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Links 23/9/2010: Red Hat Inc. Climbs, FCC Adopts Drupal



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Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



  • Apache hits millionth commit milestone
    A change to Apache Software Foundation's SOLR, a sub-project of Apache Lucene, which added "full parameter substitution for function queries" became the millionth commit made to the Apache Software Foundation's repository.


  • A Brief History: 35 Years of Open Source Software
    In this resources series I will focus on some great resources I have found doing research for my new startup StackFu.


  • 5 Tips for Aspiring Web App Developers
    So, you’re not content with just using the social web; you want to be part of building it, too.

    As a budding or beginning web app developer, you’ve got a difficult but rewarding path ahead of you. You have to master (or at least attempt to master) the intricacies of OOP and scripting languages, learn to build web apps the hard way (practice, practice, practice), and network your way into a few job opportunities. You must also decide whether you’d like to work as a solo/consultant/freelancer, a startup employee or founder, or a rank-and-file developer at an established company.

    [...]

    By far the most oft-repeated words of advice we heard from masters of the web dev trade were these: Put in some time on open-source projects. The hands-on experience will challenge you, educate you and help you build your body of work.

    Aside from code for code’s sake, open source projects are a good way to meet other devs and do some networking. You’ll have the opportunity to work with people who are much more skilled and experienced than you are yet; take full advantage of this situation and be a sponge.

    SourceForge and GitHub and good places to start looking for open source projects that appeal to you; also, as you follow various blogs around the web and see what projects might need a few extra hands. Sites like Code for America and organizations such as the Mozilla Foundation are always looking for good developers with free time.

    Finally, when working on open source apps, not only will you get great practice and be able to learn from some really excellent engineers; you’ll also be giving back to the community. As some would say, creating and sharing free and open-source software is one of the best things you can do to help your neighbors as a developer.


  • Events

    • Patrick McHardy explains his Linux DECT stack at Linux Kongress 2010
      At , Patrick McHardy has just started to give his presentation on the Linux DECT stack he has been working on in the last 1.5 years.


    • Ubuntu Hardware Summit to Host Leading Original Design Manufacturers(ODM's)
      Engineers and product managers from device and computer manufacturers and designers will meet in Taipei, Taiwan for a free day-long session hosted by Canonical Ltd. on Sept 24, 2010.


    • Turn Ubuntu into a Karaoke Player
      If you are looking for nice application that displays the lyrics as the song plays and if you love to sing along then there is a really nice application that can turn your system into a karaoke machine.

      OSD lyrics displays lyrics of any song that you play through your music player. It automatically downloads the required lyrics from different sources. Just turn it on and you are ready to go.




  • Oracle



  • CMS



  • Healthcare

    • Why exercise won't make you thin
      Got a few pounds to lose? Cancel the gym membership. An increasing body of research reveals that exercise does next to nothing for you when it comes to losing weight. A result for couch potatoes, yes, but also one that could have serious implications for the government's long-term health strategy




  • Business

    • StatusNet Launches Cloud Service Premium Plans
      StatusNet Inc. today released premium features for its StatusNet Cloud service. The 30,000 networks currently running on the company's software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform may upgrade today to get additional features and further control.




  • Project Releases

    • SOGo 1.3.2 Final released
      The Inverse Team [External] is pleased to announce the immediate availability of SOGo 1.3.2. This is a minor release of SOGo which focuses on small new features and improved stability over previous versions.




  • Government

    • Secure WebOS Application Delivery Environment
      webinos is an EU-funded project aiming to deliver a platform for web applications across mobile, PC, home media (TV) and in-car devices.


    • IT: Italian regional administrations republishing proprietary software as open source


      The administration of the region of Basilicata in southern Italy, on behalf of all the Italian Regions, will republish as open source 'Piattaforma Experience' (Experience Platform), software to help monitor hydraulic and geohydrological risks. The software will most likely be published using the European Union's open source licence (European Union Public Licence, EUPL).


    • Government pleas for open source business cases
      Open Source has the full support of one member of the Government's IT management, but he has asked for more business cases to show how it can save the Coalition cash.

      Bill McCluggage, deputy chief information officer (CIO) for the Government, used his keynote at today's 360 IT event at Earls Court to outline future plans for Government IT, and one of his first ports of call was open source.

      “We do operate in an environment where open source is used but it is only a minority,” he claimed, admitting our European counterparts were more advanced when it comes to adoption.

      “Our view there is... we can go heavily into specifying open standards... opening the way for open source to get in.”




  • Openness/Sharing

    • A Buzz between Rural Cooperation and the Online Swarm
      This article introduces and explores connections between rural traditions and contemporary projects of voluntary cooperation within emergent online network practices. The key examples are mainly from Finland, the Baltic Sea region, and USA. Reflections are made on the emergence of such connections during a trans-disciplinary seminar organised by the author. The main body of the essay mixes social and network culture history, including rural village community support, known as “talkoot” in the Finnish language, its establishment within cooperative development during the 20th century, and the information communications and technology society of contemporary Finland. Discussions of collaborative web platforms such as wikis, the BitTorrent protocol, and “crowd-sourcing” open up questions considering their relation to older cultural traditions. The paper concludes with contemporary examples of where traditions of rural cooperation have conceptually assisted several Finnish entrepreneurial and activist projects. Throughout the paper “the swarm” is identified as a concept worth exploring further to illustrate where the expansive potential of network culture meets concentrated local action.


    • GROUND LAB Part 2: Open source and the manufacturing shift
      The second major contextual situation that has influenced our company is the shift of manufacturing out of the US. With this shift, the US market is starting to lack the influence of American middle class spending habits. The general consuming structures of Fordism will apply less and less to the US market and therefore the R&D, design, and arts industries will also either move their nexuses to China or drastically change shape. This is because what the “creative class” is making product for is the language of the US consumer, and the current product language will be less and less profitable as the buying power of the people who speak the language decreases as the world's consumer market shifts.


    • Open Data

      • Making OpenCharities even better… more features, more data, more charities
        We’ll also add some simple functionality to show payments from local councils that’s being published in the local council spending data. The information’s already in the database (and is actually shown on the OpenlyLocal page for the charity); I just haven’t got around to displaying it on OpenCharities yet. Expect that to appear in the next day or so.









Leftovers

  • Friended for $100 Million


    Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook Inc., plans to announce a donation of up to $100 million to the Newark schools this week, in a bold bid to improve one of the country's worst performing public school systems.


  • A Digital Media Primer for Geeks
    This first video from Xiph.Org presents the technical foundations of modern digital media via a half-hour firehose of information. One community member called it "a Uni lecture I never got but really wanted."

    The program offers a brief history of digital media, a quick summary of the sampling theorem, and myriad details of low level audio and video characterization and formatting. It's intended for budding geeks looking to get into video coding, as well as the technically curious who want to know more about the media they wrangle for work or play.


  • Cognitive Slaves
    The companies that have created the most new value in the last decade, are Internet companies like Facebook, Google, etc. They've created hundreds of billions in value. Good for them, but bad for us.

    Why? IF these companies represent the most valuable new industry of the early 21st Century, where are the jobs that will provide prosperity for millions today, and potentially tens of millions in the future? They don't exist. These companies create few real jobs.


  • China rethinks its controversial one-child policy
    China's one-child policy, probably the most audacious exercise in social engineering the world has ever seen, could be up for review, as Beijing policymakers worry about the effects of a population ageing fast, with insufficient numbers of youngsters to support them.

    There is speculation that a gradual rollback of the policy – first imposed 31 years ago – will start next year with pilot schemes in the five provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.


  • Science

    • My bright idea: humans found a nicer way to evolve
      Most popular accounts of evolution stress the innate selfishness of the process. Species change because individuals are driven by a blind urge to thrive at the expense of others, it is claimed. Frans de Waal begs to differ.




  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • "New Order, Same Abuses": Amnesty Condemns Iraq for Holding 30,000 Prisoners Without Trial
      Amnesty International is condemning Iraq for holding an estimated 30,000 prisoners without trial, including 10,000 prisoners who were recently transferred from US custody.


    • A Tea Party Foreign Policy
      As one who is opposed to centralization, I am wary of attempts to turn a grassroots movement against big government like the Tea Party into an adjunct of the Republican Party. I find it even more worrisome when I see those who willingly participated in the most egregious excesses of the most recent Republican Congress push their way into leadership roles of this movement without batting an eye -- or changing their policies!




  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance

    • Why the single currency's fallen off the Lib Dems' agenda
      In the days before they were gung ho about the need for spending cuts, the Liberal Democrats used to be equally gung ho about the need for Britain to join the single currency. Indeed, Danny Alexander, the Treasury minister wielding the spending axe, was the spin doctor for Britain in Europe, the pressure group dedicated to seeing that the pound was scrapped.

      To be fair, Alexander was not alone. All the other Lib Dem big guns – Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne, Vince Cable – were as insistent then that failure to join monetary union would be an error of historic proportions, as they are insistent now that there is no alternative to austerity.


    • IMF poised to send permanent officials to Greece


      The International Monetary Fund is to dispatch permanent officials to Athens, amid mounting speculation that the emergency aid programme currently propping up debt-stricken Greece will have to be prolonged.

      Although widely praised for implementing the toughest austerity measures in post-war history, the Greek government also faces growing criticism over the pace of reforms agreed in return for a €110bn (€£90bn) EU and IMF-sponsored rescue package in May.


    • UN: Number of hungry people declines
      FAO director-general Jacques Diouf attends a press conference in Rome, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010. The estimated number of chronically hungry people in the world dipped considerably below the 1 billion mark, thanks in part to a drop in food prices from the spikes that sparked rioting just a few years ago, U.N. agencies said Tuesday. They cautioned that the estimate, the first drop in 15 years, is no cause for celebration since there are still an estimated 925 million undernourished people on the planet. A report by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that there are 98 million fewer than in 2009, when the estimate just topped the 1 billion figure.


    • OECD predicts America will escape double-dip recession
      The United States will experience a slow, jobless recovery from its deepest and longest downturn since the 1930s but will avoid a double-dip recession, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said today.

      In its annual health check of the world's biggest economy, the Paris-based OECD said that it expected activity to expand by 2.6% in both 2010 and 2011 without having a marked impact on the country's near double-digit jobless rate.


    • Lauderdale man's home sold out from under him in foreclosure mistake
      fl-wrongful-foreclosure-0922-20100921

      When Jason Grodensky bought his modest Fort Lauderdale home in December, he paid cash. But seven months later, he was surprised to learn that Bank of America had foreclosed on the house, even though Grodensky did not have a mortgage.

      Grodensky knew nothing about the foreclosure until July, when he learned that the title to his home had been transferred to a government-backed lender. "I feel like I'm hanging in the wind and I'm scared to death," said Grodensky. "How did some attorney put through a foreclosure illegally?"




  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

    • Iraq: Stop Blocking Demonstrations
      Iraqi authorities should stop blocking peaceful demonstrations and arresting and intimidating organizers, Human Rights Watch said today. Iraqi security forces should also respect the right of free assembly and use only the minimum necessary force when violence occurs at a protest.




  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Gallo report: European Parliament U-turns on users rights


      The European Parliament has reneged on its previous position to protect users rights against 3-strikes/graduated response for copyright enforcement with a vote endorsing the Gallo report.

      To make matters worse, the French media has exposed how the European Parliament was informed by rights-holder lobbying which included the name of at least one dead person.


    • Stallman calls for end to ‘war on sharing’
      Stallman called digital rights management (DRM) technologies "malware" that could monitor usage and said they were "explicitly designed to do things to the detriment of users".

      Using software-as-a-service (SaaS) was the same as using non-free software, he said, because users did not have access to the source code or executable file.

      "SaaS means that instead of doing your computing in your own computer, you do it by sending the relevant data to someone else's computer," he said.


    • Stallman calls for an end to file sharing war
      Open sauce guru Richard Stallman has called for everyone to get off file sharing's case and has come up with some weirdie beardie advice as to how the entertainment industry can make money without charging anyone.

      According to IT News, Stallman claimed that artists and musicians were "not entitled to" compensation from listeners, but governments could introduce a tax to support their work.

      Stallman seems to think that Governments have piles of dosh to give away to rock stars. Arts are usually the first to get the chop in government restructuring as "more important things" such as education, health and science usually get the dough.


    • Stallman: End The File Sharing War
      Richard Stallman, an American freedom activist who founded the Free Software Foundation and pioneered the concept of copyleft has thrashed anti piracy outfits and said it’s time to give file sharers a break and put the problem to bed.

      Stallman, who has long been involved with openness and is the main author of the most widely, used software license (GNU General Public License), hit out at anti piracy outfits and called for an end to the file sharing war. He even came up with some advice on how he thinks the problem could be solved for all involved.


    • Copyrights

      • A Big Win for the Internet
        Today a federal court in Madrid dismissed charges of copyright infringement against YouTube. This decision is a clear victory for the Internet and the rules that govern it. Spanish broadcaster Telecinco had claimed that YouTube should be liable when users upload copyright-infringing material.

        The court rejected Telecinco’s claim, noting that YouTube offers content owners tools to remove copyright infringing content and this means that it is the responsibility of the copyright owner – not YouTube – to identify and tell YouTube when infringing content is on its website. This decision reaffirms European law which recognizes that content owners (not service providers like YouTube) are in the best position to know whether a specific work is authorised to be on an Internet hosting service and states that websites like YouTube have a responsibility to take down unauthorised material only when they are notified by the owner.


      • Brighton tries to use copyright to censor Councillor


        A friend of mine, Councillor Jason Kitcat, who is also involved in ORG, is being disciplined for posting clips of Brighton & Hove Council meetings to Youtube.

        The clips are said to be a “political” use of “Council resources”.

        Their documents say Jason attempted to “hold the administration politically to account” by trying “to highlight what the he believed were the administration’s deficiencies”, while using “the council’s intellectual property” and website. Rather than concluding he was doing his job, they say Jason should face being suspended from his post.

        [...]

        Unfortunately, in this case Brighton & Hove are simply asserting that the copyright ‘belongs’ to them and therefore falls under their right to regulate Councillor’s use of council property: and in doing so are attempting to create a dangerous precedent.

        If Jason is held to have abused council “property”, Councillors will be intimidated from using information to tell residents what is going on. The same information, in words, is reported in minutes and placed in “political” leaflets. Will Brighton Councillors stop such reporting, as the same copyright subsists in Council minutes?

        Brighton is full of tech-savvy voters, and many people who are strong believers in human rights and dignity. Will they stand up for freedom of speech and protest against their Council’s attempt to place limits on the rights of their elected representatives? I certainly hope so.


      • Canadian Recording Industry Demands 45% Of Revenue; Then Blames 'Pirates' For No Streaming Music Services
        Ah, the recording industry. We've already discussed how ridiculously complex it is for a music startup to obtain the licenses it needs. Combine that with the ridiculously high rates demanded by the record labels and the fact that they demand licensing for things that shouldn't need additional licenses, and you understand why it's so difficult for music startups to survive, and why the market is so fragmented.

        You hear it all the time. Spotify isn't available in the US. Pandora isn't available outside the US. And so on. Name the startup and there are serious restrictions on it. Things in Canada are pretty bad, where they basically don't have any of these music services, and it's because the Canadian recording industry is apparently demanding absolutely, positively insane fees -- such as 45% of gross revenue. Yes, gross revenues. If you know anything about the finances of these kinds of businesses, that's laughable. As Pandora's Tim Westergren notes, Canadian radio stations pay approximately 2.1% of gross revenue to the recording industry.


      • ACTA

        • ACTA and democracy
          The ZeroPaid article ACTA Still Hasn’t Been Seen by Any UK MPs makes the excellent point that ACTA negotiations are ongoing, continuing on their fast track with the intent of being concluded by the end of October prior to the American US election.

          [...]

          The main European ACTA site, La Quadrature du Net, along with the openACTA: Stop ACTA Now site from Mexico have been working tirelessly to keep citizens informed. We have been fortunate that in spite of powerful disincentives, there has been a steady stream of leaks from within the ACTA negotiations, so the secret treaty is not as secret as they would have liked.


        • Answer to mail from MEP SKa Keller:
          Dear Sirs

          Thank you for your message.

          We understand the Greens/EFA Group’s interest in the transparency very well.

          The Government of Japan also recognizes the importance of the transparency in ACTA negotiations and decided to arrange a lunch meeting with the public on September 24 as you know.

          However, it is with regret that we cannot arrange the meeting during the week of September 27 due to purely practical organizational reasons.

          We regret that we could not inform you earlier of lunch meeting as you pointed out. As we just settled the program of ACTA negotiations in Tokyo this week with the negotiating parties, we cannot inform our lunch meeting to public beforehand. Please kindly understand our situation.

          ACTA negotiating parties share the intention to promote transparency and we are to discuss any ways to promote the transparency of ACTA negotiations.

          Best regards

          武田修寛

          外務省経済局知的財産室

          Yoshihiro Takeda

          Ministry of Foreign Affairs

          Intellectual Property Affairs Division












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