08.28.13

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• IsLinux too dull and boring?

  Today in Open Source: Is Linux boring? Plus: How to Find Android tablet apps, and Crunchbang Linux is a minimalist’s dream distro!

• Is Linux too dull and boring?

• Linux Journal Readers’ Choice Awards 2013

• REMnux, A Linux Distro For Malware Analysis

  There are many people out there that want to start malware analysis and reverse engineering, but don’t know where to start, so this article intention is to show everybody interested in malware analysis a Linux lightweight distro for doing malware analysis with reverse engineering tools. This distribution is called REMnux, it is based on Ubuntu and it is maintained by Lenny Zelster, a business and tech leader with extensive experience in information technology and security.

• Desktop

  • Linux Can Work On The 2013 MacBook Air

    As soon as Apple launched their Haswell-based MacBook Air I purchased the “ultrabook” for its long battery life, great build quality, and impressive design. However, running Linux on the 2013 MacBook Air has been a pain. It wasn’t running cleanly but it looks like the major kernel booting problem comes down to a UEFI interaction issue.

  • Why GNU/Linux distros are still not rivals for Windows and OSX on desktops

    At the beginning I had plans to write one document, but later I understood that this document will be very big and I will write it very long time (having regard my current load). So I decided to write a several posts on this theme. This is the first post from the series. In this post I will concentrate on shortcomings of current GNU/Linux distros, in the second post I will try to write what should be done, to create a really usable GNU/Linux distro which can be a rival for proprietary systems.

  • Moving from OS X to Linux: Day One

    The thought of using Linux as a manager in a highly Windows- and Mac-centric corporate environment isn’t something to be taken lightly. Integrating with Active Directory, wrangling email with Microsoft Exchange, and taming quirky Microsoft office documents can be a challenge even with a well-equipped Mac. I decided to make a change after using a Mac at Rackspace for six years.

  • Canonical looking to tap Dell to promote Chinese version of Ubuntu OS

    Canonical is in talks with Dell on making a version of Ubuntu supported by the Chinese government available as a pre-installed OS on the PC maker’s upcoming products destined for the Chinese market.

    Dell is a global partner for Canonical, and so the two companies are discussing using its Ubuntu Kylin OS in the future, said Leonard Tsai, Canonical’s Asia Pacific president, on Wednesday.

• Server

  • IBM’s Arvind Krishna: Linux Will Fuel Next-Gen Cloud Applications

    The next generation of applications will be smarter — with built-in data, mobile and social capabilities — and it will be built on private clouds that run on Linux servers, says Arvind Krishna, general manager of development and manufacturing in the Systems & Technology Group at IBM. What’s still unclear, however, is the business model for delivering these future applications, he says.

  • ‘LINUX TOP ENTERPRISE CHOICE’

    Twenty-one years after its introduction, Linux has reached unprecedented levels of deployment within enterprise environments, according to a recent study commissioned by enterprise Linux provider SUSE.

  • VMware brings Suse Linux to newly launched cloud service

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • Burning Circle Episode 128

    This week’s episode talks about the new verified teams paradigm for local community teams, mentions the release of 12.04.3, and talks about what is coming up at Ohio Linux Fest. Where the leader disappeared to over the weekend is also mentioned in passing.

• Kernel Space

  • Linux Foundation throws its weight behind open science

    The Linux Foundation, champion of all things open-source, has just announced a new collaboration with OpenBEL, an open-source platform for sharing scientific data.

  • Linux Foundation and OpenBEL collaboration has potential to advance science

  • Linus Torvalds marks 22 years of Linux with nostalgic message

    Final release of Linux 3.11 is expected within a week, Torvalds said in a message echoing his 1991 post about the project

  • Linus on Linux, 22 – and 5 – Years Later

    That made porting to further platforms far easier, and has helped drive the uptake of Linux across an incredible range of platforms, from supercomputers to smartphones to embedded systems – “just about anything else out there under the sun,” as Linus puts it. Had Linux remained trapped on the original Intel chipset, it would probably never have become the leading operating system it is today.

    As Linus’ comments show, porting was never carried out with that aim in mind, and happened in an almost casual way. But then the same can be said about Linux in general, including that first, famously diffident post of 22 years ago.

  • Open Ballot: Que sera sera

  • 22 Years Later, The Linux And Open Source “Cancer” Is Wonderfully Benign

    Linux just turned 22 and the open source revolution it sparked is just getting started, two experts suggest.

  • Life Sciences Information Framework OpenBEL to Become a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project

  • OpenBEL Joins Linux Foundation As Collaborative Project

  • Linux Foundation Collaboration Gets Biological

    Can the development model that is used to build Linux be extended for the life sciences? A new collaborative project will aim to answer that question.

    The Linux Foundation is growing its roster of collaboration projects by expanding from the physical into the biological realm with the OpenBEL (Biological Expression Language). The Linux Foundation, best known as the organization that helps bring Linux vendors and developers together, is also growing its expertise as a facilitator for collaborative development projects.

  • Graphics Stack

    • Wayland Gets Hardware-Accelerated Screen Capturing

      The DRM compositor back-end for Wayland’s Weston now has a patch that provides hardware-accelerated screen capturing support by using VA-API with drivers that support this video decode/encode acceleration mechanism.

• Applications

  • Open Source Meets Education – Outstanding Linux Applications

    Linux is blessed with a good range of open source education software. The purpose of this article is to identify top notch open source software targeted at instructors and educational institutions. Educational establishments are constantly examining ways to reduce their overheads and save money, yet retain the delivery of high quality educational courses. Open source software solutions represent a way of fully embracing technology without causing a hole in the institution’s finances.

  • aptitude: One just for the swirlies

    I admit I spend most of my time with pacman and its evil twin, yaourt. But neither of those is a real console application, for managing packages in Arch. yaourt might spice things up, but it’s no more a console “application” than pacman is.

  • Claws Mail: An Email Client And News Reader

  • Proprietary

    • SDG Systems Expands Programming Services for Android and Linux

      SDG Systems announced today the expansion of their professional service offerings, including broad Android and Linux software development services. The services now offered for Android and Linux include operating system (OS) porting and customization, mobile app development and application porting. SDG has long been a leader in OS porting to rugged mobile computers. In June, 2013, SDG Systems completed the implementation of Android (AOSP) 4.1 (“Jelly Bean”) on the Trimble Juno T41 rugged mobile computer. The implementation included support for enhanced GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3.75G cellular voice and data, barcode scanning and other technologies. SDG Systems is a strategic partner with Trimble MCS for Android and offers in-depth Android technical support and consulting services.

    • Viber for Linux is here, a really good Skype Alternative for Linux at last!

      WhatsApp and Viber are two of the finest and incredibly popular apps out there for Android. WhatsApp is my preferred way of keeping in touch with friends and family. Viber is not so far behind either. Since video and voice call features are also available in Viber, it’s a more complete package. Very recently, Viber team had made their desktop plans very clear and Windows and Mac version were released soon enough. Now its Linux’s turn, though Viber for Linux is available in 64 bit binaries only at the moment.

    • Pertino Extends the Power of Cloud Networking to Mac and Linux Platforms

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Useful Network Tools For Linux Learners

    • How to find Android tablet apps

    • Q&A – All You Wanted To Know About rm Command In Linux

    • Top 20 Ubuntu Tips For Beginners

    • Using Drupal distributions for speedier deployment

    • Power Of Linux Sort Command

    • How to manage multiple passwords on Linux

    • Fast rsync

    • How to convince apt-get NOT to use IPv6

    • Make Password Asterisks Visible In Your Mac Or Linux Terminal

    • Router as a Mini-Server

    • How to Change Process Priority using Linux Nice and Renice Examples

    • Why our policies don’t like emerge –config

      One of the features that Portage provides is to have post-processing done on request of the administrator for certain packages. For instance, for the dev-db/postgresql-server package we can call its pkg_config() phase to create the PostgreSQL instance and configure it so that the configuration of the database is stored in /etc/postgresql-9.2 rather than together with the data files.

  • Games

    • Second Chapter Arrives for The Raven – Legacy Of A Master Thief Entitled Ancestry Of Lies

      Nordic Games has announced that the second chapter of The Raven: Legacy of A Master Thief entitled “Ancestry of Lies” is now available for PC, Mac and Linux.

    • Frogatto & Friends Commercial Version Coming Soon To Linux

      Frogatto & Friends is an old-school 2D action/adventure platformer game, starring a certain quixotic frog. Give it a try! We’re trying to push 2D platforming, pixel-art, and music into uncharted territory.

    • Paranautical Activity Roguelike FPS Is Adding Co-Op Play!

      Paranautical Activity the awesome looking FPS/Roguelike game from CodeAvarice is planning to add Co-Op multiplayer to jump in the game with friends! So this will make an already fun game far more awesome.

    • Spirits, A Puzzle Game In The Feel Of Lemmings With Beautiful Art Style

    • Metro: Last Light releasing for Linux and Mac next month

    • Metro: Last Light is coming to Mac and Linux – 4A Games handling development in-house

    • Metro: Last Light takes a ride to Mac, Linux

    • Metro: Last Light coming to Mac, Linux

    • Snappy Rejoinder: Deep Silver Responds to Fans by Announcing ‘Metro: Last Light’ for Mac and Linux

    • Metro: Last Light heading to Mac and Linux

    • Metro: Last Light for Mac and Linux Confirmed for September 10

    • Sega to make Football Manager 2014 available for Linux, also adds cloud saves feature

    • Metro: Last Light’s nuclear horror creeps to Mac in September, Linux later this year

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • Enlightenment E19 Can Act As A Wayland Compositor

    Enlightenment’s Wayland ambitions are becoming a reality with Enlightenment E19 set to support operating as its own Wayland compositor using some interesting technology.

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • AudioCD. Week 10.

      From now on you can imagine that I’m starting every post with “I’ve fixed something”, since code works pretty stable, but sometimes I come across small issues and fix them.

    • KDE Frameworks 5: Plugin Factory Guts

      In this article, I explain changes to the plugin loading mechanism in KDE Frameworks 5. The article is intended for a technical audience with some affinity to KDE development.

    • KDE Commit-Digest for 28th July 2013

  • GNOME Desktop/GTK

    • Gnome Shell 3.10 beta 1 marks code freeze

      The latest Gnome Shell release vn 3.9.90 is the first 3.10 beta marking the feature work wrapping up and heading to code-freeze state.

    • Disk Usage Analyzer 3.10 Beta 1 Uses the Latest GTK+ Features

      The development team of Baobab (also known as Disk Usage Analyzer), a graphical utility to analyze disk usage in the GNOME desktop environment, announced a few days ago the immediate availability for download of the first Beta release of the upcoming Baobab 3.10 software.

    • The Linux Setup – Emmanuele Bassi, GNOME Developer

      I’m Emmanuele Bassi, and I’ve been working on GNOME and GNOME-related technologies for the past 10 years, both as a hobbyist and as a paid software engineer. I am part of the team working on the core GNOME platform (GLib, GTK+, and Clutter, plus other libraries); I have been elected to the GNOME Foundation board of directors for three years and I’m currently working as its secretary. I am also lead architect for Endless Mobile, a start up using GNOME technology.

    • GNOME Playing Around With New Middle-Click Action

      While traditionally the middle-click mouse button has been a convenient way to paste rather than Ctrl + V on Unix-like systems, GNOME designers are looking to change it up for their desktop.

    • GNOME Settings Daemon 3.10 Beta 1 Disables Middle-Click Paste

      The GNOME developers announced a few days ago that the first Beta release of the upcoming GNOME Settings Daemon 3.10 package, a daemon run by all GNOME sessions to provide live access to configuration settings and the changes done to them, is available for download and testing.

    • GNOME Music mini redesign

      I was talking to Seif Lotfy at GUADEC about the gnome-music design, and this is a design proposal that has come out of that. It’s not proposing to add anything new, it’s just re-purposing the things that are already there.

    • 5 GNOME Core Apps: Maps, Music, Photos, Software & Calendar

      GNOME’s burgeoning suite of core apps are making me excited for the future of the Linux desktop.

    • Gnome Control Center 3.10 comes with redesigned modules!

      Controlling, changing settings, fine tuning and bringing the system closer to your needs is a vital thing and a point of special attention for Gnome users and developers. Gnome’s default tool for completing the important task of setting your system is constantly evolving to fit user needs and make our life easier with more options, better functionality and greater abilities.

    • Gnome current Goals stage of completion

      With 29 days left untill version 3.10 gets officially released, we already have reached the point where it’s all about bug fixing from now on and what a better timing for us to revisit Gnome’s Goals situation, see what the stage of completion is and compare the data with what the situation was on the beginning of this year.

• Distributions

  • Manjaro 0.8.7 Has New Pacman Front-End

    Manjaro 0.8.7 was released this morning, the latest update for the very nice and easy to use Linux distribution derived from Arch Linux.

    Manjaro developers have been preparing for this release for the past two months and it was finally realized today.

  • New Releases

    • Manjaro 0.8.7 hits the Wild!

      On behalf of the Manjaro development team I’m happy to announce our new stable release of Manjaro Linux ‘Ascella’. The last two months was a blast for us. Summer feeling and good people helped us to put this one together.

    • Untangle 9.4.2

    • ROSA 6.4 (Server)

    • IPFire 2.13 – Core Update 72 released

      The Core Update comes with a lot of feature enhancements for IPsec, smaller fixes for OpenVPN and fixed two denial-of-service attacks in the Squid web proxy.

  • Screenshots

    • rishna-linux-will-fuel-next-gen-applicat

    • Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS Screenshot Tour

  • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • OpenMandriva Lx Wallpaper Contest Announced

      Wallpaper contests are among my favorite things and today the OpenMandriva bunch announced the latest for their upcoming Lx release. The theme is “The Flavor of Freedom,” so warm up your GIMP, Inkscape, or whatever you use and get your submissions in.

  • Red Hat Family

    • Hedge Funds Are Selling Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)

    • Red Hat Continues Cloud Infrastructure Momentum with New Offerings, Industry-Leading Performance

    • RHT Crosses Below Key Moving Average Level

      In trading on Tuesday, shares of Red Hat Inc (NYSE: RHT) crossed below their 200 day moving average of $50.67, changing hands as low as $50.50 per share. Red Hat Inc shares are currently trading off about 1.9% on the day. The chart below shows the one year performance of RHT shares, versus its 200 day moving average:

    • Open discussion from the inside out: A Red Hat intern’s experience

      I’m a words guy. This summer, I was an intern for the content team—part of the marketing services group at Red Hat. They kept me busy writing copy for ads, editing Red Hat content, brainstorming on different projects, and even scripting videos. They don’t have me writing like a businessman, but like the Shadowman.

    • Red Hat Launches IaaS OpenStack Certification Program

      Red Hat has carved out a strong reputation for its profitable Linux-focused strategy and the top-notch support it provides for enterprise customers, but there is no question that the company is betting on future growth in the cloud computing space. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform is positioned to serve as the foundation for OpenStack-powered cloud deployments. Today Red Hat announced its new Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Infrastructure-as-a-Service and expanded training in support of its OpenStack technology.

    • Fedora

      • Fedora Flock

        Earlier this month I attended the first Fedora Flock, in Charleston, SC. This replaced the older Fedora Users and Developers conferences, none of which I had participated in prior. Other than certain difficulties with my return flight, this was a fun and interesting event, and I do hope Fedora has more of them going forward.

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu mobile OS ported to Sony Xperia Tablet Z

          Despite the recent failure of the Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding campaign, developers are still doing some neat things with Ubuntu mobile. Over at XDA Developers, some aspiring developers have managed to port the operating system on to the Sony Xperia Tablet Z. However, the developer does warn that it is a very experimental port of the OS, and encourages members to make backups before trying it out.

        • Sony Experia Z Tablet Receives Ubuntu Touch Port

          Its has been revealed this week that a copy of the Ubuntu Touch operating system has been successfully ported to the Sony Experia Z Tablet.

        • Sony Xperia Z tablet now runs Ubuntu Touch after successful port

        • Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding falls short

        • Linux Top 3: Linux Turns 22, OpenSUSE Goes Evergreen and Ubuntu Goes Over the Edge

        • Ubuntu 12.04.3 system update in visual review

          Last week we had a look at the LXLE 12.04.3 Paradigm Linux Distro, and now we thought you would be interested to learn more about the latest Ubuntu 12.04.3 system update, which you can see in the visual above.

        • Ubuntu Edge: 32 million dollars by crowd funding currently remains impossible

          The Ubuntu Edge project didn’t reach its goal of collecting 32 million dollars to finance the production of their smartphone but Canonical is nevertheless congratulated on the response they received.

        • Ubuntu Edge: how many phones were really ordered – and the mistakes

          How many people really pledged for a phone? And was offering an $820 phone for $600 at the start a good or bad idea?

        • Mir Display Server 0.0.10 Arrives Before the Ubuntu 13.10 Feature Freeze

          Canonical has a very dedicated team building the Mir display server, and they are updating it on a constant basis. Version 0.0.10 has just been released.

        • Canonical Is Looking for Mir Testing Volunteers

          Canonical promised that Mir would be available as default for the released of Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) and now the company is searching testers that are willing to improve the overall experience.

        • App Grid: New Lightweight Ubuntu Software Center Alternative

          App Grid is a new lightweight Ubuntu Software alternative that tries to make application discovery easier by using a grid view which includes app screenshots and ratings.

        • Ubuntu Developer Summit This Week!

        • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 331

        • Thank you, Ubuntu!

          My experience with Ubuntu started in 2007 when i was doing the internship of my second year in Computer Engineering, the first week was really boring, the second week and while i was trying to fix the DVD driver, i opened the drawer then i found a Green CD of “OpenSUSE”, i booted with the live CD, the OS was a bit complicated and not easy to play with.

        • Ubuntu In a Nutshell: Unity and Convergence

          Unity is the graphical environment that we ship in a default Ubuntu installation. Released for the first time about three years ago, Unity is focused on simplicity and consistency across multiple devices. In this article I am going to cover the history of Unity and how Unity 8 is driving a new era of code and design convergence in Ubuntu.

        • Flavours and Variants

          • First week with Elementary Luna. Review of the best Ubuntu based distribution

            I have installed a week ago with Elementary Luna, if you like GNU/Linux operating Linux, then you should have heard about Elementary Luna but if not, I will tell you that Elementary Luna is a new GNU/Linux distribution that is based on Ubuntu 12.04, the last Long term Ubuntu released.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Mini-ITX systems run Linux on Intel Haswell CPUs

  • Mini-ITX SBC runs Linux on quad-core AMD R-Series APU

    Win Enterprises announced a Mini-ITX single-board computer for digital imaging and other embedded applications, built around quad- and dual-core AMD Embedded R-Series APUs clocked at up to 2GHz. The Linux-friendly MB-73330 SBC features up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM, three HDMI ports and a DisplayPort, dual SATA 6.0 ports, eight USBs, dual gigabit Ethernet, and multiple PCIe and Mini-PCIe expansion options.

  • Rugged, graphics-oriented PC/104 SBC runs at 10W

    Aaeon announced the availability of a Linux-friendly PC/104-Plus single board computer based on the AMD 615MHz G-Series T16R processor.

  • Phones

    • Ballnux

      • Samsung to unveil Android smartwatch Sept. 4

        A Samsung executive confirmed to The Korea Times that it will unveil its Galaxy Gear smartwatch on Sept. 4, along with the Galaxy Note 3 phablet, but quashed rumors of a flexible display. The Android-powered smartwatch, rumored to include a dual-core processor and a camera, will be the first of many Samsung and Apple smartwatches that will lead a surging 36 million unit a year market by 2018, predicts Juniper Research.

    • Android

      • Key Lime Pie could boost Android to Linux Kernel 3.10

        We don’t know what number or name the next version of Android will be, but if all signs are pointing in the right direction we’ll likely see Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie here soon from Google. There’s no question they’re hard at work on the next major release, possibly set for later this year, and today we’re seeing some interesting tidbits on the Kernel side.

      • Intel ships high-powered C++ compiler for native Android apps

        Intel has released the Intel C++ Compiler v13.0 for Android OS, its first attempt at delivering an optimizing C/C++ compiler designed specifically for Google’s mobile platform.

      • Android’s open-source challengers

        One of the big selling points of the Android ecosystem is that the operating system is open source. That means handset manufacturers can modify it to work on their handsets and tablets, or enterprising individuals can customize it to work on their own hardware.

Free Software/Open Source

• Has Apache lost its way?

  Complaints of stricture over structure, signs of technical prowess on the wane — the best days of the Apache Software Foundation may be behind

• In defense of Apache

  Apache is great for many things, not so for others. Its proponents misunderstand its weaknesses, and its detractors misunderstand its strengths

• Why not change the world?

  I have always been interested in science, technology and (most of all) computers. These are things that I always loved, even though they were sometimes difficult. I loved math and science class in school; I read science-fiction and fantasy novels in all of my spare time. I was the nerdy kid at school that was bullied and mocked. It would have been so easy to just give in and be “like everyone else”. I could have stopped reading. I could have played more sports.

  [...]

  This is the sentiment that drove me into my open source career.

• What open source means for the Average Joe or Jodi

  Ask just about any person you meet whether they are using open source software (OSS) and the chances are good you will be met by a blank stare. Yet, people might be surprised when you tell them that they are either using it on the mobile device they own or on their social media platform of choice.

• SaaS/Big Data

  • Avaya Looks to OpenStack Horizon for the Software Defined Data Center

    The Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) promises to enable an agile infrastructure that’s orchestratable through automated policies. Avaya is now formally defining its approach to SDDC, which will make use of the open source OpenStack cloud platform.

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • LibreOffice Conference: Join us in Milano!

    This year the LibreOffice Conference will take place in Milano, Italy. Come and join us for this excepional event from the 25th to the 27th of September 2013. Learn about migrations to LibreOffice, LibreOffice existing deployments, writing extensions and much more. Participate in hacking sessions and community workshops and most of all, meet the LibreOffice community face to face for a few days of exchange and fun!

• Education

  • Internet is future of higher education says University of the People

    Shai Reshef dreams of making quality education affordable and accessible to everyone, and he sees the Internet as the road to get there. Reshef is the founder of University of the People (UoPeople), which bills itself as the world’s first tuition-free, degree-granting, non-profit online university.

• FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Freedom and gNewSense 3.0

  • GCL has moved to GIT

    GCL has moved to the git version control system. The 2.6.8 and 2.6.9 branches and tags are identical in cvs and git. Henceforward, modifications will be made to git only. As of the present writing, git contains a merge of experimental into master, and a port of most 2.6.x improvements into master. This will form the basis of a 2.7.0 release sometime in the future.

  • GCL 2.6.8 and 2.6.9 are released

  • FSF to begin accepting GPG signed assignments from the U.S.

    The FSF is pleased to announce that we can begin accepting GPG-signed assignments from contributors residing in the United States.

  • Interview with Bernd Kreuss of TorChat

    This is the latest installment of our Licensing and Compliance Lab’s series on free software developers who choose GNU licenses for their works.

  • Transcription from Audio

  • You’re Invited: GNU 30th anniversary celebration and hackathon

    It’s been 30 years since the GNU manifesto was penned. What began as frustration over a printer driver has grown into a massive social movement. The GNU system itself has exploded; not only is it a fully free operating system, but it has expanded to include an entire universe of software. Now, GNU is on the threshold of another amazing leap, and we want you to be a part of it.

• Project Releases

  • Cairo 1.12.16 Takes Care A Whole Lot Of Bugs

    Beyond making a whole lot of Intel X.Org driver changes and some recent yet-to-be-merged performance improvements, Chris Wilson has put out a new release of the Cairo graphics library.

  • Calligra 2.7.2 Released

    The Calligra team has released version 2.7.2, the first of the bugfix releases of the Calligra Suite, and Calligra Active in the 2.7 series. This release contains a few important bug fixes to 2.7.1 and we recommend everybody to update.

  • Calibre reaches 1.0 after nearly 7 years of development

    I am fully occupied this week and the next with training my new helpdesk team, so it took me a bit by surprise when Willy Sudiarto Raharjo tweeted that there was a version 1.0 of Calibre since this morning. Kovid Goyal, developer of Calibre, published the news in a blog post. It’s nearly seven years since Kovid started with Calibre – this was the time when the first E-ink based ereader device, SONY PRS-500, hit the market. At first, Calibre was merely a library which was able to convert e-book formats into Sony’s LRF format. It got ‘upgraded’ with a graphical user interface to manage Kovid’s growing ebook library.

• Public Services/Government

  • Australian government can’t recruit fast enough for open source

    The Australian government is seeing a lot more demand for open-source support, according to chief technology officer John Sheridan.

• Openness/Sharing

  • The promise of the Commons: an interview with David Bollier

    David Bollier is no stranger to politics. The author, activist and independent commons scholar worked for Ralph Nader in the late-’70s and early-’80s, he’s a policy strategist and he has participated in or founded numerous public interest projects. But, over the years, he found himself increasingly disillusioned with political activism.

• Programming

  • A Look at PHP’s Continuing Evolution

    PHP is not a young language. As of 2013, it’s 18 years old; that’s old enough to vote. Many upstart languages have appeared over the years to try and unseat PHP as the “lingua franca” of web applications but it still commands over 80% of the web market. One reason for PHP’s popularity is no doubt the ease with which new developers can get started with it, but just as important is the fact that PHP has been evolving for all those 18 years.

  • History of the UI of Server Install GUI

  • Lack of referrers on github is an annoyance

    Github is a nice site, and I routinely monitor a couple of projects there.

Leftovers

• Confirmed: ChromeCast will be able to play local content, go ahead and order yours

  When the Google ChromeCast was announced it was an instant hit and all the units were ‘sold’ immediately. One of the core features of ChromeCast was the ability to play local content. This $35 device seemed to hold much more potential than the AppleTV and other such devices the market.

• Ode to Groklaw: A Requiem for What Was Lost

  Groklaw is “truly the canary in the coal mine,” suggested blogger Martin Espinoza. “When it is no longer possible to tell the truth online sufficiently for it to exist, none of us have the freedom of speech. The corporations which have bought our government are in the process of buying our silence and obedience as well, and the cost is turning out to be remarkably low.”

• Afraid someone will steal your idea?

  Your ideas are stolen… from someone else.

• In their own words: Unix pioneers remember the good times

  We caught up with the pioneers who brought us the Unix operating system and asked them to share some memories of the early days of Unix development.

• Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

  • [Old:] US ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria, blame it on Assad govt’: Report

    The Obama administration gave green signal to a chemical weapons attack plan in Syria that could be blamed on President Bashar al Assad’s regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country, leaked documents have shown.

  • Heading to War With Syria

    Horrific scenes of dead and injured civilians in Syria have been a part of the conflict there over the past several years, but the reports of a chemical attack of some sort last week in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta have led U.S. policymakers and the Obama White House to threaten to attack in a matter of days.

• Finance

  • F5 Networks, Inc. (FFIV): Are Hedge Funds Right About This Stock?

• PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • At March on Washington, ALEC Is Exposed

    “The task is not done, the journey is not complete,” said Martin Luther King III on Saturday’s 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.

  • Wisconsin Prepares to Hand Half-Million in Taxpayer Funds to Koch-Tied GOP Lobby Shop

    A small GOP lobby shop tied to the Tea Party and David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, and which was active in the state’s recent recall elections, was awarded $500,000 in taxpayer dollars in what some are calling a backdoor, sweetheart deal cooked up by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) State Chair, outgoing Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder.

• Privacy

  • British police are third highest users of Facebook data globally

    facebook_logo-300x99Today Facebook has published it’s first transparency report, detailing law enforcement and national security requests from countries around the world. Britain requested data on 1,975 occasions, covering 2,337 users. In 32% of cases, Facebook declined to provide any data.

  • Jeffrey Toobin, Expert on Bizarre Analogies

    …comparing the release of classified information about government spying to the assassination of Martin Luther King…

• Civil Rights

  • The Accelerating Assault on Journalism

    Some media figures applaud the criminalization of investigative reporting