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Ben Hutchings: FOSS activity in January 2024

Planet Debian - Fri, 2024-02-02 11:26
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Ben Hutchings: FOSS activity in January 2024

Planet Debian - Fri, 2024-02-02 11:26
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Some exciting news! Kubuntu: I’m back!!!

Planet KDE - Fri, 2024-02-02 11:22

It’s official, the Kubuntu Council has hired me part time to work on the 24.04 LTS release, preparation for Plasma 6, and to bring life back into the Distribution. First I want thank the Kubuntu Council for this opportunity and I plan a long and successful journey together!!!!

My first week ( I started midweek ):

It has been a busy one! Many meet and greets with the team and other interested parties. I had the chance to chat with Mike from Kubuntu Focus and I have to say I am absolutely amazed with the work they have done, and if you are in the market for a new laptop, you must check these out!!! https://kfocus.org Or if you want to try before you buy you can download the OS! All they ask is for an e-mail, which is completely reasonable. Hosting isn’t free! Besides, you can opt out anytime and they don’t share it with anyone. I look forward to working closely with this project.

We now have a Kubuntu Team in KDE invent https://invent.kde.org/teams/distribution-kubuntu if you would like to join us, please don’t hesitate to ask! I have started a new Wiki and our first page is the ever important Bug triaging! It is still a WIP but you can check it out here: https://invent.kde.org/teams/distribution-kubuntu/docs/-/wikis/Bug-Triage-Story-WIP , with that said I have started the launchpad work to make tracking our bugs easier buy subscribing kubuntu-bugs to all our packages and creating proper projects for our packages missing them.

We have compiled a list of our various documentation links that need updated and Rick Timmis is updating kubuntu.org! Aaron Honeycutt has been busy with the Kubuntu Manual https://github.com/kubuntu-team/kubuntu-manual which is in good shape. We just need to improve our developer story

I have been working on the rather massive Apparmor bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2046844 with testing the fixes from the ppa and writing profiles for the various KDE packages affected ( pretty much anything that uses webengine ) and making progress there.

My next order of business staging Frameworks 5.114 with guidance from our super awesome Rik Mills that has been doing most of the heavy lifting in Kubuntu for many years now. So thank you for that Rik

I will also start on our big transition to the Calamaras Installer! I do have experience here, so I expect it will be a smooth one.

I am so excited for the future of Kubuntu and the exciting things to come! With that said, the Kubuntu funding is community donation driven. There is enough to pay me part time for a couple contracts, but it will run out and a full-time contract would be super awesome. I am reaching out to anyone enjoying Kubuntu and want to help with the future of Kubuntu to please consider a donation! We are working on more donation options, but for now you can donate through paypal at https://kubuntu.org/donate/ Thank you!!!!!

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Scarlett Gately Moore: Some exciting news! Kubuntu: I’m back!!!

Planet Debian - Fri, 2024-02-02 11:22

It’s official, the Kubuntu Council has hired me part time to work on the 24.04 LTS release, preparation for Plasma 6, and to bring life back into the Distribution. First I want thank the Kubuntu Council for this opportunity and I plan a long and successful journey together!!!!

My first week ( I started midweek ):

It has been a busy one! Many meet and greets with the team and other interested parties. I had the chance to chat with Mike from Kubuntu Focus and I have to say I am absolutely amazed with the work they have done, and if you are in the market for a new laptop, you must check these out!!! https://kfocus.org Or if you want to try before you buy you can download the OS! All they ask is for an e-mail, which is completely reasonable. Hosting isn’t free! Besides, you can opt out anytime and they don’t share it with anyone. I look forward to working closely with this project.

We now have a Kubuntu Team in KDE invent https://invent.kde.org/teams/distribution-kubuntu if you would like to join us, please don’t hesitate to ask! I have started a new Wiki and our first page is the ever important Bug triaging! It is still a WIP but you can check it out here: https://invent.kde.org/teams/distribution-kubuntu/docs/-/wikis/Bug-Triage-Story-WIP , with that said I have started the launchpad work to make tracking our bugs easier buy subscribing kubuntu-bugs to all our packages and creating proper projects for our packages missing them.

We have compiled a list of our various documentation links that need updated and Rick Timmis is updating kubuntu.org! Aaron Honeycutt has been busy with the Kubuntu Manual https://github.com/kubuntu-team/kubuntu-manual which is in good shape. We just need to improve our developer story

I have been working on the rather massive Apparmor bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apparmor/+bug/2046844 with testing the fixes from the ppa and writing profiles for the various KDE packages affected ( pretty much anything that uses webengine ) and making progress there.

My next order of business staging Frameworks 5.114 with guidance from our super awesome Rik Mills that has been doing most of the heavy lifting in Kubuntu for many years now. So thank you for that Rik

I will also start on our big transition to the Calamaras Installer! I do have experience here, so I expect it will be a smooth one.

I am so excited for the future of Kubuntu and the exciting things to come! With that said, the Kubuntu funding is community donation driven. There is enough to pay me part time for a couple contracts, but it will run out and a full-time contract would be super awesome. I am reaching out to anyone enjoying Kubuntu and want to help with the future of Kubuntu to please consider a donation! We are working on more donation options, but for now you can donate through paypal at https://kubuntu.org/donate/ Thank you!!!!!

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Ben Hutchings: FOSS activity in December 2023

Planet Debian - Fri, 2024-02-02 10:55
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Ben Hutchings: FOSS activity in December 2023

Planet Debian - Fri, 2024-02-02 10:55
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Web Review, Week 2024-05

Planet KDE - Fri, 2024-02-02 07:28

Let’s go for my web review for the week 2024-05.

This Web Page is Best Viewed in the EU

Tags: tech, vendor-lockin, apple

A little victory for European users trapped in the iOS ecosystem… still more needs to be done though.

https://cloudfour.com/thinks/this-web-page-is-best-viewed-in-the-eu/


Announcing Interop 2024 – Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog

Tags: tech, standard, web, browser

It’s good to see this initiative keeps thriving. It’s the best way to ensure the standard is well implemented everywhere.

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2024/02/announcing-interop-2024/


Disney Unveils the HoloTile Floor

Tags: tech, VR, hardware

Interesting technology. Could have a real impact regarding VR applications.

https://www.ign.com/articles/disney-unveils-the-holotile-floor-inching-us-closer-to-a-real-life-holodeck


New GitHub Copilot Research Finds ‘Downward Pressure on Code Quality’

Tags: tech, ai, copilot, programming, quality

Faster with less effort doesn’t seem to lead to quality code overall.

https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2024/01/25/copilot-research.aspx


🦅 Eagle 7B : Soaring past Transformers with 1 Trillion Tokens Across 100+ Languages (RWKV-v5)

Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, foss

Very nice progress on this type of architecture. It’s definitely needed in part because it lowers the inference cost quite a lot. It’s also nice to see it released with under the Apache 2 license and the training set be documented.

https://blog.rwkv.com/p/eagle-7b-soaring-past-transformers


Process spawning performance in Rust | Kobzol’s blog

Tags: tech, linux, rust, processes, system

I like this kind of rabbit holes. This gives a few interesting information on how forking processes behaves on Linux.

https://kobzol.github.io/rust/2024/01/28/process-spawning-performance-in-rust.html


On-demand-fork: A Microsecond Fork for Memory-Intensive and Latency-Sensitive Applications

Tags: tech, linux, system, kernel

Interesting paper for a new fork implementation in Linux.

https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/pfonseca/papers/eurosys21-odf.pdf


How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Juggling C++ Atomics | brilliantsugar

Tags: tech, c++, multithreading, atomics, tests

Very interesting tools for testing and verifying concurrent code.

https://brilliantsugar.github.io/posts/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-juggling-c++-atomics/


Microdot: a web framework for microcontrollers [LWN.net]

Tags: tech, embedded, python

Interesting little web framework to run on MicroPython. Clearly could make some IoT project more accessible.

https://lwn.net//Articles/959067/


High performance vector graphic video games | Spencer C. Imbleau’s blog

Tags: tech, rust, 2d, vector, game

Interesting tricks for having good vector graphic based animations and collision detection.

https://simbleau.github.io/rust/graphics/2023/11/20/using-vello-for-video-games.html


In Loving Memory of Square Checkbox @ tonsky.me

Tags: tech, gui, ux

This introduced lack on consistency and predictability in how you can interact with a GUI component is a problem, this will also reduce accessibility. There was value in this “tradition” of the square checkbox vs round radio button.

https://tonsky.me/blog/checkbox/


My favourite Git commit

Tags: tech, version-control, craftsmanship

Indeed the example is a bit extreme. Still it illustrate quite well what should be found in a commit message. It needs to tell a story and motivate the reasons behind a change.

https://dhwthompson.com/2019/my-favourite-git-commit


The art of good code review

Tags: tech, codereview, craftsmanship

Excellent post about code reviews. I particularly like the introduction about the motivations, it’s often forgotten.

https://philbooth.me/blog/the-art-of-good-code-review


Long Term Refactors

Tags: tech, engineering, refactoring

Interesting idea on how to schedule large refactorings and make sure they happen over time.

https://max.engineer/long-term-refactors


A Plea for more Mikado - Software Engineering and Stuff

Tags: tech, refactoring

Definitely a good approach for larger refactorings or preparing major upgrades.

https://dmathieu.com/articles/opinions/mikado/


Manage like an engineer | Ben Balter

Tags: tech, software, engineering, management

Interesting idea, why not use similar workflows than to develop software? For sure this would bring more transparency and automation, should help focusing on higher value tasks.

https://ben.balter.com/2023/01/10/manage-like-an-engineer/


Bye for now!

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Real Python: The Real Python Podcast – Episode #190: Great Starting Points for Contributing to Open Source

Planet Python - Fri, 2024-02-02 07:00

What's it like to sit down for your first developer sprint at a conference? How do you find an appropriate issue to work on as a new open-source contributor? This week on the show, author and software engineer Stefanie Molin is here to discuss starting to contribute to open-source projects.

[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

December/January in KDE Itinerary

Planet KDE - Fri, 2024-02-02 05:00

A lot has happened since the last update on KDE Itinerary, with the transition to Qt 6 finally completed, public transport coverage extended to more countries, a new journey map view and many more fixes and improvements.

New Features Journey map view

Mathis added a map view to the journey details page, so besides a list view of all stops you can now alternatively look at the route of a bus or train trip on a map as well.

Map view of a train connection.

Clicking on intermediate or final stops will show additional information such as the platform and provides access to the detailed station map.

Extended public transport coverage

Jonah has put quite some effort into filling the gaps in public transport data coverage in Europe, adding support for the following providers to the KPublicTransport library:

  • Pasažieru vilciens (Latvia)
  • LTG Link (Lithuania)
  • Željeznički prevoz Crne Gore (ŽPCG) (Montenegro)
  • Srbijavoz (Serbia)
Journey search result for a train connections between Latvia and Lithuania.

This not only benefits Itinerary but also KTrip.

Swapping arrival and departure location

A small but often requested convenience feature for the journey search has been added, the ability to swap arrival and departure stations with a single action.

Arrival/departure swap button in the upper right. Infrastructure Work Qt 6 port

Itinerary and all its dependencies finally completed the switch to Qt 6 in December. Despite the lengthy preparations for this a number of issues were only uncovered in the final steps of that process:

  • Kirigami’s new way of displaying context actions clashes with Itinerary’s custom navigation bottom bar.
  • Subtle changes in QVariant comparison behavior resulted in excessive timeline updates.
  • Various default values in Kirigami and/or the Qt Quick Controls styles changed affecting list elements, ListView clipping, dialog/overlay placements, etc.
  • There’s a behavior change for file dialog file type filters that lead to several support file types not being selectable on Android.
  • Behavior changes in how Kirigami handles non-square icons required changes in how we display public transport line icons.

There’s also immediate benefits from this of course:

  • Itinerary now uses the Breeze style on Android, which not only looks better but also reduces differences with the Linux version simplifying development and testing.
  • Qt 6 allowed us to optimize the initial data loading by skipping expensive CBOR/JSON compatibility checks.
Qt 6 based Flatpak and Android nightly builds

Users of the nightly builds already get the new Qt 6 based version. For Android that has been a seamless switch, Flaptpaks moved to a new location though:

flatpak install https://cdn.kde.org/flatpak/itinerary-nightly/org.kde.itinerary.flatpakref

With Itineray being one of the more complex Android apps of KDE switching that to Qt 6 also exposed a number of remaining issues in the entire stack:

  • Temporary content: URIs like used when sharing attachments from an email program to Itinerary were not readable by Qt anymore (fixed in Qt).
  • Timezone lookup by IANA id performance is rather poor with Qt 6, which affects startup time if you have lot of data in Itinerary (partially worked around, fix for Qt pending).
  • Reporting of flipped video frames in Qt Multimedia now works correctly on Android, resulting in a previous workaround for that causing upside-down barcode geometries (workaround removed in KF::Prison).
  • Qt Multimedia camera access crashed when being used after an app had been suspended (fixed in Qt).
  • Kirigami Addon’s new date and time picker didn’t correctly use Android’s native controls (fixed in Kirigami Addons).
  • Remaining uses of Qt5Compat andQt.labs.platform components in Kirigami and Kirigami Addons were removed, decreasing the APK size noticeably.

All of this also benefits other KDE Android apps.

Accessibility

Motivated by getting automated UI tests set up using the AT-SPI Selenium driver, interaction with Itinerary using the accessibility interface has been improved in many places. Besides changes in the application itself this has also resulted in improvements in Kirigami and Kirigami Addons and thus helping all apps using those.

There’s more work to do though, around combo boxes and the date picker for example.

And even though this is not yet integrated in the CI pipeline, the first few automated tests created that way have already caught regressions in the application and in the Kirigami framework.

OSM raw data tile server update

The fixes for OSM raw data tile server powering e.g. Itinerary’s train station maps addressing node order loss on directional lines as well as improving tile generation performance have now finally been deployed on maps.kde.org. This unblocks work on rendering directional features, and it’s also crucial for the investigations around routing mentioned below.

Indoor map routing

As mentioned in my report from 37C3 we now have a very promising looking approach for routing in our train station maps. Compared to “outdoor” routing this is challenging as this has to work with areas rather than graphs, and on multiple floors.

Implementation of a proof of concept continued and is meanwhile running integrated in our indoor map demo application.

Multi-floor route through Berlin central station. Fixes & Improvements Travel document extractor
  • New or improved travel document extractors for Accor, B&B Hotels, BlaBlaBus, Deutsche Bahn, Egencia, Emirates, Hilton, Iberia, IRCTC, Lufthansa, Meininger, NS, Pretix, SNCB, SpiceJet.
  • Improved generic extractor for RCT2 tickets crossing the end-of-year boundary.
  • Improved generic extractor for schema.org JSON-LD or Microdata events.
  • Fix crash on action-less PDF links.
  • Improved support for full-day events.
  • Added schema.org annotations on foss.events making events from there directly importable.

All of this has been made possible thanks to your travel document donations!

Itinerary app
  • Improved support for actions defined by providers via schema.org annotations, such as registering for an event or reserving a table at an restaurants.
  • Onboard live data is now merged into the current journey state when available.
  • Automatically pick an appropriate text color for Apple Wallet passes that don’t specify a text color themselves but use a background image. This fixes passes sometimes being rendered unreadable under these conditions.
  • Fix manually selecting transfers in the timeline.
  • Request camera runtime permissions on Android when using the barcode scanner.
  • Move loading indicator out of the way once the first results of a public transport search are displayed.
  • Fixed public transport stop searches after changing the country combo box.
  • Fixed seat section in train page not sometimes showing up correctly.
  • Added average speed statistics on the journey page.
  • Fixed import of large backups on Android.
FOSDEM

If you are at FOSDEM tomorrow or the day after don’t miss to meet us at the KDE stand, in building H this time!

How you can help

Feedback and travel document samples are very much welcome, as are all other forms of contributions. The KDE Itinerary workboard or the more specialized indoor map workboard show what’s on the todo list, and are a good place for collecting new ideas. For questions and suggestions, please feel free to join us in the KDE Itinerary Matrix channel.

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

The European regulators listened to the Open Source communities!

Open Source Initiative - Fri, 2024-02-02 04:10

During 2023, OSI and many others across the Open Source communities spent a great deal of time and energy engaging with the various co-legislators of the European Union (EU) concerning the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA). Together with a revision to Europe’s Product Liability Directive (PLD), the CRA will bring the responsibilities of product liability to software for the first time.

In the light of the EU’s own research showing the huge impact of Open Source on Europe’s economy, the authors of these legislative instruments sought to ensure that the lifecycle of Open Source software was impacted as little as possible. Indeed, at FOSDEM 2023 the authors of the CRA and PLD said as much in their first-of-a-kind main track appearance. But when we all looked at the details, community members found that was not as true as we hoped. As a range of organizations explained, the CRA was likely to be an existential threat to Open Source development, because instead of placing all the compliance requirements of the CRA on companies deploying Open Source software for profit, the obligations as written potentially fell on developers and Open Source foundations.

Reactions To The Final Text

Many OSI Affiliates engaged with the European Commission, European Parliament and European Council during 2023. With the welcome coordination of Open Forum Europe, a group met regularly to keep track of progress explaining the issues. Many of us also committed time and travel to meet in-person. As a result of all this effort from so many people, the final text of the CRA mitigated pretty much all the risks we had identified to individual developers and to Open Source foundations. As the Python Software Foundation said in their update:

…the final text demonstrates a crisper understanding of how open source software works and the value it provides to the overall ecosystem of software development.

And the Eclipse Foundation wrote:

The revised legislation has vastly improved its exclusion of open source projects, communities, foundations, and their development and package distribution platforms. It also creates a new form of economic actor, the “open source steward,” which acknowledges the role played by foundations and platforms in the open source ecosystem.

As the Apache Software Foundation said:

So, all in all, this is mostly good news for volunteers who run and innovate with open source software. Or, more accurately, much better than most of us could have imagined at the end of last summer.

This time last year OSI recommended that the CRA:

…exclude all activities prior to commercial deployment of the software and … clearly ensure that responsibility for CE marks does not rest with any actor who is not a direct commercial beneficiary of deployment.

That recommendation has been accepted and implemented, and the OSI is very grateful to the various experts who took the time to listen.

OSI Observations

While it’s all much better, and while the burden placed on individuals and charities is minimal, there are still challenges ahead. For example, the concerns that the Debian project articulated give cause for thought. With Open Source projects exempted from the requirement to place a CE certification mark on their software, downstream users will need to pay careful attention to their responsibilities under the CRA as well as to their liabilities to consumers under the PLD.

In particular, “digital artisans” using Open Source software at small scale – the main concern of Debian – will need guidance from the European Commission. While the experts we have met have all said that using an Open Source software distribution as part of a commercial activity is unlikely to require CE marking of the distribution itself, the interpretation of the key phrase “making available on the market” will need careful clarification. OSI encourages the Commission to seek expert advice from the Open Source communities as they did last year, and not to rely on outsourced consultants alone in preparing this advice.

FOSDEM 2024

There is also the question of how future engagement by legislators should proceed. The effort made by developers and Open Source foundations in 2023 is not sustainable, and the Commission needs to accommodate the Fourth Sector in future deliberations. To get this started, a group of us who have engaged during 2023 got together to organize a unique set of workshops at FOSDEM 2024 on Sunday February 4. If you want your voice heard, come along to one of the workshops!

The post <span class='p-name'>The European regulators listened to the Open Source communities!</span> appeared first on Voices of Open Source.

Categories: FLOSS Research

Ian Jackson: UPS, the Useless Parcel Service; VAT and fees

Planet Debian - Thu, 2024-02-01 19:38

I recently had the most astonishingly bad experience with UPS, the courier company. They severely damaged my parcels, and were very bad about UK import VAT, ultimately ending up harassing me on autopilot.

The only thing that got their attention was my draft Particulars of Claim for intended legal action.

Surprisingly, I got them to admit in writing that the “disbursement fee” they charge recipients alongside the actual VAT, is just something they made up with no legal basis.

What happened

Autumn last year I ordered some furniture from a company in Germany. This was to be shipped by them to me by courier. The supplier chose UPS.

UPS misrouted one of the three parcels to Denmark. When everything arrived, it had been sat on by elephants. The supplier had to replace most of it, with considerable inconvenience and delay to me, and of course a loss to the supplier.

But this post isn’t mostly about that. This post is about VAT. You see, import VAT was due, because of fucking Brexit.

UPS made a complete hash of collecting that VAT. Their computers can’t issue coherent documents, their email helpdesk is completely useless, and their automated debt collection systems run along uninfluenced by any external input.

The crazy, including legal threats and escalating late payment fees, continued even after I paid the VAT discrepancy (which I did despite them not yet having provided any coherent calculation for it).

This kind of behaviour is a very small and mild version of the kind of things British Gas did to Lisa Ferguson, who eventually won substantial damages for harassment, plus £10K of costs.

Having tried asking nicely, and sending stiff letters, I too threatened litigation.

I would have actually started a court claim, but it would have included a claim under the Protection from Harassment Act. Those have to be filed under the “Part 8 procedure”, which involves sending all of the written evidence you’re going to use along with the claim form. Collating all that would be a good deal of work, especially since UPS and ControlAccount didn’t engage with me at all, so I had no idea which things they might actually dispute. So I decided that before issuing proceedings, I’d send them a copy of my draft Particulars of Claim, along with an offer to settle if they would pay me a modest sum and stop being evil robots at me.

Rather than me typing the whole tale in again, you can read the full gory details in the PDF of my draft Particulars of Claim. (I’ve redacted the reference numbers).

Outcome

The draft Particulars finally got their attention. UPS sent me an offer: they agreed to pay me £50, in full and final settlement. That was close enough to my offer that I accepted it. I mostly wanted them to stop, and they do seem to have done so. And I’ve received the £50.

VAT calculation

They also finally included an actual explanation of the VAT calculation. It’s absurd, but it’s not UPS’s absurd:

The clearance was entered initially with estimated import charges of £400.03, consisting of £387.83 VAT, and £12.20 disbursement fee. This original entry regrettably did not include the freight cost for calculating the VAT, and as such when submitted for final entry the VAT value was adjusted to include this and an amended invoice was issued for an additional £39.84.

HMRC calculate the amount against which VAT is raised using the value of goods, insurance and freight, however they also may apply a VAT adjustment figure.

The VAT Adjustment is based on many factors (Incidental costs in regards to a shipment), which includes charge for currency conversion if the invoice does not list values in Sterling, but the main is due to the inland freight from airport of destination to the final delivery point, as this charge varies, for example, from EMA to Edinburgh would be £150, from EMA to Derby would be £1, so each year UPS must supply HMRC with all values incurred for entry build up and they give an average which UPS have to use on the entry build up as the VAT Adjustment.

The correct calculation for the import charges is therefore as follows:

Goods value divided by exchange rate 2,489.53 EUR / 1.1683 = 2,130.89 GBP

Duty: Goods value plus freight (%) 2,130.89 GBP + 5% = 2,237.43 GBP. That total times the duty rate. X 0 % = 0 GBP

VAT: Goods value plus freight (100%) 2,130.89 GBP + 0 = 2,130.89 GBP

That total plus duty and VAT adjustment 2,130.89 GBP + 0 GBP + 7.49 GBP = 2,348.08 GBP. That total times 20% VAT = 427.67 GBP

As detailed above we must confirm that the final VAT charges applied to the shipment were correct, and that no refund of this is therefore due.

This looks very like HMRC-originated nonsense. If only they had put it on the original bills! It’s completely ridiculous that it took four months and near-litigation to obtain it.

“Disbursement fee”

One more thing. UPS billed me a £12 “disbursement fee”.

When you import something, there’s often tax to pay. The courier company pays that to the government, and the consignee pays it to the courier. Usually the courier demands it before final delivery, since otherwise they end up having to chase it as a debt.

It is common for parcel companies to add a random fee of their own. As I note in my Particulars, there isn’t any legal basis for this.

In my own offer of settlement I proposed that UPS should:

State under what principle of English law (such as, what enactment or principle of Common Law), you levy the “disbursement fee” (or refund it).

To my surprise they actually responded to this in their own settlement letter. (They didn’t, for example, mention the harassment at all.) They said (emphasis mine):

A disbursement fee is a fee for amounts paid or processed on behalf of a client. It is an established category of charge used by legal firms, amongst other companies, for billing of various ancillary costs which may be incurred in completion of service. Disbursement fees are not covered by a specific law, nor are they legally prohibited.

Regarding UPS’ disbursement fee this is an administrative charge levied for the use of UPS’ deferment account to prepay import charges for clearance through CDS. This charge would therefore be billed to the party that is responsible for the import charges, normally the consignee or receiver of the shipment in question. The disbursement fee as applied is legitimate, and as you have stated is a commonly used and recognised charge throughout the courier industry, and I can confirm that this was charged correctly in this instance.

On UPS’s analysis, they can just make up whatever fee they like. That is clearly not right (and I don’t even need to refer to consumer protection law, which would also make it obviously unlawful).

And, that everyone does it doesn’t make it lawful. There are so many things that are ubiquitous but unlawful, especially nowadays when much of the legal system - especially consumer protection regulators - has been underfunded to beyond the point of collapse.

Next time this comes up I might have a go at getting the fee back. (Obviously I’ll have to pay it first, to get my parcel.)

ParcelForce and Royal Mail

I think this analysis doesn’t apply to ParcelForce and (probably) Royal Mail. I looked into this in 2009, and I found that Parcelforce had been given the ability to write their own private laws: “Schemes” made under section 89 of the Postal Services Act 2000.

This is obviously ridiculous but I think it was the law in 2009. I doubt the intervening governments have fixed it.

Furniture

Oh, yes, the actual furniture. The replacements arrived intact and are great :-).



comments
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Dirk Eddelbuettel: RQuantLib 0.4.21 on CRAN: Maintenance

Planet Debian - Thu, 2024-02-01 19:04

A new minor release 0.4.21 of RQuantLib arrived at CRAN this afternoon, and has already been uploaded to Debian as well.

QuantLib is a rather comprehensice free/open-source library for quantitative finance. RQuantLib connects (some parts of) it to the R environment and language, and has been part of CRAN for more than twenty years (!!) as it was one of the first packages I uploaded there.

This release of RQuantLib benefits from some kind attention that Jeroen has been paying to how we build (especially at CRAN) on both macOS and Windows. So the build processes are a little better now, and no internal code changed. QuantLib 1.33 built unchanged.

Changes in RQuantLib version 0.4.21 (2024-02-01)

  • Generalize macOS build to universal build (Jeroen in #179)

  • Generalize Windows build to arm64 (Jeroen in #181)

  • Generalize version string use to support cmake use (Jeroen in #181 fixing #180)

  • Minor update to 'ci.yaml' github action (Dirk)

Courtesy of my CRANberries, there is also a diffstat report for the this release. As always, more detailed information is on the RQuantLib page. Questions, comments etc should go to the rquantlib-devel mailing list. Issue tickets can be filed at the GitHub repo.

If you like this or other open-source work I do, you can now sponsor me at GitHub.

This post by Dirk Eddelbuettel originated on his Thinking inside the box blog. Please report excessive re-aggregation in third-party for-profit settings.

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Python Engineering at Microsoft: Python in Visual Studio Code – February 2024 Release

Planet Python - Thu, 2024-02-01 18:21

We’re excited to announce the February 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code!

This release includes the following announcements:

  • Python debugger extension installed by default
  • Create Environment option in the Python interpreter Quick Pick
  • Jupyter’s built-in variable viewer
  • New diagnostic rules with Pylance
  • VS Code triggered breakpoints with Python

If you’re interested, you can check the full list of improvements in our changelogs for the Python, Jupyter and Pylance extensions.

Python Debugger extension installed by default

The Python Debugger extension is now installed by default alongside the Python extension.

The Python Debugger extension aims to separate the debugging functionality from the main Python extension to prevent compatibility issues. This ensures that even as the Python extension drops support for older Python versions (e.g., Python 3.7), you can continue debugging projects with those versions without downgrading the Python extension. It also delivers platform-specific builds, ensuring you only receive the components relevant to your specific operating system, reducing download times and unnecessary overhead.

The Python Debugger extension enables all the functionality you are used to and more!

To ensure you are using the new Python Debugger extension, replace "type": "python" with "type": "debugpy" in your launch.json configuration file. In the future, the Python extension will no longer offer debugging support, and we will transition all debugging support to the Python Debugger extension.

Create Environment option in the Python interpreter Quick Pick

You can now more conveniently create a Python environment from the Python interpreter Quick Pick. Run the Python: Select Interpreter command, and then select the Create Virtual Environment option to create a new virtual environment for your project.

Jupyter’s built-in variable viewer

The Jupyter extension has added an experimental variable viewer to the Run and Debug panel. You can enable this experience by adding "notebook.experimental.variablesView": true in your User settings.json file. This built-in variable view can be used to view variables from your notebook kernel, helping you monitor variables in your program as your code is run. This is especially helpful when debugging your code as you can monitor the value of your variables in real time.

The built-in variable viewer is still under active development. Feedback and suggestions are welcomed in the vscode-jupyter repo.

New diagnostic rules with Pylance

Pylance, which is powered by Pyright, used to display reportGeneralTypeIssues diagnostics for a variety of typing issues in your code when type checking mode is enabled. This diagnostic rule has been modified in Pyright to allow for a more granular control over the diagnostics and is now available in Pylance Pre-Release. The reportGeneralTypeIssues diagnostic has been broken down into the following new rules:

  • reportAbstractUsage
  • reportArgumentType
  • reportAssertTypeFailure
  • reportAssignmentType
  • reportAttributeAccessIssue
  • reportCallIssue
  • reportInconsistentOverload
  • reportIndexIssue
  • reportInvalidTypeArguments
  • reportInvalidTypeForm
  • reportNoOverloadImplementation
  • reportOperatorIssue
  • reportPossiblyUnboundVariable
  • reportRedeclaration
  • reportReturnType
  • reportUnusedExcept

You can refer to the configuration documentation for more details about each of them.

VS Code Triggered Breakpoints with Python

VS Code has added support for triggered breakpoints! Triggered breakpoints are breakpoints that are automatically enabled once another breakpoint is hit. For example, this can be very useful when diagnosing failure cases in code that happen only after a certain pre-condition.

Triggered breakpoints can be set by right-clicking on line gutter, selecting Add Triggered Breakpoint…, and then choosing which breakpoint enables this one.

Support for triggered breakpoints is enabled for all languages, not just Python!

Other Changes and Enhancements

We have also added small enhancements and fixed issues requested by users that should improve your experience working with Python and Jupyter Notebooks in Visual Studio Code. Some notable changes include:

  • Fix duplicated suggestions for Python and avoid launching another language server in @vscode-jupyter#13596.
  • Added support for multi-level pytest classes allowing for top-level classes to be displayed in the Test Explorer in @vscode-python#22520.
  • Interpreter quick pick now displays the name of conda environments to make it easier to identify them in @vscode-python#21770.
  • New Python Quick Start docs page to get you up and coding quickly!

We would also like to extend special thanks to this month’s contributors:

Call for Community Feedback

As we are planning and prioritizing future work, we value your feedback! Below are a few issues we would love feedback on:

Try out these new improvements by downloading the Python extension and the Jupyter extension from the Marketplace, or install them directly from the extensions view in Visual Studio Code (Ctrl + Shift + X or ⌘ + ⇧ + X). You can learn more about Python support in Visual Studio Code in the documentation. If you run into any problems or have suggestions, please file an issue on the Python VS Code GitHub page.

The post Python in Visual Studio Code – February 2024 Release appeared first on Python.

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

TechBeamers Python: Python Reduce() for Reducing List, String, Tuple With Examples

Planet Python - Thu, 2024-02-01 13:16

The reduce() function in Python is handy for combining or filtering values in a list. It works by repeatedly using a function on pairs of elements, gradually producing a final result. For example, if we are reducing a list of numbers, reduce() can find sums, products, or other custom calculations. At the same time, it […]

The post Python Reduce() for Reducing List, String, Tuple With Examples appeared first on TechBeamers.

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

The Drop Times: Drupal 10's Cache API: How It's Setting New Standards in Web Speed

Planet Drupal - Thu, 2024-02-01 11:34
Drupal 10 emerges as a performance leader in web development, defying expectations with its sophisticated caching system and surpassing its counterparts in speed and efficiency, making it a testament to its enduring excellence.
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

The Drop Times: Drupal in Education: Data on CMS Usage in the World's Top 300 Universities

Planet Drupal - Thu, 2024-02-01 11:34
Drupal is a predominant Content Management System among the world's leading educational institutions, with 80% of the top 100 universities globally opting to utilize Drupal for their websites. This substantial adoption underscores Drupal's robustness, flexibility, and suitability for academic environments, marking it a preferred choice for higher education websites.
Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Drupal Association blog: What’s new on Drupal.org - Q2 to Q4 2023

Planet Drupal - Thu, 2024-02-01 09:34

Read our roadmap to understand how this work falls into priorities set by the Drupal Association with direction and collaboration from the Board and community. You can also review the Drupal project roadmap.

Drupalcon Lille 2023

Did you miss DrupalCon Europe in Lille in October? It was a great event, with close to 1300 attendees. 

Check out our general event recap for more details: DrupalCon Lille 2023 Recap – Getting Together With the Drupal Community 

Driesnote Lille 2023

The #Driesnote provided a great summary of progress on Drupal's strategic initiatives since DrupalCon Pittsburgh in May.

On top of that, this keynote hides a surprise on the format. Dries the storyteller. If you haven´t watched it yet, just go ahead before you continue reading this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08FaXNSVDrA

MVP organisation of the month

As we are heading towards the end for most or all of the projects, and some of them are starting to hand over their final deliveries, I would like to highlight the huge meaningful contribution that the PitchBurgh donors mean for the innovation in Drupal. Let me highlight those organisations that contributed to the project of this, in particular:

MVP individual of the month

This month my MVP of the month is AmyJune. Everyone at PitchBurgh has been fantastic, but in particular AmyJune has been a joy to work with. She is extremely committed and passionate about what she does, very easy to work with and always ahead of what was needed. Even when she was busy with other issues, she would find the time to come back to you and give you a hand with whatever was needed. Thanks AmyJune, you are a star and a great person.

Would you like to nominate a fantastic individual or organisation for our next update? Email me with your candidates: alex.moreno@association.drupal.org

Project Browser

Project browser refers to all infrastructure work related to supporting the Project Browser Initiative.

When the Project Browser is available in production, it can be included in the next Drupal 10 release, and then Drupal end users will be able to browse and install Drupal extensions directly from the admin ui -- and all the composer steps are done for them in the background.

The current path to production is:
Finish Secure Signing infrastructure
Migrate/update Drupal.org database
Configure CDN to allow routing of
D7 vs D10 paths
Configure data sync from D7->D10 endpoints
Deploy Package Endpoints to production

Automatic Updates

Automatic updates is a strategic initiative. Once completed it should make Drupal maintenance easier for many small and medium sites.

Both automatic updates & project browser will be making it easier to change the code of your Drupal site. This makes it even more important to trust the supply chain providing that code. 

In order to make Drupal's automatic updates secure, we are implementing the TUF standard for package signing.

We are increasing supply-chain security with The Update Framework - TUF. We were not able to find an implementation of the TUF standard which supported automated signing. We solved it using Rugged, a Python project built by Consensus Enterprises which uses the TUF reference implementation and takes care of that automation.

We are integrating signing metadata from packages.drupal.org,
packagist.org for Drupal core, and the packaged zip files Composer installs

Currently we have a proof of concept deployed in a staging environment

What is done or mostly done:

  • Contrib signing
  • Core signing
  • Server side security review
  • Drupal side security review

Next steps:

  • Server side signing system being readied for production. 
  • Framework manager review
  • Release manager review
Supply chain security 

Goal: The Update Framework, TUF, is a standard for signing metadata that provides defence against a number of attacks against software update systems.

Update:

  • Using TUF (The Update Framework)
  • We are integrating signing metadata from packages.drupal.org, packagist.org for Drupal core, and the packaged zip files Composer install

The Update Framework, TUF, is a standard for signing metadata that provides defence against a number of attacks against software update systems. 

That’s only a standard, we needed an implementation. That’s been done by a contract with Consensus Enterprises, who built Rugged. 

The remaining piece is telling Rugged what to sign. In TUF, something that’s signed is a target. Everything in the software update process should be signed. Both automatic updates and project browser are using Composer, so we are integrating signing of packages.drupal.org metadata, Drupal core metadata on Packagist.org, and the packaged zip files that Composer installs. 

As per Q3 2023 we have a proof of concept of the stack deployed, successfully signing what we have. We’re filling the last gaps, including signing metadata about security releases. And we’re working to make it production-ready, including getting a security audit by a 3rd party.

Security Audit

We have partnered with Open Source Technology Improvement Fund, connected to a security auditing firm: Include security

They have previously worked in auditing other TUF implementations.

Audit process has kicked off. Scope:

  • php-tuf
  • Rugged
  • Prod deployment best practices
Gitlab acceleration initiative

Gitlab acceleration pursues multiple goals:

Make Code contribution to the Drupal project easier. 
Adopt standard tools and adapt for the Drupal ecosystem. 
Preserve the collaborative nature of Drupal.
Helps Drupal.org update past Drupal 7.

Update:

We are now feature complete with DrupalCI and we are turning off some DrupalCI features in favour of GitLab CI. It must work with core & contrib, for both Current Drupal & Legacy D7. Contrib testing for modern Drupal versions is available today.

In progress: 

  • single sign on,
  • simplifying drupal.org (commit pages,  profiles, credit system),
  • issue collaboration,
  • issue credit.

Gitlab CI

If you are a project maintainer, GitLab CI is a tool you can enable to run automated tests whenever you make changes to your code, or whenever a contributor submits a merge request.

Core testing is now 5x times faster. What used to take 50 minutes, now takes less than 10 minutes.

Improved speed and performance have a direct translation into improved productivity

Update:

Remaining tasks:

  • Finalise the last testing combinations
  • Ensure private security testing process works in GitLab CI
  • Deprecate DrupalCI
What is left to have all sites in Drupal 10

Goal: Harmonising the whole portfolio of sites of the Drupal Association to the same Drupal version will help spending the resources better.

Updates:

  • Drupal 7 EOL is finally arriving in January 2024.
  • auth/SSO. Migration code is ready for review
  • Bluecheese theme. Port mostly complete
  • Production infrastructure. Major DB migrations for drupal.org

Next sites to move to Drupal 10:

events.drupal.org 

Social events listing feature being developed by our intern Haroms Terfasa 

The site has been upgraded from D9 to D10, which means that it now has sites hosted ranging from D6😱 to D10.

Drupal.org Update to Drupal 10
  • SSO (D7/D10) - Q4’24
  • CDN Config for partial migration - Q4’24
  • Homepage and key marketing pages - Q4’24
  • Drupal Association section/site - Q4’24

Status

  • https://events.drupal.org/ DONE
  • Api.Drupal.org (Migration written, awaiting deployment) - Q4’24
  • Localize.drupal.org (Migration written, awaiting SSO & deployment) - Q1 '24
  • jobs.drupal.org (needs strategic decision) - Q3 '24
  • security.drupal.org (being replaced by private GitLab) - Q3 '24
  • groups.drupal.org (largely replaced by /community/events) Still needs multilingual and interest groups - Q2 '24

Next milestones

  • First D10 Marketing Pages
  • Project Browser Endpoints
  • Telemetry Initiative? (Pending core alignment)
  • Deprecate DrupalCI - Summer '24
  • Deprecate Drupal.org issues (bulk migrate remaining) - Fall '24
Drupal 7 End of Life

As we all (should?) know, Drupal 7 support comes to an end. New landing page finished and published: https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-7/d7eol/partners

The purpose of this landing is to provide all the information about the EOL, what it means, the timelines, etc and what is more important, your options as a site owner.

The landing gives some guidance as well to some partners that can help migrating to the last version of Drupal, see https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-7/d7eol/partners#mid-scale-migration-partners 

You can as well became Certified Migration Partners, visit this link if you are interested: https://www.drupal.org/about/drupal-7/d7eol/partner-program 

If you are not sure what resources you may need or even if you need a partner, the D7EOL landing page offers guidance as well, just go to the “Understanding your options as a Drupal 7 site owner” form.

Contribution Health Dashboards

The contribution Health Dashboards is an initiative we took on the last quarter of 2023 and we published our findings and statistics here. Read the blog post with all the information explained here.

Thanks to the Contribution Health Dashboards we can track what is happening in our community in terms of contribution, and take actions towards improving, amongst other things, how innovation happens in Drupal 

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

Announcing: The 2024 State of Open Source Report

Open Source Initiative - Thu, 2024-02-01 09:30

Brussels, February 1, 2024 – Today, the results of the annual Open Source survey conducted by OpenLogic by Perforce in collaboration with the OSI and the Eclipse Foundation were shared in the 2024 State of Open Source Report. 

The 2024 State of Open Source Report sheds light on the factors driving Open Source Software (OSS) adoption, the most in-demand Open Source technologies, and the difficulties that teams using OSS most frequently encounter. Also covered in the report is support and planning for end-of-life (EOL) or soon-to-be EOL software.

More than 2,000 open source users working across numerous industries all over the world answered more than two dozen questions about the use and support of OSS by their organizations, from large enterprises to early-stage startups.

Open Source practitioners and IT leadership alike should find the report enlightening. Three things in particular struck interest for me:

  • OpenTofu already has 30% of the users as Terraform
  • OpenSearch has 50% of the users of ElasticSearch
  • OSI is the third organization by donor after Linux Foundation and Apache Software Foundation! We made a lot of progress folks!

Also of interest is rapid growth in the AI/ML/DL space, both in the data itself and the concurrent investment in Open Source data technologies. OSI has been on a mission to establish a Definition of Open Source AI, so this trend is something we’re watching closely. 

Thank you to Perforce and the Eclipse Foundation for the production of this valuable resource. Please share the 2024 State of Open Source Report far and wide! 

I will be participating in a webinar along with Perforce Open Source Evangelist Javier Perez and Eclipse Foundation Director of Product Marketing Clark Roundy, on February 22nd. Register here and continue to support Open Source and be a part of the conversation!

The post <span class='p-name'>Announcing: The 2024 State of Open Source Report</span> appeared first on Voices of Open Source.

Categories: FLOSS Research

Tryton News: Newsletter February 2024

Planet Python - Thu, 2024-02-01 08:30

During the last month we’ve worked hard on fixing bugs, improving how things work, increasing performance and adding new features.

Changes for the User Sales, Marketing, Purchases and Projects

When ignoring a shipment exception the ignored quantities are now deduced from the remaining quantity.

On assigning a sale supply stock move now only the children locations of the original are picked, to avoid an invalid pair of from- and to- locations.

When computing stock quantities sale lines without a shipping date are now sorted at the end of the list.

Now on cancellation of a purchase request only the staging moves are cancelled, too and the supply states of the sale lines are also cancelled.

It is allowed to select a blanket agreement line without a given supplier or customer product.

The marketing automation now provides reporting for scenarios and activities.

Accounting, Invoicing and Payments

Now an exchange rate account is implemented on the invoice to book currency exchange differences amount.

The use of a deposit account is again permitted for payments.

Stock, Production and Shipments

Now it is allowed to assign moves with zero quantity using a location with type view

The planned date of assigned moves from shipments and productions is now updated accordingly to avoid low stock levels.

There is no longer a warning raised, when the shipment quantity difference is 0.

Now the actual date is used to set the planned date of assigned moves for getting accurate computation results.

The sale supplies are now processed for the same warehouse and for the same company. Also the supply now always uses the forecast quantity to compute the supply with an activated stock first option. This is done to minimize the number of created purchases.

When a purchase request is deleted and the process does not require to recreate a new purchase request, the request stock moves now is updated to state draft.

User Interface

Now we order cancelled documents without a number at the end. Because they are usually the least interesting documents.

The GTK and the Sao client now support password reset from the user.

New Documentation

We also reworked parts of the Tryton documentation.

New Releases

We released bug fixes for the currently maintained long term support series
7.0 and 6.0, and for the penultimate series 6.8.

Changes for the System Administrator

Now the trytond-admin command supports the delay of database index creation. The new command line option --indexes is useful to separate the database update from the index creation, which can be a long running process.

Changes for Implementers and Developers

The csb43 package is now replaced by the aeb43 package to parse AEB43 statements.

The doctest tool set gets some useful enhancements:

Cached properties on objects with __slots__ are now supported.

Authors: @dave @pokoli @udono

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Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

LN Webworks: 7 Reasons Why Your Drupal Site Needs Ongoing Support and Maintenance

Planet Drupal - Thu, 2024-02-01 04:52

Every security concerns, bugs, and outdated technological systems pose varying issues that need immediate addressing. That’s why you require regular Drupal support and maintenance for your website. If you miss addressing the issues promptly, your business can not only suffer losses but also lose its valuable reputation. This blog elaborates on 7 reasons why consistent Drupal support and maintenance are imperative for your Drupal site. 

Categories: FLOSS Project Planets

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