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05.25.11

DistroWatch: Fedora Keeps Mono in Rawhide

Posted in GNU/Linux, Mono, Red Hat at 1:42 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Fedora and Mono

Summary: Discussion about the phasing out of Mono (removal from GNU/Linux distributions) and what remains to be done

OUR dear Mr. Forbes has brought to our attention his observation that, despite the fact that Mono is dead as a Novell project and is now running on funds from Miguel de Icaza et al. (spending his own savings promoting Microsoft’s patents-encumbered APIs), Fedora still includes Mono in Rawhide. They actually removed Mono some years ago (from final releases), so it is not clear why nightlies/intermediate builds still have it. It’s not exactly news, but it is worth getting an answer to the question, why even bother with Mono at all?

Less than an hour ago one reader asked (in IRC): “When will GIMP go back into Ubuntu’s CD?”

Forbes replied: “Doesn’t seem so, though some official Ubuntu derivatives like Xubuntu still include it by default” (this can be confirmed).

The other reader noted that “room can be made by removing Mono and Mono-dependent apps” (we made this point many times before).

“Hopefully,” said Forbes, “with the BS surrounding the current state of “official” Mono development, the removal may actually happen”

“I look forward to the removal. it is more than just wasting space,” concluded the anonymous reader. ” There are better apps it is holding back” and “Mono slows down performance in other ways as well,” noted Forbes. It's true. █

Links 25/5/2011: MeeGo TV Platform, Trisquel 4.5.1, Wary Puppy 5.1.2

Posted in News Roundup at 12:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Open is a Loose Term in the Mobile Market

    I guess in the end “open” is a loose term when it comes to the mobile market. Yes, Android is more open than a good deal of other mobile operating system alternatives – but it is far from the freedom we see in desktop computing. Our mobiles won’t be truly “open” until hardware manufactures stop riddling FOS operating systems with closed source hardware and software components.

  • 55 Open Source Replacements for Information/Project Management Tools

    Experts say that interest in IT project management has grown substantially in recent years. A December 2010 report from Dice.com put project managers fourth on its list of the most in-demand IT jobs for 2011. And a Forrester report found that for 2011, CIO priorities are shifting from cost reduction to improving execution. As a result, they’re looking to the disciplines of project management and project portfolio management to help them “allocate resources effectively while killing off bad ideas quickly.”

    Project managers have a huge list of software tools that can help them do their jobs, ranging from simple spreadsheets to groupware with collaboration features to full project management solutions. These tools can be very expensive, but a growing number of open source projects offer similar functionality without the high price tag.

  • SaaS

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Why TDF should be the place for one united Community

      We all have similar goals: a free office suite, available to everyone. So let’s not discuss about the past, about what has happened and about the reasons that led to this, but rather focus on the future.

  • Business

    • If you tolerate this… the commercial open source window of opportunity

      One of the ‘things I wrote down during OSBC’ was this statement from Benchmark EIR, Rob Bearden:

      “Misalignment between a business model and the community’s tolerance point will never be accepted. This will manifest itself in multiple distributions.”

      At first glance the statement may seem obvious to anyone who has studied open source-related business strategies or communities, but I believe provides the context for further understanding the complexities of balancing the needs of a business for control and the needs of a community for openness.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Project Releases

  • Public Services/Government

    • SE: Framework agreement increases use of open source

      Sweden’s public administrations, municipalities and health care are increasingly turning to free and open source software solutions, following legal clarifications made to a public procurement framework contract. From April 2011, a new framework agreement makes providers of services based on this type of software legally responsible for issues pertaining to copyright, licences and distribution. This has made public administrations less hesitant about using open source, says Daniel Melin, one of the software procurement specialists at Kammarkollegiet, a government agency.

    • How can the state simultaneously cut budgets, provide better services, and promote growth? “By adopting an Open Government mindset”.

      All truth passes through three stages, said the philosopher Schopenhauer. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Just over a week ago the Financial Times paraphrased the formula I have been promoting for a decade in business, and in Politics for the last five years:

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Hardware

      • Digital Foosball Offers Open Source Awesomeness

        Foosball tables, that ever-present staple of dot-com startups, YMCA rec rooms and your parents’ basement, have long been in need of a digital upgrade. Now, a German interactive firm has devised a way for you to spruce up the play behind those miniature plastic soccer players.

        [...]

        Unfortunately, the actual detailed instructions on how to complete all the steps haven’t yet been posted, but SinnerSchrader claims they have a proof-of-concept prototype that works, and that the blueprint and software will be available for download soon.

Leftovers

  • Science

  • Security

    • DenyHosts: Keep on Knocking but You Can’t Come In
    • PSC Accelerates Machine-Learning Algorithm with CUDA
    • LinkedIn slashes cookie lifespan after research exposes security flaws
    • A whole new era for cookies begins this week
    • PlayStation Network breach will cost Sony $171m

      The cost of a criminal intrusion that exposed sensitive data for more than 100 million Sony customers and resulted in a 23-day closure of the PlayStation Network will cost the company at least $171 million, executives said.

      The estimated cost doesn’t included expenses related to any lawsuits that may be filed in response to the security breach, which was discovered on April 19. The estimate includes expenses of an identity theft prevention program and promotional packages to win back customers, among other things.

    • Microsoft Support Scam (again)

      We have mentioned the “Microsoft Support” scams a few times over the last 6 months or so (http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=10135), but a recent change in their operations grabbed my interest. A colleague of mine mentioned that other day that he had been the recipient of the mystical “Microsoft Support” call to inform him that they had received an alert from his computer. It was the usual scenario, with a twist.

      In previous iterations of this scam the person on the phone would get you to click through to the event viewer to “find something red”. Strangely enough there is usually something red in most people’s event log log. However, do not despair if you don’t have anything red, yellow is just as bad. Once the problem (well any problem) was identified your support would have expired and they redirect you to a web site where you can part with your money and download some version of malware.

      The new iteration of the scam goes one step further. Rather than get the victim to look, they get you to install teamviewer (although no doubt other similar tools are likely used). They take control of your machine and start moving the files across. Manually infecting, sorry fixing, your machine. In this particular instance they noticed they were in a VM and promptly started removing the files they had moved, before the link was dropped and the phone call terminated.

  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • UK and US “special relationship” taken to a new level amid anti-war protests

      All eyes remain on London for the second day of the US president’s state visit, which will see talks on violence in the Arab world. These talks come amid calls for Obama and British PM, David Cameron, to overcome their addiction to war games.

      Obama’s visit comes as NATO escalates its involvement in the war in Libya. France has said it will deploy helicopters, bringing combat operations closer to the ground. The global war machine rumbles on, with the alliance of London and Washington in the engine room – and this new agreement to pool information and resources may only add fuel to the fire.

      Warm greetings and a royal banquet on the opulent premises of Buckingham palace – Britain has well and truly rolled out the red carpet for Barack Obama, designed to affirm the so-called “special relationship” between the two nations.

    • NATO ups strikes in Tripoli, sees no Iraq parallel

      NATO warplanes pounded Tripoli for a second day, raising military pressure on Muammar Gaddafi while diplomatic efforts mounted to force his departure.

      Six loud explosions rocked Tripoli late on Tuesday within 10 minutes, following powerful strikes 24 hours earlier, including one on Gaddafi’s compound, that Libyan officials said killed 19 people and state television blamed on “colonialist crusaders.”

    • CMD Opposes Effort to Gut Whistleblower Protections

      The Center for Media and Democracy, Common Cause, the AFL-CIO, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Public Citizen and other organizations have signed onto a letter to members of Congress opposing a draft bill by Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) that would weaken whistleblower protection and award programs at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC). Grimm’s bill seeks to strip newly-enacted protections for whistleblowers who face retaliation for contacting enforcement agencies. It would also remove incentives for corporate insiders to inform regulators about wrongdoing, hamstring enforcement at the SEC and CTFC and give lawbreaking financial firms a way to escape accountability for their actions.

  • Cablegate

    • Iraq War Logs wins Amnesty Award

      The Bureau of Investigative Journalism picked up the Digital Media prize for it’s dedicated website www.iraqwarlogs.com at the 2011 Amnesty Media Awards on Tuesday.

    • Anti-Americanism rife in Pakistan army institution – Wikileaks

      Officers received training biased against the United States at a prestigious Pakistan army institution, according to Wikileaks, underscoring concern that anti-Americanism in the country’s powerful military is growing amid strains with Washington.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Get Green, with Brown!

      The folks at Recompute have taken the notion of “Going Green” to a whole new level. They’ve made computer cases out of recyclable cardboard. We had the pleasure of speaking with Recompute’s Brenden Macaluso and took one of their computers for a test drive.

  • Finance

    • How an Inquiry of Goldman Sachs Might Play Out

      Goldman Sachs has already received subpoenas from unnamed regulators investigating its mortgage securities operations. Now, federal prosecutors appear to be interested in those operations as well, and subpoenas could follow.

      If so, this would signal a new and potentially more threatening inquiry into its conduct during the financial crisis.

      Goldman paid $550 million last year to settle civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission over its structuring of a collateralized debt obligation known as Abacus that regulators said was designed to fail. But the size of that settlement may pale in comparison if federal prosecutors find sufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges.

    • Growing Pressure Facing Blankfein at Goldman

      CUNY Professor Fred Kaufman and FBN’s Charlie Gasparino debate the growing pressure for Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein to step down.

    • A Once-Tight Flock at Goldman, Now Scattered

      When Goldman Sachs went public 12 years ago this month, an elite group of 221 executives controlled the strategy and shares of the investment bank.

      While the clubby culture remains, the tight-knit group has lost its viselike grip on the company, as the wishes of the insular partnership have given way to the demands of the outside shareholders. The roughly 480 partners currently own less than 10 percent of the company, down from approximately 60 percent at the initial public offering in 1999.

      Their power base may soon erode further. Senior Goldman executives are considering whether to cull partner-heavy divisions like investment banking, according to people with knowledge of the matter who were not authorized to speak on the record.

    • Commodities Gone Wild

      Over the last few weeks prices on oil, food and gold have all hit all-time highs, and then suffered pricipitous drops. And there seems to be little agreement as to why.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Insurers Blame Americans; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee Ducks Questions

      The reaction of health insurers to the Obama administration’s requirement that they start justifying rate increases of 10 percent or more was quick and predictable: “Not fair!”

      The PR and lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) absolved the industry of any responsibility for constantly rising premiums and pointed the finger of blame at just about everyone else. The real culprits, AHIP president Karen Ignagni insisted, are greedy doctors and hospitals, state legislators who make insurers provide coverage for an overly broad range of illnesses, and, of course, irresponsible American citizens, especially healthy young people who decide not to buy insurance.

  • Privacy

    • Wikipedia founder opens new front in privacy battle

      Lawyers and celebrities seeking to prevent the world knowing their indiscretions have another hurdle in their path – Wikipedia – after its founder, Jimmy Wales, pledged to resist pressure to censor entries.

      Referring to the case of the “family footballer” who has injuncted the media from revealing that he had an affair with the Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas – whose Wikipedia page now records this fact – Mr Wales said: “This only became a story because the footballer is pursuing legal action against Twitter. It started to become a big political and social issue. Once that happens it is a valid issue for Wikipedia. As an encyclopaedia, we try to document facts taken from reputable sources. We should not be stopped from recording facts.

    • Do-not-track off to a slow start, Mozilla adds support for Android

      Whenever an average consumer is confronted with the idea of “opting in,” typically they don’t bother. They are not aware they have a choice, it’s too complicated to follow through or they simply don’t understand the importance.

      A great example of this is Facebook’s introduction of HTTPS via opt-in back in January. In a post on the Facebook developer blog, Naitik Shah points out that 9.6 million Facebook users are now using HTTPS on the service.

    • BT cheerfully admits snooping on customer LANs

      BT reserves, and makes use of, the right to remotely detect all devices connected to LANs owned by its broadband customers – for their own good, of course.

      BT Broadband customers can expect to have their network checked any time the operator feels it needs to take a peek to help it provide the service, or when the safety of the customer is in doubt – the latter being the motivation behind the only instance where we know the capability has been used.

      That happened last week, when some BT Broadband customers received letters about the kit they had plugged into their networks.

      The kit in question were powerline networking (PLT) boxes originally supplied by BT. Some of the units supplied suffered a manufacturing flaw that could, potentially, expose live wires. So BT shipped out replacements back in October last year. But customers who eschewed the operator’s advice (having examined the devices and satisfied themselves that they were safe) have now received letters telling them that BT’s “remote diagnostic test” shows the devices are still connected and warning the customers of the ongoing danger.

      PLT devices don’t have IP addresses; they operate like switches, so they shouldn’t be detectable from the internet. We assume that BT is getting round this issue by running a scan of MAC addresses from the supplied router, but the company hasn’t confirmed that.

    • BT spies on the networks of their customers
    • CCTV camera looks straight into our homes, say residents

      FURIOUS residents have taken action against a CCTV camera they say is spying on their homes.

      They have branded the device on Elm Drive, Mold, as Big Brother having ‘gone mad’ after discovering it was pointing at a row of houses instead of a trouble hotspot opposite.

    • Privacy, the Press and Twitter: some uncomfortable truths

      I wrote last Friday’s blog before the weekend’s Twittering events and it is quite clear that the injunction protecting the footballer’s privacy is unsustainable. Clearly barring all of the press from mentioning a name simply is a non-starter (especially as the footballer’s name was chanted by fans at yesterday’s Premier League games).

      However, several facts are being missed in the current reporting furore. First is that the Court granted the footballer an injunction because the newspaper concerned was the beneficiary of an unsuccessful blackmail attempt. Then the newspaper concerned arranged photographers to be present at meetings between the woman and footballer as pretence so that it could claim that it stumbled on their relationship by accident.

    • Your guide to the EU Privacy Directive

      As of May 25, new European privacy laws come into play, which will determine how web users can be tracked online.

      The changes will require technology companies, retailers and other suppliers that track information online (usually via cookies) to seek consent from web users in order to do so.

  • Civil Rights

    • Identity scheme echoes ID cards, say campaigners

      The identity assurance scheme, announced by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude last week, will create services that will verify a person’s identity when they access public services online. The scheme will, according to Maude, allow people to access various government services online without having to remember multiple log-in details.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • The Netherlands To Enact Law That Ensures Net Neutrality

      The Netherlands might be a tiny country, but when it comes to broadband, it is one that likes to make big moves. It had been quick to embrace fiber broadband. It was early to the idea of gigabit per second connectivity. And now it is enacting a law that guarantees “net neutrality” for its citizens.

      The country’s telecom law was amended yesterday, to ensure free access, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. In addition to the wired Internet, the new amendment will ensure network neutrality is extended to the mobile network and services such as Skype are allowed to work without interference.

    • France attempts to “civilize” the Internet; Internet fights back

      For some time, French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy has talked about his dream of a “civilized” Internet, but this dream has long been a nightmare for those who worry that “civilization” is really a code for “regulations favorable to big business and the national security state.” To make his vision a reality, Sarkozy helped to create this week’s e-G8 meeting currently underway in the Tuileries Gardens next door to the Louvre—and the critics are fuming.

      “I was invited to the e-G8 and declined,” said author and activist Cory Doctorow recently. “I believe it’s a whitewash, an attempt to get people who care about the Internet to lend credibility to regimes that are in all-out war with the free, open ‘Net. On the other hand, I now have a dandy handwriting sample from Sarkozy should I ever need to establish a graphological baseline for narcissistic sociopathy.”

    • Big day for better EU telecom services approaching

      Do you know what happens on Wednesday this week? In late 2009, the European Parliament and all 27 EU Member States agreed that the new telecom rules must be implemented into national laws by 25th May 2011. I know Member States are working hard to meet the deadline – and there are only two days left. But let me be clear, if these rights are not made available in practice, I will take the necessary measures to fix the situation.

      Both citizens and businesses across Europe will benefit from the new EU telecom rules. From higher levels of consumer protection and more choice, to improved online privacy and safety and more consistent regulation across the EU, I hope customers will take full advantage of the opportunities these new rules will give them.

  • DRM

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyfight: EFF co-founder enters e-G8 “lion’s den,” rips into lions

      “I may be one of very few people in this room who actually makes his living personally by creating what these gentlemen are pleased to call ‘intellectual property.’ I don’t regard my expression as a form of property. Property is something that can be taken from me. If I don’t have it, somebody else does.

    • Copyrights

      • Major Vulnerability Found in Leaked Anti-Piracy Software

        As detailed in our earlier reports, anti-piracy company Trident Media Guard (TMG) recently failed to secure some of their systems. Blogger and security researcher Olivier Laurelli, aka Bluetouff, originally reported the breach which included a wide open virtual ‘test’ machine containing various tools. These, of course, spilled into the wild.

Clip of the Day

Jeremy Zimmermann


Credit: TinyOgg

ZDNet Spins the Spreading of Free Software as a Loss to Free Software

Posted in FUD, GPL, Microsoft at 6:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Spin award goes to ZDNet and OpenLogic (headed by Steven L. Grandchamp from Microsoft)

Champ

Summary: Many mobile applications embody Free software and foes of the GPL use that to say that it’s a bad thing

Backed by proprietary data from OpenLogic (whose claims cannot be verified or reproduced), we recently saw yet more GPL bashing articles. While it is true that companies like Apple mistreat Free software projects, to say that “App store licensing hinders OSS growth” is quite a stretch, but hey, it’s based on the data from a company run by a Microsoft veteran (and also partly funded by Microsoft). Kim Weins, senior vice president of products and marketing at OpenLogic (she keeps sending me mail each time I criticise her company), is once again quoted in an article predicting problems with GPL-licensed software. All that OpenLogic ever does is help generate negative press for the GPL. The last time, earlier this month, they led to articles saying that the GPL was “viral” and that it was bad (see discussion in IRC after the Apache push). To be cautious and not accuse of malice, we’ll choose to assume that maybe it is not their intention, but this is definitely their effect. █

Even Patent Lawyers Struggle to Defend the Broken Patent System

Posted in America, Patents at 5:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Piggy bank

Summary: New lows for the USPTO as even those who benefit from it question its legitimacy

The Lodsys story recently turned up the heat on software patents and it is not quite over yet. In fact, anti-Linux troll Acacia is still accumulating more patents with which to extort companies [1, 2] and as we mentioned yesterday, “Likewise Software Resolves Patent Dispute with Quest Software” (Likewise promotes Microsoft APIs/protocols in UNIX/Linux). Well, even boosters of software patents (Gene Quinn in this case) struggle to defend it. “Increasingly patent trolls are shaking down small businesses and the payments they force look far more like extortion than anything else,” he wrote. This new setback reminds us that companies use patents not to invent but to extort. It is not surprising that the “Campaign Against America Invents Act Intensifies” [via Groklaw]:

Some might say that they are a bit late to the game considering that the Patent Reform bill pending in Congress passed the Senate 95-5 in March and by a similar huge majority passed the House Judiciary Committee in April, but opposition to the America Invents Act is intensifying.

Specifically, the issues of the virtual elimination of the current one year grace period and the change from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file regime are being attacked.

One major problem with the USPTO is that prior art search is limited to existing patents, not existing implementations. Moreover, ideas that are too abstract pass the test of patentability. Until this is stopped, the patent office will be called a “crock” or at least a nuisance. It is simply not there to promote science, not anymore anyway. █

European Commission Should Also Fine Microsoft for Using Skype to Further Harm Interoperability

Posted in Antitrust, Europe, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 5:16 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Money rules the world

Summary: Microsoft already ruins interoperability between Skype and other software (which is based on Free/open source software) and this comes amidst important hearings and fines in Europe

Skype never used standard protocols, but there were at least some links one might call “interoperability” and there was cross-platform support, even if it was poor. Speaking for myself, Skype never worked for me as webcams that worked perfectly using SIP clients simply failed in Skype. The program was necessary because of the network effect, which meant that many people would not be contactable through any program other than Skype. Techrights prefers SIP and Free software.

Well, guess what? Microsoft already uses Skype to shaft GNU/Linux and Free software users on the face of it. “Microsoft kills Skype for Asterisk,” informed us one reader (in IRC). “Need to get the word out that SIP clients can talk to each other, not just to the same model.”

He adds that “people that were advocating FOSS skype clients have been shown that option is dead. SIP is the way forward for softphones” (I personally have a SIP phone connected to my hub at home).

“Just two short weeks after assuring us Skype was safe in their hands, Microsoft seems intent on cutting its link with Linux.”
      –Simon PhippsMr. Phipps from the OSI writes: Just two short weeks after assuring us Skype was safe in their hands, Microsoft seems intent on cutting its link with Linux.”

He continues: “Having suspended disbelief for as long as I could, my ability to take Microsoft at their word over Skype was shattered yesterday on hearing the announcement by Digium, sponsors of the widely-used Asterisk VoIP project, that they have been told they can no longer sell their Asterisk-Skype interaction module after July 26. That means it will become impossible for this VoIP PBX to connect to Skype.”

Will the OSI help complain like it did regarding CPTN? Maybe it ought to.

So anyway, why is this important? At this very moment Microsoft is under fire in Europe for stifling interoperability. This cannot help Microsoft’s case, can it? In fact, regarding the hearing which the FSFE mentioned and we wrote about yesterday, here is the summary from the FSFE. It is titled “FSFE in Samba case: Microsoft’s defiance backfired” and it says:

The problems date back to the Commission’s 2004 decision that Microsoft should release interoperability information. After that, the company played for time and waited three years to comply with the Commission’s demands. Explaining the significance of Samba for a competitive software market, Chamber President Forwood said: “Samba is the funnel through which the effects on the market will be produced.”

Microsoft contended that the information it had to provide was valuable and innovative, and originally sought to charge high prices for it. Tridgell demonstrated that the valuable information had already been revealed by Microsoft in research papers and other public fora. By contrast, the information that Samba team needed to interoperate with computers running Microsoft Windows was neither original nor innovative.

“Microsoft didn’t keep this information secret because it was valuable; the information was only valuable because it was kept secret,” Piana told the Court on behalf of FSFE. He said it let Microsoft preserve its dominant position, because no other software was able to talk to the company’s systems. “The company used these three years to further entrench its dominant position in the market.”

“Microsoft is acting like a gambler who doubled up on a losing bet, and now wants his money back,” said Nicholas Kahn, the representative of the European Commission. By waiting three years before complying with the Commission’s decision while the clock on the fine was ticking, Microsoft set the stakes very high – and finally lost.

“In this case, Europe’s competition regulators have shown their bite. We hope that the court will uphold the fine and make it clear that companies in Europe have to play by the rules,” said Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. “FSFE does many things to help foster the growth of Free Software. We’re proud to help make the case for Free Software in a forum such as this, where we believe we are providing a public service.”

There are also some news reports about it [1, 2]:

The world’s largest software company told judges at an appeal hearing today that the 2008 European Commission fine was “especially unfair” because the regulator failed to give it sufficient guidance to avoid the fine. The court should annul the “unnecessary, unlawful and totally disproportionate penalty,” Microsoft lawyer Jean-Francois Bellis told the court.

Microsoft is the only company in more than 50 years of EU competition policy to be penalized for failing to comply with an order. Today’s case is the last remnant of years of disputes with the commission that resulted in fines totaling 1.68 billion euros. Microsoft agreed to a settlement in 2009 in a bid to repair the company’s uneasy relationship with the EU regulator.

Groklaw thinks it is “[r]ather sad if a company’s goal is to establish it isn’t “as bad” as you thought. Here’s Microsoft’s appeal.” Well, Microsoft thinks it is above the law and it uses PR to try and brainwash the public and daemonise those who penalise for true crimes. It’s all propaganda, just like the current propaganda about Vista 8. As Renai LeMay put it, “it’s too soon, Microsoft”. To quote:

To most consumers, Windows 8 will likely look and feel pretty similar to Windows 7, which in turn looked much like Windows Vista.

Exactly. And this is why we call it Vista 8. Imaginary hardware features is all it has (or doesn't have). But going back to the original point, Microsoft is lying about interoperability. Microsoft is not playing nice, it is just trying to dodge fines. █

Funding Behind Xamarin is Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza; Fresh Concerns About Attachmate

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, OpenSUSE, SLES/SLED at 4:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Why the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that bought Novell and let Microsoft have Novell’s patents is not giving up on Mono entirely

SO there is this company we call Trojarin, which despite apparent issues with trademarks and other monopolies, is hoping to keep Mono alive [1, 2, 3]. It recently turned out that part of the capital was from Miguel. No surprise there. Simon Phipps (OSI) writes: “I’d heard Miguel was looking for funding to do this…”

Well, it is interesting to note that AttachMSFT, despite its close relationship with Microsoft, decided to axe Mono and maybe to oust Miguel (unless he decided to leave of his own accord). Timothy Prickett Morgan explains that not many managers from Novell have remained, as we recently showed:

On the Novell front, Attachmate has moved the company’s headquarters from Boston, where it was relocated a decade ago after Novell acquired Cambridge Technology Partners, back to its stomping grounds of Provo, Utah. Bob Flynn, another long-time Attachmate exec who joined the company back in 1998 and who did 17 years before that managing large accounts at IBM, has been named president and general manager of the Novell unit. David Wilkes, who has been with Novell since 1991 and who spearheaded the development of the later releases of NetWare and the Open Enterprise Server hybrid, which runs NetWare services atop a SUSE Linux kernel, has been named vice president of engineering at Novell.

We previously wrote about the role of Brauckmann in SUSE. We quoted an article where he says that “Mono is part of the SUSE Linux business [...] So what you saw happening in the last few weeks is we were starting to adjust our investments in Mono to be better aligned with our business [...] Unfortunately that resulted in some layoffs.”

Groklaw quotes this and asks: “Does that even make sense?” It has also found this new article which shows AttachMSFT playing hardball: “Software vendor Attachmate has accused the Department of Defence of using its software outside agreed license terms by uploading it onto a shared network.”

Why should anyone trust AttachMSFT, whose CEO was arrested for slaying animals with firearms? As we explained yesterday, the future for OpenSUSE under AttachMSFT does not seem bright. Recently, OpenSUSE decided to add Unity as well. Enough said. █

Bison killer
Report about the CEO of AttachMSFT. This has shades of Microsoft’s Joachim Kempin, who shot dead animals and got charged (the Microsoft-influenced MSNBC tried to cover that up)

ES: El Software es Matemáticas

Posted in Patents at 4:17 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Block diagram
Diagrama de bloquesRepresentación del marco para la detección y clasificación de datos 3-D, tales como caras o los órganos internos, así como la evaluación comparativa

(ODF | PDF | English/original)

Resumen: Personal análisis del por qué el software es una simbiosis de las matemáticas

Este artículo es un breve resumen de algo que he estado trabajando en (el código fuente será cargado en una fecha posterior cuando lo ponga en orden). La figura en la parte superior muestra al detalle nuestro marco actual, que básicamente representa un programa como un conjunto de cajas negras. Cada caja sólo realiza operaciones matemáticas con matrices volumétricas. Es, simplemente matemáticas. También se puede especificar con más precisión usando ecuaciones (sin necesidad de explicación mediante código o pseudo-código). En aras de la simplicidad, el diagrama de bloques contiene sólo los componentes básicos que se utilizan, independientemente del enfoque de pruebas. Los cargadores de archivos, por ejemplo, se muestran por separado. Trabajan muy bien y elegantemente pueden cargar conjuntos de datos basado en un selector de datos. Con la excepción de los conjuntos de prueba que son pequeños (restos de depuración), hay seis familias de los datos, algunos agrupados en pares, algunos agrupados por formación y destino, algunas nuestro laboratorio, los datos oficiales administrativos de forma aislada, otros para los datos FRGC (Gran Desafío de Reconocimiento de Caras) del NIST (Instituto Nacional de Normas y Tecnología)). También hay coincidencias correctas e incorrectas de forma aislada. Estos simplificar el trazado de las curvas ROC (Característica de Funcionamiento del Receptor) de una manera simplificada en gran medida. El objetivo del programa es poner a prueba nuevas métricas que se pueden utilizar para analizar cualquier cosa elástica como el tejido. Tiene usos en el análisis cardíaco, el cerebro, e incluso caras (he tratado con cada uno de estos tipos de datos). Para cuantiles grandes volúmenes de datos en 3-D, 70 GB de datos de cara se usan.

La parte de investigación sobre la nariz puede también ser tratada como un componente que proporciona la forma de orientación o segmentación (puede ser una cara o un órgano interno que queremos para modelar y realizar un diagnóstico en binario). Dependiendo de los conjuntos de datos, se utilizan diferentes métodos. Comúnmente, los datos FRGC son mejor interpretados por encontrar el punto más cercano, con excepción de ruido. Para los datos del laboratorio, , es preferible elegir el punto más cercano dentro de una región determinada (generalmente alrededor del centro, sin ponderación/puntuación basado en la ubicación a pesar de que también funcionaría). Esto también se puede usando IPC, como se describe más adelante (valores heredados de otra caja o módulo) o un enfoque Viola-Jones con la cara de plantillas para la formación, aunque estan sólo parcialmente implementadas hasta el momento. Esfera intersección con el plano, según Mian et al. (Con regulador independiente para radio), es otra opción existente, pero no parece superar a los métodos más simples, que trabajan la mayor parte del tiempo dado algunos límites razonables (por ejemplo, límites de esquivar la región del cabello).

Una vez identificada la punta de la nariz correctamente, estamos cosechando lo que queda para aislar las zonas rígidas. Es muy personalizable. Varios métodos de separación y los tipos límite como el círculo, elipsoide, y el rectángulo se han probado, en donde el círculo es el más comúnmente usado ya que funciona en conjunción con máscaras binarias. Estos vienen con muchos controles deslizantes y las medidas de uso en X e Y para estimar las distancias físicas reales y factorizar unidades de espacio en píxeles, por consiguiente. También hay un control deslizante para ajustar el manual adicional. Y aún así, todos ellos son matemáticas.

Hay algunos otros trozos de operación que son dignas de mención; dejado fuera el diagrama con el fin de reducir el desorden hay alisadores, removedores de agujeros, eliminadores de afloramiento, y el redondeo de los valores, los cuales son opcionales y dependen en gran medida los datos a mano y cómo debe ser tratados. Por ejemplo, los datos FRGC casi no requiere ningún suavizamiento. Los datos del laboratorio tiene las compensaciones que deben ser manejados de forma sistemática en función del número de la imagen. De hecho, ambos conjuntos de datos necesita una gran cantidad de ramas/bifurcación en el código como su manejo e incluso su tamaño varía (el programa está diseñado para manejar cualquier lado de la imagen con cualquier relación de aspecto, pero para que sub-regiones sean definidas utiliza absoluta y no relativa coordinadas entradas).

Entonces llegamos a la parte clave, que en realidad hace más que contribuir a las medidas de similitud. ICP (Puntos Iterativos Más Cercanos) es muy importante en el caso que la alineación inicial de la nariz se considera incorrecta o las caras inclinadas son. En la práctica, suponiendo que las caras son de carácter prospectivo y no inclinadas ni a los lados o el fondo de arriba, el ICP no debe cambiar mucho. Los métodos ya disponibles son el método Mian de principios de la IPC, el Mian método IPC más reciente, el Raviv método de IPC de principios de 2008, y el Raviv/Rosman método ICP de los últimos meses o años. El programa opcionalmente aplica la traducción y opcionalmente aplica la rotación también. En muchos casos esto no es necesario ya que la IPC apenas modifica algo sustancial.

La parte del modelo no está incluido en el diagrama, ya que hay muchas cosas diferentes se puede hacer con un modelo. PCA (Principal Componente Analysis), construcción de modelos, la evaluación del modelo, cargadores de archivo para modelos (cerca de 2 gigabytes para algunos), además de medidas más básicos sobre los que se aplica la evaluación, son básicamente, todo tipo de comparación que producen un valor para cada par, a continuación, proceder a el trazado de las curvas de ROC (en su mayoría automática siguiendo el diseño experimental).

Todo lo anterior es sólo matemáticas. Todo puede ser descrita mediante ecuaciones. Patentar tales cosas, sería reclamar un monopolio de las ecuaciones, lo que significa el monopolio cubre una amplia gama (incluso infinita) de las implementaciones. ¿Cómo puede alguien defender el argumento de que el software no es matemáticas? ¿O que, el software “innovativo” es de alguna manera la excepción? Si las ecuaciones ya son muchas patentadas, ¿cómo se supone que uno haga código “seguro”? ¿Cómo pueden los métodos existentes mejorar sin una violación?

Notas del Traductor:
Un par de links que podrán ayudar a nuestros lectores Hispanos a encontrar mayor información:
http://www.face-rec.org/algorithms/
http://www.nist.gov/index.html █

Translation produced by Eduardo Landaveri, the esteemed administrator of the Spanish portal of Techrights.

Gates Monitor: January 2011 on Dubious Investments (Patents)

Posted in Bill Gates, Intellectual Monopoly at 4:04 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Mortgage money

Summary: Articles and posts from around January, in particular ones that cover Gates’ patent-encumbered investments/lobbying

YESTERDAY we explained the purpose of these posts, which are an ongoing investigation of the activities of the Gates Foundation. It mortgages the future of many poor people whom it makes dependent on patents of Western enterprises. Today we share some news links from back in January (we may revisit January at a later stage again). The excerpts contain just key parts of the whole and hopefully they make it self explanatory.

• Is Bill Gates a green hypocrite?

It’s a fairly surprising and — dare we say — hypocritical move for Gates, considering that he’s been a vocal champion of green energy in the past. He’s chairman of the board of alternative energy advocacy group American Energy Innovation Council, which includes business leaders like GE’s Jeffrey Immelt and Xerox’s Ursula Burns.

“The innovation that would be the most important for the world is a way of generating electricity that’s less than half as expensive as the way we do it today but has no bad environmental effects, and, in particular, emits no CO2,” Gates says (italics mine) in an AEIC video embedded below. I’ve reached out to the AEIC for comment, but haven’t heard back.

In fact, the AEIC’s recommendations includes a call for the U.S. to invest $16 billion a year in innovative energy research and development, even hinting that the U.S. spends too much money — $16 billion every 16 days — overseas for oil.

Gates is also an investor in cleantech venture capitalist Vinod Khosla’s green fund. He has backed biofuels company Sapphire Energy, nuclear plant designer TerraPower, low-emissions car motors startup EcoMotor, and Pacific Ethanol. And the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters was designed as a green building, with a roof that doubles as a natural habitat for birds and is sustained via rainwater.

• To plant or not to plant? The debate over GM seeds

The new maize trials will not be run directly by Monsanto, but will instead be conducted by a company called Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation, which receives its funding from Monsanto – and notably, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

• Gates, Monsanto, and Monopoly: Foundation Keeps Wealth in the Club

So, does the Gates Foundation try to end oil-based agriculture and pharmaceuticals and industrial food? No, of course not. Its goal has nothing to do with the betterment of humanity and the earth.

Take a look at the sources of talent Gates’ Foundation pulls from, and then compare that with where its greatest financial support goes. The financial interests of the people associated with the Foundation and the interests of the agencies and corporations it supports, whether directly or indirectly, coincide. The Foundation has placed huge investments in the places that will return profits to the people and corporations with which it’s associated.

Rather than trying to stop land-destroying agricultural practices, like McDonald’s destruction of productive agricultural and rainforest land for cattle and Monsanto’s health and soil destroying GMOs, they are either ignored or supported. The ability of small-scale farmers to continue to produce crops is being destroyed by these practices, so the welfare and way of life of masses of people is being destroyed. The Foundation’s response is to push the products that cause it. Vaccinations are being pushed on the world’s poorest children in Africa, rather than trying to promote genuine health through access to good food, water, and shelter—but this helps bring profits to Big Pharma, with whom the Gates Foundation has strong associations. All of these practices are profitable for the petroleum industry, and the Gates Foundation is a big holder in ExxonMobil.

The Gates Foundation supports some of the most destructive practices in the world and associates with some of the worst corporations. The future of the world—the environment, wildlife, and humans—is at risk from all of the Gates Foundation’s major financial associations. The Gates Foundation supports them, and ultimately stands to profit from them.

The Gates Foundation is intimately tied to the oil industry and the industries most intimately tied to it: pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, and the prepared food industry. To the detriment of the entire world, the Foundation promotes those industries in its so-called philanthropic activities. In the end, the primary beneficiaries of the Gates Foundation appear to be members of the Wealthiest People in the World Club.

• Infected mosquitoes ready to deliver curse to dengue fever

MOSQUITOES bearing bacteria will be let loose around Cairns today as part of a trial to rid the area of the insects that carry dengue fever.

[...]

“The project took off when we received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” said Professor O’Neill

• Experts question PATH’s claims of success against malaria in Zambia

Here’s a good story from Sandi Doughton of the Seattle Times describing Campbell’s struggle to get this program launched. He’s had some help from the Gates Foundation, which has put $35 million into the effort.

Campbell said there’s no question Zambia has made a significant dent in malaria illness and mortality. Official estimates say they have cut child deaths from malaria by 20-30 percent, as reported in 2007 and 2008. Others say much the same thing, calling Zambia one of Africa’s best examples for the massive global effort to combat the parasitic disease by distributing millions of bed nets, spraying homes with insecticides and so on.

• Too important to fail – the Gates Foundation takes on polio in India (see this from last year)

The failed polio eradication efforts in India twelve years ago have not been sufficiently analysed or explained. See the attached. Where is the potential failure in Bill’s cartoon?

Is the Gates Foundation gliding to ‘success’ on the coat-tails of past efforts? Or are they headed for their first serious failure? A failure that can be measured in lives lost and children crippled.

• Pablo Eisenberg: Unintended Consequences of Giving Pledge’s Good Intentions

So for some of us it was surprising to note the enthusiastic and unquestioning response to the recent announcement that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were launching an initiative to have billionaires around the world pledge to give more than 50% of their fortunes in their lifetimes to philanthropy. What a wonderful thing to do, crowed many foundation and charity leaders. It would spur an immediate outpouring of new resources to a financially starved nonprofit sector, they said, encouraging new commitments from their wealthy friends and admirers.

The media, which has always treated the Gates’, Buffett, Soros and other billionaire philanthropists with kid gloves, never thought to ask about what this new money would support, or how it would do so. The substance of the issue was lost on reporters and commentators who could only focus on the new dollars that might pour into nonprofit cash registers. They never questioned whether the prospective, phenomenal growth of mega foundations, some possibly larger than Gates, might be a dangerous development for American democracy. They never asked whether these new funds would be publicly accountable, or merely managed, as with the Gates Foundation, by two or three family members, without any public discussion or political process.

[...]

This is not the effect that either the Gateses or Buffett wanted for their well intended initiative. There is still time for them to repair some of the expected damage. They could strongly propose that their wealthy colleagues who take the pledge target a portion of their money — say a minimum of 25% to 50% — for disadvantaged groups and their nonprofit organizations. And they should publicly recognize that the failure to alter past patterns of giving by their “pledgees” will result in a civil society less vital and fair than it has been in the past.

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