Tag: linux

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Time for the Sepender edition of our regularly scheduled Pook-Emu Bee Links.

Subway Stories

1 | These salvaged relics in a Brooklyn subway station are the ghostly remains of old New York buildings (Ephemeral New York. Sep. 28, 2026.)
I wouldn’t call this being restored to their former glory, but it’s something.

2 | MTA axes G train shutdowns planned for December after outcry from small businesses (Kirstyn Brendlen for Brooklyn Paper. Sep. 28, 2026.)
Fun fact for non-New Yorkers: The G train is the only non-shuttle line that runs directly between Brooklyn and Queens without going through Manhattan in between. It is also an oft-troubled line in the repair space.

Tech Replacements

3 | Fedora Discussion Raises The Idea Of Replacing LibreOffice With Collabora Office (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. Sep. 24, 2026.)
That is a stupid idea. Fedora should not do that. LibreOffice is a good default office suite (if one wants to ship a default office suite).

4 | US sanctions force The Netherlands off Microsoft and toward alternative NixOS-based software ecosystem — trial programs running now, first release expected at end of 2027 (Oliver Hansen for Tom’s Hardware. Sep. 28, 2026.)
U.S. sanctions of the ICC did not “force” the government of the Netherlands to do anything, as the first paragraph of the article itself notes. But since I use Linux instead of Windows myself, it will be interesting to see to what extent governments can make the switch work.

Military Conflicts

5 | Iran publishes propaganda letter urging US voters to punish Trump in midterm elections (Ronny Reyes for the New York Post. Sep. 29, 2026.)
I could state the obvious that I am not taking voting advice from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. But let us go with a less obvious angle. 26 pages? Does the IRGC really expect me to read 26 pages? Moreover, are they aware that 1 USD is now worth more than 2.5 million Iranian Rial? If for no other reason than preserving tokens I would recommend they keep future communications to me to a strict 500 word limit. Thank you.

6 | Captured Hamas Spy Chief Helps Israel Take Out Three Senior Terror Commanders (Vijeta Uniyal for Legal Insurrection. Sep. 29, 2026.)
Hamas is finally showing the kind of cooperation that can lead to peace in the Middle East. Inspiring.

7 | Ukraine’s former defense minister launches ‘Manhattan Project’ for killer robots (Katie Livingstone for Defense News. Sep. 30, 2026.)
The problem with Giant Death Robots is that by the time you reach the end of the tech tree, you probably already made it to Alpha Centauri or won a domination victory, no? I don’t see how he is addressing that. Shallow. (Link for readers who never played Civilization.)

Video Games

8 | Danganronpa 2×2 hands-on impressions: Witnessing the exact moment Slayhem Mode takes the familiar killing game off the rails (Dorde P for Automation West. Sep. 30, 2026.)
I was mildly curious how they were going to re-do the Danganronpa 2 scenario. This sounds plausible. I may talk myself into this one but TBD. (They had better not kill Chiaki off early, however.)

9 | After Years Of Hard Work, One Of The Most Ambitious Super Mario Kart SNES Hacks Of All Time Finally Has A Release Date (Jack Yarwood for Time Extension. Sep. 30, 2026.)
Interesting. I’m curious what the new courses are.

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You may wonder whether I sometimes go a week or so (a week in this case) without publishing Pook-Emu Bee links because I lack links. Not so. I collect links every day. That makes getting back to Pook-Emu Bee all the more urgent. An out-of-control link backlog is a scary thing.

AI (or SI?) and Tech

1 | Daily News Stuff 29 September 2026 (Ambient Irony. Sep. 29, 2026.)
Incisive analysis of the “rogue” agent phenomenon in four words (“Because they are idiots.”)

2 | Heads of AI firms tell UN Security Council that it could imperil humanity (Seth Borenstein and Jennifer Peltz for AP. Sep, 23, 2026.)
I agree with Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony that this effort is embarrassing on many levels and impractical because the UN does not “have the power to regulate squat.” With that being said, I think the UN may be the perfect forum.

3 | Alabama teens getting their own version of TikTok under sweeping $100M deal (Elaine Mallon for Fox Business. Sep. 26, 2026.)
That’s great but what if we went back and considered that “no TikTok” idea again?

4 | Fwupd 2.1.8 Linux Firmware Updater Is Out Now with Support for More Devices (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linus. Sep. 24, 2026.)
I’m an Fwupd fan. I was hoping one of the devices would be my ASRock motherboard, which I just updated a couple of weeks ago. Alas. Still cool, however.

New York City News

5 | Safety advocate blames Central Park redesign for pedestrian’s death as cyclist crashes rise (Haley Brown for the New York Post. Sep. 28, 2026.)
Correct. But let us not forget the bikers who are pretending they’re riding in the Tour de France.

6 | Bay Ridge’s beloved Ragamuffin Parade turns 60, celebrating generations of community (Olivia Searman for Brooklyn Paper. Sep. 23, 2026.)
Despite having spent a good amount of time in Bay Ridge in my life, I never heard of this parade. But I nevertheless offer my congratulations.

World News

7 | Leftist South Korea Demands Ukraine Apologize After Zelensky Reveals North Korea Soldiers Shipped to Seoul (Frances Martel for Breitbart. Sep. 28, 2026.)
I personally wouldn’t stake my reputation on the reliability of either party here, but as a general point the one asking everyone for assistance in its existential defensive war should probably err on the side of caution.

8 | US Identifies and Blacklists Three More UNRWA ‘Teachers’ Who Participated in Oct 7 Terror Spree, Kidnapped and Held Israeli Hostages (Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon. Sep. 28, 2026.)
If it makes these three distinguished UNRWA employees feel better, many individuals who have been publicly implicated in October 7 have suffered worse fates than loss of employment opportunities. Wait a second. That probably shouldn’t make them feel better.

Video Game Stories

9 | Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka considers Ultimate Despair Girls the pinnacle of his writing. “I will never be able to write another scenario that surpasses it” (Dorde P for Automation West. Sep. 25, 2026.)
I think I played something between 30% and 40% of Ultimate Despair Girls before losing interest and unsuccessfully including it in an Amazon trade in when I bought my Switch (UPS lost the package…). It was ok but I would have probably finished had I agreed with Mr. Kodaka’s assessment. With that being said, I do like Dangan 1-3, although I would caution against taking them too seriously.

10 | Persona 4 Revival Corrects Aika Nakamura Details, Confirms She Is Not a New Social Link (Orpheus Josha for Noisy Pixel. Sep. 24, 2026.)
I had seen the false report that P4 Revival was adding a new social link and had questions. Persona 4 Golden already tacked on two social links in Aeon and Jester to the original Persona 4. Adding yet another would have probably demanded some re-balancing. The correction to the original erroneous story thus makes sense to me.

11 | Amid “itasha” ban controversy, Forza Horizon 6 devs say moderation is handled by humans and “the number of reports does not matter” (Carlos “Zoto” Zotomayor for Automation West. Sep. 24, 2026.)
I have seen multiple stories about Forza Horizon 6 moderators allegedly banning user-created anime-style designs on in-game cards. Notably, none of the articles actually offer examples of which designs are being flagged. Thus, despite being an anime fan who is largely skeptical of games that have this much of an online component, I would reserve judgment.

Essential Minerals in Moderation

12 | Living the Low-Sodium Lifestyle (Chris O’Donnell. Sep. 24, 2026.) [HT Makoism]
Good blog post. I don’t measure sodium intake in this much detail but like the author, I seldom eat out and I check sodium on nutrition fact labels.

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I have not had much time to post new articles (long or short lately), but let us get the last full week of September off to a good start with a new edition of the Pook-Emu Bee.

1 | Linux 7.3 Adds Support For Victrix Pro BFG & Azeron Controllers (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. Sep. 20, 2026.)
I have questions here. First, why is that controller $269? Second, why does it look like a hand with six fingers? I can’t weigh in on the new Linux support until those threshold questions are answered.

2 | Jane Austen’s 8-Bit Adventure Switch Review (Game Slush Pile. Sep. 19, 2026.)
The review makes it sound uninspiring. But what if you tried playing it with the “hand” controller? (See above.)

3 | NYC judge fails to take bite out of crime after repeat offender chomps on cop (Tina Moore for the New York Post. Sep. 19, 2026.)
I understand that the pro-crime judge is reluctant to remand anyone to custody, but what if we compromised and all agreed to send him to the pound?

4 | Hyperlocal New York City publications are having a moment (Hannah Frishberg for Gothamist. Sep. 17, 2026.)
I added a few of these to my feed collection. We’ll see if there are any Pook-Emu Bee links to be had.

5 | Judge Strikes Down Controversial Rule Changes Benefitting Embattled Brooklyn Party Boss (The City Repoter (via The Haitian Times). Sep. 17, 2026.)
Call me a romantic but I’m not counting out the possibility that Frank Seddio still has some magic left (see link 9 in Pook-Emu Bee 08-27-26). There are some notable contextual omissions in this ostensibly straightforward news report, but I choose to stick with the Seddio jokes.

6 | NYC ‘animal lover’ accused of stealing beloved bodega cat furiously claims she was unfairly arrested (Georgett Roberts and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon for the New York Post. Sep. 16, 2026.)
Pro-tip: If your position is that you are just a cat lover who genuinely thought the cat was a stray, try to avoid repeatedly referring to the cat you claim you thought you were rescuing as the “f—ing cat.”

7 | AOC Blasts Patriots Owner Robert Kraft for ‘Censoring’ Macklemore from Criticizing Israel (Dylan Gwinn for the New York Post. Sep. 16, 2026.)
Strange. Here I thought the Congresswoman was a big fan of Israel-related boycotts.

8 | After Landmarks Review, Hotel Bossert Moves Ahead With Reno, Ritz-Carlton (Anna Bradley-Smith for Brownstoner. Sep. 16, 2026.)
It sounds like the new owners are working in good faith to maintain the landmark while getting it up and running again. I approve.

9 | Who Is feeding the sudden panic about AI? (Issues & Insights. Sep. 15, 2026.)
The big AI companies and their lobbyists (both of the witting and unwitting variety). I try to be a reality-based AI critic as I fight to keep the scrapers from crashing my sites (preventing stealing my stuff is nice but sometimes you have to focus on the practical wins). That leads us to a fitting final link…

10 | Daily News Stuff 20 September 2026 (Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony. Sep. 20, 2026.)
The replies to excerpts from AI safety conversations have gotten unbelievable made me laugh and reminded me of how my friend was able to make himself look smart in front of friends and colleagues by sharing my 2021 election wisdom that, notwithstanding the polls, there was in fact no scenario wherein Andrew Yang would become Mayor of New York City.

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For the first time in about a week (if not a little more), I do not have a tight work deadline. Thus, I present you with a relatively leisurely edition of the Pook-Emu Bee to kick off September.

Three white flowers and leaves, shot from overhead. In the top right corner we see a bee flying toward the flowers.
Note the bee in the top right. I took this photograph in Brooklyn Bridge Park on August 28, 2026.

1 | Expression After Hit By Car (Ojai Raptor Center (via Owl’s in Towels). Oct. 11, 2024.)
That raptor has seen more things than the original raptors.

2 | GrapheneOS might skip the Pixel 11 series over the lack of MTE hardware security support (Paul for AlternativeTo. Sep. 1, 2026.)
Pixels are going in the wrong direction, but my (LineageOS-powered) 3a XL is going stron[-ish].

3 | Tether Brings the Apple Continuity Experience to Linux (Sourav Rudra for It’s FOSS. Aug. 31, 2026.)
I don’t run iOS (see above), but this looks like a neat project for Linux/iOS people. I have now done my PSA duty for the week.

4 | “A Cute Little LibGen Babysitter”: Music Publishers Sue Anthropic Founders Over Torrenting Spree (Ernesto Van der Sar for Torrent Freak. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I’m somehow not surprised that the Claude leadership described their thoughts about torrenting pirated works contemporaneously in the style of teenage girls keeping a diary.

5 | The 3DO Is Getting A New DOOM-Esque Shooter Featuring The Voice Of Silent Hill’s Lisa Garland (Sep. 1, 2026.)
Having conquered ONScripter-EN, should I make my next visual novel for 3DO?

6 | Dem AG urges Jewish voters to put humanity above ‘safety and security’ of own people (Alec Schemmel for Fox News. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I could state the obvious here. But instead I will offer a more novel take. How in the world did a woman with these political instincts win state-wide office in one of the biggest states in the union?

7 | I built my own streaming box, and it beats every smart TV I’ve owned (Anurag Singh for XDA. Aug. 31, 2026.)
I just use a mini PC running Fedora with KDE Plasma. With that being said, I should really test out LineageOS with Waydroid on my TV.

8 | Homan Denies Yiannopoulos Deported Quickly to Bypass ICE Detention (Pam Key for Breitbart. Aug. 31, 2026.)
I know this is going to be hard for a reporter at CNN to understand, so we can go slowly. Detention occurs in the course of removal proceedings or in the period after an alien has been ordered removed but has not for one reason or another been removed. Mr. Yiannopoulous had already been ordered removed in absentia, apparently did not seek to reopen his removal proceedings, and did not otherwise try to obstruct his removal to the United Kingdom, which apparently did not refuse to accept the return of its national (between the return of Prince Harry and Mr. Yiannopoulous, they are having a rough stretch). Thus, Mr. Yiannopoulous was removed expeditiously after DHS performed a social media touchdown dance instead of being detained pending nothing whatsoever. With my “Ted Talk” completed, I will note with some surprise that the new position of CNN is “the prompt execution of removal orders is special treatment.”

9 | Aki 2026 Banuzke Analysis (Fantasy Basho. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I’m thinking about putting together some detained predictions for the upcoming Aki Banuzke. Not fantasy though. Real, ice-cold predictions.

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We bring August to a close with one Pook-Emu Bee for the road.

A rectangular yellow street sing which says "SLOW" above a silhouette of a running boy, under which we see the text "CHILDREN AT PLAY." Photo taken in the evening against the backdrop of a brick building and window.
I photographed this Children at Play sign on Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights on August 21, 2026.

1 | Understanding And Dealing With Kim Jong-Un’s Resilience (Mario Alexis Portella for American Thinker. August 31, 2026.)
I attribute Kim Jong-un’s resiliance to his looking at everything.

2 | Israel Continues Elimination Campaign Against October 7 Perpetrators and Gaza Terror Commanders (Vijeta Uniyal for Legal Insurrection. August 29, 2026.)
There seems to be a growing correlation between having participated in October 7 and suffering an untimely demise.

3 | Calibre 9.14 Open-Source E-Book Manager Is Out with More AI Features (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linux. August 27, 2026.)
I’m not one of the people dropping Calibre because of optional AI features (some of which are relatively inoffensive, albeit not useful to me), nor am I in the business of telling people how to run their free and open source projects. With that being granted, I hope we are also working on the non-AI features.

4 | A proposal for new Netflix content rating icons (Eric Bailey. August 25, 2026.) (HT Jim Nielsen.)
I don’t use Netflix, but I see the point about its rating icons. Coincidentally, I was reminded of my article on rating scales.

5 | “I just chose words carefully.” (Marcin Wichary at Unsung. August 30, 2026.)
I never tried typesetting in monospace, but I do use monospace for most of my drafting in my markdown editor.

6 | California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law — software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt (Luke James for Tom’s Hardware. August 29, 2026.)
Gavin Newsom dreamed of being President of the United States. He will settle for being accidental Stallman (with hair gel).

7 | Brooklyn city councilmembers look to silence Navy Yard’s noisy raves (Joe Hong for Gothamist. August 29, 2026.)
The correct number of raves in Brooklyn Navy Yard would be 0.

8 | Read This Before You Buy That TV Streaming Stick (Brian Krebs at Krebs on Security. July 30, 2026.)
Alternatively, consider reading “this” and the not buying “that” TV streaming stick.

9 | Bronx Mother Found Not Responsible for Killing Her Two Boys Because of ‘Postpartum Psychosis’ (Lowell Cauffiel for Breitbart. August 29, 2026.)
Someone needs to check in on the Bronx. Not me, mind you. I haven’t been to the Bronx in seven years and that was maybe for a combined 15-20 minutes. I’m good.

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I have been busy today, but the weekday streak of Pook-Emu Bee links continues.

1 | California political candidate facing six years in prison after listing dive bar as home address (Marina Peña for the California Post. August 24, 2026.)
This plan was dumb enough to make me wonder whether she lives in a dive bar.

2 | Summer Wars: An Anime With A Cautionary tale About AI (The Ghastly Mirror. August 24, 2026.)
I watched Summer Wars with a friend a long time ago (maybe 2014-15). I recall liking it well enough so I’ll second the recommendation.

3 | Happy 35th Birthday, Linux! (Marius Nestor for Tux Machines. August 25, 2026.)
35? Linux is still just a kid. Happy birthday to my operating system since 2020!

4 | The Data Center Wars – A Massive Proposed Data Center in Texas Drops Request for Tax Abatements (Buck Throckmorton for Ace of Spades HQ. August 25, 2026.)
Pacifico Energy could have saved itself plenty of grief by not requesting the tax abatements in the first place.

5 | 1000 Blog Posts (Chris at Unaccountable Thoughts. July 6, 2026.)
This is 632 here at ECS (not counting my “social” activity posts).

6 | Seen This Week: Butterflies and Fruits (Kate St. John at Outside My Window. August 15, 2026.)
I’m pro-butterfly, so I approve of this photo post. I haven’t seen many in Brooklyn this year but there have been a decent number of bees and dragonflies lately.

7 | Kanon Analysis: Understanding Mai’s Struggle (Zalor at Zalor’s Seminar. July 10, 2026.)
A very interesting in-depth analysis of the struggle of Mai in the excellent 2006-07 anime adaptation of Kanon (on my distant to-review list). This post includes the analysis video along with the full transcript.

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We’re back from the weekend with a new edition of the Pook-Emu Bee links.

1 | OpenAI builds dedicated ChatGPT experience for teens with parental controls and study features (Eric Revell for Fox Business. August 18, 2026.)
This is heartwarming and all but what if the kids just went outside and tried reading once in a while?

2 | Google Opposes Site Blocking in Europe as U.S. Piracy Blocking Plans Gain Momentum (Ernesto Van der Sar for Torrent Freak. July 11, 2026.)
Sometimes Google does in fact have a point.

3 | Mamdani plans to build temporary highway in Brooklyn Heights to fix crumbling part of BQE (Stephen Nessen for Gothamist. August 24, 2026.)
This sounds reasonable (if they can actually swing it). Sometimes the theater kid does in fact have a point.

4 | Linda McMahon: Parents Should Have ‘Every Right’ to Opt Out of AI Teaching (Jeff Poor for Breitbart. August 23, 2026.)
I agree… but missing is an explanation on how DOE would, or will, promote this in practice.

5 | Moving your Linux home folder to a dedicated drive is the distro-hopping secret I wish I knew earlier (Bobby Jack for How-To Geek. August 18, 2026.)
When I had to reinstall my OS last month, I copied my home directory in an external SSD. Somewhat more time-consuming.

6 | Lilbits: Rising RAM prices are taking a toll on PCs, tablets, game consoles, and more (Brad Linder for Liliputing. June 25, 2026.)
Good thing I have a non-insignificant number of computers and laptops. Good luck to the rest of you, however.

7 | To women, Lindsay Clancy isn’t a monster — she’s living proof of their worst fears (Natasha Pearlman for the New York Post. August 21, 2026.)
This is a very charitable take, but not as charitable as my keeping Pook-Emu Bee positive by stopping at “charitable.”

8 | Assassination Sing-a-Long: Hasan Piker Mocks the Murdered Charlie Kirk to Cheering Crowd (Jonathan Turley. August 23, 2026.)
The placement of links 7 and 8 is pure happenstance.

9 | Liquid Death and Jason Kelce’s Garage Beer Mockingly Call on Americans to Save Urine to Cool AI Data Centers (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. August 21, 2026.)
I have yet to try Liquid Death after writing an article about it being displayed in a inadvertently humorous way last year. They wondered what would push me to purchase over-priced flavored seltzer. “I know! Potty humor featuring a retired football player who gets jobs because his current football player brother married a pop star!” They missed it by just this much.

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It is time to wrap up another perfect five-for-five Pook-Emu Bee work-week before we take tomorrow off for Newsletter Saturday.

Life Updates

I shared a photo of my new (Ebay, so “new”) Wacom One drawing tablet yesterday. While the “drawing” works as expected, I cannot get it to display an image. I think the annoying Wacom “X cable” is the issue, so I am ordering a replacement from B&H to see if that is correct before I move for a refund. In any event, I tested it on different computers to make sure it was not a computer-specific issue. That inspired me to pull out my touchscreen Fujitsu Lifebook, which I “upgraded” last fall with a new SSD and RAM (not to mention a replacement battery) but subsequently forgot due to being busy. It is now upgraded to Fedora 44.

Fujitsu Lifebook showing KDE Plasma lockscreen.
My Fujitsu Lifebook with the KDE Plasma lockscreen.

I have an article project centered on this Fujitsu. You may think from the lockscreen that it is running KDE Plasma. That is sort of true, but not the full story. It is technically running Fedora’s KDE Plasma Mobile Spin. How many Plasma Mobile-on-laptop articles are there? Add it to my to-do list.

Links

1 | WordPress..Just Why? (JanerationX. July 23, 2026.)
Speaking as someone who has been a WordPress admin for more than six years, I have my fair share of complaints. With that being said and speaking solely for myself (granting different people have different needs and use-cases), I strongly prefer self-hosted WordPress (as in the software, not the service) to service-dependent solutions such as Pika, Bear Blog, Pagecord, and Neocities, and I would take WordPress over Ghost because it is more flexible. But for some people, some of the solutions noted by JanerationX would be better options, and were I starting today I may have opted for a different solution than WordPress, albeit none of the ones singled out for mention in the linked post.

2 | Comic Number 773 (Li Chen. August 21, 2026.)
Be careful what you say on the robot podcast.

3 | ‘GTA VI’ hackers threaten a nightmare scenario (Molly Liebergall for Morning Brew. August 21, 2026.)
I sincerely doubt any meaningful number of people will refrain from purchasing GTA VI due to leaks. For one, people who are excited for the story can avoid the leaks. For two, my understanding is that GTA focuses on game-play, it is not a movie or kinetic visual novel. Of course, I am not buying it regardless, so what I do I know?

4 | Whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta (John Rowitch for NPR. August 19, 2026.)
I have not had an account having any nexus to a Meta property since I deleted my Facebook account in mid-to-late 2009 (I actually did not “make” that account, but that is a story for another day). My break-out article on NLJ involved my advocating for RSS/ATOM feeds over Facebook News for keeping abreast of worldly affairs. Finally, I have had less-than-positive things to say about children using TikTok, which, while not Meta, evinces that I have some interest in the negative effects of social media and children. Having noted the foregoing, I must concur with Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony (who gets a HT here) that the particulars of the concerns articulated by Mr. Béjar and 29 U.S. states are at best amorphous and fail to live up to the promise of the states’ allegations. Less charitably, I think I am dumber for having read that article.

5 | Diocese in Ghana restores remaining liturgical practices restricted during COVID-19 pandemic (Sabrina Amboka for EWTN News. August 20, 2026.)
I had to check the date to make sure they did not accidentally re-publish something from 5 years ago.

6 | Judge in Harvard Antisemitism Case Was Anti-Israel, Anti-War Activist, McGovern Campaign Aide (Ira Stoll for The Washington Free Beacon. August 18, 2026.)
There’s something charming about a McGovern presidential campaign controversy poping up as a story in 2026.

7 | AnduinOS is Windows without the frustration, and it just cracked the top 15 distros (João Carrasqueira for XDA Developers. August 17, 2026.)
This is the first I heard of it. Setting aside the fact that the Distrowatch rankings do not correspond to the real world, I would consider myself a skeptic of trying to make a Linux desktop look exactly like Windows out of the box. But assuming the review is accurate, AnduinOS sounds like a reasonable implementation of the idea that is trying to do its own thing to make for an interesting Linux experience. It is not something I would use, but I could see use-cases for the concept.

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Keeping the Pook-Emu Bee weekday streak going on this sunny (here in Brooklyn, at least) August 19, 2026.

Pinetime watchface with text "Firmware update" and a bar indicating 85%.
I upgraded the InfiniTime firmware on my PineTime yesterday.

1 | Vindman Vaporizes $16.2 Million in Loss, Spends 36X DSA Candidate on Ads (Paul Bois for Breitbart. August 18, 2026) & Rep. Cory Mills Unseated in GOP Primary, Ryan Elijah Wins Nomination (Olivia Rondeau for Breitbart. August 18, 2026.)
Both of these Florida primary results made me chuckle in their own ways.

2 | Minnesota’s “Nudification” Ban Repeats Unconstitutional Errors of Early Revenge Porn Bills (Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. August 18, 2026.)
I haven’t thought much about the legal particulars but interesting article and caution about crafting laws carefully.

3 | After Europe ditched Windows, China follows suit with its own home-grown Linux distros (Rianne Schestowitz for Tux Machines. August 19, 2026.)
I was originally going to comment that while I am a proponent of Linux, I will respectfully stop short of celebrating the Chinese government’s Linux uptake. But then I saw the quote from the XDA Developers article includes “Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents.” I checked the original article. Sure enough, the page source for XDA’s AI summary includes “Here is a fact-based summary of the article contents.” I’m not an expert on WordPress AI summary plugins but that strikes me as subpar.

4 | Cheap USB-C chargers are actually fine—these 4 specs are all that matter (Ismar Hrnjcevic for How-To Geek. August 17, 2026.)
I have the little UGREEN robot charter pictured in the last image in the article, but in a different color. It’s endearing. I never measured it but I think it charges well enough for all normal charging purposes.

5 | How to Crown — or Deny — a Champion (Neil Paine. November 4, 2025.)
To start: Don’t do what NASCAR has done for most of the last quarter century.

6 | Caputo’s Bake Shop Owner Is Back—This Time in Park Slope (Grand Army Gazette. July 31, 2026.)
This certainly raises some questions given his shifty explanations for the unsanitary demise of his previous endeavor, which I covered in the May 27, 2026 Pook-Emu Bee.

7 | Is this Billboard Hot 100 hit AI slop? (Terrance O’Brien for The Verge. August 1, 2026.)
I had no prior knowledge what “Fenix Flexin” was and I have no interest in investigating further, but I will submit that if you have to ask whether his “work” is AI slop, the fact you have to ask should probably call into question whether it is worth discussing at all. My Basquiat forgery article remains evergreen.

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Another weekday means another set of Poook-Emu Bee links.

A rainbow suitcase with wheels sitting in front of a gray kiosk on a sidewalk.
I photographed this suit case on August 14, 2026, on Court Street between DeGraw and Sackett. Only the brave wheels away a “free” suitcase in Brooklyn.

1 | Jeanie Buss battling siblings over sale of remaining Lakers shares to new ownership group: reports (Scott Thompson for Fox Business. August 17, 2026.)
The unfortunate ramifications of sidelining your siblings for your own benefit. Your siblings, now having little stake in the organization, may decide that turn-about is fair play.

2 | Private Pre-K in Brooklyn Heights: Kinder Prep Montessori’s New 4–5s Program (sponsored post on Brooklyn Bridge Parents. August 18, 2026.)
Note that “sponsored” here refers to sponsored on Brooklyn Bridge Parents. I am not sponsored by any preschools (or anyone for that matter). Here, I demonstrate my impeccable independence with a question. How is this preschool simultaneously in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Brooklyn Heights? Spoiler: It is in Brooklyn Bridge Park, not Brooklyn Heights. BBP is a neighborhood unto itself for all intents and purposes (evinced by the fact it now has preschools).

3 | Geekom admits to shipping malware-laced network drivers for AMD mini PCs — company responds with guidance, removes malicious package (Bruno Ferreira for Tom’s Hardware. August 18, 2026.)
Quoting Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony (HT): “Just wipe the drive and reinstall Windows first.” I offer a slight amendment: Wipe the drive and install Linux first. I installed Linux on my two Beelink mini PCs (note I am unaware of any stories about Beelink shipping malware, but as a general matter I would agree with bringing your own operating system to your China mini-PC).

4 | I clung to Android’s 3-button navigation for years until I learned this clever swipe trick (Jade Bryan Jardinico for Android Police. August 17, 2026.)
Being a relative late-comer to Android, I recently went the opposite direction from swiping to three-button. I had too many problems with unwanted swipes.

5 | May This Balloon Banjo Resonate With You (Kristina Panos for Hackaday. August 17, 2026.)
I see a new project for my good friend and expert luthier, Victor V. Gurbo.

6 | BIA Reads Dictionary, Finds that a ‘Departure’ on Advance Parole Is a ‘Departure (Andrew R. Arthur for Center for Immigration Studies. August 17, 2026.)
One of my first assignments at my job about 10 years ago involved the 2012 Board of Immigration Appeals decision in Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, 25 I&N Dec. 771 (BIA 2012). When I saw the Board’s new decision in Matter of Delcarmen-Lara, 29 I&N Dec. 830 (BIA 2026), which overrules Arrabally and Yerrabelly, I thought to myself that time flies.

7 | NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin backs away from e-bike registration despite pressure (Haley Brown for the New York Post. August 14, 2026.)
I conclude by quoting myself from the May 15, 2026 Pook-Emu Bee:

I will spoil the feedback process for anyone who questions unlimited accommodations for bikes (including effective exemption from traffic laws) in New York City. Heads, bikes win. Tails, you lose.

Nicholas A. Ferrell

PS to NYP: She folded because of pressure (from the bike lobby) not despite pressure.

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Pook-Emu Bee was off Saturday for the newsletter and off Sunday because I had work to finish, but we return on this fun Monday for our regularly scheduled links from around the web.

Almond milk in a milk pot on a portable induction cooker on a kitchen counter. Next to it we see a mug with mushrooms, a bottle of powdered peanut butter, cocoa, sugar, and a small bowl with the ingredients mixed together.
I made almond milk hot chocolate last night. Should I share my recipes? Add it to the to-do list.

Links & Commentary

1 | Teenage tourist stabbed in ‘unprovoked’ attack inside McDonald’s near Times Square: sources (Joe Marino, Amanda Woods, and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon. August 17, 2026.)
Note for tourists: Being anywhere near Times Square at 2:00 AM is a poor life choice. I would add that being anywhere Times Square at any time is a poor life choice, but baby steps to giant strides and all.

2 | Debian Turns 33 Years Old, Happy Birthday! (Marcus Nestor for 9 to 5 Linux. August 16, 2026.)
Debian was practically a newborn when I received my first video game console.

3 | Who needs a dedicated portable music player in 2026? (Kevin Boone. August 2026.)
I never “needed” a portable music player but this is an interesting article.

4 | From Argentina to El Salvador: How Latin America is breaking up with socialism (David Asman for Fox Business. August 14, 2026.)
As soon as I saw the headline, I thought “here’s a slam dunk USAID joke for Pook-Emu Bee.” For that reason, I was conflicted when the article noted the USAID angle close to its conclusion.

5 | “Putting my Hand on Your Heart”: Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema Accused of “Alienation of Affection” (Jonathan Turley. August 16, 2026)
The Sinema alienation of affection story gave rise to a thing I learned post back in March.

6 | Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s Wife Cami Clark Courted Jeffrey Epstein to Invest in Her Porn Company (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. August 16, 2026.)
Sometimes the headlines write themselves.

7 | Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin (Viktor Eriksson and Joel Lee for PC World. August 13, 2026.)
I’m writing this edition of Pook-Emu Bee in Firefox with uBlock Origin watching over me, protecting me from any nefarious ads or trackers I may have planted to manipulate or track me.

Quotable

8 | The World Cup of Ink (Theodore Dalrymple for The American Conservative. August 2, 2026.)

Tattoos retained their superficial connotations of rebellion and non-conformity, but they also became—in a deeper sense—marks of conformity, as tends to happen with all fashions, no matter how outrageous they may seem at the start. By means of tattooing, one could rebel and conform at the same time.

Pretty Photo

9 | Between the Nets (Daniel Sofer at Hermosoawave Photography. August 15, 2026.)
Beach volleyball nets frame the boat (photo in the link).

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Liked 5 apps new Linux users should install on day one by Dibakar Ghosh (How-To Geek)
Most Linux distros are intentionally minimal to avoid bloat, offering a fresh and clean environment. While this is a major perk, knowing what to install first can be tricky for newcomers. So, to help kickstart your journey, here are five essential apps that belong on every new Linux PC.

I read a How to Geek blog post titled 5 apps new Linux users should install on day one (HT Tux Machines). The author, Dibakar Ghosh, recommended the following apps:

  1. GNOME Tweaks and GNOME Extensions (if using GNOME)
  2. KDE Connect or GSConnect
  3. A Chromium-based browser
  4. OnlyOffice
  5. Flatpak

All five recommendations are sensible. My only amendments to those five apps specifically would be that I opt for Brave Origin as my Chromium-based browser and I prefer LibreOffice to OnlyOffice.

Of course, there are many more recommendable apps out there. I offer five additional recommendations:

  • Ghostwriter: KDE’s Ghostwriter is a simple markdown editor with built-in Pandoc (which should also be installed on every Linux workstation) export through its GUI. I have been using it to draft almost all of my long-form documents for more than five years. It is a “must-install” on all of my machines.  (See my Ghostwriter review.)
  • mpv Media Player: A simple, minimalist app for watching videos (it also handles music). Combine with yt-dlp to stream videos in MPV. VLC is also a common choice with a full GUI, but I prefer mpv.
  • Okular: KDE’s Okular is my go-to PDF viewer. It is a strong default option even on non-KDE desktops (I prefer it to Evince).
  • Syncthing: I use Syncthing to continuously sync files between my computers and phones. It is a part of my own essential apps collection.
  • Thunderbird: Mozilla’s Thunderbird is my go-to email client. There are other options, but I would rate Thunderbird as a good default choice for people starting out on Linux.

For some honorable, more specialized mentions: Calibre (great ebook manager and converter; “ok” ebook reader); Lutris (very nice game manager and WINE front-end (consider WINE a good “essential” pick); Qalculate (my favorite “normal” desktop calculator); Steam (if you use Steam); Recoll (powerful full-text desktop file search); RetroArch (for playing retro games); and Zotero (great reference manager and reader, combine with Syncthing for local storage across devices).

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Can we complete a perfect Sunday-Friday Pook-Emu Bee link week? With this, we are 5/7 of the way there.

An evening photo of a table, TV stand, and night stand (missing two drawners) lined upp in front of a bagged mattress.
Free discarded furniture on Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights. I took this photo on August 6, 2026.

Articles

1 | New $472M electronic brain modernizes aging CH-47 Chinook helicopters (Amir Kholam for Interesting Engineering. August 11, 2026.)
This reminds me of replacing the SSD and RAM in a cheap laptop I purchased on Ebay last year (I got in right before the DDR3 RAM was hit by price hikes!)

2 | ICE slams Long Island judge who let once-deported illegal immigrant walk out of court after 4th DWI conviction (Josh Christenson and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon for the New York Post. August 12, 2026.)
That’s atrociously bad, and I can only hope the feds find him before he gets behind the wheel of another car after a few drinks. But on the bright side, Judge Bryan Brown is earning well-deserved publicity for his exercise of judicial indiscretion.

3 | Bunny Drop’s Yumi Unita Launches New Manga in September (Rafael Antonio Pineda for Anime News Network. August 11, 2026.)
No thank you.

4 | Signal to add optional registration without phone number through one-time payment (Mauricio B. Holguin for AlternativeTo. August 11, 2026.)
This would be a good decision if it is implemented as the code suggests.

5 | These 3 Linux distros make leaving Windows feel natural (Rich Hein for How To Geek. August 11, 2026.)
Mint (all three flavors) strikes a decent balance, but I think most of the big stable options are fine with the right desktop environment.

6 | Iran Shuffles Military Leaders, Prepares for ‘Prolonged Confrontation’ (John Hayward for Breitbart. August 11, 2026.)
I wouldn’t go so far as to state as a fact that Mojtaba Khamenei made these appointments until he can be reached for comment by someone he didn’t appoint. If he wants to confirm that he made these appointments, I’m prepared for the exclusive. I will have him know that I am trusted by former Chinese Defense ministers.

7 | Peru Confirms over 450 Nationals Fighting for Russia Against Ukraine (Christian K. Caruzo for Breitbart. August 10, 2026.)
PSA: Don’t accept job offers in Russia (especially if you are a man who maintains a core body temperature roughly in the 90s).

Video

8 | Iseo CITY Euro Cylinder Lock Pick and Gut (Lock Noob. August 11, 2026) [7:12]
I came away with the impression that this would be a solid lock to purchase.

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Liked After Nearly a Decade of Distro Hopping, I Realized It Was Never About the Distro by Bhuwan Mishra (It's FOSS)
If you're picking your first Linux setup, this is the question worth asking before you pick a distro: what desktop environment does it ship, and does that match your hardware and your preference?

This month marks my sixth year of running Linux exclusively on my computers, so I suppose that I am minimally qualified to offer an opinion on Bhuwan Mishra’s After Nearly a Decade of Distro Hopping, I Realized It Was Never About the Distro. Speaking for myself and save for briefly using Ubuntu with Unity on a secondary device back in 2014-16, I have exclusively run Arch-based distros on my main workstation (Manjaro with KDE Plasma and XFCE from 08/2020 through 08-2022 and EndeavourOS with XFCE, Cinnamon, and now KDE Plasma from 08/2022 to present). I have tried different operating systems on my other devices and these days typically opt for Fedora with KDE Plasma on my secondary laptops. Based on my experience, I largely agree with Mr. Mishra’s take that the “normie” Linux user (which includes me) will probably be more affected by the choice of desktop environment than distribution, provided we are focusing on the relatively “mainstream” offerings. But I will note a few “distribution” related points to consider.

  1. There are some relevant factors to consider in choosing an underlying distribution. This includes the update model (both for system and packages), the number of packages available in the base repositories (especially “mission-critical” applications), and community support.
  2. Regarding updates, one that comes up often is rolling release vs stable release. However, I will add another issue for non-rolling distributions: Can it be updated from one version to the next without reinstalling?
  3. Regarding packages, in addition to update frequencey and what is covered by the base repository, consider some points that could cause friction based on how the distribution likes to do things (e.g., Ubuntu’s love of snaps, Fedora’s default preference for its own Flatpak repository, the extent you which you may need packages from the Arch User Repository for anything Arch-based, etc.)
  4. I would recommend that first-time Linux users go with a strongly backed Linux distribution that is no more than one step removed from the base distribution, with a qualified exception for Linux Mint (standard edition is based on Ubuntu, which in turn is based on Debian, but I think we can consider Ubuntu a fair base for practical intents and purposes).
  5. First-time Linux users who do not have extensive technical backgrounds, which included me in 2020 for all intents and purposes, should not follow my path of starting with an Arch-based distribution, even the purportedly user-friendly Manjaro. Mr. Mishra lists some fair reasons in his section on EndeavourOS (I will note he has had many more problems than I have had).

That list is of course non-exhaustive, and I did not address many points worth thinking about (e.g., atomic distributions). But in the main, and as someone who uses both EndeavourOS and Fedora with KDE Plasma with some frequency in a “normie” way, I agree with Mr. Mishra’s take.

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Pook-Emu Bee links are so real now that we’re delivering on Sundays.

Statue of Mary casting a shadow against the stone wall of a cathedral.
I took this photograph outside the Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights on August 6, 2026.

1 | Tracking Bees with a Stereo Camera (Al Williams for Hackaday. August 8, 2026.)
A fitting entry in light of today’s New Leaf Journal review of A Taste of Honey.

2 | RV Steelhead (Tugster: A Waterblog. August 8, 2026.)
Survey research of a survey vessel.

3 | Why some tech users are ditching Android for Linux phones (Maya Brooks for Northeast Times. August 6, 2026.) (HT Tux Machines.)
This reminds me that I need to write about my experiences with Ubuntu Touch… and by extension my return to LineageOS.

4 | Mamdani taps Israel-hating, anti-cop radicals for NYC school board (David Spector for the New York Post. August 8, 2026.)
The headline is accurate but it leaves out the weird overcompensating dude who wants to create race-segregated discussion groups (and pursued that agenda while working in DOE during the de Blasio administration).

5 | Most Googlebots are fake (Bobbie Chen for Digital Seams. July 26, 2026.) (HT Lazy Reading.)
I don’t doubt it but I will submit that to the best of my recollection, NLJ was never brought to heel by a bot falsely advertising itself as Googlebot. Most of the bots that hit NLJ aggressively enough to take it down had generic user agents. In one case it was Scrapy.

6 | Linux 7.2 Drops Ancient PROFIBUS Driver: Ported From SCO Unix In 1998, Unused For Years (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. June 25, 2026.)
I never heard of this driver but dropping it from the Linux kernel both disgusts and offends me. I’m switching to Windows 98.

7 | Linux gaming got so big that even GOG couldn’t ignore it anymore (Simon Batt for XDA Developers. August 7, 2026.)
I approve of the respect for Linux. With that being said, despite my having a collection of GOG games, I will probably stick with using Lutris since I use Lutris as a WINE front-end for some non-GOG games.

8 | Woke Canadian deported for slapping teens wearing MAGA clothing faces one final humiliation as she’s banished from the US (Eliot Force for Daily Mail. August 5, 2026.)
I wonder what her lawyer thought when he realized that he had so little to work with that he was going to have to go with her having engaged in unauthorized employment as being a positive equity.

9 | Have an Intel Mac or Old Windows PC? Revive It With One of These 20 Fun DIY Projects (Eric Griffin for PC Mag. August 5, 2026.)
Suggestions 1-3 and 6-7 are good. I’d throw in making a designated machine for retro games, albeit that is arguably a subset of 1 and/or 2, Starts grasping at straws toward the end, but points for creativity.