Archive for March 2019

Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive Disaster

In a stunning rejection of the will five million online petitioners, and over 100,000 protestors this weekend, the European Parliament has abandoned common-sense and the advice of academics, technologists, and UN human rights experts, and approved the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive in its entirety. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/03/eus-parliament-signs-disastrous-internet-law-what-happens-next https://thenextweb.com/eu/2019/03/26/european-parliament-votes-yes-on-controversial-copyright-reform/

One-third of the web! — WordPress

https://wordpress.org/news/2019/03/one-third-of-the-web/ WordPress now powers over 1/3rd of the top 10 million sites on the web according to W3Techs. Our market share has been growing steadily over the last few year. Over the years WordPress has become the CMS of choice for more and more people and companies. What’s New in WordPress 5.1 (Moving PHP Forward)

Scott Shawcroft Is Squeezing Python Into Microcontrollers – IEEE Spectrum

https://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/tech-careers/scott-shawcroft-is-squeezing-python-into-microcontrollers Python is one of the most popular programming languages that has good domination of the desktop and the cloud. Two camps—MicroPython and CircuitPython—are working on hardware-centered versions of the interpreted language for embedded projects such as microcontroller-based gadgets. CircuitPython’s development is spearheaded by Scott Shawcroft, of the open-source hardware company Adafruit Industries. Shawcroft started

World’s happiest country for 2019 revealed to be Finland

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/worlds-happiest-countries-united-nations-2019/index.html Finland has a lot to celebrate. It is the happiest country in the world for the second year in a row, according to the latest World Happiness Report. It also has a capital city bursting with gastronomic creativity, the spectacular Northern Lights and Santa Claus’s year-round home in Lapland.

Update Putty

PuTTY is one of most used open-source client-side programs to remotely access computers over secure SSH network protocol from Windows workstations. I use it very often to connect to embedded Linux devices and Linux servers. Based on latest news it might be now a very good idea to update it to latest version 0.71: PuTTY

Arc Fault Detection Devices

Most people know circuit breakers and fuses. Quite many also know ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) or Residual Current Device (RCD). But now a new protective device is coming to use in Europe and you might want to learn about it.  AFDD/AFCI Arc Fault Protection Device protects people and property against fires caused by arc

New Tech Secures Medical Devices By Using Your Body as a Conduit for Communication

https://blog.hackster.io/new-tech-secures-medical-devices-by-using-your-body-as-a-conduit-for-communication-8ca7b8128f67 The article says: “Virtually all wearable devices today communicate wirelessly through either Bluetooth, WiFi, or simple RF (Radio Frequency) signals. While we could try to make those more secure, there is always the possibility that they could be intercepted or spoofed. This new technology avoids the problem altogether by allowing devices to communicate across