Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 15/7/2014: New Plasma, Google Announces Project Zero





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Desktop



    • Microsoft to push cheaper Windows PCs to compete with Chromebooks
      There is an interesting trend going on in the PC market. Android powered smartphones have overtaken the total PC shipment. Which means Microsoft’s operating system is no more the dominating player in the market. We all understand that the post-PC era belongs to mobile devices as average users can do much more on their smartphones they they used to do on their Windows powered PC, sans mobility. But that’s not the only trend Microsoft is worried about, the real threat is somewhere else. Interestingly as Windows powered PC market is declining, sales of Google’s Chromebooks is picking up. Chromebooks are the #1 best sellers on Amazon.com.


    • Microsoft eyes Chromebooks, low-end PC market: All about the platform


    • It’s Been A Long Time Coming But Competition Returns To The Market For PCs
      Do the maths. Millions are buying small cheap computers that do for them what bulky PCs used to do: compute and communicate. Those small cheap computers even do it better, being small and cheap (bonus for no extra charge). If M$ does give away its OS for small cheap computers or pay people to use its OS, everyone will know that the value of M$’s OS on desktop PCs and servers is about $0, too. The endgame is that M$ cannot just compete on price for consumers’ gadgets. M$ will have to compete everywhere and actually work for a living from now on. That will lower their margins considerably. That will cut into their bottom line. That may not maintain their market share anywhere near where it is now.


    • Chromebooks, Chromeboxes may become even cheaper, thanks to new chips
      To the regular consumer, Chromebook may not be a very cheap device but mind you, if you know the right places to shop, you can actually get a Chromebook that’s as cheap as $200. Now news doing rounds suggest that they could get cheaper than that. MediaTek has reportedly added a new experimental entry-level ARM Cortex A7 board to the open source Chromium OS repository. This will be used in place of the Cortex A15/A7 hybrid that is used by Samsung- not to forget the Intel Celeron chips that are used in other Chrome devices. In theory, this will make Chromebooks and Chromeboxes cost even less than $200, but will be offering sluggish speed.


    • Best Linux Desktop: Top 10 Candidates
      When it comes to selecting the best Linux desktop experience, there are a number of different factors to consider. In this article, I'll explore 10 Linux distributions that I personally believe are the best all around desktop options.

      I'll segment each off for newbies or advanced users, customization vs. pre-configured, along with how each performs on standard PC hardware commonly used in most homes.




  • Server





  • Kernel Space



    • Linux 3.16-rc5


    • Linux 3.16-rc5 Kernel Released


    • Linus Torvalds Releases Linux Kernel 3.16 RC5


    • E2fsprogs 1.42.11 Filesystem Tool Officially Released
      E2fsprogs, a tool that provides the filesystem utilities for use with the ext2 filesystem and that also supports the ext3 and ext4 filesystems, is now at version 1.42.9.

      The development of E2fsprogs is progressing slowly and each new version managed to be quite impressive, especially if we take into account that it's made by only one man. The new version of E2fsprogs, 1.42.11, comes with more new features, changes, and fixes than the previous release.

      According to the changelog, support has been added so that mke2fs can now create hugefiles that are aligned relative to the beginning of the disk, a bug that was causing e2fsck to abort a journal replay on a file system with bigalloc enabled has been fixed, sanity checks have been implemented so that mke2fs will now refuse insanely large flex_bg counts specified by the -G option, the ke2fs program is now able to provide a better metadata layout for moderately large flex_bg counts, and the mke2fs program will now check the kernel version number to determine whether the lazy_itable_init option is supported.

      Also, a description of ext4's mount options has been added to the ext4 section 5 man page, the chattr man page has been improved, resize2fs will not try to calculate the minimum size of a file system, and a file descriptor leak in debugfs has been corrected.



    • Graphics Stack





  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt



      • New Plugins for kdeconnect


      • KWallet for Plasma 5 now automatically migrates KDE4 wallets!
        Next time you’ll start your updated Plasma 5 session’s KDE Wallet system, it’ll eventually start migrating your wallets. The precondition is that you’re doing that on a system that also has KDE4 and that you previously used that installation’s KDE Wallet system. If your system doesn’t have a KDE4 wallet daemon, then nothing will happen.


      • Notes from Calligra Sprint in Deventer. Part 1: Translation-friendly code
        Last weekend we had a really nice sprint Deventer, which was hosted by Irina and Boudewijn (thank you very much!). We spent two days on discussions, planning, coding and profiling our software, which had many fruitful results.


      • The Road Ahead
        Plasma 5.0 is wrapping up and we have all learned a LOT in the first few months of the Visual Design Group's existence. One thing is clear though. If any of us had any doubts about whether an open approach to visual design can produce great results, most of those doubts have been assuaged. I'm super-proud to be part of this community and the quality of the results we have produced. It is really exciting to see the participation and the optimism by everyone involved!


      • New Plasma brings a cleaner interface on top of a new graphics stack
        July 15, 2014. KDE proudly announces the immediate availability of Plasma 5.0, providing a visually updated core desktop experience that is easy to use and familiar to the user. Plasma 5.0 introduces a new major version of KDE's workspace offering. The new Breeze artwork concept introduces cleaner visuals and improved readability. Central work-flows have been streamlined, while well-known overarching interaction patterns are left intact. Plasma 5.0 improves support for high-DPI displays and ships a converged shell, able to switch between user experiences for different target devices. Changes under the hood include the migration to a new, fully hardware-accelerated graphics stack centered around an OpenGL(ES) scenegraph. Plasma is built using Qt 5 and Frameworks 5.


      • KDE Plasma 5 Officially Released


      • KDE Plasma 5 Final Version Is Out and It Looks Great – Screenshot Tour


      • Nixnote goes Qt
        I was fixing a friend’s computer this weekend and she asked me to install her evernote client to keep things in sync, sigh… it’s a java application and I really didn’t wanna install that but well, she needed, so I went to the developer website and WHOA, It went to Qt.




    • GNOME Desktop/GTK



      • halting problem :: codes of conduct
        you would think that, in 2014, implementing a code of conduct for conferences or conventions would not be a controversial topic. sadly, you'd also be mistaken. there are various contrarian positions about implementing anti-harassment policies; most, if not all of those positions are wrong.






  • Distributions



    • New Releases



    • Screenshots



    • Red Hat Family



      • Red Hat CEO Whitehurst on VMware, OpenStack and CentOS
        "Open source gives us brand permission to enter a ton of categories," said Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst.


      • Red Hat to be a Key Contributor to and Benefactor of the Kubernetes Project
        A few weeks ago, I covered the news that Google had released Kubernetes under an open-source license, which is software to manage computing workloads across thousands of computer servers and leverage docker containers. We've also covered Google's announcement that some vey big contributors have joined the Kubernetes project, including IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat, Docker, CoreOS, Mesosphere, and SaltStack. They are working in tandem on open source tools and container technologies that can run on multiple computers and networks.


      • Inception team launches DevOps at Red Hat


      • CentOS 7 Comes on the Heels of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
        The CentOS 7 Linux operating system became generally available July 7, providing users with a freely available desktop, server and cloud operating system platform. CentOS, an acronym for Community Enterprise Operating System, is based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7 enterprise OS, released June 10. Unlike RHEL 7, which is a commercially supported enterprise Linux release that requires users to have a paid subscription, CentOS is free. That said, CentOS lacks the support, services and certifications that Red Hat provides its RHEL subscribers. CentOS does, however, provide the same basic technologies as RHEL 7, but for those who don't need or want the additional enterprise-grade commercial services, CentOS is a free alternative. Red Hat is now an official support and partner of the CentOS community, as well, ever since a surprise announcement in January. CentOS inherits the same XFS file system used in RHEL 7, which provides a file system that can scale up to 500 terabytes. Docker container virtualization support is also part of the CentOS 7 platform. In this slide show, eWEEK examines the CentOS 7 Linux operating system.


      • Fermilab Releases Scientific Linux 7.0 Alpha 2
        The second Alpha version of Scientific Linux 7.0, a recompiled Red Hat Enterprise Linux put together by various labs and universities around the world, is now available for download and testing.

        The developers of Scientific Linux 7.0 have moved very fast and, just a week after the first Release Candidate, a new development release has been made available. Given the short development period since the first Alpha, it's actually surprising that the devs managed to get all those changes and improvements in.

        “Fermilab's intention is to continue the development and support of Scientific Linux and refine its focus as an operating system for scientific computing. Today we are announcing an alpha release of Scientific Linux 7. We continue to develop a stable process for generating and distributing Scientific Linux, with the intent that Scientific Linux remains the same high quality operating system the community has come to expect.”




    • Debian Family



      • Debian 7.6 released


      • Debian 7.6 Release Takes Care Of Security Problems


      • Updated Debian 7: 7.6 released
        The Debian project is pleased to announce the sixth update of its stable distribution Debian 7 (codename "wheezy"). This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories were already published separately and are referenced where available.

        Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian 7 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old "wheezy" CDs or DVDs but only to update via an up-to-date Debian mirror after an installation, to cause any out of date packages to be updated.


      • Debian 7.6 "Wheezy" Officially Released


      • Derivatives







  • Devices/Embedded





Free Software/Open Source



  • Partition Logic 0.74
    Partition Logic is free software, available under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It is based on the Visopsys operating system. It boots from a CD or floppy disk and runs as a standalone system, independent of your regular operating system.


  • When "Free" Can Suck.
    When I first started The HeliOS Project, I was using Librenet on my personal computer. Libranet had a per-user licensing agreement in order to make the effort pay and a single user license was for 69.00 If I remember correctly. Jon Danzig and I worked out a multiple licensing agreement that we could both live with. The fact is, Jon almost gave those licenses away because he believed in what we were doing. Jon's untimely death in 2005 eventually resulted in the Libranet venture striking their tents and moving on.


  • Open source MindRDR app to lets you control Google Glass with your thoughts


  • Is making your product free and open source crazy talk?
    Making money from open source. To many in the corporate world, that seems like a contradiction in terms. How are you supposed to make money from something that you give away? they ask. It can be done. A number of companies, large and small, have done quite well in the open source space over the years.

    Just ask Patrick McFadin. He’s the chief evangelist for Apache Cassandra at DataStax, a company that’s embraced the open source way. He’s also interviewed leaders at a number of successful open source companies to gain insights into what makes a successful open source business.


  • Though “barely an operating system,” DOS still matters (to some people)
    Earlier this month, I spent a day working in the throwback world of DOS. More specifically, it was FreeDOS version 1.1, the open source version of the long-defunct Microsoft MS-DOS operating system. It's a platform that in the minds of many should've died a long time ago. But after 20 years, a few dozen core developers and a broader, much larger contributor community continue furthering the FreeDOS project by gradually adding utilities, accessories, compilers, and open-source applications.


  • Best Linux Desktop, FreeDOS Still Matters, and Darksiders


  • Announcing Project Zero
    Security is a top priority for Google. We've invested a lot in making our products secure, including strong SSL encryption by default for Search, Gmail and Drive, as well as encrypting data moving between our data centers. Beyond securing our own products, interested Googlers also spend some of their time on research that makes the Internet safer, leading to the discovery of bugs like Heartbleed.


  • Google Announces "Project Zero" To Improve Web Security


  • OpenWRT 14.07 RC1 Brings Native IPv6 Support, New Init System
    The first release candidate to OpenWRT "Barrier Breaker" 14.07 is now available with a large number of changes to this popular embedded Linux distribution primarily for routers and other network devices.


  • A call to arms for open source!
    My personal journey with open source began 18 years ago, and for my friend Robin Muilwijk, more than a decade ago. We sat down in an empty piazza in the heart of Amsterdam's financial district late one night with my remote podcasting recorded this "call to arms" for open source. If you rely on open source and free software, if you take it for granted, or if you would like to understand how you, like me, can do more to make sure our journey, and that of those that follow in our footsteps, can be accepted by people across the IT divide, then give this podcast a listen.


  • Open source to make caring for your health feel wonderful
    Juhan Sonin wants to influence the world from protein, to policy, to pixel. And, he believes the only way to do that is with open source principles guiding the way.

    Juhan is the Creative Director at Involution Studios, a design firm educating and empowering people to feel wonderful by creating, developing, and licensing their work for the public.


  • Events



  • Web Browsers



  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



    • “To whom much has been given, much is expected in return” – Free Software economics
      When it comes to Free Software projects, there’s a profound, deep misunderstanding about who does what and how it’s being done. Using the now overused quote, developers write a code “because they have an itch to scratch”, means that there can be twenty different motivations to contribute to Free Software. No one needs to explain or justify his or her contribution. In the real world, one of the most common motivation is money, be it in the form of a salary, a fee, or a transaction involving the developers to fix whatever bug or develop a new feature. Most of the FOSS projects I know -excluding Firefox- do not pay developers directly for fixing bugs except in very specific circumstances and by definition not on a regular basis. The LibreOffice project is no different. The Document Foundation serves the LibreOffice project by financing its infrastructure, protecting its assets and improving LibreOffice in almost every way except paying for development on a regular basis. What this means, in other terms, is that the Document Foundation does not provide support; nor does it provide service to customers. In this sense, it is not a software vendor like Microsoft or Adobe. This is also one of the reasons why there is no “LTS” version of LibreOffice; because the Document Foundation will not provide a more or less mythical “bug-free version” of LibreOffice without ensuring the developers get paid for this. The healthiest way to do this is to grow an ecosystem of developers and service providers who are certified by the Document Foundation and are able to provide professionals with support, development, training and assistance.




  • Business



  • BSD



  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



  • Openness/Sharing



  • Programming



    • Why Python Makes A Great First Programming Language
      Invented 23 years ago, Python’s discovery as a great tool for first-timers has been more recent. The beginner-oriented Raspberry Pi has certainly influenced Python’s new role as a teaching tool, but also its increasing adoption at organizations like Google, Yahoo and NASA that make it valuable to know even after a programmer is no longer a beginner. In modern times, it has routinely been ranked as one of the eight most popular programming languages since 2008.




  • Standards/Consortia



    • Next-Gen OpenGL To Be Announced Next Month
      The Khronos Group has shared details about their BoF sessions to be hosted next month during SIGGRAPH and it includes detailing the next-generation OpenGL / OpenGL ES specifications.






Leftovers



  • Argentina riot police clash with fans after World Cup loss (VIDEO, PHOTOS)
    Disturbances have taken place in Buenos Aires after Argentina's national team lost the World Cup final 1-0 to Germany. Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse angry fans.

    [...]

    Despite the late Sunday clashes, the majority of Argentinians have accepted the loss with dignity. Earlier in the evening, thousands of fans came to the Obelisk monument, waving the national flag determined to party in celebrate reaching the World Cup final.


  • Scots Self-Hating Myths
    But the generations of denigration of Scotland’s history, its reshaping to suit a Unionist agenda where the backwards and benighted Scots were brought in to the political and economic glories of the Union and British Empire, underlies so many of the attitudes to Scottish Independence today. Every culture has a right to reference its roots and history without ridicule – and the denial of the authenticity of genuine popular cultural heritage is a particularly pernicious form of ridicule, especially when it is built on lies drummed home in schoolrooms over centuries.


  • Science



    • As Honeybees Die Off, First Inventory of Wild Bees Is Under Way
      On Saturdays, the head of the landmark Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Program at the U.S. Geological Survey leaves his straw-bale house, where bees burrow in the walls, and goes to his office—for pleasure. From his desk, a recycled segment of a lane from a bowling alley, he pores over bee specimens with a microscope.




  • Security



  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression



    • Hamas boasts of drone capabilities after Israel claims to have destroyed one
      There are still more questions than answers regarding a drone Israel claims to have shot down.

      According to the Israeli Defence Forces Twitter account, “An aerial drone from Gaza infiltrated Israel a short time ago. IDF forces shot it down with a Patriot missile above Ashdod.”


    • Sderot Cinema: Israelis Watch Gaza Bombing For Just Good Fun
      Ever-enterprising Israelis dragged plastic chairs and sofas up to a Sderot hill to eat popcorn, smoke hookahs and cheer when explosions lit up the night sky over Gaza in a photo posted by Danish reporter Allan Sørensen with the caption, “Clapping when blasts are heard.” A follow-up story in Kristeligt Dagblad said over 50 Israelis had transformed the hill, dubbed the Hill of Shame in an earlier war, into "something that most closely resembles the front row of a reality war theater." The photo has caused outrage online, where commenters have blasted "the morality of a people so skewed that murder is a public spectacle." Spectators say they were there to "look at Israel creating peace" and "see Israel destroy Hamas." They inexplicably fail to mention the part about burning children. Oh Israel, what have you wrought?
    • Cokie Roberts: More People Should Fear the United States
      Roberts is repeating Israel's claims that rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel were smuggled into the occupied territory by Syria and Iran–assertions whose validity is often accepted by US media without much scrutiny (FAIR Blog, 3/11/14).

      Nonetheless, her point is that the threat of US military force would stop allowing people to "get away with anything they want to get away with."
    • Note to David Gregory: The US Is Not the World


      Iran has consistently told the world that it has no interest in developing a nuclear weapon. As of right now, there is no evidence that they are.


    • Camp X: A WWII training camp turned secret-agent school in Whitby, Ontario
      A documentary that looks to shed light on a little-known Canadian factoid, Camp X: Secret Agent School, offers an in-depth look at a top-secret Second World War training camp near Whitby, Ont., that became North America’s first secret-agent school.


    • LETTER: Iraq policy is a betrayal
      I’m not speaking of the CIA, but they have been involved in Syria since before the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. It was shortly after that attack that a U.S. news report surfaced claiming that the CIA was funneling Libyan arms to the rebels in Syria, and it turns our that even before President Obama recently publicly authorized the CIA to train and equip select rebel groups, they had already been training them in Jordan.


    • The Ex-CIA Asset Trying to Conquer Libya
      Gen. Hiftar was betrayed by Gaddafi, was approached by the CIA, moved to the USA, and now says he'll purge Libya of jihadists. Really?


    • Former deputy CIA head suggests US needs Kurdistan


    • CIA expanding facilities in Kurdistan?
      It’s no secret that the Kurds see the civil war in Iraq as their opportunity for independence, but until now the US has publicly insisted on keeping Iraq a unitary state, even to the point that the Kurds began complaining that the US was the main obstacle to their national aspirations. Privately, however, it appears that the CIA has begun investing in infrastructure in Irbil as part of their effort to gather intel on ISIS.
    • Expansion of ‘secret’ facility in Iraq suggests closer U.S.-Kurd ties


    • New book ‘War Against All Puerto Ricans’ tells unknown tale of U.S.-Puerto Rico conflict
      Author Nelson Denis inked a deal with Nation Books to tell the story of the 1950 incident when two island towns were bombed by the U.S. Army.


    • Grandma repeatedly protested drones at base, now faces a year in jail


    • Rebel chief who deployed CIA-trained fighters to Syria is assassinated in Jordan
      Security sources said a leading Western-backed rebel was shot dead in the Jordanian capital of Amman. They identified the dead man as Maher Rahel, a commander in the Free Syrian Army, said to responsible for the deployment of rebels trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the Hashemite kingdom. “The killer fired one shot and fled,” a source said. The assassination of the FSA commander was said to have taken place on late July 11 near a traffic circle in western Amman. The sources said Rahel, 27, commanded the Liwa Al Mujahideen Brigade, linked to FSA and deployed in southern Syria.


    • Jordan 'cool to Syria rebel training plan'
      Jordan, where the US Central Intelligence Agency has been covertly training Syrian rebels for more than a year, is reluctant to host an expanded rebel instruction programme, US officials say.


    • Americans are fine with drone strikes. Everyone else in the world? Not so much.


    • Global opposition to U.S. drone strikes grows


    • Pakistan: U.S. Engagement Necessary as Drone Strikes Resume
      The June drone strikes killed nearly 19 militants, including a high-level Haqqani network commander, Haji Gul, and two senior Afghan Taliban leaders. Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes, calling them a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. However, other media reports said that Pakistani government officials privately coordinated with U.S. authorities on the attacks. The Washington Post reported in October that Pakistani government officials have for years secretly endorsed the drone program and received regular classified briefings on drone strikes from their U.S. counterparts.
    • New Zealand government violates SIS act over drones
      After decades of lively public debate, New Zealand abolished the death penalty for murder in 1961. It is not widely known that the death penalty for treason remained on the statute books until it was also abolished in 1989.


    • Lawmaker Wants Drones Out of CIA's Hands


    • Ted Yoho Looks to Get Drones Out of CIA Hands


    • Column: U.S. Is Losing the Message War in the Mideast
      What, exactly, does the United States stand for in the Middle East? More important, what would the average Iraqi, Syrian, Egyptian or Yemeni say that it stands for? The suggestion that the United States is retrenching might seem absurd, given that Yemenis can hear the buzz of drones overhead. The notion that the United States is in the business of supporting democratic pluralism might clash with their reading of our Egypt strategy or our will-they-or-won’t-they waffling over whether to actively support Syrian opposition fighters. Day by day, with chaos blossoming, it becomes clearer that if we do have a strategic narrative for the Middle East, we certainly have not articulated it effectively. In marketing terms, we are not making the sale.


    • Israelis 'Admit' Palestinian Teen's Murder


    • Three charged over killing


    • Three held over Palestinian killing
      Israel has ordered three Jews suspected in the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian teenager held until Friday as they made their first court appearance.


    • Israeli commandos raid Gaza beach as deadly air assault continues
      Israeli naval commandos have launched an early morning raid on a beach in the north of Gaza City, as the coastal enclave suffered the bloodiest day yet of the six-day Israeli assault, with 54 Palestinians reported killed.

      The raid came amid continuing speculation that Israel would launch a ground offensive in Gaza, a move likely to sharply increase the number of civilian casualties. So far, 166 people have been killed including 30 children, according to Gaza's health ministry.


    • The Imbalanced Slaughter in Gaza
      Much of the world is horrified at Israel’s latest slaughter of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip but the continued power of the Israeli Lobby over Official Washington has silenced any protests against the imbalanced infliction of death, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar observes.


    • Single Israeli strike kills 18, stirs debate over targets
      However, the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs said Sunday that civilians made up the majority of Palestinian casualties over the past six days - 133 of 168 killed and nearly half of more than 1,100 wounded. And a human-rights researcher said some of Israel's strikes appear to have violated rules of war.


    • Israel shoots down Gaza drone - live updates


    • Israel says it's downed drone along southern coast
      Israel's military said it downed a drone along its southern coastline on Monday, the first time it encountered such a weapon since its campaign against the Gaza Strip militants began last week.

      The drone came from Gaza and was shot down near the southern city of Ashdod, the military said. It did not say what the drone was carrying and there was no immediate confirmation from Gaza on the use of unmanned aircraft.


    • The IDF doesn't only aim at Hamas targets
      On Saturday evening, Hamas issued a warning, saying it was going to bomb Tel Aviv at 9 p.m. It did, and luckily the rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome. Sunday morning the IDF issued a similar warning to all residents of “the northern Gaza Strip,” saying it will attack the entire area at noon. Can anyone see the difference? Does saying you’re going to attack a civilian area exempt you from responsibility for the civilians you target? I don’t think so.


    • Letter: Remote-controlled killing violates values
      As a Friend (Quaker) who believes there is “that of God” in everyone and therefore every life is sacred, I am deeply concerned about the proliferation of lethal unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones.

      The United States is leading the way in this new form of warfare where pilots on U.S. bases kill people by remote control, thousands of miles away. Drones have become the preferred weapons to conduct war due to the lack of direct risk to the lives of U.S. soldiers, but these drone strikes have led to the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians in many countries.


    • Brief Lull in Gaza Ends as Israel Resumes Strikes After Rockets Fly


    • Hamas’ armed wing rejects truce offer
      A proposal for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas from the Egyptian government late yesterday was flatly rejected early today by the armed wing of the Palestinian militant group. The notice was posted on the group’s website.


    • There’s something very ugly in this rage against Israel
      Why are Western liberals always more offended by Israeli militarism than by any other kind of militarism? It’s extraordinary. France can invade Mali and there won’t be loud, rowdy protests by peaceniks in Paris. David Cameron, backed by a whopping 557 members of parliament, can order airstrikes on Libya and British leftists won’t give over their Twitterfeeds to publishing gruesome pics of the Libyan civilians killed as a consequence. President Obama can resume his drone attacks in Pakistan, killing 13 people in one strike last month, and Washington won’t be besieged by angry anti-war folk demanding ‘Hands off Pakistan’. But the minute Israel fires a rocket into Gaza, the second Israeli politicians say they’re at war again with Hamas, radicals in all these Western nations will take to the streets, wave hyperbolic placards, fulminate on Twitter, publish pictures of dead Palestinian children, publish the names and ages of everyone ‘MURDERED BY ISRAEL’, and generally scream about Israeli ‘bloodletting’. (When the West bombs another country, it’s ‘war’; when Israel does it, it’s ‘bloodletting’.)


    • Israeli Filmmakers Sign Petition, Urging Israeli Government To Hold Ceasefire On Attacks On Gaza Strip
      A group of Israeli filmmakers have added their voices to those pleading for a ceasefire to the attacks by their Government on the Gaza Strip.


    • Israel-Gaza conflict: EU pushes for ceasefire but ordinary Israelis back Benjamin Netanyahu and want bombardment to continue


    • Our endless “War on Terror”: The truth behind an incoherent foreign policy
      U.S. officials say Israel should not have to accept rocket fire aimed at civilians. But what about other nations?


    • Pentagon and CIA Want to Keep ISIS Tweeting: Exploiting Social Media to Keep the Endless War on Terror Alive
      The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies exploit social media to keep the endless war on terror alive.


    • CIA behind the rise of ISIS in Iraq, alleges Canadian think tank
      Last month, Islamic insurgent took control of two main Iraqi cities, Mosul and Tikrit, and openly challenged the pro-West Government in Baghdad.

      ISIS is portrayed as a Sunni-extremist group that split from Al-Qaeda. However, recent details leaking out suggests that the rise of ISIS is being 'shaped and controlled' out of Langley, Virginia and other CIA facilities in the States with the objective to spread chaos in world's second largest oil state Iraq.


    • Hamas rejects Egypt's proposal for ceasefire with Israel: senior official


    • Pressure for ceasefire grows in Gaza conflict
      Palestinian militants resumed rocket attacks on Tel Aviv on Monday after a 24-hour lull in strikes on the Israeli commercial capital, and Israel kept up its air and naval bombardments of the Gaza Strip despite growing pressure for a ceasefire.


    • Norwegian Physician Treating Wounded Civilians: Stop the Bombing, End Israeli Impunity in Gaza


    • Hamas Drone Intercepted By Israeli Military As Gaza Fighting Intensifies


    • Gaza death toll exceeds 2012 conflict
      The Arab League yesterday called for world powers to end Israel’s devastating bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

      Egypt also proposed a truce to start early today to be followed by talks on easing the flow of goods into Gaza.


    • Hamas says it's developed drones that can carry weapons


    • Hamas boasts new level of sophistication, releasing video showing one of its drones for first time
      The Israeli military said it downed a drone launched by militants in the Gaza Strip on Monday, the first time it encountered an unmanned aircraft since the start of its offensive last week, as new Israeli airstrikes pushed the death toll from a weeklong Israeli offensive to at least 175.

      Israel began its campaign against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip last Tuesday, saying it was responding to heavy rocket fire from the densely populated territory. The military says it has launched more than 1,300 airstrikes since then, while Palestinian militants have launched nearly 1,000 rockets at Israel.


    • Israel Says It Shot Down a Hamas Drone
      The Israel Defense Forces tweeted the following Sunday: “An aerial drone from Gaza infiltrated Israel a short time ago. IDF forces shot it down with a Patriot missile above Ashdod.”


    • The Israeli App Red Alert Saves Lives—but It Just Might Drive You Nuts
      Red Alert, which alerts users every time a rocket is fired into Israel, has already been downloaded 780,000 times. It could give you peace of mind. Or it could make you hysterical.




  • Transparency Reporting



    • Swedish court to consider WiiLeaks Julian Assange arrest


      A SWEDISH court is set to consider whether an arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be repealed.


    • 2008 Obama Would Have Slammed 2014 Obama for This Government Secrecy Case
      In 2008, Obama griped that the Bush administration invoked the state secrets privilege "more than any other previous administration" and used it to get entire lawsuits thrown out of court. Critics noted that deploying the state secrets privilege allowed the Bush administration to shut down cases that might have revealed government misconduct or caused embarrassment, including those regarding constitutionally dubious warrantless wiretapping and the CIA's kidnapping and torture of Khaled el-Masri, a German car salesman the government had mistaken for an alleged Al Qaeda leader with the same name. After Obama took office, his attorney general, Eric Holder, promised to significantly limit the use of this controversial legal doctrine. Holder vowed never to use it to "conceal violations of the law, inefficiency, or administrative error" or "prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency of the United States Government."


    • The Obama Administration's 'Transparency' Is Meaningless
      In light of a year's worth of historic revelations about government subterfuge and mass surveillance, President Barack Obama's early promise to oversee the most transparent administration ever now seems spectacularly ill-fated.


    • False: White House press secretary says Obama is the most transparent president ever
      Let’s go over that again. The federal government claimed the power to kill its own citizens, denying them the rights to due process and trial by jury, and tried to keep that memo from ever seeing the light of day. Hey, but at least you’ll know who has been visiting the White House.


    • Whistleblowers help to keep democracy alive
      Over 30 years ago, I was in Mexico City when an electrifying story suddenly dominated all the papers. It claimed that the CIA had made numerous attempts to assassinate Castro. I was shocked. Then I reminded myself that I was in a Third World country, and this might be political propaganda. When the American press ignored it, I dismissed it. Twenty years later, we learned it was true.


    • WikiLeaks reports the FBI to Danish police
      The FBI's meetings with a WikiLeaks defector in Denmark were illegal and the Danish authorities knew about it, the whistleblowing organization claims in a criminal complaint filed with the East Jutland Police.


    • C.I.A Release Emails on WikiLeaks Crisis Management
      Recently released e-mails shine further light on the Central Intelligence Agency’s (C.I.A) late 2010 high-level meetings with New York Times and government officials centering on WikiLeaks and Chelsea (Bradley) Manning. The emails convey the difficulties that the C.I.A and numerous government agencies had in grappling with WikiLeaks’ seismic release of Collateral Murder, Afghan War Diary, Iraq War Logs, and Cablegate documents. The released C.I.A emails, published by NYT eXaminer, reveal the ways in which almost a dozen Obama administration functionaries colluded to disparage WikiLeaks and Julian Assange as engaging in conspiracy to commit espionage with Manning. A number of the officials involved in these meetings with the New York Times later went on to launch campaigns to discredit other whistleblowers.




  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance



    • [Rachel Marsden] Disguise for profiteering
      Billionaire Hungarian-American oligarch George Soros is an extremely concerned humanitarian who can be counted on to put his considerable bank balance where his concerns are. Lately, those concerns have included Ukraine and other former Soviet satellite states; Syria; immigration rights in America; the U.S. banking system; and the Great Lakes region of Africa, where all the mining opportunities just happen to be. Perhaps he could lay off the generosity long enough for us to recover from it all.


    • It’s hard to put the scale of London’s property boom into words, so here are some charts
      You can buy a lot with €£76,000 ($130,000). That’s how much the average London home has appreciated over the past year.



    • CIA hit with Michigan tax liens
    • CIA hit with Michigan tax liens
      U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for failure to pay more than $20,000 in withholding tax...


    • Bitcoin the comic debuts at CoinSummit
      Bitcoin Comic1At the recently concluded CoinSummit in London, a preview of a comic was unveiled that’s sure to intrigue Bitcoin enthusiasts and common people alike.


    • The Myths of Big Corporate Capitalism
      Large corporate capitalism is a breed apart from smaller scale capitalism. The former can often avoid marketplace verdicts through corporate welfare, strip owner-shareholders of power over the top company bosses and offload the cost of their pollution, tax escapes and other “externalities” onto the backs of innocent people.

      Always evolving to evade the theoretically touted disciplines of market competition, efficiency and productivity, corporate capitalism has been an innovative machine for oppression.

      Take productive use of capital and its corollary that government wastes money. Apple Inc. is spending $130 billion of its retained profits on a capital return program, $90 billion of which it will use to repurchase its own stock through 2015. Apple executives do this to avoid paying dividends to shareholders and instead strive to prop up the stock price and the value of the bosses’ lucrative stock options. The problem is that the surveys about the impact of stock buybacks show they often do nothing or very little to increase shareholder value over the long run. But they do take money away from research and development. And consumer prices rarely, if ever, drop because of stock buybacks.


    • Costly copper: Dangerous scrap metal thefts on the rise
      Metal thefts, which have caused blackouts and traffic accidents, are on the rise in states across the country. A new Ohio state law aims to tackle this problem by regulating scrap yards.


    • How capital captured politics
      In May, an international trade agreement was signed that effectively serves as a kind of legal backbone for the restructuring of world markets. While the Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa) negotiations were not censored outright, they were barely mentioned in our media. This marginalisation and secrecy was in stark contrast to the global historical importance of what was agreed upon.


    • Argentina's Default Debacle: Sign of the Slow Unraveling of the Global Financial System?
      Kirchner’s problems are the most pressing. On June 16, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a decision of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordering Argentina to pay in full the claims of a group of creditors, who hold roughly $1 billion in Argentine bonds, about 1 percent of the country’s outstanding debt. The investors, led by New York billionaire Paul Singer and politically well-connected in Washington, acquired the tag of ‘vultures’ by buying up the bonds at steep discounts and refusing to accept an agreement signed by around 92 percent of bondholders. U.S. courts have also ruled that banks operating in New York must disclose information about non-U.S. assets of the Argentine government.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • Public trust has been damaged [GOP rant]


    • Wikiwashing: how paid professionals are using Wikipedia as a PR tool
      How I long to have a Wikipedia entry to call my own! It would be a sign I’d arrived, that I’d made it. It would surely help my career no end. And even though I know myself better than anyone, it is unlikely I could write my own as I'd find it impossible to adhere to the site's strict rules on neutrality. I’d want my entry to be a gleaming eulogy to all my wonderful achievements. Until yesterday, I might have sneakily paid someone to professionally write or edit a page for me. But thanks to a recent change in Wikipedia’s terms of use, I can't do that any more, unless my ghost writer declares an interest. I'll just have to labour on in non-Wikipedia obscurity.


    • Senate Tackles Citizens United As 2014 Spending Hits Record Highs
      Sixteen states, more than 500 communities, two million Americans, and now the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, are on-the-record in support of amending the constitution to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings in Citizens United v. FEC and related cases and to restore the power of people in elections.




  • Censorship



    • US Reporter Ronan Farrow Calls On Internet Companies To Censor Speech Of People He Doesn't Like
      Well this is fascinating. Ronan Farrow, the well-known MSNBC reporter who is also an attorney and former State Department official (and, at times, a subject of much parental speculation), apparently has come out in favor of blatant censorship. Following in the dangerous footsteps of Joe Lieberman, Farrow is apparently angry that internet companies like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter aren't taking down accounts that he believes are used by terrorists.


    • Murdoch calls for ISPs to be liable for users' activities
      News Corporation Australia has used an inquiry by the nation's Senate into a proposed Australia/South Korea free trade agreement to suggest internet service providers become copyright enforcers.


    • Hysteria versus Impunity
      It is a mystery why the Observer failed to name Lord Greville Janner as the paedophile abusing boys from care homes. The facts of this particular boy’s continued molestation, and the existence of the letters to him from Janner, have been public knowledge for decades. I can only presume that Britain’s appalling libel laws, which function solely to protect the very rich from exposure of their misdeeds, are the reason for the Observer’s reticence. My own view is that the gross suppression of freedom of speech in the UK has been insufficiently considered as a major reason for the impunity which the wealthy and the powerful have enjoyed for so long.


    • Techdirt Sued For $10 Million In A Frivolous Lawsuit For Posting An Earlier Frivolous Lawsuit
      Roughly a month ago, I wrote about Kenneth Eng's doomed copyright lawsuit against author L'Poni Baldwin for allegedly stealing his techno-dragon ideas. As was pointed out by the judge in the lawsuit's dismissal, copyright doesn't apply to ideas -- only to the expression of ideas. And Eng's ideas (and expression thereof) weren't sufficiently distinctive from a host of other technology-meets-mythology creations. The judge did, however, allow Eng to re-file his complaint, both to refine his copyright claims and to actually make some sort of actionable claim.


    • Guaranteeing freedom of the press is the real issue
      In May, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a subpoena issued to New York Times reporter James Risen. Federal prosecutors have demanded that Risen reveal the name of a CIA agent who was a source for his book "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration."




  • Privacy



  • Civil Rights



    • If Cage has broken the law, let it be prosecuted; this reeks of the police state
      Cage has also worked with the victims of mistreatment and abuse to expose what it sees as British government participation in the secret world of rendition and torture. It also spoken out against the UK’s anti-terrorism laws, saying they are draconian and target Muslims. But it insists it has always conducted its activities legally and clearly states it is opposed to the killing of innocent civilians.


    • On the Nature of Our Regime
      I’m afraid I don’t have an obvious alternative to “libertarian” that would encompass this third pillar of our present order, and distill the entire structure’s complexity to a single word or phrase. But the third pillar’s heft and importance is too substantial to ignore, and there are all kinds of elements of our age — from “too big to fail” to the Department of Homeland Security, from the design of Obamacare to the nature of our coalition politics, from the political forays of Mark Zuckerberg to the fate of Brendan Eich — that don’t make sense if you can’t sense its shadow, or recognize how big a role it’s likely to play, going forward, in keeping the whole edifice standing up.


    • Target security officer fired after reporting shoplifting
      Dallas Northington spent nearly eight years working for Target in loss prevention, roaming the stores and scanning the surveillance cameras. In an episode at the Leesburg Target store in May that he said was typical, a man was allegedly captured twice on video shoplifting, and Northington responded as he said he always did: He called the Leesburg police, made a report and provided them the videos of the two incidents.


    • Khadr loses bid to have war-crimes convictions tossed out
      Canada’s Omar Khadr has lost his bid to have his war-crimes convictions tossed after the U.S. government argued a previously secret memo that raised questions about the legal underpinnings of his prosecution was irrelevant to his case.


    • The Drone Memo Makes It Clear: Khadr’s Conviction Lacks Legal Foundation
      As readers of this blog will know, after the Second Circuit released a redacted copy of the OLC’s “drone memo,” those of us who represent Omar Khadr filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review (“CMCR”) arguing that it undermined the validity of his convictions. In due course, the government filed its opposition to the motion, which somewhat predictably argues that the OLC’s analysis is not relevant to the case. As we were about to file a reply, the CMCR denied the motion to vacate, albeit “without prejudice.” Thus, the issue is not going away any time soon.


    • Letter: Omar Khadr's rights
      Since 2008, the Harper government has been guided by unthinking support for Guantanamo and the military commissions, a blind eye to the violation of Khadr’s legal and human rights, willful ignorance of the law and disregard for decisions by the Supreme Court.


    • Provincial jail term for Khadr serves justice
      Khadr's case is one where wrong has been piled onto wrong over the years, both in Canada and the United States, during the long war on terror. Khadr's father's close al-Qaida connections rightly angered Canadians, who felt betrayed. But under international convention, child soldiers in these circumstances are to be rehabilitated, not sent to jail. When all is said and done, this will go down as a dark chapter in our federal government's willingness to ignore long-held principles of juvenile justice, as well as its obligations to international conventions on children and the rule of law.


    • Roman Seleznev kidnapped by US agents, whisked away by CIA rendition flight
      The father of Roman Seleznev has offered a $50,000 reward for information regarding the arrest of his son in the Maldives, including any video or other evidence supporting the reports and witness statements that it was American agents that arrested, questioned and then transported his son to Guam. The case is another example of the United States and the CIA flaunting international laws and forcing countries to allow them free reign.


    • Woman, step daughter ‘tortured to death’
      The dead bodies of a young married woman and her stepdaughter were found from their house here in village Jurian village.


    • Emails show UK Government is keeping renditions evidence from Parliament
      UK Foreign Office documents concerning the use of British territory by CIA 'rendition' flights show that ministers have been keeping key evidence in their posession from MPs, it has emerged.


    • UK police have details of CIA torture flights despite past denials of logs – report
      Crucial logs that confirm the British overseas territory Diego Garcia was involved in the CIA’s black site rendition program as a secret prison have been passed to the UK police for further investigation, despite earlier claims that there were no logs.


    • Spy Novel Derailed CIA Career, Agent Claims
      CIA agent claims the agency derailed his career because he wrote a novel that cast The Company in a negative light...


    • Pope Francis: 'About 2%' of Catholic clergy paedophiles
      Pope Francis has been quoted as saying that reliable data indicates that "about 2%" of clergy in the Catholic Church are paedophiles.


    • Ex-solicitor general urges Butler-Sloss to stand down from child abuse inquiry
    • Tory child abuse whistleblower: 'I supplied underage rent boys for Margaret Thatcher's cabinet ministers'
      Whistleblower and former Conservative party activist Anthony Gilberthorpe says he provided child prostitutes for a sex and drugs party with top politicians
    • Gang Turned Muslim Denied Right to Fly


    • Where's the Outrage Over Spying on Muslim Civil Rights Leaders?
      Michael Ratner: NSA and FBI spying on the lawful political activity of Muslim Americans, as revealed by The Intercept, is no different than the surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, and other black civil rights leaders


    • The Illusion of Democracy in America. Rebellion Across the US against “Phony Democracy”
      Have we reached that point? Many think so. A recent poll found 74% of Americans agree the broken political system needs to be fixed first. The poll found that “corruption of government by big money and frustration with the abuses of the political ruling class: incumbent politicians, lobbyists, the elite media, big business, big banks, big unions, and big special interests unites Americans.” And, “the battle lines of the new political order are emerging. When presented with the proposition that ‘the real struggle for America is not between Democrats and Republicans but mainstream America and the ruling political elites,’ over 66% of voters agree.”


    • All They Will Call You Will Be Detainees
      One of corporate journalism's bad habits is framing international stories on the premise that news is what happens to the US. There is no better recent example of this than the story of tens of thousands of children fleeing Central America for refuge in other countries, including, but not limited to, the US. With some exceptions, this story is covered as the US's "border crisis," and the latest installment in our supposed immigration debate, with the children little more than nameless symbols of a troubled policy.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality



    • Internet Titans Defend Net Neutrality in an FCC Missive
      In recent weeks, there have been several notable developments related to the future of Internet freedom and access. Now, The Internet Association, a consortium that includes Facebook, Google, Twitter and Netflix, has a comment filed with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission demanding better enforceable net neutrality rules for boh wired and mobile networks.


    • Help us protect an open Internet


    • Kickstarter, Etsy And Dwolla All Speak Out On Net Neutrality And Why The FCC's Plan Is Dangerous To Innovation
      During this open comment period for the FCC's proposed rulemaking on net neutrality, it's been great to see hundreds of thousands of comments go in to the FCC on the matter. It's also been fantastic to see that a number of innovative startups have decided to speak out on how important an open and free internet is for being able to build their businesses, to innovate and to compete on the modern internet. They also point out that the current plan from Commissioner Tom Wheeler would put that all at risk. Here are three interesting ones worth mentioning.


    • Comments on net neutrality top half a million as FCC deadline looms
      THE UNITED STATES Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has received over half a million comments about its proposals for the future of net neutrality in that country.

      Ahead of tomorrow's deadline, a total of 647,000 comments have been sent to the commission expressing views on the future of the internet.


    • Tell the FCC: Net Neutrality is crucial to free software
      The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) needs to be convinced that Net Neutrality is worth saving.

      The agency has asked members of the public, along with industry leaders and entrepreneurs, to tell it why Internet Service Providers should be banned from traffic discrimination. This comment window is one of the best opportunities we've had to make an impact. Comments are due July 15, 2014. Submit your statement in support of Net Neutrality right away using the Electronic Frontier Foundation's free software commenting tool.

      Net neutrality, the principle that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally, should be a basic right for Internet users. It's also crucial for free software's continued growth and success.


    • CNBC's Net Neutrality Conflict Of Interest Hidden On Closing Bell
      On the July 14 edition of CNBC's Closing Bell, host Kelly Evans interviewed Harold Ford, Jr. and John Sununu about the FCC's latest proposed regulations, introducing them as "Broadband for America honorary co-chairs," without explaining what Broadband for America was. Both Ford and Sununu insisted that the Internet should not be treated as a public utility and claimed that new regulations would slow Internet speeds and innovation.


    • Internet giants press for net neutrality in FCC filing
      An association of more than two dozen technology companies including Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Netflix urged the Federal Communications Commission on Monday to create strong, enforceable net neutrality rules for wired and mobile networks.




  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Bolivia Shows How To Dismantle Corporate Sovereignty Provisions In Treaties Without Losing Foreign Investment
      As Techdirt has reported, corporate sovereignty chapters in TAFTA/TTIP and TPP have emerged as some of the most controversial elements in those agreements. Meanwhile, countries that already have bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms are looking for ways to get rid of them in order to avoid the loss of sovereignty they imply. One nation that already has considerable experience in this area is Bolivia. A new report provides fascinating background information on exactly how it has gone about this (pdf), with valuable lessons for others looking to do the same.


    • Democrats Push to Delay Trans-Pacific Partnership Until After Elections
      Democrats in Congress are pumping the brakes on negotiations of a multinational trade pact, worried that a significant bloc of their base would leave the party should the agreement be approved before the November elections.


    • Copyrights



      • Dotcom prepares to drop 'political bomb'
        Kim Dotcom says he will drop a political bomb just days out from the election and prove Prime Minister John Key misled the public.

        Mr Key has always maintained the first he knew about Dotcom was a day before the raid on his mansion. But Dotcom says that is not true and he has hired the Auckland Town Hall.

        Dotcom says he will drop a political bomb, which goes right to the core of Mr Key's credibility, five days out from the September 20 election.


      • The Internet's Own Boy: A movie everyone online should see
        The Internet's Own Boy is a documentary about computer prodigy, Internet pioneer, and activist hacker Aaron Swartz, but even if you've never heard of Aaron Swartz you should see this movie. The story has implications beyond the short life of one man. Through the passion, drama, and tragedy of Aaron Swartz's life The Internet's Own Boy describes issues that impact everyone online: censorship, government surveillance, free speech, transparency, and net neutrality.


      • Neil Young becomes PonoMusic CEO after the Kickstarter gold rush
        Musician steps up to run digital music company that he founded, ahead of launch for gadget and high-def downloads store


      • Dotcom’s Baboom “Overwhelmed” By Indie Music Support
        Kim Dotcom's emerging music service Baboom is inviting would-be investors to grab a piece of what should be an intriguing startup. Speaking with TorrentFreak the senior advisor handling the offer says that not only is it tracking "exceptionally well" but the company is being "overwhelmed" with support from the global indie music industry.


      • Suing File-Sharers Doesn’t Work, Lawyers Warn


        The American Bar Association has released a detailed white paper advising the Government on how to tackle online piracy. The lawyers recommend several SOPA-like anti-piracy measures including injunctions against companies hosting pirate sites. At the same time, however, they advise against suing file-sharers as that would be ineffective or even counterproductive.


      • News Corp Wants to Hold ISPs Responsible For Piracy


        With its significant entertainment business interests, media giant News Corp has been making its feelings known in the ongoing piracy debate. After targeting Google last month the company says it wants the government to tighten up the law in order to hold Australian ISPs responsible for the actions of their pirating subscribers.








Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day