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Links 16/12/2009: Red Hat Settles, Upgraded



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Desktop

    • Why GNU/Linux is ready for the Average User
      I find it amusing that people like to jump on the Ubuntu bashing bandwagon just because an installation (or some piece of setup) goes astray. Ever tell the average user they need to reinstall Windows? Nine times out of ten they will look at you side ways (or if your a tech such as myself they will ask you to do it for them). Does this make Windows less popular or a "not ready" operating system just because you need a professional (or someone with at least some know-how) to get it all installed and running properly? No, it does not. Why should the standard be any different for GNU/Linux?

      In short I'd like to say this: Linux is more than ready for the average user to be using, but just like any operating system it may be a bit much for the average user to get it setup and thats just fine if you ask me.


    • Is Linux really that hard to use?
      Linux is just different and once people have become used to the differences they have no problems. Sort of like driving an unfamiliar car for the first time. Some controls feel different or be in a different place. The car will handle differently to start off with yet once you become used to the different control positions and the handling characteristics you are just as confident as in your own car.

      Linux is not hard to use, just different.


    • 15 Minimalist Linux Wallpapers for a Distraction-free Desktop
      I always keep my desktop workspace clean and without distraction. One of the most important things that I do to keep it clear is by using only wallpapers with simple design.


    • 8 Cheerful Christmas Linux Wallpapers
      'Tis the season — for Christmas Linux wallpapers that is. Today I'm going to present to you 8 incredible Linux wallpapers that will set you in a Christmassy mood for the whole month.








  • Server

    • Linux controls IBM mainframes
      Consolidation for everyone is IBM's stated reason for releasing a Linux version of its System z mainframe. The new Enterprise Linux Server (ELS) is a stand-alone system specifically designed for Linux environments. According to IBM, the financial savings can be up to 80 per cent. Furthermore, a "save-as-you-grow" pricing model is intended to facilitate investment decisions by allowing customers to gradually purchase resources at considerably lower prices than that of a complete system.








  • Google

    • Run Google's Chrome OS from a thumb drive
      Google recently pulled off the rare feat of releasing a product without really releasing it. True, they offered up the source code for their Google Chrome OS, a fast-booting, minimalist netbook platform entirely focused on their Chrome browser and speedy web applications. But they also told an anxious press and public that, unless they felt like compiling it and hardware testing it themselves, they'd have to wait a year before trying it out on an approved, custom-built netbook.


    • Top 10 Google chrome Extensions








  • Kernel Space







  • Applications







  • KDE

    • Upcoming KDE SC 4.4 Gains Positive Reviews
      Over the past week many reviews of the first beta of version 4.4 of our Software Compilation have surfaced. Here are a few of them that we unearthed during some diggin' on the web.

      This PolishLinux blog entry includes screen shots of the window tab-grouping feature and various other improvements thus giving a first insight into the upcoming KDE software.

      Harsh J has an 'early preview' of the KDE 4.4 Software Compilation. Our rebranding message hasn't gotten entirely through yet but it is an extensive review of the Plasma Desktop workspace.


    • Plasma and KWin
      Those are not radically new features, but rather a refinement of what it was available in KDE Plasma Desktop 4.3

      When the mouse cursor is over a task, the corresponding window gets highlighted (dimming all the others), this works for groups too, highlighting the goup's windows. This was already available in 4.3, but it's works in a way more reliable way now.


    • Gwenview the best image viewer !
      KDE4 users know Gwenview the default image viewer for KDE, but may not know that Gwenview is one of the best image viewers ever existed. It is fast, quick, modern, shiny, particularly in full-screen mode, and has basic photo editing functions.






  • Distributions

    • SystemRescueCD Rocks
      I took the opportunity to show off some GNU/Linux tricks my students will enjoy in the second semester. We should have the new server in production by then. It only needs a router configuration.




    • Red Hat Family







    • Debian Family

      • SimplyMEPIS 8.5 beta2 Improvements
        Warren Woodford has uploaded SimplyMEPIS 8.4.94, the beta2 of MEPIS 8.5. This beta is available from MEPIS and public mirrors. The ISO files for 32 and 64 bit processors are SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.4.94-b2_32.iso and SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.4.94-b2_64.iso.


      • MEPIS 8.5 Beta1
        MEPIS Linux, the KDE based Linux distribution, released the beta1 of MEPIS 8.5. MEPIS Linux was one of the easy to use Linux distributions besides PCLinuxOS, before Ubuntu arrived. The users who wanted to use the latest Debian's snapshot, but afraid of all those text mode configuration tricks found MEPIS as the Debian for the masses. MEPIS Linux has some of the best configuration utilities around, to configure X and Networking (including WiFi). The arrival of Ubuntu and the fact that as this distribution has no specific release schedule (this is developed by a single person) might have reduced the fame of this distribution. I'm trying this beta after a long time just to check how MEPIS is doing now and overall, I must say that I'm pleased with this beta release.

        [...]

        MEPIS is one of the solid distributions and this release also is not an exception. This beta release is more solid than some other RC releases I tried of some distributions :-). MEPIS also has some issues where most of the distributions work without any issues. I'm particularly concerned about the graphical configuration and the package management issues. As this is only a beta release, I expect the final release would be more solid and functional. I would also recommend to try the final release of MEPIS for Linux beginners.


      • Ubuntu's Jono Bacon: Managing an Open Source Community
        Whether a second edition is eventually released is still uncertain -- and will be for at least a year, according to Bacon -- but that does not change the importance of the conversations it is beginning to start. Those conversations alone make The Art of Community, faults and all, one of the more significant books about free software that has been released.


      • Why do I use Ubuntu?
        Yes, it’s that simple. Because. It. Works.

        Case in point: the other day, I dug up an old iRiver T30 music player that I’d forgotten I had. There were some files that I wanted to get off it. Being too lazy to boot up my Linux-powered laptop, I asked my wife if I could plug the her laptop running Windows Vista. It was already on, and she’d just finished doing whatever it was she was doing. That’s when the fun began.


      • Canonical Continues Ubuntu Server Edition Push
        And Canonical has spent much of 2009 launching more training programs and ISV (independent software vendor) efforts for Ubuntu Server Edition. The initiatives have even included cloud training. At the same time, Canonical has been evolving Landscape — its systems management platform for Ubuntu desktops and servers.


      • The Future Of Ubuntu Software Center


      • Download Linux Mint 8 for 64-Bit Platforms
        After the release of Linux Mint 8 back in November, Clement Lefebvre and the developers behind the Linux Mint community announced last evening (December 14th) the immediate availability for download of the 64-bit edition of Linux Mint 8. This version is exactly like the main edition of Linux Mint 8 but compiled for 64-bit processors, such as Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad or Athlon X2 64. Dubbed Helena, the new Linux Mint 8 operating system is based on the Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) operating system and it is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.31, X.Org 7.4 and the GNOME 2.28.1 desktop environment.


      • Fluxbox CE, resurrected
        The Fluxbox Community Edition produced releases for Linux Mint 5 “Elyssa” and Linux Mint 6 “Felicia” and it became quite popular among Linux Mint users. But in 2009, due to personal circumstances Shane Joe Lazar, the maintainer of this edition, had to focus his attention elsewhere and so the Fluxbox CE was discontinued. During the release cycle for Linux Mint 7 “Gloria”, no Fluxbox edition was released.

        Kendall Weaver recently stepped up from the community and worked on a new Fluxbox edition of Linux Mint. We had a conversation and I got the opportunity to test his preliminary ISOs. Today, I’m happy to welcome him within the development team as the new maintainer of the Fluxbox Community Edition.










  • Devices/Embedded

    • GUI framework supports Android, adds Lua scripting
      Fluffy Spider Technologies (FST) announced a new version of its Linux-ready "FancyPants" lightweight embedded graphics framework for consumer electronics. FancyPants 3.0 adds Android support, 3D effects, virtualization and multi-processor support, and "Lua" scripting, and it decouples UI design from underlying code, enabling more third-party control over UI modifications, says FST.


    • Cortex-A8 modules gain development kits
      The Overo Earth family of COMs was billed as the next generation successor to the popular 3.2 x 0.8 x 3.2-inch Gumstix Verdex modules. The Overo Earth is 40 percent smaller than the Verdex, and swaps out the Marvell PXA270 processor for the more powerful Texas Instruments (TI) OMAP35xx SoC. Although clocked similarly at 600MHz, the OMAP35xx offers faster performance, thanks to its ARM Cortex-A8 superscalar core, which enables instruction-level parallelism within a single processor. All the modules offer Linux development support.




    • Phones

      • Google's Nexus One Android phone makes a splash
        Google confirmed it is testing an in-house Android 2.1 phone, which reports claim is the FCC-approved, HTC-manufactured "Nexus One," says eWEEK. If the Google-branded phone is sold commercially, as some reports suggest, Google can take comfort by an IDC study that says mobile Internet traffic will double in four years.


      • One Android to Rule Them All?


      • Android Market reaches 20,000 applications
        According to AndroLib, Google's Android Market has just crossed the 20,000 application milestone. The new milestone comes just over three months after reaching the 10,000 mark and shows strong application growth for the open source mobile operating system.






    • Sub-notebooks

      • OLPC: A Steep Cost? Or a Profitable Edu-Investment?
        Now let's look a little closer at textbooks. Even the poorest countries spend $20 annually per student on textbooks. Not necessarily $20 per child, given the numbers of children not in school. But close enough for government work, since it is a duty of governments to support every child, and someday each of them will. California has taken the lead in the US in moving to electronic textbooks, but other countries are moving ahead, and substantial grant funding is becoming available.


      • Cherrypal Offers Laptop for Under $100
        PC maker Cherrypal has done something Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child couldn't do: make a laptop that breaks the US$100 price barrier.

        Cherrypal on Tuesday announced a no-frills laptop called Cherrypal Africa, which includes hardware usually found in smartphones. It can run the Linux or Windows CE operating systems, which are also found on cell phones.












Free Software/Open Source



  • Open source means cost savings
    We’ve just published our latest CAOS special report, ‘Climate Change -User perspectives on the impact of economic conditions on open source software adoption.’ The report is based on our recent survey findings among more than 1,700 open source software customers and users, and also offers guidance on calculating cost savings from open source software.




  • Interviews

    • IBM developerWorks: An Interview w/ GM Jim Corgel
      Q: What’s developerWorks?

      A: Well, it’s a bit unique. It’s long been a content and download rich site oriented towards, well, developers and in recent months they’ve begun adding in social networking elements. While the site is designed and built by IBM, which means that it’s a.) got the usual brand (Lotus, Rational, Websphere, etc) product lines front and center, b.) pretty corporate in its design and c.) has a LOT going on, the content is periodically but regularly outstanding.

      For all of the branded content, a huge number of the developerWorks pieces have nothing to do, really, with IBM products, written as they are by non-employees. Here’s a piece on WebKit, Android and the iPhone, for example, another on data collection with Python and Beautiful Soup, and here’s one more on building a Twitter app w/ Django and jQuery. Nary an IBM product among them.


    • Interview with James Vasile – Software Freedom Law Center
      We had the chance to interview James Vasile, an attorney with the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC). Now people often think of the SFLC as the group that “goes after” people who violate the GPL, and that’s certainly the aspect that the press focuses on, but James points out that enforcement is a very small percentage of what they do. More interesting were James insights into how businesses learn that their secret sauce has very little to do with locking up the code.








  • OpenOffice.org







  • Health

    • How software companies could screw up Obama’s health care reform.
      Things did not go so smoothly at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, which installed a computerized health system in 2002. Rather than a godsend, the new system turned out to be a disaster, largely because it made it harder for the doctors and nurses to do their jobs in emergency situations. The computer interface, for example, forced doctors to click a mouse ten times to make a simple order...

      Why did similar attempts to bring health care into the twenty-first century lead to triumph at Midland but tragedy at Children’s? While many factors were no doubt at work, among the most crucial was a difference in the software installed by the two institutions. The system that Midland adopted is based on software originally written by doctors for doctors at the Veterans Health Administration, and it is what’s called "open source," meaning the code can be read and modified by anyone and is freely available in the public domain rather than copyrighted by a corporation.


    • NHIN Connect Project Freedom Award Acceptance Letter
      On behalf of the entire Federal Health Architecture and the CONNECT Open Source Community, it is my pleasure to accept the 2009 Linux Medical News Freedom Award.


    • California hospital to roll out OpenVista by year's end
      Hensler said OpenVista's comparatively low cost and speed of implementation cinched the deal with Carlsbad, Calif.-based MedSphere, which developed OpenVista for commercial use from the VistA system developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The pre-built OpenVista system will enable Kern officials to use the solution from day one and customize and enhance it over time to specific hospital needs, Hensler said.








  • Mozilla

    • Hands On Review of Thunderbird 3
      The thing that is most demanded by the public is the integration of the Lightning extension into Thunderbird. Lightning is an extension that adds Calendar features in Thunderbird. It is only with Lightning that Thunderbird becomes more complete and get a chance against Outlook, or even Evolution (in Linux).


    • Firefox 3.5.6 and 3.0.16.








  • Databases

    • Oracle commits: MySQL will have a future
      In order to appease European regulators, Oracle has made a number of commitments to the future of MySQL.

      According to a statement overnight (Australian time), Oracle has made a number of public commitments regarding MySQL in order to ease the concerns of European Union regulators investigating the proposed Oracle – Sun merger.








  • Licensing

    • Best Buy lawsuit shows how GPL violations have changed
      In the Best Buy case, Kuhn told me that the SFLC had the same initial approach that they have in all GPL violations they handle, they sent a formal letter to Best Buy raising the issue.
      "We received only an initial response that Best Buy would look into the matter and get back to us," Kuhn said. "After weeks went by, we had still received no substantive response, and our suggestion for a conference call to discuss the matter was ignored."
      I remember in 2008 asking Verizon Communications President and COO Denny Strigl at a live event about the SFLC lawsuit that was facing Verizon at the time - he was clueless about the lawsuit. So I'm personally not surprised that Best Buy was unresponsive here - it sometimes just takes a big public lawsuit to get a response to an item that could potentially be perceived as being insignificant.


    • Statement on Busybox Lawsuits
      I am the creator of the Busybox program which is currently subject to lawsuits brought by Mr. Erik Andersen and the Software Freedom Law Center, and which was subject to previous suits brought by SFLC, Mr. Andersen and Mr. Robert Landley.

      First, I'd like to point out that I'm not represented in these lawsuits, and that the parties and the Software Freedom Law Center have never attempted to contact me with regard to them. As far as I am aware, and under advice of various attorneys, I still hold an interest in Busybox through both content and compilation copyrights. As present Busybox development is a direct continuation of my original work on the project, much of the current code base is a derivative work of my copyrighted code.








  • Openness

    • White House Wants Input On Public Access Rules For Federally Funded Research
      The Office of Science & Technology Policy remains one of the few White House operations that seems to actually have a good grasp on the internet and what it means for various other aspects of governance. That's why it's good to see them asking for input into what the administration should do in terms of requiring public access for federally funded research (thanks to Lee for sending this over). There's been a big debate over this for years.






Leftovers

  • Now Is It Facebook’s Microsoft Moment?
    I came close to killing my Facebook account this week. As I delved even deeper to the supposed privacy I have or don’t have on the service, I wondered why on earth I even have an account at all. And I kept thinking of Anil Dash’s post earlier this year, Google’s Microsoft Moment. Was this now Facebook’s turn to for people to see it as having gone evil?




  • Google

    • google is your butler- the tension between utility and privacy
      I’ve often defended Google’s thirst to know things about people with a butler analogy. Good software should, like a butler, try hard to understand your preferences and act on them for you without you even realizing they are there. That means learning and remembering things you’ve done in the past, and using that to base recommendations on. When you tell your butler ‘bring me desert, please’, he should remember that you usually like chocolate, and that all this week you’ve been experimenting with different cakes, and therefore bring you another variant on chocolate cake. If he suddenly forgot you liked chocolate and you’ve been having cake all week, you’d be irritated when he asked you those things again, or if he just brought you a canoli out of the blue.

      [...]

      So I’m experimenting this week with other search engines, and once I finish moving I’ll be looking again at other mail and rss readers. I really don’t ask much of Google in return for trusting them; I’m not an absolutist, I just need to know that they are continuing to treat privacy as a difficult, multi-faceted issue that constantly has to be evaluated and considered. And if Schmidt is any indication, that isn’t what Google is doing right now.


    • Making URLs shorter for Google Toolbar and FeedBurner
      This morning, we launched updated versions of the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner that offer a new URL shortening service from Google called the Google URL Shortener. We mentioned our URL shortener as a feature in both announcements, so we wanted to say a little more about how this product works and why we're offering it.


    • Google Maps Introduces Useful Popups
      We'll admit from the start: this change will not revolutionize the world. It probably won't even bring a single new person to Google Maps. Still, a nice little interface tweak's been made insofar as Google Maps now displays business info when users hover over any points of interest.








  • Environment

    • 'Only 50 years left' for sea fish
      There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study.

      Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating.


    • Rising Tides, Slow Food & Global Warming
      The issue of access to the Bella Center is getting further accentuated. Now they have created new restrictions for NGO members--and, daily, more and more NGO members are losing access entirely. The scuttle is that the powers that be--the richest countries and the Copenhagen organizers--want to avoid tension and conflict within the Bella Center. There is already anger from NGOs and developing nations over "secret backroom deals" where the richest countries and the Danish leaders have been seen as making end runs around the rest of us.


    • An easy, very quick summary of the Copenhagen climate treaty


    • A climate Call from the Coast
      This documentary film by KP Sasi is a call from coastal communities in Kerala state of south India, who are beginning to see the impacts of global warming and climate change at close quarters.


    • 50 reasons why global warming isn't natural








  • Finance

    • Rewarding Failure
      With Wall Street compensation slated to top $150 billion this year it looks like little has changed with the tails you win, heads you win culture on Wall Street. The House recently passed a bill giving shareholders a "say on pay." Now it's time for responsible shareholders to step up and clamp down for the good of us all.


    • Bank Reform Passes, Is the Party Over?
      Today, the House voted on a long-awaited financial reform package. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced: “The legislation says very clearly to Wall Street: the party is over.” But is it?

      The strongest part of the bill is the section that creates a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which will crackdown on abusive lending practices for everyday financial products like mortgages, credit cards, and more. Abusive mortgage lending was a key cause of the economic meltdown and the new agency will help nip it in the bud.


    • Putting Obama on Hold, in a Hint of Who’s Boss
      He was, of course, referring to the three conspicuously absent attendees who were being piped in by telephone: Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs; John J. Mack, chairman of Morgan Stanley; and Richard D. Parsons, chairman of Citigroup.

      Their excuse? “Inclement weather,” according to the White House. More precisely, fog delayed flights into Reagan National Airport. (In the “no good deed goes unpunished” category, the absent bankers were at least self-aware enough to try to fly commercial.)


    • The foggy case of the banking bosses who stood up President Obama
      Just how difficult is it to travel the 204 miles from New York to Washington in time for a 11am appointment on a Monday morning? Eyebrows were raised this week when the bosses of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley failed to make it to the capital for a meeting with President Obama, citing "fog" which disrupted flights.


    • How to Profit Goldman Sachs Evil Genius
      One such manipulation was put on display this week - a news development that had me howling in disbelief and left me in awe of the evil genius of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS).

      But if we step back, there's a lesson here - a lesson that points to real potential profits if we stop to understand what's about to happen before our very eyes. It's a lesson that I preach to investors - that the institutions that operate the market and maintain its very framework, also "influence" that market's movements. In fact, this real-market "case study" confirms the profit strategy that I've set out in this special report.


    • Some Questions For Goldman's Lucas van Praag And David Viniar
      Earlier today the general public got one of its first public disclosures of what Goldman believes its prop trading operation contributes to the firm's top and bottom line. For those uninitiated with banker lingo, prop trading is basically the profit that Goldman makes by transacting exclusively as a hedge fund: this is not agency or facilitation revenue, but merely principal positions that represent balance sheet risk for the firm. Of course, with the Fed having made clear that America would fail before Goldman does, the definition of risk as it applies to Goldman is laughable.


    • Goldman Sachs’ Bogus Bonus Ploy
      The firm posted a record profit for the second quarter of 2009 and did almost as well during the third quarter. This was while floating on $43.4 billion in government subsidies, not including the $10 billion TARP repayment.


    • Needed: A Size Cap on Big Banks
      The New York Times was right to put the spotlight on a key piece of unfinished business. Today's editorial concludes, "If we have learned anything over the last couple of years, it is that banks that are too big to fail pose too much of a risk to the economy. Any serious effort to reform the financial system must ensure that no such banks exist.” We couldn't have said it better ourselves.








  • AstroTurf

    • Joe Lieberman Not The Man He Used To Be On Medicare Buy-In
      You know the members he's talking about. The ones that say any government-run health insurance plan, including a Medicare expansion, will bankrupt the country and hurt private insurance companies. The ones that, as of this weekend, count Joe Lieberman as one of their strongest allies.


    • Lessons Learned From Tobacco Control Should be Applied to Climate Policy
      Climate change is similar to the issue of secondhand smoke in the sense that the damage both cause constitute "externalities." That's the word economists use to describe the side effects of a commercial enterprise that negatively impacts other parties, where the cost is not reflected in the price of the product. Markets have no mechanism for dealing with externalities, leaving it up to governments to step in to limit the damage. Industries typically pocket the cash their products and activities generate, while leaving the cost of cleaning up their externalities to a larger group, many of whom don't benefit from the product in any way.

      On the public relations side, both issues have entrenched, highly resourceful vested interests working to maintain the status quo. Industries associated with both groups have worked to manufacture doubt about scientific consensus, hired consultants to confuse the public and delay effective policies, and both groups have used the "junk science" label to tarnish the mounting evidence of harm deriving from their activities.






  • Civil Rights

    • Why the Civil Rights Movement Was an Insurgency, and Why It Matters
      Most Americans fail to appreciate that the Civil Rights movement was about the overthrow of an entrenched political order in each of the Southern states, that the segregationists who controlled this order did not hesitate to employ violence (law enforcement, paramilitary, mob) to preserve it, and that for nearly a century the federal government tacitly or overtly supported the segregationist state governments. That the Civil Rights movement employed nonviolent tactics should fool us no more than it did the segregationists, who correctly saw themselves as being at war. Significant change was never going to occur within the political system: it had to be forced. The aim of the segregationists was to keep the federal government on the sidelines. The aim of the Civil Rights movement was to “capture” the federal government — to get it to apply its weight against the Southern states. As to why it matters: a major reason we were slow to grasp the emergence and extent of the insurgency in Iraq is that it didn’t –and doesn’t — look like a classic insurgency.


    • Photographer beaten, detained in London for being "cocky" to policeman who implies she is a terrorist
      In this video, two British police officers come up to a young woman who is filming a building and harass her, imply that she is a terrorist, intimidate her, demand to see her footage. The policeman says that he's harassing her for being "cocky" -- punishing her for failing to cringe sufficiently.


    • Move to National ID Cards Delayed
      The United States’ quest for a national identification database associated with driver’s licenses won’t be finished by year’s end.


    • Cuba detains U.S. government contractor
      The Cuban government has arrested an American citizen working on contract for the U.S. Agency for International Development who was distributing cellphones and laptop computers to Cuban activists, State Department officials and congressional sources said Saturday.


    • Millions of Bush administration e-mails recovered
      Computer technicians have recovered about 22 million Bush administration e-mails that the Bush White House had said were missing, two watchdog groups that sued over the documents announced Monday.


    • Terry Childs: Another Christmas in jail
      I haven't written much about the Terry Childs case recently, mainly because there's not much to tell. Childs is still in jail, his bail is still set at a ridiculous $5 million, and he still hasn't had his day in court. It's been nearly 18 months since his arrest for refusing to hand over administrative passwords to San Francisco's city network.








  • Internet/Censorship/Web Abuse/Rights

    • What is the 'Clean Feed'?
      The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and will not make anyone safer.

      Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home.


    • Australia Edges Us Towards the Digital Dark Ages
      The first is that it won't actually stop people accessing illegal or unsuitable content. As fast as sites and IP addresses are blocked, others will pop up in an online arms race that is unwinnable by leaden-footed bureaucracy.

      Another issue is that by providing a compulsory filtering of the feed, the Australian government could easily lull parents into a false sense of security, and actually *increase* the risk of children being exposed to dangerous material. As with all kinds of online dangers, the best protection is for parents to be actively involved in the children's exploration of that world, and it's foolish to send out the message that the government is now “tackling” this problem, because many people will draw the inevitable conclusion that they don't need to worry about the issue any more.


    • Chinese domain crackdown targets smut sites
      Chinese regulators have started to request business licences and paperwork before allowing future .cn domain registrations.


    • [Commission against Torture report on China]


    • District Court Finds Personal E-Mail From Work Still Privileged
      A federal prosecutor has won his fight to conceal e-mails he sent to his attorney over the government’s computers, contradicting a popular belief that employees have no expectation of privacy on work computers.


    • North Face Didn't Get The Message; Sues South Butt
      Earlier this year, we wrote about how outdoor clothing firm North Face was seriously overreacting in threatening a small parody clothing manufacturer run by an 18-year-old student creating clothing under the "South Butt" brand name. At the time, we were amused by the boy's lawyer noting:
      "I did try to explain with a great deal of candor to counsel for the North Face that the general public is aware of thev difference between a face and a butt."


    • Don't Sing-a-long: Capitol v Vimeo re 'Lip Dub' Videos
      Vimeo is a video-sharing site (owned by InterActive Corp). It apparently hosts many videos consisting of 'lip dubs,' like the one above actually performed by the Vimeo staff.






  • Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

    • Biden Convenes 'Piracy Summit' That Appears To Be Entirely One-Sided
      Notice that there aren't any consumer rights representatives. No one from technology companies. No one representing a viewpoint from outside of these industries of how they might be abusing claims of "piracy" to prop up obsolete business models. Instead, it's just the echo chamber. The same folks who have been misleading politicians for ages. And, of course, whenever you get a summit like this, expect some sort of misguided "action" to follow. Update: Public Knowledge has put out a statement, noting how one-sided this gathering is, and questioning why politicians are attending what appears to be an industry gathering on how to prop up a business model. Update 2: In the press release (pdf) about this, Biden's office has the gall to claim this "will bring together all of the stakeholders." Ha! It's 100% entertainment industry interests. No tech. No consumer advocates. No ISPs. This is a complete joke. Update 3: This just gets more and more ridiculous. Reporter Ryan Reilly was covering the "summit," posting the seating chart and quoting Biden as saying that "piracy" is "flat unadulterated theft" but it looks like Reilly has now been kicked out of the summit. Openness and transparency apparently doesn't apply when it involves propping up one small industry's obsolete business model.


    • EC to fight pirates
      THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION (EC) has promised to 'mobilise' in its fight against copyright infringement and counterfeiting.

      At a meeting in Stockholm, members of the EC are discussing practical initiatives in the fight against 'pirates' and knock-off merchants, under the umbrella title of the European Observatory for Counterfeiting and Piracy.


    • EU finally ratifies copyright treaty


    • Sun claims IP victory over defunct US 'counterfeiter'
      Sun Micro claimed a brace of IP victories today, with a counterfeiter in the US and a UK-based grey marketeer feeling the wrath of the soon-to-be-borged firm.


    • Legal Battles Over E-Book Rights to Older Books
      William Styron may have been one of the leading literary lions of recent decades, but his books are not selling much these days. Now his family has a plan to lure digital-age readers with e-book versions of titles like “Sophie’s Choice,” “The Confessions of Nat Turner” and Mr. Styron’s memoir of depression, “Darkness Visible.”








Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Computer science student Josh Abraham 01 (2004)

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Dances With Wolves, Wakes Up With Fleas
Small minds say "td;dr" whereas the rest say, "give me information, give me time to study it"...
Garrett Does Not Just Try to Cover Up for Himself, He's Clearly Covering Up for His Mates From Microsoft (and Admits Third Parties Fund His Litigation, With Their Legal Bills Estimates Already Approaching $1,000,000)
They have already sent us about 75 KG of legal papers. How is any judge supposed to keep up?
Richard Stallman in the United States - Part IV - Back to Switzerland
The "cancel mob" tried to "finish off" RMS 5 years ago
Dr. Richard Stallman in Ada Lovelace Lecture Series 20 Hours From Now in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology (Rotkreuz)
Well-connected and affluent corporations want everything to be controlled by them, ranging from culture to words and news
 
Links 07/03/2026: Fuel Already Running Low and "Economic Crisis of the Iran War"
Links for the day
The Corporate Media Repeated the Lies Told by Jack Dorsey ("AI" Hype), Now It Does the Same for Larry Ellison
Disregard the hundreds of headlines that say mass layoffs at Oracle are due to "AI" something
The Free Software Community is Gaining Momentum as Its Importance is More Broadly Realised
As long as "trendy" technology goes in a negative direction there will be a growing portion in society looking for alternatives
Spooking or Chasing Away Women (From Computer Science)
The status quo discourages women from even trying to study Computer Science and related disciplines
"IBM Has Changed So Much in the Last Decade to the Point It's Completely Unrecognizable."
IBM is a dying, rotting company with a morbid culture
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 06, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 06, 2026
Gemini Links 07/03/2026: Coffee Problem, Marchintosh, Learning, and "Selectively Disabling HTTP"
Links for the day
Under IBM, Some Fedora Blog Posts Have Become LLM Slop! (Red Hat is Doomed by Slop Fanaticism)
Who would even bother reading such trash?
Lots of People Leaving IBM Today
IBM cannot be trusted
LLM Slop Rare and Scarce This Friday
We still hope that by the end of this year slop will become nearly extinct
Defending British Democracy From American Predators
We stand united and strong in the face of predators
Links 06/03/2026: LLM Prompt-injection Vulnerability in Microsoft's Proprietary GitHub, "260,000 Federal Jobs Lost"
Links for the day
It's Friday and Many People Publicly Announce Leaving IBM (Which is Engineering 'Willful' Departures to Mask RAs' Scale)
We understand from whistleblowers that IBM already destroyed Red Hat's culture
Dr. Richard Stallman (RMS), the Man Whose Mind Scares GAFAM et al, Began Speaking in Switzerland
His ideas and ideals are not obscene
Gemini Links 06/03/2026: "Setting up the Feed" and Using Molly Brown
Links for the day
Links 06/03/2026: Can't Copyright Slop in US, Microsoft Became Slop Provider for Militarism
Links for the day
Threats Issued to Daniel Pocock Having Launched the JuristGate Web Site Which Covers Financial Fraud in "Legal Insurance" Clothing
Is our world governed by laws or by rich corporations (or nations/superpowers) with well-connected lawyers/politicians?
International Women's Day: At the EPO, for Women to Become Managers They Need to Sleep With Well-connected Men and Mingle With Corrupt Men
Sunday is International Women's Day
Dr. Richard Stallman Starts His Talks in Switzerland in 8 Hours
They try to assess how many people plan to attend to ensure everyone gets a seat (without compromising the privacy/identity of those attending)
IBM Red Hat Layoffs: It's Not About "AI"
"Automation" is not "AI", it's just a generic term which can describe jobs left for machines to do, sometimes computers
Microsoft Windows Used to be Identified on Over 99% of Web Requests From Benin. Now It's Around 50%.
Or a lot less
Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' Has Severe Financial Problems, Version Inflation ("GPT-5.4") is Mindless Hype and a Misleading Distraction
In practice, both users and sponsors of ChaffGPT are fleeing
The Techrights Static Site Generator (SSG) Turns 5 Next Year
It's still under active development in our Git servers
New XBox Boss (Sharma) Implicitly Confirmed XBox (the Console) is Now Dead
Vista 11 is now also known as "XBox"
Murder as a 'Joke' to GAFAM People (Sociopathy)
When it comes to Microsoft and Salesforce, they profit from this mentality
GNU/Linux Seen as Rising to 20% in Eritrea, But That's statCounter Identifying "Unknown" as GNU/Linux
What if statCounter managed to figure out what all those "unknowns" are?
Microsoft ‘Project Helix’ is Just a Tweet in MElon's "X"
Some "tweet" is easy, as words are cheap
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 4 Out of 200: Rianne’s Version of Events and Narrative
today we tell Rianne's experience
EPO Staff to 'Meet' This Coming Tuesday to Plan Industrial Actions Including Upcoming Strikes
using Microsoft spyware to organise this can be an own goal because Microsoft serves the dictators, not the union that tries to topple them
Thousands of EPO Workers Rally Against EPO Management
The staff is furious to see what became of the EPC and the EPO. This is not sustainable.
In Argentina Firefox is Measured at Only 1%, Google Chrome (Proprietary) at About 90%
And it has long been that way
IBM's March 2026 Layoffs Already Happening (to Accelerate Soon in Europe and America)
We're probably seeing some of the last years of IBM and it's anything but certain that IBM can survive the coming decade
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 05, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 05, 2026
Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Industrial Panettone, Cancel, and LLMs
Links for the day
It's Not "AI", IBM is Collapsing Due to Financial Difficulties, "All Small Country Offices Will Close"
IBM is in trouble. Insiders know it.
"AI Companies" Running Out of Money, GAFAM Layoffs Are Signs of Weakness, Not "AI Efficiency" or Novelty
In the past, this term ("AI") had another meaning and connotation
Libel/Defamation Law Does Not Exist to Cover up Crimes
The projection tactics are nothing new
Myanmar/Burma: Growing Acceptance of GNU/Linux, Big Losses for Windows
GNU/Linux has come close to 5% there
Without IBM, Microsoft Would Not Have Taken Off. Both Companies Need to be 'Taken Down'.
Maybe it's time to boycott IBM as well
'Former' Red Hat Staff Upset That Techrights Covers IBM Accounting Problems
Are we touching a sensitive subject at IBM?
Ubuntu is Controlled by a Youngster From the British Army (Background in Mass Surveillance), So One Can Expect Ubuntu to Not Respect Privacy
"Canonical is aware of the legislation and is reviewing it internally with legal counsel"
IBM Hates Computer Freedom. This Means Red Hat Too is an Enemy of Software Freedom.
A summary of Fedora's position when it comes to "attestation"
IBM Union Says Many IBM Layoffs in Europe, With Netherlands and Belgium Confirmed, Allegedly Italy Soon (200 Layoffs)
IBM's demise will harm Red Hat and already harms Red Hat, according to whistleblowers
Microsoft and Microsoft's 'Open' 'AI' Seeking Bailout From the Pentagon Means Brand Erosion
Microsoft and its offshoots growing more and more dependent on military ("defence"; "Department of War") budget
Another EPO Strike a Fortnight From Now, Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Shares 127-Page Document Explaining How Policies Impact EPO Staff
The Office is circling down the drain
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 3 Out of 200: A More In-Depth Breakdown
presents the narrative in a less chronological and more logically coherent fashion
2026 Seems Like (Potentially) the Last Year of Slop Drowning News Sites
Sites that do so perish [...] It's getting hard to find slop in news sites which cover "Linux" because many gave up
Links 05/03/2026: New LexisNexis Data Breach Confirmed, "Goldman Sachs Head During Financial Crisis Says He “Smells” a Similar Crash Coming"
Links for the day
"Silent Layoffs" or "Forever Layoffs" at IBM and Red Hat (After Bluewashing)
Like every day (all day long) we can see people who leave IBM and say something that's based on a 'script'
Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Others Promoting String of RMS Talks, Starting Tomorrow in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology
Well done, FSF!
Links 05/03/2026: A Bet Against Substack, American Government Openly Hostile Towards Environment
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Greed and Sentiments Shifting Against Slop
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 04, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 04, 2026