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Links 19/8/2015: LinuxCon Everywhere



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



Leftovers



  • News Corp.'s Amplify education experiment: What went wrong?
    That write-down comes nearly five years after it purchased Wireless Generation for $360 million in 2010 and renamed it Amplify. At the time, News Corp. was going to bet about $500 million on Amplify to dominate the market. Amplify was led by Joel Klein, the former head of the New York City Department of Education.


  • Avoiding Amazon? The 5 best alternatives to the online bookseller giants


  • You probably don't want to work for Amazon
    'Amazon is where overachievers go to feel bad about themselves.'


  • The Missing ‘Leadership Principle’ at Amazon


  • Amazon’s 24/7 Hell Is the Future of Work
    Working at Amazon may be hell, but so is working everywhere else. Or at least it will be soon. The blockbuster New York Times report documenting Amazon’s “bruising” white collar culture is a fine piece of labor reporting, yet its revelations shouldn’t be too surprising. Amazon is revealed to be a more efficient and more unpleasant formulation of the standard modern workplace; one shaped by globalization, digitalization, and increasingly limitless expectations placed on the plugged-in worker.


  • Health/Nutrition



  • Security



    • Security updates for Monday


    • Security advisories for Tuesday


    • DDoS attacks on the rise as Akamai warns that 'mega attacks' are coming
      THIS IS THE DAWN of the mega denial-of-service (DoS) attack, according to security firm Akamai and its second quarter threat report.

      We wait every three months for the Akamai State of the Internet report, and we are never disappointed. Its content is pretty good too, and allows for a summary of the past quarter and a reminder about things like Shellshock and web perennials like Flash, WordPress themes and application attacks.



    • Ransomware goes open source
      Turkish security bod Utku Sen has published what seems to be the first open source ransomware that anyone can download and spread. The 'Hidden Tear' ransomware, available at GitHub, is a working version of the malware the world has come to hate. It uses AES encryption to lock down files and could display a scare warning or ransom message to get users to pay.




  • Transparency Reporting



    • Julian Assange and the Value of WikiLeaks: Subverting Illusions
      Above and beyond Assange’s personal freedom, what’s at stake includes the impunity of the United States and its allies to relegate transparency to a mythical concept, with democracy more rhetoric than reality. From the Vietnam War era to today — from aerial bombing and torture to ecological disasters and financial scams moving billions of dollars into private pockets — the high-up secrecy hiding key realities from the public has done vast damage. No wonder economic and political elites despise WikiLeaks for its disclosures.






  • Finance



    • Richard D. Wolff | Déjà Vu: Germany Tightens Its Economic Power Over Europe
      Germany's leaders herded their European counterparts into imposing harsh austerity on Greece. It was the price, they insisted, that Greece had to pay to receive bailout credits from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Europeans required those bailout credits to be used mostly to pay back loans the Greek government had gotten earlier from private banks (chiefly German, French and Greek). Those credits could not be used to get Greece out of the 2008 crash that afflicted all of Europe.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • Scott Walker's False Promise of Racial Unity
      When asked about race relations on the first anniversary of Michael Brown's killing at the hands of a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, Walker replied:

      “I think in general if anyone focuses on racial discord we’re going to get more," he said. "If we focus on unity we’re going to get more of that."

      In other words, acknowledging systemic problems like the documented wave of police killings of unarmed black men, or the racial wealth gap, or disparities in sentencing and incarceration, creates "discord." During the GOP debate, he similarly dodged a question about the Black Lives Matter movement, which even Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly called "the biggest civil rights issue of our time."


    • 70 Awful Displays Of Sexism On Fox News
      On the 95th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, Media Matters looks back at Fox News' many displays of sexism, ranging from hosts suggesting young women should not exercise civic duties like participating in jury duty because they "don't get it," to Erick Erickson's claim that "the male typically is the dominant role."


    • Who Is Intimidating Who?
      The cheerful cheddarheads who showed up at the Iowa State Fair "Soapbox" to razz Scott Walker got a rude reception. The Soapbox is a Des Moines Register tradition and peaceful protesters have long been a part of this exercise in free speech. But after Walker was punked by two young people with a fake $900 million Koch check weeks ago, Team Walker seems a bit tense. At the Soapbox, Walker supporters ripped a sign out of one protester’s hand which read “WARNING Don’t let him do to America what he did to Wisconsin.” Another protester told CNN ”I got pushed into a disabled woman. I fell on her wheelchair. She started screaming at me."


    • Donald Trump Praises Bill O'Reilly For His Focus On Immigrant "Crime Wave"




  • Censorship



    • MPAA Ducks Censorship Battle With Google, Twitter and Facebook


      The MPAA has dropped its request for a preliminary injunction that would require search engines, ISPs and hosting companies to stop linking or offering services to MovieTube. The decision comes a few days after prominent tech firms including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Yahoo branded the request as a broad censorship attempt.


    • U.S. Government Grabbed Dotcom’s Millions “As a Last Resort”


      The U.S. Government has informed the Court of Appeals that the civil forfeiture case against Megaupload and Kim Dotcom was launched as a last resort. The authorities feared that Dotcom and his colleagues would regain possession of the millions in seized assets and argue that they are properly labeled as "fugitives."




  • Privacy



    • Warrantless airport laptop search dooms Iran arms sales prosecution
      Federal prosecutors asked a federal judge in Washington on Tuesday to dismiss the government's prosecution of a South Korean businessman accused of illegally selling technology used in aircraft and missiles to Iran.

      The move comes three months after a judge ruled that the government unlawfully seized and searched the suspect's computer at Los Angeles International Airport as Jae Shik Kim was to catch a flight home in 2012. The government decided not to appeal and said it was "unable to continue prosecuting this matter."




  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Copyrights



      • Desperate Rightscorp Burns Through More Piracy Millions


        Piracy monetization company Rightscorp has published its results for Q2 2015 and it's yet another three months of misery for the company. At the same time as paying out just $117K to its copyright holder clients, Rightscorp managed to run up $1.95m in expenses, leaving the company with operating losses in excess of $1.72m.


      • Universal Music and Kim Dotcom Prepared a Deal to Tax Google


        A recording of Kim Dotcom and several Universal Music executives captured two days before the Megaupload raids has revealed the label planning to do a deal with the entrepreneur. Amid discussion of 'taxing' Google by diverting its ad revenue to the label, the execs offered to downgrade Dotcom from "evil" to "neutral" in return for dropping legal action over the "Mega Song".


      • Hollywood Keeps Breaking Box Office Records... While Still Insisting That The Internet Is Killing Movies
        Hollywood is still 100% focused on trying to blame the internet for any of its woes, mostly with bogus attacks on internet companies it doesn't like. And yet... it seems to keep on setting box office records. The latest is that Universal Pictures has broken a new record in bringing in $2 billion in box office revenue faster than any other studio in history, pushed over the top by the successful opening weekend of "Straight Outta Compton" (a movie that seems to have some big fans in Silicon Valley).










Recent Techrights' Posts

Twitter as X-Rated Hatred: Criticising Microsoft is Not OK, Calling for Beheadings (With Bounties on People's Heads) is OK
Twitter automation missed 'hit job' advertising
Balancing Activism Against (or With) Basic Necessities and Daniel Cantarín on Our Collective Battle for Software Freedom Around the World
"I'm VERY angry about lots of stuff happening here in Argentina, all of it shielded behind the word "freedom"."
 
Links 16/08/2024: YouTube Bans and Surveillance Expanded
Links for the day
We Were Right All Along and the Collaborators of Microsoft Helped Competition Crimes of Microsoft
Once again vindicated regarding UEFI "secure boot"
[Meme] The New Windows Slogan
stat me up
Addendum: Associate's Notes on Free Software as a Labour Issue and the Connectivity Swindles
these are related issues/causes
Microsofters Infiltrating Roles of Authority and Government Positions to Protect Microsoft and to FUD Microsoft's Competition
friends of Microsofters who bully me and my wife
Links 16/08/2024: UK Skills Deficit and Kim Dotcom to be Extradited to the US (for Doing the Same Stuff GAFAM Does)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/08/2024: Overgeneralisation and Games
Links for the day
Russia's Yandex 5 Times Bigger Than Microsoft... in Ukraine
They'd rather rely on the Kremlin than on Microsoft
[Meme] Gemini is Different, So What?
different, not worse
Now It's "Official": Over 4,000 Known Gemini Capsules in Lupa
For the first time ever
Clown Computing
Reprinted with permission from Dr. Andy Farnell
[Meme] What Freedom Means to IBM
Free labou
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 15, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, August 15, 2024
From 99% in 2012 to 27% in 2024: How Microsoft Lost Georgia
What we're seeing is a migration from Windows to other platforms, notably GNU/Linux
To Understand Cisco's Mass Layoffs Look at the Company's Soaring Debt (Same at Microsoft)
Look what's happening to Intel - down almost 60% since the start of the year, 57% to be precise
Windows Flying Low at 25%
It's another all-time low
[Meme] Long Texts You Never Bother Reading (Because Life is Too Short, Unlike Those Texts)
The devil is in the terms of service
Links 15/08/2024: Monkeypox Hysteria and Modern Homesteaders Living Off the Grid
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/08/2024: Confession of a Convention Game Master and Some Release nostalgia
Links for the day
Congratulations to Romania, Where Windows is Now "Minority Market Share" Platform
Time will tell if GNU/Linux can pass 5% on the desktop/laptop "form factor" there
Why It Matters That 4,000 Gemini Capsules Are Known to Lupa and Why Gemini Protocol Matters to Us
I have no doubt Gemini Protocol will continue to expand because it solves a real problem
Links 15/08/2024: Avast Surveillance Scandal Unsolved and Facebook Still Censors Terror Sympathisers
Links for the day
Daniel Cantarín's Response to Alexandre Oliva's Talk on Achieving Software Freedom in the Age of Platform Decay
Soylent News caught up with the series
4,000 Gemini Capsules
it's basically one capsule short of 4,000
"Microsoft is a Sponsor of The New Stack."
Many articles turn out to be just ads
New Highs for Android in Russia, But It's Reportedly Working on Its Own Linux-Based Operating Systems (GAFAM-Free)
statCounter isn't equipped to properly parse user agents or to keep up
Upcoming Series: Terms of Service (TOS) Under the Microscope, FSF Party, GitHub Scandals, Clowns, and More
Right now we have way more material than we have time to cover. But that's a good thing.
Gemini Links 15/08/2024: Lies of Therapy and Web Applications
Links for the day
Software Freedom in Perspective - Part 5 - When Richard Stallman Came to Argentina
It might seem a bit harsh, but a discussion at the end of this series will tie things together and explain why those things were said
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 14, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Russia develops an alternative to Android and iOS | News.az
Russia already has several of its own operating systems
Links 14/08/2024: Ecology and War Inside Russia
Links for the day
Daniel Pocock - Use of Technology in European Parliament Election Campaign (Public Talk)
It starts in 4 hours
Android About to Fly Past Windows in Portugal
Perhaps by month's end or next month Portugal will be orange (Android majority)
How OpenAI Will Decrease the Losses
You have no losses when you have no users left
Giving Control to Microsoft is Always a Dire, Huge Mistake
Microsoft is known for buying things and sabotaging things, not for creating things
Founders That Sell Their Company to Microsoft Speak Out
"Microsoft's closure of Arkane Austin in May was one of the more shocking events of the past couple of years"
In Chile, Microsoft's Web Browser (a Chrome Copycat) Fell to 3.6%, About the Same as Firefox and Opera and Less Than Safari, Yandex Browser, Google Chrome
It does not look like Chileans fancy Microsoft's browser. They go out of their way to use something else, even on Windows.
Software Freedom in Perspective - Part 4 - Daniel on Linux-based Mobile Platforms in LATAM (Latin America)
GNU, Linux, and mobile
Almost Nothing of Invidious Left Online (YouTube is Attacking Gateways)
what it looks like at this very moment
Gemini Links 14/08/2024: Funeral for an E-reader and a Mother Wants a Laptop
Links for the day
Links 14/08/2024: 8 Years of GDPR and Ridicule of "Hey Hi" (AI) Hype
Links for the day
This is How You Give Microsoft More Control Over LibreOffice Both as Software and as a Project
Didn't the Document Foundation learn from prior Microsoft Store scandals connected to LibreOffice?
"Heroes of Fedora" Are Just Salaried Employees of IBM (But "Community" is Just Sounding a Lot Nicer)
A real community would not allow IBM a majority
YouTube Has Thrown Free Software Users Into a Crisis
For many Free software users, who rely on Invidious, YouTube is nearly dead already
[Meme] "New Chapter in the FSF."
We expect to have some coverage from this week's event
There is No I in "GAFAM" and Soon There Won't be I At All (Like Novell Vanished, Not Overnight, as It Took Over a Decade)
Intel is going through the biggest crisis in its entire history
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 13, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 13, 2024
It's a "sm0l" World and It Won't Outsource to the Pentagon Anymore
As many people aren't interested in a new PC - or simply cannot afford one - we can expect leaner operating systems to gain further
Software Freedom in Perspective - Part 3 - GNU/Linux in Argentinian Desktops/Laptops
Daniel explains why many years ago many PCs shipped with GNU/Linux and that there was an economic reason for it. At least in Argentina.
Tivoisation and Decommodification in Clown Computing
Some firms or organisations lost sight of what "servers" or "hosting" even mean
The News Vacuum
The problem is worse than just an absence of reporting
x86 Lowered the Standards of Hardware Products
A lot of it is just hacks and cheats that help fake performance