Who cares about Emacs?

GNU Emacs isn't the oldest interactive text editor for Unix—it's predated (at least) by the Vi editor—nor is it the only Emacs in existence. However, it's surely the most popular Emacs and one of the best editors available on POSIX. Or it was until fresh new editors, like Atom, VSCode, and Brackets, came to the fresh new open source landscape of today. There are so many options for robust text editors now, many of which have iterated upon Emacs' ideas and traditions, that you may well wonder whether GNU Emacs is still relevant.

Devices: PicoCore, u‑blox and ESP32

• PicoCore MX8MN is a Tiny NXP i.MX 8M Nano Computer-on-Module

  The PicoCore MX8MN Nano carries the NXP i.MX 8M Nano F&S Elektronik Systeme has announced the development of the smallest i.MX 8M based CoM yet: the PicoCore MX8MN Nano.

• u-Blox Launches JODY-W3 WiFi 6 & Bluetooth 5.1 Module for Automotive Applications

  u‑blox has just launched JODY-W3 wireless module which the company claims to be the first automotive-grade WiFi 6 module. Apart from supporting 802.11ax WiFi with 2×2 MIMO, the module also comes with dual-mode Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity. WiFi 6 will be used for applications demanding higher bitrates such as ultra‑HD video infotainment streaming and screen mirroring, wireless back‑up cameras and cloud connectivity as well as vehicle systems maintenance and diagnostics. Bluetooth 5.1 will be used for keyless entry systems and other applications leveraging direction-finding and the longer range offered by the latest version of Bluetooth.

• Barracuda App Server for ESP32 Let You Easily Develop Lua Apps via Your Web Browser

  We covered Real Time Logic’s open-source lightweight Minnow Server for microcontrollers last year, and now the company has released another project: Barracuda App Server for ESP32. This project is more complex and requires an ESP32 board with PSRAM to run such as boards based on ESP32-WROVER module with 4 to 8MB PSRAM. The Barracuda App server (BAS) comes with a Lua VM, and in complement with the LSP App Manager that facilitates active development on the ESP32 by providing a web interface. The Barracuda App Server runs on top of FreeRTOS real-time operating system part of Espressif free ESP-IDF development environment.

3-D Printing and Open Hardware: MakerBot, AAScan and RISC-V

• MakerBot Targets Schools With Rebranded Printers

  MakerBot was poised to be one of the greatest success stories of the open source hardware movement. Founded on the shared knowledge of the RepRap community, they created the first practical desktop 3D printer aimed at consumers over a decade ago. But today, after being bought out by Stratasys and abandoning their open source roots, the company is all but completely absent in the market they helped to create. Cheaper and better printers, some of which built on that same RepRap lineage, have completely taken over in the consumer space; forcing MakerBot to refocus their efforts on professional and educational customers.

• 3D-Printed 3D Scanner made to work with your phone

  An Arduino-based 3D scanner was created by an industrious 3D printing enthusiast and released open source this week for all to enjoy. This open source project was made to take out the most time-consuming component of the 3D scan process, giving said process instead to an Android phone combined with 3D-printed parts, a cheap motor, and an Arduino. This is not the first time such a system has been attempted, but it does appear to be the most complete and ready-to-roll system to date.

• AAScan open source Arduino 3D scanner utilizes the power of your smartphone

  Using the power of Arduino and utilising the camera and powerful performance of a smartphone QLRO has created a fantastic 3D scanner aptly named the AAScan. Check out the video below to learn more about the Android 3D scanner which is open source and fully automated.

• Video: RISC-V momentum around the world, from edge to HPC

  In this keynote talk from the 2020 HiPEAC conference, RISC-V Foundation Chief Executive Calista Redmond explains how the RISC-V open-source instruction set architecture is gathering momentum around the world, finding applications across the compute continuum from edge to high-performance computing.

• Weekend Discussion: How Concerned Are You If Your CPU Is Completely Open?

  For some interesting Sunday debates in the forums, how important to you is having a completely open CPU design? Additionally, is POWER dead? This comes following interesting remarks by an industry leader this weekend. Stemming from discussions on Twitter about Raptor's new OpenBMC firmware with a web GUI in tow, one of the discussions ended up shifting to that of open CPU designs and the belief that secretive CPU startup NUVIA could be having an open-source firmware stack.

Security and FUD: SpaceX, NMap, Polyverse, MongoDB, NGINX and Kubernetes

• All Those Low-Cost Satellites in Orbit Could Be Weaponized by Hackers, Warns Expert

  Last month, SpaceX became the operator of the world's largest active satellite constellation. As of the end of January, the company had 242 satellites orbiting the planet with plans to launch 42,000 over the next decade. This is part of its ambitious project to provide internet access across the globe. The race to put satellites in space is on, with Amazon, UK-based OneWeb and other companies chomping at the bit to place thousands of satellites in orbit in the coming months.

• NMap - A Basic Security Audit of Exposed Ports and Services

  For a plethora of reasons, auditing the security of our servers and networks is of paramount importance. Whether we are talking about a development server, a workstation, or a major enterprise application, security should be baked into every step of the deployment. While we can easily check our firewall settings from “the inside” of our systems. It is also a good idea to run a security audit from "the outside”. Using a network enumeration tool such as the famous and highly vetted Network Mapper (NMap).

• Cybersecurity startup Polyverse raises $8M to protect Linux open-source code from hackers [Ed: Right around the corner from Bill Gates, another company like Black Duck and it'll "protect" Linux... just buy its proprietary software]

  Polyverse has been validated by the U.S. Department of Defense for mitigating zero-day attacks, intrusions that occur just as a vulnerability becomes public, such as the infamous WannaCry ransomware and hacks of companies like Equifax. The company says its technology is “running on millions of servers.”

• MongoDB: developer distraction dents DevSecOps dreams

  MongoDB’s director of developer relations has just opened a piece of internal research that suggests as few as 29% of Europe’s developers take full responsibility for security. Now, 29% is a somewhat arbitrary figure, cleary i.e. it could be 22.45% or it could be 39.93%… the fact that the firm has pointed to an exact sum in this way is merely intended to show that it has undertaken a degree of calculation and statistical analysis

• NGINX Unit Adds Support for Reverse Proxying and Address-Based Routing

  NGINX announced the release of versions 1.13 and 1.14 of NGINX Unit, its open-source web and application server. These releases include support for reverse proxying and address-based routing based on the connected client's IP address and the target address of the request. NGINX Unit is able to run web applications in multiple language versions simultaneously. Languages supported include Go, Perl, PHP, Python, Node.JS, Java, and Ruby. The server does not rely on a static configuration file, instead allowing for configuration via a REST API using JSON. Configuration is stored in memory allowing for changes to happen without a restart.

• Kubernetes Security Plagued by Human Error, Misconfigs

  Following a year of numerous security bugs within the Kubernetes ecosystem and the first security audit of Kubernetes conducted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which hosts the open source platform, continued wide-spread adoption has seen security become somewhat of an afterthought. However, if security concerns continue inhibiting business innovation, does that fall on businesses for neglecting security practices or the market for not providing them with the tools to confidently secure their deployments? “People just get security wrong sometimes,” McLean said. “Companies need a combination of increased learning, cross-pollination, new tooling, and updated processes to identify and remediate these security ‘mistakes’ during build and deploy vs. waiting for exposure during runtime.”