But not everyone wanted creative disruption. Many folks wanted dependable, reliable infrastructure, and they saw in containers a method to do so that had never been done before. The good news was that despite all the momentum around containers in 2016, major parts of the ecosystem began to stabilize. The novelty’s worn off, but in a good way—it means there’s now more attention on how to do containers right, not merely to do them at all.
The Linux Foundation's "Automotive Grade Linux" infotainment platform is out with an update to its Unified Code Base (UCB) as the basis of various IVI systems from different automobile vendors.
Automotive Grade Linux UCB 3.0 "Charming Chinook" is the new release as of yesterday. AGL attempts to provide "70-80% of the starting point for a production project. This enables automakers and suppliers to focus their resources on customizing the other 20-30% to meet their unique product needs."
Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), citing “an unprecedented level of collaboration,” has released the latest version of its open-source infotainment platform.
The community, which has close to 90 member companies including Ford, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota, is promoting the adoption of an open-source standard for car infotainment systems.
With the Linux 4.10 merge window comfortably over now, Daniel Vetter has sent in the first pull requests to DRM-Next of new material slated for Linux 4.11.
Called upon for pulling into DRM-Next as material that's already been tested and cleared at Intel QA for the next kernel are DisplayPort link rate fixes, more atomic code updates, Gen9 Skylake watermark fixes, introduce GEM_WARN_ON, overlay fixes, refactoring of various pieces of code, bug fixes, and other low-level changes.
With running a ton of end of year benchmarks for showing the latest Linux graphics driver performance at the end of 2016, it's mostly focused upon OpenGL and Vulkan, but for those desiring some fresh NVIDIA CUDA numbers, here they are for your viewing pleasure.
Given all the changes with the Linux 4.10 kernel, including a fair amount of work on file-systems and block / I/O code, here are some fresh benchmarks of the EXT4, F2FS, Btrfs, and XFS file-systems atop a solid-state drive when comparing the early post-RC1 Linux 4.10 kernel benchmarks to that of the 4.6/4.7/4.8/4.9 stable kernels.
For those curious about file-system performance expectations for Linux 4.10 after reading our feature overview or after seeing our recent 4.6/4.7/4.8/4.9 kernel comparison with EXT4/F2FS/Btrfs/XFS, here are fresh results with the Linux 4.10 Git code as of 28 December. All tests were done on the same Intel Core i7 6800K system with Ubuntu 16.10 x86_64. Each file-system was tested on a Toshiba TR150 SATA 3.0 SSD.
Martijn Kaijser of the Kodi development team had the great pleasure of announcing the immediate availability of the first Release Candidate of the upcoming Kodi 17 "Krypton" multiplatform and open-source media center.
Last week, we told you that the seventh and last Beta of Kodi 17 "Krypton" was being prepared for Christmas testing, and it looks like it didn't take long for the developers behind this powerful and amazing media center software that powers numerous appliances and HTPC devices to push the first Release Candidate build.
Today, December 30, 2016, Calibre developer Kovid Goyal announced the release of a new maintenance update for his open-source and multiplatform e-book library management software, Calibre 2.76.
Calibre 2.76 is here only one week after the Calibre 2.75.1 release, but it doesn't look like it brings any new changes, only some bug fixes that have been reported by users lately from previous versions and improved news sources, including Buenos Aires Economico, Clarin, Telam, iProfesional, and La Prensa. As usual, the full changelog is attached below for your reading pleasure.
Heavy Gear Assault [Steam], an online mech-battle arena is now available in Steam Early Access. It has Linux support, but it has issues you should know about.
Mad Nords: Probably an Epic Quest [Steam, Official Site] is one I missed from early December that launched with Linux support. It looks simple, until you watch the trailer.
If there’s one game this year that may have flown completely under your radar, there’s a good chance that its Owlboy. Having been in development for close to 10 years, this gorgeous pixel-art adventure title wowed critics and fans alike when it released last month.
Yes, the headline is a bit clickbait; no, I’m not sorry. Hear me out. Indie games, practically speaking, are defined largely by their constraints. Indie studios don’t have access to virtually unlimited budgets. They don’t have teams numbering in the hundreds. Generally they don’t have first-party support, time, or in many cases even offices. I speak from experience on all of the above.
These constraints close lots of game design doors. 50 hour campaign? Unlikely. Stealth, vehicles, crafting, RPG elements, multiplayer? Pick two, maybe. Mo-cap cinematics voiced by name actors? Look, I’m labouring this now; I’m sure you get it.
Myself and Samsai did two small videos to represent GOL and were included along with others from the wider community. It's a pretty nice idea thought up by well-known Linux Youtuber Jakejw93.
Way back in 2014, Valve were approving games from Greenlight in batches. In one particular batch the game 'Northern Shadow' came up on my radar as a very promising looking RPG. Sadly though, it has officially ceased development.
Later than I had originally hoped, but Best Buds vs Bad Guys [Steam, Official Site] has officially released for Linux. I actually Kickstarted this game, so I was hoping it would be good.
It’s been quiet from the KDE-FreeBSD folks for a bit, but not because it’s actually been quiet. Tobias has been on a roll, and Dima has started doing stuff again, and Gleb is still watching over some ports, and Raphael is hovering over it all with good advice. So here’s some bits and pieces:
Some time ago I mentioned a branded wallpaper for FreeBSD, based off of the Flying Konqui wallpaper — which in turn I had mentioned in February. Anyway, here’s a screenshot of the if-it’s-up-to-me default wallpaper for Plasma 5 on FreeBSD. It’s running in VirtualBox, which is why KInfoCenter reports an interesting resolution (KInfoCenter has also been expanded with a lot better data on FreeBSD hosts, so that it reports sensible memory use, and sensible disk usage).
The whole point of the past month has been to prove that Q4OS can be used as an operating system for the Everyday Linux User.
I believe that it is a perfectly decent distribution and I have no qualms in recommending it to you as a complete replacement for Windows.
It is worth noting though that I used Zorin OS during this month as well and now here is the tricky bit. I think Zorin comes out slightly on top.
There is no doubt that based on performance Q4OS uses less resources and for older computers will probably be better than Zorin. Q4OS is also probably better for people who are used to older versions of Windows such as XP because everything is even named the same. The XPQ4 theme will even make everything feel the same.
Most notable today and yesterday was the number of articles about Linux gaming. From console games to the most popular of the year, folks seem to be gaming out the end of 2016. Elsewhere, Tux4Ubuntu aims to bring the plucky penguin back to Ubuntu and Jack Wallen explored the "small footprint" LXLE. The Linux Experiment shared tips for Linux security and MakeTechEasier highlighted security with Firejail.
Some of the distributions that have not been reviewed yet may be worthy of consideration due to their great potential. Keep in mind that they may never make it to the front page ranking due to lack of time or Distrowatch resources to review them.
Most operating systems, like Windows 10 or macOS, are designed to do multiple things. After all, many people want their computers to serve many tasks, such as productivity, media, and gaming. Some operating systems, however, are targeted at a single use to minimize the overhead and maximize the power of the hardware. Not to mention, it can create a more immersive experience.
One such focused OS is OpenELEC. This Linux distribution is designed to serve as a media center -- nothing more, nothing less. Today, the popular distro reaches stable version 7.0. There are images for both x86 and Raspberry Pi 2 and 3, meaning there is a very good chance you own compatible hardware.
We are happy to announce the release of Calculate Linux 17.
Calculate Linux Desktop, featuring either the KDE (CLD), the MATE (CLDM) or the Xfce (CLDX) environment, Calculate Linux Scratch (CLS), Calculate Directory Server (CDS), Calculate Scratch Server (CSS), Timeless are all available for download.
One and a half weeks after releasing the BlackArch Linux 2016.12.20 ISO images, the development team behind the Arch Linux-based ethical hacking and penetration testing GNU/Linux distribution proudly announced the release of new, updated ISOs.
Today, December 29, 2016, the development team behind the Porteus (formerly Slax Remix) Linux-based operating system series proudly announced the final release of Porteus 3.2.2.
The Tux4Ubuntu project brings a touch of Tux to the Ubuntu desktop, with Linux mascot themes for GRUB, Plymouth, the Unity login screen, plus wallpapers and more.
All these products integrate open source modules based on Espressif’s ESP32 SoC, which appears to be even more popular than the original, lower-end ESP8266. Like the ESP8266 and new and much more similar ESP8285, which adds 1MB SPI flash, the ESP32 offers built-in WiFi. It also similarly supports either standalone operation, typically using FreeRTOS, or use as a slave device, for example as a subsystem incorporated into an Arduino board.
Usually, you think of solid state storage as faster than a rotating hard drive. However, in the case of the Raspberry Pi, the solid state “disk drive” is a memory card that uses a serial interface. So while a 7200 RPM SATA drive might get speeds in excess of 100MB/s, the Pi’s performance is significantly less.
As you’re probably already aware, we’ve been keeping our best Android phones list updated throughout the year, adding new devices each month as we see fit. Since April 2016, we’ve been including a poll in our list, asking our readers what they this is the best Android phone out there. Of course, the list changes every month as devices are added and removed, which makes things interesting. So we thought it’d be a good idea to look back and see what you, our readers, thought were the best Android phones of the year.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has created its own Android tablet, called Woolim, for distributing propaganda media and track its users. To limit the connectivity options, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips have been removed. The users can just connect to North Korea’s restricted internet and local TV.
HTC has struggled quite a bit this year, despite having a few soliddevices on offer including the high-end Bolt and 10. In hopes of turning things around next year, HTC will, according to the latest report from Taiwan, announce three new smartphones in the first quarter.
Some myths are rooted in truth -- and myths about Apache Hadoop, the open source software framework for very large data sets, are no exception. Yes, Hadoop runs on cheap commodity computer hardware, and it's easy for users to add nodes. But the devil is in the very expensive details, especially when you're running Hadoop in a production environment, warns Jean-Pierre Dijcks, Oracle master product manager for big data.
'IT departments will think 'I've got servers anyway' or 'I can buy inexpensive ones, and I've got some people, so it will cost next to nothing to build our own Hadoop cluster,'' Dijcks says. 'They want to explore this technology and play with it-and exploration is a good thing.'
But IT departments can find that their Hadoop experiments head down the proverbial rabbit hole, piling up expenses they didn't anticipate as business colleagues breathe down their necks to deliver. Dijcks cites five common mistakes IT leaders make with their DIY Hadoop clusters.
Because open-source software is free and easy to use, it can spread virally through organizations, from the bottom up, in ways that old-style, proprietary software cannot. This is because more-traditional software often requires licenses for specific users upfront. So there’s generally a big, expensive contract signed at the very beginning of an engagement. With open-source, technology gets a free foothold and then sticks around if it proves useful enough for people to pay for it (which is often). Software developers also love tinkering with their tools, which they can easily do with open source.
RMS and the Free Software Foundation have given so much to the world: codification of the concept of Free Software, promotion of Free Software, the GNU project, great software licences, and much more. Personally RMS has travelled the world promoting Free Software to all who would listen from students, the media, governments and he’s had great results in Europe, India and South America. Freedom is not just for USAians or other privileged classes. It’s for everyone.
With just a few days left in 2016, here are some thoughts from Richard M. Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), on why people support the FSF and what we might be able to do next.
Technology is constantly moving forward—well, maybe not always forward, but always moving. Even for someone who keeps an eye on the trends and their effect on programmers, discerning exactly where things are headed can be a challenge. My clearest glimpse into open source programming trends always comes in the fall when I work with my fellow chairs, Kelsey Hightower and Scott Hanselman, and our fantastic programming committee to sculpt the coming year's OSCON (O'Reilly Open Source Convention). The proposals that we get and the number focused on specific topics turn out to be good indicators of hot trends in the open source world. What follows is an overview of the top programming trends we saw in 2016.
Millions of users that opt out for using Linux operating system for two decades now, all on the grounds that it is much safer than most others on the market. While it’s true that Linux is less susceptible to security breaches, it is not impenetrable (no system on the planet is), which is why users should get acquainted with some security precautions that can protect their devices even more. The main topic of this article are 10 things you must know about Linux security, and we’ll try to bring this topic closer to home and closer to everyday use of your OS.
Linux is always perceived as a more secure OS than its counterparts. However, that doesn’t mean it’s completely immune to viruses, worms, and other evil stuff. Like any other operating system, it has its own set of limitations, and a lot is dependent on how the individual uses it.
Of course, nothing can guarantee absolute protection, but there are ways that make life very hard for viruses, worms, and hackers in general. If you are looking for such a solution, look no further, as in this tutorial we’ll be discussing a software, called Firejail, that can improve the security of your Linux system.
I’ve attended a bunch of sessions on civil rights and cyber warfare, as well as more technical things. One presentation that touched me in particular was the story of Lauri Love, who is accused of stealing data from agencies including Federal Reserve, Nasa and FBI. This talk was presented by a civil rights activist from the Courage foundation, and two hackers from Anonymous and Lulzsec. While Love is a UK citizen, the US is demanding extradition from the UK so they can prosecute him under US law (which is much stricter than the UK’s). This would create a precedent making it much easier for the US to essentially be able to prosecute citizens anywhere under US law.
Libpng 1.6.27, 1.5.28, 1.4.20, 1.2.57, and 1.0.67 were all released today to fix a pointer null dereference bug dating back to 1995.
The Obama administration on Thursday announced its retaliation against Russia for its efforts to interfere with the US electoral process, ordering the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and closing two Russian compounds based the US.
In a statement, Obama said Americans should “be alarmed by Russia’s actions” and pledged further action.
US intelligences services believe Russia ordered the cyber attack on the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton’s campaign and other political organizations.
In 2010, Chelsea Manning leaked thousands of classified documents in an attempt to shed light on the "true cost of war" in the Middle East. But while other whistleblowers continue to attract media attention and concern, Manning is locked in a maximum-security prison, six years into a 35-year sentence. On the heels of a last appeal to President Obama for clemency, Manning tells Broadly about her struggle for visibility and justice.
Theresa May has distanced the UK from Washington over John Kerry’s condemnation of Israel, in comments that appear to be designed to build bridges with the incoming Trump administration.
Kerry, the outgoing secretary of state, delivered a robust speech this week that criticised Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as the “most rightwing coalition in Israeli history” and warned that the rapid expansion of settlements in the occupied territories meant that “the status quo is leading toward one state and perpetual occupation”.
The prime minister’s spokesman said May thought it was not appropriate to make such strongly worded attacks on the makeup of a government or to focus solely on the issue of Israeli settlements.
Belgian police arrested a 14-years-old Muslim teenager with a backpack full of explosives near a train station in Brussels. A bottle with the words “Allahu Akbar,” written on it, was also found in his possession.
Police officers were investigating smoke, emanating from a construction site in the Molenbeek region of Brussels, which is considered a top jihadist hotbed in Europe. According to the De Telegraaf newspaper, during the investigation, four youths were detained at the scene, and the main culprit remains in custody.
An automatic braking system fitted to the lorry used in the Berlin attack prevented the deaths of many more victims, investigators have found.
Anis Amri, a Tunisian Isis supporter, is believed to have hijacked the vehicle from its Polish driver in the German capital before ploughing it into a busy Christmas market on 19 December.
Twelve people were killed by the lorry and more than 50 others injured, being caught under the wheels or crushed by debris before it came to a stop.
How should climate scientists react to a president-elect who calls global warming a “hoax?” How much should they prepare for his administration? And should they ready themselves for the worst?
These questions loomed over the fall conference of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) this month, the largest annual gathering of Earth scientists in the world. How the scientific profession chooses to answer them may decide whether the United States can summon the political will necessary to finally vanquish climate-change denialism—or whether it will continue to muddle through on the issue, not really attending to it, as it has for the past three decades.
It’s rather easy, and undoubtedly necessary, to lambast President-elect Donald Trump and his team of corporate parasites who will soon head nearly every key agency in the U.S. government.
Of note are the pro-fracking, anti-environmental protections positions of everyone from the nominee for secretary of state, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, to the incoming head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt. Such appointments signal a reckless abandonment of even the pretense of safeguarding vital resources such as air, water, and soil, among many others, at a time when many in the scientific community are ringing the alarm about our quickly unraveling biosphere.
According to a report from The Times of India, Apple supplier Wistron is currently prepping an iPhone assembly facility in Peenya, an industrial center in the city of Bengaluru. The plant is slated to start production in April.
Amid rumours that Apple is ramping up efforts to sell its devices in India, the report claims the company is “very serious” about starting up iPhone production in the country by the end next year.
With civil liberties and advocacy groups raising concern over some of Mr. Trump’s nominees for some Cabinet positions, watchdogs say, one way to keep an eye on the activities of those agencies would be to have strong oversight through inspectors general.
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said Wednesday her abbreviated recount effort showed the vote “was not carefully guarded” in Michigan and should spur legislative action to require automatic post-election audits.
Republican President-elect Donald Trump was poised to maintain his 10,000-vote margin over Democrat Hillary Clinton when Michigan’s hand recount was halted more than two million ballots in, but Stein suggested the rare glimpse under the hood of the state election system served an important purpose.
When Junauda Petrus wrote the poem "A Prayer for Pussies,” she envisioned it as an homage to all the strong, revolutionary women who work to make the world a better place. She was one of four poets selected to contribute text for a piece of public art, a sculpture, on Nicollet Mall. Now Petrus says the city of Minneapolis has censored her work, and refuses to include the piece.
If our first fake news election turns out to mark the end of democracy as we know it, I think I can pretty precisely date when the end began.
More than 20 years ago, I and a bunch of other Washington journalists were packed into a classroom at American University for a weeklong boot camp designed to teach us about computers and this new-fangled thing that was just beginning to be called the internet. One of the guest speakers, a self-described “technology guru” for the then-fledgling Clinton administration gleefully informed us that we were all dinosaurs. Politicians like his boss, he said, would be able to use the internet to deliver their messages directly to the people, unfiltered by the media.
How ironic, then, that those very tools were so effectively used to prevent a second Clinton administration.
Swords are double-edged. And, as Prometheus taught anyone who happened to be paying attention, technologies, once unleashed, tend to outrun the grip of their would-be masters.
Last year, we wrote about the ridiculous situation for Amos Yee, a teenager in Singapore who was arrested for some of his YouTube videos criticizing Lee Kwan Yew, the country's founder and long-time Prime Minister. As we said at the time, watching the videos over which he was arrested (which have since been made private), it seemed clear that Yee was doing what many teenagers do, and mouthing off to authority. He was a precocious kid with strong opinions, and he had an audience on YouTube. Good for him.
Some hackers have lost their way. Today, countless techies have entered the for-profit cybersecurity business, potentially neglecting what one security researcher calls their responsibility to civil society: helping at-risk users like dissidents with the security of their work, for example.
From the beginning of next year, authorities will start collecting iris images from Singapore citizens and permanent residents (PRs) when they register or re-register for their NRIC, or apply for or renew a passport, said the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The iris images will serve as another identifier to boost verification methods, in addition to the photographs and fingerprints already used on the documents.
According to a CNN report, officials within the Obama administration have said that retaliatory measures against Russia for interference in the US election will happen very soon—perhaps as early as today. But the response is expected to be "proportional" and include diplomatic measures and sanctions. It's not clear whether there will be any sort of response in kind against the Russian leadership's computer systems and data.
As was widely expected, the White House officially announced its response to claims of Russian interference in our election process, and the "response" is basically kicking 35 Russian diplomats out of the country. Russia admittedly suggested it will do the same. The announcement also includes adding some entities to the official list of "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons." Somewhat incredibly, now added to that list is the FSB, which is the modern incarnation of the KGB. What's incredible about this was that it took until now for this to happen. With this, the administration also issued an executive order expanding on a previous executive order from last year, enabling it to take these actions.
We covered a ton of legal cases in 2016.
The entire Apple encryption saga probably grabbed the gold medal in terms of importance. However, our coverage of a California fisherman who took a government science buoy hostage was definitely our favorite. The case was dropped in May 2016 after the fisherman gave the buoy back.
Among others, we had plenty of laser strike cases to cover. There were guilty verdicts and sentencing in the red-light camera scandal that consumed Chicago. The Federal Trade Commission settled its lawsuit with Butterfly Labs, a failed startup that mined Bitcoins. A man in Sacramento, California, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful manufacture of a firearm and one count of dealing firearms—he was using a CNC mill to help people make anonymous, untraceable AR-15s.
While we do our best to cover a wide variety of civil and criminal cases, there are five that stand out to us in 2017. These cases range from privacy and encryption, to government-sanctioned hacking, to the future of drone law in America.
U.S. intelligence officials appear certain that Russia was responsible for interfering in the presidential election — though they haven’t fully detailed how they know. But a classified document leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden reveals that they’ve tracked Russian hacking before and that the information they gleaned may have helped this time around.
Russian hacking also occurred in the case of Russian journalist and American citizen Anna Politkovskaya, who was gunned down in 2006 in her Moscow apartment after writing articles critical of the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Five men were convicted of her murder, but it’s still a mystery who ordered the killing.
A hitherto-unreleased, top secret document provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, reportedly indicates that the NSA has the technical means to collect and analyse evidence of Russian hacking. The agency monitored a similar cyberattack, believed to be the work of the Russian Federal Intelligence Service (FSB), which targeted a noted Russian journalist, also a US citizen, according to a report.
In 2005, a year before journalist and known Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in her apartment, the FSB is believed to have targeted an email account allegedly used by Politkovskaya. According to a report by The Intercept, the Russian intelligence agency hacked into Politkovskaya's email account (annapolitkovskaia@US Provider1) and infected it with a customised malware, unavailable in the public domain.
A federal judge ordered the government to preserve a Senate report on Wednesday that documents the alleged torture of detainees in CIA custody through tactics such as regular beatings, forced rectal feeding, waterboarding, sensory and sleep deprivation and mock executions.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth passed the order on the appeal filed by the attorneys representing Abd al-Rahim Al-Nashiri who was waterboarded while in CIA custody for his alleged involvement in the attack on the destroyer USS Cole in the port of Aden that killed 17 U.S. military personnel in October 2000.
The judge has also ordered for the preservation of all associated documents such as the CIA response to the report. He also directed for the report to be deposited with a court security officer. Although for now, the nearly 7,000-page report is being treated as a highly classified document, Lamberth's order raises the possibility of it being eventually released as a court record, according to Politico.
Schwarzkopf said: “I am a German citizen who moved to the UK in 1999 to study neuroscience at Cardiff University, both my undergraduate degree and my PhD. After I got my PhD in 2007, I decided to remain in the UK to work. I am now married to a British woman and am a faculty member at University College London.
“I originally applied for that permanent residence document in March 2016 because it is necessary for a British citizenship application.
“In June, one week before the referendum, my application was rejected. The reason was that I hadn’t included my passport in the application, only a legally certified colour copy. This rejection letter contained the phrase that I ‘should now make preparations to leave’ the UK.
“I was pretty pissed off at that moment, so I wrote a couple of complaint letters including [one] to the then home secretary Theresa May (she never got back to me).
“Just to be clear, I don’t think that was anything more than a mistake on the part of the Home Office. They simply use these standard letters.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has reportedly approved a full criminal investigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into allegations of bribery and fraud.
Netanyahu will be investigated by police for two separate cases and will be called in for police questioning in the coming days, Channel 10 reported on Wednesday.
Asked by The Times of Israel, the Justice Ministry — under whose auspices the attorney general operates — declined to comment Wednesday evening on the report. There was no immediate response from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Earlier this month, Zionist Union MK Erel Margalit and Eldad Yaniv, a lawyer and Labor party activist, petitioned the High Court of Justice to demand the Attorney General answer why had not yet opened an investigation despite what they called “overwhelming evidence.”
Israel is reported to be ready to expel an award-winning Australian journalist and writer, Antony Loewenstein, after he asked a too-probing question of an Israeli politician at a media event last week. Government officials have said they are investigating how they can deny him his work visa when it comes up for renewal in March.
It is unsurprising to learn that Israel has no serious regard for press freedom. But more depressing has been the lack of solidarity shown by journalistic colleagues, most especially the Guardian newspaper, for which he has regularly worked as a freelancer since 2013. Not only has the paper failed to offer him any support, but its management and staff reporters have hurried to distance themselves from him.
Efforts to rein in civil forfeiture have been moving forward around the country. Several states have passed laws that remove some of the perverse incentives that have allowed law enforcement agencies to seize cash, cars, homes, and whatever else might be laying around without criminal convictions. Very few efforts have gone as far as to make convictions a requirement in every case, but most have at least closed the federal loophole that allowed agencies to bypass more restrictive state laws to take control of citizens' assets.
The federal government's use of asset forfeiture still remains untouched. The equitable sharing program that helped local law enforcement agencies skirt state regulations closed briefly due to budget cutbacks, but was revived once the tax dollars started flowing again.
While some legislators have mounted efforts to scale back federal civil asset forfeiture, nothing has made its way to the president's desk. There's a new president on the way and his choice for attorney general isn't going to help those efforts along. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is a longtime fan of asset forfeiture and still believes -- despite years of evidence to the contrary -- that it's an effective Drug War weapon, rather than law enforcement agencies going shopping for things they want.
The NYPD's estranged relationship with its oversight continues. The Civilian Complaint Review Board -- put into place after it became apparent the NYPD wasn't interested in policing itself -- has noticed the department is vocally supportive of better policing, but has no interest in actually making any changes to the way it disciplines its officers.
The NYPD has yet to see a civilian complaint it can't make disappear and has almost always recommended a lesser punishment for misconduct than the Board has recommended. In controversial "chokehold" cases, the Board found the NYPD was completely uninterested in doing anything about officers' use of a tactic it has outlawed.
In a few days, scandal-prone Günther Oettinger will stop being Europe’s top internet policy maker – he’s being promoted to oversee the EU budget.
But before leaving, the outgoing Digital Commissioner submitted dangerous plans that undermine two core foundations of the internet: Links and file uploads. While Oettinger is going away, his lobby-dictated proposals are here to stay.