Table of Contents

Welcome From The Chief Editor

Inkscape Tutorial: Common Inkscape Mistakes

Short Topix: Epik Data Breach Impacts Millions, Customer & Non-Customers Alike

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Stromboli

Focus On Software Patents & Copyrights

Recording Audio Easily On PCLinuxOS

Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

Customize Your Next Google Search

Repo Review: Bookworm

The Road Towards A Free Ebook Reader

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Extra: Brown Sugar Meatloaf

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Screenshot Showcase

Welcome From The Chief Editor

Aye, aye, aye! It's hard to believe that it is already Fall. Well, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Our brothers and sisters in the Southern Hemisphere are entering their Spring.

With Fall comes the annual changing of the leaves. Kids look forward to Halloween. Summer gardens die back with the first frost of the fall. The lawn mowers and other summer lawn tools are stored away until Spring comes around again.

And then there is Daylight Savings Time. Ugh!

Time is time. It's mankind's attempts to define it that is manmade. That definition exists so that us mere mortals can wrap our tiny little minds around it. To provide some order to that definition of time, as we understand it, man invented clocks and calendars as a way to track the passing of time.

And then, at least for colonial America, Benjamin Franklin had this idea to implement Daylight Savings Time as a way to save on candles and lamp oil. Now, ol' Ben was a wise fellow, and he had a lot of really good ideas and inventions. And, while he didn't invent Daylight Savings Time, he was a proponent for its adoption. On one of his many trips to France, he noticed how Parisians adjusted their schedules to make better use of the available sunlight, thus saving on candles and lamp oil. He even wrote about it. Below is a brief quote from the Franklin Institute:

Daylight saving time--the practice of moving the clock forward one hour--has many critics. Losing an hour of sleep only to wake up to darkness? No thanks. But is Benjamin Franklin to blame for this "invention"?

Daylight saving time is one thing that Franklin did not invent. He merely suggested Parisians change their sleep schedules to save money on candles and lamp oil.

The common misconception comes from a satirical essay he wrote in the spring of 1784 that was published in the Journal de Paris. In the essay, titled "An Economical Project," he writes of the thrifty benefits of daylight versus artificial light. He describes how--when woken by a loud noise at 6 a.m.--he noticed that the sun had already risen.

"Your readers, who with me have never seen any sign of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises. I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes."

His conclusions? Rising with the sun would save the citizens of Paris, where he was living at the time, a great deal of money: "An immense sum! That the city of Paris might save every year, by the economy of using sunshine instead of candles."

Tongue firmly in cheek, Franklin went on to propose regulations to ensure Parisians became early risers:

First. Let a tax be laid of a louis [gold coin] per window, on every window that is provided with shutters to keep out the light of the sun.

Second ... Let guards be placed in the shops of the wax and tallow chandlers, and no family be permitted to be supplied with more than one pound of candles per week.

Third. Let guards also be posted to stop all the coaches, etc. that would pass the streets after sunset, except those of physicians, surgeons, and midwives.

Fourth. Every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the bells in every church be set ringing; and if that is not sufficient? Let cannon be fired in every street, to wake the sluggards effectually, and make them open their eyes to see their true interest.

"For the great benefit of this discovery, thus freely communicated and bestowed by me on the public, I demand neither place, pension, exclusive privilege, nor any other reward whatever," he continued. "I expect only to have the honour of it."

So who did first propose daylight saving time? We can place the blame on a New Zealand entomologist, George Hudson, who wanted more daylight in the evenings and presented the idea in 1895.

Well! Thanks alot, Mr. Hudson! Thank you very much! [/sarcasm]

As a result, governments and their legislators got into the game. After all, they had to prevent chaos, and with some areas observing Daylight Savings Time and others not observing it, there would be utter chaos. And if there's one thing that politicians love, it's control. So, they set out to "control" the position of the hands on a clock. Yep. That very same manmade clock we use to mark the passage of time.

In the U.S., there has been some form of Daylight Savings Time since the energy crisis in the 1970s. We were told that it would help "save energy." A 2017 meta-analysis of 44 studies found that Daylight Savings Time ... are you ready for this? ... produces only 0.3% electricity savings. Otherwise, virtually no energy savings.

City dwellers in industrialized nations have to be at work at a specific time, and don't set their work schedules by the rising and setting sun. Agrarian workers ... farmers, ranchers, etc. ... work from when the sun rises until the sun sets. The animals, like dairy cows, know nothing about a clock. Their "cycles" of wake and sleep are governed by sunrise and sunset. If your job is taking care of those animals, then you had better adapt to their schedule. As such, most agrarian workers are opposed to Daylight Savings Time.

What's worse, is no one can agree on whether to implement Daylight Savings Time, much less when to do so. In the UK and EU, Daylight Savings Time ends October 31, and reappears in March. In the U.S., Daylight Savings Time ends on November 7, and reappears again in March. Much of Asia and Africa don't even mess with Daylight Savings Time at all.

So, in the effort to avoid chaos and confusion, the "solution" has created a whole different circumstance for chaos to reign supreme. Even in the U.S., there are states that don't observe Daylight Savings Time, because they are divided by two time zones. Talk about confusion!

Furthermore, there's ample evidence that Daylight Savings Time has a negative effect on people's health. This article on Health.com lists seven ways Daylight Savings Time can have an impact on your health.

In a way, we are fooling ourselves with the foolishness of thinking we are gaining more hours of sunlight by messing with the hands on the clock. On any given day, there are a certain number of hours of daylight available. If you want to avail yourself of that daylight, then get up when the sun rises, and go to bed when the sun sets, just like our ancestors did, and just as the other animals on this planet do.

Daylight Savings Time has long outlived its usefulness. Let's just pick one time, whether it's "Standard Time" or "Daylight Savings Time," and just stick to it. Personally, my vote is for just maintaining Standard Time all year round. Bouncing the hands back and forth on a clock introduces more chaos and havoc than the meager benefits we receive from doing so.

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity, prosperity ... and continued good health. Stay safe!

Inkscape Tutorial: Common Inkscape Mistakes

by Meemaw

I've subscribed to several YouTube pages, just like many people have. One of the pages I've subscribed to is named Logos by Nick. In his channela he has many tutorials for GIMP and Inkscape. In this one, he describes five mistakes that new Inkscape users make. Let's look:

1. Trying to perform path operations on objects that aren't paths. Items that are grouped won't edit using path operations, and objects that haven't been converted to paths (Path > Object to path) can't be edited either. Make sure your object actually is a path, and ungrouped from other objects, before you edit it. If you click on it, and it doesn't say "path" in the status box at the bottom of the window, or you can't do what you're trying to do, you need to change something.

2. Trying to edit very complicated paths with the node tool. Nick says this can actually lock up your computer, and I've had my computer lock up before.... not fun! Either delete some nodes, simplify your drawing or break it up into smaller sections that you can work on one at a time. This might have too many nodes -

3. Not knowing about scaling strokes. I actually hadn't thought of this, but you can change the setting on your stroke. When I drew the circle below, I set the stroke at 10 px. When I resized it larger, the stroke changed to 16 px. If you unselect the button on the right of your window, the stroke will stay the size you set it, even if you resize your object.

4. Forgetting to disable snapping. Snapping can be very useful! If you have two objects and you want the sides to touch without overlapping, snapping works well. However, sometimes you need to move things around without them snapping together. You may even need them to overlap. Many of the covers I make have characters in them that need to stand together, but one in front of another rather than elbow to elbow or flipper to flipper. If you forget and things start snapping where you don't want them to, simply press <SHIFT + 5>, or, if you have your Snap toolbar active (View >Show/Hide > Snap Controls Bar), you can click on the Toggle snapping on/off button to turn it off.

5. Exporting images the wrong way (drawing, page, selection). I actually do this a lot! Exporting your creation can be done three different ways, which I'm sure you already know, but let's clarify it. At the top of your Export window there are tabs, as shown here:

Export drawing - I don't know about you, but when I'm working on a drawing, I generally "store" extras to the side of my page. If I go to the Export window, and have nothing selected, the program defaults to "Export drawing" which exports everything you have - including anything you may have "stored" to the side. In the following cover work, exporting the drawing would have included everything you see there, even though very little of it is on the page (you can see my page boundaries there in the center)...

.... and how it looks after it's exported.

If you want ONLY the items on the page exported, you have to export the PAGE.

Export page - this exports only the items that are on your page and nothing else. As for the drawing above, the Tux at right was half on the page and half off, so it exported the half that was on.

Export selection - You can use this if you have created a specific item that you might want to use again. After creating it and possibly grouping it, simply select it, then choose Export selection, and only your selection will be saved. For the April, 2011 issue, I made a magazine cover with a baseball field and the crowd on the bleachers in the background. I saved the crowd separately from the whole picture:

I found a thing or two that I hadn't thought of before (and I've been using Inkscape for a long time!) I hope you learned something as well.

Short Topix: Epik Data Breach Impacts Millions, Customer & Non-Customers Alike

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

The Assault On Your Privacy: Monthly Update

AN EXPOSÉ BY PROPUBLICA details how Facebook has undermined "privacy protections" for its 2 billion WhatsApp users. Despite assuring users that no one can see their posts, Facebook runs an extensive monitoring operation, and even regularly shares personal information with prosecutors. It's odd typing "Facebook" and "privacy" in the same sentence, as the two are as antithetical as any two words could possibly be. This just illustrates that point perfectly.

PROTONMAIL HAS REMOVED "WE DO NOT KEEP ANY IP LOGS" FROM ITS PRIVACY POLICY, according to an article on ArsTechnica. Based in Switzerland, the privacy-focused email provider was forced by Swiss courts to log and disclose a French climate activist's IP address and browser fingerprint to Swiss authorities. Being a Swiss-based company, ProtonMail was forced to comply with a Swiss court injunction ordering it to log the IP address and browser fingerprint of the particular ProtonMail account. Since then, ProtonMail has changed its privacy statement to users, removing "By default, we do not keep any IP logs that can be linked to your anonymous email account". The replacement privacy statement is a bit muddier, and makes no mention of logging IP addresses.

In more Facebook news, a lawsuit (PDF) by shareholders filed back in August 2021 and just made public against Facebook and Facebook upper management discloses that FACEBOOK PAID $4.9 BILLION MORE TO SETTLE A FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION LAWSUIT FOR THE CAMBRIDGE-ANALYTICA SCANDAL than it had to. And why, you might ask? All to "protect" CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg from being named as a defendant, or to keep him from even having to give a deposition in the case, according to an article on The Guardian.

According to a blog entry from the internet security company called Expel, they HAVE IDENTIFIED THE TOP PHISHING KEYWORDS FROM THE LAST 10,000 MALICIOUS EMAILS THEY HAVE INVESTIGATED. Emails with the following words were associated with phishing attempts: Invoice, Message, Required, Request, and Action, among others. Believe it or not, even emails where the subject line was left blank made the list. If you're concerned about phishing attempts (defined by Merriam-Webster's online dictionary as a scam by which an Internet user is duped (as by a deceptive email message) into revealing personal or confidential information which the scammer can use illicitly), you might want to head on over to the blog entry to see the full article.

Get Ready: Windows 11 "Debuts" October 5

Just in time for Halloween, the scary ... er, new ... Windows 11 makes its public debut on October 5, according to a Microsoft Windows blog. The new version of Windows will be available free to Windows 10 users with eligible PCs. Also, new computers preloaded with Windows 11 will start to become available then.

Windows 11 sports a new, cleaner desktop look, along with a new Microsoft Store to allow easier access to the programs and apps users want (according to the blog). The rollout of the free Windows 11 upgrade will be done in phases, with the hopes of not repeating the frequent missteps of the Windows 10 updates. Microsoft hopes to offer the free upgrade to all eligible devices by mid-2022.

The blog also stated that Windows 10, whether it's on PCs that aren't eligible for update to Windows 11 or deferred by users who don't wish to upgrade to Windows 11, will be supported until October 14, 2025.

Epik Data Breach Impacts Millions, Customers & Non-Customers Alike

You may not have heard of Epik, an internet domain name registrar and web hosting service. But, you probably have heard of Gab, Parler, 8chan, and even the Republican Party of Texas. These right-of-center conservative websites (and in some instances, far, far right-wing websites) found refuge on Epik from increasing attacks by those perceived to subscribe to a more leftist view of politics.

Thanks to the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, a data breach amounting to 180 GiB of data listing the names, addresses, email addresses, and much more of those associated with the right-wing websites was released as a torrent file. Altogether, the breach spanned data from much of the past decade, according to an article from The Daily Dot. The breach was widely reported on by many media outlets. To put the breach into perspective, the Daily Dot article said, "A Linux engineer tasked with conducting an impact assessment on behalf of a client who uses Epik's services told the Daily Dot that the breach was one of the worst he had ever seen. "They are fully compromised end-to-end," they said. "Maybe the worst I've ever seen in my 20-year career."" The data, pointed out by the Linux engineer, was stored as plain text.

In the wake of its hack, dubbed Operation EPIK FAIL by Anonymous, they said in a now unreachable press release on the 4chan website that the data includes "domain registrations, domain transfers, passwords, account credentials for all of Epik's customers, logins, more than a half-million private keys, payment history, and more," according to another article from The Daily Dot. "This dataset is all that's needed to trace actual ownership and management of the fascist side of the Internet that has eluded researchers, activists, and, well, just about everybody," continued the press release.

Epik had initially denied the data breach, but then its CEO, Robert Monster, sent an email out to Epik customers the next day warning them of the data breach. Because of the Epik CEO's initial response to queries about the data breach, Anonymous took it upon themselves to "alter" the company's official knowledge base, as well.

An article on ArsTechnica pointed out that Epik had scraped and stored registrar data for websites it did not host, and that data was part of what was included in the data breach. That exposed data for customers and non-customers alike among the over 15 million data records released in the data breach. Another article on TechCrunch revealed that a security researcher reached out to the Epik CEO a few weeks before the data breach to let them know about a security vulnerability, but his message to Monster on LinkedIn went unanswered and unheeded. Gauging by the date stamps on the files involved, the data breach appears to have happened sometime in February 2021.

Update Google Chrome Now: 11 Security Fixes

If you are a Google Chrome browser user and you don't run updates on your PCLinuxOS computer very frequently, you might want to run your updates sooner rather than later. For example, I'm guilty of not running updates more than once a month. I'm more of the mind of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." See! I wouldn't make a very good developer. They seem to subscribe to the motto "fix it until it breaks."

Google has released Google Chrome version 93.0.4577.82 to address 11 security issues. This update is currently in the PCLinuxOS repository. Google paid $20,000 in bounty money to the security researchers who discovered just the first three of the security issues listed below. The discoverers of the other eight security issues are still awaiting payment of their bounty booty, with those amounts still to be determined, according to a blog that covers Google Chrome browser releases.

Here are the security issues that were discovered. All were given a "high risk" rating.

CVE-2021-30625: Use after free in Selection API
CVE-2021-30626: Out of bounds memory access in ANGLE.
CVE-2021-30627: Type Confusion in Blink layout.
CVE-2021-30628: Stack buffer overflow in ANGLE.
CVE-2021-30629: Use after free in Permissions.
CVE-2021-30630: Inappropriate implementation in Blink.
CVE-2021-30631: Type Confusion in Blink layout.
CVE-2021-30632: Out of bounds write in V8.
CVE-2021-30633: Use after free in Indexed DB API.

Google has acknowledged that exploits already exist "out in the wild" for the last two security issues listed above.

If you want to know more about each security issue, just use your favorite internet search engine to search for the CVE number listed above (e.g., CVE-2021-XxXxX). In doing so myself, I discovered that some of these security issues aren't just for Google Chrome. Some of these security issues affect all of the browsers that use the Chromium code base, such as Chromium, Opera, Edge, Vivaldi, and (of course) Google Chrome.

Different Rules For Me & Thee

Whether you use Facebook or not, you probably know someone who has spent time in what is euphemistically known as "Facebook Jail." I'm not a Facebook user (never have, never will), but I know a few people who are routinely in "Facebook Jail." That is where the user's account is suspended for a period of time for breaking Facebook "rules."

Well, according to an article from Gizmodo, those "rules" can be rather "fluid," depending on if you are an entertainer, politician, or some other kind of "influencer." Despite ad nauseum claims of treating everyone equally, Facebook has run an internal program called "XCheck" for years. This program essentially allows the rich and powerful to play by their own rules, without fearing moderation that the rest of the peon users are subjected to.

It's claimed that the XCheck program was created to help add an extra layer of review for high-profile users. But the net effect is that the XCheck program allows those same high-profile users to circumvent the ordinary moderation process, and helps Facebook avoid unwanted "PR firestorms."

So, essentially, the rich, powerful and influential members of Facebook get preferential treatment, allowed to post content that would result in disciplinary action for "ordinary" users.

Tsk, tsk, tsk! Shame on you, Facebook! Or, should it be shame on Facebook users, for supporting a platform that behaves this way? It's this type of behavior that fans the flames for breaking up companies like Facebook. They certainly don't do themselves any favors with this type of behavior.

PCLinuxOS Magazine Short Topix Roundup

AN ISRAELI ANTIVIRAL HIV DRUG HAS PROVEN TO BE AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT FOR COVID-19, according to an article on The Jerusalem Post. Code Pharma's Codivir drug is preparing to enter Stage 2 clinical trials. Early use in a small number of COVID-19 patients (12) showed a direct antiviral effect against coronavirus. According to the article, "five of the patients showed a very profound decline in the viral load during the treatment. Codivir significantly suppressed viral replication in all patients with an antiviral effect noted as early as three days after the beginning of treatment." The Stage 2 trials will be expanded to 150 patients in a double blind study, and if the early results hold to be true, Code Pharma plans to ask for emergency use authorization at the end of the Stage 2 trials. The Stage 2 trials are expected to last between three and six months.

ONE TECH COMPANY IS BUCKING THE SILICON VALLEY TREND BY SEEKING OUT OLDER DEVELOPERS, according to an article on TechRepublic. It's no secret that the younger programmers are in high demand in Silicon Valley tech firms, and the age discrimination against older programmers is often open and blatant. The employment ad, posted on RelevantDB.com, reads like any other programmer ad. That is, until you get to the end, where it reads, "Unlike Silicon Valley, we do not discriminate based on age. Experience matters. We hire old people. (And young people, too.)." It concludes by asking for principal applicants, and asking for no recruiters to respond.

ONE HACKER GOT CAUGHT IN A PRETTY EMBARRASSING WAY when he failed to separate his illegal activities from his personal activities. The Ukrainian hacker would use a botnet to brute-force crack 2,000 passwords a week, and then sell those passwords on the dark web, according to an article on TechRadar. Except authorities were able to scan the contents of the Gmail addresses Glib Oleksandr Ivanov-Tolpintsev used to conduct his illegal activity. There, mixed amongst his illegal activity, were his messages and orders to Ukrainian vape shops, complete with his full name and address. The hacker was arrested in Poland, and extradited to the U.S., where he will stand trial.

TIRING OF MICROSOFT'S STONEWALLING BY MAKING IT VERY CUMBERSOME TO SWITCH TO ANY OTHER BROWSER THAN MICROSOFT EDGE, Mozilla has reverse engineered the Microsoft-only process for designating Edge as the default browser in Windows 10, according to an article on The Verge. The end result is that Mozilla Firefox can now be set as the default browser on Windows 10 from within the Firefox browser, as of Firefox 91. All of the "heavy lifting" is done in the background, and without user hassle. Microsoft is ignoring a six-year ongoing plea from Mozilla by making it even more difficult to set a default browser in Windows 11 other than Microsoft Edge.

ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE UPDATED ITS TOP 500 SONGS OF ALL TIME LIST for the first time in 17 years. With something as subjective as music, you can imagine the fallout over this new list. Over half of the songs on the new list weren't on the old 2004 list, including one-third of the top 100. If you're like me, you will be wondering "how did that make it onto a list of the top 500 songs of all time" when you see its appearance on the list. What surprised me most were the songs and artists that didn't make it onto the list. I'm certain that your opinion, while unique to you and your life experiences and taste in music, will be similar to mine.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner:

Stromboli

Serves 3-4
Unit converter

INGREDIENTS:

  Stromboli Dough

    1 3/4 - 2 1/4 cups of flour
    1 envelope Yeast
    1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    2/3 cup of very warm water (120° to 130° F)
    3 tablespoons olive oil
    1 egg, beaten (egg wash)

  Toppings (all or a combo of the following)

    1/2 cup marinara sauce II like garlic and onion marinara)
    1/2 teaspoon dried basil
    1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
    1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
    crushed red pepper flakes to taste*
    3/4 cups grated mozzarella cheese
    3/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese
    1/4 pound cooked Italian sausage
    9-12 slices pepperoni
    6 slices deli honey ham
    1/2 small green bell pepper very thinly sliced, sauteed 3 minutes
    1/2 small onion very thinly sliced, sauteed 3 minutes
    1 cup very thinly sliced uncooked mushrooms
    1/4 cup sliced black olives

  Garnish

    freshly grated Parmesan cheese
    Garlic salt
    extra pizza sauce for dipping (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Stromboli Dough: Combine 1 cup flour, undissolved yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add water and oil and mix together until well blended (you can do this by hand or with your mixer). Gradually add flour, mixing in 1/2 cup at a time, until dough forms a ball. Add additional flour, if needed to handle but the dough should be slightly sticky. Spoon dough out of bowl onto floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and elastic; about 4 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425°F degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll stromboli dough out into a large rectangle, about 10 by 14 inches on the parchment paper.

Stromboli: Stir parsley, basil, oregano and crushed red pepper flakes to taste (do not use red pepper if you are using Hot Italian Sausage) into 1/2 cup marinara sauce and lightly spread sauce over the dough, leaving a 2 inch plain dough border along the edges. Top sauce with half the grated cheeses, followed by meats, then vegetables followed by remaining cheese.

Brush the plain border of dough with the egg wash. Roll up the Stromboli lengthwise like a jelly roll and pinch edges to seal. Brush the entire Stromboli with egg wash and gently cut slats in the top of the dough every 1-2 inches. Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan and lightly sprinkle with garlic salt. Bake for 15-25 minutes** at 425°F or until golden, covering with foil at the end of baking if necessary to prevent excess cheese browning.

Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve with extra marinara sauce if desired.

NOTES:

* add red pepper flakes to sauce

** Baking time can vary widely depending on the amount of toppings and content moisture of toppings/vegetables. The more toppings, the longer the baking time.

NUTRITION:

Calories: 320           Carbs: 36g           Sodium: 1310mg           Fiber: 1g           Protein: 15g

Focus On Software Patents & Copyright

Editor's Note: This pair of articles shines a light on the persistent threat posed by software patents and copyrights.

The threat of software patents persists

by Free Software Foundation Contributors: Panos Alevropoulos
Reprinted under Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 license

At the Free Software Foundation (FSF) we have reported extensively on many issues concerning user freedom. In this article, we will reintroduce a problem that has plagued the free software community for many years: the problem of software patents. In the past, we had several successful campaigns against them, and people have mistakenly assumed that the threat has gone away. It has not. Patents have steadily been dominating the software sector, and the situation is bound to get worse.

Before we delve into the complexities of this issue, it's important to know the basics: a patent is a legal tool that gives its owner the right to prevent others from using an invention in any way for a limited period of years. A software patent is a patent that applies to software.

What follows will answer a number of questions: what software patents are; what their history is; what their legal status is today; what problem is posed by their enforcement; how our past successful campaigns were not enough to eliminate them; and finally, how you can help us fight against them, today. Unfortunately, for a proper explanation we ought to get a bit technical, but please bear with us.

A brief history of software patents

First, of all, the concept of software patents has been around for a long time (even since the 1960s), but the debate on the patentability of software became widespread when the Free Software Foundation was founded in the 1980s. While the FSF does not take a position on the impact of patents in other spheres, we consider them to be both unethical and counterproductive in the field of software. One of the most worrying effects of software patents is the way they prevent new software from being written, yet even if this weren't the case, software patents would still be an inherently unethical restriction on individual freedom. Even in the 1980s, it was clear that the magnitude of the problem was such that Richard Stallman founded the (now defunct) League for Programming Freedom in 1989, an organization aiming to ally all developers (including those of proprietary software) against software patents.

Today, few people are aware of the dangers behind software patents, and how the world is affected by them. To give a quick overview, in the US, patents are handled by the federal courts, while Europe has different, independent national laws on patents. Recently, however, the adoption of the Unitary Patent and the Unitary Patent Court are bound to replace regulations of individual EU member states with ones that are valid for the entirety of the EU, making (software) patent enforcement in Europe drastically easier. Globally, each country has unique patent laws and the patentability of software may differ considerably. But the general picture is that software patents are continuously granted.

It is crucial to emphasize that software patents are enforced without ever going through a process of direct approval by the public. In 2002, a proposal was made to legitimize software patents in the EU, but it was defeated in the European Parliament by an overwhelming majority of 648 to 14 votes, thanks in part to a massive effort by the free software movement and its allies. The success of that campaign demonstrated that people are able to change the course of proposed life-affecting policies, provided that they are included in the process, and properly informed. Unfortunately, the course of events both then and now also proves that democracy requires the utmost vigilance, and any period of relaxation works against the will of the people. Despite the defeat of the software patent directive in 2002, the software industry has successfully pushed for new policies that will favor it. This is where the aforementioned Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court come into play, since it is well known that the European Patent Office has a vested interest in expanding patent dominance in all fields, particularly in the software sector.

Software patents constitute a critical attack on user freedom

The issue of software patents is a particular one. To understand the extent of patents, it is necessary to distinguish patent law from copyright law. While copyright covers the original expression of an idea (for example, software and literary works), patents cover inventions. There is an important difference here. Copyright is applied automatically, whereas patents require a formal registration process. Also, in the case of patents, patent examiners have to judge which patent application falls within the criteria of a patent-eligible invention. This task can be very complicated, since the range of technical claims is by nature extremely wide. So, the question is: can software be regarded as a patent-eligible invention?

We believe it cannot. Software should not be patentable, because it is inherently composed of mathematical logic, which is excluded from patentable subject matter. In practice, the effects of software patents are so restrictive that they affect the development of all kinds of software, not just free software. While the most common argument for patents is that they promote innovation, the opposite is true more often than not. Every time a programmer develops new software, it is almost inevitable that they will infringe not one, but many patents. One reason for this is that patent offices around the world have applied particularly lax criteria for software patent registration. Another reason has to do with the nature of software on general purpose computers. As such, developers walk into an invisible patent minefield, since no one can practically be aware of all the patents in the world.

Naturally, one would ask: is this a problem just for software patents or patents in general? The answer is not so simple. Some people may have arguments against patents in general, but the special case of software patents is in fact widely acknowledged. In an apt article, Richard Posner pointed out that in order to define an invention under patent law, we must evaluate both the cost of inventing and the cost of copying. At one extreme, we have the pharmaceutical industry, which has very expensive production costs, but very cheap reproducibility of its products, and claims to be financially dependent on patents. At the other extreme, we have the proprietary software industry, which already uses copyright as a means to curtail user and developer freedom, and which has now roped in patent law to assist them in that. Software, with its inexpensive production costs, has never been financially dependent on patents: in the matter of fact, not only is there more than adequate proof that software can and does progress without patents, but patents can also actively prevent that progress from happening.

Battles were won, but the war is not over

So how are software patents issued? Although at a high level, patent laws around the world regard software as abstract, non-novel ideas, and thus not patentable, lawyers are able to fool judges with clever wording of their technical claims.

For example, in Europe, proponents of software patents -- mainly multinational corporations and patent lawyers -- avoid using the term "software patent," because they know it reveals their intentions. Article 52 of the European Patent Convention explicitly forbids patents for "programs for computers," but only when inventions are regarded "as such." The European Patent Office interprets the "as such" as nullifying the exclusion. As a result, software patents are issued in Europe despite the rejection of the relevant directive in the past.

Similarly, in the US, the term "computer-implemented invention" has become rather popular, but its definition is ambiguous on purpose. Despite Supreme Court cases Alice and Bilski being regarded as having restrictive rulings on the patentability of software, the judges chose not to clear the legal landscape. Today, there are still many court case inconsistencies, and the US Patent and Trademark Office continues to grant software patents.

We can only strengthen our cause with your help

If everything above sounds confusing, that's because it is. The issue of software patents is very complicated, and most people have never even heard of the term. In any case, the end result is that software patents are still being issued. In this article, we have only scratched the surface in regard to how software patents affect us. If you are unfamiliar with software patents, you can learn more at our End Software Patents wiki. If you are familiar with the issue, please consider contributing to the wiki. Every contribution helps.

In a world where multinational corporations have unlimited political influence, while citizens are deprived of the necessary democratic mechanisms to control them, the future is bleak. At the same time, the acceleration of technological progress in the recent years has led to an astounding ubiquity of software in all fields of life. With software patents being granted in every digitized sector, the significance of user freedom increases exponentially.

Consider this: when we were kids, we looked forward to the future with eager anticipation. Most of us imagined an automated world, with robot servants and flying cars. Growing up, many of us regrettably realized that the dominance of proprietary software has been turning all these futuristic ideas into an Orwellian universe. Proprietary software threatens user freedom. But software patents affect us to an even more fundamental degree: they limit our very ability to write software that respects user freedom, undermining our freedom of expression.

If we do not act, the future is bleak. To shape a free world, we must cooperate. Our End Software Patents campaign, including its wiki, was created years ago, but we are now in the process of renovating it. If you believe our cause is just, you can join us. Whatever your background, there are many ways to help: from educating others about this issue and participating in discussions, to influencing your country's policies, to contributing to our wiki with new information.

End Software Patents has a rich past, such as submitting amicus briefs to courts, creating the Patent Absurdity documentary, and featuring almost 650 wiki entries, as well as dozens of articles. If you're interested in the campaign and would like to get involved, you can join our effort in the following ways: Donate to End Software Patents

Contribute to our End Software Patents wiki, at https://wiki.endsoftwarepatents.org/

Subscribe to our [esp] discussion list

Sign up for announcements relating to the End Software Patents campaign

Join our IRC channel at #endsoftwarepatents on Libera.Chat

The Federal Circuit Has Another Chance to Get it Right on Software Copyright

by Corynne McSherry (EFF)
Reprinted under Creative Commons Attribution License

When it comes to software, it seems that no matter how many times a company loses on a clearly wrong copyright claim, it will soldier on--especially if it can find a path to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit is supposed to be almost entirely focused on patent cases, but a party can make sure its copyright claims are heard there too by simply including patent claims early in the litigation, and then dropping them later. In SAS v. WPL, that tactic means that a legal theory on software copyrightability that has lost in three courts across two countries will get yet another hearing. Hopefully, it will be the last, and the Federal Circuit will see this relentless opportunism for what it is.

That outcome, however correct, is far from certain. The Federal Circuit got this issue very wrong just a few years ago, in Oracle v. Google. But with the facts stacked against the plaintiff, and a simpler question simpler to decide, the Federal Circuit might get it right this time.

The parties in the case, software companies SAS Institute Inc. (SAS) and World Programming Ltd. (WPL), have been feuding for years in multiple courts in the U.S. and abroad. At the heart of the case is SAS's effort to effectively own the SAS Language, a high-level programming language used to write programs for conducting statistical analysis. The language was developed in the 1970s at a public university and dedicated to the public domain, as was software designed to convert and execute SAS-language programs. Works in the public domain can be used by anyone without permission. That is where the original SAS language and software executing it lives.

A few years later, however, some of its developers rewrote the software and founded a for-profit company to market and sell the new version. It was alone in doing so until, yet more years later, WPL developed its own, rival software that can also convert and execute SAS-Language programs. Confronted with new competition, SAS ran to court, first in the U.K., then in North Carolina, claiming copyright infringement. It lost both times.

Perhaps hoping that the third time will be the charm, SAS sued WPL in Texas for both patent and copyright infringement. Again, it lost--but it decided to appeal only the copyright claims. As with Oracle v Google, however, the fact that the case once included patent claims--valid or not--was enough to land it before the Federal Circuit.

It is undisputed that WPL didn't copy SAS's actual copyrighted code. Instead, SAS claims WPL copied nonliteral, functional elements of its system: input formats (which say how a programmer should input data to a program to make the program work properly) and output designs (which the computer uses to let the programmer view the results correctly). These interfaces specify how the computer is supposed to operate--in response to inputs in a certain format, produce outputs that are arranged in a certain design. But those interfaces don't instruct the computer how it should perform those functions, for which WPL wrote its own code. SAS's problem is that copyright law does not, and should not, grant a statutory monopoly in these functional elements of a computer program.

SAS is desperately hoping that the Federal Circuit will say otherwise, based on the Federal Circuit's previous ruling, in Oracle v. Google, that choosing among various options can suffice to justify copyright protection. In other words, if a developer had other programming options, the fact that it chose a particular path can allegedly be "creative" enough to merit exclusive rights for 70+ years. As we explained in our amicus brief, that reliance is misplaced.

First, the facts of this case are different --WPL, unlike Google, didn't copy any actual code. Again, this is undisputed. Second, Oracle v. Google was based on a fundamentally incorrect assumption that the Ninth Circuit (the jurisdiction from which Oracle arose and, therefore, whose law the Federal Circuit was bound to apply) would accept the "creative choices" theory. How do we know that assumption was wrong? Because the Ninth Circuit later said so, in a different case.

But SAS should lose for another reason. In essence, it is trying to claim copyright in processes and methods of operation--elements that, if they are protectable at all, are protected only by patent. If SAS couldn't succeed on its patent claims, it shouldn't be allowed to rely on copyright as a backstop to cover the same subject matter. In other words, SAS cannot both (1) evade the limits on patent protection such as novelty, obviousness, eligible patent subject matter, the patent claim construction process, etc.; and, at the same time (2) evade the limits on copyright protection by recasting functional elements as "creative" products.

In addition to these points, our brief hopes to remind the court that the copyright system is intended to serve the public interest, not simply the financial interest of rights holders such as SAS. The best way for the Federal Circuit to serve that public interest here is to defend the limits on copyright protection for functional parts of computer programs, and to clarify its previous erroneous computer copyrightability ruling in Oracle v. Google. We hope the court agrees.

Recording Audio Easily On PCLinuxOS

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

Capturing audio and video on PClinuxOS (and any Linux for that matter) can be a frustrating task. Either the applications don't work properly with the audio/video capture software, or, the sound server is not compatible with the capture application (or vice versa, a capture application that requires a sound server that is not the default of the installation).

Java applications, for example, access the DSP directly and are not as flexible about routing audio as native PCLinuxOS applications.

ALSA is more powerful than it seems

It turns out that the Linux sound system is much more powerful than it appears at first glance. And, there is more to it than meets the eye. ALSA is very vast, complete and incredibly flexible.

The snd-aloop module, invisible magic, available in the Linux kernel

From the definition, on the Matrix ALSA website: Module-aloop - This driver provides a pair of cross-connected devices, forming a full-duplex loopback sound card. Each device can have up to 8 subgroups, which means you can have up to 8 independent loopback connections. The first application opening one device will force the second application, trying to open the other device, to use its established parameters. Therefore, no rate, format, or channel number conversion is done.

In other words, the snd-aloop module creates a virtual sound card with two audio devices, Loopback 1 and Loopback 2.

These two virtual devices, one is a speaker - a device you can write to - and the other is a microphone - a device you can read from - and both are connected, so that what you write to the speaker device can be read from the microphone device. We can call this a connected pair of microphones and speakers. ALSA provides us with 8 such pairs, with the snd-aloop kernel driver.

Why is the snd-aloop module so important?

Well, I needed a solution, to record audio from a good old IBM Thinkpad, which doesn't have many audio outputs. I was tearing my hair out: how would I capture the sound of this notebook? And, looking for solutions, I found the snd-aloop module.

It really works, as I have already tested and confirmed its features. Its advantages can be listed below:

Sound server independent

Pure ALSA and present in all Linux kernels

It consumes much less machine resources than any other solution for capturing audio (Jack, pulseaudio, etc).

Disadvantages? I haven't seen (or heard) any.

How to do it then ?

Basically, in simple lines, we are going to insert the snd-aloop module and create an asoundrc file, which will route a copy of the audio to the capture virtual sound card. Then, we will tell the capture program to "listen" to what comes from the capture virtual sound card.

So, let's get to work!

Step 1. As root, type modprobe snd_aloop pcm_substreams=1, as in the picture below:

Step 2. Now, with the virtual sound card driver inserted into the kernel, we test to see if we have another sound card in the system, with cat /proc /asound /cards, as in the figure below:

Step 3. Now, let's create an .asoundrc file with the following content. (The dotted lines are just to separate the contents of the .asoundrc file from the rest of the text.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, we have all the operating system side ready, now, let's configure the capture software. In this case, I will capture a Java program on PCLinuxOS with Simple Screen Recorder (but the concept goes for any screen capture / audio / screen recorder software).

Setting up the capture software

Step 1. Open SSR (or your preferred capture software, except VokoScreenNG, which does not allow using ALSA server alone).

Step 2. In the Audio section, click Record Audio, ALSA Backend and Source: [hw:1,1] Loopback: Loopback PCM

Remember: The capture device will always be the second device from the snd-aloop virtual sound card.

Configure as in the picture below:

Proceed to the settings of the capture software. In the case of SSR, after everything is configured, just click start recording and record your computer/notebook screen, with audio and video, without hassles.

When you are done, remove the snd-aloop card with the command (as root) modprobe -r snd_aloop and rename the .asoundrc, to asoundrc.bak, for example, so that it doesn't interfere with the rest of the computer's audio.

I hope you enjoyed this simple but very powerful tip to get very good recordings with any sound hardware.

A big hug, and see you in the next article.

If you want to read more, these articles helped me write the tip:

https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-aloop

https://noisybox.net/blog/2016/01/alsa_recording_of_device_output

https://lichtmetzger.de/en/2014/11/29/simplescreenrecorder-record-audio-with-alsa-only-no-pulseaudio-no-jack/

Good Words, Good Deeds, Good News

Compiled by Meemaw

Paralyzed Wife & Husband Renew Vows

At her bachelorette party eleven years ago, Rachelle was playfully pushed into a pool by one of her bridesmaids. She fractured one of her vertebrae, and made her a paraplegic. After a one-year recovery, she and Chris got married. This year, with their six year-old daughter Kaylee looking on, they renewed their wedding vows.

"We exchanged rings and we also got a special ring for Kaylee, with all of our birth stones together," Rachelle recalled. "We put that on her finger, so there was a whole little moment for her that felt more special."

Women Donate Kidneys To Each Other's Husbands

Tia and Susan have worked at Children's Healthcare in Atlanta for ten years, but didn't interact with each other, being in different departments for most of that time. Returning to work in September after working from home, they had an opportunity to visit with each other, and discovered that their husbands were both needing kidney transplants. As they visited, sharing information about blood types, Susan told Tia that she was not a match for her own husband, but soon discovered that she might be a match for Tia's. They both got tested in October, and found that they were matches for each other's husbands.

On March 19th, they all underwent surgery to take Tia's kidney for Susan's husband Lance, and Susan's kidney was transplanted into Tia's husband Rodney, and a strong bond now exists between the two families.

Teenager Invents Infection-Detecting Sutures

After a person has surgery, there is always a chance for infection. Sometimes, the infection is caught much later, resulting in a much more difficult recovery, or even death for the patient. However, a 17-year-old student has developed sutures that change color when infection is present.

"When you have an infection, there's chemical imbalances going on, and my stitches pick up those chemical imbalances, and then they change color because of what's going on all, all the science stuff," she noted.

Taylor reportedly uses sutures dyed with beet juice and said, "Beets are natural indicators. So, a natural indicator is just a baseline term for a substance that changes color when the pH changes."

Her invention will most likely save countless lives.

Boy Seeks To Share Books With 500,000 Children

Ten-year-old Orion wants to share his love of literature with 500,000 other children.

"Kindness is a virtue we can all possess. If we are willing to," he noted, adding, "So why not start today. Because right now, it's what we need more than ever."

His Race To Kindness website asks people to donate new or gently used books so they can be given to those children who have none. The site lists book fairs and drop-off points in Texas, where Orion lives.

USA Olympic Wrestler Uses Winnings To Buy Mom A Food Truck

USA Olympic wrestler, Tamyra Mensah-Stock, will use her Olympic winnings to help her mother achieve her dream of owning a food truck. Her father died in a car accident in 2009 and Tamyra has wanted to help her mother ever since. "She's always doing back-breaking work and ... I've just seen her struggling ever since my dad died and I don't like seeing it."

Her mother wanted to get a food truck, and Tamyra gave her $30,000 to buy it.

"I love representing the U.S.," she said in a tear-filled exchange with reporters after her Olympic win Tuesday. "I love living there. I love it. And I'm so happy I get to represent the USA!"

WW2 Veteran Reunites With Italians He Saved

In 1944, Martin Adler was a soldier in Monterenzio, Italy. His commanding officer had ordered the soldiers in his company to search each home in the town looking for enemy soldiers. In one house he thought he saw some movement under a blanket and was going to shoot, when the mother put herself between him and the blanket, yelling that her "bambinos" (babies) were there. He stopped and uncovered them. His company stayed in town for a while during the retreat of the Nazis and he went and saw them several times. The mother allowed someone to take a photo of him and the 3 children.

This year, his daughter decided to search for the children, using social media. Starting with North American veterans groups, her search led to the photo being seen by an Italian journalist who found where Adler's company had been, and tracked down the 3 individuals, who still lived in Italy, but are now grandparents. He and his daughter flew to Bologna and reunited with the siblings.

Helicopter Pilot Saves 17 From Tennessee Floodwaters

Joel, a Nashville, Tennessee helicopter pilot, got a call from a lady who said her brother was stranded on his roof with his two daughters. Joel had just helped his fiance get her pilot's license, but took off to find the brother. Over seventeen inches of rain in 24 hours on August 21st had flooded the town of Waverly, TN, killing 21 people. The power was out and there was no Internet at the time so he couldn't use it to find the house.

He began flying back and forth over the flooded creek, rescuing anyone he could, and ended up saving not only the three he had been called about, but fourteen more people by flying close to the home and getting them off their roofs.

"She just so happened to call the right person, because I'm the only person crazy enough to even try to do that," he explained.

In another news story, an anonymous donor paid for the funerals of all those that died in the flood.

Customize Your Next Google Search

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Love or hate them, Google is THE defacto search engine on the internet for most people. This is so much so that "Google" has become a verb that's synonymous with performing an internet search, as in "Let me Google that."

I admit that up until a few months ago, Google was my "go to" search engine, before I switched to using DuckDuckGo as my main search engine. Even though DuckDuckGo uses Google to form the backbone of its search engine, DuckDuckGo strips away private and personal identifiers from your search queries, helping to better protect your privacy on the internet.

The concern about Google collecting massive amounts of data about users (and possibly funneling that information to governmental surveillance organizations) is not only real, but is growing by the day. Even without Google's voracious appetite for the vacuuming up of user data, there are many who believe that ONE COMPANY shouldn't have such a dominance in any one area, convincingly arguing that it stifles creativity, innovation, and competition.

There are ways to anonymize your Google search activity. For one, you can search without signing into ANY Google services. But, if you're signed into any single Google service on the device that you're searching from, your identity is already known. This means that you will (most likely) fail to hide yourself when performing Google searches from an Android device. Since Google is the "home" of Android, hiding your activities from Google's prying eyes is pretty much next to impossible, no matter what they are.

To further anonymize your search, you can perform your search from a public computer (like at a library or from work) that isn't logged into any Google services. Another way is to use a search engine, like DuckDuckGo or StartPage, both of which use the Google search engine, but strips personally identifiable information and tracking information from your search queries.

So, now that the "warnings" have been covered, you might still decide to use Google to perform your internet searches, even if occasionally. Fortunately, there are ways to customize your Google search results so that you get more hits relevant to your search, making it easier to find the information you are seeking. Your mileage may vary when using these Google search "customizations" with the other privacy-protecting search engines previously mentioned, even though their searches are powered by Google.

Quotes

Most of the time, Google will provide search results based on a fraction of the words of the phrase you search for. It's hard enough to find the information you seek without having to wade through a ton of irrelevant search results. To limit the scope of your search to just those results that are useful, try putting quotes around the parts of your search phrase that you are wanting information on. For example, searching for kindle battery 9th edition comes up with all sorts of information on other Kindle models other than the one you are looking for. However, entering your search phrase as kindle battery "9th edition", putting quotes around "9th edition", will limit the search results to only those sites relative to batteries for the Kindle 9th edition tablet.

Minus

Try putting a minus sign in front of words that represent search results you DON'T want to view. Let's say you're looking for information on aqueducts, but you want to exclude Roman aqueducts from your search. Simply enter aqueducts -roman to exclude Roman aqueducts from your search results. Another helpful modifier to your searches might be YourSearchTerm -pintrest to eliminate all of the Pintrest results that always lead to nowhere.

Tilde

Sometimes, you might want to actually expand your search. If you wanted to search for, let's say, a course in Linux, you might search for linux course. But, if you searched for linux ~course, you would expand your search to include Linux classes as well. The tilde searches for synonyms for the word that it precedes.

Filetypes

There may be times when you want to restrict your search to particular file types. If, for example, you're searching for a research paper, you might only be interested in PDF copies of that research paper. To restrict your search results to only PDF copies of that research paper, try putting filetype:pdf at the end of your search phrase. This also works for PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and Word documents. It may also work for other file types, but you'll have to explore that for yourself. There are just too many combinations to include here.

Page Citations

If you are wanting to see what other sites are linking back to a particular site, you can search using link:domain-name as your search criteria. You should get other pages that link to that site in your search results.

Wildcards

Looking for the lyrics to a song that you can't remember the entire proper name of? Maybe you're looking for a book, but you can't remember the entire proper title. Google makes it easy to "fill in the gaps" by allowing you to use a wildcard. So, if you're looking for the lyrics to Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, but can't remember the entire song title, entering bridge over * water will net you the results you are seeking. Google treats the asterisk as a wildcard.

Site Search

We've run hundreds of articles over the years of my tenure here at The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Let's say that you want to see all the articles we've run that mention the Xfce desktop, and you want to restrict your search only to the magazine website. Enter xfce site:pclosmag.com as your search criteria, and only articles that mention Xfce in The PCLinuxOS Magazine will be listed. This works for most sites on the internet, since Google crawls and logs content continuously across the web.

Conditional Search

You can narrow your search down to specific, but multiple, sites. Let's say that you are in the mood to watch some Sci Fi TV shows, and you want to see what the offerings are on two free streaming platforms, Pluto TV and Tubi TV. Certainly, you could launch each site separately, and filter through their offerings. Or, you could perform a Google search of both sites, like this: sci fi tv site:pluto.tv | site:tubitv.com. The "|" operator (a pipe symbol) tells Google to search either the Pluto TV or the Tubi TV sites. Similarly, you can replace the pipe symbol with an ampersand ("&") to restrict the search results to just those two sites. Google search will interpret the "&" symbol to mean "and."

Search Within A Date/Number Range

I didn't have the "luck" ... er, results ... that I thought I should when using this. Your mileage may vary. Maybe it was my search criteria that generated less than ideal results, or at least search results different from what I thought I'd get. I entered spanish flu studies 1930..1950 and spanish flu studies (after:1930 before:1950) as my search phrases. If you separate your date or number ranges with two dots, it should provide results that fall between those two numbers or dates. Similarly, adding (after:1930 before:1950) is supposed to perform the same function.

Summary

Hopefully, these tips will help you get more mileage out of your Google searches, and help you perform searches that net you more relevant results. If you want to further explore Google search hacks, be sure to check out the Google Dork Cheatsheet, over at GitHub.

Repo Review: Bookworm

by CgBoy

Bookworm is a lightweight eBook reader application that provides an easy way for you to organize and read your collection of eBooks. It has support for numerous common eBook formats, such as EPUB, MOBI, and PDF. The interface is quite simple and nicely designed, making Bookworm easy to use.

Upon opening Bookworm, you'll be presented with the library page, where you can view and load in your collection of eBooks. To import an eBook, click on the + button down in the lower left corner and select a file to load. To remove a book, simply click on the check mark button down in the corner, select the eBooks that you wish to remove, and then click on the - button. You can choose to arrange the books in list view or thumbnail view, and there's also a handy search bar at the top to help you find books more easily. If you right-click on a book, you can then edit information such as the title and author, and you can also add a cover image for the book. Simply click on a book to begin reading.

The reading screen is well laid out, with a clean design. At the bottom of the screen is the chapter bar, showing you how far into the book you are. You can click on the arrow buttons on either side of the bar, or press the arrow keys on the keyboard to go through the chapters. Pressing the spacebar will simply scroll one page, while hitting F11 on the keyboard enables you to read in full screen mode.

From the toolbar at the top, and by clicking on the information button next to the Library button, you can access a page from which you can view the book's table of contents, and any bookmarks that you may have placed (which you can add to a page by clicking on the bookmark button up in the toolbar). Clicking on the reading preferences button in the toolbar will open up a menu from which you can adjust the font size, and change a few formatting settings, such as the text alignment. The main application preferences are available by clicking on the configuration button in the upper right corner.

From the preferences window, Bookworm allows you to change a few options, such as the font used, and the color of the background and the text. You can also choose folders for Bookworm to scan for new eBook files from, each time the program opens. Bookworm also gives you the option to enable a dark theme mode, which may make it a little easier on your eyes when reading at night.

Summary

Bookworm worked very well during my testing, and gave me no issues. It seemed to have no problem formatting and displaying any of the eBooks that I tried. Overall, I found Bookworm to be a very well made application. If you want a lightweight, easy to use eBook reader for PCLinuxOS, then Bookworm is an excellent choice.

The Road Towards A Free Ebook Reader

Reprint from the Free Software Foundation
Under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 license
by Greg Farough

One corollary to the FSF's mission to bring freedom to all computer users is the need to bring freedom to every type of computer. While many users are not prone to thinking about it often, any device that runs software is a computer in this sense, whether it's on your lap or desk, or in your pocket. Most ebook readers run some version of the kernel Linux, and some even run the GNU/Linux operating system. This puts ebook readers a few steps closer to freedom than other devices, but closing the gap will still require a significant amount of work.

Accordingly, as we announced at the LibrePlanet 2021 conference, we've decided this year to prioritize facilitating the process for an ebook reader to reach the high standards of our Respects Your Freedom (RYF) hardware certification program, whether this means adapting an existing one from a manufacturer, or even contracting its production ourselves.

In general, there hasn't been much pressure on hardware manufacturers to hold the freedom of their devices to a high level of scrutiny. As with general purpose computers, this means that several critical components of the device will not function without nonfree software. In ebook readers, this includes components as critical as the e-ink screen that powers the display.

The free software community has made some good strides in the area of freeing ebooks. Denis "GNUToo" Carikli has composed page on the LibrePlanet wiki documenting the components of ebook readers and other single-board computers; this has laid the groundwork for our investigation into releasing an ebook reader, and is one of the wiki's more active projects. Also, earlier in the year, a user on the libreplanet-discuss mailing list documented their project to port Parabola GNU/Linux to the reMarkable tablet, thereby creating a free ebook reader at the same time. It's steps like these that make us feel confident that we can bring an ebook reader that respects its user's freedom to the public, both in terms of hardware and the software that's shipped with the device.

Yet even when you have a free ebook reader in your hands, you will still need to be vigilant about your freedom. Many ebooks on the market are laden with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM), which prevents you from exercising the freedom to read and share the books you buy and own. Consenting to the DRM that many ebooks are distributed with is a sure way to lose control of your digital autonomy, no matter what kind of device you have. Despite the Internet giving us the means to share textbooks or works of literature seamlessly and without cost, publishing companies still operate under old assumptions, meaning that libraries and storefronts alike ignore the "solved problem of lending" and distribute books under restrictive terms.

Despite the technology behind ebooks having been with us for years, ebook DRM has only gotten more restrictive. It's common for textbooks to now require a constant and uninterrupted Internet connection, and that they load only a discrete number of pages at a time. Such requirements, especially when placed on students in the global south, where connections aren't as reliable, directly detract from the quality of their education. This is what motivated our decision to make textbook DRM (and one of its top peddlers, Pearson) our target for the International Day Against DRM (IDAD) in 2019. And though the pandemic may have prevented people from meeting, DRM was undeterred. Even libraries fell victim to "lending" services like Kanopy, putting an artificial lock on digital copies of books, the last place it makes sense for them to be.

If the FSF is successful in landing RYF certification on an ebook reader, which I fully believe we will be, we can ensure that users will have the ability to read digitally while retaining their freedom. It's up to all of us to make sure we have the right to read, by avoiding ebook DRM in each and every case, and celebrating free (as in freedom) resources like Wikibooks and the Internet Archive, bridging the divide between the movement for free software and the movement for free culture, empowering both readers and computer users around the globe.

Illustration by Dana Morgenstein, Copyright © 2021 Free Software Foundation, photos licensed under CC-BY 4.0.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner Extra:

Brown Sugar Meatloaf

This is an easy, quick meatloaf that tastes as good as it smells.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Additional Time: 10 minutes
Total time: 90 minutes
Yield: 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

Brown Sugar (packed) ...1/2 cup (118 ml)
Ketchup...1/2 cup (118 ml)
Ground Beef (lean) ...1 1/2 pounds (680 g)
Onion small (to taste) ... chopped
Saltine Cracker crumbs (finely crushed) ...3/4 cup (177 ml)
Milk...3/4 cup (177 ml)
Eggs...2
Salt...1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 ml)
Black Pepper...1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml)
Ginger (ground)...1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C).

2. Lightly grease a 5X9 inch (13X23 cm) loaf pan.

3. Spread the brown sugar evenly over the bottom of the prepared loaf pan.

4. Spread the ketchup evenly over the brown sugar.

5. in a mixing bowl thoroughly mix the ground beef, onion, Saltine crackers, milk, eggs, salt, black pepper and ginger. Form into a loaf and place on top of the ketchup and brown sugar.

6. Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven or until the juices are clear.

7. Move the cooked meatloaf into a larger pan, carefully pour off the excess fat from the cooking pan, mix the remaining ketchup and brown sugar and pour over the top meatloaf. Let stand for about 10 minutes, slice and serve.

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Crossword

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

WordFind

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Mixed Up meme Scrambler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Screenshot Showcase

Posted by brisvegas, September 1, 2021, running Mate

Posted by daniel, September 13, 2021, running lxqt

Posted by jogurtmen, September 9, 2021, running Mate

Posted by luikki, September 2, 2021, running KDE

Posted by Meemaw, September 6, 2021, running Xfce

Posted by mutse, September 1, 2021, running Mate

Posted by parnote, September 1, 2021, running Xfce

Posted by tbschommer, September 3, 2021, running KDE

Posted by tuxlink, September 7, 2021, running KDE

Posted by Yankee, September 1, 2021, running Xfce