Security Incidents and Microsoft/Proprietary Role

• Dutch research funder operations frozen for a month after [attack] [iophk: Windows TCO]

  The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), which cannot pay a ransom to the attackers because it is a public body, was scrambling to restore its systems but said its activities would be on ice until at least 15 March.

• More than 20,000 U.S. organizations compromised through Microsoft flaw: source [iophk: Windows TCO]

  More than 20,000 U.S. organizations have been compromised through a back door installed via recently patched flaws in Microsoft Corp’s email software, a person familiar with the U.S. government’s response said on Friday.

• White House calls Microsoft email breach an 'active threat'

  Cybersecurity group FireEye said in blog post late Thursday night that [attackers] had been in at least one client’s system since January, and that they had gone after “US-based retailers, local governments, a university, and an engineering firm,” along with a Southeast Asian government and a Central Asian telecom group.

• We can’t teach in a technological dystopia

  I want to argue here that universities are fostering abusive technologies that replace empowerment with enforcement. There are worries, and much evidence, that we are already giving away too much control to Big Tech companies, which not only have vast appetites for our data, but also harbour ambitions to usurp the role of universities. Google offers courses with certificates it considers equivalent to three-year bachelor’s degrees to people it is hiring, for instance. And US universities such as Duke partner with Google Cloud to deliver large parts of their curriculum as outsourced digital education.

  The problem is not that these services are poor substitutes for in-person education. On the contrary, they are very good at providing a narrow range of outcomes: namely, consistent, efficient training and testing. But that is not the same thing as education.

• Coursera files for US IPO as edtech booms amid the pandemic

  Revenue rose 59% to $293.5 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, the company said in a filing. Net loss widened to $66.8 million for the year ended Dec. 31, from a $46.7 million loss a year earlier.

Android Leftovers

• Top 10 Best Screen Mirroring Apps for Android Devices

• Video: Best Free Video Editor Apps for Android: Making Videos Has Never Been Easier | NDTV Gadgets 360

• Android Auto receives split-screen support on wide-screen head units

• Android Auto Is Now Getting Split-Screen If You Have The Right Device

• How to scan QR codes on your Android phone | TechRadar

• Is Dispo On Android? Here's What To Know About David Dobrik's Camera App

• How to see your Android notification history

• How to change the audio output on an Android

• Some Android and iOS apps are leaking data due to misconfigured cloud services | TechRadar

• Google explains how Android audio latency has improved - 9to5Google

• The average Android tablet isn't ready for work from home - 9to5Google

• Samsung Galaxy M51 is now receiving One UI 3.1 update based on Android 11 - GSMArena.com news

• Stable Android 11 update with Realme UI 2.0 arrives for Realme Narzo 20

• Redmi Note 9 to get Android 11 update first followed by MIUI 12.5

This week in KDE: Adaptive panel opacity and auto-restored unsaved documents in Kate!

A big Plasma feature was added this week: adaptive Plasma panel opacity! Now the panel and panel applets are more transparent than they were before, allowing more of a tint from the beautiful wallpaper on your desktop! But what’s this? You’re about to complain that you maximize all your windows so the increased transparency will look ugly? In fact, we now make your panel and panel applets 100% opaque when there are any maximized windows, ensuring no ugly effect! But what if you don’t want that either? Well, if you don’t want adaptive opacity we now let you make your panel and panel applets always transparent, or always opaque! Hopefully that should make everyone happy. Let’s give a round of applause to Niccolò Venerandi and Jan Blackquill for this work, which will show up in Plasma 5.22.

Kubuntu Focus M2 Linux laptop now available with NVIDIA RTX 30x series graphics

The Kubuntu Focus M2 is a 4.4 pound laptop that ships with the Kubuntu GNU/Linux distribution pre-installed. First launched in October, the 4.4 pound notebook has a 15.6 inch, 144 Hz full HD matte display, an Intel Core i7-10875H octa-core processor and NVIDIA graphics. When the notebook launched last year it was available with NVIDIA RTX 20 GPUs, but now you can configure the system with up to RTX 3080 graphics. Entry-level configurations are also getting a price drop.