Linux 4.17-rc7

So this week wasn't as calm as the previous weeks have been, but despite that I suspect this is the last rc. This week we had the whole "spectre v4" thing, and yes, the fallout from that shows up as part of the patch and commit log. But it's not actually dominant: the patch is pretty evenly one third arch updates, one third networking updates, and one third "rest". The arch updates are largely - although not exclusively - spectre v4. The networking stuff is mostly network drivers, but there's some core networking too. And "the rest" is just that - misc drivers (rdma, gpu, other), documentation, some vfs, vm, bpf, tooling.. The bulk of it is really pretty trivial one-liners, and nothing looks particularly scary. Let's see how next week looks, but if nothing really happens I suspect we can make do without an rc8. Shortlog appended as usual. Go out and test.

Today in Techrights

• The Way Things Are Going in the Eastern District of Texas and Other US District Courts, South Korean Companies Might as Well Exit the US Like They Exit China
• The Patent Extremists Resort to Trump-Styled China-Baiting in an Effort to Destroy US Patent Policy
• Letting the USPTO Decide on Fees Would Lead to a ‘Battistelli Scenario’
• Another Week of Federal Circuit Supporting PTAB and Acting Tough for Patent Quality in the United States
• The Irish Knowledge Development Box (KDB) is Just Another Tax Evasion Ploy
• Software Patents Advocacy and UPC Lies Go Hand in Hand
• IAM Warns That China is Outpacing the United States at Granting Rubbish, Unproductive Patents on Abstract Things
• On Ethics of Patent Lawyers
• Techrights at 24,000

Libre Hardware

• Flash your Libre Firmware with a Libre Programmer

  Whether or not you personally agree with all the ideals of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), you’ve got to give them credit: they don’t mess around. They started by laying the groundwork for a free and open source operating system, then once that dream was realized, started pushing the idea of replacing proprietary BIOS firmware with an open alternative such as Libreboot. But apparently, even that’s not enough, as there’s still more freedom to be had. We’re playing 4D Libre Chess now, folks. [...] Luckily, the FSF has just awarded the Zerocat Chipflasher their “Respects Your Freedom” certification, meaning every element of the product is released under a free license for your hacking enjoyment.

• Coreboot Picks Up Support For Another Eight Year Old Intel Motherboard

  If by chance you happen to have an Intel DG41WV motherboard, it's now supported by mainline Coreboot so you can free the system down to the BIOS. The DG41WV motherboard comes from the LGA-775 days with an Intel G41 Eaglelake chipset back when DDR3-1066 was great, motherboards topped out with 4GB of RAM, four USB 2.0 ports were suitable, and motherboard PCBs were much less fashionable. The DG41WV was a micro-ATX board and a decent choice for the times to pair with a CPU like the Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad.

Events: KubeCon, openSUSE Conference 2018 and Hacker Summer Camp 2018

• Diversity, education, privilege and ethics in technology

  And that is the ultimate fraud: to make the world believe we are harmless little boys, so repressed that we can't communicate properly. We're so sorry we're awkward, it's because we're all somewhat on the autism spectrum. Isn't that, after all, a convenient affliction for people that would not dare to confront the oppression they are creating? It's too easy to hide behind such a real and serious condition that does affect people in our community, but also truly autistic people that simply cannot make it in the fast-moving world the magical rain man is creating. But the real con is hacking power and political control away from traditional institutions, seen as too slow-moving to really accomplish the "change" that is "needed". We are creating an inextricable technocracy that no one will understand, not even us "experts". Instead of serving the people, the machine is at the mercy of markets and powerful oligarchs. A recurring pattern at Kubernetes conferences is the KubeCon chant where Kelsey Hightower reluctantly engages the crowd in a pep chant: When I say 'Kube!', you say 'Con!' 'Kube!' 'Con!' 'Kube!' 'Con!' 'Kube!' 'Con!' Cube Con indeed... I wish I had some wise parting thoughts of where to go from here or how to change this. The tide seems so strong that all I can do is observe and tell stories. My hope is that the people that need to hear this will take it the right way, but I somehow doubt it. With chance, it might just become irrelevant and everything will fix itself, but somehow I fear things will get worse before they get better.

• openSUSE Conference 2018

  This year openSUSE conference was held in Prague and, thanks to both my employer and openSUSE conference organizers, I've been able to spend almost a full day there. I've headed to Prague with a Fleet Commander talk accepted and, as openSUSE Leap 15.0 was released Yesterday, also with the idea to show an unattended ("express") installation of the "as fresh as possible" Leap 15.0 happening on GNOME Boxes. The conference was not so big, which helped to easy spot some old friends (Fridrich Strba, seriously? Meeting you after almost 7 years ... I have no words to describe my happiness on seeing you there!), some known faces (as Scott, with whom I just meet at conferences :-)) and also meet some people who either helped me a lot in the past (here I can mention the whole autoyast team who gave me some big support when I was writing down the autoinst.xml for libosinfo, which provides the support to do openSUSE's express installations via GNOME Boxes) or who have some interest in some of the work I've been doing (as Richard Brown who's a well-know figure around SUSE/openSUSE community, a GNOME Boxes user and also an enthusiastic supporter of our work done in libosiinfo/osinfo-db).

• Hacker Summer Camp 2018: Prep Guide

  For those unfamiliar with the term, Hacker Summer Camp is the combination of DEF CON, Black Hat USA, and BSides Las Vegas that takes place in the hot Las Vegas sun every summer, along with all the associated parties and side events. It’s the largest gathering of hackers, information security professionals and enthusiasts, and has been growing for 25 years. In this post, I’ll present my views on how to get the most out of your 2018 trip to the desert, along with tips & points from some of my friends.