• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Desktop

• Adoption of GNU/Linux on the Desktop

  One picture is worth a thousand words…

• OS representations and the choice of migration

  For these beginner Linux users, Linux represents an all-mighty fortress that stands impenetrable. Consequently, they engage in all sorts of risky on line behavior. While it is a fact that Linux is more secure than Windows is, the hubris of these tragic heroes gradually leads them to their destruction…or to the bitter realization that a great many of the attacks a computer can suffer are fostered by a careless user.

  Fanboys always wage wars based on prejudice. Regardless of the OS you like, an open mind will help you fly over the clouds of ignorance and, eventually, you can make a conscious choice about whether or not your OS satisfies your needs or if a migration is the solution to your computer woes or the beginning of them.

• 20 Really Awesome Linux Desktop Customization Screenshots

  Without further delay, here are some impressive Linux desktop customization screenshots…

Applications

• 10 Alternative Applications for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator In Linux #1

  Starting a new application series will show you many alternative applications for Microsoft windows in Linux platform. For example today I will try to find many possible applications to be alternative for Adobe Photoshop, and Illustrator work In Linux Platform.

• A console goodie grab bag

  I have a few applications that I have tinkered with, but didn’t make a big enough impression to warrant a full post. Just in the interest of safekeeping the notes I made about them, I’m going to leave a list here, for the future.

• List of all Top Popular Linux distributions

  There are more than thousands of Linux Operating Systems and checking out all of em is simply impossible .

• TTYtter a console based twitter client

  Better late than never, so I am entering into this fever called Twitter. And as a Linux Guru wannabe I like to use the command line for a lot of task, including tweeting.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • HOWTO: Execute a command automatically upon GDM/GNOME login

  • Know your hardware

  • How to Connect the ZTE MF636DB USB Modem on Ubuntu

  • Batch resize images using the command line in Linux

  • HOWTO: Install Firefox 4 on Ubuntu or any Linux Distro

  • Useful shell one-liners

  • Apache : Get internal information about it

  • Getting readline to work with Ruby Version Manager (RVM) on Linux Mint KDE

  • Architectures and Gentoo (Part 1)

• Games

  • Planeshift – An open-source MMORPG

    Ubuntu Gamer reader Boni Boy Blue recommended an open-source MMORPG. Planeshift is a fully immersive 3D world which is based on the Crystal Space 3D engine with no limitations on class, weapons and armour so there is no need for micro purchases that seem to plague a lot of free MMORPGs. The game is also multi-platform so you can play with your friends who run Windows or Mac.

  • Civilization V: The First Week

  • Megatouch linux game machines in Saigon

    Turned out the entire system was running Linux.

  • Steel Storm Episode I v1.0

  • Bitfighter 013

  • Martians Vs. Robots

  • LGP Downtime

  • Conquest: Divide and Conquer

  • Frictional Games – Amnesia: The Dark Descent review

    Frictional Games may be a small Swedish indie studio, but the outfit has a flair for atmosphere and production values which make its horror titles stand out as much as any heavyweight developer. We were impressed with the earlier Penumbra series of games, and found them genuinely chilling, although Amnesia: The Dark Descent takes everything up a notch again. Or down a notch, perhaps, given the descending theme. Amnesia is a first-person horror survival game with adventure style and physics puzzles, alongside stealth elements.

Desktop Environments

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

  • KDEMU – Matt Rogers in the 25th Century

    This week, on KDE and the Masters of the Universe, Kopete ex-maintainer and all around Basket case, Matt Rogers.

  • Review: Sabayon 5.4 KDE

    I guess Sabayon 5.4 hasn’t really changed much from version 5.3, which had many of the same bugs that I experienced today. I simultaneously love it for its vast collection of applications included out-of-the-box and hate it for its stability issues, which still haven’t been resolved despite using the extremely stable KDE 4.5. I guess this is going to get a solid “meh” from me. (That said, don’t be surprised to see me testing the next version of Sabayon when it comes out.)

  • The role of KDE e.V.

    From time to time we hear the question, what actually is KDE e.V., what’s its role in the KDE community? Let me try to answer this question here.

    In short, KDE e.V. is the organization, which represents, supports, and provides governance to the KDE community. It gives the community a legal body so it can participate in activities which require a legal representation, somebody handling money, or a way to legitimize individuals to speak and act for the community.

• GNOME Desktop

  • Nautilus Elementary in Ubuntu Maverick, A Quick Review

    For some strange reasons, I am not able to enable clutterview in my Ubuntu Maverick. When I press F4, it just shows a black screen. Hence the ammonkey’s screenshot above. Another important feature worth mentioning is the integration for zeitgeist search engine. Take a look at the awesome video by ammonkey himself demonstrating zeitgeist search engine.

  • GTK+3 Completes Its Rendering Clean-Up

    Just days after the release of GNOME 2.32, focusing on GNOME 3.0 development for next March has now regained center stage. It was in August that GTK+ began using more of Cairo for its tool-kit drawing and then dropped DirectFB support, but with today’s release of GTK+ 2.91.0 (the latest GTK+ 3.0 snapshot) the rendering clean-up of GNOME’s tool-kit is complete.

Distributions

• “BSD vs. Linux” or “what to do when your favourite Linux distro falls appart”

  And then of course there is Debian. I think about half the servers we have deployed are Debian based and indeed I like it very much. Desktop however is another story, many of our test runs have miserably failed due to unsupported graphic cards, malfunctioning wireless support and so on.

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat near Resistance

    Shares of Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) are trading very close to calculated resistance at $41.75 with the current price action closing at just $41.00 placing the stock near levels that make it difficult to buy.

  • Fedora

    • Fedora Board Meetings, 27 Sept 2010 & 1 Oct 2010

      The Board agreed to move forward with the last statement, and will be voting on whether or not to finalize the statement at this coming Monday’s Board meeting.

• Debian Family

  • A challenge for a Mandriva user: SimplyMepis!

    Megatotoro was kind enough to remove Gloria and install Mepis for me, after which, as in the Sioux hanblecchia, I was left alone on the hilltop…or, more accurately, inside the Mepis pyramids. This is the beginning of my challenge: For the next week, I will only use Mepis on my netbook to feel the differences. Remember, since I am not a computer guru, all I have is my limited empiric access to this fascinating world.

  • Canonical/Ubuntu

    • Ubuntu 10.10 ‘Maverick Meerkat’ Release Candidate is Available Now, Complete Review

      * Ubuntu One was greatly improved with lots of bug fixes with focus on stability and better nautilus integration. Users can now create account with out a need to visit a browser. The web interface was improved and feels more intuitive.
      * An Android application was released for Ubuntu One and a new feature introduced where Ubuntu One will stream music to phones.

    • Toshiba AC100 dumps Android for Ubuntu 10.10, gets useful

      Toshiba’s AC100 is certainly an interesting notebook on the face of it: Tegra 2 processor, full QWERTY and plenty of battery life, but the Android OS does mean it’s definitely a companion device and not your sole ultraportable. That could all change, however, now a hack for loading Ubuntu onto the AC100 has been developed; Carrypad pulled together the instructions and files from tosh-ac100.wetpaint.org, ac100.gudinna.com and the official Toshiba forums and managed to get his AC100 up and running with Ubuntu 10.10.

    • Thank you, Ubuntu

      Ubuntu 10.10, the Maverick Meerkat, will be released in just a couple of weeks. That got me reflecting on the fact that I have been a happy user of Ubuntu for what must be over 5 years now. That’s a long time!

      The GNU/Linux variants are the only OSes I’ve used where I really have the flexibility to define my own workflow (example). So they are a pleasure to use (ok, most of the time). I use a computer for many, many hours a day nearly every day. And the time spent customizing software and learning it is a drop in the bucket when it’s amortized over the months and years I’m going to spend using it. Sure, Windows and Mac OS are a bit more learnable and easier to get started with— but they are much less usable. And for me, and most other people who sit at a computer for a living, that is precisely the wrong optimization to make.

    • Flavours and Variants

      • Review: wattOS R2

        The only review of a lightweight Ubuntu-based distribution I’ve done before this is of #! 9.04.01. I was looking around to see if there are any others, and I came across wattOS.
        wattOS R2 is based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS “Lucid Lynx” and uses LXDE. From other reviews of this distribution that I have read, the thing that sets it apart is its comprehensive set of power management tools (hence the name).
        The other reason I wanted to test this is because I wanted to try to make a “light” version of my Fresh OS respin. Yeah, I know this is based on Ubuntu while the regular version is based on Debian, but I’ve heard murmurs in the wattOS forums of the next wattOS version being based on Debian anyway. Anyway, this means that I will also be testing the installation procedure as well as a few other things post-installation.

        [...]

        Overall, I think wattOS is a great distribution that is highly customizable and is a great way to revive an old computer with modern software. I do still feel slightly cheated by the absence of the power management tools. I highly recommend anyone to try it out. (See? I did include the download link this time!)

      • Leaving CrunchBang Linux for Lubuntu

        Overall it works great – just as well as Crunchbang, but with update to date software. The only thing I didn’t like was that there was no update gui – I needed to run apt-get to find out stuff is ready for update – this also annoyed me with CrunchBang. Come on guys, every major distro (including Ubuntu, upon which it’s based) has some way of letting the user know there are updates to be installed. The user shouldn’t have to go manually checking every few days.

Events

• ON2: Test Signals Programme Announced

Web Browsers

• Firefox 4 vs. Internet Explorer 9 – Head on!

  In a head-on comparison, Firefox 4 wins over its Microsoft arch-enemy. But that does not mean Internet Explorer 9 is bad. Far from it. Furthermore, the fact the browser scene has another new player, a good one with big teeth and a decent punch, should make you really excited. As the end user, you will benefit from even more attention and better and cheaper products. This is what fierce competition is all about. You.

  Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9 are going to be great browsers once released. If you’re a Firefox user, no need to abandon your favorite product. It’s still the good ole stuff that made the difference and broke the monopoly. If you’re an Internet Explorer user, now you truly have a good browser, which you can use and be proud of.

  And that would be all.

  I hope you enjoyed the article. If not, feel free to point out where I might be wrong.

• Firefox, What I Would Like To See

  Firefox is my default web browser, which can be mainly attributed to its amazing add-on support and customizability. But other browsers have emerged (Chrome) or improved to a point, that Firefox feels old fashioned in certain categories. Especially speed and performance wise. If you ever experienced how fast Chrome or Opera are opening the most complex websites, and then compared that to Firefox, you know that something is amiss there.

CMS

• The Economist.com data migration to Drupal

  The Economist is now using Drupal 6 to serve the vast majority of content pages to its flagship web site, economist.com. The homepage is Drupal powered, along with all articles, channels, comments, and more. The Economist evaluated several open source CMS and proprietary solutions aimed at media publishers. In the end, The Economist chose Drupal for its vibrant community, and the ecosystem of modules that it produces. The Economist will be adding lots of social tools to its site over time, and doing so on its existing platform was too slow/inefficient.

• Movable Type

Business

• Outgrowing QuickBooks? Maybe open source ERP can help

  Recent surveys have found that small and medium-size businesses are increasingly willing to consider open source tools. Not surprisingly, small businesses and large enterprises are predisposed to different categories of open source software. Survey data suggest that ERP is one category where small businesses are more likely to adopt open source than their large enterprise peers.

  Several open source ERP vendors are vying for a share of the action. Small-business owners and/or their IT department heads should consider whether an open source ERP package could meet their business needs as their companies grow.

Project Releases

• GIMP 2.6.11 is available for download

• Nightly GIMP, GEGL, babl tarball builds

  I have spent the last few weeks working on setting up nightly tarball builds of GIMP, GEGL and babl. Today I am glad to announce that this is up and running.

• BIND 9.7.2-P2 is now available.

  Introduction

  BIND 9.7.2-P2 is a maintenance release for BIND 9.7.

  This document summarizes changes from BIND 9.7.1 to BIND 9.7.2-P2. Please see the CHANGES file in the source code release for a complete list of all changes.

Government

• Open Government Licence enables re-use of information

  The National Archives is today launching a new Open Government Licence, which makes it faster and easier than ever before to re-use public sector information.

  The UK Open Government Licence is a key element of the Government’s commitment to greater transparency. It provides a single set of terms and conditions for anyone wishing to use or license government information and removes some of the existing barriers to re-use.

Openness/Sharing

• Open Hardware

  • Dinner is Ready

    At the moment, due to limitations in the GCC compiler only 128k of flash are immediately useable but we’re very close to unlocking the whole memory space.

Programming

• Modern Perl: The Book: The (draft) PDF

  I’ve finished writing and editing Modern Perl: The Book, and it’s gone into production, which means that Onyx Neon is preparing a print-ready PDF to give to the printers. The book should be available in print by the end of October, if not sooner.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Copyrights

  • Investigating CC’s welfare impact, the first step

    To recap, what I am offering is to think of CC as an enterprise operating on three separate spheres, each with its distinct, although definitely not independent, value contribution. The first is the contribution to transactions between actors in the creative fields, the second is the institutional contribution and the third is the contribution in the normative field.

    The idea is that this can serve as the baseline for analysis, a fundamental categorization which lends itself to further sub-categorization, by field, by activity, by actor and by CC tool, but that doesn’t lose track of the way all of these tie into the one primary goal.

  • Quick review: Sintel

    Technically the video is impressive, it shows the software advancements and the grown experience of the team, it had good music and voices and it slightly longer. Still… I think it will be a smaller success compared with its predecessor, Big Buck Bunny.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Quo vadis Linux?

I was trying to figure out a topic to write about. I usually focus on Tutorials and tips, as not being a native English speaker, my grammar is not good enough to write opinion posts.
This time I decided to write about the future of Linux, and I was focusing of topics like:

* Need of marketing
* Teaching children how to use computers with Linux instead of others.
* Focus on new devices, like smart phones, tablets, etc.

Tracking Weekly Enterprise Linux News & Trends

Desktop

• Guess What? Linux May Not Be for Everyone

  My wife is a special case of another kind. Once the initial learning for Linux was over, she would have been happy as a pig in mud. I spent a day with her getting Gnome configured to look and act as much like Windows XP as possible. And everything was pretty much working OK. But Danielle is an Excel guru. She stopped using Google Docs’ spreadsheet function because it was too basic for her needs. So, for her, using OpenOffice.org’s Calc is like trying to fly a stealth bomber in which all the buttons were moved to random locations in the cockpit. As far as I can tell, everything she wants to do is possible, but it’s somewhere else or done in a really weird way. I don’t regularly do 1/4 of what she does with spreadsheets, so I have no idea where these things are. Unlike problems with Nautilus or Rhythmbox where I use the programs daily and, therefore, know what to do, I have no idea how to do the things she wants to do. And the inline help has left her….unsatisfied.

• Desktop Applications

  So, TFA and some of the comments are pure ignorance. The presumption is that OpenOffice.org has failed as desktop software because M$’s Office still remains active. What nonsense! That is “winner-takes-all” and not relevant to the question of success or failure. Being driven from the market is only one way to fail and monopolizing the market is only one way to succeed.

Server

• Small Chips in Big Servers

  Intel was caught napping on 64bitness. They may be napping on the ideal cloudy server. If Intel lets ARM march in, ARM and GNU/Linux could take a big chunk out of Wintel in the server/workstation space. What’s wrong with a ton of passively cooled CPUs on a motherboard? Is Intel worried for the CPU cooler makers? Is Intel worried that ARM may be better at this role than Atom?

• Dell server certified for Ubuntu

  Dell and Canonical have jointly certified a range of PowerEdge servers for Ubuntu Server Edition. The majority of systems have been certified for the current version 10.04 LTS, which Canonical plans to maintain until April 2015. Some older models, have been certified with older versions down to Ubuntu 8.04.

Kernel Space

• Graphics Stack

  • X.Org Server 1.9.1 Is Approaching; RC1 Released

    Under the release management of Apple’s Jeremy Huddleston, the first release candidate for the first point release in the X.Org Server 1.9 series is now available. X.Org Server 1.9.1 will be the first update to X.Org Server 1.9, which was released in August, and should make it out around the same time as the X.Org 7.6 katamari release later in October.

Applications

• Gimpbox Combines GIMP Image Editor’s Tools into a Single Window

  Linux only (maybe): The free, open-source image editor, GIMP, uses multiple windows for its tools and dialogs, but they’re getting combined into a single window in a future release. Impatient types can combine everything right now, though, with a Python script.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Shorten URLs using goo.gl and Python

  • Audible Manager on Ubuntu (requires patching/compilation of wine)

  • How to install Nvidia driver on a Xen kernel, CentOS 5.5(Final)

  • systemd for Administrators, Part III

  • Python script to backup mysql databases on Debian servers

  • How to exchange Ctrl and CapsLock in Ubuntu Gnome

  • Making your app modular: Yapsy

  • Master lighttpd – the lightweight alternative to Apache

  • REDCap: A Tool for Collecting Clinical Trials Data

  • Dark Glass docky theme

  • Random gnome-terminal profiles (themes) in Ubuntu

  • Using Ubuntu One Cloud Storage: From Basic to Creative

  • How To Set Up Kojoney SSH Honeypot On CentOS 5.5

  • Weekend Project: Record From Skype Calls and Other Apps on Linux

• Games

  • Hexagonal Tetris game ‘HexGlass’ is far from original, fun to play

    If you’re not familiar with the ‘Tetris’ then welcome to earth – I will take you to our leader. Everyone else has likely succumbed at least once to the addictive puzzler and as such it needs no formal introduction.

    Hexglass is a Tetris-styled puzzle game with a slight difference. Instead of using square blocks to create a ‘Tetris’ you are instead given hexagonal shapes of varying forms. You must arrange, rotate and align these into horizontal rows of hexagonal bricks, completing a row makes it disappear and scores you some points – just like traditional Tetris.

Desktop Environments

• Enlightenment Foundation Libraries 1.0 Hit Beta

  At long last, the EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Libraries) have reached a beta status for their version 1.0 release. Among the libraries hitting this beta status are Eina, Eet, Evas, Ecore, Embryo, Edje, E_Dbus, Efreet, and Eeze. New snapshots are also available for Enlightenment and Elementary.

• GNOME Desktop

  • Shared Color Profiles 0.1.2

    Richard Hughes updated his pack of freely distributable generic ICC profiles that are used by GNOME Color Manager.

  • Another Record Month! GNOME Amazon Affiliate fees September 2010

    September has beaten our previous record month . In total approximately $635 has been received from in affiliate fees from Amazon compared to the previous record of $500 a nice 27% increase

Distributions

• Red Hat Family

  • Fedora

    • Disgruntled with Fedora

      What I’m looking for is a distro that supports the latest version of KDE, uses pulseaudio, networkmanager and usually sports the latest kernel. Bonus if they refuse to package Mono. Fedora used to be the ideal distro for me but after F14 this will change because of the new policy. Fedora will eventually turn into Fedbuntu.

• Debian Family

  • Canonical/Ubuntu

    • Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat T Shirts now available in Canonical store

      Two new T Shirts for the Maverick Meerkat release of Ubuntu that comes out in just over a week have appeared in the Canonical Store.

    • Announcing the First LoCo Day Event

      It is my great honor to be able to announce a new Ubuntu Classroom event that will be taking place: LoCo Days! To quote the wiki, “Most Classroom sessions done in the Ubuntu community are done in English. However, we have a large LoCo community as well.

    • ITworld review: Ubuntu 10.10 scores close to a ten

      Under the hood Maverick Meerkat uses the 2.6.35-22.33 Linux kernel, which is Ubuntu’s take on the 2.6.35.4 stable kernel. What’s noteworthy about this kernel is that it’s a bit more stable than previous ones and it includes support for Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors. Sandy Bridge is Intel’s next generation of PC and server chips. That doesn’t matter now except for developers, but if you want to get the most from your next high-end PC purchase in 2011, you’ll want this support.

    • Ubuntu Adding Mobile Streaming to its Ubuntu One Cloud Service

    • Flavours and Variants

      • Kubuntu Hidden Extra: Message Indicator Shift Click

        The plasma-widget-message-indicator is not new to Kubuntu, but it got some nice improvements in this cycle. It got a visual overhaul to fit the new visual theme of KDE 4.5 (and in my opinion looks generally more pleasing to the eye), but the new killer feature is one you can’t see at all.

Devices/Embedded

• Phones

  • Android

    • Microsoft’s case against Motorola won’t hurt Google, Android or Linux

      Consumers don’t pay attention to patent infringement cases. Unless the court opts to halt sales of Motorola’s Android smartphones, which is also unlikely, the market for Android devices will keep skyrocketing.

    • With Android Apps, Open Means Open–And That’s A Good Thing

      The bottom line is that Android is an open ecosystem–much more open than the one surrounding Apple’s iPhone. As long as Android is open, everything from porn to GPS tracking will be more likely to show up on the platform than it is on Apple’s. Increasingly, though, it’s precisely the openness of Android that is making it an attractive platform, and one predicted by many researchers to become much more dominant in coming years.

    • Google opens Android database at former phone store URL, but only for devices using Google services

Max Out Your Video, Graphics, and Audio Arsenal

If you think back to what you were doing digitally 10 years ago, and then think about what you’re doing today, odds are that you work with video, graphics and audio much more than you ever did before. Within the world of open source, there are not only outstanding free applications that can improve your experience in these areas, but there are many free guides and tutorials to get you going with them. In this post, you’ll find a huge number of resources for pumping up your multimedia muscles. Spend some time with these, and you’ll collect some rich dividends.

Why There Won’t Be a LAMP For Big Data

It is possible that we’ll see standardization of componentry around specific projects like Hadoop – although even that seems unlikely with the rampant proliferation of query, import and other ecosystem projects – but I do not expect to see a standard stack of software used to tackle generic Big Data problems, because there really aren’t many generic Big Data problems. Inconvenient as that might be from a vocabulary perspective.

FLOSS on YouTube

# Guadalinux on hundreds of thousands of computers in schools and offices in Andalusia, Spain. A million downloads so far.

Apache Shindig 2.0: OpenSocial implementation for Java and PHP

Apache Shindig 2.0 is available to download and is licensed under the Apache 2.0 licence. An overview of the project explains Shindig’s history and how it implements the OpenSocial specification.

Events

• Women Proved “Securest” in the Defcon Social Engineering Game

  In a recent post (Hackers Play “Social Engineering Capture The Flag” At Defcon), I pointed to a game in which contestants used the telephone to convince company employees to voluntarily cough up information they probably shouldn’t have.

  Of 135 “targets” of the social engineering “game,” 130 blurted out too much information. All five holdouts were women who gave up zero data to the social engineers.

Web Browsers

• Google hands number 7 shirt to Chrome browser

  Mountain View updated Chrome to 7.0.517.24 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame. But the latest release is light on new features, which has left some Chrome fans a bit nonplussed.

Databases

• Five Enterprise Features in PostgreSQL 9

  The PostgreSQL Global Development Group recently released PostgreSQL 9.0, with major new features and more than 200 addons and improvements for the popular database.

  If you look at the release notes you’ll find a ton of new features and enhancements to existing features. For example, this release brings better error messages for unique constraints, improvements in PL languages for stored procedures, and a lot more. Wading through the PostgreSQL 9.0 release notes is a DBA’s delight, but what are the top features in this release? I pinged PostgreSQL core team member Josh Berkus and got some input on the most important features for PostgreSQL 9.

Oracle

• Java Guru James Gosling Pulls No Punches in Oracle Diatribe

  Gosling sums the whole dispute up as “all about money,” and provides many more details in the transcript.

Business

• Semi-Open Source

  • A Cloud Server is One Thing, Data in the Cloud is Another

    Open source cloud players are pursuing promising hybrid strategies, and as that continues, their flexibility may make them the big winners.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• GCC 4.4.5 Brings Bug-Fixes

  While GCC 4.5 has been around since this past April, if you are still living with GCC 4.4 for whatever reason (like being hit with a massive performance regression), you may be pleased to know that on this Sunday afternoon there is the GCC 4.4.5 release that’s now available. GCC 4.4.5 was delayed a bit, but it’s here and offers up bug-fixes but no major new features.

Project Releases

• ForgeRock announces OpenDJ LDAP directory service

  ForgeRock has announced OpenDJ, a Java based open source directory server as part of its I3 platform. OpenDJ, a standard compliant LDAP directory server built for scalability and stability, is a based on OpenDS, a project initially developed by Sun Microsystems, and ForgeRock has announced that a key OpenDS developer, Ludovic Poitou, has joined its ranks. ForgeRock CEO Lasse Andresen said “It’s a real delight to work with him again”. Enterprise subscriptions to OpenDJ are available now from ForgeRock.

Government

• Topic Report No 16: INSPIREd by Openness: The case of the implementation of Directive 2007/2/EC in Greece as a general model for open data regulation within the context of Public Sector Information

  This state of play report on recent PSI initiatives in Greece discusses the national transposition of the INSPIRE Directive by the Greek Parliament: the National Infrastructure for Geospatial Information (3882/2010). This is a vitally important piece of legislation both in the context of open data and the regulation of Public Sector Information. It adopts a life cycle approach and increases the threshold of protection of the re-use of public sector information. This was the result of lengthy process and a concentrated effort to create a functional and sustainable system for the sharing of Geospatial Information in the context of the Greek legal system. The success of Law 3882/2010 is something yet to be tested in its implementation. However, the author concludes that it is significant as a model for increasing administrative capacity in dealing with open data. This report demonstrates the value of the EU focus on INSPIRE and PSI legislation.

Openness/Sharing

• A little bit of federated Open Notebook Science

  Jean-Claude Bradley is the master when it comes to organising collaborations around diverse sets of online tools. The UsefulChem and Open Notebook Science Challenge projects both revolved around the use of wikis, blogs, GoogleDocs, video, ChemSpider and whatever tools are appropriate for the job at hand. This is something that has grown up over time but is at least partially formally organised. At some level the tools that get used are the ones Jean-Claude decides will be used and it is in part his uncompromising attitude to how the project works (if you want to be involved you interact on the project’s terms) that makes this work effectively.

• Open Access/Content

  • The Great Disconnect: Scholars Without Libraries

    This naming of a threat seemed interesting when read in connection with Steven Bell’s recent ACRLog post, “Underground Resource Sharing,” in which he related the outrage over Netflixgate to a blog post by a scholar who was horrified to discover that once he finished his degree, the library cut him off from JSTOR. (Apparently he thought an alumni association deal would keep the connection open to everything; anyone who has had to negotiate a license agreement to spend over ten thousand dollars to share two seats across the total population of three institutions, each kicking in over 10K for the privilege is now rolling around on the floor laughing so hard it hurts. Or … well, it hurts, anyway.) How was he supposed to get any work done? He reported feeling a “fresh surge of hatred” for his alma mater. (Excuse me, but does this mean everything you publish in future will be open access? Whose fault is it that research findings have to be paid for and fenced off? You’ll find a hint if you look in the mirror.) Comments on his post pointed out that, duh, you just get a friend to send articles to you, or you join a Facebook or FriendFeed group dedicated to swapping articles or just get somebody’s login. Too bad we spent so much on EEBO – apparently everyone has a bootleg login.

Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

• Europe should keep the internet open

  Who gets to decide what you do on the internet: you or your internet service provider? Until recently, the answer was simple: you decide which services and websites you want visit. This is changing rapidly, however. Most internet providers want to restrict your internet traffic. Unless the European Commission prohibits them from doing so. Bits of Freedom together with EDRi on 30 September 2010 urged the European Commission to prohibit this. If you have 5 minutes, you can do the same.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Copyrights

  • P2P Backed Film Platform to Reward Influencers

    Supported by a conglomerate of file-sharing sites and applications, the VODO project offers a novel distribution platform for indie filmmakers. The model has already proven itself as all major releases have been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of users. However, to really tap into the core of peer-to-peer distribution, the focus will now shift to peer-to-peer promotion.

  • Top Legal Experts Explore Reforms to Copyright Law

    Berkeley, CA-September 28, 2010…A group of leading experts on copyright law and policy released a report today that explores ideas for meaningful reforms to the U.S. copyright system. Crafted over three years by a group of legal academics, private practitioners, and corporate attorneys, the report examines several ways to improve and update the law in an era of rapid technological change.

  • UK Law Firm Gallant Macmillan Taken Offline In Revenge Attacks

    Law firm Gallant & Macmillan, which was threatened with a DDos attack by 4chan yesterday, appears to have disappeared from the internet. It is unclear whether the host disconnected the domain in advance of the attack or whether Gallant & Macmillan is now the latest company to be forced offline through traffic overload.

    Anonymous group 4chan began waging war on copyright bodies and solicitors involved in accusing internet users of copyright infringement as part of what it described as a ‘operation payback’.

  • Gallant Macmillan – site is down but 4chan not to blame? Who’s next?

    It’s being reported by some tech writers that Gallant Macmillan might have been taken down with a new ddos by users from 4chan (It also suggests the possibility that the site was taken down intentionally by its owners.)

  • ACS:Law Boss: I Feel Defeated And Could Go Bankrupt

    After disgruntled letter recipients mailed off a barrage of complaints to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority against ACS:Law owner Andrew Crossley, he told his advisor that not only did he “feel defeated” but that in his long-term interests it might be better if he “shut up shop”. Doing so, he explained, would bankrupt him.

  • Third Blender film available to download

    In just under 15 minutes, the film narrates a traditional fantasy story with all the pathos expected from the genre – a young female warrior called Sintel finds an injured baby dragon and nurses it back to health. When the baby dragon, barely able to fly, is kidnapped by a powerful older dragon, Sintel takes up the pursuit.

  • ACTA

    • Danger of international accord on repressive policies in final ACTA talks, says RSF

      According to the latest leaks, on 25 August 2010, the wording of the section on the Internet entitled “Special Measures Related to Technological Enforcement of Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment” has been softened but it still gives governments a lot of scope to introduce repressive provisions including filtering and a “graduated response” leading to the disconnection of illegal downloaders.

    • Countries reach tentative anti-counterfeiting pact [Very bad article, propaganda]