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Using AI to generate 'synthetic memories' to explore new ways of supporting dementia care. An art & research collaboration into reminiscence therapy visuals.Using AI to generate 'synthetic memories' to explore new ways of supporting dementia care. An art & research collaboration into reminiscence therapy visuals.

Download Linux Mint (free) for Linux  Gizmodo

Researchers in Germany successfully demonstrated coherent quantum communications over 254 km of existing commercial telecom fiber, marking the first real-world deployment of such a system without cryogenic cooling. Phys.Org reports: Their system uses a coherence-based twin-field quantum key distribution, which facilitates the distribution of secure information over long distances. The quantum communications network was deployed over three telecommunication data centers in Germany (Frankfurt, Kehl and Kirchfeld), connected by 254 km of commercial optical fiber -- a new record distance for real-world and practical quantum key distribution, according to the authors. This demonstration indicates that advanced quantum communications protocols that exploit the coherence of light can be made to work over existing telecom infrastructure. The research has been published in the journal Nature.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: There is some microplastics in normal, healthy arteries," Dr. Ross Clark, a University of New Mexico medical researcher who led the study, told Business Insider before he presented his findings at the meeting of the American Heart Association in Baltimore on Tuesday. "But the amount that's there when they become diseased -- and become diseased with symptoms -- is really, really different," Clark said. Clark and his team measured microplastics and nanoplastics in the dangerous, fatty plaque that can build up in arteries, block blood flow, and cause strokes or heart attacks. Compared to the walls of healthy plaque-free arteries, plaque buildup had 16 times more plastic -- just in the people who didn't have symptoms. In people who had experienced stroke, mini-stroke, or vision loss, the plaque had 51 times more plastic. [...] To investigate why, Clark studied samples from 48 people's carotid arteries -- the pair of superhighways in your neck that channel blood to your brain. The difference in plastic quantities surprised him, but his team found another concerning trend, too. Cells in the plaque with lots of plastic showed different gene activity than those with low plastic. In the high-plastic environment, one group of immune cells had switched off a gene that's associated with turning off inflammation. Clark's team also found genetic differences in a group of stem cells thought to help prevent heart attacks and strokes by reducing inflammation and stabilizing plaque. "Could it be that microplastics are somehow altering their gene expression?" Clark said. He added that there's "lots more research needed to fully establish that, but at least it gives us a hint as to where to look." Ross, who specializes in the genetic mechanisms behind disease, agreed that more research is needed, but added that she thinks "these plastics are doing something with these plaques." Tracking microplastics in the human body is a new scientific endeavor as of the last couple years. It's not perfect. Clark's team heated the plaque samples to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit to vaporize plastic polymers and break them down into smaller organic molecules, which can be identified and measured by their mass and other properties. Unfortunately, the lipids in plaque can break down into chemicals that look very similar to polyethylene, the most common plastic found in everything from plastic bags to car parts. "Because we know about this problem, we've taken a lot of steps to remove those lipids and confirm their removal, so that we're sure we're measuring polyethylene," Clark said. Still, he added, "it's a big limitation, and it should be acknowledged that these types of methodologies are continuously improving." "Almost all of what we know about microplastics in the human body, no matter where you look, can be summed up as: It's there, and we need to study further as to what it's doing, if anything," Clark said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Five years removed from the onset of the Covid pandemic, Google is demanding that some remote employees return to the office if they want to keep their jobs and avoid being part of broader cost cuts at the company. CNBC reports: Several units within Google have told remote staffers that their roles may be at risk if they don't start showing up at the closest office for a hybrid work schedule, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. Some of those employees were previously approved for remote work.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New Jersey sued the property management software company RealPage, accusing it and 10 of the state's largest landlords of conspiring to drive up residential rents, violating federal and state antitrust laws and New Jersey consumer fraud laws. From a report: The complaint filed on Wednesday by state Attorney General Matthew Platkin said the defendants, including AvalonBay Communities illegally used RealPage's revenue management software and algorithms to inflate rents for apartments in multifamily properties. New Jersey said the defendants also quietly exchanged non-public data such as lease prices, amenities, concessions offered, property values and housing inventory, in order to align pricing and avoid competition to lower rents. The state said the collusion has inflated rents for hundreds of thousands of residents, with half of low-income renters paying more than 30% of their gross incomes toward rent. Many real estate and financial experts recommend a 30% limit.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A draft executive order from the Trump administration proposes integrating AI into K-12 education by directing federal agencies to promote AI literacy, train teachers, and establish public-private partnerships. "The draft is marked 'predecisional' and could be subject to change before it is signed, or it could be abandoned," notes the Washington Post. From the report: Titled "Advancing artificial intelligence education for American youth," the draft order would establish a White House task force on AI education that would be chaired by Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and would include the secretaries of education, agriculture, labor and energy, as well as Trump's special adviser for AI and cryptocurrency, David Sacks. The draft order would instruct federal agencies to seek public-private partnerships with industry, academia and nonprofit groups in efforts to teach students "foundational AI literacy and critical thinking skills." The task force should look for existing federal funding such as grants that could be used for AI programs, and agencies should prioritize spending on AI education, according to the draft order. It would also instruct Education Secretary Linda McMahon to prioritize federal grant funding for training teachers on how to use AI, including for administrative tasks and teacher training and evaluation. All educators should undergo professional development to integrate AI into all subject areas, the draft order says. It would also establish a "Presidential AI Challenge" -- a competition for students and educators to demonstrate their AI skills -- and instruct Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to develop registered apprenticeships in AI-related occupations. The focus is on K-12 education, but the draft order says, "Our Nation must also make resources available for lifelong learners to develop new skills for a changing workforce."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AMD Publishes Open-Source GIM Driver For GPU Virtualization, Radeon "In The Roadmap"  Phoronix

Google revealed in court that its Gemini AI chatbot reached 350 million monthly active users worldwide as of March 2025 -- up from 9 million daily users in October 2024. TechCrunch reports: Usage of Google's AI offerings has exploded in the last year. Gemini had just 9 million daily active users in October 2024, but last month, the company reportedly logged 35 million daily active users, according to its data. Gemini still lags behind the industry's most popular AI tools, however. Google estimates that ChatGPT had roughly 600 million monthly active users in March, according to the company's data shown in court. That puts ChatGPT on a similar user base to Meta AI, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in September was nearing 500 million monthly users.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

WhatsApp is rolling out a new "Advanced Chat Privacy" feature that blocks others from exporting chat histories or automatically downloading media. While it doesn't stop screenshots or manual downloads, it marks the first step in WhatsApp's plan to enhance in-chat privacy protections. The Verge reports: By default, WhatsApp saves photos and videos in a chat to your phone's local storage. It also lets you and your recipients export chats (with or without media) to your messages, email, or notes app. The Advanced Chat Privacy setting will prevent this in group and individual chats. [...] WhatsApp says this is its "first version" of the feature, and that it plans to add more protections down the line. "We think this feature is best used when talking with groups where you may not know everyone closely but are nevertheless sensitive in nature," WhatsApp says in its announcement. WABetaInfo first spotted this feature earlier this month, and now it's rolling out to the latest version of the app. You can turn on the setting by tapping the name of your chat and selecting Advanced Chat Privacy.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

6 Reasons to Try Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)  How-To Geek

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. Bernhard Rosenkränzer has announced the release of OpenMandriva Lx 6.0, a major update of the project's independently-developed distribution that started as a fork of Mandriva Linux back in 2013. "The independent, community-controlled distribution, OpenMandriva Lx 6.0, a fixed-point release (as opposed to the rolling-release branch), is out right....

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. Commodore OS Vision is a 64-bit Linux distribution which maintains a retro C64 style and ships with many games pre-installed. The project's latest release, version 3.0, includes over 200 games. "Commodore OS Vision 3.0 is the largest, games oriented, Linux distribution ever produced, featuring 200+ free linux compatible....

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. The CRUX distribution is a lightweight operating system with software added through a collection of application ports. CRUX 3.8 is the first release in about three years and features upgrades across the system. "CRUX 3.8 comes with a multilib toolchain which includes glibc 2.40, GCC 14.2.0 and Binutils....

by Suparna Ganguly

This article explains all that you need to know about KernelCare. But before studying about KernelCare, let’s do a quick recap of the Linux kernel. It’ll help you understand KernelCare better. The Linux kernel is the core part of Linux OS. It resides in memory and prompts the CPU what to do.

Now let’s begin with today’s topic which is KernelCare. And if you’re a system administrator this article is going to present valuable information for you.

What is KernelCare?

So, what’s KernelCare? KernelCare is a patching service that offers live security updates for Linux kernels, shared libraries, and embedded devices. It patches security vulnerabilities inside the Linux kernel without creating service interruptions or any downtime. Once you install KernelCare on the server, security updates automatically get applied every 4 hours on your server. It dismisses the need for rebooting your server after making updates.

It is a commercial product and is licensed under GNU GPL version 2. Cloud Linux, Inc developed this product. The first beta version of KernelCare was released in March 2014 and its commercial launch was in May 2014. Since then they have added various useful integrations for automation tools, vulnerability scanners, and others. 

Operating systems supported by KernelCare include CentOS/RHEL 5, 6, 7; Cloud Linux 5, 6; OpenVZ, PCS, Virtuozzo, Debian 6, 7; and Ubuntu 14.04.

Is KernelCare Important?

Are you wondering if KernelCare is important for you or not? Find out here. By installing the latest kernel security patches, you are able to minimize potential risks. When you try to update the Linux kernel manually, it may take hours. Apart from the server downtime, it can be a stressful job for the system admins and also for the clients.

Once the kernel updates are applied, the server needs a reboot. This is usually done during off-peak work hours. And this causes some additional stress. However, ignoring server reboots can cause a whole lot of security issues. It’s seen that, even after rebooting, the server experiences issues and doesn’t easily come back up. Fixing such issues is a trouble for the system admins. Often the system admin needs to roll back all the applied updates to get the server up quickly.

With KernelCare, you can avoid such issues.

How Does KernelCare Work?

KernelCare eliminates non-compliance and service interruptions caused by system reboots. KernelCare agent resides on your server. It periodically checks for new updates. In case it finds any, the agent downloads those and applies them to the running kernel. A KernelCare patch can be defined as a piece of code that’s used to substitute buggy code in the kernel. 

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by David Burgess

With the evolution of technology, we find ourselves needing to be even more vigilant with our online security every day. Our browsing and shopping behaviors are also being continuously tracked online via tracking cookies being dropped on our browsers that we allow by clicking the “I Accept” button next to deliberately long agreements on websites before we can get the full benefit of said site.

Watch this article:

Additionally, hackers are always looking for a target and it's common for even big companies to have their servers compromised in any number of ways and have sensitive data leaked, often to the highest bidder.

These are just some of the reasons that I started looking into self-hosting as much of my own data as I could.

Because not everyone has the option to self-host on their own, private hardware, whether it's for lack of hardware, or because their ISP makes it difficult or impossible to do so, I want to show you what I believe to be the next best step, and that's a semi-self-hosted solution on Linode.

Let's jump right in!

Setting up a Linode

First things first, you’ll need a Docker server set up. Linode has made that process very simple and you can set one up for just a few bucks a month and can add a private IP address (for free) and backups for just a couple bucks more per month.

Get logged into your Linode account click on "Create Linode".

Don't have a Linode account?  Get $100 in credit clicking here

On the "Create" page, click on the "Marketplace" tab and scroll down to the "Docker" option. Click it.

With Docker selected, scroll down and close the "Advanced Options" as we won't be using them.

Below that, we'll select the most recent version of Debian (version 10 at the time of writing).

In order to get the the lowest latency for your setup, select a Region nearest you.

When we get to the "Linode Plan" area, find an option that fits your budget. You can always start with a small plan and upgrade later as your needs grow.

Next, enter a "Linode Label" as an identifier for you. You can enter tags if you want.

Enter a Root Password and import an SSH key if you have one. If you don't that's fine, you don't need to use an SSH key. If you'd like to generate one and use it, you can find more information about how to do so here "Creating an SSH Key Pair and Configuring Public Key Authentication on a Server").

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Manage Java versions with SDKMan Seth Kenlon Tue, 03/15/2022 - 02:01 Up Register or Login to like.

Java is more than just a programming language: It's also a runtime.

Applications written in Java are compiled to Java bytecode then interpreted by a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which is why you can write Java on one platform and have it run on all other platforms.

A challenge can arise, however, when a programming language and an application develop at different rates. It's possible for Java (the language) to increment its version number at the same time your favorite application continues to use an older version, at least for a while.

If you have two must-have applications, each of which uses a different version of Java, you may want to install both an old version and a new version of Java on the same system. If you're a Java developer, this is particularly common, because you might contribute code to several projects, each of which requires a different version of Java.

The SDKMan project makes it easy to manage different versions of Java and related languages, including Groovy, Scala, Kotlin, and more.

SDKMan is like a package manager just for versions of Java.

More on Java What is enterprise Java programming? Red Hat build of OpenJDK Java cheat sheet Free online course: Developing cloud-native applications with microservices arc… Fresh Java articles Install SDKMan

SDKMan requires these commands to be present on your system:

• zip
• unzip
• curl
• sed

On Linux, you can install these using your package manager. On Fedora, CentOS Stream, Mageia, and similar:

$ sudo dnf install zip unzip curl sed

On Debian-based distributions, use apt instead of dnf. On macOS, use MacPorts or Homebrew. On Windows, you can use SDKMan through Cygwin or WSL.

Once you've satisfied those requirements, download the SDKMan install script:

$ curl "https://get.sdkman.io" --output sdkman.sh

Take a look at the script to see what it does, and then make it executable and run it:

$ chmod +x sdkman.sh
$ ./sdkman.shConfigure

When the installation has finished, open a new terminal, or run the following in the existing one:

source "~/.sdkman/bin/sdkman-init.sh"

Confirm that it's installed:

$ sdk versionInstall Java with SDKMan

Now when you want to install a version of Java, you can do it using SDKMan.

First, list the candidates for Java available:

$ sdk list java
=================================================
Available Java Versions for Linux 64bit
=================================================
Vendor   | Version      | Dist | Identifier
-------------------------------------------------
Gluon    | 22.0.0.3.r17 | gln  | 22.0.0.3.r17-gln
         | 22.0.0.3.r11 | gln  | 22.0.0.3.r11-gln
GraalVM  | 22.0.0.2.r17 | grl  | 22.0.0.2.r17-grl
         | 21.3.1.r17   | grl  | 21.3.1.r17-grl
         | 20.3.5.r11   | grl  | 20.3.5.r11-grl
         | 19.3.6.r11   | grl  | 19.3.6.r11-grl
Java.net | 19.ea.10     | open | 19.ea.10-open
         | 18           | open | 18-open
         | 17.0.2       | open | 17.0.2-open
         | 11.0.12      | open | 11.0.12-open
         | 8.0.302      | open | 8.0.302-open
[...]

This provides a list of different Java distributions available across several popular vendors, including Gluon, GraalVM, OpenJDK from Java.net, and many others.

You can install a specific version of Java using the value in the Identifier column:

$ sdk install java 11.0.12-open

The sdk command uses tabbed completion, so you don't need to view a list. Instead you can type sdk install java 11 and then press Tab a few times to get the options.

Alternately, you can just install the default latest version:

$ sdk install javaSet your current version of Java

Set the version of Java for a terminal session with the use subcommand:

$ sdk use java 17.0.2-open

To set a version as default, use the default subcommand:

$ sdk default java 17.0.2-open

Get the current version in effect using the current subcommand:

$ sdk current java Using java version 17.0.2-openRemoving Java with SDKMan

You can remove an installed version of Java using the uninstall subcommand:

$ sdk uninstall java 11.0.12-openMore SDKMan

You can do more customization with SDKMan, including updating and upgrading Java versions and creating project-based environments. It's a useful command for any developer or user who wants the ability to switch between versions of Java quickly and easily.

If you love Java, or use Java, give SDKMan a try. It makes Java easier than ever!

The SDKMan project makes it easy to manage different versions of Java and related languages, including Groovy, Scala, Kotlin, and more.

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Image by WOCinTech Chat, CC BY 2.0

Java What to read next This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. 6482 points (Correspondent) Vancouver, Canada

Seldom without a computer of some sort since graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1978, I have been a full-time Linux user since 2005, a full-time Solaris and SunOS user from 1986 through 2005, and UNIX System V user before that.

On the technical side of things, I have spent a great deal of my career as a consultant, doing data analysis and visualization; especially spatial data analysis. I have a substantial amount of related programming experience, using C, awk, Java, Python, PostgreSQL, PostGIS and lately Groovy. I'm looking at Julia with great interest. I have also built a few desktop and web-based applications, primarily in Java and lately in Grails with lots of JavaScript on the front end and PostgreSQL as my database of choice.

Aside from that, I spend a considerable amount of time writing proposals, technical reports and - of course - stuff on https://www.opensource.com.

Open Sourcerer People's Choice Award 100+ Contributions Club Emerging Contributor Award 2016 Correspondent Columnist Contributor Club Author Comment Gardener Register or Login to post a comment.

Open exchange, open doors, open minds: A recipe for global progress Ron McFarland Tue, 03/15/2022 - 02:00 Up Register or Login to like.

Could open organization principles successfully apply to entire societies?

That's the question I asked as I read the book Open: The Story of Human Progress by Johan Norberg, which aims to examine the relative success of "open societies" throughout global history.

Learn about open organizations Download resources Join the community What is an open organization? How open is your organization?

In this review—the first article in an extended discussion of the work from Open Organization community members—I will summarize more precisely what Norberg means when he uses the term "open" and offer an initial assessment of his arguments. Ultimately, however, our discussion will explore more expansive themes, like:

1. the importance of open societies,
2. what the future could (or should) look like in a more open world, and
3. how these principles impact our collective understanding of how organizations operate in service of "the greater good"

Four dimensions of openness

Essentially, Norberg is looking at four dimensions of "open," which he calls:

1. "open exchange" (global goods and service flows across borders),
2. "open doors" (global movement of people),
3. "open minds" (global receptivity to new and different ideas), and
4. "open societies" (how cultures should be governed to benefit from the above three)

Let me discuss each one more extensively.

Open exchange

Norberg uses the phrase "open exchange" to refer to the movement of goods and services not just across borders but within them as well. Simply put, he believes that people across the world prosper when trade increases, because increased trade leads to increased cooperation and sharing.

His argument goes like this: when a nation (and to be sure, Norberg aims his advice at contemporary nation-states) allows and includes foreign goods into their market, in general they also gain expertise, skills, and knowledge, too. Surplus goods/services that one may have should be sold anywhere they might provide value and add benefit for someone else—and those benefits might include, for example, favors, ideas, knowledge, not just goods and services themselves. Reciprocity and relatively equal exchange is for Norberg an unavoidable aspect of human nature, as it builds binding relationships that promote more generosity. Generosity in turn promotes more trade, creating a cycle of prosperity for all involved.

This view holds for organizations working with uncommon trade partners as well. Greater organizational specificity leads to the need for more cooperation and sharing, which leads to even more specialization. So here we can see a link between open societies and open organizations regarding trade issues.

Open doors

For Norberg, "open doors" refers to people's ability to move across national borders, for one reason or another. He believes the gradual inclusion of foreigners into a society leads to more novel and productive interactions, which leads to greater innovation, more ideas, and more rapid discoveries. For a society to be productive, it must get the right talent performing the right tasks. Norberg argues that there should be no barriers to that match-up, and people should be mobile, even across borders, so they can achieve it.

Norberg outlines how, throughout history, diverse groups of people solve problems more effectively—even if they create more friction as they do so, as members have their assumptions questioned. This kind of open environment must be promoted, supported, and managed, however, in order to avoid groupthink, the predominance of voices that are merely the loudest, and the outsized influence of niche interests.

Critical to the success of "open doors" are recognition, respect, understanding, acceptance, and inclusivity toward others. Norberg discusses the importance of these qualities, citing the World Values Survey, which measures some of them. Done well, open doors can allow societies to cross-fertilize, borrowing ideas and technology from each other and multiplying that which works best.

We could say that's equally true for an organization wanting to develop a new product or market, too.

Open minds

"Open economies stimulate open-mindedness," Norberg writes. For him, "open minds" are those receptive to thoughts and belief systems that may seem different, foreign, or alien to them—those that both offer and receive different perspectives. Open minds, Norberg claims, lead to more rapid progress.

Open minds flourish when given the space to encounter new ideas and explore them freely—rather than, say, simply accept the given dogma of an age. According to Norberg, people from a wide range of disciplines, specialties, and skills coming together and sharing their perspectives stimulates growth and progress. But this is only possible when they exist in an environment where they feel free to question the status quo and possibly overturn long-standing beliefs. Barriers to creating those environments certainly exist (in fact, the entire second half of Norberg's book offers a deeper analysis of them).

Open minds flourish when given the space to encounter new ideas and explore them freely—rather than, say, simply accept the given dogma of an age.

Of course this is true in organizations as well. The more people (and the more different people) who look at a problem, the better. This not only leads to faster solutions but helps overcome anyone's individual biases. Serendipitous solutions to problems can seemingly come out of nowhere more often, as there will be better and more peer review of strongly held positions. And yet differences create friction, so standards of protocol and behavior are required to ensure progress.

For Norberg, the world benefits when scientists, philosophers, industrialists, and craftspeople can influence one another's thinking (and are receptive to having their thinking changed!). The same is true in open organizations when people with different roles and functions can work together and enrich one another's thinking. More experiments and greater collaboration among disciplines lead to richer discoveries.

Open Organization resources Download resources Join the community What is an open organization? How open is your organization? Open societies

Combining open minds, open exchange, and open doors can lead to fully open societies globally, Norberg argues, and "the result is discoveries and achievements." Governments, he asserts, should work to foster those kinds of societies across the globe. In this way, societies can tap into the greatest talent from the entire global community.

According to Norberg, more inclusive societies based on these open policies can lead to material gains for people—fewer hours working, the ability to launch careers earlier (or retire earlier), longer lives in general, and more. This is not to mention reductions in extreme poverty, child and maternal mortality, and illiteracy globally. On top of that, for Norberg global cultural collaboration leads to better utilization of ecological, natural, and environmental resources. All this can be achieved through specific specialties that advance societies at an exponential rate though openness.

Open makes a historical argument. Norberg believes that throughout the ages it was not defenders of tradition that prospered most. Instead, those thinkers, engineers, and philosophers that challenged the status quo made the greatest contribution to global prosperity. Those figures benefitted from societies that were more open to improvements because they governed their own experiments, fostered rapid feedback loops, and built systems that quickly self-correct during setbacks.

Yet like any history, Norberg's is partial and selective, presenting isolated cases and examples. And some of those include even the most brutal empires, whose violence Norberg tends to overlook. In future parts of this review, we'll dive more deeply into various aspects of Norberg's analysis—and discuss its implications for thinking about a more open future.

Openness, this new book argues, has always been a necessary cornerstone of human civilization.

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Opensource.com

The Open Organization What to read next This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. Register or Login to post a comment.

22 Raspberry Pi projects to try in 2022 Opensource.com Mon, 03/14/2022 - 14:00 Up 1 reader likes this

The possibilities for Raspberry Pi projects continue to perpetuate this Pi Day! The beloved single-board computer recently turned ten years old. To celebrate, we put together a list of recent Raspberry Pi tutorials written by members of the Opensource.com community. 

More on Raspberry Pi What is Raspberry Pi? eBook: Guide to Raspberry Pi Getting started with Raspberry Pi cheat sheet eBook: Running Kubernetes on your Raspberry Pi Whitepaper: Data-intensive intelligent applications in a hybrid cloud blueprint Understanding edge computing Our latest on Raspberry Pi 10 Raspberry Pi projects for your home

The Raspberry Pi is ripe for DIY projects for the home. Why risk your data with a proprietary home automation tool when you can take full control with a $35 computer? Opensource.com authors have shared how they've built thermostats, monitored their home climate, set parental controls, and much more in the following tutorials.

• Build a home thermostat with a Raspberry Pi The ThermOS project is an answer to the many downsides of off-the-shelf smart thermostats.
• Monitor your home's temperature and humidity with Raspberry Pis and Prometheus Instrument a Prometheus application with Python on Raspberry Pis to collect temperature sensor data.
• Set up temperature sensors in your home with a Raspberry Pi Find out how hot your house is with a simple home Internet of Things project.  
• Build a router with mobile connectivity using Raspberry Pi Use OpenWRT to get more control over your network's router.
• Troubleshoot WiFi problems with Go and a Raspberry Pi Build a WiFi scanner for fun.
• Set up network parental controls on a Raspberry Pi With minimal investment of time and money, you can keep your kids safe online.
• Monitor your greenhouse with CircuitPython and open source tools Keep track of your greenhouse's temperature, humidity, and ambient light using a microcontroller, sensors, Python, and MQTT.
• Collect sensor data with your Raspberry Pi and open source tools Learning more about what is going on in your home is not just useful; it's fun!
• Measure your Internet of Things with Raspberry Pi and open source tools Setting up an environment-monitoring system demonstrates how to use open source tools to keep tabs on temperature, humidity, and more.  
• Track your family calendar with a Raspberry Pi and a low-power display Help everyone keep up with your family's schedule using open source tools and an E Ink display.

5 Raspberry Pi projects for productivity

You can be productive without a ton of fancy tools. Whether you want to host your personal blog or start crypto trading with a reduced carbon footprint, the Raspberry Pi has you covered.

• Host your website with dynamic content and a database on a Raspberry Pi You can use free software to support a web application on a very lightweight computer.
• Use your Raspberry Pi as a productivity powerhouse The Raspberry Pi has come a long way from being primarily for hacking and hobbyists to a solid choice for a small productive workstation.
• Run your blog on a Raspberry Pi I set up a Raspberry Pi to act as a web server to host my personal blog on Drupal.
• Use your Raspberry Pi as a data logger Here's how to log the CPU temperature of a Raspberry Pi and create a spreadsheet-based report on demand.
• Convert your Raspberry Pi into a trading bot with Pythonic Reduce your power consumption by setting up your cryptocurrency trading bot on a Raspberry Pi.

7 Raspberry Pi projects just for fun!

The Raspberry Pi is probably most famous for its serious use case of fun! The Pi offers lots of options for tinkering with Linux, learning about computers, or celebrating your favorite holiday.

• Create a countdown clock with a Raspberry Pi Start counting down the days to your next holiday with a Raspberry Pi and an ePaper display. 
• Track aircraft with a Raspberry Pi Explore the open skies with a Raspberry Pi, an inexpensive radio, and open source software.
• Control your Raspberry Pi remotely with your smartphone Control the GPIOs of your Raspberry Pi remotely with your smartphone.
• Build a programmable light display on Raspberry Pi Celebrate the holidays or any special occasion with a DIY light display using a Raspberry Pi, Python, and programmable LED lights.
• Make an automated Jack-o'-lantern with a Raspberry Pi Here's my recipe for the perfect pumpkin Pi.
• Cast your Android device with a Raspberry Pi Use Scrcpy to turn your phone screen into an app running alongside your applications on a Raspberry Pi or any other Linux-based device.
• Learn everything about computers with this Raspberry Pi kit The CrowPi is an amazing Raspberry Pi project system housed in a laptop-like body.

Go ahead and mark your calendar for trying out a few of these creative Raspberry Pi projects this year.

Celebrate Pi Day by checking out these creative and useful Raspberry Pi projects.

Image by:

Dwight Sipler on Flickr

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Collect sudo session recordings with the Raspberry Pi Peter Czanik Mon, 03/14/2022 - 02:00 Up 1 reader likes this

I've used the sudo command for years, and one of my favorite features is how it saves a record of everything happening in a terminal while running a command. This feature has been available for over a decade. However, sudo 1.9 introduced central session recording collection, allowing you to check all administrative access to your hosts on your network at a single location and play back sessions like a movie.

I use this feature on my Raspberry Pi, and I recommend it to other Pi users. Even if you fully trust your users, logs and session recordings can help debug what happened on a given host if it acts strangely: Oops, wrong file deleted in /etc.

More on Raspberry Pi What is Raspberry Pi? eBook: Guide to Raspberry Pi Getting started with Raspberry Pi cheat sheet eBook: Running Kubernetes on your Raspberry Pi Whitepaper: Data-intensive intelligent applications in a hybrid cloud blueprint Understanding edge computing Our latest on Raspberry Pi Why sudo?

Sudo gives administrative access to users. Unless you limit access to a short list of commands, you practically provide full access to your hosts. The pi user can use sudo without even entering a password on the Raspberry Pi OS. On other operating systems, the default configuration grants members of the wheel group full administrative access.

Before you begin

The new sudo_logsrvd application handles collection. Earlier versions of the Raspberry Pi OS only had sudo version 1.8. The latest version is based on Debian 11 and includes sudo version 1.9.5. You also need a second host with sudo 1.9, which sends recordings to sudo_logsrvd.

Configuring sudo_logsrvd

For a production environment, I recommend using TLS encrypted connections between sudo and sudo_logsrvd. However, to simply understand how session recording works, you can go without encryption. This also means that there is nothing to configure other than creating the storage directory and starting sudo_logsrvd:

$ sudo mkdir /var/log/sudo-io
$ sudo chmod 700 /var/log/sudo-io
$ sudo sudo_logsrvd

The sudo_logsrvd is now waiting for connections.

Configuring sudo

Configure sudo 1.9 on a host using visudo and append the following lines to the sudoers file. You will need to replace the IP address with the one of your Raspberry Pi. Note that if you do not have a second machine with sudo 1.9, you can use the same Raspberry Pi running sudo_logsrvd for testing.

Defaults ignore_iolog_errors
Defaults log_servers = 172.16.167.129:30343
Defaults log_output

The first line is your escape route while experimenting with sudo_logsrvd: It ensures that sudo works even if sudo_logsrvd is inaccessible. This configuration is not recommended for production environments as users can execute commands without proper recording.

The next two lines configure where to send recordings and enable recordings.

Testing

For testing, do something that you cannot figure out from sudo logs in syslog: A shell session. Be aware that sudo 1.9.8 changes this, but it is not yet available in Linux distributions. In this case, the logs show only that a shell is started, but nothing about what happened inside:

$ sudo -s

# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root),117(lpadmin)

# cd /root/

# ls -la
total 36
drwx------  5 root root 4096 Feb 16 12:27 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 Jan 28 04:22 ..
-rw-------  1 root root  827 Feb 16 12:49 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  571 Apr 10  2021 .bashrc
drwx------  3 root root 4096 Feb 16 10:54 .cache
-rw-------  1 root root   41 Feb 16 11:12 .lesshst
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Feb 16 12:27 .local
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  161 Jul  9  2019 .profile
drwx------  3 root root 4096 Jan 28 04:21 .vnc

# exit
$

Even if the logs do not show anything useful, you can still use the sudoreplay command to list and playback recordings:

$ sudo sudoreplay -l
Feb 16 12:37:54 2022 : pi : TTY=/dev/pts/1 ; CWD=/home/pi ; USER=root ; HOST=raspberrypi ; TSID=000001 ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/ls -l /etc/ssl/private/
Feb 16 12:38:14 2022 : pi : TTY=/dev/pts/1 ; CWD=/home/pi ; USER=root ; HOST=raspberrypi ; TSID=000002 ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/ls -la /etc/ssl/private/
Feb 16 12:49:21 2022 : pi : TTY=/dev/pts/1 ; CWD=/home/pi ; USER=root ; HOST=raspberrypi ; TSID=000003 ; COMMAND=/bin/bash
Feb 16 12:50:03 2022 : pi : TTY=/dev/pts/1 ; CWD=/home/pi ; USER=root ; HOST=raspberrypi ; TSID=000004 ; COMMAND=/bin/bash
Feb 16 12:50:28 2022 : pi : TTY=/dev/pts/1 ; CWD=/home/pi ; USER=root ; HOST=raspberrypi ; TSID=000005 ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/sudoreplay -l

$ sudo sudoreplay 000004
Replaying sudo session: /bin/bash

# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root),117(lpadmin)
# cd /root/
# ls -la
total 36
drwx------  5 root root 4096 Feb 16 12:27 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 Jan 28 04:22 ..
-rw-------  1 root root  827 Feb 16 12:49 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  571 Apr 10  2021 .bashrc
drwx------  3 root root 4096 Feb 16 10:54 .cache
-rw-------  1 root root   41 Feb 16 11:12 .lesshst
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Feb 16 12:27 .local
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  161 Jul  9  2019 .profile
drwx------  3 root root 4096 Jan 28 04:21 .vnc

# exit
$What is next?

I hope you learned something new today and will try it on your own Raspberry Pi. The setup I described here is good enough for testing. For production use, I recommend creating a startup script for sudo_logsrvd, which is missing from the Debian package, and you should use TLS between sudo and sudo_logsrvd. You can learn more about configuring TLS encryption from the documentation or my blog. The nice thing is that you can also use sudo_logsrvd on the Raspberry Pi in production in your home or small office. Unless you have dozens of sudo clients all utilizing the terminal heavily (like ls -laR /), not even the SD card of the Pi is a bottleneck.

Logs and session recordings can help debug what happened on a given host if it acts strangely. Try this setup on your Raspberry Pi.

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