07.18.14
Gemini version available ♊︎Links 18/7/2014: Slackware Turns 21, Spotify Switches to Ubuntu
Contents
GNU/Linux
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The state of accessibility in Linux and open source software
Spencer Hunley is an autistic professional, former Vice Chair of the Kansas City Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities, and current board member of the Autism Society of the Heartland & ASAN’s Kansas City chapter. In August, Spencer will be giving a talk, Universal Tux: Accessibility For Our Future Selves, at LinuxCon in Chicago. He also gave a talk, Maximizing Accessibility: Engaging People with Disabilities In The Linux Community, at LinuxCon North America 2013.
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Desktop
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Growing pains
Microsoft knows this, which is why it has misguidedly destroyed its consumer desktop and replaced it with the hideous Windows 8. Linux users with Gnome 3 could have told them that the remaining desktop users don’t want a dumbed down desktop experience. But while Microsoft indignantly fixes its desktop at glacial speed, now has become an ideal time to woo weary Windows escapees.
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Switching to Linux Saved Munich City Tens of Millions
Not that this saving happened over night. The city first began to seek an open-source antidote to its Microsoft dependence in 2003. With some 1.5 million citizens, thousands of employees, and tens of thousands of government workstations to consider, its initial shopping list was suitably strict, spanning everything from avoiding vendor lock-in and receiving regular hardware support updates to having access to a wide array of free applications.
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Server
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Linux System Administration Skills are Changing
When was the last time you compiled a kernel? For many of the latest generation of Linux admins, the answer is really simple: never. I am one of those, provided we don’t count a few times I tried it just for fun, then couldn’t see why I would need a custom kernel and went back to my out-of-the-box kernel.
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Audiocasts/Shows
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Kernel Space
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Why Women in Tech Can, and Should, Write a Better Resume
Experience with Linux is an important thing – a track record of tinkering and involvement in the open source world. Working in drivers, embedded Linux, etc. At this point companies are desperate for Linux talent. The most important thing to show is you’ve gotten hands-on with bits of the kernel, whichever ones are interesting to you personally. Time spent as a site reliability engineer or working in a DevOps environment is particularly attractive to employers these days, as are well rounded sys admin skills. Even if you just run Linux as your primary operating system and know how to tinker with your machine, you’re ahead of many candidates.
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Linux Creator Linus Torvalds is Your Guide in This Rare Look Inside His Home Office
Have you ever wondered what the workspace of the world’s most famous developer looks like? Well wonder no more. Linux creator Linus Torvalds invites you into his home office in this first-ever, personal tour of his workspace. It also includes behind the scenes laughs and footage, as well as a closer look at what he keeps on his desk and what he does between kernel releases. He also demonstrates how he uses his “zombie shuffling desk” (his walking desk) while working on the world’s most ubiquitous software.
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Take a guided tour of Linus Torvald’s home office
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Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, shows off his home office and ‘zombie shuffling desk’ (video)
Linus Torvalds keeps a pretty low profile in the Portland area, but the creator of the open source Linux computer operating system retains a very high profile in the world of computing.
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Fedora 21 Alpha, Project Mayhem, and Linus’ Office
There is so much news today I’m not sure which to highlight first. Linux.com has a look at Linus Torvalds’ home office and a new paper describes fresh malware “Mayhem.” X.Org Server 1.16 and GCC 4.9.1 have been released and the Plasma 5.1 development cycle has been officially kicked off. All this and some openSUSE, Ubuntu and Fedora tidbits here in tonight’s Linux news.
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Graphics Stack
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RadeonSI Gallium3D Now Supports GL4 Indirect Drawing Too
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X.Org Server 1.17 Is Planned For A New Year’s Release
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Nouveau NVC0 Gallium3D Now Supports Indirect Drawing
Nouveau’s NVC0 Gallium3D driver for supporting NVIDIA “Fermi” hardware and newer has picked up support for indirect drawing.
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ARM MPD Still Not Doing Open Drivers; ARM Vendors Hiding Behind Linaro
Luc’s latest blog post points out several interesting responses by Jem Davies of ARM MPD, responsible for the Mali T-Series graphics hardware, and the recent Q&A he did with AnAndTech. In response to asking about open-source drivers, Davies commented, “I really do understand your frustration and I’m sorry that this makes life harder for you and similar developers. We are genuinely not against Open Source, as I hope I’ve tried to explain. I myself spent a long time working on the Linux kernel in the past and I wish I could give you a simple answer. Unfortunately, it is a genuinely complex problem, with a lot of trade-offs and judgements to be made as well as economic and legal issues. Ultimately I cannot easily reduce this to an answer here, and probably not to one that will satisfy you. Rest assured that you are not being ignored. However, as a relatively small company with a business model that is Partner driven, the resources that we have, need to be applied to projects in ways that meet Partner requirements.”
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X.Org Server 1.16 Officially Released With Terrific Features
The X.Org Server 1.16 release has almost 35,000 lines of new/changed code, per Keith’s notes. X.Org Server 1.16 is one of the more exciting releases in recent times and represents about six months of development work. X.Org Server 1.17 is now on the table for late this year or early 2015. X.Org Server 1.16 is codenamed Marionberry Pie.
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X.Org Server 1.16.0 Brings XWayland
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GLAMOR Changes Already Get Queued For X.Org Server 1.17
Only hours after the release of X.Org Server 1.16, pull requests are already coming in for the X.Org Server 1.17 development code.
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Benchmarks
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Intel Pentium G3258 On Linux
Here’s our first benchmarks of the Intel Pentium G3258 using Ubuntu Linux.
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Applications
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Calibre 1.45 eBook Reader and Editor Brings Improvements for Kindle Books
Calibre is mostly used as an eBook converter and reader, but the developer added the option to edit books just a few months ago. Since then, numerous changes and improvements have been made to this particular feature and it looks like there is a lot of work left to do.
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Pushbullet Indicator Gets Android Notification Mirroring Support, Other Changes
For those not familiar with Pushbullet, this is a service that lets you easily send files, links, notes, lists, etc. from your iOS or Android device to your desktop or the other way around. It can be used via Chrome / Firefox extensions and for Windows there’s also a desktop app. Because there was no native Linux app, Lorenzo from Atareao.es created an Ubuntu AppIndicator (and a Nautilus extension as a companion for the AppIndicator) to easily use Pushbullet in Ubuntu.
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Evolution 3.12.4 Now Supports Google Tasks
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Organize Your Collection of Comics with Advanced Comic Book Format Viewer 1.01
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QEMU 2.1 RC2 Fixes A Ton Of Bugs
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mining-haze: Once glimpsed, now in full view
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cursetag: So close, and yet so far
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Atraci: New YouTube-Based Music Player
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Git 2.0.2 Version Control System Now Available for Download
Git 2.0.2, a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency, has been officially released.
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shellcheck: I should probably keep this around
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aview: Let me draw you a picture
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Proprietary
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Dropbox switches to Qt, looks great in Plasma systems
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Snowden on Dropbox: It’s hostile to privacy
Dropbox is a very popular Cloud storage services, but is it good for the privacy-conscious?
According to Edward Snowden, it’s not.
In an interviewed published on GuardianNews, Snowden described Dropbox as “hostile to privacy.”
So what are the better alternatives. Snowden recommended Cloud storage services with zero-knowledge as a key feature.
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FastX Now Displays Remote Linux Desktops from a USB Drive
Users with multiple machines no longer need to install the FastX client on each machine or pay for more than one copy of the software. After installing FastX onto the USB drive, the product will run from the memory stick. With a few clicks, users are logged into their remote Linux server and either start a new remote Linux desktop session or resume one they launched earlier from another PC.
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Instructionals/Technical
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Writing Build Scripts With Gradle
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Install Duck Launcher 0.66 in Linux Mint 17
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Writing Build Scripts With Gradle
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Configuring Default Gateway on RedHat Enterprise Linux
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A Beginner’s Guide to the Linux Command Line, Part II
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How to Setup DM-Multipath on RHEL / CentOS / Fedora
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How to install GlusterFS with a replicated volume over 2 nodes on Ubuntu 14.04
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How To Install KDE Plasma 5 In Kubuntu 14.10 Or 14.04
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How To Install Mailnag 1.0 On Ubuntu 14.04 And Ubuntu 14.10, Using Either Unity Or Gnome Shell
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How To Install Google Chrome 36 Beta On The Most Popular Linux Systems, Using Either DEB Or RPM Packages
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virt-manager: changing the default storage path and default virtual network
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How To Install Conky Manager 2.1 On Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivative Systems.
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Samba Server Installation and Configuration on CentOS 7
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Chrome Remote Desktop Sharing feature in Ubuntu
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Install Conky Manager 2.1 in Ubuntu 14.04
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Install Duck Launcher 0.66 in Ubuntu 14.04
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[Howto] Upgrading CentOS 6 to CentOS 7
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Games
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OBS MultiPlatform Makes Gameplay Streaming Easy On Windows, Mac And Linux
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OlliOlli Coming to PC, Mac and Linux July 22
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OpenMW 0.31 Has A Ton Of Changes
OpenMW 0.31 implements a large number of game features from saving fog of war state to implementing murder crime to follower fast travel. When it comes to bug fixes, there’s over 135 reported bug-fixes.
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OpenMorrowind 0.31.0 RPG Remake Is Already Looking Great
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Valve Updates the Custom Compositor for SteamOS Beta
The Beta version of SteamOS, a Debian-based distribution developed by Valve to be used in its hybrid PC / console, has been updated yet again and a number of packages have been added and upgraded.
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Torchlight & Torchlight II Look Set For Linux & Steam
We recently ran an article wondering what happened to Torchlight Linux, as it seemed to be forgotten about, so be sure to read up on it.
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Desktop Environments/WMs
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First Alpha of Moonlight Desktop Environment Now Available for Testing
The first alpha of a new modular Qt5 desktop environment called ‘Moonlight‘ has been made available for testing.
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K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
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KDE Applications and Platform 4.13.3 Is the Last Update in the Series
The KDE Project developers have released the third maintenance version for Applications, Platform and Plasma Workspaces, bringing some new, much needed fixes.
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How to install Plasma 5 in Kubuntu or go for a test drive
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It all comes together: no more Software Compilation but more KDE!
With the KDE 4.0 release we had the issue that everything was one big blob: the libraries, the desktop and the applications, all inter-dependent.
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Plasma 5 in the News
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AppStream 0.7 specification and library released
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Subsurface 4.2 Beta1 (4.1.90)
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No Chaos KaOS, LibreSSL Fixed, and More KDE 5
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meta-kf5 – almost there…
So, as of tonight, all but three tier 1 modules from kf5 are built in meta-kf5. The ones remaining are KApiDox, which does not really apply, and KConfig and Sonnet, which both needs to be part built for the native host environment, and part cross compiled. So, any Yocto hackers out there, please have a look at the issues linked to from the meta-kf5 status page.
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How To Install KDE Plasma 5 On Kubuntu 14.04, Kubuntu 14.10 And Linux Mint 17 KDE
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Junior Jobs and other recent improvements in Dolphin
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The Great Merging day
I’ve just merged the dev branch to the master, and soon you will see the new features inside digiKam 4.2.0
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Plasma 5.1 Kickoff
We had a fun two hour meeting in #plasma yesterday to decide on the tasks for the next release. It’s due out in October and there’s plenty of missing features that need to be added before Plasma 5 is ready for the non-geek.
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Why Breeze is not the default window decoration
This week we finally released Plasma 5.0 including KWin 5.0 and also a new design called “Breeze”. While Breeze provides a window decoration, KWin still defaults to Oxygen and that’s for a good reason. As I had been asked quite often why that’s the case and on the other side got lots of feedback from disappointed users using the Breeze decoration I think it’s needed to explain in a blog post the technical background.
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Distributions
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Linux Distribution Basics: Rolling Releases vs. Standard Releases
Linux distributions tend to use two different types of release cycles: standard releases and rolling releases. Some people swear by rolling releases to have the latest software, while others like standard releases for being more stable and tested.
This isn’t an option you change in your current Linux distribution — instead, it’s a choice the Linux distribution itself makes. Some distributions release regular standard releases and use a rolling release cycle for their unstable development release.
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New Releases
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SparkyLinux 3.4.1
SparkyLinux 3.4.1 LXDE, e18, Razor-Qt, MATE, Xfce, Base (Openbox) and GameOver x86_64 is ready to go.
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GParted 0.19.1
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Clonezilla Live 2.2.3-28 Is a Great Distro for Backup and Recovery
Clonezilla Live, a Linux distribution based on DRBL, Partclone, and udpcast that allows users to do bare metal backup and recovery, is now at version 2.2.3-28 and is ready for testing.
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Robolinux 7.5.5 Brings the Fully Encrypted Cloud Service Spider Oak for Free to Its Users
Robolinux is best known for a feature called Stealth VM Software that allows uses to create a clone of a Windows operating system, with all the installed programs and updates. This would allow potential users to switch to a Linux environment and continue to use their favorite Windows-only applications, although there is a performance penalty.
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Screenshots
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Arch Family
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KDE Frameworks 5 official packages available for Arch Linux
Users can install the under-development version of KDE Frameworks 5 side by side with KDE 4 from the Beta 2 stage. To make this possible the packages are installed under /usr instead of /opt/kf5 as it used to be on the Arch User Repository (AUR) previously. Till date the only exception was the kactivities component because both KDE Frameworks and KDE 4 ship a kactivitymanagerd binary. To make them co-install now both the packages from KDE4 and KDE Frameworks install a kactivities virtual package on the same system under the /usr directory. The packages are grouped into two parts: kf5 and kf5-aids (PortingAids).
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Manjaro 0.8.10 Netbook Edition is now available!
The Netbook Edition uses a lightened and customised Xfce environment. Screen real estate is optimised with the use of a single vertical panel that includes DockBarX (via a plug-in) and through a modified version of Xfwm4 (Xfce’s window manager), based on xfwm4-titleless-dev, further patched for default-maximized support.
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Slackware Family
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Slackware Turns 21 Years Old
It was on this day in 1993 that Patrick Volkerding announced the Slackware 1.00 release that was inspired by the Softlanding Linux System.
Slackware remains kicking after 21 years of guidance by its leader Patrick Volkerding. The most recent release of Slackware is version 14.1 that took place late last year with the Linux 3.10 kernel — a long way from the initial Slackware 1.00 release that used the pre-1.0 Linux kernel (0.99.11).
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Happy 21st Birthday, Slackware – and Thanks, Patrick!
Slackware had just turned five when I first discovered it and, by extension, Linux. It was the first Linux distribution that I’d ever used and it was a wonderful platform to learn on. Made even better by the fact that Patrick was quick to respond to emails asking for support, and provided gentle guidance to updating XFree86 so that I could actually use X on my blazing fast Pentium 133MHz machine with eight whopping megabytes of RAM.
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Red Hat Family
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Red Hat Adds Sophisticated Tiering and Data Protection Features to its Industry-leading Storage Platform for OpenStack
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Redhat Extends W/ Open Source Software-Defined Storage
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Red Hat releases Inktank Ceph Enterprise 1.2
Only months after acquiring Inktank, Ceph’s parent company, Red Hat has released the next version of this open source, distributed storage system.
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Red Hat Updates Open Source Ceph Cloud Storage
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Red Hat Updates Open Source Ceph Cloud Storage
Red Hat has released Inktank Ceph Storage 1.2, which brings new performance and management features to the open source distributed storage system for the cloud.
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Red Hat’s Inktank Buy Bears 1st Fruit
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Red Hat Delivers Enterprise-Grade Ceph Storage
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Red Hat releases Inktank Ceph Enterprise 1.2
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Red Hat updates Inktank Ceph Enterprise post-acquisition
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Fedora
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Fedora 21 Starts Working Towards Its Alpha Release
In aiming towards an on-time release of Fedora 21, developers have spun the first test candidate for the upcoming development release.
Per the official release schedule, Fedora 21 is expected to see its alpha release on 5 August while next week (22 July) is the software string freeze and the alpha change deadline. Following that alpha release is a planned Fedora 21 Beta on 9 September, final change deadline on 30 September, and hopes to ship Fedora 21 final on 14 October.
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Docker, FESCo Election, Android App for Flock, Flock Video Volunteers, and Release Naming (5tFTW 2014-07-15)
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Docker, FESCo Election, Android App for Flock, Flock Video Volunteers, and Release Naming (5tFTW 2014-07-15)
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Debian Family
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Spotify Switches From Debian To Ubuntu
While Spotify was a major Debian user with running their thousands of back-end servers on the major Linux distribution, including being vocal about systemd on Debian, they have decided to switch over to Ubuntu.
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Why did a Debian developer switch to a Mac?
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Derivatives
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Qiana “v2″ ISO respins
The ISO images for the Cinnamon and MATE editions of Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” were updated and labelled “v2″. All the links were updated on the website and in the announcements to point to the new ISOs.
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Canonical/Ubuntu
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Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander End Of Life: July 17, 2014
Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) reached end of life today. That means that if you use Ubuntu 13.10, you should upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Long Term Support). That’s because after July 17, 2014, “Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 13.10″.
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Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) Reaches End of Life, Upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) has reached the end of its nine-month journey and the distribution has now entered EOL (end of life).
Nothing is going to happen to you in the immediate future if you are using Ubuntu 13.10. EOL means that Ubuntu developers will no longer release security updates for the distribution, which also indicates that the OS will become increasingly insecure as time goes by. You will still be able to use it, but it won’t be as safe as possible.
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Root Escalation Flaw and Other Issues Fixed in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with New Kernel Upgrade
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Devices/Embedded
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Raspberry Pi B+=Raspberry Pi B + 14 New GPIO Pins + 2 Extra USB
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Cheery social robot owes it all to its inner Linux
An MIT spinoff has launched an Indiegogo campaign for a $499, Linux-based “Jibo” robot billed as a social, self-learning companion for families.
Like SoftBank’s Aldeberan-built Pepper, the Jibo bot runs on Linux and is designed to communicate and interact with people in a social, human-like manner. While the $1,930 Pepper is dubbed an “emotional” robot, Jibo is referred to as a “social” robot, and sells for a modest $499, via its $100,000 Indiegogo campaign. The device is expected to ship to funders Dec. 2015, followed by a commercial launch in 2016.
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OpenWRT adds IPv6, preps for IoT future
The OpenWRT project has released version 14.07 RC1 of its lightweight router and IoT oriented Linux distribution, adding IPv6 support and faster startup.
OpenWRT 14.07 (“Barrier Breaker”) was issued as a first release candidate (RC1), bringing full IPv6 support to the small-footprint GNU/Linux distribution. The router-oriented distro has become a favorite for home automation gizmos and other, frequently MIPS-based, Internet of Things (IoT) boards and devices, such as the Arduino Yún (pictured below-right).
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Heterogeneous multicore dev platform targets Linux
Mentor Graphics has released a heterogeneous multicore development platform for combining Linux, Nucleus, and bare metal OSes on a single multicore SoC.
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NI creates Linux embedded design module
NI has introduced an embedded system development board which comes with Linux-based real-time operating system (RTOS) already integrated.
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Phones
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Over 2 Billion Smartphones to Ship in 2018, 1.25 Billion in 2014
“While smartphone growth is beginning to fall, plenty of growth remains, with smartphone penetration of mobile subscribers under 30% worldwide,” commented Nick Spencer, senior practice director, ABI Research. “Most advanced and affluent markets already have 60%+ penetration, so the growth is driven by developing markets and the reduction in smartphone ASPs.”
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Smartphone Sales Volume to Touch 23.6% Growth in 2014 on the Back of Emerging Markets: MIC
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Smartphones Shipping – 1.2 Billion 2014, 2 Billion 2018
ABI Research says the 60% penetration of smartphones in the developed markets could be possible in the developing markets thanks to lowering prices… Wow! Just Wow! This makes “the PC revolution” seem like a rummage sale. Soon, more smartphones will ship per annum than legacy PCs extant.
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So Tizen? I don’t understand Samsung and its troubles with this strategy…
Remember back way back when, when there were several new OS platfoms coming and I said I thought Tizen was strongest bet? Well its been down hill ever since.
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Android
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Microsoft pulls the plug on Nokia’s Android smartphones
MICROSOFT HAS ANNOUNCED that Nokia’s Android-powered X handset lineup is no more, with the firm instead planning to deliver the devices with its own Windows Phone mobile operating system.
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Backbytes: Fight! Fight! Fight!
Nowadays, there’s only one reason why anyone could possibly want to venture into one of Britain’s God-awful town centres on a Friday or Saturday night: to watch the inevitable catfights that break out after Kylie and Traycee have had a few Jagermeisters too many.
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Blackphone Hits Back at BlackBerry on Security
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Rugged Android tablet boasts all-day battery
Via’s “Viega” is an IP65-ruggedized, 10.1-inch tablet that runs Android 4.2 on a Via dual-core SoC, providing 9-hour battery life and optional 3G and GPS.
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The Developers Can Get The First MDK (Module Development Kit) Of Google’s Project ARA In July
The default phone will only have support for wifi and will be available in three sizes: small, medium and large. If you want to have the features of a normal phone, you will need to buy different modules for connectivity, camera, touchscreen and others. The modules will be attached via magnets, to be easy to replace modules, without having to restart the phone.
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Too Many Android Wear Apps Are Missing the Point
I currently count four calculator apps for Google’s wearable platform, and they’re all useless. You need pinpoint touch precision to enter each number, and none of the apps include a backspace key for when you inevitably mistype something. Using a calculator app on your phone would be faster and less frustrating.
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RFinderPi – a free open-source realtime radio programmer!
RFinder Android is already released with this capability; iPhone is waiting for Apple’s approval.
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25 Best Open Source Android Apps for Small Business
It’s not easy to wade through the Google Play store to find open source apps, so we put together a quick guide to some nifty productivity, Internet, and game apps. Some are free, some cost a few bucks, and it’s always a good practice to slip a few dollars into the tip jars, because nothing says “thank you” better than cash money.
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Android Sets iPhone Cloning Factory in Motion
Instead of Apple’s proprietary iOS software, the Wico clone reportedly runs a custom version of Android KitKat. Without Android, manufacturers couldn’t create a clone that worked well enough to be a threat, said tech analyst Rob Enderle. “Google remains the biggest threat Apple will ever face.” Owning an iPhone or iPad is a mark of prestige among Chinese citizens, but few can afford them.
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Want to root your device? Try xda’s new root directory
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Google release ‘new’ Roboto typeface
For those of you unfamiliar with Roboto, it is a typeface and part of the sans-serif typeface family. Roboto was original introduced by Google along with the release of Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system and has remained since. Roboto became free to download back in January 2012 from the Android Design website.
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Xiaomi enters India with Mi 3, Redmi 1S and Redmi Note
Chinese Smartphone company Xiaomi is launching three devices in the India, fuelling the already hyper competitive budget smartphone market in the country. The first phone to launch is the Mi3 which is priced at Rs. 13,999, followed by Redmi Note at Rs. 9,999 and Redmi 1S at Rs. 6,999.
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Learn to build Android apps with Google’s Android Fundamentals
Yesterday Google announced the launch of a new training tool Android Fundamentals on the Google developer’s blog. The course is aimed at assisting experienced programmers to switch over to Android by familiarising themselves with the Android SDK and Android Studio. This is unfortunately not for those completely new to programming but instead those who do possess some programming knowledge.
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Avoid the Android vampire apps
Some Android applications will drain your smartphone or tablet of battery life, storage or bandwidth like a blood-sucking fiend. Here’s what’s what with the worst of the worst.
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Free Software/Open Source
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Open Source Storage Bolsters Its Boards With Oracle Alumnus
Open Source Storage has a bit of a struggle on its hands. Despite having existed (kind of) for well over 10 years, the storage company is relatively unknown compared to incumbent players (NetApp and EMC for example) and newer storage industry disruptors (Inktank and StorSimple for example) alike. The company has had something of an on-again, off-again life as the GFC caused its early investors to back out and the company waited until this year to relaunch.
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Adobe, Google Develop Open-Source Font for Asian Languages
Adobe and Google have teamed up to develop a new open source font that supports seven different languages.
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Open-Source Blu-Ray Now Works For BD-J / Menu Rendering
For users of libbluray for limited open-source Blu-Ray disc support, there’s some updates worth fetching.
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Events
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The LLVM 2014 Developer Meeting Is At The End Of October
The LLVM Foundation has announced the annual LLVM Developers’ Meeting that occurs every year in Q3~Q4 in California.
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Web Browsers
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WebKit’s FTL JavaScript Engine Shows Off Potential For LLVM
Earlier this year we wrote about Apple working on an LLVM-based JIT compiler for WebKit. This new JIT engine, called “Fourth Tier LLVM” (FTL), is enabled within the latest open-source code for this browser rendering engine and is faster than WebKit’s earlier JavaScript implementations.
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Breach Browser: an open-source and hackable browser for geeks
While you are reading this, the chances are you are using Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera or Internet Explorer (IE). That is because these tend to be the only choices on offer. Although each of the big browsers will try to convince you that you have a choice. The simple truth is you do not. You are confined to using these five main choices which generally-speaking are increasingly converging and becoming more alike with each update. That is until now!
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Chrome
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Chrome 37 Beta Adds The Dialog Tag, Other Changes
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Google Chrome 36 Brings Web Components to the Browser
Google is out with a new version of its Chrome web browser, providing users with new features and security fixes for over two dozen vulnerabilities.
Among the user facing improvements in Chrome 36 is a new look for the Incognito mode. Chrome has had an incongito mode since Google first debuted the browser back in 2008. Incognito mode, which is sometime referred to as ‘Porn Mode’, enables a user to view websites without having those websites or cookies stored in the browser’s history.
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Best Fitness Apps for Google Chrome and Chrome OS
Having to keep track of your daily eating habits is quite a task. Oh, and there is those tedious workouts that you have to do. Being healthy is such a bore, isn’t it? Don’t worry, even the healthiest of people hate getting out of bed and going to the gym. Yep, that’s true. Fitness isn’t a pleasant experience, it’s hard work and yes, hard work for some people is boring.
As prolonged tech junkies, we are used to having shortcuts or little apps here and there that help us cut our job in half, in other words, keep us lazy. We have apps for self-diagnosing, for reserving our table at a restaurant, and even ordering the menu. Just press a button and your job is done.
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Chromebook – What it is and what it isn’t.
People who read my tweets and articles will know that I love my Chromebook. I’ve been very productive with it and I believe I am over the two month mark of having used it exclusively. Is it possible to live your online work/life with a Chromebook.
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Chrome 36 launches with rich notifications improvements, new incognito design, doodles on Android, and more
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Chrome 37 Beta: DirectWrite on Windows and the dialog element
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Mozilla
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The Rust Language Is Improving, But Not Yet Ready For 1.0
Rust, the programming language born at Mozilla for developing a “safe, concurrent, practical language” continues to evolve and experience greater adoption. Rust certainly seems to have a good future ahead of it as shared by the latest status update on the project, but a few more release cycles are needed at least before the Rust developers look toward version 1.0.
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State of Rust 0.11.0
Over the past 6 months since the last one of these updates was written, Rust has evolved significantly: the standard library was refactored to make Rust more convenient to use in embedded or bare-metal platforms, the language has been greatly simplified (moving most pointer types into libraries) and the package ecosystem has been thriving under a new package manager.
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Firefox OS Ecosystem Shows Strong Momentum and Expands Across New Devices, Markets and Categories
Firefox OS has unlocked the mobile ecosystem and is quickly expanding across a broad range of devices and product categories in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Just one year after the first devices were launched, Firefox OS is now available on seven smartphones offered by five major operators in 15 countries, showing strong signs of ecosystem momentum and widespread industry adoption.
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Firefox OS lands in Germany – with France, Asia, and more to come
Mozilla’s Firefox OS continues its slow march across the globe, with carriers set to begin shipping devices running the open source, browser-based smartphone platform in additional developed markets this week.
Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica has previously sold Firefox OS phones in Spain, but the bulk of its efforts have been focused on its subsidiaries in Spanish-speaking emerging markets, including Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
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SaaS/Big Data
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DefCore brings a definition to OpenStack
What’s in a name? Quite a bit, actually. To ensure compatibility between products sharing the same name, it’s important that users can expect a core set of features to be consistent across different distributions. This is especially true with large projects like OpenStack which are made up of many interlocking components.
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Open-source is the embodiment of cloud: Nick Hyner, Dell
Dell’s also done much to build confidence in OpenStack for enterprise cloud by teaming up with open-source software company Red Hat to resell its new private cloud deployments.
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Mirantis OpenStack Integrates with Oracle Linux, Oracle VM
Mirantis, which has been expanding its bets on the OpenStack cloud computing platform throughout 2014, is also deepening its bets on the enteprise. The company, which is already a member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), has announced that Oracle Linux and Oracle VM have been integrated Mirantis’ own OpenStack distribution, which will keep Mirantis and Oracle serving and supporting joint customers.
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Mirantis OpenStack Integrates with Oracle Linux, VM
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Mirantis Delivers Mirantis OpenStack Integration With Oracle Linux and Oracle VM
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OpenStack Kilo Set to Debut in April 2015
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ownCloud 7 awesomeness
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Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
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LibreOffice-from-Collabora 4.2 released to the channel
LibreOffice from Collabora is the enterprise-ready build of the widely used Open Source office suite. The newly announced LibreOffice-from-Collabora 4.2 provides an enterprise-hardened build which can be maintained by patch updates for many years.
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CMS
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Open Source Planning and Advising Tool Supports Student Success
To keep students’ academic plans on track, the University of Washington developed open source software that integrates previously siloed administrative functions such as degree audit and articulation, student lifecycle and recruitment, registration and advising.
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What’s Coming in WordPress 4.0
WordPress 4.0 Beta 1 was released a couple of days ago and the list of changes is rather impressive.
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Funding
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Open Source Madness
The Yorba Foundation, a non-profit group that produces open source Linux desktop software, reported last week that it was denied tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status by the IRS. The group had waited nearly five years for a decision. The IRS stated that, because the software Yorba develops can be used commercially, the organization has a substantial non-exempt purpose and is disqualified from tax-exempt status. We think the IRS’ decision rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of open source software.
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PredictionIO’s $2.5M money bag suggests open-source is right for machine learning
PredictionIO, a startup that has crafted an open-source program to let developers add machine-learning smarts to their applications, might just be setting the tone for the next wave in data technology.
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BSD
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GhostBSD 4.0 Beta 3 Brings New & Updated Packages
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GhostBSD 4.0 BETA 3 now available
The GhostBSD team is pleased to announce the availability the third BETA build of the 4.0-RELEASE release cycle is available on SourceForge for the amd64 and i386 architectures. This is expected to be the final BETA build of the 4.0-RELEASE cycle.
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GhostBSD 4.0 Beta 3 Is One of the Most Exciting BSD Alternatives
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Final Version of FreeBSD 9.3 Arrives with Improved ZFS Filesystem
The final version of FreeBSD 9.3, an operating system for x86, ARM, IA-64, PowerPC, PC-98, and UltraSPARC architectures, has been released and is now available for download.
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FreeBSD 9.3 Officially Released With ZFS Bookmarks Support
As expected, FreeBSD 9.3 made it out on schedule today with this new release carrying a few new features, numerous updated packages, and other improvements for those not yet riding FreeBSD 10.
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FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
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GCC 4.9.1 Released, Adds OpenMP 4.0 To Fortran
Jakub Jelinek of Red Hat announced this morning the GCC 4.9.1 release that has many bug-fixes and other minor improvements to GNU Compiler Collection 4.9 that was released in April with many improvements and features. More than 88 regressions and serious bugs were fixed in GCC 4.9.1 while a new feature now supported is OpenMP 4.0 support for Fortran, to complement the GCC 4.9.0 OMP 4.0 support for the C and C++ languages.
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First steps with Liberty-Eiffel
The first thing I notice is a different terminology. An executable is called system and a set of classes is refereed as universe. The classes can be grouped in clusters into the universe. And the routines (operations) of a class, and its attributes, are called features. The routines are divided in functions or queries (which return a value) and procedures (which do not return a value). As opposed to C language, where we need a function named main, on Eiffel we can designate any procedure to start the execution.
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Denemo – Release 1.1.8 is imminent
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Public Services/Government
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OFE: ‘Continued discrimination in IT procurement’
Public administrations across Europe continue to discriminate in their IT calls for tender by asking for specific brands and products, concludes OpenForum Europe, and organisation advocating for an open, competitive ICT market. “Thousands of small IT firms are excluded from competing in the public procurement process by restrictions such as the naming of trademarks in calls for tender”, said Graham Taylor, OFE’s CEO, in a press statement.
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A juggernaut like the NHS won’t find it easy to drop Windows for open source – but it should
Microsoft is a commercial venture so it is reasonable for them to sell their products, which they do via licensing per unit. The NHS has about 100,000 computers, so it pays a considerable amount and also has a lot of work to do each time there’s a required update for any of their server technologies or desktop computers. While it needs some technical tweaking, Windows is sold as something that comes out of the box and should work. Designed to work with a wide range of different types of systems, the one size that fits (almost) all computers is a bonus for many technical managers.
But it hasn’t been problem-free. Most hospitals still have thousands of PCs running Windows XP which stopped being supported earlier this year.
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Kerala Legislature announces smooth transition to free software
The Kerala Legislative Assembly has made a significant transition to the free software platform for recording its voluminous business.
The Speaker’s announcement to this effect a couple of days ago represented a milestone not just for the IT Department of the Niyama Sabha, but also for the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (Icfoss) based here, the larger free software community, and free software enterprises in Kerala.
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Openness/Sharing
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Blogger launches open source site for crowdsourcing investigative journalists
Blogger Eliot Higgins launched Bellingcat on July 14 – it’s an open-source site for investigative journalism. Bellingcat aims to bring journalists together to share tech tools, and also to be a learning platform.
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On a mission to digitize and share the world’s visual history
He has always wanted to be an inventor, and I spoke with him about what it’s like to work as a technology consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this interview, Thomas tells me more about how Project Gado came to life, how the Gado community evolved, and how open source is applied to everything.
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Open source plasmids: just add bacteria and reproduce at will
John Schloendorn is distributing “open source” plasmids, giving away proteins that normally cost biotech startups thousands of dollars per milligram, ready to be inserted into bacteria and reproduced at will, without any royalties.
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Open source local food marketplace aims to make it easier to find, buy, and sell sustainable foods
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sGoogle’s new container project, open source at LinkedIn, Raspberry Pi B+, more
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Open Data
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Open-source data key to fending off disasters
The head of one of Australia’s biggest insurance companies has called for a completely open approach to disaster risk data, saying it is the only way to ensure communities are fully prepared for catastrophes.
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Open Access/Content
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The challenges of Open edX’s large and complex codebase
One of the fundamental tenets of the open source movement is the freely available access of knowledge. There has been a growing scene of educators, institutions, and organizations that see open access to knowledge as not being limited to that of source code. For several groups and universities this has been a focal point for the future of worldwide education.
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Open Hardware
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Can Intel’s Galileo Gen2 PC match Raspberry Pi?
Intel plans to launch its second generation of the open-source computer Galileo Gen2 this August for around $60 to counter the popular $25 Raspberry Pi PC.
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Intel unveils second generation Galileo hacker SBC
Intel announced an updated, slightly larger “Galileo Gen 2″ version of its Arduino-compatible Galileo SBC, and expects to start shipping it in August.
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Time-lapse photography: a simple Arduino-driven camera intervalometer
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Programming
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Getting kids interested in programming, robotics, and engineering
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Open Source Akka JVM Toolkit for Concurrency and Scalability Turns 5
Typesafe this month marked the five-year anniversary of Akka, its open-source run-time toolkit for concurrency and scalability on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
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Standards/Consortia
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AllSeen IoT Group Adds 8 New Members
The AllSeen Alliance, which is one of several open-source consortiums working to develop standards for the Internet of things, is adding eight new members to a lineup that includes such tech heavyweights as Microsoft, Qualcomm, Cisco Systems and Symantec.
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Community Blog Series: Red Bend Software
Red Bend Software is a community member of the AllSeen Alliance and a leader in mobile software management. More than 2 billion Red Bend-enabled devices use the company’s software and services for firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updating, application management, device management, device analytics and mobile virtualization. Customers include more than 100 leading manufacturers, mobile operators, semiconductor vendors and automotive companies worldwide.
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New wireless mesh standard hatches from Google’s Nest
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Leftovers
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They Really Do Hate Scotland
This blog exclusively broke the news that Juncker was much more friendly to Scottish independence, and that was a major reason for Cameron’s bitter opposition.
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Security
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New Mayhem malware targets Linux, UNIX servers
A new malware that runs on UNIX-like servers even with restricted privileges has already infected machines in Australia and is actively hunting for more targets, a new research paper has shown.
Three researchers from Russian web provider Yandex – Andrej Kovalev, Konstantin Ostrashkevich and Evgeny Sidorov – said in the technical analysis of the malware, published on security and anti-virus specialist publication Virus Bulletin, that Mayhem functions like a traditional Windows bot.
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Security advisories for Thursday
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Here’s Google’s plan to rid the world of cyberattacks
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Google Launches Project Zero to Protect Users From Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
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Google forms Project Zero, a hacker team for finding zero day software bugs
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Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
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Air Disaster
What is particularly ghoulish is the false grief, what I might call the triumphalist shroud waving, of those seeking gleefully to blame the side they do not support in the Ukrainian conflict. In the current total absence of evidence, this is abominable behaviour.
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Planes Avoid Ukraine After Malaysia Airlines Incident
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4 commercial flights that were shot down
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Deadly history: 7 times militaries have shot down civilian planes, including one carrying a U.S. Congressman
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Past commercial airliners shot down by military, rebels
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Breakdown in Diplomacy at the UN Security Council. Who is Behind “The Most Terrible Crimes in the History of Humanity”, Syria or the US?
Jimmy Carter: “The Rest of the World, Almost Unanimously, Looks at America as the Number 1 Warmonger”
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Hillary Clinton flaunts surveillance state baggage
Who is the true patriot, Hillary Clinton or Edward Snowden? The question comes up because Clinton has gone all out in attacking Snowden as a means of burnishing her hawkish credentials, eliciting Glenn Greenwald’s comment that she is “like a neocon, practically.”
On July 4 in England, Clinton boasted that two years ago she had favored a proposal by a top British General to train 100,000 “moderate” rebels to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria, but Obama had turned her down. The American Thatcher? In that same interview with the Guardian she also managed to get in yet another shot against Snowden for taking refuge in Russia “apparently under Putin’s protection,” unless, she taunted, “he wishes to return knowing he would be held accountable.”
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Jordan Reluctant To Host Expanded Proxy War Against Syria
Jordan, where the Central Intelligence Agency has been covertly training Syrian rebels for more than a year, is reluctant to host an expanded program in what is likely to be a significant step back for Barack Obama.
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Congress Deeply Skeptical of Funding for Syrian Rebels
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Key lawmakers skeptical of Obama’s plan for Syria militants
The CIA is currently providing training and arms to the Syrian militants in Jordan.
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Dear USA Today: Civilian Drone Deaths Aren’t ‘Charges’
There are not “charges” that civilians are killed in those strikes; such deaths are well-documented. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which tracks drone strikes in several countries, estimates that drones have killed at least 400 civilians in Pakistan alone. According to a recent UN report, there were 45 civilians killed by drone strikes in Afghanistan in 2013.
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PBS ‘Expert’ Speaks for Both Sides, but Advocates ‘Excessive Force’ Against One Side
The problem is that Cordesman is on the record as advocating the option of brutality against Palestinian civilians. Back in 2000, Cordesman authored a CSIS report–condemned at the time by an Amnesty International spokesperson–that recommended “excessive force” to control Palestinians and ensure the implementation of a potential peace agreement (Extra!, 1/01).
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As White House marks Ramadan culture, Israeli tweet stirs anger
“Obama has had a very tense relationship with Netanyahu, so he is not as automatic in his support of Israel, but there are still plenty of conflicting considerations especially with the events in Egypt and Iraq.”
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When and how will it end?
Killing and destruction are gathering pace, but neither side is winning
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UNRWA says 20 rockets found in vacant Gaza school
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Gaza Live: 265 dead as Israel expands ground operation
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The Whys Behind Israel’s Gaza Slaughter
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246 Palestinian Dead, Ground Invasion!
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Israeli MP:Kill Palestinian Mothers
Ayelet Shaked of the ultra-nationalist Jewish Home party called for the slaughter of Palestinian mothers who she said give birth to “little snakes.” “They have to die and their houses should be demolished so that they cannot bear any more terrorists,” Shaked said.
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The Air Strike Propaganda Video Israel Doesn’t Want You to See
Nowadays, Special Forces are used ad nauseam in shadow wars to avoid full engagements and still get the bad guys. And yet the American drone campaign is considered the lesser of two evils. It kills terrorists abroad, we’re told, and keeps boots off the ground.
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Podcast: Israel is the only state taking the drone threat seriously – Professor David Dunn
A British academic and expert in international studies says the biggest threat of drone technology is its potential use by terrorists and other non-state actors with “malign intent”.
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Gaza ground invasion: Shedding the pretense of ‘precision’
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Israeli soldier, 23 Palestinians killed in Gaza ground offensive
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Why does everyone pick on us? Israel asks. What’s so special about our crimes?
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Israeli doctors’ group to Ya’alon: Don’t bomb near Gaza City hospital
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How Israeli PR Sells Gaza Slaughter
A favorite line of Official Washington goes: “Perception is reality!” — a misguided notion that makes the U.S. mainstream media particularly vulnerable to “perception management.” And no one does that better than the Israelis when justifying the slaughter of Palestinians, as Danny Schechter notes.
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THE MONSTER THAT ISRAEL HELPED CREATE
There is a terrible irony in Israel’s current assault on Gaza. More than 200 Palestinians have died in an onslaught supposedly aimed at weakening Hamas and degrading its capacity to fire rockets into Israel. It was Israel itself, however, that helped Hamas to power in Gaza. For more than thirty years,from the 1960s to the 1990s, successive Israeli governments viewed radical Islamism as a useful tool with which to counter the influence of the secular Palestine Liberation Organization (of which Yasser Arafat’s Fatah was the principal component) and to sow discord within Palestinian ranks.
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Rocket Fire Resumes After Temporary Ceasefire Holds
Tunnels had long been used by Hamas and others to smuggle weapons, fuel, and goods into Gaza from Egypt before the Hamas-friendly Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was deposed and the Egyptian army shut most of the tunnels down last year. Nevertheless, Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza have also launched cross-border attacks through tunnels, but generally with little success.
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Israel resumes Gaza bombing after Hamas rejects Egyptian ceasefire
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Israel accepts Egypt’s cease-fire proposal, but rockets still fly in Gaza
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After Phony Cease-fire, Israel Vows to Intensify Gaza Bloodbath
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Israel Resumes Gaza Bombings After Ceasefire Fails
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NYT Rewrites Gaza Headline: Was It Too Accurate?
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Boys on a beach in Gaza: Janis Mackey Frayer on a fatal strike
As I write this I can hear the waves of the Mediterranean shift and gently crash at Gaza’s shore. The sky is clear, the moon is bright and if not for the loud buzzing of an Israeli drone it would be soothing.
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4 Palestinian Children Killed in Gaza City While Playing on the Beach
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Through Lens, 4 Boys Dead by Gaza Shore
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Horror on Gaza Beach: New York Times Photographer Witnesses Israeli Killing of 4 Palestinian Boys
Israel says it is considering a new ceasefire proposal from Egypt that would take effect on Friday. There is no word yet from Hamas, which rejected the last proposal on the grounds its leaders were never consulted and the terms would have allowed for the continued siege of Gaza and for Israeli bombardment at will. The news of a fresh proposal comes just as a five-hour humanitarian pause has ended. The United Nations asked for the break to let Gazans receive supplies and repair damage following 10 days of Israeli bombings. On Wednesday, an Israeli gunboat shelled a beach, killing four boys who were playing. The boys were all between the ages of nine and 11 and from the same extended family. Seven other adults and children were wounded in the strike. The scene was witnessed by several international journalists, including our guest Tyler Hicks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff photographer at The New York Times. We are also joined from Gaza City by Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who has interviewed family members of the young victims.
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IDF Shoots Down Another Drone As Hamas Rocket Fire Escalates
The Israel Defense Forces shot down their second Hamas-supplied drone in less than a week as it was flying over the skies of Ashkelon in southern Israel. According to Israel’s Channel 2 News, a Patriot surface-to-air missile (SAM) shot down the UAV.
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Defending Bush can’t be done truthfully
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7 Ways the CIA Helped Totally Screw Up the Middle East
But go back even further and you might be surprised to learn that at one point, there were even budding ties between the CIA and Saddam. In 1988, during a war between Iraq and Iran, the U.S. helped Iraq carry out a devastating chemical attack by sharing intelligence information with the country.
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The Cheneys’ claim of a ‘deep, longstanding, far-reaching relationship’ between al-Qaeda and Saddam
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The Neverending Syndrome: From Vietnam to Iraq
Today, the architects of the Iraq War scramble to rewrite history. In a June 17 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Liz and Dick Cheney, shifting the blame, condemned Obama: “Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many.”
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Cheney Never Shoots Straight
Cheney was among those from the administration who were speaking out publicly about WMD’s in Iraq. In August 2002, Cheney told a VFW convention, “Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.” Of course, there were no WMD’s in Iraq. The administration had misled the American people.
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The Moral Hazards and Legal Conundrums of Our Robot-Filled Future
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Former congressman Joseph Hoeffel talks ‘lies’ surrounding war in Iraq
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Former Montco congressman Joseph Hoeffel talks ‘lies’ surrounding war in Iraq
“I was convinced we had to disarm Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction,” he said July 14. “I was uncertain about the vote. I was 60 percent in favor of it and 40 percent opposed to it. I was uncertain if [President George W.] Bush [and his] administration were telling the truth about the weapons of mass destruction. But, I concluded, if you can’t trust the president and his top national security team to tell the truth to Congress and the American people about a matter of war and peace, then who can you trust?”
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US Drone Kills 20 As Pakistan Military Offensive Continues
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Former Jamaica PM slams US on extrajudicial killings
Former Prime Minister Bruce Golding has come out swinging against the United States, declaring that nation lacks the moral authority to cite human-rights abuses as reasons to withdraw support to the Jamaican security forces.
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Shut up, Bruce! Atkinson slams former PM for lashing out against US gov’t
On Wednesday, Golding slammed the United States (US) government while speaking on Power 106 FM radio talk show, ‘Cliff Hughes On-line’, declaring the US lacked the moral authority to cite human-rights abuses as reasons to withdraw support to the Jamaican security forces.
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US Drone Strike, Pakistani Air Strikes Kill 55 in North Waziristan
All Slain Dubbed ‘Suspected Militants’
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CIA drones kill at least 13 in Pakistan: the bloodiest strike for more than a year
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Many suspected Pakistan militants killed in US drone strikes
A suspected American drone attack killed over a dozen militants in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region on Wednesday, officials said, as the Pakistani military intensified its assault on insurgents in the region where 450 Islamist ultras have been killed so far.
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The New Predator Drone Cockpit Looks Like A Dream Gaming Setup
General Atomics has a new cockpit for their MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers, two of the most common hunt-and-kill drones used by the USAF, capable of destroying basically any ground — and some air — targets. It looks like a dream gaming setup. Heck, it even includes a gamepad (check out that guy’s lap.)
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Putting “ethical governors” on killer robots
Drone warfare makes some people squirm for the ethical issues it raises, but right now drones are still controlled by human beings. The upcoming technology, though, would make them autonomous, allowing them to make their own “decisions” about whether or not to kill. To meet the moral objections in giving machines the option to kill human beings, some techies are proposing tacking on separate software they are calling “ethical governors” that could automatically run the decisions through international law protocols before going lethal.
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The drone ‘blowback’
Drones fuel ‘blowback’ and undermine core principles of American identity.
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Transparency Reporting
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Swedish court to decide on Julian Assange’s fate
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Stockholm Syndrome
Most of the Stockholm hearing into the Assange case yesterday was held in secret.
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LIVE: Detention Lift Hearings For Assange, Stockholm District Court
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Swedish Court Upholds Detention Order on Assange
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Julian Assange’s lawyers will appeal against ruling to uphold arrest warrant
Decision by Stockholm judge condemns WikiLeaks founder to remain in Ecuador embassy in London
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Wikileaks Wants Investigation of Siggi and FBI
Wikileaks has demanded that Danish authorities investigate whether laws were broken when the FBI met with Icelandic citizen Sigurður Þórðarson, aka Siggi ‘the hacker,’ in the country on three occasions, following meetings in Iceland in early 2013.
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Assange hits back at Brandis ‘claptrap’
Julian Assange has hit back at Attorney General George Brandis for saying the Wikileaks founder should be “man enough” to face Swedish sexual assault allegations.
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Environment/Energy/Wildlife
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Green Scare: Animal Rights Activists Face Terrorism Charges for Freeing Minks from Fur Farm
The government has unveiled federal terrorism charges against two animal rights activists accused of helping to free minks and foxes from fur farms in rural Illinois. In newly unsealed indictments, the prosecutors accuse Tyler Lang and Kevin Olliff of freeing about 2,000 mink from their cages on a fur farm and then removing parts of the fence surrounding the property so the mink could escape. The activists are also accused of spray-painting “Liberation is Love” on the farm’s walls. Lang and Olliff have been indicted under the controversial Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), with each count carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. We are joined by reporter Will Potter, who covers animal rights and environmental issues at GreenIstheNewRed.com. “It really doesn’t matter how you feel about animal rights groups or about these alleged crimes of stealing animals,” Potter says of the AETA, which he argues is too broad while criminalizing protests and civil disobedience. “This is really about a corporate campaign to demonize their opposition and to use terrorism resources to shut down a movement.” Potter also discusses his wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to purchase a drone for use in photographing abuses at factory farms.
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O’Reilly: Is NASA “Making It Up” On Predictions Of Alien Life, “Like Global Warming?”
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Finance
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The Rise of the Nonworking Rich
In a new Pew poll, more than three quarters of self-described conservatives believe “poor people have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything.”
In reality, most of America’s poor work hard, often in two or more jobs.
The real non-workers are the wealthy who inherit their fortunes. And their ranks are growing.
In fact, we’re on the cusp of the largest inter-generational wealth transfer in history.
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Trooper pleads guilty in theft from dying motorist
A Connecticut state trooper has pleaded guilty to charges he stole cash and jewelry from a dying accident victim.
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New bank a challenge to IMF, WB
Five major countries under the leadership of India had announced setting up of a new global bank which would pose a challenge to the institutions like the World Bank and the IMF.
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PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
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Who Gets to Speak on Cable News?
A survey of major cable news discussion programs shows a stunning lack of diversity among the guests.
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STUDY: Cable News: A White Man’s World
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Let’s all annoy Ann Coulter! Seven things to irritate the conservative performance artist
We know — Coulter hates soccer. With the World Cup over, here’s what her ludicrous column might rail against next
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Censorship
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Scottish NGO results
As published by STV, we found a number of Scottish websites blocked by different filters provided by ISPs and mobile operators, apparently by mistake, without of course informing the website owners. Here is the list.
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The Right to be Forgotten: Don’t Forget the Rule of Law!
On 10 July, the Working Group on Information Exchange and Data Protection (DAPIX), in charge of the General Data Protection Regulation, worked on the regulation’s Article 17, the “Right to be forgotten and erasure”. In this framework, the legislator must consider the harm to freedom of expression and information, harm which the law currently makes possible, and provide citizens with procedures that safeguard that freedom.
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Privacy
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Edward Snowden urges professionals to encrypt client communications
Whistleblower says NSA revelations mean those with duty to protect confidentiality must urgently upgrade security
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Australian bill sees whistleblowing on intel ops punishable by up to 10 years in jail
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Publishing Snowden-like revelations may attract 10-year jail term in Australia
Australian journalists could face prosecution and up to 10 years in prison for reporting Snowden-style revelations about special intelligence operations, according to a new bill proposed by Australia’s attorney general George Brandis.
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Journalists will face jail over spy leaks under new security laws
George Brandis’s new spying laws will include measure to criminalise media reporting of Snowden-style leaks
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Aussie journalists to face jail time over spy leaks under new laws
Aussie journalists will face prison time if they leak out sensitive information according to a brand new security law. If those in the media report Snowden-like revelations about particular spy missions they could face prosecution from the Australian government as stated by top criminal lawyers.
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9th Circuit Expedites Idaho Woman’s Lawsuit Against Government For Spying on Citizens
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ACLU joins appeal of Idaho woman suing NSA
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EFF, ACLU Join Idaho Mom’s Legal Challenge to NSA Surveillance
The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho have announced they will join Anna Smith’s legal team in her challenge of the government’s bulk collection of the telephone records of millions of innocent Americans.
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UN human rights commissioner says Snowden shouldn’t be prosecuted
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U.N. Human Rights Chief: Snowden shouldn’t be prosecuted – The West dominates Internet governance, but that can change
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UN rights chief criticizes secrecy in governmental surveillance
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UN report strongly implies that NSA surveillance is violating international law
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Guess What, NSA? U.N. Bureaucrats Will Be Scrutinizing Your Cyber-Snooping for Years.
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‘Snowden should be praised, not prosecuted’ – UN rights watchdog
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UN human rights commissioner says Snowden shouldn’t face charges
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U.N.’s Pillay suggests Snowden should not face trial
The top U.N. human rights official suggested on Wednesday the United States should abandon its efforts to prosecute Edward Snowden, saying his revelations of massive state surveillance had been in the public interest.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay credited Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, with opening a global debate which has led to calls for the curtailing of state powers to snoop on citizens online and store their data.
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Box Cozies Up to Microsoft Office (Ed: Box PRISM)
File-storage startup Box is making its service work more seamlessly with Microsoft Office, the king of workplace documents and a major Box rival. Box also is removing file-storage limits for its paying business customers.
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UK MPs Vote in Favor of Data Law Despite Fierce Criticisms
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Leaked British Spy Catalog Reveals Tools to Manipulate Online Information
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GCHQ ‘Can Seize Private Facebook Photographs’
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GCHQ leak reveals digital hacking tools spies can access
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The Government is trying to create a surveillance state
One of the most shocking discoveries from Edward Snowden’s disclosures was that GCHQ, the British intelligence agency, is tapping undersea cables to harvest the communications of people from all around the world. This top-secret programme, nicknamed Tempora, sucks up petabytes of data from tapped cables off the coast of Cornwall and is capable of storing the entirety of the metadata travelling through cross-Atlantic links for 30 days, and the content of communications for three. If it is authorised by law at all, it is on the basis of highly tenuous interpretations that run afoul of human rights; this very week the Government finds itself having to justify these interpretations in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
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Everything you need to know about surveillance law DRIP
Yesterday the House of Commons passed a law called DRIP, which forces communications companies to store all of your data for up to 12 months for use by the security services. Today it goes to the House of Lords, which is also expected to pass the bill.
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A Drip-Drip approach that threatens our civil liberties
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The United Nations finds a ‘disturbing’ lack of transparency about national surveillance
While the UK government is attempting to establish a completely locked down digital communications network, the UN finds that prospect “disturbing”.
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NSA, stop watching us!
The World Wide Web seems to have become a dangerous place for ordinary Web users after ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing revelations. If you’re on the Internet, you’re under NSA survellienace—regardless of the fact whether you are in the U.S. or not.
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Privacy groups want Obama to veto the Cybersecurity Bill
A group of 35 civil society organizations, companies, and security experts have asked President Obama to pledge to veto the controversial cybersecurity bill S. 2588, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (“CISA”) of 2014. These privacy and Internet freedom groups fear that the bill invades the privacy and civil liberties of users.
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Obama’s Failure to Rein in CIA and NSA
Despite Barack Obama’s promises during the 2008 campaign to reform the U.S. intelligence community, he has continued to tolerate its abuses, enable its excessive secrecy and indulge its bone-headedness, as ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman explains.
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Obama Administration Defends ‘Almost-Orwellian’ NSA in Federal Court
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The NSA’s Online Dragnet
As an Illinois senator running for president in 2008, Barack Obama promised there would be no more “wiretaps without warrants” under his administration. He abandoned that position even before he was elected to the White House, voting for legislation that amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to let the National Security Agency (NSA) collect Americans’ international communications without a warrant.
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Nurse’s NSA Lawsuit Gains Firepower
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EFF, ACLU Join Idaho Mom’s Legal Challenge to NSA Surveillance
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William Binney praises Edward Snowden as possibility of new leaker emerges
With all the attention focused on Edward Snowden, the world forgets that he is not the first NSA whistle-blower. Nor might Snowden be the last. William Binney blew the whistle first following the 9-11 attacks on the United States and a third whistle-blower is probably leaking new information to the media.
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Rift Widens Between Anglo-Americans and Continental Europeans
Both strategically and economically, some European countries are being forced to move away from the Anglo-American (British Empire) faction because of the sheer insanity of the latter’s policy. Relations with Russia is a case in point. As of July 3, the German, French and Russian foreign ministers have begun direct diplomatic talks with their Ukrainian counterpart, without the participation of the U.S. State Department.
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Obama support plummets in Germany, Russia
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Chaos Computer Club bolsters NSA spying complaint with Tor snooping evidence
The German Chaos Computer Club said Wednesday that it has added to its legal complaint about U.S. spying on German citizens evidence that the NSA allegedly snooped on at least one of its Tor servers.
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Abramson: Obama Administration Has ‘Put A Freeze’ On Journalists
Former executive editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson, spoke of being “fired” from the paper in May, and also her belief that the Obama White House is the most secretive administration she ever dealt with in her career.
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Jill Abramson: Government repeatedly told us we’d have “blood on our hands”
The former executive editor of the New York Times says Washington often played the terrorism card to spike stories
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Ousted NY Times Exec. Editor Speaks Out on Firing, Professional Challenges
Jill Abramson, who made headlines when she became the first female executive editor of the New York Times – and again when she was unexpectedly fired after only two and a half years on the job – has spoken out about her situation in an article to be published in Cosmopolitan magazine in September.
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Survey: 74% Of U.S. Adults Would Delete Themselves From Search Results If They Could
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Spying and us
The authors later describe the collection programs, PRISM and Upstream, and state “most of the people caught up in these programs are not the targets and would not lawfully qualify as such.” Readers instantly recognize the action described as spying, a term the authors avoid. Further, they make no mention of the lack of an uproar in Congress about this massive surveillance and violation of the 4th Amendment. This is so because the majority of congressional members have an important function: to serve privilege and power.
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Are TrueCrypt Users Screwed?
When developers of the TrueCrypt disk encryption program warned the open source project was insecure, it left users hanging. Fortunately, there are TrueCrypt alternatives.
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DRIP: Convenience or Necessity?
The question for the UK to answer is not whether data can contribute to policing but whether it is justified to retain data of innocent people on a blanket basis. The charge that Jack Straw and Lord Howard made in Parliament was that civil libertarians who asked for “targeted” retention were asking the police to be “clairvoyant” as they would have to know in advance whether somebody would commit a crime and become of interest. That is the argument for blanket retention in a nutshell. We don’t know who the criminals will be so we will keep all of the data all of the time.
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Dear Theresa, see you in court
But in doing so they won’t have had the final word. You’ve already shown them the growing public opposition to mass surveillance. There was incredible action from supporters: 4458 of you wrote to your MPs with even more phoning up on the day of the vote. Together we helped 49 MPs rebel against the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill. It may have passed, but thanks to you they know that we do not agree.
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Drip by drip, they take away our freedom in the name of liberty
When is a snoopers’ charter not a snooping charter? When David Cameron and his stooge Nick Clegg call it the data retention and investigation powers bill (Surveillance bill rushed through in a day, 16 July).
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As U.K. Papers Wage War for America, MEC Exec Eamonn Store Named CEO of Guardian U.S.
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British Surveillance Agents Create False Internet Information
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GCHQ JTRIG Tools and Techniques for Propaganda and Internet Deception
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New Snowden Docs Reveal British Spy Agency Tactic To Manipulate Social Media
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Leaked GCHQ catalog of exploit tools for manipulation and mass surveillance
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NIST to NSA: get your hands off our encryption (please)
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Russia to Reopen Spy Center in Cuba
Russia will reopen its electronic spying center in Cuba as the island once again assists its old ally in its renewed dispute with the United States, reports the EFE news agency.
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Report: Russia Wants to Reopen Spy Base in Cuba
The Russian government and Cuba have agreed to reopen a massive Soviet-era spy base on the outskirts of Havana, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
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Privacy Groups Urge Obama to Reject Senate Cyber-Security Bill
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Here’s One Unexpected Way to Land on the NSA’s Watch List
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Feds spying on CAIR chief
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Post-9/11 overreach of secret federal court must end
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Journalists reveal NSA monitored Rutgers professor
Former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden exposed thousands of classified government documents to major media outlets in June of last year.
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Why Washington remains silent on German spying
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‘Deep differences’ between Berlin and Washington over US double agents
‘Deep differences’ between Berlin and Washington over US double agents
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Obama’s Influence Abroad is Evaporating
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Report: Over a dozen CIA spies work in German Government
US secret services have recruited more than a dozen officials in various German government ministries to work as spies, with some of them working for the CIA for many years, a German tabloid reported on Sunday.
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World Cup chants reveal true state of U.S.-German relations
As American fans chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!” the Germans countered with, “N-S-A! N-S-A! N-S-A!”
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After Germany expels CIA chief, will US spies back off?
The United States has badly underestimated the level of anger in Germany over its spying operations and the damage could be long-lasting if Washington fails to ease off, former US officials said Wednesday.
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Victim Of U.S. Spying, Germany Must React With Care
How is Germany supposed to react to the U.S. spying activities that have come to light recently? The political opposition seems to think the answer is simple: Expel all U.S. intelligence agents! Allow whistle-blower Edward Snowden asylum! Immediately halt all negotiations regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)! Stop all cooperation with U.S. intelligence services!
But things are not that easy for those who actually have to govern. On the one hand, the German government is under pressure to act in a way to not be seen by its own citizens as the powerless appendage of the Americans. On the other, it has to protect Germany’s very real interests.
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US avoids admitting or denying charges of spying on Pakistani officials
Pakistan, unlike Germany, abstains from ousting CIA Station Chief from the country on spying charges
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Surveillance, empire and the future
All in all, much ado about nothing; the NSA was not unilaterally scooping and scanning all Internet content and Microsoft was not part of a larger surveillance scheme. For those accustomed to believing what the Wall Street Journal said — remember the bogus story of Saddam Hussein’s agent meeting with one of the 9/11 attackers? — everything was as it should be.
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Edward Snowden wants encryption, data protection used by journalists
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden wants professionals to utilize data protection and encryption to communicate, and is reportedly working on some type of “encryption tools” to help protect sources. Remaining in Russia, with his asylum status extended, it’s mainly unknown what the American has been doing with his spare time.
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Kim Dotcom May Sue New Zealand Spy Agency for Illegal Surveillance
Internet mogul Kim Dotcom is now thinking about suing New Zealand’s spy agency for “illegal; surveillance.” According to reports, the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) has found the police were justified in not pursuing any of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) officers for an illegal spying operation.
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Guest Post: Would the USA Freedom Act (Truly) End All Authorities for Bulk Collection?
When the House passed the USA Freedom Act (H.R. 3361) in May, both Members and the administration announced that it would end bulk collection of metadata about Americans’ communications. The administration is now urging Congress to pass the bill as soon as it can and Senators are now considering revisions to specific language in the House-passed bill.
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New “Smart Lights” Allow NSA To Spy on You Using LED Technology
The new LED bulbs will have the ability to read your license plate, listen in to your conversation, monitor your movements, detect the weather and even sniff out a dirty bomb, claims CBS. This raises questions about privacy.
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Chilling Free Speech, Establishing Tyranny
“Chilling” is the word lawyers use to describe governmental behavior that does not directly interfere with constitutionally protected freedoms, but rather tends to deter folks from exercising them. Classic examples of “chilling” occurred in the 1970s, when FBI agents and U.S. Army soldiers, in business suits with badges displayed or in full uniform, showed up at anti-war rallies and proceeded to photograph and tape record protesters. When an umbrella group of protesters sued the government, the Supreme Court dismissed the case, ruling that the protesters lacked standing — meaning, because they could not show that they were actually harmed, they could not invoke the federal courts for redress.
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UK data law is good news for Ireland’s tech sector
When earlier this year, the European Court of Justice threw out the EU’s data retention directive on the grounds that it was not fit for purpose and grossly disproportionate to needs – in effect, imposing surveillance on the entire European population without justification – the UK had a problem.
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British snooping
The European Court of Justice properly overturned a European Union directive that would have forced telecommunications companies to store data on all of their customers for as long as two years. In response, British Prime Minister David Cameron is countermanding the spirit of the ruling and doubling down on the failed policies of mass surveillance.
Mr. Cameron plans to rush an “emergency data plan” through Parliament. It would require British companies to continue to store the time, date, location, and recipient of every telephone call, email, and text message sent by British citizens for a year.
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Should You Trust Tor?
In the wake of Ed Snowden’s revelations there’s been a litany of calls for the widespread adoption of online anonymity tools. One such technology is Tor, which employs a network of Internet relays to hinder the process of attribution. Though advocates openly claim that “Tor still works” skepticism is warranted. In fact, anyone risking incarceration in the face of a leveraged intelligence outfit like the NSA would be ill-advised to put all of their eggs in the Tor basket. This is a reality which certain privacy advocates have been soft-pedaling.
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The World’s Next Major Trade Agreement Will Make NSA Spying Even Easier
With paranoia over NSA surveillance reaching a fever pitch, foreign governments are making a reasonable plea: bring our data home.
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Data retention ‘neither necessary nor proportionate’: UNHRC
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UN to Five Eyes nations: Your mass surveillance is breaking the law
Edward Snowden should be shielded from prosecution because the world needs people willing to expose violations of human rights, says the UN’s High Commissioner for Human rights Navi Pillay.
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Snowden should not face trial, UN human rights chief says
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U.N. human rights chief: Surveillance is now world’s “dangerous habit”
In a new hard-hitting draft report, Navi Pillay, the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, has thrown the weight of the U.N. General Assembly behind the idea that digital privacy is a human right, and one under attack amid disclosures of surveillance by “signals intelligence agencies,” not only the United States’ National Security Agency but the United Kingdom’s General Communications Headquarters.
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Edward Snowden “owed a great deal” and deserves protection from prosecution: UN human rights chief
UN high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay has suggested former NSA contractor Edward Snowden should not face prosecution for leaking top secret material.
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NSA data collection ineffective against terrorism and dangerous for democracy, say mathematicians
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NSA lawsuit gets help
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Idaho have joined Anna Smith’s legal team in her challenge of the government’s bulk collection of telephone records.
Smith, an emergency neonatal nurse and pregnant mother of two in North Idaho, filed her suit against President Barack Obama and several U.S. intelligence agencies shortly after the government confirmed revelations that the National Security Agency was conducting bulk collection of telephone records under a section of the Patriot Act.
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BRICS must take control of the Internet
A civil society coalition has called for the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of countries to provide a new global Internet Governance model that ensures human rights, as well as equity and social justice.
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Hill surveillance reform: Time is not on its side
Surveillance reformers on Capitol Hill are up against a wall — and short on time.
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Ha! NSA Is Concerned About Violating Snowden’s Privacy
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Search for Lois Lerner’s lost emails leads to NSA
The House Armed Services Committee has come up with a creative approach to look for emails from embattled former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official Lois Lerner that were apparently lost in a computer crash: they’re asking the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Department.
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Winning the zero-sum game: how the battle is heating up over zero-day bugs
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U.S. tech agency told to ‘be very careful’ with NSA
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Edward Snowden: Not ‘scared’ about future
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NSA leakier Edward Snowden: ‘If I end up in chains in Guantanamo, I can live with that’
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden believes his revelations were so important that he could endure a life in chains in US detention.
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Snowden: ‘I can live with’ serving time in Gitmo
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Snowden: ‘If I end up in chains in Guantanamo I can live with that’
Snowden“If I end up in chains in Guantanamo I can live with that,” Edward Snowden, the former intelligence contractor-turned-privacy advocate, told the Guardian newspaper during a recent interview released in part by the paper on Thursday.
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Snowden, A Citizen Of Humanity’s Hopeful World – OpEd
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Snowden: NSA employees routinely pass around intercepted nude photos
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NSA workers pass nude photos swiped from communications streams: Snowden
Workers for the National Security Agency regularly share private, intimate photos swiped from communications streams, Edward Snowden said.
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Edward Snowden Reveals The NSA Shared Nude Photos
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NSA Responds To Snowden Claim That Intercepted Nude Pics ‘Routinely’ Passed Around By Employees
The NSA’s spokesperson didn’t explicitly deny that it happens in a response to an inquiry about Snowden’s claim, but said such activity wouldn’t be tolerated. “NSA is a professional foreign-intelligence organization with a highly trained workforce, including brave and dedicated men and women from our armed forces,” said spokesperson Vanee Vines by email. “As we have said before, the agency has zero tolerance for willful violations of the agency’s authorities or professional standards, and would respond as appropriate to any credible allegations of misconduct.”
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NSA sees your nude pix ‘as fringe benefits of surveillance positions,’ says Snowden
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Sharing Your Porn Selfies is a “Perk” of Working at the NSA, Says Snowden
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Nude photos of strangers are a “fringe benefit” for NSA employees, says Snowden
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Snowden: ‘NSA Employees Routinely Pass Around Nude Photos’
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Here’s What Edward Snowden Says NSA Employees Do When They Come Across Intimate Nude Photos
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Edward Snowden: Young NSA Workers Are Probably Passing Around Your Girl’s Nude Photos
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NSA employees pass around your nude photos
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The NSA Is Looking At Your Naked Pictures and Laughing
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NSA Workers Might Be Sharing Your Nude Photos
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NUDE SNAPS AGENCY: NSA bods love ‘showing off your saucy selfies’
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NUDE SNAPS AGENCY: NSA bods love ‘showing off your saucy selfies’
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Snowden Alleges NSA Officials Routinely Passed Around Intercepted Nude Photos
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Snowden: NSA Shares Your Nude Pics
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Snowden: NSA Workers Routinely Share Your Nude Photos
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The NSA Is Getting Off on Your Sexts, Says Snowden
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Edward Snowden Says NSA Workers Pass Around Your Nude Photos
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Snowden Claims NSA Workers Circulate ‘Sexually Compromising’ Images of Targets
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Those Nude Photos You Take With Your Phone? The NSA Has Been Passing Them Around The Office For Years.
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Snowden reports NSA employees intercept, share private nude photos
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NSA workers pass nude photos swiped from communications streams: Snowden
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Folks At The NSA Probably Saw Your Nudes
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NSA Employees Share Private Nude Photos of People, Says Edward Snowden (Video)
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NSA spying: Snowden speaks, USA Freedom Act, privacy as human right
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Snowden: NSA employees share intercepted sexts
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Snowden: NSA Employees Are Passing Around Nude Photos
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Snowden Says Drop Dropbox, Use SpiderOak
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It’s Not About Fighting Terror, It’s About Having Power
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US snooping an aggressive intrusion of privacy
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CISA: Another Government Assault On Liberty
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Researchers use game theory to show link between government surveillance and corruption
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A Guide to the Edward Snowden Anniversary
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My view: NSA, Edward Snowden and Utah
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‘What is the price of a little inconvenience when it comes to protecting our privacy?’
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Sikh-Americans Seek Official Documents on Use of Ethnic Slurs
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Sikhs ask U.S. to reveal officials’ use of epithets
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Religious Group Demands NSA Documents in Ethnic-Slur Probe
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Maglio: Snowden exposes technological structure of totalitarian world order
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‘Be careful’ working with NSA, US tech security agency warned
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Civil Rights
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Calif. death penalty overruled
A federal judge ruled California’s death penalty unconstitutional Wednesday, writing that lengthy and unpredictable delays have resulted in an arbitrary and unfair capital punishment system.
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Open Letter to Russia’s Putin On Tenth Anniversary of Forbes’ Editor Paul Klebnikov’s Murder: Why Haven’t You Solved It?
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Reporter stopped by TSA agent who didn’t know District of Columbia is in US
It’s something most students learn in elementary school — the United States is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia. But Channel 9′s Justin Gray found out it’s a lesson that an Orlando agent with the Transportation Safety Administration seems to have missed.
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UK police start using face recognition software to catch criminals
British police officers have this week started using facial recognition software designed to automatically identify criminals from digital images. Police in Leicestershire become the first in the UK to test NEC’s NeoFace software, which the force says is capable of comparing any digital image of a suspect with photos held on its database, by comparing “dozens of measurements” against key facial features.
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Top US spy in Germany leaves the country
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USA spy station chief ‘leaves Germany’
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CIA station chief ordered out of Germany has left, US confirms
The CIA station chief in Germany left the country on Thursday after Berlin’s shock decision last week to demand his expulsion, the US and German governments said.
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1ST LEAD Top US spy in Germany departs country after intelligence row By dpa correspondents
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Former CIA-backed dictator Noriega sues video game for accurate portrayal of his atrocities
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Manuel Noriega sues ‘Call of Duty’ makers for mocking portrayal in game
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Noriega sues Activision over Call of Duty character depiction
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Former Dictator Manuel Noriega sues for ‘Black Ops II’ for image misuse
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Manuel Noriega sues Activision over Call of Duty likeness
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Call of Duty: Former dictator Manuel Noriega sues Black Ops II publishers for ‘portraying him as a kidnapper and murderer’
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Deposed strongman Noriega sues over ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’
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Report: Manuel Noriega sues over depiction in “Call of Duty” video game
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Manuel Noriega sues Activision over likeness in ‘Call of Duty’
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Noriega Sues Over His Image in ‘Call of Duty’
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Manuel Noriega sues Call Of Duty studio for making him a figure of Lindsay Lohan-esque evil
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Panama’s former dictator Noriega sues creators of popular video game franchise ‘Call of Duty’
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Manuel Noriega sues Activision over videogame portrayal
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Ex-Despot Noriega Says ‘Call of Duty’ Misused His Image
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Call of Duty Publisher Faces Lawsuit
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Panama Dictator Manuel Noriega sues Activision for portrayal in Black Ops 2
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Former Panama dictator General Noriega suing Call of Duty makers over likeness to a character
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Criminal ex-dictator Manuel Noriega is suing Activision for portraying him as a bad man in Call of Duty
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Ex-Dictator Sues Over His Call of Duty Appearance
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Manuel Noriega sues Activision over Call of Duty video game character
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Imprisoned Manuel Noriega sues Activision for using his name, likeness
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Former Panama Dictator Suing Activision Over Call of Duty: Black Ops II
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Former dictator of Panama sues Activision over Call of Duty: Black Ops II
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Manuel Noriega Wants to Get Paid For Being In Call of Duty
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Manuel Noriega to Sue Over Call of Duty: Black Ops II
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Imprisoned Dictator Sues ‘Call Of Duty’ For Portraying Him As A ‘Murderer’
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HOT BLAST: Noriega suing video-game maker of Black Ops II
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Ex-Dictator Sues US Video Game Maker Over Use Of Image
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Former Panama Dictator Sues Activision Over Call of Duty: Black Ops II
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Former dictator suing Activision over Call of Duty portrayal
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Panamanian ex-dictator sues Activision over Black Ops II appearance
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Imprisoned former dictator Manuel Noriega sues Activision over ‘Call of Duty’ character
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Manuel Noriega genuinely suing Activision over “unlawful exploitation” in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
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No, Really, Former Panama Dictator Manuel Noriega Is Suing Activision Over Black Ops 2
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Ex-Panama Dictator Manuel Noriega Suing Activision Over Call of Duty Likeness
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Call of Duty sued by ex-dictator Manuel Noriega for ‘portraying him as a kidnapper, murderer and enemy of the state’
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The Broken Promise to Shevardnadze
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Operation Audit: The CIA Has an Embarrassing Problem with Its Tax Returns
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Michigan says CIA owes state over $20,000 in taxes
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Michigan Treasury says CIA owes state over $20,000 in taxes withheld from employee paychecks
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Former dictator sues Activision over Call Of Duty
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Ex-dictator Noriega goes to war with Call of Duty
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Imprisoned real life dictator Noriega sues Activision over dis
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Manuel Noriega is Suing an American Video Game Company
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Ex-dictator Manuel Noriega sues Activision over Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Noriega worked with the CIA from the late 1950s through the 1980s when their relationship soured. Broad, public criticism based on mounting evidence of his close ties to the notorious Colombian Medellin Cartel forced the U.S. government to reverse its tacit acceptance and level charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.
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‘Call of Duty Black Ops 2′: Manuel Noriega, Former Dictator of Panama, Sues Activision over Portrayal in Game
Manuel Noriega, former Panamanian strongman and CIA operative, is suing an American video game developer over his portrayal in one of their most well-known games. The former dictator objects to the game’s portrayal of him without his consent and demands monetary compensation.
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Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega sues over depiction in ‘Call of Duty’ game
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Manuel Noriega Sues Over ‘Call of Duty’ Video Game
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Manuel Noriega Is Suing Activision Over Likeness in Call of Duty.
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Tour of CIA museum reveals dead rats used to pass secrets between agents
The rodents are used to pass secrets between CIA agents, Museum Curator Toni Hiley said during a tour taken by Yahoo News reporter Oliver Knox, who gained unprecedented access to the museum, which only allows those with top security clearance access to its artifacts.
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Book Review: ‘The Last Magazine’ by Michael Hastings
When renowned journalist Michael Hastings died in a high-speed car accident in 2013, he left behind a secret manuscript hidden in his desk drawer. One year later, almost to the day, the manuscript has been published as The Last Magazine, Hastings’s first (and last) novel.
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North Korea submits letter of complaint to White House over “The Interview”
North Korean officials from the National Defence Commission sent a letter to President Barack Obama officially protesting the release of the James Franco and Seth Rogen film “The Interview” on Thursday, according to reports in the Voice of Korea.
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North Korea Takes Complaint About Assassination Movie to White House
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North Wrote to White House over The Interview
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North Korea protests to White House over N. Korean comedy movie
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If the CIA Illegally spied on the U.S. Senate, we might never know, thanks to inertia.
The Department of Justice will not investigate whether the Central Intelligence Agency illegally spied on staffers of the Senate Intelligence Committee and removed documents from committee servers, McClatchy News Service confirmed Thursday. The CIA also claimed committee staffers took documents from the intelligence agency without authorization. That claim also won’t be investigated.
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A Witness-Protection Program for Terrorists?
The Vietnamese general Nguyen Ngoc Loan, head of South Vietnam’s National Police and a CIA informant—who was famously photographed blowing the brains out of a Viet Cong prisoner in 1968—wound up owning a pizzeria in Burke, Virginia. Down the street a number of Saigon’s former top intelligence officers had townhouses, and everyone would get together at the Vietnam Inn in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia once a week to reminisce over old times, frequently to be joined by friends from the nearby Pentagon and CIA headquarters.
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Guantanamo Judge’s Secret Order On Secret Motion Is So Secret Defense Lawyers Can’t See It
In the latest installment of the Guantanamo war court’s most mysterious legal filings — two motions so secret that the public can’t know their titles — an Army judge has issued a classified order to prosecutors that even the defense lawyers can’t see.
The Pentagon disclosed the existence of Army Col. James L. Pohl’s judicial order dated June 4 in a recent website notation in the capital case of the accused USS Cole bomber.
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Omar Khadr is still a pawn
Despite legal decisions and expert opinions to the contrary, minister after minister has insisted that he is a very dangerous man. He is invariably referred to as a “convicted terrorist” or “war criminal”. Yet recently revealed secret information in the United States suggests that there was never any legal basis for charging him with war crimes in the first place.
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Internet/Net Neutrality
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Verizon claims common carrier rules would require Web services to pay ISPs
Verizon is making an alarmist argument in its response to the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality proposal. Classification of broadband as a common carrier service—a step called for by public interest groups who want to prevent ISPs from charging Web services for faster access to consumers—would instead require ISPs to charge Netflix, YouTube, and other Web services for network access, Verizon claims.
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Congress Agrees To Make It Harder To Get Competitive High Speed Broadband
Earlier we wrote about Rep. Marsha Blackburn adding a terrible amendment to a House appropriations bill that would block the FCC from preempting anti-competitive bans on municipal broadband. Unfortunately, despite some noise about it, the amendment it was approved 223 – 200 in the House. While Blackburn (falsely) spun the bill about letting local governments make their own decisions, that’s flat out wrong. As others have pointed out it’s exactly the opposite. The FCC’s plan would be about giving power back to local governments to allow them to make their own decisions about whether or not they wanted to offer municipal broadband.
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Congressman Who Was Against Protecting Net Neutrality Flips Sides After Realizing The Harm Broadband Giants Can Cause
Over the last few weeks we’ve seen a number of politicians come out on one side or another concerning the FCC’s net neutrality plans, but most of them were pretty much expected. It actually was nice to see some net neutrality supporters be quite explicit in their support for Title II reclassification (like Senator Chuck Schumer), but beyond that there weren’t too many surprises. That’s why it was actually great to see Rep. Gary Peters, who is currently running for the Senate in Michigan, come out in favor of net neutrality, warning of the harm that could be caused by the fast lanes and slow lanes as allowed by the current FCC proposal.
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In the future, the web must be open
Klabnik works for marketplace payment company Balanced, where he is—and how awesome is this?—Philosopher in Residence. His job, he says, “is to pay attention to where things are going and also think about where we should be going.”
So for years, Klabnik has been thinking about web standards, the technical protocols that govern the way anyone accesses the World Wide Web. Much of the web’s lingua franca, (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), has been standardized—that is, people who write software for the World Wide Web have come to an agreement about the way certain technologies should work and the way they’ll implement those technologies. A webpage appears the same on both Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome because those companies have agreed to program their browsers in accordance with the official rules for displaying that page.
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Intellectual Monopolies
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Backroom talks on dangerous TTIP agreement must end
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MEPs call for trade transparency
EU citizens must be better informed of the progress of EU-US talks on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), said MEPs from all political groups debating the issue with EU trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.
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Copyrights
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RIAA Copyright Pressure Silences Historical Radio Archive
ReelRadio, a site that streams an archive of often decades-old historical radio shows, has been forced to take down much of its library after the RIAA complained that the site was operating outside the terms of its license. The letter of the law is tight, and the RIAA is insisting that the near 20-year-old site now meets all of its requirements.
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Google Processes Millions of Useless DMCA Notices
The world’s biggest copyright holders send Google millions of DMCA notices each week, many of them sent by the most notable anti-piracy companies around. But for reasons best known to themselves, hundreds of thousands being processed by Google are completely useless and a waste of time and money.
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File-Sharing Doesn’t Hurt Box Office Revenue, Research Finds
New research by economist Koleman Strumpf shows that there is no significant effect of movie piracy on box office revenues. This conclusion is based on data from 150 blockbuster movies that were released over a period of six years, using the popular Hollywood exchange as an indication for the revenue impact.
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