Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers
• Clip of the Day

GNU/Linux

• Server

  • JSE’s new, faster trading system

    The new system would operate from Johannesburg, instead of London where it is currently based.

    There had been a “handful” of incidents where the JSE had to stop trading, due to problems with “international connectivity”.

  • NASA backed open cloud platform rev’d, tapped by Ubuntu

    Open source cloud computing platform OpenStack — backed by NASA and Rackspace — announced a second release codenamed “Bexar,” offering stability enhancements, IPv6 support, internationalization, and more hypervisors. Meanwhile, Canonical will bundle OpenStack in its upcoming Ubuntu Linux 11.04, and announced a separate cloud-related deal with OpenStack partner Dell.

• Ballnux

  • T-Mobile unveils Galaxy S 4G phone and LG G-Slate tablet

    T-Mobile offered new details on the Samsung Galaxy S 4G, as well as LG’s G-Slate Android 3.0-based tablet, both tuned to the carrier’s HSPA+ 4G network. The Galaxy S 4G brings the familiar 1GHz, four-inch Galaxy S design to 4G, while the G-Slate runs on an Nvidia Tegra 2, offering 3D capabilities and an unusual 8.9-inch size.

• Applications

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Use OfflineIMAP to Sync Email on the Go

    • How to Create an Image Gallery in WordPress 3

• Desktop Environments

  • GNOME From KDE vs KDE From GNOME

    The bottom line is, there need not be a strict choice between GNOME and KDE. Both are compatible with one another and can run alongside one another in the very same session.

• Distributions

  • Debian Family

    • Debian 6.0 “Squeeze” released in Linux, FreeBSD flavors

      Here’s some good news for all you Debian fans: Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) has now been released.

      And it’s not just Linux users who should take note. For the first time, alongside Debian GNU/Linux (that’s right, that’s Debian’s official name, and they get the “GNU”), Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is introduced as a “technology preview.”

      Debian GNU/kFreeBSD will port both a 32- and 64-bit PC version of the FreeBSD kernel into the Debian userspace, making them the first Debian release without a Linux kernel. The Debian Project is serious about the technology preview label, though: these FreeBSD-based versions will have limited advanced desktop features.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Get your own open source touchscreen device for $69

    It’s really easy to go out and spend a few hundred dollars buying yourself a personal media player (PMP). But why not build your own instead, save some money, and have a completely open platform to experiment on?

  • Capgemini to deploy Atom-based smart grid monitor

    Neither Capgemini or Intel mentions the operating system, although Intel says it offers “an open software API.” That sure sounds like Linux to us, and it could be either Moblin or its heir, MeeGo, both of which are supported by the Z6xx.

  • Sensor-oriented ARM9 SBC speeds up, gains I/O

    Phidgets is shipping a faster, more I/O-rich version of its Debian Linux-based single board computer (SBC) for sensing and control applications. The PhidgetSBC2 cranks up its ARM9-based Samsung SC32410 processor to 400MHz, boosts flash memory to 512MB, and increases USB connectivity to six ports, while still offering an Ethernet port, Wi-Fi adapter, and integrated PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8 I/O board.

  • Phones

    • Android

      • Honeycomb will Make Android King of Enterprise, So Says Aaron Levie

        Mister Aaron Levie is the chief executive of enterprise cloud storage company Box.net, and he’s been so bold and so kind as to say that Google’s Android will soon be the winner in the enterprise tablet race. Why not iPad? Why not the upcoming tablet from RIM, BlackBerry PlayBook? Because Android is an open system, Levie says Android’s tablet operating system version 3.0 Honeycomb will bring with it an avalanche of enterprise applications for Android tablets. Levie notes that with this more open development ecosystem there comes more support for enterprise apps and a bigger IT community creating applications for Android.

      • Google Searches for Mobile-App Experts

        Google Inc. plans to hire dozens of software developers to create applications for smartphones and other mobile devices, people familiar with the matter said, a new strategy aimed partly at helping Google counter Apple Inc. in one of high tech’s hottest sectors.

      • Android: We’re Number One!

        No surprise here – we’ve all seen exactly this scenario play out before, and this result was absolutely predictable.

      • Is there a line between what is and isn’t Android on Android-derived or compatible devices?

        Android’s open source nature has been a large factor of the mobile OS’s success. Although Google generally partners with a single vendor to create a point product for each Android release (Samsung’s Nexus S for the recent Gingerbread release or Motorola’s Xoom for the upcoming Honeycomb release), the company eventually release each Android version as open source for other manufacturers to implement (and potentially modify) as they see fit, often with input from various carriers that will sell the result handsets or tablets.

      • Honeycomb’s Holography: Hope or Hooey?

        Google’s new version of Android, Honeycomb, promises many new features, among them a holographic interface and 3D capabilities. However, those terms are sometimes thrown around rather loosely to mean many different things. What should users expect to see in the display when when they boot up a Honeycomb tablet for the first time?

      • Android Adds Web Wing in Market Renovation

        Google has added some new features and capabilities to the Android Market, one of the biggest sources of apps for the mobile platform. Users can now shop via a Web store accessible through any browser. Once a purchase has been made, the app is immediately pushed to the device registered under the user’s account. Also new for Android apps is in-app purchasing, another potential moneymaker for developers.

      • Google demos tablet-only Honeycomb, launches Android Market Webstore

Free Software/Open Source

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla releases new Firefox 4 beta for mobile devices

      Mozilla developers released another Firefox 4 test version — this time for mobile devices — as they chip away at beta 11.

      The updated Firefox 4 beta for for Google’s Android and Nokia’s Maemo devices, which was released today, is said to be faster than the native Android browser.

• SaaS

  • Eucalyptus Systems Expands to Asia

    Eucalyptus Systems, creators of the leading independent cloud platform, today announced that it has opened a corporate office in Beijing, China. Eucalyptus China will be managed by Claude Zhou Qun, a seasoned open source and technology industry veteran who was most recently the CEO of Great OpenSource/Turbolinux in China. Mr. Zhou Qun is responsible for managing the rapid expansion of Eucalyptus in China to meet the strong and growing demand for cloud computing solutions in this region.

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • LibreOffice released, Foundation still aborning

  • Oracle to pay $46 million in false claims case – U.S

    Oracle Corp agreed to pay $46 million to settle claims that Sun Microsystems Inc, which it bought last year, submitted false claims to federal government agencies and paid kickbacks, the Justice Department said on Monday.

• Business

  • Cloud Computing Dominates Digium Asterisk World

    Perhaps Digium is set to talk far more about the cloud at this week’s Asterisk World conference. Check the conference agenda and you’ll potentially see multiple experts — including Digium Community Director Bryan Johns — weighing in on the cloud discussion. Johns provided a preview of his Asterisk cloud views in a recent blog post. I wonder if Digium CEO Danny Windham will also weigh in during his conference keynote?

  • Semi-Open Source

    • EMC lets go of Greenplum Community Edition

      EMC’s Greenplum data warehousing appliance and database division has a new Community Edition of its eponymous parallel database. The Community Edition replaces the single-node edition of the database, which was not as useful for companies trying to create parallel databases for warehouses and business analytics.

      It also has some new features that will eventually make their way into the commercial version.

• Government

  • Welcome to EPFSUG!

    European Parliament Free Software User Group

Leftovers

• The MIME guys: How two Internet gurus changed e-mail forever

• Health/Nutrition

  • GM crops to be allowed into Britain under controversial EU plans

    Genetically modified crops will be allowed to enter the UK food chain without the need for regulatory clearance for the first time under controversial plans expected to be approved this week.

    The Observer understands that the UK intends to back EU plans permitting the importing of animal feed containing traces of unauthorised GM crops in a move that has alarmed environmental groups.

• Security

  • Whitelisting vs. Blacklisting

    Turns out that many people do. Apple’s control over its apps hasn’t seemed to hurt iPhone sales, and Facebook’s control over its apps hasn’t seemed to affect Facebook’s user numbers. And honestly, quite a few of us would have had an easier time over the Christmas holidays if we could have implemented a whitelist on the computers of our less-technical relatives.

    For these two reasons, I think the whitelist model will continue to make inroads into our general purpose computers. And those of us who want control over our own environments will fight back — perhaps with a whitelist we maintain personally, but more probably with a blacklist.

  • Nasdaq Acknowledges Security Breach

    Nasdaq acknowledged Saturday it has been the victim of hackers and said it has notified customers about the problem.

    The statement by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. came on the heels of a report in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal that said unidentified hackers had repeatedly breached the company’s computer network in the past year.

  • DDoS Attacks and the Law

    DDoS attacks are almost certainly against the law, with a maximum punishment of ten years in prison. One merely needs to act with the intention of taking down a website, however temporarily for the law to apply. Even distributing tools to use in DDoS attacks can be an offence.

• Defence/Police/Aggression

  • EGYPT: Footage allegedly shows Google exec being detained

    Al Jazeera has posted footage on its website that purportedly shows Egyptian plainclothes officers dragging Google executive Wael Ghonim away to detention.

    The video, posted on YouTube, shows a group of four men following a crowd of young men on the street, then grabbing one who resembles Ghonim, holding his arms, turning him around and hauling him off down the street in the opposite direction.

  • Kettling At The G20 – How Come Charges Were Dropped Against Those Kettled?

    Kettling is a police procedure used to control crowds. It’s named after the common kitchen appliance, one contains boiling water, the other contains violent crowds. At least that is the theory that the police have been putting forth.

• Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power

    The billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch no longer sit outside Washington’s political establishment, isolated by their uncompromising conservatism. Instead, they are now at the center of Republican power, a change most evident in the new makeup of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

    Wichita-based Koch Industries and its employees formed the largest single oil and gas donor to members of the panel, ahead of giants like Exxon Mobil, contributing $279,500 to 22 of the committee’s 31 Republicans, and $32,000 to five Democrats.

• Finance

  • How Goldman Sachs Created ‘Shitty’ CDOs, Sold Them To AIG, Forced AIG Into Bankruptcy, Got A $20 Billion Bailout, Paid Themselves Billions In Bonuses, And Watched As Tim Geithner Covered It All Up

    Here’s what you need to take from this: Goldman put together crappy CDO’s, bought Credit Default Swap protection (insurance) from AIG, pushed AIG into bankruptcy by making claims on the insurance, and then got paid — not by AIG — but by the TAXPAYER.

  • Stock-Hedging Lets Bankers Skirt Efforts to Overhaul Pay

    Intent on fixing a banking system that contributed heavily to the recent financial crisis, lawmakers and regulators pushed Wall Street to overhaul its pay practices. Big banks responded by shifting more compensation into stock, a move intended to align employees’ interests more closely with those of investors and discourage excessive risk-taking.

    But it turns out that executives have a way to get around those best-laid plans. Using complex investment transactions, they can limit the downside on their holdings, or even profit, as other shareholders are suffering.

  • Reagan’s True Legacy: Terminating the American Dream

    As Ronald Reagan supporters celebrate his 100th birthday on Feb. 6, it’s astounding how not only the right wing has inflated and distorted his legacy, but most of the so-called liberal media as well.

    The inconvenient truth about how Reagan won his first term had nothing to do with his superior game plan but the fact that you had to be crazy to re-elect Jimmy Carter. Carter’s reaction to the repressive Iranian regime that took Americans hostage for 444 days was simultaneously wimpy and self-righteous, implying that our gas-guzzling greed had led to the crisis along with finger-wagging us to turn down our thermostats and drive smaller cars.

    On the other hand, while Reagan intolerance for repression apparently scared Iran’s leadership enough to release the hostages shortly after he was elected, his subsequent deregulatory legacy has left our country in economic ruin.

  • The Kindling of Change

    As The New York Times headline declared earlier this week, “Jobs and Age Reign As Factors in Mideast Uprisings.” And the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Index of Democracy has used levels of democracy to identify countries at risk around the world.

    These are solid measures, but I would add spending on essentials like food (there is nothing like food insecurity to spur agita), income inequality and burgeoning Internet usage (because the Internet has been crucial to the organization of recent uprisings).

    Seen through that prism, Tunisia and Egypt look a lot alike, and Algeria, Iran, Jordan, Morocco and Yemen look ominously similar.

• Civil Rights

  • A Frightening Week

    My business interests are based on the availability of the wired and wireless Internet to everyone all over the world. Our firm has been active in working with the US government to make sure that continues to be the case in our country. We support net neutrality rules and oppose legislation such as COICA and the Internet Kill Switch.

    But my business interests pale in comparison to my interests as a citizen of this world. When I think about being in a country that has no internet, no mobile phone service, and no international news on TV, it scares me.

    I suppose I am a “cyberutopian” at heart as Evgeny Morozov calls us. I believe in the power of technology, particularly communications technology powered by the internet, to make the world better, safer, and more open and free.

    This past week has shown that the cyberutopian view is naive and that those who are not interested in a better, safer, more open and free world will use technology to further their interests too.

    So this has been a frightening week and one that shows that the fight for human rights all over the world will not be delivered a decisive win via the internet.

• Internet/Net Neutrality/UBB

  • Are These Rumors, Or Are They Malicious Attacks?

    Konrad von Finckenstein caused a firestorm with the recent CRTC decision on Usage Based Billing. A firestorm so bad, it could cost the Conservative Party the next election.To their credit, the Conservatives reacted quickly when they realized that there really was a problem. And while the other parties will try to take advantage of the situation, claiming that they responded first, they are no better. There have been a lot of people warning all of the political parties for several years about the problem. None of the parties responded until this week. None.

  • Geist: The real reason we pay so much for Internet

    Last week, public concern with Internet bandwidth caps hit a fever pitch as hundreds of thousands of Canadians signed petitions against Internet provider practices of “metering” Internet use.

    The government responded with a commitment to order the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to revisit the issue. Hours later, the CRTC announced that it would delay implementation of the decision by 60 days and review it with fresh eyes and an open mind.

    While addressing the CRTC decision is a good start, Canadians will be disappointed — some even surprised — to learn that Internet “metering” is already almost uniformly in place. The “caps” are the existing and common provider limits on usage, above which you are billed extra. They are unlikely to disappear anytime soon, what ever the CRTC decides after its review.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • Copyright Troll Gives Up in Porn-Downloading Case

      Dallas, TX – An adult video company has dropped its flawed lawsuit accusing hundreds of Internet users of illegally downloading pornography. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Citizen (PC) are counsel for the anonymous defendants at the request of the court.

    • More than 100,000 People Have Been Sued for Sharing Movies in Past Year

    • Firm stops pursuing net pirates

      MediaCAT, a firm which has sent thousands of letters to alleged illegal file-sharers in the UK, has ceased trading, according to its law firm.

      It follows the resignation of Andrew Crossley, who heads the law firm that pursued alleged file-sharers on its behalf.

      Mr Crossley resigned during a court hearing, brought against 27 alleged illegal file-sharers.

    • Digital Economy (UK)/HADOPI

      • Ofcom to review aspects of Digital Economy Act

        It’s good news. The web blocking provisions do need serious attention as they would be a real mistake – extremely expensive and complex to run, and likely to cut off legitimate expression and access to knowledge and culture as much as seriously harmful piracy.