and family. Me? I like to stay in and watch Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on TV while eating some tasty snacks and drinking Perrier. True, the television broadcast is not as good since Mr. Clark died, and Ryan Seacrest is insufferable, but I am a creature of habit, I suppose. In China and other parts of the world, the Lunar New Year is followed instead, with the holiday often happening in January or February.&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/30/microsoft-lipstick-pig-chinese-windows-theme/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410988
title: Windows 10 bug could allow files to be overwritten, researcher shows
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2018/12/31/windows-10-zero-day-poc-sandboxexplorer/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
A security researcher has released proof-of-concept code for a zero-day exploit in Windows 10. The bug was revealed by SandboxEscaper, a researcher who has exposed Windows vulnerabilities in the past. The latest bug makes it possible to overwrite files with arbitrary data, and while there are numerous criteria that must be met in order for the vulnerability to be exploited, it is still potentially serious. SandboxEscaper warned Microsoft about the problem on Christmas day, before publishing the PoC a couple of days later. See also: Microsoft issues emergency patch to fix serious Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability Microsoft announces Windows Sandbox,&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2018/12/31/windows-10-zero-day-poc-sandboxexplorer/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410992
title: Mozilla's 'experiment' with banner ads on new tabs angers users
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2019/01/01/firefox-snippets-ads/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
Firefox users have expressed surprise, disgust and anger at the appearance of banner ads on new tabs in the browser. An advertisement appeared recently inviting users to make a booking via Booking.com. The ad appears at the bottom of the new tab page, and makes use of Firefox's Snippet feature. Mozilla has explained that the "snippet was an experiment", insisting no user data has been shared with third parties. If you're concerned, however -- or just don't want to see even more ads -- you can disable them. See also: Mozilla Labs is back! You may be happy about Microsoft's&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2019/01/01/firefox-snippets-ads/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410995
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2019/01/01/facebook-data-sharing/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
title:
Privacy International investigation finds a huge number of Android apps share data with Facebook -- whether you have an account or not

content:
Facebook's track record with privacy is a rocky one, but the idea of giving up some personal data is seen by many users as an acceptable price to pay for using the social network. But an investigation by Privacy International has found that many Android apps are sharing data with Facebook about people regardless of whether they are logged into their Facebook account... or even have a Facebook account at all. The findings of the investigation raise questions about Facebook's transparency when it comes to handling user (and non-user) data, and the privacy implications of profiling by the social networking&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2019/01/01/facebook-data-sharing/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=410999
title: Windows 10 finally overtakes Windows 7
author: Wayne Williams
url: https://betanews.com/2019/01/01/windows-10-finally-overtakes-windows-7/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
It’s been a long time coming. While other analyst firms, such as StatCounter, have shown Windows 10 overtaking Windows 7 sometime ago, NetMarketShare has consistently shown the new OS to be lagging way behind the aging fan favorite. In December though, NetMarketShare finally has Windows 10 taking pole position. According to its numbers, Windows 10 gained 1.08 percentage points in that month to give it 39.22 percent share. In the same time frame, Windows 7 lost a sizable 1.99 percentage points at the close of 2018, dropping to 36.90 percent. That means Windows 10 is now an impressive 2.32 percentage&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2019/01/01/windows-10-finally-overtakes-windows-7/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=411001
title: My favorite tech products of 2018
author: Alan Buckingham
url: https://betanews.com/2019/01/01/2018-tech/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
As another year starts, I wanted to look back on my favorite products of the previous 12 months. I’m not talking just 2018 products here, as it has to be said, some things I use most aren’t that new. In the past I’ve been called everything in the comments. My favorites have been a Microsoft fanboy and Microsoft hater. I haven’t figured out how I could be both. The reality of what I use may surprise the people who have said those things. Logitech Harmony Elite  I have a lot of media devices to control so I need a solid universal remote. For that, I&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2019/01/01/2018-tech/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=411006
title: FCC will suspend many operations tomorrow if Trump's government shutdown continues
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2019/01/02/fcc-government-shutdown/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
President Trump's partial shutdown of the US government is now well into its second week, with little sign of the impasse over funding for a wall on the southern border coming to an end. Large numbers of government employees are already feeling the pinch due to a lack of pay checks, and the impact is on the verge of spreading further. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it will suspend "most operations" at midday on Thursday, January 3 "in the event of a continued partial lapse in federal government funding". In a press release, the FCC says: "In&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2019/01/02/fcc-government-shutdown/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=411012
title: Updating from Windows 10 1803 to 1809 could disable the built-in administrator account
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2019/01/02/windows-10-1809-administrator-account/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
If you have enabled Windows 10's built-in administrator account, and upgrade from build 1803 to 1809 -- that is, the April 2018 Update to the October 2018 update -- you will find that a bug has been introduced that disables the account. Microsoft says that it is aware of the problem, but the company does not plan on releasing a fix for it until the end of the month. See also: Windows 10 finally overtakes Windows 7 Windows 10 bug could allow files to be overwritten, researcher shows Latest Windows 10 preview build is an early Christmas present for Insiders,&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2019/01/02/windows-10-1809-administrator-account/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=411017
title: Acer launches TravelMate X3410 Windows 10 business laptop
author: Brian Fagioli
url: https://betanews.com/2019/01/02/acer-travelmate-x3410-laptop/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
Windows 10 is hardly a perfect operating system, but it is undeniably the best option for business users -- especially when paired with the excellent Microsoft Office. True, some professional users can get by with a traditional Linux workstation and LibreOffice (or a Chromebook with web-based productivity apps), but if business success is your goal in 2019 -- computing ideology be damned -- you can't go wrong with Windows. Acer has a new business laptop that is sure to delight professionals. The "TravelMate X3410," as it is called, is svelte and beautiful while having all the ports a pro will&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2019/01/02/acer-travelmate-x3410-laptop/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: https://betanews.com/?p=411032
title: Dark mode is coming to Chrome in Windows 10 soon
author: Mark Wycislik-Wilson
url: https://betanews.com/2019/01/02/google-chrome-dark-mode-windows-10/
feedurl: https://betanews.com/feed/
content:
An increasing number of apps and websites are gaining dark modes, often simply for the sake of aesthetics, but also because of power-saving considerations. Having added eye-saving dark modes to numerous Android apps, Google has confirmed that it is doing the same for the Windows 10 version of Chrome. While there is no particular time frame in which we can expect to see Chrome's dark mode, a Chrome developer has confirmed that the feature is in progress. See also: Microsoft confirms you will be able to use Chrome extensions in Edge Sign up as an Microsoft Edge beta tester to&#8230; <a href="https://betanews.com/2019/01/02/google-chrome-dark-mode-windows-10/" rel="nofollow">[Continue Reading]</a>


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27357
title: KDE Plasma, GNOME Shell, Xfce, LXQt & MATE Linux Gaming Benchmarks, Including X.Org/Wayland
url: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27357
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
One of the recent leading requests by new Phoronix Premium members was to see some current Linux gaming benchmarks across a variety of desktop environments and with Wayland and X.Org where applicable. Here are those tests with KDE, GNOME, Xfce, LXQt, and MATE when testing with a Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics card.


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.20-ck1-MuQSS
title: Linux 4.20-ck1 Released With An Updated Version Of MuQSS Scheduler
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.20-ck1-MuQSS
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Con Kolivas has announced a New Year's Eve release of his Linux 4.20-ck1 kernel patch-set and the newest MuQSS scheduler...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Optpolines-Patches-Kernel
title: OPTPOLINES - Formerly Relpolines, Lower Overhead To Retpolines For Spectre Mitigation
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Optpolines-Patches-Kernel
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
It's been nearly one year to the day since the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities were made public. While the security vulnerabilities were quickly buttoned up in the Linux space, kernel developers continue working to offset the performance overhead introduced by these mitigations. They made a lot of overhead reductions in 2018 while still there are some patch-sets pending still for bettering the experience. One of these patch-sets was known as "Relpolines" but now has been updated and morphed into what is being called Optpolines...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Kernel-2018-Summed-Up
title: The Linux Kernel In 2018 Summed Up: Spectre/Meltdown, CoC, Speck Fears, New Features
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Kernel-2018-Summed-Up
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
It was a very busy year in kernel space from mitigating security vulnerabilities to preparing new features. Here is a look back at the most popular kernel topics of this year...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-2018-Recap
title: Fedora Had A Killer 2018, But It Will Be Interesting To See What Comes Next Year
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-2018-Recap
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
It was a very exciting year for Red Hat's Fedora Linux distribution process with the successful releases of Fedora 28 and 29, each of those new Fedora releases adding in plenty of new features, achieving the long-desired flicker-free polished boot experience, and Fedora Silverblue taking shape for what was formerly their Atomic Workstation initiative. Next year though could be even more radical for the project...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Wine-4.0-Feature-Overview
title: The Many Features Coming To The Wine 4.0 Stable Release From Vulkan To New Input Devices
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Wine-4.0-Feature-Overview
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
January should bring the release of Wine 4.0 as the annual stable release of this software for running Windows applications/games on Linux. As Wine 4.0 continued to be developed over the course of bi-weekly development releases all year, here's a look back at the notable features to find with this upcoming Wine 4.0.0 release...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27358
title: FreeBSD 12.0 Performance Against Windows & Linux On An Intel Xeon Server
url: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=27358
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Last week I posted benchmarks of Windows Server 2019 against various Linux distributions using a Tyan dual socket Intel Xeon server. In this article are some complementary results when adding in the performance of FreeBSD 11.2 against the new FreeBSD 12.0 stable release for this leading BSD operating system. As some fun benchmarks to end out 2018, here are the results of FreeBSD 11.2/12.0 (including an additional run when using GCC rather than Clang) up against Windows Server and several enterprise-ready Linux distributions.


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Open-Source-Linux-Letdowns-2018
title: Open-Source / Linux Letdowns For 2018
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Open-Source-Linux-Letdowns-2018
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
While 2018 was a grand year for open-source and Linux as we've been recapping all of the highlights in recent days on Phoronix, it wasn't without some shortcomings or areas that have yet to pan out... As we end 2018, for some interesting New Year's Eve discussions in the forums, here is a look at some of the biggest Linux/open-source letdowns of the year...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=2018-LLVM-Highlights
title: 2018 Marked Another Interesting Year For The LLVM Project
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=2018-LLVM-Highlights
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Besides the many GNU toolchain highlights for the year, LLVM developers working on that compiler infrastructure stack, Clang C/C++ front-end, LLDB debugger, and numerous other sub-projects were as busy as ever advancing this open-source, cross-platform focused compiler...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-VT-d-Linux-4.21-Scale
title: Intel VT-d Scalable Mode Coming To Linux 4.21 - Makes Up Scalable I/O Virtualization
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-VT-d-Linux-4.21-Scale
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The IOMMU changes were sent in today for the Linux 4.21 kernel merge window. There are some AMD IOMMU improvements, new Qualcomm SMMUv2 IOMMU hardware support, NUMA-aware allocations in the IOMMU DMA code for some very slight performance benefits, and most notably is likely the scalable mode support within the Intel VT-d driver...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-EOY-2018-Kernel-Stats
title: The Linux Kernel Ends 2018 With Almost 75k Commits This Year
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-EOY-2018-Kernel-Stats
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
As of this New Year's Eve afternoon, the Linux kernel saw 74,974 commits this year that added 3,385,121 lines of code and removed 2,512,040 lines...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-2018-Clocking-Out
title: That's A Wrap For 2018 With 3,693 News Articles, 314 Linux Hardware Reviews/Benchmarks
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-2018-Clocking-Out
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
That's a wrap for 2018 with Phoronix this year having published 3,693 original Linux/open-source related news articles and 314 featured articles comprising of our Linux hardware reviews and multi-page benchmark specials. 2019 will bring us into the 15th calendar year since I started Phoronix and now around 4,000 featured articles in its time and more than 27,300 original news articles...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=PlayOnLinux-5.0-Alpha-2-Release
title: PlayOnLinux 5.0 Alpha 2 Now Available
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=PlayOnLinux-5.0-Alpha-2-Release
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Released last September was the PlayOnLinux 5.0 alpha with a redesigned web interface to this graphical front-end around Wine. Besides the new UI, there was also a lot of low-level work as part of its new platform while for kicking off 2019 a second alpha is available...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GhostBSD-18.12-Released
title: GhostBSD 18.12 Released As A Polished FreeBSD OS With MATE Desktop
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GhostBSD-18.12-Released
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
GhostBSD 18.12 was released on New Year's Eve as the latest version of this FreeBSD-derived operating system that focuses on delivering a good BSD desktop experience aside from manually installing FreeBSD or any other *BSD and having to manually setup a graphical environment and desktop of your choosing...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=KDE-FreeBSD-2019-Updates
title: KDE Plasma 5.14 On The Way To FreeBSD, KDE Wayland Soon Might Work On The BSD
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=KDE-FreeBSD-2019-Updates
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Open-source developer Adriaan de Groot who has done a lot of the KDE work for FreeBSD has shared an update about what's now possible with KDE Plasma on FreeBSD and what should be coming down the pipe in 2019...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-TEO-Governor-Develop
title: Intel Developing New CPU Idle Governor For Tickless Systems
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-TEO-Governor-Develop
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Linux power management expert Rafael Wysocki, who is also the maintainer of the ACPI/PM subsystems, has been working on the "TEO" the past few months as the Timer Events Oriented governor for CPUIdle framework...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=December-2018
title: Linux 4.20, Debian, Intel, x32, Microsft's Actions & STIBP Topics Rounded Out 2018
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=December-2018
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Even with the downtime by companies and developers in December around the holidays, December 2018 was action-packed with Linux 4.20 releasing, continued development controversies, talk of deprecating the Linux x32 ABI, Microsoft continuing to make surprising open-source actions, Intel's interesting Architecture Day where we learned of work to open-source the FSP, and many other events made last month interesting...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Reiser4-For-Linux-4.20
title: Reiser4 File-System Port To The Linux 4.20 Kernel
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Reiser4-For-Linux-4.20
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
There hasn't been a formal Reiser4 file-system patch release since September when it was ported to the Linux 4.18 kernel, but via Git this week there is a port for the Linux 4.20 kernel should you want to utilize this once promising file-system under the latest stable patch series...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Dbus-Broker-17-Released
title: Dbus Broker 17 Released - No Longer Depends On Glib, Better Isolation With Systemd
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Dbus-Broker-17-Released
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Red Hat's systemd team who also work on BUS1 and D-Bus Broker announced a new version of Dbus-Broker to kick off 2019...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FNA-FAudio-19.01-Released
title: FAudio Sees Its Initial Release As Microsoft XAudio Reimplementation
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FNA-FAudio-19.01-Released
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
FAudio, the re-implementation of the Microsoft XAudio/XAudio2 interfaces by the FNA-XNA project, is out today with its first tagged release...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Steam-Linux-December-2018
title: Steam On Linux Usage Ended 2018 At Around 0.82%
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Steam-Linux-December-2018
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
With the start of a new month brings the Steam Survey results for the month prior where we see the Linux gaming market-share ending at a high point for the year...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-30-Python-Generators
title: Fedora 30 Planning To Enable Python Generators By Default
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-30-Python-Generators
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
After being an opt-in feature since Fedora 28, this year's Fedora 30 release will enable Python generators by default to help in crafting packages around Python code...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Xfce4-Panel-4.13.4-Released
title: Xfce4-Panel 4.13.4 Released As Another Step Towards The Xfce 4.14 Desktop
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Xfce4-Panel-4.13.4-Released
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The Xfce 4.14 remains long overdue for release but with Xfce4-Panel 4.13.4 being released on New Year's Day gives us hope we could see this long-awaited desktop environment out in 2019...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=More-Open-Source-Letdowns-2018
title: Other Open-Source / Linux Letdowns For 2018 From File Creation Time To Flatpaks
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=More-Open-Source-Letdowns-2018
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Back on New Year's Eve I shared what I viewed as some of the biggest open-source and Linux letdowns of 2018. Since then via the forum comments and elsewhere some other current shortcomings were also brought up...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GIMP-2019-Working-Towards-3.0
title: GIMP Developers Prepare For A Busy 2019 With Inching Towards GIMP 3.0
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GIMP-2019-Working-Towards-3.0
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The GIMP team has posted their 2018 redux covering the debut of GIMP 2.10 and the various improvements they focused on over the past year. Additionally, they provided a sneak peak of where they will be focusing their development efforts for 2019...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Phoronix-Test-Suite-2018
title: The Many Phoronix Test Suite Improvements In 2018 For Open-Source Benchmarking
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Phoronix-Test-Suite-2018
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
It was another busy year for the Phoronix Test Suite in 2018, which also marked ten years since the public debut of the Phoronix Test Suite for open-source, cross-platform automated performance benchmarking...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Looking-Forward-To-2019
title: From The Linux Perspective: What I Am Most Looking Forward To In 2019
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-Looking-Forward-To-2019
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
With 2019 started and also the 15th year since starting Phoronix.com, what am I most excited for in 2019 from a Linux/open-source perspective? Here is a look at what has me motivated for the year ahead...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Thunderbird-In-2019
title: Thunderbird In 2019 To Focus On Performance & UI/UX Improvements
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Thunderbird-In-2019
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
As a longtime Thunderbird user going back to its original release, the details Mozilla revealed today about their development focus on their mail client for 2019 have me excited and adding to what I am looking forward to in 2019...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Vulkan-OpenCL-Interop-2019
title: Vulkan/OpenCL Interop Extension In Development, OpenCL-Next Continues
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Vulkan-OpenCL-Interop-2019
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
Khronos President Neil Trevett just commented on the current state of Vulkan/OpenCL compute and reaffirmed that OpenCL will continue to evolve as well...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-Tar-1.31-Released
title: GNU Tar 1.31 Released With Zstd Support
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-Tar-1.31-Released
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
As the first update to the GNU Tar program in more than one year, Tar 1.31 is out today and it has support for Zstd compression...


guid: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Touch-OTA-7-Soon
title: UBports' Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 Is Being Prepared With On-Screen Keyboard Themes
url: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Touch-OTA-7-Soon
feedurl: https://www.phoronix.com/rss.php
content:
The UBports folks that continue to maintain and advance Ubuntu Touch are preparing their OTA-7 update for release with a few new features...


guid: 915355 at https://www.linux.com
title: The Linux Kernel Ends 2018 With Almost 75k Commits This Year
author: Phoronix
url: https://www.linux.com/news/linux-kernel-ends-2018-almost-75k-commits-year-0
feedurl: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
base: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
content:
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>As of this New Year's Eve afternoon, the Linux kernel saw 74,974 commits this year that added 3,385,121 lines of code and removed 2,512,040 lines. <br /><br />For as impressive as seeing almost 75k commits in a single year to an open-source project, it's not actually a record high. Last year in fact saw 80,725 commits that added 3.9 million lines and removed 1.3 million lines...  </p></div></div></div>


guid: 915357 at https://www.linux.com
title: A Tour of elementary OS, Perhaps the Linux World’s Best Hope for the Mainstream
author: ArsTechnica
url: https://www.linux.com/news/tour-elementary-os-perhaps-linux-worlds-best-hope-mainstream
feedurl: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
base: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
content:
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>elementary OS began life over a decade ago as a set of icons. (Yes, <em>seriously</em>.) If ever there was a group of developers who started at the bottom and worked their way up to the top, it's Daniel Foré and the rest of today's elementary OS team. From a set of icons designed to improve the look of Ubuntu's then <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2007/09/gnome-2-20-review/">GNOME 2</a> desktop, the elementary project expanded to include some custom apps, including a fork of the default GNOME files app, Nautilus, called nautilus-elementary.</p></div></div></div>


guid: 915359 at https://www.linux.com
title: 8 Tips to Help Non-Techies Move to Linux
author: OpenSource.com
url: https://www.linux.com/news/8-tips-help-non-techies-move-linux-1
feedurl: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
base: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
content:
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>While bringing them to the Linux side of the computing world, I learned a few things about helping non-techies move to Linux. If someone asks you to help them make the jump to Linux, these eight tips can help you.</p>
<h3>1. Be honest about Linux.</h3>
<p>Linux is great. It's not perfect, though. It can be perplexing and sometimes frustrating for new users. It's best to prepare the person you're helping with a short pep talk.</p></div></div></div>


guid: 915693 at https://www.linux.com
title: EU Offers Bug Bounties For 14 Open Source Projects
author: Threat Post
url: https://www.linux.com/news/eu-offers-bug-bounties-14-open-source-projects
feedurl: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
base: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
content:
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><div class="c-article__intro">
<p>As the bug bounty programs begin to roll out in January, security experts worry that the programs miss the mark on truly securing open source projects.</p>
</div>
<div class="c-article__content js-reading-content">
<p>The European Commission in January is funding 14 bug bounty programs in hopes of sniffing out vulnerabilities in the free open source projects that EU institutions rely on.</p></div></div></div></div>


guid: 915477 at https://www.linux.com
title: Tech Ethics New Year’s Resolution: Don’t Build Software You Will Regret
author: The New Stack
url: https://www.linux.com/news/tech-ethics-new-years-resolution-dont-build-software-you-will-regret-0
feedurl: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
base: https://www.linux.com/feeds/news/rss
content:
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>At The New Stack, we talk a lot about <a class="local-link" href="https://thenewstack.io/day-software-dies/">avoiding technical debt</a>, but what about the ethical debt? Let’s begin by attempting to define just what ethical technical delivery even is. Black Pepper Software’s <a class="ext-link" href="http://linkedin.com/in/samuel-warner">Sam Warner</a> at the <a class="ext-link" href="http://goodtechconf.org/">Good Tech Conf</a> — a conference which focused on technology for social good — simplified this great university philosophy topic, saying ethical software:</p></div></div></div>


title: Epic Games have confirmed a Linux version of their store is not on the roadmap
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/epic-games-have-confirmed-a-linux-version-of-their-store-is-not-on-the-roadmap.13257

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/epic-games-have-confirmed-a-linux-version-of-their-store-is-not-on-the-roadmap.13257

content:
<p>Tags: Misc</p><p><p>Thanks to a post on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/aaoqt0/sergey_galyonkin_epic_games_store_on_linux_isnt/" target="_blank">Reddit</a>, we&#39;ve learned that Epic Games currently have no plans to put their store on Linux.</p>

<p>In response to a user question about it on Twitter, Sergey Galyonkin, the person behind Steam Spy who now works for Epic Games as the &quot;Director of Publishing Strategy&quot;&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/galyonkin/status/1079110228992499712" target="_blank">said this</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>It really isn&rsquo;t on the roadmap right now. Doesn&rsquo;t mean this won&rsquo;t change in the future, it&rsquo;s just we have so many features to implement.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It&#39;s interesting, since their original announcement mentioned the store was coming to&nbsp;&quot;other open platforms&quot; besides Windows, Mac and Android which we presumed&nbsp;would mean&nbsp;Linux. It&#39;s odd, since there aren&#39;t really other <em>open</em>&nbsp;platforms besides those to put a store on.&nbsp;We also had Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, give a ray of hope&nbsp;on <a href="https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/1070040588739862531?s=19" target="_blank">Twitter</a>&nbsp;with &quot;We&#39;ll See :D&quot; in reply to a user asking if the other open platforms meant Linux. So, I do still find it very odd&nbsp;that it&#39;s not on the roadmap at all. Not surprising though, Linux has always been low priority for Epic Games.</p>

<p>This could create an issue for us in future, since&nbsp;Epic Games are&nbsp;taking on timed-exclusive games which would mean no possibility for a Linux version until that ends. Even then, the developers of those games could decide to remain solely on the Epic Store. Remember, this has already happened with&nbsp;Satisfactory from&nbsp;Coffee Stain having the Steam store page removed to be exclusive to the Epic Store.</p>

<p>Speaking on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/a9lntx/ubisoft_needs_to_stop_with_this_always_online/ecltfdj/?context=3" target="_blank">Reddit</a>, Epic&#39;s Sweeney said &quot;These exclusives don&rsquo;t come to stores for free; they&rsquo;re a result of some combination of marketing commitments, development funding, or revenue guarantees.&quot;. So with that in mind, Epic Games are offering some commitments to developers to get their games, which could sway some future high-profile titles away from the likes of Steam.</p>

<p>For Linux gamers&nbsp;we still have Steam, GOG, Humble Store, itch.io and a few others which support Linux games. Heck, even <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/discord-announce-a-90-10-revenue-split-discord-store-will-support-linux.13170" target="_blank">Discord confirmed</a> their store will come to Linux. For now, the Epic Store isn&#39;t a huge deal and doesn&#39;t have a lot of games (or features) for users so it won&#39;t be a huge problem right away. It will be interesting to follow, especially to see what Valve plan to do to prevent too many games leaving.</p></p>


title: Our top Linux picks released in 2018, the GamingOnLinux editor awards
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/our-top-linux-picks-released-in-2018-the-gamingonlinux-editor-awards.13255

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/our-top-linux-picks-released-in-2018-the-gamingonlinux-editor-awards.13255

content:
<p>Tags: GOTY</p><p><p>Now that 2018 is coming to a close, let&#39;s have a little look over some of what we think are the top Linux games released this year.</p>

<p>Unlike previous years, we&#39;re making our own views known to the world rather than just doing user votes (that may come later for a reader award, usually January).</p>

<p><u><strong>Liam&#39;s picks</strong></u></p>

<p>Truthfully, this is the single hardest thing I&rsquo;ve had to do all year. Narrowing down all the amazing games that have released, into a small list that well and truly deserve the top spots. I&rsquo;ve added some and written about them, then remembered another great game to replace it and&hellip;you get the idea. However, these are the five I personally picked as a shining light in the darkness.</p>

<p>1. <em><strong>EVERSPACE - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/everspace?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/everspace?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/396750/EVERSPACE/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I couldn&rsquo;t pass up the opportunity to give a shout out to EVERSPACE again. I&rsquo;m a huge sci-fi space-nerd at heart and it it&rsquo;s such a damn beautiful game it&rsquo;s a pleasure to play. Okay, a little bit of a lie there, pleasure isn&rsquo;t exactly the right word to use. It&rsquo;s frustrating, I die all the time but the gameplay loop is just so good it rewards you for pushing through and the combat is exceptionally fun.</p>

<p>I absolutely adore the backdrops in the game, the visuals constantly mesmerise me! The freeze-frame feature to quickly stop the action, to allow you to look around is fantastic too.</p>

<p>2. <em><strong>Surviving Mars - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/surviving-mars?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/surviving_mars?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/464920/Surviving_Mars/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I absolutely love city building games but I always have the same problem with them since I&rsquo;m not an overly creative person. I&rsquo;m not going to make a masterpiece of a city, that when you zoom out it looks like a work of art. With that in mind, I end up getting a little bored. Until Surviving Mars came along, with less of a focus on being creative and more on surviving the harsh Martian landscape. You can still be as creative as you like of course, for me though the sci-fi element with the added challenges makes it worth my time.</p>

<p>3. <em><strong>Overload - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/overload?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/overload?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/448850/Overload/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>Easily the best six-degree-of-freedom shooter available right now. With tight corridors, excellent lighting and lush graphics mixed in with fast-paced action it&rsquo;s a fantastic experience. A first-person shooter is one thing, being able to quickly boost in any direction is another. I&rsquo;ve played a few over the last few years, but nothing has come close to just how good the gameplay mechanics are in Overload.</p>

<p>4. <em><strong>Life is Strange: Before the Storm - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/life-is-strange-before-the-storm?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/554620/Life_is_Strange_Before_the_Storm/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I&rsquo;ll be honest, I&rsquo;ve never seen someone cry about a game before. However, that all changed when our livestreamer Sin took on Before the Storm, what an emotional roller coaster that was. Graphically not particularly impressive but the story itself is fantastic and the sublime music just tops it all off.</p>

<p>Hats off to Feral Interactive for the Linux port, not a single bug found in our playthrough and not a single crash. With Life is Strange 2 on the way for Linux next year&mdash;gimme, gimme, gimme.</p>

<p>5. <em><strong>Parkitect - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/parkitect?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/parkitect?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/453090/Parkitect/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I spent more hours in my youth playing games like Theme Park than my parents should have ever let me, to the point that it left a lasting impression and a void in my gaming life. Parkitect smashed into life and it&rsquo;s firmly replacing my old love.</p>

<p>Since I struggle to make super cool looking creations, the Blueprint feature and easy to use game mechanics to design roller coasters has made it such a rewarding experience. Having the ability to pop down ready-made ridiculous creations is awesome. The developers hit such a sweet spot between accessibility and complexity that you don&rsquo;t often see.</p>

<p><u><strong>Scaine&#39;s picks</strong></u></p>

<p>1. <em><strong>Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_enhanced_edition_pack?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/704450/Neverwinter_Nights_Enhanced_Edition/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I played, I suspect, hundreds of hours of Neverwinter Nights when it first appeared in the early 2000&rsquo;s, using the 3rd edition D&amp;D toolset. I bought it out of faith when it re-appeared, re-mastered, but didn&rsquo;t expect to really get into it again. But no, there&rsquo;s no resisting this masterpiece. It&#39;s now based on the 3.5&nbsp;edition D&amp;D ruleset, so I can&rsquo;t re-create&nbsp;my wonderful multi-class Lvl4 monk, Lvl16 mage character, but I can still adventure through the Sword Coast of Faer&ucirc;n all over again regardless. And the remaster means a slicker interface and better textures. The few issues it had at launch have been rectified too, which is nice to see and they&rsquo;ve (naturally) thrown in the main two DLCs as part of the purchase. A classic.</p>

<p>2. <em><strong>Dead Cells - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/dead-cells?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/dead_cells?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/588650/Dead_Cells/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I wasn&rsquo;t expecting much after such a long wait for Linux support, but cynical me was proven completely wrong about this absolute gem of a platformer, after a 16 month wait, 2 months before it left early access. Its combination of beautiful movement, RPG upgrades and weapon variety makes every run in this roguelite a treasure. Incredible depth too, through the &ldquo;preserved between games&rdquo; upgrade system.</p>

<p>3. <em><strong>Kingdom Rush: Origins - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/816340/Kingdom_Rush_Origins/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>This is the third instalment in the series which I consider to be the best tower defence games in existence. It&rsquo;s a step up in difficulty, however, so be warned that despite how much I rave about these games, you might want to start with the first and build up, instead of leaping straight into this challenging prequel.</p>

<p>4. <em><strong>State of Mind - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/state-of-mind?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/state_of_mind?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/437630/State_of_Mind/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>It&rsquo;s hard to put my finger on what made State of Mind so compelling. I think it&rsquo;s because it just had the right mix of ingredients. The graphics were beautiful, albeit not particularly taxing. The voice acting was excellent and consistent. The story was set in a future which I found believable. Mix it all together and I found it to be an experience that I still think of occasionally, months later.</p>

<p>5. <em><strong>Tower of Time - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/tower-of-time?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/tower_of_time?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/617480/Tower_of_Time/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>Reminded of how good a party-based RPG can be by Neverwinter Nights, I bought Tower of Time a couple of months after release. Intriguing story, stylish presentation, interesting characters with lots of interaction between them, detailed, beautiful graphics and smooth, realistic animations. It&rsquo;s awesome. But the strategy that you can exercise in the battles is where it really shines. Tactics that matter. Skills that make a difference. Varied weapons which you can adapt to your tactics. It was criticised for its wave-based approach to fights, but I think it should be celebrated for doing something new and fun.</p>

<p><u><strong>Samsai&#39;s picks</strong></u></p>

<p>1. <em><strong>BATTLETECH - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/battletech?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/battletech_game?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/637090/BATTLETECH/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>It&rsquo;s very hard to argue against giant death machines the size of houses, and when BATTLETECH arrived to Linux I definitely had to pick it up. And it turns out, it is indeed a lot of fun to send your mechs stomping down buildings and tanks and equipping them with a myriad of destructive weapons arrays to knock out your opponents. Definitely a good pick for people who are into turn-based tactics games like XCOM or people who just like death robots in general.</p>

<p>2. <em><strong>Warhammer 40k: Gladius - Relics of War - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/warhammer-40000-gladius-relics-of-war?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/warhammer_40000_gladius_relics_of_war?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/489630/Warhammer_40000_Gladius__Relics_of_War/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>W40k: Gladius was one of the bigger timesinks for me this year and fairly quickly after its release I had managed to put in 35 hours into it. It&rsquo;s a very solid turn-based strategy game with a heavy emphasis on combat and warfare. The different factions in the game are quite varied and suit different kinds of playstyles and the combat offers enough tactical considerations to not make it a purely resource based game. It looks good, plays nice and is quite a lot of fun, particularly if you play it in multiplayer with some friends.</p>

<p>3. <em><strong>RimWorld - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/rimworld?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>RimWorld has been a fantastic game for a good while but it exited Early Access just fairly recently. It&rsquo;s a game that seems to always jump up by a dozen hours every time I fire it up and is the perfect blend of enough gameplay systems to keep the game interesting and easy to pick up simplicity. It&rsquo;s certainly a ton of fun to build a colony around questionably legal organ harvesting and cannibalism and then have all of that be ruined by a sudden nuclear winter as your colonists freeze to death. So, if you&rsquo;ve considered games like Dwarf Fortress but the complex UI turned you off, RimWorld is a very good candidate to consider.</p>

<p>4. <em><strong>STRAFE: Millennium Edition - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/strafe?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/442780/STRAFE_Millennium_Edition/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>Old-school FPS games are absolutely great and STRAFE is that in a roguelite packaging. It&rsquo;s basically just a game that lets you turn off your brain and just run and gun like a maniac, and the procedurally generated levels give it an additional degree of replayability, which is to be expected of a roguelite game. It&rsquo;s a fun game to pick up for a level or two, find some cool guns and bash some mutant zombie monster things&rsquo; heads in.</p>

<p><strong>5. <em>DELTARUNE - <a href="https://www.deltarune.com/" target="_blank">Official Site</a></em></strong></p>

<p>You might be surprised by this addition to my list and it wouldn&rsquo;t even be here unless some clever person hadn&rsquo;t figured out how to get it <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/deltarune-the-successor-to-undertale-unofficially-ported-to-linux.12969" target="_blank">running unofficially on Linux</a>. And it still feels a bit like cheating to include it. Regardless, if you liked Undertale you have basically zero reasons not to play Deltarune, and I happened to quite like both. So, go pick it up, apply the quick Linux patch and make some friends.</p>

<p><u><strong>Cheese&#39;s picks</strong></u></p>

<p>It&#39;s been a mighty big challenge to pick five games, and an even greater challenge to try to distil what I like about them down to a few short paragraphs. It&#39;s been a big and bumpy year for Linux gaming, and here are five of my favourite titles that had Linux releases in 2018 in reverse alphabetical order!</p>

<p>1. <em><strong>Overload&nbsp;- <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/overload?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/overload?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/448850/Overload/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I have a huge soft spot for Descent, and while there was a period when they were light on the ground, it feels like we&#39;ve been in a bit of a 6DOF shooter renaissance for the past couple of years. While I&#39;ve found a bunch of enjoyment in this, none ever quite gave me the same feel that I got from the original Descent games. Until Overload.</p>

<p>This shouldn&#39;t be a surprise since Revival Productions is headed up by Descent creators Mike Kulas and Matt Toschlog, joined by writers, artists, designers, programmers, and composers with histories in the Descent franchise and community. The result is a rock solid 6DOF tunnel runner focused on blowing up reactor cores, rescuing hostages, and shooting down utility robots gone mad that manages to feel both modern and classic at once.</p>

<p>2. <strong><em>Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/herou_rogue_to_redemption?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/375440/HeroU_Rogue_to_Redemption/" target="_blank">Steam</a></em></strong></p>

<p>Another example of beloved franchise creators coming back to create something new that captures elements of their old worlds is Hero-U, a new adventure RPG by Quest for Glory creators Lori and Corey Cole. Instead of directly trying to re-create QfG, Hero-U strikes out on its own with new stat management, turn based combat, and relationship mechanics, using these to make the game&#39;s world and characters feel alive and responsive.</p>

<p>Hero-U can often give a sense of missing out as you rush from class to class and struggle to find a balance between classes, extracurricular activities, friendships, exploring the university&#39;s mysteries, and most importantly, rest. To some players, this might be offputting, while to others, it might be the exact prompt needed to make replaying feel worthwhile. Regardless of how you slice it, it does a wonderful and sometimes harrowing job of reflecting the pressures of full time study and being in just a little over your head. Mechanically, this also drives rhythms and routines, as well as prompting planning for expeditions and other activities that require a significant time investment - something that I enjoyed doing in Quest for Glory.</p>

<p>Hero-U isn&#39;t quite the QfG I style experience I was secretly hoping for, but it&#39;s been charming and engaging regardless, and I&#39;ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Hero-U: Wizard&#39;s Way when it&#39;s ready.</p>

<p>3. <strong><em>Everspace&nbsp;</em></strong><em><strong>- <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/everspace?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/everspace?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/396750/EVERSPACE/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>It&#39;s hard to pin down what I like most about Rockfish Games&#39; space shooter Everspace. It&#39;s got the responsiveness and tactility of a 6DOF shooter while still carrying the sense of a light space combat sim. It manages to convey a feel of the desolate loneliness and silent beauty of space while also making the post-war tension of the demilitarised zone palpable and threatening. The game&#39;s narrative nicely contextualises the replay-oriented gameplay in a way that extends beyond a first successful run. Progression during runs manifests through resource gathering and crafting system, and between runs through ship and pilot upgrade systems.</p>

<p>One thing that has stood out to me from the beginning is that in spite of offering and being optimised for less-conventional third person mouse steering piloting controls (think Freelancer), Everspace gives a range of options, allowing me to play with a cockpit view and with the targeting reticle locked to the centre of the screen (think Freespace) without feeling like I&#39;m missing out. There&#39;s also gamepad and VR support (though the latter has rough edges and is considered unsupported - SteamVR for Linux is still in beta). Looking for new ways to play, I started doing pacifist runs earlier this year and was pleasantly surprised to find that even though a huge amount of care has gone into the game&#39;s rock solid combat system, zero kill wins are possible and a bunch of fun.</p>

<p>My first hundred hours with Everspace have been a blast, and I expect to come back for many more.</p>

<p>4. <strong><em>Distance - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/distance?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/233610/Distance/" target="_blank">Steam</a></em></strong></p>

<p>There&#39;s something uniquely enjoyable about an arcade racer that can deliver the fast, reactive racing that occurs when playing on a new track for the first time, and the methodical optimisation oriented racing when replaying a familiar track for the best completion times. Distance effortlessly manages to provide both of these, and thanks an in-game track editor and a track generator, is in a position to provide these indefinitely.</p>

<p>With Distance, Refract Studios takes this kind of game just a little farther by having a short narrative campaign called Adventure Mode, which takes the game&#39;s moody neon aesthetics and rolls it into an evocative example of minimalist storytelling, as you drive into the heart of the Array to pursue a deadly, mysterious threat. For any players who might find Adventure Mode a little too abstract or obscure, there are Sprint, Challenge and Stunt modes without narrative components as well as online and local multiplayer. Even though it makes up a small portion of the game&#39;s content, the kind of storytelling seen in Adventure Mode is comparatively rare and I love it to pieces.</p>

<p>Oh, and also, the car can fly.</p>

<p>5. <strong><em>Battle Chef Brigade - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/battle-chef-brigade?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/battle_chef_brigade?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/452570/Battle_Chef_Brigade_Deluxe/" target="_blank">Steam</a></em></strong></p>

<p>The first time I heard of Trinket Studios&rsquo; Battle Chef Brigade, it was pitched to me as a game that had the look and feel of a Studio Ghibli animated fantasy dramatisation of Iron Chef that put players in cook-offs where instead of having pre-prepared pantries, ingredients must be gathered from wild plants and monsters while the match timer ticks down. In spite of a couple of rough edges on animations here and there or a few voice recordings that don&#39;t quite feel consistent, it&#39;s executed surprisingly well.</p>

<p>Both parts of the cook-off gameplay are fairly simple on their own, with ingredients gathered during the sidescrolling brawler sequences providing the &quot;taste gems&quot; that need to be matched in the puzzle sequences order to cook more elaborate dishes. That said, things get technical pretty quickly, and there&#39;s a high skill ceiling for experienced players to expand into when either replaying the campaign or tackling the game&rsquo;s challenge and local multiplayer modes.</p>

<p>Between cook-offs, the campaign follows a story that begins with young chef running away from her rural home to participate in the Proving Tournament to become a brigadier, and culminates in events that threaten the entire land of Victusia.</p>

<p>Everything about Battle Chef Brigade exudes charm, and I found myself getting swept away by the adventures of Mina and her friends.</p>

<p><u><strong>BTRE&#39;s picks</strong></u></p>

<p>It&rsquo;s really hard to pick just five titles this year. I&rsquo;ve spent dozens of hours playing every kind of game imaginable this year. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, there&rsquo;s never been a better time to be a Linux gamer than now. We&rsquo;re spoiled rotten for choice. My picks are in no particular order because it was that difficult to narrow them down.</p>

<p>1. <em><strong>Slay the Spire - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/slay-the-spire?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/646570/Slay_the_Spire/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I normally shy away from games in Early Access but I picked this one up earlier in the year after a recommendation from a friend. About 200 or so hours later, I don&rsquo;t regret it for a moment. The mix of card-based play with strategy and the randomness of each game makes for a very compelling and addictive formula. It&rsquo;s not for everyone but it&rsquo;ll grab you firmly if you let it.</p>

<p>2. <em><strong>BATTLETECH - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/battletech?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/battletech_game?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/637090/BATTLETECH/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>It was a close call between this and WARHAMMER II for my favorite strategy title of the year (and favorite ALL-CAPS TITLE). BATTLETECH edges out the competition because of its setting and somewhat distinct combat system. Seeing giant robots piloted by your hand-picked crew has never been so satisfying. The recent patches have also really polished up and improved the game and the content of the first expansion, Flashpoint, adds a lot more to do in the endgame. I don&rsquo;t see myself putting this one down anytime soon.</p>

<p>3. <em><strong>Dead Cells - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/dead-cells?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/dead_cells?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/588650/Dead_Cells/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I&rsquo;m a sucker for good platformers, especially those with a strong art direction and tight controls. Dead Cells uses randomness intelligently while still providing well-focused areas to explore and plenty of weapons and powerups to discover. It&rsquo;s also rather challenging at times and rewards skill appropriately, making it feel all the more satisfying to learn. There&rsquo;s more content slated to come out sometime soon and I can&rsquo;t wait to dive into the game again then.</p>

<p>4. <em><strong>The Gardens Between - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/the-gardens-between?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/600990/The_Gardens_Between/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>The Gardens Between is a touching story about friendship that won me over when I reviewed it earlier this year. It&rsquo;s an accessible adventure with clever puzzles and mechanics that were very fun to interact with. There&rsquo;s so many little details in the character&rsquo;s body language and the backgrounds that the game transmits its message clearly without the need for any dialog. The plot might be a little obvious but it&rsquo;s well executed nonetheless. It&rsquo;s not really a game that&rsquo;s very replayable or, indeed, long but it&rsquo;s stuck in thoughts as one of the most charming gaming experiences in 2018.</p>

<p>5. <em><strong>Pillars of Eternity II - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_2_game?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/560130/Pillars_of_Eternity_II_Deadfire/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>For me, the sequel was overall better than the original. I enjoyed my time sailing around in the Deadfire, exploring where I wanted at my own pace. I certainly appreciated the world building and the interactions with the various deities of the setting throughout different quests. It&rsquo;s also a game that&rsquo;s gotten better with patches and the DLC. It saddens me to know that Obsidian has been acquired by Microsoft as it might mean that any future entries in the franchise may be exclusive to their own platforms. I hope that 2019 can fill that thoughtful role-playing-game-sized hole in my heart with something else.</p>

<p><u><strong>Flesk&#39;s picks</strong></u></p>

<p>I haven&#39;t played many games from start to finish this year, but I&#39;ve dipped my thumbs in many, and it was no easy task picking just five to highlight. I did manage to pick a handful of games that I enjoyed a lot though, and want to give a bit of extra attention.</p>

<p>1. <em><strong>Iconoclasts - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/iconoclasts?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/iconoclasts?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/393520/Iconoclasts/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>My most anticipated game this year was the stunning action platformer made by the developer and artist of the popular noitu love games, Joakim &quot;konjak&quot; Sandberg. The game is about a girl mechanic, who practices without a licence in a world controlled by an evil agency. Equipped with a huge wrench and a side arm, you solve puzzles and fight the bad One Concern agents, and occasionally scrap together the materials to upgrade your weapons. There are also plenty of mid and end bosses in every level that I occasionally struggled a bit with on the normal difficulty setting, but there is also relaxed and harder mode, so it can be enjoyed regardless of skill and patience.</p>

<p>2. <em><strong>Unforeseen Incidents - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/unforeseen-incidents?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/unforeseen_incidents?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/501790/Unforeseen_Incidents/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>A classic point and click adventure set during an epidemic with mysterious origins. I found the story engaging throughout, but what made me put this one on the list was the puzzles. There&#39;s enough of the old school item on item and dialogue puzzles to go around, but there are also plenty of puzzles that break out from that mold and breathes a bit of fresh air into the formula. There&#39;s a puzzle early on where you have to repair an old car engine, that I think set the tone of what to expect in terms of puzzles from this game.</p>

<p>3. <em><strong>Overcooked! 2 - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/overcooked-2?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/728880/Overcooked_2/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>I only picked this up a few days ago, but it&#39;s fast becoming one of my favourites of this year. It&#39;s an excellent couch co-op game and it&#39;s easy enough to pick up that my kids also play and love it. I&#39;ve played cooking games before that I never really enjoyed, but Overcooked! 2 does a great job of streamlining the various prepping stages and instead spices things up by throwing in a bunch of environmental challenges that makes up all the fun. Often these challenges involves separating parts of the kitchens physically, meaning you might have to toss ingredients back and forth, to go from raw ingredients to a fully prepared meal. The game can also be played solo, which is a bit frustrating since you have to switch back and forth between cooks, but with fewer players less points are required to proceed, so it&#39;s perfectly possible.</p>

<p>4.&nbsp;<em><strong>Lamplight City - <a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/lamplight-city?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a> - <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/lamplight_city?pp=b2a10a6c3dcadb10c8ffd734c1bab896d55cf0ec" target="_blank">GOG</a> - <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/761460/Lamplight_City/" target="_blank">Steam</a></strong></em></p>

<p>The first game from developer and artist Francisco Gonzalez after his break with Wadjet Eye Games. As we know, Shardlight was unfortunately never released for Linux, so I was anxious to see whether we&#39;d get this game. Like his earlier game A Golden Wake, this game is a bit light on traditional puzzles, but there&#39;s a lot of &quot;figuring stuff out&quot; and if you don&#39;t figure enough stuff out by the end of a particular case, you will fail to solve that case. I&#39;m not sure if that actually has any consequences beyond the newspaper headlines and minor story tweaks, but I got invested enough in the story that I felt bad about it, and decided to redo a chapter when I didn&#39;t manage to catch a kidnapper the first time around.</p>

<p><s>5.</s> I might have gone with The Gardens Between as my fifth pick for the same reasons BTRE mentioned, but I would be remiss not to mention any of the great programming games we got this year. Two that especially stood out to me, and that both introduced parallel computing into the genre, were EXAPUNKS and 7 Billion Humans. They&#39;re both great though, and I really cannot choose between them. If you enjoy the depth and world building of the Zachtronic games, you will not be disappointed by EXAPUNKS, and if you like the smooth interface and comedy of Human Resource Machine, you should buy 7 Billion Humans.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Back to Liam for a moment&hellip;</p>

<p>While we have you here, just to point out that the excellent YouTube star, Hex DSL, gathered a few Linux&nbsp;names together (thanks for the invite, Hex!) to create a video to show off some of our favourites, take a look:</p>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oBNo5ViIic"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/1oBNo5ViIic/0.jpg" alt="youtube video thumbnail"><br />Watch video on YouTube.com</a>

<p><em>Just ignore the fact that I&#39;m noted as &quot;Your uncle.&quot;, I didn&#39;t quite realise everyone else was so serious in the private document noting who they were&hellip;woops.</em></p>

<p>That&#39;s all from us! While there&#39;s many more great games those are what we each thought deserved the top spots this year. 2019 is almost ready to crash into us and no doubt the choices will be tough this time next year too!&nbsp;</p></p>


title: Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries, the classic open source RTS has a new release
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/seven-kingdoms-ancient-adversaries-the-classic-open-source-rts-has-a-new-release.13258

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/seven-kingdoms-ancient-adversaries-the-classic-open-source-rts-has-a-new-release.13258

content:
<p>Tags: Open Source, Update, Strategy, RTS</p><p><p>Just before the end of 2018, the open source classic RTS Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries had a fresh release out.</p>

<p>While perhaps not as popular as titles like OpenRA for classic Red Alert,&nbsp;Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries is still a great classic RTS worth trying out that plays rather differently to a lot of other strategy games.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/194615929id13258gol.jpg" /></p>

<p>The latest release isn&#39;t big on features, but it will make the experience more stable. It includes multiple fixes for desync issues and an issue with&nbsp;multiplayer save files going out of sync. There&#39;s also improved&nbsp;cross-compilation and platform support and lots of other little fixes.</p>

<p>Great to see one of my first ever RTS games still seeing updates many years on.&nbsp;See their <a href="https://7kfans.com/?p=149" target="_blank">news post here</a>.</p>

<p>You can find the source on&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/the3dfxdude/7kaa" target="_blank">GitHub</a>&nbsp;(build&nbsp;<a href="https://www.7kfans.com/wiki/index.php/Building_From_Source" target="_blank">instructions are here</a>). Older versions are usually available in your distribution repository to install from your local package manager.</p></p>


title: Some of the recent major updates to Planetary Annihilation: TITANS are now live
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/some-of-the-recent-major-updates-to-planetary-annihilation-titans-are-now-live.13259

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/some-of-the-recent-major-updates-to-planetary-annihilation-titans-are-now-live.13259

content:
<p>Tags: RTS, Strategy, Steam, Humble Store</p><p><p>Planetary Annihilation: TITANS is an epic RTS set across multiple planets and it&#39;s set for some exciting updates this year.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/1090320409id13259gol.jpg" /></p>

<p>Firstly, their &quot;modern toolchain&nbsp;server build with multi-threading&quot; is now live on all the official servers. So it should hopefully be a much smoother experience overall. They&#39;ve also expanded the 1v1 map list with four community maps, the AI should be a lot smarter, there&#39;s new audio modding options, AI commander selection is now possible and so on.</p>

<p>On top of that, they also still&nbsp;have an opt-in beta on Steam which is built with more modern tools, this works with everyone not using the beta. Find all the details on the update <a href="https://forums.planetaryannihilation.com/threads/happy-new-year-updates-112595-112589.73231/" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;This news may sound familiar and that would be because <a href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/planetary-annihilation-titans-has-new-test-builds-out-also-moving-to-linux-servers.13234" target="_blank">last month</a> the TITANS team put up public test builds.</p>

<p>Also, for those who need a bit of help they&#39;ve now opened an <a href="https://planetaryannihilation.com/guides" target="_blank">official guides section</a> of their website.</p>

<p>Sometime later this year, they will also be updating their UI library which will hopefully solve issues for AMD and Intel players on Linux. As they told us on <a href="https://twitter.com/PA_the_game/status/1076810497339514880?s=19" target="_blank">Twitter</a>&nbsp;recently &quot;Coherent GT next year will be the big change for Linux.&quot;. They&#39;re also planning to switch away from Windows to Linux servers later this year!</p>

<p>You can find Planetary Annihilation: TITANS on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.humblebundle.com/store/planetary-annihilation-titans?partner=gamingonlinux" target="_blank">Humble Store</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/386070/Planetary_Annihilation_TITANS/" target="_blank">Steam</a>.</p></p>


title: Late last year Quake 2 gained Vulkan support thanks to one dedicated coder
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/late-last-year-quake-2-gained-vulkan-support-thanks-to-one-dedicated-coder.13260

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/late-last-year-quake-2-gained-vulkan-support-thanks-to-one-dedicated-coder.13260

content:
<p>Tags: FPS, Vulkan, Open Source</p><p><p>It appears we missed this one from December last year, vkQuake2 is Quake 2 amplified with Vulkan support.</p>

<p>Quake II was originally released in December of 1997, making this 21 year old game still see new project appear thanks to&nbsp;id Software releasing the source code under the GPL. vkQuake2 has been the hobby of&nbsp;Krzysztof Kondrak as announced on <a href="https://twitter.com/k_kondrak/status/1075886811120103425" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>

<p>Firstly, it&#39;s worth noting that this version doesn&#39;t currently support Linux but it is firmly in their plans.&nbsp;vkQuake2 isn&#39;t just adding in Vulkan though as&nbsp;it also added support for newer screen resolutions;&nbsp;original compiler warnings have been fixed;&nbsp;the effects for lava, water and&nbsp;slime now get drawn properly with Vulkan; the&nbsp;software renderer was replaced with&nbsp;KolorSoft 1.1 to gain&nbsp;coloured lighting and fixes severe instabilities of the original renderer&nbsp;and so on.</p>

<p>Find vkQuake2 on <a href="https://github.com/kondrak/vkQuake2" target="_blank">GitHub</a>.</p></p>


title: The latest progress report for the PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 is impressive again
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-latest-progress-report-for-the-playstation-3-emulator-rpcs3-is-impressive-again.13261

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-latest-progress-report-for-the-playstation-3-emulator-rpcs3-is-impressive-again.13261

content:
<p>Tags: Emulation, Open Source</p><p><p>The team behind the PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 put out their November progress report at the end of last month, showing some impressive work once again.</p>

<p>They start by going over the status of many games, the amount that are now classed as &quot;playable&quot; is quite impressive. Going by their stats, an additional 51 titles became playable between October&#39;s and November&#39;s progress reports.</p>

<p>As usual, there&#39;s a lot of technical details including a &quot;major overhaul to the RSX rendering pipeline&quot; which has improved performance in some AAA titles. You can see some improvements in the below video:</p>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNVKh_hp7_o"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/DNVKh_hp7_o/0.jpg" alt="youtube video thumbnail"><br />Watch video on YouTube.com</a>

<p>They also noted how they fixed many crashes in games like Skate, Gran Turismo 5, Super Street Fighter IV, Beyond Two Souls White Album, Gundam Breaker 2, MotorStorm, Borderlands, Backbreaker Vengeance and many more. They also fixed games hanging with &quot;low thread count CPUs&quot; thanks to the return of a developer who took a break for a while.</p>

<p>Loving the progress on this, emulation is vital so we don&#39;t lose access to some classics. See their <a href="https://rpcs3.net/blog/2018/12/29/progress-report-november-2018/" target="_blank">blog post here</a> for the full technical details.</p></p>


author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-latest-update-on-black-mesa-shows-some-impressive-improvements-coming-to-this-half-life-recreation.13262

title:
The latest update on Black Mesa shows some impressive improvements coming to this Half-Life recreation

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-latest-update-on-black-mesa-shows-some-impressive-improvements-coming-to-this-half-life-recreation.13262

content:
<p>Tags: Update, Steam, FPS, Early Access</p><p><p>Black Mesa, the Half-Life fan-made recreation continues progressing towards finally releasing the delayed Xen levels.</p>

<p>The latest update, posted late last month shows off some rather impressive new stuff coming to the game. Using the system they developed for their Dynamic Lights, they&#39;ve now included Screenspace Fog. It&#39;s light on resources and does look rather good:</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a data-fancybox="images" href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/3118960031546344864gol1.gif" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/3118960031546344864gol1.gif" /></a></p>

<p>They&#39;ve also improved the AI for the &quot;Alien Grunts&quot; to make them much more unpredictable and challenging. They will &quot;leap onto different platforms, find a way to outflank you, get in your face, and unleash a devastating secondary &quot;hornet hurricane&quot; attack&quot;&mdash;scary!</p>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFzgbYpybL0"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/NFzgbYpybL0/0.jpg" alt="youtube video thumbnail"><br />Watch video on YouTube.com</a>

<p>They also improved the Alien Controller NPC, turning them essentially into &quot;a kind of overlord or mini-boss&quot;. The Vortigaunt NPC was improved as well, flashlight shadows are back, Soft Particles are now working and a few other bits.</p>

<p>Lastly, they note about they progress specifically on the Xen levels and it sounds like progress is really good. Sounds like quite a bit of work still ahead though but it does sound exciting.</p>

<p>You can find Black Mesa on <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/" target="_blank">Steam</a>. For Linux gamers, you will likely want to opt into the <a href="https://steamcommunity.com/app/362890/discussions/1/3307213006836757658/" target="_blank">public beta</a>.</p></p>


title: Looks like the 'Linux Steam Integration' project is being continued with Intel's Clear Linux
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/looks-like-the-linux-steam-integration-project-is-being-continued-with-intels-clear-linux.13263

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/looks-like-the-linux-steam-integration-project-is-being-continued-with-intels-clear-linux.13263

content:
<p>Tags: Misc, Steam</p><p><p>Linux Steam Integration, the project originally made while developer Ikey Doherty was working on the Solus Linux distribution now seems to be continuing on under Intel with their Clear Linux distribution.</p>

<p>As a reminder on what it is, in their words: &quot;Linux Steam Integration is a helper system to make the Steam Client and Steam games run better on Linux. In a nutshell, LSI automatically applies various workarounds to get games working, and fixes long standing bugs in both games and the client.&quot;</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/tagline_images/1899175488id13263gol.png" /></p>

<p>The majority of the work done on it is by Doherty, who left Solus with a message sent to <a href="https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&amp;px=Solus-Open-Letter" target="_blank">Phoronix</a> in November. The LSI project didn&#39;t really see much activity for many months, however this changed last month when a <a href="https://github.com/clearlinux/linux-steam-integration" target="_blank">new repository</a> popped up under Intel&#39;s Clear Linux account. I&#39;m not too up to date on what Doherty is doing now, but it seems he&#39;s doing stuff for Intel again (he originally left Intel to work on Solus) with the LSI project now under the Intel banner.</p>

<p>It&#39;s going to be interesting to see what they plan to do with it now. Whatever helps make Linux gaming better, I&#39;m all for it. Find the new repository on <a href="https://github.com/clearlinux/linux-steam-integration" target="_blank">GitHub</a>.</p>

<p style="text-align:right"><em>Hat tip to Jacob.</em></p></p>


title: The developers of 'The End of the Sun' show some behind the scenes development info
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-developers-of-the-end-of-the-sun-show-some-behind-the-scenes-development-info.13264

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-developers-of-the-end-of-the-sun-show-some-behind-the-scenes-development-info.13264

content:
<p>Tags: Coming Soon, Steam, Indie Game, Adventure, Exploration</p><p><p>Coming to Linux sometime this year, The End of the Sun is a first-person exploration and adventure game set in the world of Slavic rites, beliefs, legends and their everyday life. The developers recently showed some behind the scenes development information.</p>

<p>The <a href="https://www.endofsun.com/2018/12/28/from-old-to-young-how-we-create-scanned-characters-with-one-camera/" target="_blank">blog post linked here</a> contains some pretty in-depth information on how they&#39;re creating the world and more specifically the characters themselves. Making use of photogrammetry and noting how they&#39;re working around being a small team with limited resources, it&#39;s quite fun to read about. I especially liked how they detail making people grow old.</p>

<p style="text-align:center"><a data-fancybox="images" href="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/815009911546350031gol1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.gamingonlinux.com/uploads/articles/article_media/815009911546350031gol1.jpg" /></a></p>

<p>If you&#39;re interested in game development, it&#39;s certainly worth a read.</p>

<p>What they say the game currently features:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Ethnographic museums scanned via photogrammetry &ndash; To get top-class graphics, we visited ethnographic museums where we scanned hundreds of objects and entire buildings, so you can admire them in the game the way they actually are. We also scanned the elements of the natural environment in order to get the most European Slavonic climate possible.</li>
	<li>Travel in time &ndash; teleport between four periods far away from each other by many years, set in four main seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter). Get to know the stories of the same heroes at different stages of their lives.</li>
	<li>Dynamic world, weather conditions, lighting &ndash; the time of day, weather and lighting change smoothly and dynamically within one day in front of your eyes as you discover other parts of the mystery.</li>
	<li>Consequences of time travelling &ndash; certain elements of history and the world around you will open up to you only when you set the paths of fate and influence the future. Events from the past have an impact on the future.</li>
	<li>Slavic World, its culture and daily activities &ndash; While experiencing the story, you will be able to enjoy not only the immersive history, but also look at the long-forgotten everyday activities and objects that are no longer used today.</li>
	<li>Exploration &ndash; Travel between the homesteads and surroundings of the village, finding out the details of the mystery that lies somewhere there.</li>
	<li>Non-linear and engaging story &ndash; You can experience particular immersive stories at your own pace and at the moment you feel like it.</li>
</ul>

<p>One of the team, Jakub Machowski, previously worked on The Mims Beginning which released with Linux support back in 2015.</p>

<p>You can see the original teaser below:</p>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-yKpSY9Nbo"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/O-yKpSY9Nbo/0.jpg" alt="youtube video thumbnail"><br />Watch video on YouTube.com</a>

<p>It will be launching on Linux, Mac and Windows this year. They told us the price will be around $19.99 and they plan to support English, Polish, German, Russian, Italian and Spanish languages.</p>

<p>You can wishlist and follow it on <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/912840/The_End_of_the_Sun/" target="_blank">Steam</a>. I&#39;m certainly interested but I&#39;m waiting on some proper gameplay footage.</p></p>


title: The free and open source RTS 0 A.D. has re-released Alpha 23 fixing issues
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-free-and-open-source-rts-0-ad-has-re-released-alpha-23-fixing-issues.13265

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/the-free-and-open-source-rts-0-ad-has-re-released-alpha-23-fixing-issues.13265

content:
<p>Tags: Strategy, RTS, Free Game, Open Source</p><p><p>While Alpha 23 of the free and open source RTS 0 A.D. was released way back in May of 2018, it did come with some issues and they&#39;ve put out an updated version now to improve it. Not quite the major release we were hoping for after many months of progress but it&#39;s good to see them act on issues.</p>

<p>In particular, multiplayer received quite a number of important fixes and updates including: lobby lag and freezing were fixed, steps towards preventing denial-of-service attacks to the lobby, game start time has been improved when no AI players are present and &quot;STUN&quot; can no longer be abused to make games crash.</p>

<p>Additionally, they also now handle players disconnecting and quitting during the game loading process, you can revert your &quot;I&#39;m Ready!&quot; status by right-clicking the button, hosts can no longer start games if someone isn&#39;t ready and more.</p>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjDNRgVAdkc"><img src="https://img.youtube.com/vi/SjDNRgVAdkc/0.jpg" alt="youtube video thumbnail"><br />Watch video on YouTube.com</a>

<p>What&#39;s also nice to see, is their work towards GDPR compliance. They now show a Privacy Policy and updated Terms of Service and of Use which you need to accept (which can also be found <a href="https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/UserDataProtection" target="_blank">here</a>). There&#39;s also various security updates, like supporting TLS and an Arch Linux build issue was solved. There were some issues where players would go out of sync on specific maps, which was also fixed.</p>

<p>As for the next major version, Alpha 24, there&#39;s currently no date set. You can see what they&#39;re planning to do <a href="https://trac.wildfiregames.com/query?group=status&amp;milestone=Alpha+24" target="_blank">here</a>. They&#39;re always in need of help, so do reach out to them if you fancy jumping in.</p>

<p>See <a href="https://play0ad.com/re-release-of-0-a-d-alpha-23-ken-wood/" target="_blank">all the details here</a> of the re-release.</p></p>


title: Some Linux games we’re excited to see in 2019, a list to keep you going
author: liamdawe
feedurl: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/article_rss.php
guid:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/some-linux-games-were-excited-to-see-in-2019-a-list-to-keep-you-going.13266

url:
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/some-linux-games-were-excited-to-see-in-2019-a-list-to-keep-you-going.13266

content:
<p>Tags: Misc, Coming Soon</p><p><p>Now that 2019 is here, let&rsquo;s take a look at what interesting games Linux fans can expect to see across this year.</p>

<p>Grab a coffee, wipe away that new-year hangover from the wild party you had and take a look at just a small selection of what&rsquo;s to come. We have a pretty mixed selection here, hopefully it will serve as a nice reminder for some titles perhaps you had missed being announced last year.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.xenosisgame.com/" target="_blank"><u><strong>Xenosis: Alien Infection</strong></u></a> - NerdRage Studios</p>

<p>&quot;You are a deep space salvage hunter who discovers the remains of the Starship Carpathian, thought to have been destroyed 50 years ago. You&rsquo;ve hit the jackpot. The data core housed in the ship&rsquo;s AI will be worth a lifetime of credits on the Black Market, so you dock with the ship to retrieve it.&quot;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://www.atthegatesgame.com/" target="_blank"><u>Jon Shafer&#39;s At the Gates</u></a></strong> - Conifer Games</p>

<p>&ldquo;At the Gates is an indie strategy game from Jon Shafer, designer of Civilization 5. You are a dark age lord building a kingdom to replace the crumbling Roman Empire. Manage your clans, explore the landscape around you, harvest its resources, and build a mighty economic and military machine.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://www.kalypsomedia.com/uk/tropico-6-standard-edition" target="_blank"><u>Tropico 6</u></a></strong> - Limbic Entertainment</p>

<p>&ldquo;For the first time in the series, manage extensive archipelagos, build bridges to connect your islands and use new means of transportation and infrastructure. Send your Tropicans on raids to steal the wonders of the world, including the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Customize your palace at will and give election speeches from your balcony, to win the favor of your subjects.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://stoneshard.com/" target="_blank"><u>Stoneshard</u></a></strong> - Ink Stains Games</p>

<p>&ldquo;Stoneshard is a turn-based RPG about exploring a vast, procedurally-generated medieval world, managing your own caravan and surviving by managing both physical wounds and trying to stay sane. Embark on an epic journey and decide the fate of a kingdom in this grim adventure!&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://www.beyondbluegame.com/" target="_blank"><u>Beyond Blue</u></a></strong> - E-Line Media</p>

<p>&ldquo;Set in the near future, players will explore the mysteries of our ocean through the eyes of Mirai, the lead on a newly formed research team that will use groundbreaking technologies to see, hear, and sense the ocean in a more meaningful way than has ever been attempted. The game will feature evocative narrative elements, exploration of this untouched world, and adventure that challenges the player to make high-stakes decisions during the crew&rsquo;s expedition.&rdquo;</p>

<p><a href="https://voxeltycoon.xyz/" target="_blank"><u><strong>Voxel Tycoon</strong></u></a> - Voxel Tycoon</p>

<p>&quot;Voxel Tycoon &mdash; a tycoon strategy game about transportation, building complex factories, and mining in a beautiful voxel landscapes.&quot;</p>

<p><a href="http://www.eastshade.com/" target="_blank"><u><strong>Eastshade</strong></u></a> - Eastshade Studios</p>

<p>&quot;You are a travelling painter, exploring the island of Eastshade. Capture the world on canvas using your artist&rsquo;s easel. Talk to the inhabitants to learn about their lives. Make friends and help those in need. Visit cities, scale summits, unearth mysteries, and discover forgotten places!&quot;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://pera.gs/" target="_blank"><u>The First Men</u></a></strong> - Pera Games</p>

<p>&ldquo;A real-time 4x strategy in a fantasy world. Customize your Adam and Eve, go head-to-head with other races while conducting diplomacy, waging war, and advancing The First Men.&rdquo;</p>

<p><u><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/917150/Godhood/" target="_blank"><strong>Godhood</strong></a></u> - Abbey Games</p>

<p>&quot;As a newborn deity, create and grow your own religion by careful management of your followers. Guide your disciples into the Sacrament as rival deities and their followers contest your claim to power and glory.&quot;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://www.paradoxplaza.com/imperator-rome/IMIM01GSK0000001-MASTER.html" target="_blank"><u>Imperator: Rome</u></a></strong> - Paradox Development Studio</p>

<p>&ldquo;Imperator: Rome is the newest grand strategy title from Paradox Development Studio. Set in the tumultuous centuries from Alexander&rsquo;s Successor Empires in the East to the foundation of the Roman Empire.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://www.playstarmancer.com/" target="_blank"><u>Starmancer</u></a></strong> - Ominux Games</p>

<p>&ldquo;Starmancer is a Dwarf Fortress inspired space station building game. After a catastrophe on Earth, humanity launches the Starmancer Initiative in a desperate attempt to seek refuge among the stars. Your task as a Starmancer is to construct and manage a colony capable of sustaining human life.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://crownsgame.me/" target="_blank"><u>Monster Crown</u></a></strong> - Studio Aurum</p>

<p>&ldquo;Monster Crown - Dark Monster Catching Game with True Crossbreeds Featuring a brand new dynamic breeding system and a deep story in a world filled to the brim with optional content. Offer contracts to dangerous beasts and breed them to create new species.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://jupiterhell.com/" target="_blank"><u>Jupiter Hell</u></a></strong> - ChaosForge</p>

<p>&ldquo;Jupiter Hell is a classic turn-based roguelike set in a 90&#39;s flavored sci-fi universe. Rip and tear zombies, demons and unmentionable monstrosities, using shotguns, chainguns and the trusty chainsaw, to the shine of CRT monitors and the tune of heavy metal!&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://compulsiongames.com/en/10/we-happy-few" target="_blank"><u>We Happy Few</u></a></strong> - Compulsion Games</p>

<p>&ldquo;We Happy Few is the tale of a plucky bunch of moderately terrible people trying to escape from a lifetime of cheerful denial in the city of Wellington Wells. In this alternative 1960s England, conformity is key. You&rsquo;ll have to fight or blend in with the drug-addled inhabitants, most of whom don&rsquo;t take kindly to people who won&rsquo;t abide by their not-so-normal rules.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/532210/Life_is_Strange_2/" target="_blank"><u>Life is Strange 2</u></a></strong> - Feral Interactive Linux port</p>

<p>&ldquo;Two brothers Sean and Daniel Diaz, are forced to run away from home after a tragic incident in Seattle. In fear of the police, Sean &amp; Daniel head to Mexico while attempting to conceal a sudden &amp; mysterious supernatural power.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://www.serioussam.com/" target="_blank"><u>Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass</u></a></strong> - Croteam</p>

<p>&ldquo;Developed by true shooter veterans in Croteam, Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass reignites the classic series by improving on the old-school formula. Enjoy the high-adrenaline action combat with an unbelievably destructive arsenal and experience Sam&#39;s iconic enemy-annihilating circle-strafing and backpedaling dance-routine on an even bigger scale.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://themosaicgame.com/" target="_blank"><u>Mosaic</u></a></strong> - Krillbite Studio</p>

<p>&ldquo;Mosaic is a 3D adventure game with 2D puzzle elements.</p>

<p>From the creators of Among the Sleep, Krillbite Studio is going from horrors of childhood to the dreadful horrors of adult life.&rdquo;</p>

<p><em>Krillbite are keen to mention&nbsp;Mosaic is not a horror game.</em></p>

<p><strong><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/421020/DiRT_4/" target="_blank"><u>DiRT 4</u></a></strong> - Feral Interactive Linux port</p>

<p>&ldquo;With DiRT 4, Codemasters have sought to combine the levels of thrill and realism from last year&rsquo;s DiRT Rally with the fearless excitement, accessibility and adrenaline-fuelled races previously seen in its critically acclaimed prequels DiRT 2 and DiRT 3.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://www.pathway-game.com/" target="_blank"><u>Pathway</u></a></strong> - Robotality</p>

<p>&ldquo;Pathway is a strategy adventure game featuring turn-based combat and unique story encounters. Explore temples, tombs and the desert wilderness in a grand pulp adventure!&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/750920/Shadow_of_the_Tomb_Raider/" target="_blank"><u>Shadow of the Tomb Raider</u></a></strong> - Feral Interactive Linux port</p>

<p>&ldquo;Experience Lara Croft&rsquo;s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be.&rdquo;</p>

<p><u><a href="http://kurskthegame.com/" target="_blank"><strong>KURSK</strong></a></u> - Jujubee S.A.</p>

<p>&quot;KURSK is the first ever adventure and documentary video game inspired by real events. You assume the role of a spy who finds way on the Russian nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk. Your task is to collect secret information about the revolutionary Shkval supercavitating torpedoes.&quot;</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://offgridthegame.com/" target="_blank"><u>Off Grid</u></a></strong> - Semaeopus</p>

<p>&ldquo;Off Grid is a 3rd person stealth hacking game where data is your most powerful weapon. Off Grid forgoes combat for hacking tools and ingenuity, and is completely moddable.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/779340/Total_War_THREE_KINGDOMS/" target="_blank"><u>Total War: THREE KINGDOMS</u></a></strong> - Feral Interactive Linux port</p>

<p>&ldquo;Total War: THREE KINGDOMS is the first in the award-winning series to recreate epic conflict across ancient China. Combining a gripping turn-based campaign of empire-building &amp; conquest with stunning real-time battles, THREE KINGDOMS redefines the series in an age of heroes &amp; legends.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://overland-game.com/" target="_blank"><u>Overland</u></a></strong> - Finji</p>

<p>&ldquo;Overland is squad-based survival strategy game with procedurally generated levels set in post-apocalyptic North America. Every random level is full of close calls and hard choices, even though the interface is approachable and easy to learn. Manage fuel supplies, weapons, and other items by making the right choices on the procedural roadmaps. A road trip straight into the heart of the cataclysmic event that changed the Earth forever.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://www.cradlegames.com/index.php/hellpoint" target="_blank"><u>Hellpoint</u></a></strong> - Cradle Games</p>

<p>&ldquo;Hellpoint is a dark sci fi action RPG set in the aftermath of a massive quantum cataclysm. Every living being quickly lost their mind as their memories and bodies were merged with alternate versions of themselves from parallel universes. The accident also attracted entities of immense power that should have been left alone, in the depth of other dimensions.&rdquo;</p>

<p><strong><a href="https://barotraumagame.com/" target="_blank"><u>Barotrauma</u></a></strong> - Undertow Games, FakeFish</p>

<p>&ldquo;Overcome crisis and the unrelenting pressure of a frozen ocean. Flee or fight alien lifeforms, explore a strange new world in Jupiter&rsquo;s orbit, command your crew and craft equipment in a tense 2D experience.&rdquo;</p>

<p><u><a href="http://psychonauts.com/psychonauts2/" target="_blank"><strong>Psychonauts 2</strong></a></u> - Double Fine Productions</p>

<p>&quot;In Psychonauts 2, Raz realizes his dream and visits Psychonauts Headquarters. However, when he gets there, he finds it&#39;s not the perfect place he expected and quickly realizes that the Psychonauts need him more than he needs them. Psychonauts 2 will be developed in house by the award-winning team at Double Fine Productions, which still include members of the original Psychonauts team.&quot;</p>

<p><u><a href="http://www.insurgency-sandstorm.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Insurgency: Sandstorm</strong></a></u> - New World Interactive</p>

<p>&quot;Insurgency: Sandstorm is a team-based, tactical FPS based on lethal close quarters combat and objective-oriented multiplayer gameplay. Sequel to the indie breakout FPS Insurgency, Sandstorm is reborn, improved, expanded, and bigger in every way. Experience the intensity of modern combat where skill is rewarded, and teamwork wins the fight. Prepare for a hardcore depiction of combat with deadly ballistics, light attack vehicles, destructive artillery, and HDR audio putting the fear back into the genre.&quot;</p>

<p><a href="https://indivisiblegame.com/" target="_blank"><u><strong>Indivisible</strong></u></a> - Lab Zero Games</p>

<p>&quot;Indivisible is a new, action-packed RPG from Lab Zero, creators of the critically acclaimed Skullgirls! Set in a huge fantasy world, Indivisible tells the story of Ajna, a good-natured tomboy with a rebellious streak who sets out on a quest to save everything she knows from being destroyed.&quot;</p>

<p><a href="http://systemshock.com/" target="_blank"><strong><u>System Shock</u></strong></a> - Nightdive Studios</p>

<p>&quot;After two decades, Nightdive Studios is rebooting and re-imagining the original System Shock. We will keep the new game true to the classic experience, keeping all the things you loved while giving today&#39;s gamers the modern look and feel expected from a great game.&quot;</p>

<p><em>While they&#39;ve faced some delays, their most recent Kickstarter update makes a 2019 release sound probable. Totally missed the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvzXqhh_ktQ" target="_blank">Adventure Alpha 1st Look video</a>!</em></p>

<p><strong><a href="https://inthevalleyofgods.com/" target="_blank"><u>In The Valley of Gods</u></a></strong> - Valve (Campo Santo joined Valve) - <em>Possibly not in 2019</em></p>

<p>&ldquo;From the team that brought you Firewatch, In the Valley of Gods is a sprawling narrative experience in remote, 1920s Egypt. You are Rashida, a disgraced former explorer and filmmaker given one last shot at the adventurous life you desperately miss. Somewhere, beyond the endless miles of dunes, ruins, and tombs lies an incredible archaeological discovery&mdash;but it can&#39;t be found without the help of Zora, the former partner you vowed never to work with again.&rdquo;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Obviously, I&#39;m hardly scratching the surface of what to expect this year. This is nothing more than a peek behind the curtain! It&rsquo;s going to be a wild ride and we&rsquo;re no doubt going to have plenty of surprises.</p>

<p>What are you most excited to see gain official Linux support this year?</p></p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=338850
title: Use Your Game Boy As A Wireless Controller
author: Lewin Day
url: https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/use-your-game-boy-as-a-wireless-controller/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Like many retro favourites, the Game Boy is in no way dead &#8212; development continues apace through its many fans.But what about the hardware side? This is a particularly interesting one: [Alex] wondered if a Game Boy could be readily used as a wireless controller. Set out to make it happen, the final product is <a href="https://www.insidegadgets.com/2018/09/30/building-a-wireless-gameboy-controller-acts-as-a-usb-hid-joystick/" target="_blank">a game cartridge that makes the classic handheld a wireless controller</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/Wifi_Cart-wireless-Game-Boy-controller.jpg" target="_blank"><img data-attachment-id="339053" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/use-your-game-boy-as-a-wireless-controller/wifi_cart-wireless-game-boy-controller/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/Wifi_Cart-wireless-Game-Boy-controller.jpg" data-orig-size="600,684" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.4&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 5c&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1538004197&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;4.12&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;400&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.066666666666667&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="Wifi_Cart-wireless-Game-Boy-controller" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/Wifi_Cart-wireless-Game-Boy-controller.jpg?w=351&#038;h=400" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/Wifi_Cart-wireless-Game-Boy-controller.jpg?w=548" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-339053" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/Wifi_Cart-wireless-Game-Boy-controller.jpg?w=351&#038;h=400" alt="" width="351" height="400" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/Wifi_Cart-wireless-Game-Boy-controller.jpg?w=351&amp;h=400 351w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/Wifi_Cart-wireless-Game-Boy-controller.jpg?w=219&amp;h=250 219w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/Wifi_Cart-wireless-Game-Boy-controller.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 351px) 100vw, 351px" /></a>It&#8217;s achieved quite elegantly, with a custom cartridge used to turn the Game Boy into a controller while requiring no modification to the handheld. The cartridge contains a flash chip to store the ROM, along with an ATmega48PA microcontroller and an NRF24L01 to do the talking. Upon powerup, the Game Boy runs code from the ROM, and the microcontroller is in charge of reading button states and sending them to the NRF24L01 for transmission. The program stored on the ROM also allows configuration changes to be made from the Game Boy itself, such as choosing the appropriate wireless channel.</p>
<p>The cartridge transmitter can be used with a variety of receivers. [Andy] has developed a USB HID joystick emulator to allow the Game Boy to be used with PCs, as well as a receiver for the GameCube, too. Yes, that&#8217;s right &#8212; you can now play Super Smash Bros. with a weirder controller than all your friends. A Super Nintendo version is also in the works. Perhaps the coolest feature, however, is that the cart can use its radio link to communicate with another Game Boy running the same cartridge. [Andy] demonstrates this with a basic game of Pong being played between two Game Boy Advances.</p>
<p>Working on retro hardware can be great fun &#8212; things are well documented, parts are cheap, and there&#8217;ll be plenty of fans cheering you on, too. [Andy] has even made the hardware available for purchase on <a href="https://www.tindie.com/products/insidegadgets/wireless-gameboy-controller-device/" target="_blank">Tindie</a> and <a href="https://shop.insidegadgets.com/product/wireless-gameboy-controller/" target="_blank">his website</a> if you&#8217;re not quite comfortable rolling your own.</p>
<p>The Game Boy platform remains ripe for hacking &#8211; <a href="https://hackaday.com/2017/08/01/using-a-logic-analyzer-to-generate-screenshots-from-a-game-boy/">you can even take screenshots with a logic analyzer these days</a>. Video after the break.</p>
<p><span id="more-338850"></span></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/yeJDouGYPuk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=336568
title: Your Face is Going Places You May Not Like
author: Bob Baddeley
url: https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/your-face-is-going-places-you-may-not-like/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Many Chinese cities, among them Ningbo, are investing heavily in AI and facial recognition technology. Uses range from border control &#8212; <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/article/2168681/shanghai-airport-first-launch-automated-clearance-system-using" target="_blank">at Shanghai&#8217;s international airport</a> and the <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2169945/china-tests-facial-recognition-border-crossing-hong-kong-zhuhai-macau-bridge" target="_blank">border crossing with Macau</a> &#8212; to the trivial: shaming jaywalkers.</p>
<p><img data-attachment-id="336991" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/your-face-is-going-places-you-may-not-like/china_bus_facial_recognition/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/china_bus_facial_recognition.jpeg" data-orig-size="1600,1067" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="china_bus_facial_recognition" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/china_bus_facial_recognition.jpeg?w=400&#038;h=267" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/china_bus_facial_recognition.jpeg?w=800" class="size-medium wp-image-336991 alignright" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/china_bus_facial_recognition.jpeg?w=400&#038;h=267" alt="" width="400" height="267" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/china_bus_facial_recognition.jpeg?w=400&amp;h=267 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/china_bus_facial_recognition.jpeg?w=800&amp;h=534 800w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/china_bus_facial_recognition.jpeg?w=250&amp;h=167 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/china_bus_facial_recognition.jpeg?w=768&amp;h=512 768w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /> In Ningbo, cameras oversee the intersections, and use facial-recognition to shame offenders by putting their faces up on large displays for all to see, and presumably mutter &#8220;tsk-tsk&#8221;. So it shocked Dong Mingzhu, the chairwoman of China&#8217;s largest air conditioner firm, to see her own face on the wall of shame when she&#8217;d done nothing wrong. The <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/innovation/article/2174564/facial-recognition-catches-chinas-air-con-queen-dong-mingzhu" target="_blank">AIs had picked up her face off of an ad on a passing bus</a>.</p>
<p>False positives in detecting jaywalkers are mostly harmless and maybe even amusing, for now. But the city of Shenzhen has a deal in the works with cellphone service providers to identify the offenders personally and send them a text message, and eventually a fine, directly to their cell phone. One can imagine this getting Orwellian pretty fast.</p>
<p>Facial recognition has been explored for decades, and it is now reaching a tipping point where the impacts of the technology are starting to have real consequences for people, and not just in the ways dystopian sci-fi has portrayed. Whether it&#8217;s racist, inaccurate, or easily spoofed, getting computers to pick out faces correctly has been fraught with problems from the beginning. With more and more companies and governments using it, and having increasing impact on the public, the stakes are getting higher.</p>
<p><span id="more-336568"></span></p>
<h2>How it Works</h2>
<p>Your face is like a snowflake; delicate and unique. While some people struggle to tell them apart, cameras can create accurate measures of many of their dimensions, including distance from eye to eye, forehead to chin, and other relative measurements. Put these together and you get a signature of metrics that can identify someone. Now you can use image analysis on photos or video to identify faces, finding zones of a particular range of colors, and run analytics on them, compare the results to a database, and find your match.</p>
<p>Governments, which have access to drivers license photos, booking photos, and other large collections of images, can put together immense sets of metrics and refine their algorithms using subsets as training data. Companies like Facebook also have huge datasets at their fingertips, matching photos with the person in the photo, then tying your friend list to the facial recognition to get a high likelihood of accurate identification of other faces in the photos.</p>
<p>In this way, Facebook may even have a leg up on governments; they have metadata about network links that increase the chances of positive identification. They also have more accurate/recent data. But possibly most important, their training datasets include not just mugshots taken from the same angles and the same lighting conditions, but real situations with varying light levels, moods, angles, obstructions, etc, so that they can train their datasets with much richer data. While law enforcement may have access to lots of mugshots, matching them up to video camera feeds to extract faces is a lot more difficult than CSI:Miami would have you believe.</p>
<p>The great thing is you can go play with yourself using OpenCV and your own camera. <a href="https://docs.opencv.org/2.4/modules/contrib/doc/facerec/facerec_tutorial.html" target="_blank">OpenCV has a face detection algorithm</a>, and the tutorial walks you through all the math and complexity of identifying faces in photographs.</p>
<h2>To Err is AI</h2>
<p>Facial recognition is imperfect. In addition to picking up jaywalking bus advertisements, facial recognition has also made headlines recently when <a href="https://bgr.com/2018/06/27/microsoft-facial-recognition-dark-skin-tone-improvements/" target="_blank">Microsoft&#8217;s face API technology was insensitive</a> because it couldn&#8217;t recognize the faces of people of color as well as it could white people. It turned out their training data didn&#8217;t have enough dark-skinned people. In a study by the ACLU, <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/amazons-face-recognition-falsely-matched-28" target="_blank">Amazon&#8217;s Rekognition software accidentally matched 28 members of congress</a> with mugshots in its database.</p>
<p>The training set isn&#8217;t the only problem for recognition. Your mood also has an impact. Your angry face standing at the back of the line for the TSA looks different from your relieved face when you are about to exit the DMV. The angle of the shot must be accounted for when calculating the metrics, and subtle variations in lighting can change a few pixels just enough to get a different value. Someone who knows they are being recorded may be able to change their facial features enough to fool the algorithm as well. Facial recognition for the purpose of access has very different parameters from facial recognition for identification without consent. Accounting for all of these variables and slight changes is extremely difficult, if not impossible, and in a situation where subtle differences are barely distinguishable from noise, the likelihood of error is high.</p>
<p>Increasing the size of the database can also increase the likelihood of confusion. If the database has multiple people with similar metrics, slight variations in the source image can result in slightly different metrics, which then identify the wrong person. Think of all the times where a TV show officer has pulled out a book of mugshots and asked someone to try to identify a perp. If you aren&#8217;t in the book, you are pretty safe. But if the book is compiled by an entity that has everyone&#8217;s picture, you&#8217;re in the book whether you like it or not.</p>
<p>Some facial recognition systems are trained to identify characteristics without identifying the person. For example, some advertising companies are looking at <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/11/08/facial-recognition-billboard-maker-bidooh-wins-contract-roll/" target="_blank">customizing ads for passersby</a> based on what it captures as their sex or age. Unfortunately, this assumption of gender can be offensive and reinforce stereotypes in a world where it&#8217;s already tough enough when people do it. A static billboard is one thing, but a billboard that judges you and offers you products based on your appearance may not last long. If we ever reach a day where sex has to be confirmed by an algorithm before an impatient person can be granted access to a bathroom, I will be among the first to foil the cameras.</p>
<h2>The Consequences</h2>
<p>Which bathroom to use isn&#8217;t as bad as it gets, though. Imagine if self-driving cars were to use aspects of facial recognition to solve the <a href="https://hackaday.com/2015/10/29/the-ethics-of-self-driving-cars-making-deadly-decisions/">trolley problem</a>. Someone would have to define in code or in law what characteristics of a human are more valuable than others, possibly leading to split-second decisions by a computer that one person&#8217;s life is worth 3/5 another person&#8217;s.</p>
<p>When facial recognition inevitably gets it wrong and misidentifies someone, or when their face is copied and used maliciously, it can have horrible and long-lasting effects in the same way that identity theft can ruin someone&#8217;s credit for years. China&#8217;s cameras are being linked to a new social credit system in which people who make small mistakes are penalized in a way that publicly shames them and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/10/31/662696776/what-its-like-to-be-on-the-blacklist-in-chinas-new-social-credit-system" target="_blank">affects their ability to live and work</a>. When the system gets it wrong, and it already does, it will ruin innocent people.</p>
<p>Faces are being used for granting access to phones, computers, and buildings. Facial recognition is being rolled out in China as part of a social score system that penalizes people for traffic offenses. Straight out of the movie Minority Report, facial feature recognition being used to customize advertisements in public. In an application we&#8217;ve all seen coming for a long time because of its use on TV, facial recognition is happening in law enforcement, being used to identify wanted suspects. The <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/15/17979688/tsa-precheck-facial-recognition-airport-cbp-biometric-exit" target="_blank">TSA is also getting on board</a>, and has been testing fingerprints and facial recognition to verify identity of travelers.</p>
<p>As the uses of facial recognition grow, so will the number of innocent people falsely accused; it&#8217;s simply a matter of percentages. If a system recognizes people correctly 99.5% of the time, and analyzes 10,000 traffic incidents per day or per week, 50 innocent people will receive fines. 70,000,000 people <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic" target="_blank">flow through Shanghai&#8217;s airport</a> per year. 99.5% accuracy means nearly 1,000 false identifications per day.</p>
<h2>Fooling Facial Recognition</h2>
<p>Imagine that you wish to opt out of a facial recognition system. With <a href="https://cvdazzle.com/" target="_blank">carefully applied makeup</a>, it&#8217;s possible to obscure the face in such a way to convince the neural network that there isn&#8217;t a face at all. Other accessories like sunglasses can be effective. Failing that, wearing a point light source on a face, such as a headlamp, can saturate the camera. Even the San Francisco uniform, a hoodie, can obscure the face enough to prevent face recognition.</p>
<p>When access is the goal, a common trick is to use a printed photo of the intended person to be recognized. <a href="https://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2017/Dec/77" target="_blank">Windows 10 was vulnerable to this for a while</a>, but has since fixed this problem. Computers are getting smarter about collecting 3D data to make spoofing more difficult, but it&#8217;s <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/12/19/3d-printed-head-can-unlock-your-phone/">still relatively easy to do</a>.</p>
<p>Of course you shouldn&#8217;t be using your face as a password anyway; <strong>using something that is public to get access to something that is private is bad security practice.</strong> Besides being easy to spoof, it <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2018/09/30/feds-force-suspect-to-unlock-apple-iphone-x-with-their-face/#e4ca8d012597" target="_blank">can be used by law enforcement</a> to get access to your phone or computer if it uses Face ID to unlock.  With so many facial recognition databases growing in size every day, their value to hackers is increasing. The public release of these databases has the power to make everybody&#8217;s face as a password useless forever.</p>
<h2>Conclusions</h2>
<p>Facial recognition changes our idea of what can be considered private. While US law has maintained for a long time that your presence in a public place is considered public, the reality was that publicly available information was different from publicly accessible information, and one&#8217;s daily habits could generally be considered private, with the exception of celebrities. Now we are almost in an age where everyone can be scrutinized and put on display as thoroughly as a celebrity by the paparazzi, and just like the paparazzi the public won&#8217;t be satisfied by the mundane but will instead be looking for the freak in all of us. Someone with a camera outside a bar will be able to identify everyone that goes in and how frequently, and publish that information to people who will be critical, unforgiving, and who will use that information against them.</p>
<p>Thankfully, there are a lot of people who are concerned, and they are having an impact. Google has pledged to <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/13/google-hold-off-selling-facial-recognition-technology/" target="_blank">refrain from selling facial recognition products</a>. Amazon has admitted to working with law enforcement to sell its Rekognition software, but that is <a href="https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Bicameral%20Amazon%20Recognition.pdf" target="_blank">under scrutiny</a> by some members of Congress. Microsoft recently published a <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/12/06/facial-recognition-its-time-for-action/" target="_blank">detailed and insightful position on the facial recognition</a> that&#8217;s very much worth a read. <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/2166472/chinas-latest-ai-champion-says-technical-standards-needed-healthy" target="_blank">Even the Chinese AI unicorns are concerned</a>.</p>
<p>Whether you&#8217;re playing with facial recognition at home, crossing borders, or just crossing the street, cameras are watching you. What is happening with those images is impressive and intimidating, and just like all new technologies is prone to error and ripe for abuse. What we&#8217;d like to see is more transparency in implementation and the right to opt out, and these issues will doubtless play themselves out in the world&#8217;s governments and courtrooms for years to come.</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=338771
title: 1973: When Calculators Were Built Like Computers
author: Jenny List
url: https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/1973-when-calculators-were-built-like-computers/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Should you ever pick up [Steve Wozniak]&#8217;s autobiography, you will learn that in the early 1970s when his friend [Steve Jobs] was working for Atari, [Woz] was designing calculators for Hewlett Packard. It seems scarcely believable today, but he describes his excitement at the prospects for the calculator business, admitting that he almost missed out on the emerging microcomputer scene that would make him famous. Calculators in the very early 1970s were genuinely exciting, and were expensive and desirable consumer items.</p>
<p>[Amen] has a calculator from that period, a Prinztronic Micro, and <a href="http://trochilidae.blogspot.com/2018/12/prinztronic-calculator-i-didnt-have.html" target="_blank">he&#8217;s subjected it to an interesting teardown</a>. Inside he finds an unusual modular design, with keyboard, processor, and display all having their own PCBs. Construction is typical of the period, with all through hole components, and PCBs that look hand laid rather than made using a CAD package. The chipset is a Toshiba one, with three devices covering logic, display driver and clock.</p>
<p>The Prinztronic <a href="http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/micro.html" target="_blank">is an interesting device in itself</a>, being <a href="http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/sharp_el-801.html" target="_blank">a rebadged 1972 Sharp model</a> under a house brand name for the British retailer Dixons, and that Toshiba chipset is special because it is the first CMOS design to market. It was one of many very similar basic calculators on the market at the time, but at the equivalent of over 100 dollars in today&#8217;s money it would still have been a significant purchase.</p>
<p>Long-tern Hackaday readers will remember we&#8217;ve shown you <a href="https://hackaday.com/2017/11/01/a-teardown-with-a-twist-1975-sinclair-scientific-calculator/">at least one classic calculator rebuild</a> in the past, the venerable 1975 Sinclair!</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=336262
title: Fail of the Week: EPROMs, Rats’ Nests, Tanning Lamps, and Cardboard on Fire
author: Elliot Williams
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
url:
https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/fail-of-the-week-eproms-rats-nests-tanning-lamps-and-cardboard-on-fire/

content:
<p>It all started when I bought a late-1990s synthesizer that needed a firmware upgrade. One could simply pull the ROM chip, ship it off to Yamaha for a free replacement, and swap in the new one &#8212; in 2003. Lacking a time machine, a sensible option is to buy a pre-programmed aftermarket EPROM on eBay for $10, and if you just want a single pre-flashed EPROM that&#8217;s probably the right way to go. But I wanted an adventure.</p>
<p>Spoiler alert: I <em>did</em> manage to flash a few EPROMs and the RM1X is happily running OS 1.13 and pumping out the jams. That&#8217;s not the adventure. The adventure is trying to erase UV-erasable EPROMS.</p>
<p>And that&#8217;s how I ended up with a small cardboard fire and a scorched tanning lamp, and why I bought a $5 LED, and why I left EPROMs out in the sun for four days. And why, in the end, I gave up and ordered a $15 EPROM eraser from China. Along the way, I learned a ton about old-school UV-erasable EPROMs, and now I have a stack of obsolete silicon that&#8217;s looking for a new project like a hammer looks for a nail &#8212; just as soon as that UV eraser arrives in the mail.</p>
<p><span id="more-336262"></span></p>
<h2 id="flash-from-the-past-uv-eproms">Flash from the Past: UV EPROMs</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.jmargolin.com/patents/eprom.htm" target="_blank">Old-school EPROMs</a> are made by laying out a bunch of field-effect transistors (FETs) in an IC. In read mode, a gate voltage is applied to each transistor, and whether it conducts or not determines if the bit of data stored there is a one or a zero. The gimmick is that an additional metal layer &#8212; the floating gate &#8212; is interposed between the FET&#8217;s channel and the gate. Putting a negative charge on this floating middle layer will raise the voltage required to turn the transistor on from the outside. A bit of info can thus be stored in the physical form of excess electrons on the floating gate.</p>
<p><img data-attachment-id="336261" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/fail-of-the-week-eproms-rats-nests-tanning-lamps-and-cardboard-on-fire/eprom_structure/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/eprom_structure.jpg" data-orig-size="866,535" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="eprom_structure" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/eprom_structure.jpg?w=400&#038;h=247" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/eprom_structure.jpg?w=800" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-336261" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/eprom_structure.jpg?w=400&#038;h=247" alt="" width="400" height="247" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/eprom_structure.jpg?w=400&amp;h=247 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/eprom_structure.jpg?w=800&amp;h=494 800w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/eprom_structure.jpg?w=250&amp;h=154 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/eprom_structure.jpg?w=768&amp;h=474 768w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" />In a UV EPROM, the floating gate is insulated all around by an oxide layer, so it retains this negative charge essentially indefinitely. You get extra electrons onto the floating gate through &#8220;hot-electron injection&#8221;: applying enough voltage across the floating gate that electrons jump through the insulating layer. When reading the data, transistors that have a negatively charged gate won&#8217;t conduct at their normal gate voltage, while those that haven&#8217;t been programmed will. Easy peasy.</p>
<p>But then how do you get rid of the excess floating-gate electrons in order to blank an EPROM? The original method proposed to erase ceramic-encased EPROMs <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPROM" target="_blank">was to use X-rays in a 600° C oven</a>, but cooler heads prevailed and chipmakers instead installed a relatively expensive crystal window that&#8217;s UV permeable, allowing longer wavelengths of carcinogenic light to coax the electrons back into the substrate. Apparently, in the 1970&#8217;s hard-UV lamps were commonly used for their germicidal effects in barbershops and the like, so having a UV-erasable EPROM was convenient. My own attempts to clear UV EPROMs have been anything but.</p>
<h2 id="how-not-to-clear-an-eprom">How Not To Clear an EPROM</h2>
<p>I ordered a ten-pack of used (!) 27C160 UV EPROMs online and was a bit surprised when only three of the ten arrived with the memory cleared. Unless I could figure out how to blank a UV EPROM, I would only have three chances to flash my synth&#8217;s EPROM. And since I had a ROM dump with 16-bit words of unknown endianness, there was a 50% chance that I&#8217;d need to try twice. This left me with only one EPROM to use in developing an EPROM programmer. So I decided to see if I could erase them to provide myself with a safety net.</p>
<p><img data-attachment-id="336265" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/fail-of-the-week-eproms-rats-nests-tanning-lamps-and-cardboard-on-fire/dscf1144/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1144.jpg" data-orig-size="2848,2136" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;FinePix F30&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1543844592&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;8&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;100&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0029411764705882&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="DSCF1144" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1144.jpg?w=400&#038;h=300" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1144.jpg?w=800" class="size-medium wp-image-336265 alignleft" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1144.jpg?w=400&#038;h=300" alt="" width="400" height="300" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1144.jpg?w=400&amp;h=300 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1144.jpg?w=800&amp;h=600 800w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1144.jpg?w=250&amp;h=188 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1144.jpg?w=768&amp;h=576 768w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /></p>
<p>I have read, in these very pages, tales of success erasing UV EPROMs <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/01/17/improvising-an-eprom-eraser/">with a UV LED</a> and by <a href="https://hackaday.com/2016/09/14/staring-at-the-sun-erasing-an-eprom/">harnessing the power of the sun</a>. My EPROM&#8217;s datasheet specifies &#8220;wavelengths shorter than 400 nm&#8221; and recommends &#8220;30 to 40 minutes using an UV lamp with 12 mW / cm<sup>2</sup> power rating.&#8221; It also suggests that approximately one week of exposure to direct sunlight would suffice. So these Hackaday stories sound plausible on the surface.</p>
<p>Maybe November sunlight in southern Germany doesn&#8217;t pack the same UV punch of full summer in southern California or wherever the datasheet was written, but the two chips that I left out on our balcony displayed <em>exactly</em> the same data after a week of exposure as they did beforehand. Not a single bit flipped, and there were four fully sunny days. Maybe it was the cold? I asked around Hackaday HQ, and Jenny said she&#8217;d tried once and it took three weeks or more over an English summer. This was clearly not the quick way to go.</p>
<p>So I tried a random UV LED from my junkbox, and got nothing. True UV LEDs are difficult and expensive to make, and this one was very visibly blue. So while it was failing to erase an EPROM on my desk, I mail-ordered something that stood a better chance of doing the trick: a $5 <a href="https://www.conrad.de/de/uv-emitter-375-nm-5-mm-radial-bedrahtet-nichia-nspu510cs-405648.html" target="_blank">375 nm Nichia UV diode</a>. It&#8217;s a 6 mW device at 375 nm,  instead of the 12 mW at 254 nm that mercury-based germicidal bulbs use, but it was the shortest wavelength I could get for a reasonable amount of money, and the datasheet says &#8220;under 400 nm&#8221;, right?</p>
<p><a href="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1136.jpg" target="_blank"><img data-attachment-id="336272" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/fail-of-the-week-eproms-rats-nests-tanning-lamps-and-cardboard-on-fire/dscf1136/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1136.jpg" data-orig-size="2848,2136" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;FinePix F30&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1543800172&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;8&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;1600&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.02&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="DSCF1136" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1136.jpg?w=400&#038;h=300" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1136.jpg?w=800" class="alignright wp-image-336272 size-medium" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1136.jpg?w=400&#038;h=300" alt="" width="400" height="300" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1136.jpg?w=400&amp;h=300 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1136.jpg?w=800&amp;h=600 800w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1136.jpg?w=250&amp;h=188 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1136.jpg?w=768&amp;h=576 768w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /></a>Well, kinda right. The good news is that bits were flipped. After 24 hours, some 10,000 bits read out as ones that had previously read as zero. The bad news is that there&#8217;s a big difference between an EPROM that has flipped a few thousand bits, resulting in corrupted data, and one that&#8217;s lost all 2,097,152 bits and is a clean slate.</p>
<p>From datasheets, the exposure curve is supposed to be S-shaped: a first very few bits flip, then most do, and then after a while the last reluctant bits give in. With the promise of this avalanche of ones, I left the LED running at 15 mA, the rated current, for four days. Each time I checked up on the chip, it made progress, but it was slow progress. Compared with a promised 40 minutes in a proper UV eraser, this was taking far too long. It&#8217;s also possible that these used chips are somewhat worn out and will require a little more persuasion anyway.</p>
<h2 id="the-fire">And Then I Set Things On Fire</h2>
<p>And then it struck me! My mother-in-law stashed her old tanning lamp in our basement about seven years ago, where it&#8217;s been taking up space and collecting sawdust ever since. Tanning lamps run on the same mercury UV bulbs used in the germicidal lamps, but they spread the UV out over a much wider area &#8212; a human body. If I could get an EPROM up close enough to the bulb, though, it just might work. So I grabbed some cardboard to use as backing, taped an EPROM directly to the lamp, and fired it up.</p>
<p><a href="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/DSCF1063.jpg" target="_blank"><img data-attachment-id="339257" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/fail-of-the-week-eproms-rats-nests-tanning-lamps-and-cardboard-on-fire/dscf1063/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/DSCF1063.jpg" data-orig-size="2848,2136" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;FinePix F30&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1542024195&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;16.1&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;400&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.008&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="DSCF1063" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/DSCF1063.jpg?w=400&#038;h=300" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/DSCF1063.jpg?w=800" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-339257" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/DSCF1063.jpg?w=400&#038;h=300" alt="" width="400" height="300" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/DSCF1063.jpg?w=400&amp;h=300 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/DSCF1063.jpg?w=800&amp;h=600 800w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/DSCF1063.jpg?w=250&amp;h=188 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/DSCF1063.jpg?w=768&amp;h=576 768w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /></a>I have since learned that tanning lamps also have a large IR heating element to simulate the warming effect of the sun. Taping cardboard to the sun is not recommended. After five minutes, my wife asked me what smelled like smoke, and I started running downstairs. When I arrived, there was a hot broken EPROM on the floor, and she was stomping out the cardboard fire. Dramatic! We aired out the house, and I placed an order for one of the $15 import EPROM erasers that evening.</p>
<p>Not to be beaten, I also fabricated a frame from aluminum that could hold an EPROM against the tanning lamp&#8217;s shield, but after three 30-minute sessions not a single bit was flipped. The UV in a tanning lamp is probably either filtered or defocused enough that it&#8217;s safer for human skin and not suitable for clearing EPROMs. Anyway, it&#8217;s not putting out the 12 mW / cm<sup>2</sup> that I need. So the cancer machine in my basement continues to be an albatross around my neck.</p>
<h2 id="programming-eproms-is-refreshingly-easy">Programming EPROMs is Refreshingly Easy</h2>
<p>I embarked on this EPROM-clearing journey because I only had three blanks out of ten ordered from eBay. Luckily for me, programming them turns out to be as easy as reading the datasheet and following the instructions. Basically, you&#8217;ll need a source of oddball voltages for programming the EPROM: 12 V for the hot-electron injection, and 6.5 V to provide a little margin during verification &#8212; if the FET won&#8217;t open at 6.5 V, it surely won&#8217;t open with the nominal 5 V operating voltage on the gate. Finally, you need a way to set up the chip&#8217;s address and data pins, but this is no big deal if you&#8217;re handy with a microcontroller.</p>
<p>My old synthesizer used 27C160 EPROMs, one of the last types of chips to be made before EEPROM, with an extra &#8220;E&#8221; for &#8220;electrically erasable&#8221; memories took over. As such, the 27C160 can store a still-impressive 2 MB, addressed as 1,048,576 16-bit words. This means that it has 16 output pins and 20 address pins, plus two more that need to be strobed to flash and verify the data respectively. That&#8217;s a lot of GPIO!</p>
<p><a href="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1159_thumbnail.png" target="_blank"><img data-attachment-id="336276" data-permalink="https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/fail-of-the-week-eproms-rats-nests-tanning-lamps-and-cardboard-on-fire/dscf1159_thumbnail/" data-orig-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1159_thumbnail.png" data-orig-size="900,600" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="DSCF1159_thumbnail" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1159_thumbnail.png?w=400&#038;h=267" data-large-file="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1159_thumbnail.png?w=800" class="size-medium wp-image-336276 alignleft" src="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1159_thumbnail.png?w=400&#038;h=267" alt="" width="400" height="267" srcset="https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1159_thumbnail.png?w=400&amp;h=267 400w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1159_thumbnail.png?w=800&amp;h=534 800w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1159_thumbnail.png?w=250&amp;h=167 250w, https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/dscf1159_thumbnail.png?w=768&amp;h=512 768w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /></a>I have a few <a href="http://wiki.stm32duino.com/index.php?title=STM32F407" target="_blank">budget black STM32F407 breakout boards</a> that I use for high-GPIO-count projects because it has three ports of 16-pins each that are essentially free for use and that means that I didn&#8217;t have to think hard about where the bits go or hook up shift registers. EPROMs are designed for old-school <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_level" target="_blank">TTL logic levels</a>, so you can even use a 3.3 V microcontroller without level shifters!</p>
<p>The firmware I used was equally simple, just reading in a value over the serial line while counting up the addresses and setting it up on the GPIO pins. Toggling the verify pin makes sure that the intended value &#8220;took&#8221;. I love writing up simple projects like this in <a href="https://hackaday.com/2017/04/19/moving-forth-with-mecrisp-stellaris-and-embello/">Forth</a>, because I can write and debug the code interactively and then automate things by sending the same text commands over the serial line from my laptop, where I can script up the hard stuff in Python. So the laptop-side code sends something like <code>12345 000000 program</code> over serial, and the Forth system automatically returns an &#8220;ok.&#8221; when it has programmed and verified that word. Each word took just about 15 milliseconds, which doesn&#8217;t sound bad until you multiply it by a million and get something like 4.5 hours. Oh well, I was just going to program one. Or two, if I messed up.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s ugly, but if you want to take a gander <a href="https://github.com/hexagon5un/Forth-vs-UV-EPROMS" target="_blank">it&#8217;s up on GitHub</a>. It&#8217;s easy.</p>
<p>In the end, I managed to code and verify my programmer firmware using only a single chip, which left two more blank EPROMs to burn one ROM image. Of course, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law" target="_blank">Muphry&#8217;s Law</a> struck, and the OS ROM data I found on the Internet was stored big-endian, and I had initially guessed at little-endian, so I got to burn the last blank EPROM that I had left.</p>
<h2 id="hammer-seeks-nail">Hammer Seeks Nail</h2>
<p>EPROMs are appealing in their simplicity. Unlike a modern, two-E, EEPROM <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/01/18/reading-out-an-eprom-with-dip-switches/">there&#8217;s no protocol of any sort here</a>. Simply impose voltages for an address on the pins and a decoder sets sixteen FET gates, and some of these tiny FETs open while others don&#8217;t. All of it happens within a few tens of nanoseconds. <a href="http://213.114.131.21/eprom/e-pla-00.htm" target="_blank">Any pattern of 20 bits can be mapped to any pattern of 16</a>. That&#8217;s memory!</p>
<p>Now what am I going to <em>do</em> with the remaining EPROMs once the UV eraser arrives? Their longevity and moderate obscurity might make one a good place to store secret key material. Maybe I&#8217;ll stash an EPROM with my GPG key in the safe deposit box along with the paper printout? Or use them as secret decoder rings for über-retro-nerds? Or maybe fetch some old, and historically accurate, drum machine samples and burn them in to recreate a LinnDrum? Hook up a ladder-DAC and build a 16-bit resolution arbitrary waveform generator? Sixteen outputs suggests a sixteen-segment display lookup table to me, but with a 20-bit address space I&#8217;d have room for every possible glyph 16 times over. That seems ridiculous.</p>
<p>What would you do with a small pile of EPROMs? And how would you erase them?</p>
<p>[Epilogue: The $15 UV eraser arrived, and did exactly what it should, in 15 minutes, and nothing caught on fire.]</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=338806
title: A Page-Turner On Kindle – One Step At A Time
author: Sven Gregori
url: https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/a-page-turner-on-kindle-one-step-at-a-time/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>You don&#8217;t have to be an avid bookworm to find use for an e-book reader. Take your local wedding band for example: with a big repertoire of songs to cover, you don&#8217;t really want to drag huge folders full of chords and lyrics around, tediously browsing through them to find the correct one for every new song. Even the biggest tree corpse enthusiast cannot deny the comfort of an e-book reader here. And since turning the page boils down to simply changing the content on a display, you don&#8217;t necessarily need to use your hands for that either. With that in mind, [mosivers] built <a href="https://www.instructables.com/id/Kindle-WiFi-Remote-Footswitch/" target="_blank">a WiFi foot switch for his musician brother&#8217;s Kindle</a> to flip backwards and forwards through the pages.</p>
<p>After jailbreaking the Kindle and installing busybox, [mosivers] set up a web server to serve two CGI scripts that write the previously recorded input events for forward and backward flipping respectively to <code>/dev/input/event0</code>, essentially simulating a touch screen press that way. The foot switch, as counterpart, houses a battery-powered ESP8266, acting as access point for the Kindle to connect to, and requesting those page flipping CGI scripts whenever one of its two buttons is pressed.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t like the idea of jailbreaking your device in order to change the pages without using your hands, you could of course consider combining <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/08/15/a-remotely-controlled-kindle-page-turner/">a more mechanical solution</a> with the foot switch concept. And in case you want to see more of [mosivers], <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/06/14/diy-talkbox-gives-you-more-bounce-to-the-ounce/">have a look at his DIY talk box project</a> we&#8217;ve covered earlier.</p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=338336
title: Wooden Clock To FPGA Conversion
author: Al Williams
url: https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/wooden-clock-to-fpga-conversion/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>[John] wanted a project to help him learn more about FPGAs. So he started with his wooden clock &#8212; made with an Arduino &#8212; and <a href="https://engineer.john-whittington.co.uk/2018/12/wooden-bits-binary-clock-fpga-port/" target="_blank">ported it over to a Lattice FPGA using Icestorm</a>. What&#8217;s nice is that he takes you through the steps he used to simulate the design using the Falsted simulator and then realizing it in the FPGA. Since he&#8217;s just starting out, it is a good bet he ran into the same rough edges you will (or did) and sometimes that can really help get you over the hump. You can see a video below, and the code for the project is on <a href="https://github.com/tuna-f1sh/wooden-bits-fpga" target="_blank">GitHub</a>.</p>
<p>For example, after mocking up a circuit design in Falstad he realized he could make one large counter instead of several modules, and he contrasts that to a more modular approach. He also ran into a feature that was simple for the Arduino but difficult for the FPGA. He got it working, but it took some optimization effort to make everything fit in the relatively small FPGA he was using.</p>
<p><span id="more-338336"></span></p>
<p>The original motivation for [John] was seeing how [Mattvenn] created <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/11/26/risc-v-cpu-gets-a-peripheral/">a custom peripheral for the RISC-V CPU</a>. In that case, you have a whole CPU at your disposal, but we agree that it was wise not to start with that as a first project.</p>
<p>We also liked the approach of thinking about the logic first and then moving on to the Verilog. Granted, if you have a lot of experience it is customary to skip that step and just visualize your desired logic in Verilog, but that comes with experience.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ve written a lot about the Icestorm project in the past, including our own <a href="https://hackaday.com/2018/08/06/learn-fpga-fast-with-hackadays-fpga-boot-camp/">getting started tutorials</a>. But sometimes having a choice of examples and starter projects can make things easier.</p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/U5OJ7-_I_tY?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>


guid: http://hackaday.com/?p=339140
title: Custom Mini 4WD Runs On Steam
author: Lewin Day
url: https://hackaday.com/2019/01/02/custom-mini-4wd-runs-on-steam/
feedurl: https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/
content:
<p>Tamiya&#8217;s Mini 4WD toy line primarily consists of small 1:32 scale toy cars powered by AA batteries, which have no remote control and are guided around a plastic track by horizontally oriented drive wheels. Tuning and racing these cars is popular in many parts of the world, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCe5iiKojno" target="_blank">but this build is a little different.</a></p>
<p>After initial experiments with a modified Tamiya chassis are unsuccessful, a fresh build using a bespoke aluminium chassis is begun. A sturdy boiler is created, feeding into a piston which is used to drive all four wheels through a series of driveshafts.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s interesting to watch the iterative design process solve various problems such as piston wear and gearing. Performance is underwhelming for those used to the immense speed of the electric toys, but we&#8217;d love to see a competition series using steam powered racers.</p>
<p>We don&#8217;t see a whole lot of steam hacks around here, <a href="https://hackaday.com/2017/06/08/suffer-no-substitutes-the-hudspith-steam-bicycle-is-one-of-a-kind/">but the Hudspith steam bicycle is something to marvel at.</a> Video after the break.</p>
<p><span id="more-339140"></span></p>
<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='800' height='480' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/XCe5iiKojno?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'></iframe></p>


guid: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3068701/eu-bug-bounty-open-source
title: The EU opens its own bug bounty program for open source software
url: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3068701/eu-bug-bounty-open-source
feedurl: https://www.theinquirer.net/feeds/rss/tag/open-source
content:
 
        <img alt="The EU opens its own bug bounty program for open source software" src="http://www.theinquirer.net/w-images/5e8679b7-d583-4e65-a8fd-082855db3c36/3/Euros-185x114.jpg" />
         <p><!--summary start-->That's one way of keeping EU funding post-Brexit<!--summary end--></p>         
         


guid: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1435681
title: Chrome is getting a dark mode on Windows to match the one for macOS
author: Peter Bright
url: http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/open-source/~3/zzI7P2h5fkU/
feedurl: http://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/open-source
content:
<div id="rss-wrap">
<figure class="intro-image intro-left"><img src="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/chrome-dark-mode-800x620.png" alt="Chrome's dark mode."><p class="caption" style="font-size:0.8em"><a href="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/chrome-dark-mode.png" class="enlarge-link" data-height="909" data-width="1173">Enlarge</a> <span class="sep">/</span> Chrome's dark mode. </p>  </figure><div><a name="page-1"></a></div>
<p>Chrome 73 is going to <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/12/macos-mojaves-dark-mode-is-coming-to-google-chrome/">include support for macOS 10.14's dark mode</a>, with an alternative color scheme for its user interface that cuts the brightness. It's now clear that a Windows version of the same is in development, though it seems it will trail the macOS version.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=838670">bug report</a> was spotted <a href="https://techdows.com/2019/01/google-chrome-on-windows-10-to-get-dark-mode-support.html">by Techdows</a>, and <a href="https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/1240172/10#message-58c7db7c4f97d657c1691cb4b73a7e20aff8ca78">preliminary work</a> has been started to bring Windows its dark mode. Unlike its macOS counterpart, which should track the operating-system mode, the Windows dark mode currently has to be forcibly turned on with a command-line switch. Adding "--force-dark-mode" to the command line of current builds of Chrome 73 makes everything dark.</p>
<div class="image shortcode-img center full">
<img alt="The dark theme is still unfinished, hence this menu with almost illegible black text on a dark grey background." src="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/bad-dark-theme.png"><p class="caption" style="font-size:0.8em">The dark theme is still unfinished, hence this menu with almost illegible black text on a dark grey background. </p>
</div>
<p>The macOS work has top priority (P1). The Windows work is only P2 (originally P3), surprisingly suggesting that it's less important, even though Chrome has far more Windows 10 users than it does macOS users. Development of the Windows theme was at least, for a time, hindered by one of the developers not <a href="https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/1240172/10#message-12ef8f715a36e599abc15db3da931b36bb807622">having a Windows laptop to use</a>.</p>
</div><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1435681#p3">Read 2 remaining paragraphs</a> | <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1435681&comments=1">Comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/arstechnica/open-source/~4/zzI7P2h5fkU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>


guid: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1437073
title: TIL: Firefox has a little-known feature to spare your blushes on the new-tab page
author: Peter Bright
url: http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/open-source/~3/niQzt5cAVl8/
feedurl: http://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/open-source
content:
<div id="rss-wrap">
<figure class="intro-image intro-left"><img src="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/firefox-new-tab-page-800x483.png" alt='That "Top Sites" section should never contain anything too embarrassing.'><p class="caption" style="font-size:0.8em"><a href="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/firefox-new-tab-page.png" class="enlarge-link" data-height="1160" data-width="1920">Enlarge</a> <span class="sep">/</span> That "Top Sites" section should never contain anything too embarrassing. </p>  </figure><div><a name="page-1"></a></div>
<p>For many of us, our browsers' new-tab pages are something of a liability. Whichever browser you use, they all follow a fairly similar style: a bunch of boxes linking to the sites that we use and visit regularly. This is great when your regular sites are Ars, Gmail, and Twitter. But all too often, sites of a less salubrious nature find their way onto our new-tab pages, disclosing to the world our dirty habits when nobody's watching. While we can, of course, clean up our new-tab pages by Xing out the buttons for the offending sites, a moment of inattention can all too easily expose our pornographic predilections to the world.</p>
<p>But one browser is working to protect our secrets: Firefox. A redditor <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/achchj/firefox_easter_egg/">spotted</a> (via <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/firefox-has-a-secret-porn-filter-that-prevents-adult-sites-from-showing-up-on-your-new-tab-page/">ZDNet</a>, <a href="https://techdows.com/2019/01/firefox-makes-sure-adult-content-doesnt-appear-on-new-tab-page-to-save-you-from-embarrassments.html">Techdows</a>) that Firefox contains code to spare your blushes. The browser contains a hard-coded list of adult site domains, and if one of your most-visited sites is one of those domains, it will automatically be hidden from the new-tab page. As long as your porn viewing is reasonably mainstream, you never need to worry about Firefox spilling the beans.</p>
<p>It turns out that this isn't actually a new feature. Much like <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/08/this-one-neat-chrome-trick-just-blew-my-mind/">Chrome's advanced tab management capabilities</a>, it's an old feature that's been newly spotted. Mozilla added the code to the browser about four years ago. It wasn't actually created to prevent potential new-tab page embarrassment; rather, it was to aid Firefox's commercialization efforts. Mozilla experimented with having sponsored content on the new-tab page, allowing companies to pay to have their sites promoted in those buttons. Many advertisers don't relish the thought of having their precious brands juxtaposed with Internet filth, so the Firefox developers <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1159884">added the blacklisting capability</a> to try to prevent porn from appearing alongside sponsored content.</p>
</div><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1437073#p3">Read 3 remaining paragraphs</a> | <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1437073&comments=1">Comments</a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/arstechnica/open-source/~4/niQzt5cAVl8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>


