Links 28/1/2012: Acting on ACTA, PacApt
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2012-01-28 15:42:57 UTC
- Modified: 2012-01-28 15:42:57 UTC
Contents
-
Kernel Space
-
A lot of noise has been made about a security vulnerability affecting the Linux core. The fault has been corrected and Linux editors are updating all of their systems after exploits appeared on the web.
-
Applications
-
The Fedora developers are currently working on implementing the plan to move all files stored in the Linux distribution's /bin/, /sbin/, /lib/ and /lib64/ directories to equivalent sub-directories in /usr/. Symbolic links will ensure compatibility with scripts and software that may otherwise be caught out by the change. The restructuring was first mooted last autumn, before being earmarked for inclusion in Fedora 17. The development team has since discarded the idea of moving all files stored in /sbin/ and /usr/sbin/ into /usr/bin/ and deleting the sbin directories.
-
Instructionals/Technical
-
Desktop Environments
-
K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
-
The first tablet computer that comes with Plasma Active pre-installed.
-
-
It’s no secret that we love Arch Linux and one of Arch’s best features is the simple, easy-to-use package manager, Pacman. Here’s how to get Pacman’s simple command structure in other Linux distributions.
-
Debian Family
-
People Behind Debian: Josselin Mouette, founder of the Debian GNOME team
Josselin Mouette is one the leaders of the pkg-gnome team, he takes sound technical decisions and doesn’t fear writing code to work-around upstream issues. He deserves kudos for the work he has put into packaging GNOME over the years. He can also be very sarcastic (sometimes he even enjoys participating to flamewars on debian lists), and there are quite a few topics where we have long agreed to disagree. But this kind of diversity is also what makes Debian a so interesting place…
-
Derivatives
-
Canonical/Ubuntu
-
Linux vendor could change the way users interact with enterprise applications with its Heads Up Display. The intelligent HUD interface will understand user needs and respond to them.
-
Following our previous articles, Ubuntu Flickr/Shotwell Photos Lens, Ubuntu Spotify Scope, Ubuntu DeviantArt Scope, Ubuntu SSH Lens, Ubuntu Binary Clock Lens, Ubuntu YouTube Lens and Scope, Ubuntu Calendar Lens, Ubuntu Web Sources Lens, Ubuntu Gwibber Lens, Ubuntu Books Lens, Ubuntu Cities Scope, Ubuntu Grooveshark Scope, Ubuntu Calculator Scope and Pirate Bay Torrents Lens for Unity, today we are introducing the Ubuntu Launchpad Lens for the Unity interface.
-
-
Open Source Linux based gaming handheld and mini-laptop Pandora has created lots of buzz when it was revealed 4 years back.
Since then the project has gone under numerous rough stages, production issues, tech spec changes and financial problems. A limited batch of 4000 units was available for pre-orders but not everyone has got the device on time.
-
Phones
-
In this era of technology and internet, social networking sites are getting more and more popularity. People are spending hours in front of them. For creating a social media website a platform is necessary, to make this easy came the social networking platforms. In the case of social media software, market the competition is very high. If you are looking to start a social media website then it is difficult to choose the platform. Before choosing social media software just get all available information about it and conclude weather, it will benefit you or not. Let us now take a look of the five most popular open source-networking platforms available in the market
-
Just 12 months ago, even the largest organisations lacked the infrastructure, tools and skills to turn large datasets into business insight. Today, though, the world has changed. A combination of low-cost, commodity hardware and great open-source software are lowering the Big Data bar for organisations of all types and sizes. Put simply, open-source solutions are allowing organisations to spin up hundreds of servers to support Big Data services in seconds, and pay only for the resources they use.
-
Web Browsers
Chrome
-
I bet that when you turn on your PC, one of the first programs that you start is your Browser .
Indeed, many say that the browser that we have installed in our computer show a part of us! There is, therefore, who prefer Opera: a browser elegant and very
particular, for those who prefer the aesthetics at the practicality, there are those who, following the mass chose the Firefox browser, which has won a great battle against IE in a recent past.
-
Project Releases
-
Openness/Sharing
-
The Open Source Centre is designed to collect foreign information made public by media reports, press releases and announcements by international organizations, said the official at the Unification Ministry.
-
Standards/Consortia
-
As Flash's ubiquity begins to erode, standards-based Web technologies are going to become the path forward for developers who want to offer a user experience that works across all screens. The HTML5 video element is already widely supported in modern Web browsers, but the capabilities and codecs that are available differ between implementations.
-
Security
-
However, at security to get into the Capitol, I was told I could not bring the canteen in, even though it was empty. I asked if there was any reason for this. I was told I just couldn't bring it in. I asked if there was any place I could "leave" it, and I was told to go outside and there were dumpsters to the right. I even asked if someone could hold it for me, since it would just be an hour or so. No luck. Dumpsters, outside to the right. The canteen isn't anything special, but I do like it. According to the price tag still on the bottom, it cost $11 when my wife bought it for me. I can buy another canteen, but really, there's a bit of a principle thing to all of this. If the canteen itself is dangerous, then, putting it in a dumpster outside isn't going to change that.
-
Civil Rights
-
Hawaii's legislature is weighing an unprecedented proposal to curb the privacy of Aloha State residents: requiring Internet providers to keep track of every Web site their customers visit.
-
Intellectual Monopolies
-
One of the more important points in understanding some of the fights over the ridiculousness of today's copyright and patent laws is to recognize how knowledge (information) is a natural resource. It is the input that makes other great things. Economist Paul Romer's famous research really showed how knowledge and information as a resource is what creates economic growth. Once you recognize that fact, you begin to run into problems when you think about locking up that natural resource. Think of other natural resources. Do we think the world is better off if there's a greater supply of each of those? An abundance? If we have an abundance of wheat, that's a good thing. If we have an abundance of energy, that's a good thing. There may be side effects of such abundances, but the overall abundance is something worth cherishing.
-
Copyrights
-
We've talked a lot in the past about the "idea/expression dichotomy." This is an important concept in copyright law that says you can only copyright the specific expression, and not the idea. This is supposed to protect people from getting accused of copyright infringement for basically making something similar to what someone else made. Unfortunately, as we've been noting with dismay over the past few years, the idea that there's some bright line between "idea" and "expression" has been slowly fading away, and courts are, increasingly, effectively wiping out the distinction. In the US, we've seen this with the ridiculous case between a photographer, David LaChapelle, and the singer Rihanna, because some of her videos were clear homages to his photographs. The expression was entirely different, but the judge didn't think so, and Rihanna ended up having to pay up.
-
Karaoke might be fun, but it's also proved legally dangerous over the years. One publisher of karaoke discs is taking a publisher co-owned by the Michael Jackson estate to court over alleged abuse.
-
ACTA
-
Earlier today, Loz Kaye, leader of the Pirate Party, published a statement highlighting a major threat to the Internet, to civil liberties, and our political and legal systems; ACTA. Following this, the Party has received many requests asking what we, ordinary citizens, can do about this and the best way to stop it.
-
The reverberations from the SOPA fight continue to be felt in the U.S. (excellent analysis from Benkler and Downes) and elsewhere (mounting Canadian concern that Bill C-11 could be amended to adopt SOPA-like rules), but it is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that has captured increasing attention this week. Several months after the majority of ACTA participants signed the agreement, most European Union countries formally signed the agreement yesterday (notable exclusions include Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Cyprus and Slovakia).
Recent Techrights' Posts
- If You Value Privacy, Follow the Likes of Eben Moglen, Phil Zimmermann, and Richard Stallman, Not Back Doors' Boosters Who Mislabel Themselves as Security Experts
- Signal is not really secure
- Writer's Block is Not a Problem to Us, Only a Lack of Time
- Or timewasting by aggressive militants who try to silence us [...] People who experience writer's block very often find it depressing (it feels unproductive) and sometimes come to the conclusion that perhaps writing isn't for them
- March Plans for Techrights
- next month we plan to start the series about how the SRA failed
-
- Links 26/02/2026: "Peak Mental Sharpness" and "The Whole Economy Pays the Amazon Tax"
- Links for the day
- "Community" Site Deleted by Jeffrey Epstein-Connected 'Linux' Foundation Had Interview Where Eben Moglen Spoke of GPLv3 and of DRM, Back Doors Etc.
- Deleting what happened or what was said two decades ago
- Richard Stallman (Free Software Foundation) and Eben Moglen (Columbia Law School) Explained 25 Years Ago That Proprietary Software (and Proprietary Firmware) Would Lead to Back Doors
- a fortnight after the 9/11 terror attacks in the US
- Giving to the Community Versus Taking From the Community (or Worse, Attacking the Community)
- some people bring no contributions, only harm
- LLM Slop Will Try to 'Rewrite' History of UNIX and GNU/Linux
- We occasionally see slopfarms spreading misinformation about UNIX, GNU, and Linux
- Where Does the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Stand on Machine-Generated Legal Documents and Copy-pasting One Client's Lawsuit to Start Another (for American Serial Strangler)?
- Now that many law firms cheat (copypasta, paper DOoS, LLM slop, breaches of rules, even defaming the other side) the SRA cannot keep up
- Of Course Android is Not Free Software
- That Android is not about freedom should not be so shocking
- Talking About Blackboxes
- Having just reposted a couple of articles from Alex Oliva
- Microsoft Slop is Already Killing XBox
- Microsoft will fail at alleviating such concerns
- Two Weeks Have Passed and It Looks Like Conde Nast's Ars Sloppica Sacked "Senior" "AI" "Reporter" Benj Edwards But Did Not Remove All His LLM-Produced 'Articles'
- the editorial standards at Conde Nast's Ars Sloppica are a joke
- Alex Oliva (GNU Linux-Libre): Stricter is Less Popular
- Reprinted with permission from Alex Oliva
- Fraud and Crimes at Microsoft
- A lot of these American companies simply cheat and even bribe
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, February 25, 2026
- FSF's Alex Oliva on Hardware Black Boxes
- Reprinted with permission from Alex Oliva
- What Microsoft Hides Underneath
- In recent years a lot of this shell game was played via "Open" "AI" [sic]
- A Lot of Slopfarms Died, Google News Feeds the Few Which Survived and Still Target "Linux"
- Many just simply died
- Links 25/02/2026: Fifth Year of War in Ukraine, Dihydroxyacetone Man Looking to Start More Wars
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 25/02/2026: Retired a Year, Illness, Losing a Lung, and "Back to Gemini"
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Published a Ponzi Scheme-Boosting Fake Article This Morning. It Mentions "AI" 30 Times.
- Will credibility be left after the bubble pops entirely?
- They Try to Ruin Linux, Too ("Attestation" in GNU/Linux)
- In the context of Web browsers, this isn't unprecedented and we wrote a lot about it
- Mozzarella Company: All Our Cheese Comes With Mold Now, But You Can Ask the Seller to Remove the Mold
- If you reject and oppose slop, do not download/use Firefox
- Stallman Was Right About Back Doors
- I had some conversations with Dr. Stallman about security and back doors
- Australian Signals Directorate ex-employee sold back doors to Russia
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- IBM Debt-Loading and Liability (Toxic Asset) Offloading
- One can hope that IBM will be subjected to the same attention Kyndryl received, but this boils down to politics
- Links 25/02/2026: 'Hybrid Warfare' and "Boycott the State of the Union"
- Links for the day
- IBM (and Red Hat) Can Disappear in the Coming Years, Along With Kyndryl (Debt Twice as Big as Its 'Worth')
- No wonder Red Hat workers tell us they hate IBM
- Software Freedom is Science, But It Also Sustains Life
- In some sense, Software Freedom can be explained in the context of nourishing people
- “Xbox, like a lot of businesses that aren’t the core AI business, is being sunsetted."
- There has been a lot of narrative control lately, including at 9PM on a Friday
- 3,300 Capsules Known to Lupa and Currently Accessible
- Gemini Protocol turns 7 this summer
- When it Comes to Firmware, the FSF and Its Founder RMS Won the Argument (But Not the Fight, Yet)
- The "whataboutism" tactics are physiological manipulation means of discouraging those who move in the correct direction
- Austria Tackles Digital Weapon Disguised as "Social" and/or "Media"
- Are we seeing the end days of Social Control Media?
- Nothing Over the Horizon for XBox
- XBox is not even being sold in many places anymore
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Contradicting Itself: You Can Use Slop to Cheat Clients, But You Can Also Face Disciplinary Actions Over Slop
- Where does the SRA stand on the matter?
- In Praise of Eben Moglen
- Hopefully Professor Moglen will be with us for many decades to come and become an active speaker on issues such as Software Freedom
- Sunsetting IBM (for the Benefit of Few Corrupt Officials and Wall Street Speculators)
- IBM will not (and cannot) survive for much longer [...] The issue is bad leadership, not any particular nationality/race
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 24, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, February 24, 2026
- Gemini Links 25/02/2026: Rise of Solar in 2025 and Smallnet Protocols
- Links for the day
- HR Blunder at IBM or IBM Struggling With Money?
- Weird for such an allegedly rich company to be so stingy
- Gemini Links 24/02/2026: x86 Computer In-Browser and Administration
- Links for the day
- Envy is the #1 Enemy of Richard Stallman
- Whenever you see someone mocking Richard Stallman, ask yourself: does this person have a reason to be jealous of Richard Stallman?
- Life is Sweeter When Less Means More
- People need to think "small", not "big" (as in capital)
- Championing a Cause
- Probably over 100 million GNU/Linux users on laptops/desktops
- Balmoral rape cult & Debian suicide cluster indifference, community
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Father of XBox Says What Microsoft Does Not Want to Hear About XBox (They All Know It's Dead)
- Microsoft just worried shareholders will find out Sharma is "just a face" and an undertaker
- Can Much Longer Can the Financial 'Press' (Pump-n-Dump Megaphone) Cheer for IBM's Accounting Enigma?
- IBM has fallen almost 25%
- France Needs to Focus on Software Freedom, Not Flags
- We need more SIP advocacy!
- Combatting Censorship in the "Civilised World": The Media Blackout Surrounding EPO Strikes and Other Large-Scale Actions
- We - collectively speaking - cannot afford to keep the Office in the hands of a "Mafia"
- Religious or Not, Consider Quitting Social Control Networks (All of Them) This Season
- Lent is a good time to quit addiction such as social control media
- EPO Strike Actions and Other Industrial Actions Are Effective When Management Fears the Staff and Staff No Longer Fears Any Managers
- 'António the unready' should get ready to be ousted
- Liberating the Self From the Invisible Prison of Plutocrats-Controlled Media and Social Control Media
- Can you always see the full picture or does something (someone powerful) obstruct it?
- Links 24/02/2026: Drug Cartel Decapitated, Jeffrey Epstein-Connected 'Linux' Foundation Promotes Slop and Buzzwords at MWC Barcelona 2026
- Links for the day
- 2023: Layoffs Are Because of "AI". 2024: Shares Up Owing to "AI". 2025: Shares Recently Fell Due to "AI". 2026 Forbes (Paid by IBM): Shares Falling is Good!
- "AI" is smoke and mirrors
- Bitcoin: Code of Conduct stifled open source concerns
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Slop Boosters and 'Hype Agents' Render Themselves Irrelevant and the General Public Becomes Incredulous Due to "Bros Who Cry Wolf!"
- It won't age well
- "Half-baked Vibe Code Shipped Full of Errors"
- Seems timely after our latest article
- IBM Did Not Fall Because of COBOL Vapourware, IBM Still Collapses Because It's Worthless, Way Overvalued, and Very Likely Cooks the Books
- language-to-language conversion (in the context of programming) is nothing new
- Links 24/02/2026: Copyright Litigation Over Anne Frank’s Diary, "Arrogance of Developers"
- Links for the day
- Another New Low for Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA): Authorising Slop Disguised as "Legal Advice"
- SRA is a lapdog - not a watchdog - of the "litigation industry"
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part IV - "Many Jobs Were Given to Spanish Employees for No Related Skills At All"
- The EPO's fate might be similar to that of the XBox
- Gemini Links 24/02/2026: Hardware Tinkering and Slop Bots Attacking the "Small Web"
- Links for the day
- Quitting Reddit (Social Control Media Controlled by Conde Nast)
- There is a new post in Reddit
- IBM is the World Champion at Layoffs and There Are Reportedly More Layoffs in IBM This Month (EU)
- IBM fired 60,000 in 1993
- Free Software is for Everyone
- Young and old, rich and poor etc.
- Gemini Links 24/02/2026: Voltage Divider on Slide Rule and Many Raspberry Pi Projects
- Links for the day
- Links 24/02/2026: Telephone Turns 150, Political News Catchup, and Rearmament
- Links for the day
- Asha Sharma "a Palliative Care Doctor Who Slides Xbox Gently Into the Night"
- 2026 will probably be the last year of XBox
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 23, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, February 23, 2026