Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 01/12/2009: New Qt, Rails 2.3.5 Released



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Top five business technologies of the '00s
    1. Linux. If you were going to name the '00s after any single technology, you might as well call it the Linux decade. The first Linux kernel was released in 1991, but mainstream enterprise adoption of Linux was decidedly a '00s thing. Not only did Linux open up a whole new role for x86 hardware, it changed the economics and development model of the software business forever.




  • Server

    • IBM buys database security start-up Guardium
      The software is intended to help deal with regulatory requirements under legislation such as the European Data Protection Directive and the US federal government's NIST 800-53 standard. In addition, it targets industry mandates, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).


    • IBM hoists Tivoli Monitoring onto Amazon cloud
      The 32-bit IBM Tivoli Monitoring AMI is running on Linux and available for production use.






  • Google

    • A Google-eyed view of the world wide web
      Based on Linux, the Chrome OS turns the basic concept of an operating system on its head. The main interface of the system will the browser, with applications incorporated like web pages in a tab strip. Of course, Google will retain the Chrome browser’s minimalist interface, and are said to be working towards security nuts and bolts in such a way as to make viruses and other malware history.








  • Instructionals

    • Linux Documentation From A User's Viewpoint
      I'd like to put in my two cents' worth on the matter of documentation. I'm not an expert like Carla Schroder or Bruce Byfield, the two who brought up the topic, but I'm the very sort of person who needs it most, still pretty much of a newbie, but one who learns best by reading. It's a good thing reading is my preferred mode of learning, because as it happens I've not personally met a real live human who is a Linux expert, one who could give me over-the-shoulder instructions as I muddle through.








  • Distributions







  • Devices/Embedded



    • Phones



      • Android

        • Droid Nears Its Million-Device Target
          Motorola and Verizon’s $100 million marketing push seems to be paying off: The much-ballyhooed Droid smartphone made by Motorola and powered by Google’s Android 2.0 OS is inching toward its goal of a million devices sold during the fourth quarter of 2009. The two companies have thus far sold between 700,000 and 800,000 Droids, according to data collected by RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue.


        • HD-ready smartphone supports Linux and Android
          ZiiLabs announced a mid-range smartphone development platform supporting its Android and Linux-based "Plaszma" stacks. The Zii Trinity is based on ZiiLabs' dual ARM9-core "ZMS-05" SoC, and provides 1080p video output, OpenGL graphics, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.1-inch, 800 x 480 OLED touchscreen, says the Creative Technology subsidiary.


        • Optus deliberately blocking Android paid apps
          Optus is blocking owners of Android mobile phones from buying paid apps from the Android store, while locking users into long service contracts.


        • Android Market On Archos 5 Internet Tablet
          Issues be gone! The folks at ArchosFans.com have figured out a way for owners of the Archos 5 to get Android Market and all of the Google Apps like Maps, Talk Calendar and more onto the the device!








      • Nokia

        • Qt adds multi-touch, supports Maemo and Symbian
          Nokia's QT Software has upgraded its "Qt" cross-platform application and UI framework, now featuring multi-touch and gesture support. Qt 4.6 adds support for Nokia's Symbian and Maemo platforms, and provides enhancements including new animation and state-machine frameworks, an updated Qt Creator IDE, and new OpenGL and WebKit engines.


        • Cross-platform strategy will be next step in Nokia's transformation
          This began with the 2007 acquisition of Trolltech, which gave Nokia a cross-platform developer toolkit and serious Linux expertise. It became explicit with the launch of the most significant Nokia device for years, the N900, which propelled the Linux-based Maemo OS to center stage from its niche in enterprise mobile tablets. And the next step will be to make key Nokia weapons -Series 60, Trolltech's tools, and the Ovi services themselves - cross-platform, to extend their reach over the whole industry. That will start with a dual Symbian/Maemo approach, mirroring Google's for Android/Chrome, but like Google, Nokia will be aiming to see its tools and services on third party systems too.


        • Nokia To Release Linux-Based Phone Next Year
          Finnish cell phone maker Nokia is reportedly planning development of a single new Linux-based smartphone next year.

          A source told Reuters on Monday that Nokia has plans to unveil a new smartphone that would run on the Linux Maemo mobile operating system. The announcement may be troubling to some analysts who expected the firm to launch several Linux smartphones in an effort to outshine the competitors in Apple’s iPhone and Research In Motion’s Blackberry.


        • New Beta of Palm OS Emulator for Nokia Internet Tablets Released
          The most recent beta of the Palm OS emulator for Nokia Internet Tablets was set to expire, but Access Co. Ltd. has released a new one. This has no new other features, however.














Free Software/Open Source





  • Sun

    • Oracle-Sun: Statements and observations
      We know they revolve around the open source MySQL database, the European Commission has said that much. But the Statement of Objections weighs in at 155 pages, and even those that have read it admit to being confused by it. Meanwhile some of the most vocal parties in the public debate have vested interests in encouraging opinions for or against the deal.


    • What if Oracle's buyout of Sun falls through?
      With Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems stalled by European Union deliberations, industry dignitaries offered mixed perspectives recently on the ultimate fate of the deal and what it could mean for Sun technologies if the deal falls through.






  • Mozilla

    • Extend Firefox 3.5 Winners
      Extend Firefox 3.5 has wrapped up and we’re very excited to announce the winners! With so many great entries, choosing winners was difficult- and these add-ons represent some of the best thinking in add-ons today.


    • Open-Xchange Offers New Connector Tool for Thunderbird
      The Community OXtender for Thunderbird is available in two versions. The stable version contains the features mentioned above, and any necessary bugfixes. The unstable version (for Thunderbird 3 and Lightning 1.0pre only) contains additional features that are still under development and not yet fully integrated.








  • CMS

    • Drupal 6.14, Introduction and Installation
      With all the great Open Source CMSes out there, it's getting hard to make a choice as to which one to use for your site. After looking into many such CMSes, I decided to make Drupal the primary CMS for developing websites for my clients. Drupal is open-source software that is distributed under the GPL ("GNU General Public License") and has a developer community comprised of thousands of users and developers.








  • Programming

    • Rails 2.3.5 Unofficial Release Notes
      Rails 2.3.5 is out but the official release notes have not yet appeared. So I thought it might be useful to share my own notes on what's new in this version. This list is only the highlights, but it should give you an overview.


    • Rails upgrade fixes security issues, Ruby 1.9 compatibility
      Ruby on Rails 2.3.5, featuring security boosts and compatibility improvements for version 1.9 of the Ruby language, was released over the weekend, according to a blog post on the Ruby on Rails Web site.


    • Announcing the Winners of ADC 2
      Back in May at Google I/O, we announced ADC 2 -- the second Android Developer Challenge -- to encourage the development of cool apps that delight mobile users. We received many interesting and high-quality applications -- everything from exciting arcade games to nifty productivity utilities. We also saw apps that took advantage of openness of Android to enhance system behavior at a deep level to provide users with a greater degree of customization and utility. We were particularly pleased to see submissions from many smaller and independent developers.






Leftovers

  • Scientology Charged With Slavery, Human Trafficking


  • Ozark Officer Who Used Taser on Girl Fired
    Ozark - The mayor of a small Arkansas town says the police officer who used a Taser on an unruly 10-year-old girl has been fired for not using the camera attached to the stun gun.




  • Finance

    • No Accountability, No Bernanke
      The Federal Reserve loaned out over $1.2 trillion and they still won't say who got it. Here's Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) asking about some of the unaccounted-for money:

      GRAYSON: So who got the money?

      BERNANKE: Financial institutions in Europe and other countries.

      GRAYSON: Which ones?

      BERNANKE: I don't know.

      GRAYSON: Half-a-trillion dollars and you don't know who got the money


    • Tough Talk Is Not Enough on Loan Modifications
      As double digit unemployment becomes the major driver of foreclosures and as the vast majority of adjustable rate mortgages have yet to trigger, the White House is finally getting the message that news footage of families being tossed to the curb during the holiday season will not help Democrats going into the 2010 election cycle.

      Tough talk is certainly welcome, but the Obama team doesn’t seem to understand that banks can’t be talked into or even shamed into doing the right thing. The majority simply don’t want to modify loans, and they will not unless they are ordered to do so by a judge.








  • AstroTurf

    • Another Brick in Boral's Wall
      A major Australian building products company, Boral, has been forced to publish a full-page apology for its role in an astroturf campaign against BGC, which was seeking government approval for a new brickworks.


    • A Little Less Work for Lobbyists
      A White House policy of encouraging U.S. government agencies to exclude registered lobbyists from sitting on government advisory boards has irked some business lobby groups. In late September, Norm Eisen, the special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, announced the administration's aim of ensuring that "federally-registered lobbyists not be appointed to agency advisory boards and commissions."


    • Lobbyists pushed off advisory panels








  • Internet/Censorship/Web Abuse/Rights

    • Music library disaster? How to rip songs from your iPod
      Admit it: you or someone you know has had at least one disaster in which you have lost your entire music library, didn't have backups, and needed to rip it back off of your iPod.

      [...]

      Though gtkpod doesn't officially support the iPhone or iPod touch, it's one of the simplest solutions available for Linux users. The most recent version, V0.99.14, supports classic iPods (including the iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod mini, and iPod video models) and makes use of the shared libgpod library in order to access the iPod's music database. (iPhone and iPod touch are experimentally supported, but only if they are jailbroken first.)






  • Google

    • Shooting victim Michael Trkulja sues Google
      Michael Trkulja claims that a person putting his name into Google's search engine will be directed to websites where his name and photograph are mixed with underworld figures and crime identities.


    • Google to limit free news access
      Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google, the company has announced.


    • Huffington: News Corp.'s Google-Free Ploy 'Ain't Gonna Happen'
      Count Arianna Huffington among those who doubt that Rupert Murdoch will pull News Corp's articles from Google's search index in favor of giving Bing exclusive access.

      "I'll gladly wager my share of The Huffington Post that this ain't gonna happen," she said this morning at the Federal Trade Commission workshop "How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age."


    • Rupert Murdoch: Feds Should Stay Out Of News Business, Except, Of Course To Smack Down Google For Sending Me Traffic
      Rupert Murdoch stopped by at an FTC workshop on the future of journalism to say that the federal government should "stay out" of regulating the journalism business. Except, in the same speech he said exactly the opposite. What he meant was that he didn't want the government to get in the business of funding journalism. Yet, in the very same speech he does say that the government shouldn't allow Google to link to his news stories, calling it "theft" yet again.










Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Michael Shaw, community reporter for Assigment Zero 09 (2007)

[an error occurred while processing this directive]



Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

Recent Techrights' Posts

An Update About Soylent News, With Jan Rinok "Back in the Saddle"
Burnout or "near burnout" a possibility when having to curate abuse
Rejecting 'Snoop-Phones' and Turning "Old" Phones (or Tablets) Into Freedom-Respecting Appliances
Paul Fernhout (pdfernhout.net) wrote back to Akira Urushibatathis this past weekend
 
A radical proposal to keep your personal data safe, by Richard Stallman
"The surveillance imposed on us today is worse than in the Soviet Union. We need laws to stop this data being collected in the first place"
Next Week We Launch Search at Techrights
We're planning to launch it some time next week. Maybe Tuesday, maybe Thursday.
Talk by Richard Stallman Will be Live-streamed in Less Than 10 Hours
Happy hacking
"No Kings" in the Software World (GAFAM Should Not Exist, Either)
"No Kings" is a good slogan. Let's start by ridding ourselves of masters, not only those who reside in DC or visit DC
Every Morning
Bugs/edge cases combined with automation can spell disaster
Insane, Deliberately Dishonest, or Just Another Bigot?
very intellectually-dishonest human being
A Lot of Techrights is Built on Perl
Perl also runs the sister site
The Register MS Selling Slop for Microsoft (Vapourware, Ponzi Scheme, False Claims)
What will be left of The Register MS if it keeps repeating falsehoods and looking to profit from Ponzi schemes?
analytics.usa.gov Says Less Than 14% of Web Requests (to Government Sites) Come From Vista 11
Vista 11 was released more than 4 years ago!
People Who Attempt to Take Down Correct Information Need a Doctor a Day
“Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” ― George Orwell
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 20, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 20, 2025
Vista 11 is Sinking While Microsoft is PIPing (Mass Layoffs But Silent Layoffs)
We're witnessing a shift in platform dominance
Richard Stallman is Having a Good Week Already (Stallman Was Right About 'Clown Computing')
That alone is worth bringing up in his talk
When Prominent GNU/Linux Distros Are Run by Spies
What has Microsoft Canonical become?
More Publishers and Companies Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux", Not "Linux"
It's not to see InstallAware saying GNU/Linux this week
Google News is Now Promoting a Parasitic Slopfarm Called "findarticles.com", Where Plagiarism of "Linux" Articles is Rampant
Does Google even care about the slop epidemic? Google itself is a vendor of slop now (and it calls it "Gemini")
Gemini Links 20/10/2025: Pumpkin Carving, "Hey Hi", and Other Buzzwords
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News Promoting Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
What is the value of Google News if so many results in it are fake 'articles?
Our Uptime This Year Was Better Than AWS (Also a Lot Cheaper)
We never used "the cloud"
Amazon Web Shenanigans
An ongoing, experimental endeavour
Death of Elias Diem: FSFE mailing list archives hidden
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/10/2025: Louvre Museum Reveals Weakness, About 7 Million Protest US Turning Into Oligarchy/Monarchy
Links for the day
They Should Have Listened to Techrights Over a Month Earlier (Xubuntu Site Compromised)
we reported this issue about 40 days earlier and nobody did anything about it
Richard Stallman to Give Another Talk Today in Bavaria (Bavarian Academy of Science)
Tomorrow at 6 PM he speaks in Munich
Apple is the Company of Dictators and Worse
Apple is just another greedy corporation in search of sweatshops and even pedophiles (especially the high-profile ones)
Counting Unhatched Eggs Is Not Counting Chickens
Everything here will persist as normal
Barry Kauler Explains That Puppy Linux and EasyOS Exclude Systemd to Keep Things Simple
Barry Kauler's Puppy Linux is in the community's hands. He now focuses on EasyOS and more.
The "Infinite Bread"
The biblical story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 has software parallels
Half a Year After Brian Fagioli Got Kicked Out of BetaNews for Slop He's Still Doing LLM Slop and Slop Images Targeting 'Linux' (Plagiarising Original Works)
If the Web gets polluted or flooded by slopfarms such as these, and Slashdot then sends traffic so these slopfarms (Slashdot probably doesn't do this intentionally), then real writers with real knowledge of GNU/Linux will lose the spark for publishing
In Many Cases and in Many Different Ways, Technology Became Less Durable and Less Reliable Over Time
The "modern" things are more complex. And complexity is a foe or reliability and repair-ability.
Microsoft's LinkedIn is Losing Money, Traffic, and Hope; Now It Wants to Sell Its Users' Lifeblood (and Data)
Let this be a reminder of what social control media really is about
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 19, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 19, 2025
Campaign of FUD Against Framework Laptops and GNU/Linux (Using Microsoft's Attack on Linux, 'Secure Boot')
Ritual Defamation Cult has turned its attention over to Framework
Microsoft Lunduke: Freedom of Speech Means Spreading What I Have to Say and Banning People I Disagree With
4Chan is one he aims for and he is siccing 4Chan trolls at people he doesn't like
Liberation From 'The Feed'
They rank things based on the editor's choice/ideology (he or she knows the sponsors, hence the masters)
Microsoft's Killing of Vista 10 Seems to Have Resulted in More Articles About GNU/Linux (But Also FUD)
We not only saw a rise in traffic, we also saw a remarkable rise in the number of articles
Today (a Day Before Richard Stallman Talk at TUM) There's a Patent Propaganda Event at TUM
Perhaps an opportunity for Dr. Stallman to rebut this "invention to patent" nonsense/fantasy (conflating monopolies with innovation)
OpenSource or "Open Source" as a Brand is Dying, Let's Get Back to Talking About Software Freedom
Those of us who actually want to reform the industry and put users in control of their systems/devices will recognise that "Open Source" was selling a lie or got-co-opted by liars
19 Years in Numbers: Techrights' Anniversary Countdown and Retrospective
In 2019 we began improving our workflows and, accordingly/predictably, we became a lot more productive
Slop Turns People Off (LLMs Lack Intelligence, They're Just Plagiarism Powerhouses That Fail to Deliver Any Real, Measurable Value)
"More" (or "MOAR") isn't always better
IBM Red Hat Has Re-calibrated or Adjusted to Bubble Economics, False Promises, and Slop/Plagiarism
This won't end well
Fake Numbers, Fake Claims, Fake Economy, and Media Grifters That Prop Up Fraud
Grifters like The Register MS won't be looked upon kindly after the bubble implodes
For Some, the GNU Web Site is Not Accessible This Week
They seem to have gone into some kind of lock-down mode
Richard Stallman Back at the "Rudolf-Diesel" Hörsal "MW 2001" in About 40 Hours
He spoke there before; there's a very high seating capacity there
Symptoms of Upcoming Microsoft Layoffs in XBox
A crashing franchise
Psychiatrist confession: Germanwings crash & Debian toxic culture recognized before suicides
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/10/2025: Scentjacking 101, Slop Hype Boosters, and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Slopwatch: The Serial Slopper, LinuxSecurity, and Google News
Let's hope slopfarms die as soon as possible
Links 19/10/2025: Cambodia Scam Centres, Slop Hurting Wikipedia Traffic
Links for the day
As Economies Crumble Free as in Beer Will Matter, Not Just Free as in Freedom/Libre (Libertad)
French regions choosing to embrace Software Freedom
25 Years Ago, an Explanation of How Reducing Free Software to 'Apps' Would Interfere With Freedom Goals
there's nothing unreasonable about it
A List of 63 Known Gemini Clients (Software to Browse Geminispace Content With Gemini Protocol)
Not counting browser plugins for Web browsers
Gemini Links 19/10/2025: "Firma Odin Is Transforming" and Bot Attacks While "AFK"
Links for the day
US Government: 6.1% of Site Visitors Use GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux has a considerable share and it is growing
LLM Slop Could Not Rise to Prominence Without Media Complicity and Artificial Hype
Inane garbage disguised as "journalism"
Why the FSF No Longer Recommends Debian, as Explained by Richard Stallman This Month
some weeks ago
All the Latest Half Dozen Articles by Mehedi Hasan (UbuntuPIT) Only Admit at the End That He's Using LLM Slop
Disclosure is OK, but the practice of using slop is not
The 'Modern' Web of Fake Security and Easy Censorship of Whole Domains
Each year it gets worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 18, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 18, 2025