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Debian 14 “Forky” will require reproducible builds

As the Linux kernel developer Jonathan Corbet lets us know from the “Bits of the Release Team” Mailing list on his lwn.net (currently under high load), the upcoming version 14 of Debian with the codename “Forky” will require reproducible builds. That’s security done the right way, so listen up Apple and Google!

High Five to all Debian developers, and belated congratulations to Sruthi Chandran who became the elected DPL (project leader) for this year! More about her here, or in case you use Instagram, here. And to all DDs: You girls & guys rock!

For those who don’t know: you can try Forky already, just install Debian, and then go and change the repositories from “stable” to “testing” or to “unstable” (or “sid” which is the same as unstable). Then sudo update && sudo full-upgrade, and you’ll have Debian as a rolling release just like Arch…

As always, thanks for reading.

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One of the best reviews I’ve read so far…

… and I’m not even in the market for the Apple Macbook Neo. Nonetheless, how “fireborn” approaches it, it’s flawless. And in case you need a notebook (aka laptop) in the price range of slightly abouve 600€ (according to German price search engines), go for it. “fireborn” also tells you if/when you need to spend more than that. So read his review in case you need one.

Like always, thanks for reading.

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Google and Apple sell it as security – in fact it’s vendor lock-in

I don’t read “X” or any other of those big tech “social media” sites, so take it from 3rd party, in this case from AndroidAuthority. I forwarded it to noyb already, because as it seems, we need to convince our authorities to never make use of these trojan horse tactics and “features”, and to also threaten to sue those makers not to distribute such nonsense anymore. A perfect example of a boiling frog tactics, so don’t fall for it…

As always, thanks for reading.

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Parties with brains leave the drains

It’s about time: in the German-speaking tagesschau.de online news page, the German parties SPD, Grüne, and Die Linke announce to finally leave X. Speaking of which – when I recently asked our local TV news station hr.de why they still offer viewers to contact them via Whatsapp, their answer was like: because that’s where the majority of users are. Well – that sounds a bit like a chicken-and-egg problem to me, no?

Become independent from big tech, people. Use the Fediverse. Except of course on something called “truth”, which is not very social IMO…

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Russell Coker about Copy Fail on Debian and on SE Linux

Russell wrote a good and informative blog post about the Linux kernel vulnerability called “Copy Fail”. And he also mentions the good work of the people behind GrapheneOS, which isn’t vulnerable. Let me cite this passage of his:

“The GrapheneOS people are doing really good work on securing phones, I am most interested in Mobian (Debian on phones) but for people who have made different choices GrapheneOS is a good option. Here is the GrapheneOS statement on Copy Fail (they are not vulnerable to it) [3]. For people interested in running a secure Android build GrapheneOS is the best option. Their supported devices list shows Pixel 6 to Pixel 10 supported and Pixel 8 to Pixel 10a recommended [4]. In Australia Kogan sells refurbished Pixel 6 phones starting at $251 including delivery and refurbished Pixel 8 phones starting at $499 with “First” membership, they seem to have the cheapest Pixel phones.

I want to make Debian more like Android in terms of security, but that’s a topic for other blog posts.”

Thanks etbe!

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Portrait of Bella, May 2026

Portrait of Bella, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2026

Image is like out of camera (nothing changed except Metadata). Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mk2 with Panasonic Lumix G 20/1.7 lens.

As always, thanks for viewing. Full-sized image is on Mastodon.

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Confirmed: calcaneal fracture

So after two x-ray images which both didn’t show it, yesterday’s CT scan confirmed the diagnosis of the MRI (MRT): what I have is called a calcaneal fracture, which means my calcaneus (heel bone) is broken. The Wikipedia page in English about it has a nice animation showing that bone:

It’s not displaced, so it will only need non-surgical treatment – which will still last several weeks or months. And to prevent a thrombosis due to not moving that foot enough, I shall take heparin for as long as that lasts – a needle a day…

And the recommendation from yesterday’s doc at the hospital was to wear a VACOped Short orthotic for some 8 weeks at least – they look like this:

So today I have the next appointment with my ortopaedist, whom I should then see again after a few weeks, such was the further recommendation.

Let’s see.

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I’m WIP

As my foot problems didn’t seem to improve, I went back to the docs – first, my general “house” doc as we call them here, then to an orthopaedist, who in turn sent me to another clinic to get an MRI (MRT in German). There I had an appointment for yesterday, and their result was: broken calcaneus (heel bone). So they sent me to a nearby hospital, where I got another x-ray, with the result of: no fracture. Sigh… now I’ll have to go again tomorrow to get a ct scan. That will be the 7th visit to a doc or clinic – so I’m very much work in progress as it seems…