Firefox
63.0 was released. With this new version, "users can
opt to block third-party tracking cookies or block all trackers and create
exceptions for trusted sites that don't work correctly with content
blocking enabled". In addition, WebExtensions now run in their own process
on Linux, and Firefox also now warns if you have multiple windows and tabs
open when you quit via the main menu. You can download it from here.
Richard Stallman
announced the "GNU Kind Communication
Guidelines". Stallman writes that in contrast to a code of conduct with
punishment for people who violate the rules, "the
idea of the GNU Kind Communication Guidelines is to start guiding
people towards kinder communication at a point well before one would
even think of saying, 'You are breaking the rules'." The
initial version of the GNU Kind Communications Guidelines is here.
Linus Torvalds discusses his return to Linux in an interview with ZDNet, and says he's "starting the usual
merge window activity now".
Regarding the Code of Conduct, he says: "I want to leave
it alone, and wait until we actually have any real issues. I'm hoping there
won't be any, but even if there are, I want the input to be colored more by
real and *actual* concerns, rather than just people arguing about it."
See the article for more details on what he's been doing and other
news from the Maintainers Summit.
The Tor Project has announced that Mozilla will match all donations to the
project through the end of the year. ZDNet
reports that Mozilla matched $200,000 in donations to Tor last year.
This year, Tor plans to use the funds to "increase the capacity
modularization and scalability of the Tor network"; "better test for,
measure, and design solutions around internet censorship"; and "strengthen
development of the Tor Browser for Android".
A painting created by an open-source neural network sold recently for $432K
at a London auction house. Obvious is the group behind the
work that "used 19-year-old Robbie Barrat's GAN package, available here on
Github, and sourced paintings from Wiki Commons" to create the painting. See
the post
on TNW for details on the "first portrait ever sold at auction that was
made with the assistance of an AI".
A team of European researchers has created MixedEmotions, an open-source toolkit
that can automatically assess emotions in text, audio and video. According to PhysOrg,
"There
is a growing demand for automatic analysis of emotions in different fields. The
possible applications are wide, including call centers, smart environments,
brand reputation analysis and assistive technology."
Read more here
about emotion detection and the complexities involved in adapting these tools
to other languages.
Braiins Systems has announced Braiins
OS, which claims to be "the first
fully open source system for cryptocurrency embedded devices". FOSSBYTES
reports that the initial release is based on OpenWrt. In addition,
Braiins OS "keeps monitoring the working conditions and hardware to create
reports of errors and performance. Braiins also claimed to reduce power
consumption by 20%".
Ubuntu 19.04 will be called Disco Dingo, and the release is scheduled for
April 2019. Source: OMG!
Ubuntu!.
