• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Linux is Best for PHP Development

This is not really a RULE, but it is pretty cool to know that the server on your laptop or home pc is actually set up exactly like the server you are going to run your application on. The reasons? Quite simply, you will be developing on a local server (localhost) that is usually Windows-based, right? And when you deploy your application / website, it is going to run on a Linux server? The semantics might not mean anything to you, but what is important is that Windows-based servers are not really case sensitive. In other words, you could have a url like http://mysite.com/folderName/ when you set up your website on your Windows localhost. Mostly you might think this looks cool. So you set up all of your links like that, and everything is just perfect. Then off you go and upload your site to your webserver and…well, the link does not work, even though you have tested everything a million times. I promise you–because I have done it–that you will not think about the capitalization the first time it happens to you. Trust me. All you get is a “page not found” error even though you know the page exists. Frustrating and time killing if you have more than ten links on your website. Besides that, Linux is a very stable environment to develop on. Our company development server is an Ubuntu-based OS that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and has never, ever been shut down or turned off in the last four years. In that same time it has never crashed or frozen. To me that is respectable.

The times they are a-changin’

As some of you might already know, my next step, which has had me bouncing off the walls for the last month, is to join the great folks at Collabora Multimedia working on the PulseAudio sound server. I’ll be working from home here, in Bangalore (in your face, 1.5-hour commute!). It is incredibly exciting for me to be working with a talented bunch of folks and actively contributing to open source software as part of my work!

Desktop

• VMWare Workstation 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 Easy Install – Too easy?

  Took about 15 minutes when it was all said and done, including the reboot and mostly automated VMWare Tools install. Very nice. Very similar to how the last time I used VMWare Fusion to run Windows XP it asked for username, password, CD-Key, etc and automated the entire thing.

  Now, all I’ve gotta do is install 107 updates for Karmic Koala… perhaps the installer team could have integrated a quick update during the install.

  Overall, very impressed. Could have used more bacon.

Google

• Who do you trust with your data ?!

  The operating system will essentially be your Google Chrome browser and little else. Any data you need to save will be held on Google’s servers somewhere in the world. Would you be happy with this arrangement ?. I expect that when you first load up the new OS or very soon thereafter, you will be asked to tick a box agreeing to their terms before you can proceed further in setting up your account. This is the bit where you will sign your digital life away to an organisation you will have to place your total trust in.

• Building ChromeOS on Gentoo

Kernel Space

• Toward a smarter OOM killer

  The Linux memory management code does its best to ensure that memory will always be available when some part of the system needs it. That effort notwithstanding, it is still possible for a system to reach a point where no memory is available. At that point, things can grind to a painful halt, with the only possible solution (other than rebooting the system) being to kill off processes until a sufficient amount of memory is freed up. That grim task falls to the out-of-memory (OOM) killer. Anybody who has ever had the OOM killer unleashed on a system knows that it does not always pick the best processes to kill, so it is not surprising that making the OOM killer smarter is a recurring theme in Linux virtual memory development.

• Linus Torvalds – Time for a Nobel Peace Prize?

  That list of Linux-related or -inspired developments is only partial. Here in the Northwest, for example, we could add the Free Geek operations in Portland, which do a lot of good for not only the low-income people and non-profit groups they are specifically aimed to help, but also almost everyone who comes into contact with them. The effects though have been world-wide, and are accelerating. And could grow faster with a little more attention.

Applications

• Docky Gains Panel Mode, Network Docklet & More

  Docky gained a sleek new panel mode and a network manager docklet in an update to users of the Docky PPA yesterday. For those wondering why Docky is not longer part of GNOME Do see here for our interview with Docky creator Jason Smith.

• A Quick Chat With OpenShot Creator Jonathan Thomas

  I took a few minutes to chat with Jonathan Thomas, creator and all round nice guy from OpenShot (better known as “iMovie for Linux” around these parts!), to find out what the application is up to, what their plans are for the future and when we can expect a stable release…

• Instructionals

  • Dual Panel Nautilus For Ubuntu Karmic Koala

  • Purchase music from Amazon on your Linux machine

  • Fedora 12 Post Install Cleanup.

  • Mobile Phone Manager for Linux – Wammu

  • Parting with my partitions part one.

  • Hidden Linux : AWN

K Desktop Environment

• Who is KDE?

  Clearly, whiteboard is more my medium than Kolourpaint with a trackpad. However, all of the stores in this area of Berlin close at 2pm, which means we haven’t been able (or rather: forgot to, this morning, and then tried and failed after lunch) to purchase some pens for use in the KDE office.

Distributions

• Back to relative stability with Funtoo

  In my last post, I’d mentioned that I planned on reinstalling Gentoo to fix several dependency issues that had made upgrading packages an impossibility. I chose to use the Funtoo variant and have since become an expert with the install process.

• Mandriva

  • Happy first time Linux users, with Mandriva 2010

    …anyway, a happy user, and looks like another couple of Mandriva converts.

  • Replacing Windows Apps

    One of the reason I run Linux on the desktop is to be able to have a local web server available for testing purposes and Mandriva makes that a simple process. to do so easily, however, you first have to install the drakwizard package from the repositories. Once you have done so and reloaded the control center, the Sharing categorywill show up which allows the setup of a web server. Follow up by installing Webmin and you have a great environment ready in which to play.

• Debian Family

  • Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 UI Mock-Up Shows Future Plans

    Users of the popular Ubuntu-tweaking application will see a subtle new interface in the next release – 0.5 – but the 0.6 version will mark the first radical UI departure since the application’s first release.

  • Ubuntu 10.4 (Lucid) Artwork (Proposed)

  • Planned Changes to Next Ubuntu Version 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)

• Comparisons

  • Difference Between Ubuntu and Fedora

    Something that is a little bit less important but might impact some users is the installer. Fedora installers often have a lot of packages that you can choose from during installation, meaning bigger file sizes for the installer itself. Ubuntu, on the other hand, has a very small installer as it does not come with a lot of packages. After installation, it prompts the user to check online for additional packages that might be needed for the OS to run at optimum or just any package that the user might want or need.

  • Looking closer at Fedora, Ubuntu live CDs

Devices/Embedded

• Phones

  • Nokia to Consolidate Handset Lineup…Finally

    The Finnish company’s success selling low- to mid-range smartphones in developing markets is well documented, but Nokia continues to lose ground in the U.S. and Europe as superphones from Apple and Research In Motion chip away at its market share. And Nokia is increasingly threatened by Android, which has gained sudden momentum in the wake of its Verizon Wireless Droid initiative.

• Sub-notebooks

  • JOLICLOUD Linux OS review

    We have seen plethora of Linux variants based on Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch and so on. The people behind JOLICLOUD, a Linux OS say that we, the netbook owners will soon be ‘Jolicloud-ed’. But, is being Joliclouded beneficial at all? Let’s see how is the new Jolicloud OS from a viewpoint of a die-hard Linux user.

OOo4Kids.activity.xo is available !

On XO machines, when using Sugar, an application must respect some criterias, to appear listed as activity. We had in the scope to provide OOo4Kids as activity on Sugar.

Could Mozillians help reinvent local news?

While I’ve only just glanced at all the Knight and Sunlight stuff quickly, it does feel like there could be some useful connections here. Maybe simply by developers or others from the Mozilla community proposing ideas to Knight? Or maybe, at some point, through a more joint initiative through Drumbeat? I’m going to think on it a little and possibly post again. In the mean time, I’d welcome comments / brainstorms / proposals from any Mozilla people reading this post.

Free Software, Free Society: Of Democracy and Hacking

When explaining why Free Software is important, one question that often comes up is: “do I really need the software freedom?”

The utility of software freedom is indeed not obvious for all. Not everyone can understand the source code of a program, and less modify it. It appears that the capacity to enjoy the four freedoms is only valuable to hackers and programmers. It’s hard to convince people to give up on proprietary software only for freedom’s sake, as long as they don’t understand the utility of that freedom.

21 Grams and a Billion Dollars

How is it we can know the weight of a person’s soul* but not be able to measure the success of a piece of individual FOSS software with the truly compelling metrics needed to satisfy and influence enterprise adopters and governments.

FLOSS Weekly 96: BioPerl

Openness

• Open Government Data Poster

  It gives me great pleasure to finally complete a design project i’ve been tinkering with for months, the “how to open government data(and how not to)” poster. It forms the last part of Ton Zijlstra and my research project on open government data for for the Ministry of Interior Affairs (Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties).

• Opening up the Black Box of Scientific Research

  Not quite sure how this will scale, but anything whose “fundamental goal” is “to render transparent the black-box of scientific research” sounds good to me.

Companies typically tell us what technology we can—and can’t—use. It’s time to end those policies.

For years, the big breakthroughs in computing technology came in corporate IT departments and university computer labs. But that started to change as the cost of PCs plunged and they became fixtures in people’s homes. Now consumers buy more PCs than businesses do—and the consumer market spurs the most interesting innovations.

YouTube to Help Sites Gather News Clips

YouTube has signed up NPR, Politico, The Huffington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle for YouTube Direct, a new method for managing video submissions from readers.

YouTube’s Auto Caps Not Only Help The Deaf, But Searchers Too

In a move that will make hundreds of thousands more videos accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired, Google Thursday announced that videos on its YouTube site would sport machine-generated automatic captions.

Tibet thrown under the bus

The magic words are “we recognize that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China.” Although the State Department has stated these words or similar ones for decades, so far as anyone can discover, this is the first time an American president has ever made such a statement in public, before the television cameras of the world’s press. Beijing is trumpeting the Obama declaration with lead articles in People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper.

Environment

• How 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world

  Last week it was revealed that 54 oil tankers are anchored off the coast of Britain, refusing to unload their fuel until prices have risen.

  But that is not the only scandal in the shipping world. Today award-winning science writer Fred Pearce – environmental consultant to New Scientist and author of Confessions Of An Eco Sinner – reveals that the super-ships that keep the West in everything from Christmas gifts to computers pump out killer chemicals linked to thousands of deaths because of the filthy fuel they use.

Finance

• Obama Creates Task Force to Fight Financial Fraud

  The Obama administration announced a government-wide task force to combat financial fraud after the U.S. recession led to an increase in economic crimes.

  President Barack Obama today signed an executive order creating the task force that seeks more cooperation among federal government agencies, and state and local officials, to investigate and prosecute cases.

• Cotchett Sues Wall Street over Alleged Bid-Rigging in Municipal Derivative Market

  Cotchett’s suit isn’t the only civil suit that the bank defendants–which include Bank of America, JPMorgan, and Citigroup–have to be worried about. They are defendants in New York federal court in a class action filed by states, cities, and counties. The lead counsel there are the law firm Hausfeld; Boies, Schiller and Flexner; and Susman Godfrey.

Internet/Censorship/Web Abuse/Rights

• Manchester area post codes where the foolish can apply for an ID Card

  They have also broadened the potential catchment area, by including not just permanent residents, but anyone who works at premises within the designated Post Codes as well.

  However you will already have to have a Passport in order to apply for an ID Card, so what exactly is the incentive for doing so ?

  Remember also, that once you have been registered on the National Identity Register , your biometrics and other personal data will never be removed, for the rest of your life (and beyond), even if you decide not to renew your ID Card.

• Reformer of the Year

  Heather Brooke, the Freedom of Information campaigner, has won a poll to find the Reformer of the Year for 2009. Ms Brooke, who was a pivotal figure in unveiling the MPs’ expenses scandal, won the title in a landslide, securing over a thousand of the 1,157 votes.

• Jack Straw pledges action to end libel tourism

  JACK STRAW is preparing to draw up proposals for wholesale reform of England’s libel laws, after a long-running Sunday Times campaign.

Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

• Will secret copyright treaty restrict your digital rights?

  Most Americans expect that their laws are only passed after some period of public debate between Republicans and Democrats or their news-channel proxies. However, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) may be an exception to this rule, and if it is signed, many United States laws concerning the Internet and ownership of data may become substantively different.

• ACTA

  RT @jamie_love US government says ACTA would implement DMCA section 512(i) , which requires ISPs terminate accounts of repeat infringers

• No, ACTA Secrecy Is Not ‘Normal’ — Nor Is It A ‘Distraction’

  Over the last few weeks people who are actually concerned about individual rights have done a decent job sounding the alarm about the problems with what little we’ve seen of the ACTA negotiations. In the last week or so, those who work for the entertainment industry have suddenly started scrambling to respond, after realizing that more and more people are starting to pay attention and to worry about ACTA. However, it’s been pretty funny to watch the desperate attempts by industry lawyers to try to paint this all as much ado about nothing (with gratuitous swipes at those of us who have called attention to what’s going on).

• Cronyism

  RT @jimkillock Record industry publishes #digitaleconomy bill *before* government http://bit.ly/digitaleconom… >>blatant or what?

• Stopping the ACTA Juggernaut

  The ACTA juggernaut continues to roll ahead, despite public indignation about an agreement supposedly about counterfeiting that has turned into a regime for global Internet regulation. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has already announced that the next round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations will take place in January — with the aim of concluding the deal “as soon as possible in 2010.”

  For the rest of us, with access to only leaks and whispers of what ACTA is about, there are many troubling questions. How can such a radical proposal legally be kept so secret from the millions of Net users and companies whose rights and freedoms stand to be affected? Who decides what becomes the law of the land and by what influence? Where is the public oversight for an agreement that would set the legal rules for the knowledge economy? And what can be done to fix this runaway process?

• USA Treaty Priorities?

  Maybe the only explanation for the US being the last holdout from this worthy sounding treaty that even Somalia will ratify is that it is just too busy protecting the obsolete business models of the RIAA and MPAA through the secret ACTA treaty process and doesn’t have enough time or resources to worry about lesser priorities, such as protecting children.

• BREAKING: Leaked UK government plan to create “Pirate Finder General” with power to appoint militias, create laws

  A source close to the British Labour Government has just given me reliable information about the most radical copyright proposal I’ve ever seen.

  Secretary of State Peter Mandelson is planning to introduce changes to the Digital Economy Bill now under debate in Parliament. These changes will give the Secretary of State (Mandelson — or his successor in the next government) the power to make “secondary legislation” (legislation that is passed without debate) to amend the provisions of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988).

• Petition

  We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to abolish the proposed law that will see alleged illegal filesharers disconnected from their broadband connections, without a fair trial.

• Dictatorial, disastrous, dire: Mandelson must not pass

  The powers that he wants to create – by means of a statutory instrument, which bypasses Parliamentary debate and decision – will criminalise downloading of content without permission. They will give him or anyone he chooses the power to enforce by law any action he or his successor thinks fit, in the service of protecting copyright.

• Questions for Lord Mandelson

  The bill includes a provision for unappointed, unelected, monopoly collecting societies to “assume a mandate to collect fees on behalf of rights holders who have not specifically signed up to that society.” Why should doing this be considered anything less than criminally defrauding the people these fees will be collected from and stealing copyright (in the true sense of claiming ownership, not the way it is misused as a synonym for infringement)?

  Why does the government see file sharing as both so trivial that it can be dealt with by just sending a letter and simultaneously so serious that it warrants the imposition of a new £50,000 fine?

• Mandelson’s Madness

  This is penalising every other industry, and every online user, for the sake of one, congenitally lazy sector that has fought every new technology for the last century on the basis that it will “destroy” its business model, and “ruin” it. Of course, just as every new technology turned out to be a new *opportunity* for those self-same companies once they were forced to work with it rather than against, so file-sharing will enable a host of new business models. Until that point, though, if the current proposals go through, we will all be paying the price for this unjustifiable preferential treatment.

• British Government Goes Batshit Insane Over Internet

• Common Misconceptions about Plagiarism and Patents: A Call for an Independent Inventor Defense

  Now that we know who are the people opposed to an international treaty to facilitate access and sharing of accessible formats of works for blind people and people with reading disabilities, let’s read what their arguments against the treaty are.

• p2pnet: for sale

  A patron who believed p2pnet was worth keeping online stepped forward at the last minute and has been paying most of the bills ever since. Unfortunately for us both, however, he’s now struggling to keep his own businesss going and has had to stop.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Linux Professional Institute Announces New Affiliate in Turkey

The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), the world’s premier Linux certification organization (http://www.lpi.org), announced a new affiliate for their program: LPI-Turkey (http://www.lpi-turkey.com/). LPI-Turkey will be managed by Endersys Consultancy and Software Ltd.(http://www.endersys.com). Endersys was founded in 2006 and provides Linux and Open Source solutions, services and IT consulting in Turkey.

LinuxCertified Announces its next Linux System and Network Administration BootCamp

Coolest Desktop Screenshot Wins Prize

LB – Episode 46 – Google and Command Line Fun by Linux Basement

Kernel Space

• Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.32 (Part 3) – Storage

  The kernel development team have enhanced various aspects of Btrfs, one effect of which is to significantly improve the experimental file system’s write performance. A number of changes to the block layer promise better data throughputs and reactivity. There are also several new drivers for storage hardware.

• libvdpau, libva Both Updated Today

  In hopes of pushing VDPAU beyond just being a NVIDIA Unix driver technology and to make it an open standard for Linux video driver developers wishing to provide HD video acceleration on Linux via the GPU, NVIDIA released a standalone VDPAU library back in September and have been trying to push some VDPAU bits for DRI2.

• A Northwest Nobel option?

  That list of Linux-related or -inspired developments is only partial. Here in the Northwest, for example, we could add the Free Geek operations in Portland, which do a lot of good for not only the low-income people and non-profit groups they are specifically aimed to help, but also almost everyone who comes into contact with them. The effects though have been world-wide, and are accelerating. And could grow faster with a little more attention.

• [ANNOUNCE] xorg-server 1.7.1.902

  As with RC1, there’s nothing overly exciting about this release, just a bunch of fixes all over, with XQuartz having a largest batch of changes. 1.7.2 is scheduled for next friday, so please only nominate crucial fixes now.

• A New Patch For Radeon DRM Power Savings

  When it comes to the open-source ATI power management efforts, Red Hat’s Matthew Garrett has been working on dynamic down-clocking through AtomBIOS, dynamic clocks support was added to the ATI driver for R500+ GPUs to support dynamic clock-gating and static power management, force low power mode options, and various other techniques are being worked on to conserve power like frame-buffer compression, shutting down PLLs, LVDS re-clocking, and more.

Applications

• Automatic Linux Laptop Backups

• Opera 10.10 Just a Smidgen Away

  The guys at Opera are being very careful this time. There are so few things left that have been changed that perfection is within reach. This is something I haven’t seen before – a Release Candidate 3 for Opera 10.10.

• Vim 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Vim

• Install Multiple Applications With AllMyApps

  AllMyApps offers a similar functionality as Ninite which we have reviewed last month. Both applications allow a computer user to install multiple programs without further user interaction. But that’s where the similarities end. Ninite creates a custom installer based on the selection of applications that the user makes on the homepage. AllMyApps on the other hand consists of a software program that needs to be installed on the computer system and an online part which consists of the selection of applications and the sending of these information to the installed software.

• How to Configure SAMBA on a Linux Server

Games

• CXGames 8.1 Zombie Mallard Overview

  Left 4 Dead 2 was one of the most anticipated games of 2009 (even with the boycott). Even before its full release (the demo opened to players a few weeks prior) the good people over at Codeweavers where hard at work making sure their CXGames software would be ready to allow Linux/Mac gamers everywhere to fully enjoy this latest edition to Valve’s source games. Less than twenty four hours after L4D2 hit shelves (digital and otherwise) CXGames 8.1 (codename Zombie Mallard) was released.

• Win a CodeWeavers Linux Gaming Rig

• Crossover Games 8.1

K Desktop Environment

• Amarok 2.2.1

  Only 6 weeks after the launch of Amarok 2.2.0, the Amarok team is proud to present the next release in the 2.2 series: Amarok 2.2.1. This audio-player can play various audio-file formats & audio-streams. While the developers have focused on fixing bugs and polishing existing features, a few new features make their appearance as well.

• PulseAudio Phonon Support now in KDE trunk and heading towards 4.4

  I’ve very pleased to announce that my work on Phonon to integrate support for PulseAudio has now been committed to trunk and will form part of KDE 4.4

• KDE Licensing Policy Changes

Distributions

• linux love, gentoo love!

  actually the new portage kde 4.3.3 seems to be very stable (read usable) for me. the proprietary graphics driver nvidia.ko is doing great! i use suspend2ram about 10 times a day. i leave the pc in suspend2ram for days and it only needs 3W of power! suspend2ram needs 2-3 secs for going down and about 7 secs to come back up! plasma is now at a point that i see it is going to be useful. the expose clone of the kde folks is very very nice to use. dragon player seems to get stable so i can use it with the smb:// kio plugin to watch films from my server. firefox64 selfcompiled now uses a 64bit flash plugin.

• Red Hat Family

  • Fedora 13 May Support Btrfs System Rollbacks

    Fedora 12 was just released this week, but features for Fedora 13 have been in planning long before this release made it out the door. In fact, it was last month that we began talking about features for Fedora 13. One of the features though that has just been proposed for Fedora 13 is rather interesting and that is system rollback support via Btrfs file-system snapshots.

  • Intel Linux Graphics Shine With Fedora 12

    Lastly, we have the results from Urban Terror. Fedora 12 was the clear winner here where it offered much better performance than 10 and 11. In fact, the frame-rate for Urban Terror in Fedora 12 was doubled of where it was at in Fedora 11.

• Debian Family

  • 10 easy steps to Ubuntu freedom

    You may be afraid to make the jump to Ubuntu Linux, thinking it may be too daunting to install it by yourself or perhaps you have never even done an operating system installation all by yourself but have a machine spare after your last replacement pc or upgrade arrived and want to dabble with Ubuntu.

  • PiTiVi Creator Responds To Readers Fears…

    We’re progressively getting more company time for PiTiVi (Brandon has been back on it full time for the past frew weeks for example). It’s far from being abandoned/dead, just that we do it at our own pace. It’s freely available (LGPL, no copryight attributions required) and will always stay that way. We always welcome contributions and are pretty fast to review/commit patches.

Devices/Embedded

• HMI SBC gains larger display, Linux BSP

  Blue Chip Technology has released an updated version of its small SBC (single board computer) aimed at embedded HMI (human machine interface) applications. Based on a MIPS32-based RMI Au1100 processor, the new RE1 “REsolution” SBC adds a full Linux board support package and a 7-inch LCD module, says the company.

• Gaming boards run Linux

  Acrosser announced two Linux-ready “All-in-One” boards for gaming and AWP (Amusement With Prizes) machines. The ACE-B5296 supports an Intel Pentium and 915GME northbridge, and the ACE-B5692 runs a Core 2 Duo and GME965, and both offer dual VGA outputs, PCIe expansion, plus Ethernet, USB, serial, storage, ccTalk, and JAMMA I/O.

• Low-cost NAS gains USB ports, social net sync

  Cloud Engines has released a new version of its Linux-based Pogoplug networked-attached storage (NAS) device, which uses the Marvell SheevaPlug reference design. The Pogoplug is larger and costs $30 more, but moves from one USB port to four, and adds new synchronization, multimedia sharing, and social networking integration features.

• Second generation Pogoplug adds more USB ports

  The second generation Pogoplug now features four USB ports. Cloud Engines has released the second generation of its popular Pogoplug “plug-top computer”. The Pogoplug unit is a small Linux computer running an ARM compatible processor that lets users connect and share USB drives over the Internet via its built-in Gigabit Ethernet connection. Supported drive formats include NTFS, FAT32, HFS+, Ext2 and Ext3. Once connected and set up, drives and files can be accessed and shared from any web connection.

• MontaVista Develops Software for Dell’s Latitude ON

  MontaVista Software, a company that offers open source software solutions for the embedded Linux systems market, reportedly announced that the company developed a software stack for Latitude ON – Dell’s (News – Alert) instant, always on connection to e-mail, Web, contacts and calendar.

• Phones

  • Open source phone in SA

    Local distributors of the Neo FreeRunner seeing strong demand for open-platform mobile phone.

    The Neo FreeRunner, an open source mobile phone, is now available in South Africa through local distributors Engineering Ideas. The Neo FreeRunner, produced by Openmoko, is built using entirely open source software and open hardware.

  • Nokia

    • Nokia’s Maemo OS – The next big wave

      In my view, the Nokia N900 is shaping up to be the beginning of a very interesting ride for many mobile developers, and for many developers that were previously not interested in mobile computing. And for the regular users? Well, they are in for a treat with all the apps that are going to be developed for this device. And I am not talking of simple unit converters, shopping list programs, car fuel consumption trackers, etc. I believe that the level of sophistication and power of the applications that are going to become available for the N900 will be rivaled by no other phone type device in existence. Don’t believe me? Well, feel free to skip this wave. But as for me, got to go, surf is up.

    • Nokia N900 mobile phone showcased in 30 new videos!

      Nokia has unveiled a series of videos showing the N900 in action, as anticipation builds ahead of one of the most eagerly awaited handsets of 2009.

      The Nokia Conversations blog will have 30 clips to view by the end of November, each of which will showcase a different aspect of the powerful smartphone.

• Sub-notebooks

  • A Laptop in Every American Backpack

    A single global communications network, composed of Internet, mobile, SMS, cable and satellite technology, is rapidly tying the world’s people together as never before. The core premise of this paper is that the emergence of this network is one of the seminal events of the early 21st century.

  • ARM

    • Inventec Smartbook almost makes me think Smartbooks have a shot

      There’s no question that PC makers and wireless carriers are getting ready to unveil a whole slew of low power smartbooks with ARM processors and Linux…

    • Qualcomm sees big bucks in China’s smartbook market

      It’s almost as if Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs took a deep breath and looked the vast expanse that is Mainland China and said to himself; ‘There be money in them there hills…’. As well there should be. Qualcomm is arguably the world’s biggest producer of ARM-based silicon, the very silicon that powers virtually every cell phone ever made. Today’s statement however took some commentators by surprise as it was made not in the context of phones, but of smartbooks, miniature computers that are set to replace Netbooks as the next-big-thing in 2010.

      [...]

      Will Android or Google Chrome OS have a part to play? Of course. Will Apple be watching with interest? You bet. ‘Tis an interesting view from here, has to be said.

  • Chrome OS

    • ARM excited by Chrome OS

      Chip designer ARM is excited about the prospect of Google Chrome OS, according to the company’s EVP of Marketing Ian Drew.

      Speaking to TechRadar after being name-checked by Google at the unveiling of Chrome OS, Drew admitted that he couldn’t predict whether the revolutionary principles behind the new operating system would be successful, but that he wouldn’t bet against a company with such a good track record.

    • Just Today: Download of VMware Image of Google Chrome OS

      Google has prepared its Chromium OS, alias Chromium, for download. Anyone hesitant to intall if from source code will find a functioning VMware image from Linux Magazine Online.

    • Want To Try Out Google Chrome OS For Yourself? Here’s How.

    • Chrome OS Smartbooks Coming 2H2010

      They’re reporting that Pegatron Technology has received a “large volume” of smartbook orders from several different clients. It’s believed these smartbooks will launch in Q1 2010 on several different carriers. These first smartbooks are expected to cost around $200 USD. Most of them will sport a Linux OS, due primarily to their tiny display size. Now, here’s where things get interesting;

      “Google Chrome OS-based smartbooks are expected to be available on a large scale in the second half of 2010, Shu added.”

    • What is Google ChromeOS, I mean really ?

    • Having complained about Google Checkout…

      … because of its opaqueness in certain circumstances (and more to say when next I am at a computer), let me mention a different Google project notable for its transparency. That is the “Chromium OS” — a new operating system optimized for “netbooks,” which was announced yesterday as an open-source development project. Google has made the source code available free, along with some design documents and results of early user testing. First video below is the hour-plus announcement session. At the bottom is a three-minute product intro.

    • Five Reasons Google Chrome OS will Succeed

      How do you measure success, anyway? Tony argues that the Chrome Web browser hasn’t caught fire, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t loved by the people who use it (myself included). I’m particularly interested to see if the operating system winds up in smartbooks, which are ultramobile PCs running on Arm-based chips. If that category takes off, Chrome OS could get a spot on the ground floor. Besides, Google said Chrome OS is intended, at present, for secondary machines. Even if people don’t flock to it (and they won’t), that doesn’t make the operating system a failure.
      v

    • Chrome OS: There Will Be Local Storage

Bad code can now be offset

The proceeds of the money raised is to be donated to worthy open source initiatives. Initially, these projects are jQuery, PostgreSQL and the Apache Software Foundation.

Roundcube: the world’s coolest Open Source webmail project?

Roundcube is a free open source webmail client with an application-like user interface. Roundcube provides all the functionality one expects from an e-mail program and connects to any mail server backend that supports IMAP.

Over 50 Free, Must-Have Open Source Resources

On a regular basis, we at OStatic round up our ongoing collections of open source resources, tutorials, reviews and project tours. These educational toolkits are a big part of the learning mission we try to preserve at the site. We regularly collect the best Firefox extensions, free online books on open source topics, free tools for developers, resources for working with and enjoying online video and audio, Linux tutorials, and much more. In this post, you’ll find an updated set of more than 45 collections and resources. Hopefully, you’ll find something to learn from here, and the good news is that everything found in this post is free.

Retrospectiva Keeps Software Development Teams on the Same Page

Retrospectiva is designed with an eye toward engineering teams that need a tool to carry them through the entire development life cycle. It tracks issues and tickets, manages goals and milestones, and offers code review and revision management features as well. Retrospectiva also includes support for Subversion and Git.

Four Open Source File Shredders That Delete Data Forever

Darik’s Boot and Nuke – Here’s a self-contained boot disk that automatically completely delete the contents of any hard drive it detects. Once you use this app, your data is forever cooked, so be careful with it. DBAN is a great tool for wiping the contents of a computer you’re selling or as a way to ensure you’ve eradicated all viruses and spyware before doing a clean OS install.

Open-source virtualization: Who’s biting?

Virtualization is unarguably one of the biggest trends of the past few years, and open-source software has been on the IT radar for a while now. So does that make open-source virtualization twice as much of a good thing?

At least some corporate IT departments think so. They’re turning to open-source software as part of their virtualization mix. Sure, savings are a big factor, but so is the ability to tweak the software to suit specific requirements.

Just ask Stan Yazhemsky, manager of IT operations at Legal Aid Ontario (LAO), which uses Citrix Systems Inc.’s XenServer, a management tool running on the open-source Xen hypervisor.

Open-source Ethernet stack will cut development costs

Austrian researchers have developed an open-source software stack that will help developers to connect devices cost-effectively to industrial Ethernet. The EtherNet/IP Adapter Stack, developed by the Automation and Control Institute (ACIN) at Vienna’s University of Technology, is aimed at developers seeking low- or no-cost communication stacks for simple EtherNet/IP products.

Open source comes to Army Go Mobile program

As a technology guy, I was impressed with the types of devices that were shown, especially the tiny projector. But what impressed me more than anything was that every single application running in the Go Mobile Program was open source.

Reed Exhibitions Makes a Stand With Open Source Data Integration Solution

Talend, the recognized market leader in open source data integration software, today announced that Reed Exhibitions, the world’s leading events organizer, has selected Talend Integration Suite and Talend Data Quality to help better manage the migration and integration of company data.

Fog Computing

• Editor’s Note: Do It Yourself “Cloud”

  But “cloud” covers a lot of different services, and there is no need to throw out good ideas. Cloud services can be roughly divided into four categories: ordinary hosting services for Web sites and email, hosted applications, offsite data storage and backups, and hosting services that use virtualization and distributed computing to provide flexible resource allocation. The last is what I consider to be the true cloud, and the other three items can all be put inside this cloud.

  Whatever you call it and however you want to implement it, why not do-it-yourself? Linux has everything you need. It means being responsible for your own security, hardware, and uptimes, bandwidth costs. It may be that using a hosting service is more cost-effective. But there are plenty of DIY options, and you keep control in your hands.

• Cloud computing security benefits, risks and recommendations

  ENISA’s report is the first to take an independent, in-depth look at all the security and privacy issues of moving into the cloud, outlining some of the information security benefits of cloud computing, as well as 35 key security risks.

• Open-source CloudMade takes on Google Maps

  CloudMade is gearing up to release a set of tools that will enable people to quickly and easily contribute to the OpenStreetMap project.

  At the same time the company is looking to create a developer model that will enable developers to use OpenStreetMap data and databases in their websites and iPhone applications.

• Open source and the cloud – the quick and the dead

  And if you’re wondering why a cloud provider would bother working with an open source specialist vendor, rather than just taking their code, consider this: one of the cloud providers mentioned in this post pays for enterprise Linux support subscriptions rather than using a community Linux or supporting its Linux servers internally. And it isn’t Microsoft.

Cartoon

• Good Consultants

• The Bizarre Cathedral – 59

Databases

• EU extends review of Oracle plan to buy Sun

• Oracle begs EC for more time

  The European Competition Commission is extending the deadline set for Oracle to provide evidence that its proposed takeover of Sun Microsystems will not damage competition for European consumers.

• Users cautious on Red Hat’s stake in EnterpriseDB

  While industry analysts praise Red Hat’s recent investment in EnterpriseDB as a solid strategic move, users expressed mixed views on the impact of Red Hat’s fiscal stake in the rapidly growing, open source database company.

  Tim Boyer, chief technology officer with Leavittsburg, Ohio-based-Denman Tire Corp., said the partnership would make him consider evaluating EnterpriseDB as an alternative to its long-time Cobol systems.

CMS

• Open Source CMS Awards 2009: My favorite Winner is…

  All open source CMS deserve attention, if in doubt which one to use, have a look at Open Source CMS matrix or go through QSOS CMS evaluation score cards.

• WordPress wins at 2009 Open Source CMS Awards

  It is the first time the organisation has won the accolade at the awards, which received more than 12,000 nominations and over 23,000 votes across five categories.

• Obama Team Challenges Web Developers

  Having rebuilt Whitehouse.gov on the open source Drupal platform, President Obama’s new media team is calling on the open source community for new ideas and technology.

Funding

• Terracotta buys Quartz

  Open source Java clustering software developer Terracotta announced its intent to buy an open source job scheduler known as Quartz.

FSF/FSFE/GNU

• Volunteer at the FSF in Boston

  We have the latest version of the Free Software Foundation bulletin going out this week, and we need your help!

Openness

• McGinn ushers in an ‘open source’ transition

  Licata’s observation is a reemphasis of what McGinn has been articulating throughout his campaign for Seattle mayor. McGinn calls the period of time between now and Jan. 4, when he is sworn in, as an “open source” transition.

Ebay closes Skype sale

EBAY HAS FINALLY completed its sale of Internet phone and chat service Skype for about £1.66 billion (over $2 billion).

Revenue reality of a bestseller

Back in April when I posted and discussed the royalty statement for Twilight Fall, my top twenty New York Times mass market bestseller, I promised I would post the next royalty statement that came in for the book. That arrived this week, so today I’d like to take a look at that and share some thoughts on how the book performed in the eleven months since the initial release.

First, the actual statement, which you can view here.

If I published only one book a year, and it did as well as this one, my net would be only around $2500.00 over the income level considered to be the US poverty threshhold.

Environment

• Koalas ‘could face extinction’

  Australia’s koalas could be wiped out within 30 years unless urgent action is taken to halt a decline in population, according to researchers.

• Victims of flooding during Hurricane Katrina win compensation

  Ruling opens the door to further claims from up to 100,000 more victims with settlements that could cost billions

• Fred Singer to speak at climate change sceptics conference

  Professor Ian Plimer, a geologist from the University of Adelaide, has already been in the UK to address an audience of more than one hundred. He will return to speak alongside Lord Monckton of Brencheley at a ‘climate change lunch’ in London in early December.

• U.S. Skeptic Has a European Outing

  Singer, who has been a consultant to oil companies and the now defunct Global Climate Coalition, has also been a critic of regulatory restrictions on secondhand tobacco smoke. Ben Stewart of Greenpeace said that “conferences like this are designed to create confusion and play into the very understandable psychology of denial that most humans have … This is what these people are relying on. Some are funded by fossil fuel companies so it is a very simple motivation, others have more complex reasons, but it does not change the fact they are wrong.”

• Exclusive: Attacks On Health Reform Orchestrated By Yet Another Shadowy Corporate Front Group — ‘CMPI’

  The resistance to reforming our nation’s healthcare system has been fueled by entrenched corporate interests. Their deep pockets are funneling money into generating attack ads, funding lawmakers’ campaigns, and hiring lobbyists. These corporate interests are also funding various front groups to make up their own facts and scare the public.

• Center for Medicine in the Public Interest Fronting for the Drug Industry

  CMPI is headed by Peter Pitts, the head of global health care for the international corporate public relations firm Porter Novelli, which specializes in helping drug companies evade FDA marketing restrictions by using stealth marketing techniques, like creating fake, unbranded “public service ads” nominally to raise awareness of diseases, but that really drive people to drug-company funded Web sites that advertise drugs.

• THE INFLUENCE GAME: Front group fights health bill

  These below-the-radar activities were the handiwork of a law firm in Charlotte, N.C., that operates a secretive group called Americans for Quality and Affordable Healthcare. The organization’s sponsors remain a mystery — its Web site offers no clues, and the law firm won’t say.

  In a year that has seen hundreds of millions of dollars spent on health care lobbying and TV ads, the advocacy group’s impact is hard to gauge since the full scope of its operations is unclear. But its activities illustrate how some are furtively trying to shape public and congressional opinion through front groups — seemingly independent organizations that pursue their founders’ goals while masking their identity.

• “Americans for Quality and Affordable Healthcare”: Yet Another Health Insurance Industry Front?

Finance

• Dear Reader, We Cannot Criticize Goldman Sachs. Instead, We Admire It

  Goldman has its former operatives in key posts throughout the government. It knows what the government is doing; it has a fair idea of what the government will do next. In trading US government securities, the biggest business in the financial world, this “insider” knowledge is no doubt a handy thing to have. It doesn’t hurt either that the Fed is making money available to Goldman at practically no cost. Nor, that the Fed is buying its mortgage backed securities – perhaps even ones that would be hard to unload on the private market.

• Goldman Sachs to take out garbage at Thanksgiving

  Three hundred employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Wall Street’s richest firm, have volunteered for the holiday feast and will be tasked with taking out the garbage.

  “Goldman wants their volunteers to sweat,” joked Spooner, who at 6-foot-6 towered above a recent tasting session for the meal at Great Performances’ kitchens in the SoHo neighborhood.

  Goldman Sachs said the firm supports the effort, but referred all questions to the Salvation Army. The company’s volunteers were not available for comment and their names would not be released, the Salvation Army said.

• Goldman Sachs Execs Skirt Christmas Party Ban

  At Goldman Sachs, tis the season of giving. Not only is the firm lavishing huge bonuses on its employees, but its executives are finding ways around the company’s ban on Christmas parties – by calling them “dinners.”

• Goldman Sachs, Shareholders Just Can’t Get Along

  Still, I guess I can see where those shareholders are coming from. Why should Goldman get to keep all the loot? Seems only fair that investors get their cut. After all, shareholders are at risk too, you know. Let’s say for a moment that the government wouldn’t rush to Goldman’s aid if Blankfein had to wait in line for a swine flu shot like all the other schmucks — I know, I know, crazy talk, but indulge me — don’t you think those shareholders would be, like, freaked out and stuff?

• Goldman Sachs apologized for the financial crisis

  As a result, Good initiative the bank could give rise to further criticism from the public and politicians.

  «Apparently, Goldman Sachs is engaged in self-praise,” – said the head of the International Union service workers, Andy Stern. He accused the leaders of the company that they “hog bonuses that are paid from the taxes American workers».

• Q&A: Why Eric Dezenhall Thinks Goldman Sachs’ Apology May Be a Waste of Time and Money

  Goldman’s move is widely seen as a PR gesture after a series of high-profile flubs that followed its role as a recipient of public bailout money and a nearly $13 billion windfall from the unwinding of positions in AIG – another company that was only able to stay solvent with taxpayers’ cash.

• Goldman Holders Miffed at Bonuses

  Some of the largest shareholders in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have urged the Wall Street firm to reduce the size of its bonus pool, arguing that it should pass along more of its blockbuster earnings to investors, according to people familiar with the situation.

• Goldman holders seek bonus pool reduction-WSJ

  Although the investors are not pushing for a huge cut, they feel Goldman, which received $10 billion of taxpayer help during the credit crisis, should better reward them for this year’s rebound, the paper said, quoting people familiar with the situation.

• Goldman Sachs’ $500 Million Mea Culpa

  Goldman has also retained the services of the high-powered international PR firm, Brunswick, to make sure that all of us understand that even a vampire squid can be magnanimous. Brunswick has among its ranks the public affairs director and the chief of staff of former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. “Brunswick is a corporate communications partnership,” its home page states. “We provide informed advice at a senior level to businesses and other organizations around the world, helping them to address critical communications challenges that may affect their valuation, reputation or ability to achieve their ambitions.”

Internet/Censorship/Web Abuse/Rights

• Oman cuffs 212 for selling VoIP calls

  This year, police in the Arab nation of Oman have raided 121 internet cafes throughout the country and arrested 212 people for providing VoIP services, according to a local report.

Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

• Norwegian Band Told It Can’t Post Its Own Music To The Pirate Bay, Even Though It Wants To

  Having recently returned from Norway, where I was impressed at the optimism and the willingness to embrace new technologies and services, it’s disappointing to read the following story (found via brokep) of a Norwegian band who recently released an album on their own label and decided to put it up on The Pirate Bay themselves, as more and more indie labels are doing. Except… the band members are a part of the Norwegian music collection society TONO, who is among those fighting to have The Pirate Bay blocked in Norway.

• Lily Allen: It’s Ok To Sell My Counterfeit CDs, Just Don’t Give My Music For Free

  Yes, so while some musicians have said they’re fine with non-commercial file sharing, but are against anyone selling their unauthorized works, Ms. Allen seems to have taken the opposite approach. Counterfeit all you want, just as long as you profit from it. Yeah. Someone should explain to her the difference between price and value, and also the benefits of word of mouth marketing. But, it doesn’t seem like she’s much interested in actually understanding this stuff, so if you want to help her understand, maybe go set up a shop selling burned copies of her CDs, and see what happens.

• He’s Got the Law (Literally) in His Hands

  Neither the courts, nor the lawyers, nor even the Liberian parliament have a physical copy of the country’s legal code. That’s because one man is claiming a copyright on the books — and he’s holding them hostage until he gets paid.

• Japan Set To Extend Posthumous Copyright

  Recently elected Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama has vowed to extend posthumous copyright protection on compositions from 50 to 70 years.

• Digital Economy Bill confirms copyright proposals, turns Mandelson loose

  The government unveiled the Digital Economy Bill today, confirming tortuously complicated proposals to combat copyright infringement by to-ing and fro-ing between ISPs, rights holders, Ofcom and the courts. It also paved the way for business secretary Lord Mandelson to rewrite copyright law.

• Why The Lack of ACTA Transparency Is Not Standard

  In the face of widespread criticism of the lack of ACTA transparency, participating governments and music industry lobbyists have claimed that the transparency issue is much ado about nothing. As governments seek to keep relevant information secret, those same governments released a joint statement last week arguing that “it is accepted practice during trade negotiations among sovereign states to not share negotiating texts with the public at large, particularly at earlier stages of the negotiation.”

• Another Pro-ACTA Letter from MPAA, RIAA, et al.

  A number of movie studios, record labels, and other copyright-holding companies (and their related trade associations) have also written a pro-ACTA letter to Congress, which I first saw posted on Ben Sheffner’s blog. Minus the bizarre “distraction” claim, it follows the same basic pattern—that ACTA will benefit IP businesses and do nothing harmful.

• Entertainmnent Industry: Yes, Please Keep Negotiating Secret Copyright Treaty To Save Our Asses

  This letter includes pretty much everyone who benefits from abusing copyright laws and is afraid of the internet:

  Advertising Photographers of America
  American Association of Independent Music (A2IM)
  American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
  American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
  American Society of Media Photographers, Inc. (ASMP)
  Association of American Publishers (AAP)
  Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI)
  Commercial Photographers International
  Directors Guild of America (DGA)
  Evidence Photographers International Council
  Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA)
  International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
  Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA)
  National Music Publishers Association (NMPA)
  NBC Universal
  News Corporation
  Picture Archive Council of America (PACA)
  Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
  Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
  Reed Elsevier Inc.
  Society of Sport & Event Photographers
  Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA)
  Stock Artists Alliance
  Student Photographic Society
  The Advertising Photographers of America
  The Walt Disney Company
  Time Warner, Inc.
  Universal Music Group
  Viacom Inc.
  Warner Music Group

• AP Scans Sarah Palin Book Without Permission; Look Out Google Book Search

  Google, accused by some as being a book thief, now has company — the Associated Press. The AP patted itself on the back in an internal memo that detailed how it scanned a copy of Sarah Palin’s book without permission, to make it searchable.

• Murdoch’s The Times Accused Of Blatant Copying, Just As It Tells The World You Should Pay For News

  Yes, just as Rupert Murdoch is calling aggregators (sites that simply summarize and link to stories) parasites (even as he owns a bunch of aggregators himself), one of his papers didn’t aggregate, it flat out copied, without permission, a blog post that was written by Edgar Wright as a tribute to Edward Woodward, who recently passed away.

• Google Blocking Set Top Boxes From Showing YouTube Unless They Pay Up?

  Update: Received a confused and angry email from YouTube PR linking us to the very Wired article we linked to and demanding we add their PR statement (which is already in the Wired article). However, it does not actually answer the questions raised or change the point of this post. The fact that YouTube restricts set tops from accessing the content still does not make sense.