07.04.12

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers

GNU/Linux

• Why Google and Ubuntu don’t say “Linux”

  That has some Linux fans upset. I’ve been getting mail from users who are ticked off that Linux isn’t getting mentioned more. It bugs me a bit too, but you know what? I understand exactly why Google and Canonical are doing this.

• Server

  • Apple Lost its Focus on Science

    Apple also worked on the fringes of clusters and supercomputing. The company sold a few supercomputers, but focused on primarily workgroup clusters, 4 to 32 nodes, that could be managed by an individual or two.

  • Building a 96-Core ARM Super Powered by the Sun

    Michael Larabel writes about a 96-core/48-PandaBoard cluster recently constructed at MIT. Drawing approximately 200 Watts of energy, the ARM cluster can be powered entirely by solar energy.

  • HP Moving from Unix Itanium to x86 Odyssey on Linux

  • Google delivers IaaS cloud without Windows support

  • Google Compute Engine Ignores VMware, Microsoft Users

    Google’s new cloud infrastructure service is geared to Linux workloads running in KVM. What does that mean for VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix users?

  • Google introduces Compute Engine, Google-scale Linux virtualization

    Google has announced a new cloud service Compute Engine, offering large-scale Linux virtualization on Google’s infrastructure.

  • SAP: We Love Linux

  • Linux Hosting Review 2012 For Personal and Small Businesses

  • HP Leans on Linux for Gemini Moonshot Servers

    Moonshot is all about engineering a new class of server architecture that delivers scale-out compute power while using less electrical power than traditional server infrastructure. The first Moonshot server debuted as the Redstone Server and was powered by ARM Cortex processors from Calxeda. The new generation is now being called Gemini, and the initial launch partner silicon is a new class of x86 Atom CPUs from Intel, called Centerton.

  • Why Choose a Linux Hosting Server

    (Ping! Zine Web Tech Magazine) – Did u ever wonder why so many people are opting for Linux when it comes to website hosting? There are a few of the most important reasons to choose Linux hosting for your website.

  • IBM Updates Linux Power Systems Tools

• Kernel Space

  • July 2012 Issue of Linux Journal: Networking

  • 30 Linux Kernel Developers in 30 Weeks: Jean Delvare

    This is the fourth profile in our 30-week series that features a different Linux kernel developer each week. Last week we featured Linux kernel xHCI driver maintainer Sarah Sharp. You can see all the profiles in the series on our Special Features page. We aim to help illustrate how these developers do their work and provide important insight on how to work with them and what makes them tick.

  • Kernel Log: Coming in 3.5 (Part 2) – Filesystems and storage

    Linux 3.5 is now capable of the “FireWire Target Disk Mode”, which is a familiar Mac feature. Btrfs logs data errors, allowing unreliable storage media to be detected. Checksums have been implemented to ensure that Ext4 metadata is consistent.

  • Intel Atom N270 Still Sees Some Gains On Linux

  • Using USB Redirection With QEMU/KVM

    For those not up to speed on the latest features for Linux virtualization when using QEMU/KVM, there is support since for USB device redirection over the network for virtual machines.

  • Intel Drops Mode-Setting Rework Patch Bomb

  • Linux Devs Begin Looking At Windows 8 Multi-Touch

    Linux developers have begun exploring the changes Microsoft has made to their HID (Human Interface Device) protocol for Windows 8 that will affect how new Windows-focused multi-touch devices function.

  • Linux blamed for leap second issues

  • Leap second bug in server takes down The Pirate Bay

  • How a one-second change floored web services

  • The Inside Story of the Extra Second That Crashed the Web

  • Linux is culprit in leap-second lapses, says Cassandra exec

  • Linux blamed for leap second embarrassment that humbled Internet

  • Pendleton native taps a top job at Linux

    Now he is the marketing manager of the Linux Foundation, the source, promoter and protector of Linux, the free operating system that powers Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, the New York Stock Exchange and Google’s Android phones. Amanda McPherson, Linux vice president of marketing and developer programs, said Kent, who turned 32 Friday, will be in charge of revenue-based marketing programs to grow the foundation’s training courses, event sponsorship and membership.

  • Nokia’s secret Linux team is looking for refuge

    When Nokia announced massive job cuts a couple of weeks ago, one of the targets was the company’s research facility in Ulm, Germany. Now, showing impressive entrepreneurialism, the axed team members have set up a campaign advertising their talents:

  • Linux Powered Sequoia is Top Supercomputer in the World

    The TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers was released Monday morning, ranking the Linux-powered IBM Sequoia as the top computer, coming in at 16.32 petaflops per second. Sequoia is an IBM BlueGene/Q system powered by 1,572,864 compute cores and installed at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

  • Xen Virtualization On ARM Hits New Milestone

  • Graphics Stack

    • Old X Drivers Get Updated, GPU Hot-Plug Refreshed

      David Airlie has started out the week by putting out new releases for several of the vintage X.Org graphics drivers as well as publishing his very latest GPU hot-plug / PRIME stack, which is now 36 patches against the X.Org Server.

    • To No Surprise, X.Org Server Progress Is Slowing

      Last week I shared some statistics that showed the rate of Mesa / Gallium3D development is slowing down this year compared to year’s prior. Today here’s a set of stats looking at the X.Org Server development. This should come as less of a surprise, but the xorg-server development has also seen a large reduction in commits and overall activity.

      The GitStats for the X.Org Server Git is as of this morning. The xserver Git goes back t

• Applications

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Install Google Earth in Ubuntu

    • Geolocation for Nagios

    • Distributed Storage Across Four Storage Nodes With GlusterFS 3.2.x On Ubuntu 12.04

    • Change default save folder for screenshots in Linux Mint

    • Use Path-indicator Conky on your Linux desktop

    • Add hibernate button to Linux Mint 13 logout menu

    • Getting Started with OMAP-L138 Linux SDK

    • Enable session saving in Linux Mint 13 MATE

    • Restore session in Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon

    • Performance, Web Clients and Direct-Interface Libraries Featured in the Release of OrangeFS 2.8.6

    • Compiling Shell Scripts

    • Managing swap space on Linux systems

    • How to Edit Images for Free

    • Managing swap space on Linux systems

    • Securing a VNC Server on Linux with SSH

    • FREE stuff: ‘The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction’, mobile development training, and more

  • Wine

    • Wine 1.5.8 Improves Bits Of C++ Runtime

      While it’s been less than two weeks since Wine 1.5.7 was released with dynamic device support, Wine 1.5.8 has already been released.

  • Games

    • Linux Gamers Banned From Diablo III Servers

      If you used to play Diablo III through Wine on your Linux computer, you will no longer be able to do the same. A number of Linux gamers received a message today that their accounts have been banned and they will no longer be able to play the game. Also Blizzard games have refused to lift the ban or refund the money.

    • Blizzard: Diablo III users not being banned for using Linux

    • Blizzard denies rumors of Diablo 3 Linux bans

    • Linux Diablo III Fans Complain About “Illegitimate” Bans

    • Diablo 3 bans not based on Linux software, says Blizzard

    • Linux players complain of illegitimate Diablo III bans (updated)

    • Diablo III players say Linux app got them banned, Blizzard rebuts claims

    • Blizzard Perma-Bans Linux Users From Diablo 3, Lets Botters Continue To Play

      Listen up Linux users, if you’re using Linux plus Wine you can allegedly be banned from Diablo III and you won’t be getting any refunds back at all. If you live in the United States you’re screwed, if you live in France, Korea or Germany you might be able to seek help.

    • Is Blizzard banning Linux Users?

    • Reports of ‘Diablo 3′ players banned for using Linux (update: Blizzard denies)

    • Report: Blizzard Banning Diablo III Players For Using Linux [UPDATE]

    • Blizzard Responds To Diablo 3 Linux User Complaints

    • Linux Users Accuse Blizzard of Unfair Bans

    • Gabe Newell Showing Valve On Linux To Partners

      Here’s an interesting, but very brief, Gabe Newell interview from E3 where he mentions Linux.

      His comments should come as no surprise to Phoronix readers who read up on the latest content and realize it’s fact: Valve’s Gabe Newell Talks Linux Steam Client, Source Engine and A Special Linux Delivery At Valve Software.

    • id’s Former Linux Guy Joins Another Game Company

      Timothee Besset (a.k.a. “TTimo”) left id Software earlier this year. For years Timothee was id’s main “Linux guy” responsible for the ports of Doom 3, Quake 4, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and other Linux and Mac OS X titles. It’s now been shared that Timothee is joining another game company due to his Linux and OS X experience.

• Desktop Environments

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • Traveling with digiKam

      After a week in Iceland (about 2,500 pictures) and a long weekend in the Swiss Alps (about 500 pictures), I can not say enough about how good digiKam is when you are on the road, taking lots of pictures, and you want to both process them locally and share them with friends and family.

    • Pentax Optio WG-2 GPS and digiKam

      I’m just back from a wonderful week in Iceland. There is no place in the world which I find more interesting and enjoyable, and even after having lived there for a year, and going back for a number of vacations there, I still find beautiful new places to explore every time.

  • GNOME Desktop

    • Nautilus To Get Major Makeover In Gnome 3.6

      If you use Gnome, you must have used Nautilus which is the default file manager that ships with Gnome by default. We have been closely monitoring Gnome 3.6 development and here is some interesting changes lined up for Nautilus.

• Distributions

  • Zorin OS 6 – One small step for Windows converts

    Winux? Lindows? Whatever you want to call it, Zorin OS 6 is out, and again puts a coat of Windows paint on top of Ubuntu

  • New Releases

    • Chakra 2012.07

    • Fuduntu 2012.3 Released

    • Fuduntu 2012.3 Has Linux Kernel 3.4.4 and GIMP 2.8

    • Fuduntu 2012.3 Screenshots

    • Porteus 1.2

    • Slackware-based Porteus live system update has Linux 3.4

      The developers at the Porteus project have released version 1.2 of their portable Linux distribution. Porteus is a Slackware-based minimal live system that offers a choice of lightweight desktop environments including KDE 3 (Trinity), KDE 4, Xfce and LXDE. Using a “heavily modified version of the linux-live scripts”, it has been optimised to run from portable media such as USB flash drives or CDs, and can be expanded using modules. Its developers say that, with its small footprint and modest system requirements, it is also ideal for running on netbooks.

  • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • July 2012 Issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine Released

    • Mageia: A Linux Distro on the Rise

      Lately, the DistroWatch page-hit rankings have provided a particularly vivid illustration: Mageia Linux, which didn’t even appear in the site’s top 10 when I wrote about it late last year, is now in the No. 4 spot for rankings over the past six months, behind only Mint, Ubuntu, and Fedora.

    • Mandriva begins journey to a new foundation

  • Gentoo Family

    • Gentoo-Based Calculate Linux 12 Goes Into Beta

      The Gentoo-based Calculate Linux distribution is preparing to release version 12 of its desktop and server environment, but before that happens, they’ve put out a public beta for more widespread testing.

      Calculate-Linux.org announced that Calculate Linux 12 has entered its final phase. What’s new with this 12.0 milestone is Calculate Utilities 3 with network client-server solutions via SOAP/WSDL being supported, console and graphical interfaces, and support for performing multiple Calculate Linux installations simultaneously to different local and remote storage mediums.

  • Red Hat Family

    • Red Hat Ascends Linux Summit as Linux 3.5 Release Approaches

      At $1 billion dollars in annual revenue, Red Hat is the undisputed financial leader of the pure play Linux world. They aren’t however the only show in town, well actually they are, if the town is Boston and it’s Red Hat Summit time.

    • ServerPronto Partners With the CentOS Project

      In a move to support the continued development of CentOS’s community-based enterprise operating system, ServerPronto is providing CentoOS free dedicated hosting services. By donating free dedicated server resources to the open source project, ServerPronto is helping CentOS drive improvements to the popular OS.

    • Red Hat Polishes Up Linux Developer Toolkit

      Advanced tooling and community resources on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Program

    • Overheard at the Red Hat Summit: Nyancat and the cloud

      Red Hat Summit here this week brought together IT admins who let loose and voiced their concerns on industry-wide trends and technologies.

    • Red Hat CEO Loves Linux, but sure likes his Apple iPad and iPhone too

      When I was at Linuxcon in Vancouver last year, i was accosted by a few people for using an iPad (it’s not Linux after all). Apparently I’m in very good company.

    • Red Hat Cloud Ecosystem Gains Global Momentum

      Red Hat Certified Cloud Provider Program Grows by More Than Double with New Worldwide Partners; Company Expands Cloud Access Offering to Include JBoss Enterprise Middleware

    • Red Hat Pitches Hybrid Cloud Vision for Linux as OpenShift Goes Mega

      After being available for free for its entire lifespan thus far, Red Hat is now revealing its plans for making money from the platform.Issac Roth, PaaS Master at Red Hat, told InternetNews that people have been asking about the pricing for months.

      “We’re going to keep the same level of resources that we give to people today in the developer preview and have a tier called FreeShift,” Roth said. “There might have been some people that didn’t believe we would continue to offer a free service.”

    • Red Hat: Keep clouds open, like Linux

    • Red Hat Summit 2012, Linux comes of age

      Red Hat is this week hosting its Red Hat Summit and JBoss World 2012 developer symposium in the city of Boston, Massachusetts.

      The company has been more than vocal in the run up to the event’s opening ‘pre-keynote’, as delivered by VP & GM for middleware Craig Muzilla.

      Muzilla along with Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst talk with almost aggressive assertion about this being the “time of the season” for Linux as we now see long time open source partner IBM push out more Linux units at the enterprise level than ever before.

    • Red Hat certifies AMD’s Seamicro SM10000-XE for RHEL

    • Fedora

      • ARM Wrestling: Fedora 17 vs. Ubuntu Linux

        When it comes to operating systems for the TI OMAP4 PandaBoard and PandaBoard ES, Ubuntu Linux is usually the winner for several reasons. However, with last month’s release of Fedora 17 for ARM, how is the Red Hat sponsored distribution running on these ARM development boards? Here’s an overview of my experiences when running the latest Ubuntu and Fedora releases on the ARM Cortex A9 development hardware along with Arch Linux. There are also benchmarks comparing the ARM Linux performance.

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • DisUnity

          Some folks need focus. That has never been my problem. I often concentrate so tightly I ignore impending disasters all around… The claim is being made that Ubuntu’s Unity GUI forces people to focus and become more efficient. Nonsense… I know exactly what I am doing and if a single application won’t do everything I need, I do need to switch from one to another. That’s not inefficiency. That’s getting the job done.

        • Official Ubuntu 12.04 LTS getting started guide published

          The Ubuntu Manual Project Team has published a new version of its free guide for Canonical’s open source Ubuntu Linux operating system. This new edition of the Getting Started guide for the latest Ubuntu 12.04 LTS “Precise Pangolin” release is aimed at both new and existing users alike.

        • Zentyal to offer a Linux alternative to SMB IT infrastructure with support from Canonical

          Zentyal has announced an agreement with Canonical, which will provide official technical support for Zentyal server’s underlying operating system. This allows, for the first time, SMBs to gain access to fully-supported, commercial open-source infrastructure solutions from one single provider.

        • Flavours and Variants

          • Some Bodhi Linux Video Goodness

          • Commodore OS brings classic design to Linux Mint

            The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit computer that launched in 1982. It offered a whopping 64 kilobytes of RAM and earned a soft spot in geek hearts for its advance audio and graphics capabilities.

          • Small form factor hardware comes pre-loaded with Linux Mint

            Small form factor hardware comes pre-loaded with Linux Mint

          • Linux Mint to enter hardware business

          • Linux Mint launches the mintBox, mintBox Pro

• Devices/Embedded

  • Paragon Unveils External Drive Removal Solution for Smart TVs

    Paragon UFSD 9.0 Embedded is also built for speed. The company’s Linux-based software maximizes the transfer of HD-quality data between a Smart TV and external storage media, Paragon said. The software developer said it has successfully worked around the Linux kernel’s “deferred” or “postponed” recording method, which can result in cached write operations lasting 30 seconds or more, and can consistently get data to the disk in less than 10 seconds.

  • Enea completes migration to Linux OS

  • Raspberry Pi: First look

    A few months ago, the techie community was abuzz with news of the Raspberry PI, a credit card-sized computer for $35. But it sold out on day one. PHILIP MACHANICK finally got his hands on a unit and put it to the test.

  • Raspberry Pi to cross Atlantic in solar-powered dinghy

    One of the super-cheap Linux systems is going on a journey worthy of a Hollywood movie, or at least a blog.

  • Allied Electronics Is Now Accepting Orders For The Bite-Sized Raspberry Pi

  • Wind River Introduces Quick Start Capability for Wind River Simics

    Wind River®, a world leader in embedded and mobile software, has introduced the latest version of Wind River Simics which features a quick start capability allowing embedded developers to easily and immediately benefit from using full system simulation when developing, debugging, and testing software.

  • Would You Buy a $100, Open Source, Android Gaming Console Designed by Yves Behar?

    Would You Buy a $100, Open Source, Android Gaming Console Designed by Yves Behar?The Ouya is a concept for a completely open sourced and hackable Android game console designed by Yves Behar (the guy who designed the Jambox and OLPC). When it arrives (if ever), $100 will buy you the box, a developer’s kit, and all the free games you can play.

  • Expert Linux software support for set-top box and digital television manufacturers

  • GENIVI 2.0-compliant, Linux-based In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) solution from Mentor

  • GENIVI 2.0-Compliant IVI Platform Available from Mentor Graphics

  • Phones

    • HTC Desire HD, Xoom Linaro Benchmarked

      For those curious about the Linux performance on some modern ARM hardware like the Motorola Xoom or HTC Desire HD, here are some benchmarks comparing the performance of some ARM hardware compared to an Intel Atom, Intel Pentium, and AMD Athlon processors.

    • OpenPhoneux / GTA04 Still Going As Niche Phone

      The GTA04 is still being worked on and sought after by a small community of open-source enthusiasts and Linux developers as the next-generation OpenMoko platform. Unfortunately, the project has yet to really take off with success. As part of this there is the OpenPhoneux as “the future ‘independent mobile handheld’ project aiming at complete devices.” Tomorrow also marks the four-year anniversary of the Neo FreeRunner launch.

      While OpenMoko pre-dates Google’s Android, it’s never really taken off with much success. The project hasn’t been up to much in recent years with their recent project from last year having been the launch of their own social networking web-site, which was also a flop. Tomorrow, 4 July, marks the four year anniversary that the OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner went on sale. In May they also started the process of giving out USB IDs and MAC addresses since they came to the realization they’ll never end up using all of their allocated IDs.

    • Android

      • Ice Cream Sandwich now on one in 10 Android devices

        Google has seen a sharp rise in uptake of its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS — it’s now on around 10 percent of Android devices — the highest it has been since its debut.

      • Huawei’s Emotion UI for Ice Cream Sandwich devices Starts Rolling Out in China

        We knew its arrival was imminent, and it looks like the time to shine for Huawei’s Emotion UI is right about now — well, at least in areas near the Great Wall. To celebrate its official debut, the company’s launched a new website where it goes into nearly every detail about its novel Android skin, touting fresh features such as a voice assistant, smart contact finder, customizable fonts, smart triggers and an all-new chat application that’s very reminiscent of Cupertino’s iMessage or Samsung’s ChatOn. Unfortunately, the Emotion UI overlay is only available to Huawei devices — that are running Ice Cream Sandwich — in China, but word has it coming to the US of A and Europe once the outfit’s upcoming Ascend D Quad finally hits the shelves.

      • Grab VLC Player for your Android!

      • Oval Elephant $71 PC-on-a-stick runs Android, Linux

        Oval Elephant has been selling MK802 mini PC devices and accessories for a few weeks (and apparently using a photograph I snapped to do so). Now the company is preparing to launch its own Mini PC called the Oval Elephant.

        The Oval Elephant Mini PC will have the same basic hardware as an MK802 including an Allwinner A10 processor, Mali 400 graphics, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi.

      • Folders takes a minimalist approach to file browsing

        Folders works on all versions of Android from 2.2 (FroYo) through 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and beyond. To accomplish this we relied on version checks in the Android Lint tool, plus the ActionBarSherlock library by Jake Wharton.

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • Tablet shipments to outshine notebook shipments in 2016

      The iPad and its fellow tablet brethren will take over the mobile PC market by 2016, says a new report from NPD DisplaySearch.

      Starting in 2016, tablet shipments will overtake those of notebooks, followed by an even wider gap the following year.

    • OLPC XO-3 Tablet Delayed as Design Gets Finalized

      Shipment of the XO-3 tablet has been delayed as One Laptop Per Child finalizes the design and seeks partners to make the product, said the non-profit organization’s founder and chairman Nicholas Negroponte on Tuesday.

      The XO-3 tablet has an 8-inch screen, and will be offered as an educational tool for children in developing countries. The XO-3 was first announced in late 2009 and working units were shown earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

      The tablet is tapped to be priced around US$100, and was scheduled to become available earlier this year. The design is being finalized, and OLPC is talking to potential partners and device makers to take on manufacturing and the job of pushing the tablet to market.

Free Software/Open Source

• Why We Still Need the Open Source VLC Media Player

  The Monday Version 2.0.2 release of the free open source VLC media player points out a surprising hole in the age of the Internet video – there is still no universal standard for video formats and players.

  Fortunately, VLC is there to fill in the gaps among proprietary formats and competing ecosystems, playing just about every video in use.

• .FREE, .OPEN gTLDs may not be open to public

  The applications for new gTLD domains offered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have been made public, and although the .LINUX registry has been unclaimed, other potentially FLOSS-related gTLDs are being vied for in this big Internet land grab that could leave some domains out of public reach and in the hands of corporations.

• Anubex Successfully Migrates BEZEQ to Open Platform

• Web Browsers

  • Chrome

    • Chrome Browsers in the Pano Logic Cloud, Running Linux

      Dana Loof, executive VP at Pano Logic, explained to InternetNews that Pano’s system for the cloud is focused on Web-only desktop computing. In the model, there is one device that gets a server-delivered image of Google Chrome.

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla’s browser OS gets partners and a name: Firefox OS

      Mozilla’s browser-based smartphone operating system has grown up a notch, winning over partners such as Sprint and ZTE and picking up the marketing-friendly name of Firefox OS.

    • Mozilla’s rival mobile operating system gets telecom backing

      A new operating system for mobile phones akin to the Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox Internet browser has gotten the backing of several major telecom companies, turning up the heat on Google Inc. and Apple Inc. in the smartphone market.

    • Mozilla launches Web app Marketplace

• SaaS

  • HP Public Cloud Aims to Boost OpenStack Customer Base

• CMS

  • Fastest WordPress Hosting For 2012

• Education

  • Open for voting: “Why Open Education Matters” video competition

• BSD

  • Dru Lavigne talks about FreeBSD | Interview

    IT happens to be my third career. I started out as an entrepreneur (co-owner of an independent moving company). Once the company was established, I took a second job as a municipal government worker. After a few years it became obvious that the glass ceiling at that agency was far too short for my liking, so I went back to school to learn telecommunications, networking, and system administration.

  • The State Of Gentoo FreeBSD: Gentoo Sans Linux

    To some surprise, Gentoo FreeBSD — the port of Gentoo running with the FreeBSD kernel rather than the Linux kernel — is progressing.

• FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Glibc 2.16 supports the x32 ABI – Update

    Among the new features of the GNU C Library (Glibc) 2.16, which was released on Saturday, is support for the x32 ABI (Application Binary Interface); the Linux kernel has offered support for the interface since version 3.4. Programs that are compiled for the x32 ABI can now access the 64-bit registers and data paths of 64-bit x86 processors while only using 32-bit pointers and data fields. In general terms, programs that are compiled for the x32 ABI avoid the overhead that comes with full 64-bit operation while making use of some of the most important advantages of x86-64 processors; this is thought to be of particular relevance for low-specification systems in the embedded and mobile markets.

• Project Releases

  • Computer vision library ccv reaches 0.1 milestone

    After two years in development, ccv 0.1, “a modern computer vision library”, has been released. Ccv began development in 2010 when author Liu Liu, frustrated by problems with image preprocessing for a gesture recognition demonstration, decided to work on a different approach.

• Openness/Sharing

  • Open Data

    • ‘Governments that embrace open data will also switch to open source’

      Public administrations that grasp the benefits of making publicly available their data will also increase their use of free and open source, experts on open data agree. Open data and open source face comparable threats: initial lack of support and a fear for the impact on the organisation.

  • Open Access/Content

    • Free, open ebook offers ideas for rebooting American government

      Rebooting America: Ideas for Redesigning American Democracy for the Internet Age collects the wide-ranging, provocative, and often blunt responses this question generated. But the book’s title is somewhat misleading. The writers it features aren’t interested in merely rebooting American government — interrupting its core processes, taking it momentarily offline, then restoring it to an earlier, somehow simpler, state. They’re hacking on its principal architectures — its frameworks and principles — sketching mock-ups for a government that embraces open technologies and values to become more transparent, nimble, responsive, and accountable than previous iterations.

  • Open Hardware

    • How Open Source Hardware Is Driving the 3D-Printing Industry

      The potential of 3D printing to transform the way we get things – the market is predicted to hit $3.1 billion in the next four years – gets a lot of press. But not much of that attention has focused on the unique role of open source hardware in enabling 3D printing to realize its promise.

      Open source software has been a key player in all kinds of disruptive technologies – from the Web to big data. Now the nascent and growing open source hardware movement is helping to power its own disruptive revolution.

• Programming

  • PCC: Portable C Compiler Isn’t Quick To Advance

    The Portable C Compiler 1.0 was released in April of 2011, but since then there hasn’t been many updates out of this open-source compiler that was originally spawned in the late 1970′s.

    The PCC web-site remains rather basic with not much information and the latest news is last year’s 1.0 release. The only information since that I’ve been able to find is that they do have limited C++ support going into PCC for the past few months, but the support is still very limited. The main language for the Portable C Compiler is C99. At the project’s current development pace, don’t expect C11 or C++11 coverage any time soon. And for supporting all of the latest instruction set extensions on the latest ARM and Intel CPUs, guess again.

Leftovers

• Security

  • Security vulnerability found in Cyberoam DPI devices

    Last week, a user in Jordan reported seeing a fake certificate for torproject.org. The user did not report any errors when browsing to sites such as Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter, which suggests that this was a targeted attack. The certificate was issued by a US company called Cyberoam. We first believed that this incident was similar to that of Comodo and DigiNotar, and that Cyberoam had been tricked to issue a fake certificate for our website.

• Finance

  • MMT: A Doubly Retrospective Analysis

    *We’re going to take a break from the regularly-scheduled MMP this week. In its place, I’m posting the keynote talk I gave at Bill Mitchell’s annual Coffee conference in Newcastle. As most of you know, Coffee is the sister center to UMKC’s CFEPS. Some of the participants asked for copies of my talk and I figured some of you might also enjoy it, so am posting it here. It has some of the history of the development of MMT—although it is based on my faulty memory so should not be taken too seriously!

  • Wall Street banks angling for Dodd-Frank loophole

    While all eyes were on the Supreme Court and Obamacare, a quieter battle was being waged against the president’s other major initiative, the Dodd-Frank financial reform act. Wall Street has already watered down or delayed most of Dodd-Frank. Now it wants to create a giant loophole, exempting its foreign branches from the law.

    ‌

    Yet the overseas branches of Wall Street banks are where the banks have done some of their wilder betting. Four years ago, bad bets by American International Group’s London office nearly unraveled the U.S. financial system.

    One advantage of being a huge Wall Street bank is you get bailed out by the federal government when you make dumb bets. Another is you’ve been able to choose where around the world to make the dumb bets, thereby dodging U.S. regulations. It’s a win-win. Wall Street wants to keep it that way.

• Civil Rights

  • US Government Wants Access To Your Data

    US is becoming one of the most restrictive and invasive countries in the world. The recent Twitter transparency report, inspired by Google, shows that US government is topping the chart with maximum number of request to gain access to user data.

• Copyrights

  • Kim Dotcom: Joe Biden Ordered the Megaupload Shutdown

    Kim Dotcom says he knows who ordered the shutdown of his company and related sites. The Megaupload founder informs TorrentFreak that he has insider information which reveals that none other than Vice President Joe Biden directed attorney Neil MacBride to target the site. Biden is known to be one of the best friends of former Senator Chris Dodd, who’s now heading the MPAA.

  • ACTA

    • ACTA Is DEAD After European Parliament Vote

      The battleground wasn’t some administrative office, but the representatives of the people – the European Parliament – which decided in the end to do its job beautifully, and represent the people against special interests.