09.28.11

Links 28/9/2011: Linux 3.1 RC8, Gains for Android Tablets

Posted in News Roundup at 7:28 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Open Source, Open Mind

    I’ve been a big advocate of open source software since I learned about the model of software licensing and development 10 years ago. I am a big believer that many minds produce great things, so the idea that a community of users would develop and improve software to the benefit of the community really appealed to me. Open source is often a great solution for cash-strapped libraries that can adopt tools like Open Office for free instead of paying for Microsoft Office licenses on all of their computers.

  • Luis Iván Cuende García demonstrates the power of Free Software and the determination of a fifteen year old

    A few months ago I went to Campus Party in Spain. I have blogged about Campus Party before, so I will not spend a lot of time and space here on that topic.

    I will tell you about a young man, Luis Iván Cuende García, who was fifteen years old when I met him but who had released his own distribution of Linux called “Asturix”. He, his father and his friend Ricardo had all traveled to Campus Party at the invitation of the Campus Party management.

  • FLOSS for Science Books August 2011

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS

    • Piston launches OpenStack cloud OS for private clouds

      Piston Cloud Computing came out of stealth mode today, launching an OpenStack-based cloud OS that allows enterprises to build private clouds that meet security and compliance requirements. Former NASA and Rackspace execs are leading the charge. The OS will be generally available Nov. 29.

    • Twitter Storm: Open Source Real-time Hadoop

      Twitter has open-sourced Storm, its distributed, fault-tolerant, real-time computation system, at GitHub under the Eclipse Public License 1.0. Storm is the real-time processing system developed by BackType, which is now under the Twitter umbrella. The latest package available from GitHub is Storm 0.5.2, and is mostly written in Clojure.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • A year after the fork: LibreOffice is growing and going strong

      Today marks the one-year anniversary of The Document Foundation (TDF) and the LibreOffice project, a promising community-driven fork of OpenOffice.org (OOo). The project has seen considerable growth during its first year of existence. TDF estimates that there are now 25 million LibreOffice users worldwide.

    • Will Oracle Turn MySQL Into ‘Crippleware?’

      Since Oracle obtained MySQL in the Sun takeover, many FOSS folks have been wary of Oracle’s plans for the open source database, a wariness that wasn’t eased by Oracle’s handling of the OpenOffice/LibreOffice split. When a couple of weeks ago we learned that Oracle has added three commercial extensions to MySQL, many figured that was the beginning of the end of MySQL as a free and open project.

    • September 28, 2011

      The Internet, September 28, 2011 – The Document Foundation (TDF) celebrates its first anniversary, one year after the unveiling of the project and the release of the first beta of LibreOffice. “What we have achieved in just twelve months is incredible,” says Charles Schulz, a member of the Steering Committee. “Let’s have a look at some numbers: we have 136 members who have been nominated for their contributions to the project; we have some 270 developers and 270 localizers (although we always want to attract more), many of whom are also members; we have over 100 mailing lists, with over 15,000 subscribers, half of whom receive all our announcements; and there have been thousands of articles in the media worldwide”.

  • BSD

    • What Can Your Team Learn from a Bike Shed?

      Because of his position in the FreeBSD project at that time, Kamp was particularly annoyed by the pattern he was seeing, which is why he sent his thoughts to the email list. “You see it in politics, from national to school board and boy scout meetings,” he says, adding, “You see it in pretty much any meeting in a corporate context where somebody has a ladder to climb.”

      Not that this would have any relevance in your life. Oh, no. I’m sure you’ve never seen any behavior like this at all. But play along, because a friend might have experienced “bike shed” moments. Right. A friend.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Project Releases

    • Airtime 1.9.4 released with .deb packages for Ubuntu & Debian

      Airtime 1.9.4 has been released with new DEB packages for Ubuntu and Debian that keep installations automatically updated with the latest version. Airtime 1.9.4 also includes the new file storage system with ‘watch’ folders, allowing stations to magically synchronise files and to easily browse their audio archives, as well as Shoutcast support, improved front-end widgets, and extensive bug-fixes.

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone.

    A recent blog post dealt with my suggestion that PC users should switch to Linux and ditch Windows. Once they make the move to Linux, they’ll no longer need to pay for computer repairs (antivirus, spyware cleaning, etc.), especially those offered by online services are constantly advertised on cable television.

  • Science

  • Security

    • That Was the Breach That Was

      The attack on Kernel.org last month was “a big wake-up call,” according to Green Armor’s Joseph Steinberg. “This breach could have been astronomically worse. If the attack had been carried out with more sophistication, the attackers could have done a lot worse damage than they did. The gut feeling is that it is more of an accidental intrusion.”

  • Privacy

    • Facebook stores up to 800 pages of personal data per user account

      Facebook consistently reappears in the news with regards to privacy and the data it keeps on each of its users. For example, earlier this week an engineer working for the social network had to explain why Facebook tracks you even when you’re logged out.

    • sjvn01
      Facebook: The Spy in Your Network

      I used to like Facebook. Oh, its security and constantly changing privacy protection was a bad joke, but it was still the best way to find and keep in touch with old friends from high school (Hi Cathy!) and the like. That was then. This is now.

      It was bad enough that Facebook tries to harvest your phone number, in the new Facebook Open Graph platform you can share all kinds of usage data with your advertisers… uh friends. With the new Facebook, you can automatically share what movies you’re watching on Netflix, what music you’re listening to on Spotify, and what’s you’re reading on Flipboard.

  • Copyrights

    • Illegal download law fails [Ed: spot the mistake]

      Files containing movies and music are spread between different computers on the internet and bittorrent software is used to find the file parts and reassemble them. Some files, such as the open source Linux operating system, have no copyright, while files of music, movies and television shows belong to copyright holders.

Links, Facebook and Boot Aggression Round Up. Spectrum Shortage Lies.

Posted in Site News at 2:28 am by Guest Editorial Team

Reader’s Picks

  • Security

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • Anti-Trust

    • Microsoft’s Non-Response to the Secure Boot Problem

      Microsoft has provided a very detailed explanation of what UEFI secure boot is, and what its benefits are. What Microsoft hasn’t done is to actually respond to concerns raised by Matthew Garrett about its secure boot policies. … policies do not require that users be able to turn the feature off. As Garrett says, “end user is no longer in control of their PC.”

      Garrett’s collection of facts

    • Microsoft to stop Linux, older Windows, from running on Windows 8 PCs

      I wonder though if what Microsoft really wants is to avoid a repeat of the Vista fiasco by making sure OEMs and end-users can’t go back to Windows 7 or XP. As Windows 7′s slow adoption and Vista’s flop has shown, users really haven’t been that interested in moving off Windows XP. Since Windows 8′s Metro interface adds an entirely new level of complications … As it stands now Microsoft is saying OEMs don’t have to do it. They just have to do it if they want to sell PCs with Windows on them. Paging the anti-trust lawyers …

      SVJN was fooling himself and ignoring attacks on Android, Google, Yahoo and others if he thought there was a “new Microsoft”

    • Linux users threaten Microsoft with ACCC (Australia)

      Linux Australia president John Ferlito told ZDNet Australia today that the council will be meeting on Thursday night to determine whether it will take up a campaign against Microsoft’s secure boot practices.

      ZDNet is so twisted. Demanding that government protect people from Microsoft aggression is hardly a case of “threaten Microsoft”.

  • Privacy

    • Media UK dumps Facebook
    • I Made The Wrong Choice With Facebook

      Using Media UK, I could flag up “xxxxxx is using Media UK”, “xxxxxx is using the job section of Media UK”, “xxxxxx is reading a job vacancy on Media UK” – which would flagrantly abuse privacy of my users. I won’t do that; but I worry that, if The Guardian does it, it’ll be seen as “normal”.

    • Facebook’s OpenGraph: Time to get out

      The result Zuckerberg is hoping for is that people will leave a detailed record of every aspect of their lives on Facebook’s servers. Sure, you will be sharing those details with your “friends”; but in the end, it will always be Facebook that determines who can see those details. … Facebook decides who you can talk to, and what you can say … in effect, Facebook will be acting as its own private Internet.

      See also, Not F’d by the FSF

    • Logging out of Facebook is not enough

      Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit. The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions.

      The separate browser advice may not work on Windows, where Microsoft already spies on users and has data sharing agreements with Facebook.

    • Facebook scares Dave Winer, Scripting News

      I had somehow given access to my Facebook account to ReadWriteWeb. That’s puzzling because I have no memory of having done that. And when I went to see what other organizations I had given access to my graph, there were lots of surprises. I think there’s a good chance that by visiting a site you are now giving them access to lots more info about you.

    • Facebook confesses to some tracking practices and promises to fix them.

      PJ notes,

      ‘m not sure trust is still on the table. Thank you, Nik Cubrilovic, for telling us the truth about Facebook.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • US Monopolists sit on spectrum and use the results to get exemptions to network neutrality regulations.

      538 MHz of wireless spectrum has been allocated to U.S. firms, though some 192 MHz is actually in use. And according to their calculation, at least 90% of that amount is used for … [older protocols with] transmission speeds of less than 1 megabit per second (Mbps) during peak usage hours.

      The analysts at Citi who did this study did not mention Open Spectrum, which is a real end to the problem but bad for their investments. Policies undermining network neutrality over spectrum shortages are based on a lie.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

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