Techrights http://techrights.org Free Software Sentry – watching and reporting maneuvers of those threatened by software freedom Thu, 23 May 2013 17:34:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 Links 23/5/2013: Threat to Civil Rights in UK, KDE 4.11 LTS http://techrights.org/2013/05/23/threat-to-civil-rights-in-uk/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/23/threat-to-civil-rights-in-uk/#comments Thu, 23 May 2013 17:34:32 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68783

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • $99 Linux stick turns any HDMI display into a virtual desktop

    Hard on the heels of the news that Dell’s “Project Ophelia” thumb PC is expected to ship this summer, thin client vendor Devon IT on Tuesday rolled out a similar contender of its own called the Ceptor.

  • Samsung Talks About Its Aggressive Linux Talent Recruitment Strategy
  • From subversive to mainstream: Looking back on 18 years with Linux
  • CCE Addresses Growing Demand in CAE Space by Extending Support to Linux Platforms

    CCE, a leader in advanced interoperabilitytechnology, announced that in response to a growing demand from customers in the CAEspace, it has successfully completed porting of its 3D CAD interoperability technology toLinux platforms.

  • GNU/Linux chosen as operating system of the International Space Station

    This is a wise choice for the space station, and a high-profile victory for software freedom. It brings good publicity for free software, demonstrating its respected position in the world of science and technology.

  • It’s Easier Than Ever to Slap Your Favorite Linux Distro Onto a Chromebook

    If you’ve been in the market for a portable computer, you may very well have considered buying a Chromebook. And, if you favor a particular Linux distro, perhaps Ubuntu or Mint, you may be interested in buying a $200 or $250 Chromebook only to put your favorite flavor of Linux on your new system. (The Acer system shown here sells for $199.) As we’ve reported, many OStatic readers have expressed interest in buying a Chromebook to run Linux. Now, there are very simple instructions for doing so online and a growing body of evidence that people are having good experiences with their Linux Chromebooks.

  • Designing Electronics with Linux

    In many scientific disciplines, the research you may be doing is completely new. It may be so new that there isn’t even any instrumentation available to make your experimental measurements. In those cases, you have no choice but to design and build your own measuring devices. Although you could build them using trial and error, having a way to model them first to see how they will behave is a much better choice—in steps oregano. With oregano, you can design your circuitry ahead of time and run simulations on it to iron out any problems you may encounter.

  • LinuxTag: LiMux firmly established in Munich

    Peter Hofmann, the leader of Munich’s Linux migration project, has denied rumours that the LiMux clientGerman language link will be “decommissioned” when the initiative runs out at the end of the year. “The City of Munich has no intention to switch”, he said at the LinuxTag conference in Berlin on Wednesday. The basic instruction given by Munich’s City Council in 2003 was to create more independence and autonomy for Munich’s IT, said Hofmann. This task won’t be completed when the project runs out in October, he explained, adding that further adjustments will be needed in the specialised application and server areas.

  • Linux Ranks Among Top Skills for Big Data Jobs
  • Linux Format 172 On Sale Today – Has Ubuntu lost it?

    With its Distrowatch ranking falling faster than Man Utd now that Sir Alex Ferguson has departed, Ubuntu is no longer the all-conquering force that it was. So what’s happened? Has it, in fact, lost it, or is there a more subtle game afoot? We answer this conundrum (sort of) in the latest Linux Format.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Qt 5.1 Launches on Tizen with Standard Look and Feel
      • Finnish mobile maker Jolla announces first MeeGo phone

        Another thing to notice is that a compatibility layer on the device allows the user to even run Android apps on the phone.

      • May Updates to KDE Plasma and Applications
      • Plasma Workspaces 4.11: A long term release

        One of the most exciting things about this direction is that our distribution and packaging partners will be able to have a version that will see releases which focus exclusively on stabilization for at least two years. There will be no new features added after 4.11.0 to Plasma Desktop and Netbook, though the code will be adjusted as needed to maintain and improve existing functionality. This should make Plasma Desktop 4.11 an excellent candidate for inclusion in distributions that have a longer shelf-life.

      • KDE 4.11 to be Long Term Release

        It was just last week we looked at some of the proposed features for upcoming KDE 4.11 as it neared soft feature freeze. Well, today some new information about KDE 4.11 came to light. Aaron Seigo said today that 4.11 would be a “long term release.”

        A long term release means a particular version will be kept up to date with stabilization and security updates for an extended period of time; in this case, two years. This will give distributions that skate safely in the well-worn groove of stability a chance to have a longer term plan and more stable offerings. Seigo said, “no new features [will be] added after 4.11.0 to Plasma Desktop and Netbook, though the code will be adjusted as needed to maintain and improve existing functionality.” He believes this will help developers and distribution developers a chance to focus on polishing.

      • Digia previews “Boot to Qt” platform
      • Digia launches Boot to Qt technology preview

        Digia launched a technology preview of Boot to Qt, a commercial offering that provides “a fully-integrated solution for the creation of slick user interfaces on embedded devices.” The current version of Boot to Qt is built on top of an Android kernel base layer, and includes support for the Nexus 7, BeagleBoard-xM, SABRE Lite, and x86 hardware.

      • ReKonq Gaining Chrome Extension Support, Still Sponsored By Blue Systems

        It’s been just a little over a year since the mystical Blue Systems started sponsoring development of ReKonq. Blue Systems is second only to the KDE e.V. in platform investment, sponsoring not only numerous core applications, but multiple distributions as well. ReKonq has come a long way since 0.9.2 (May 2012) and with the help of Blue Systems developer Adjam, it is taking baby-steps towards Chrome Extension support.

      • Quo vadis, Dolphin? First results from the user study.

        We conducted a large study about strength and weakness of file managers in may 2013. In this article we present first results, discuss issues and questions that occur during the study, and present the schedule for the statistical analysis.

      • Homerun 1.0.0!

        Today, I am happy to announce the release of Homerun 1.0.0. This new version comes with a few new features.

  • Distributions

    • Another Day, Another Distro: Antergos Linux Is Born

      “A distribution I never heard of has changed its default desktop, stopped supporting Cinnamon — though it is still included — and changed its name,” said Mobile Raptor blogger Robin Lim. “To me, it really is of little significance. No offense meant to the development team — I am sure it is a fine distribution — it is just that it is floating in a sea of fine distributions.”

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Rating Lowered to Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets (RHT)

      • Fedora

        • Raspberry Pi’s Fedora becomes Pidora

          Fedora and the Seneca Centre for Development of Open Technology released an optimized Fedora 18 Remix for the Raspberry Pi, and unveiled a new name for the remix. “Pidora 18,” based on a new build of Fedora optimized for ARMv6, features speedier performance and includes packages from the Fedora 18 package set, says the Pidora project team.

        • Free and open source support for RAR archives in Fedora

          RAR is somewhat of a legacy format in terms of compression ability but RAR remains popular in many places especially for its split archive feature. Current Fedora users are used to installing unrar command line utility from RPM Fusion to get the ability to extract RAR files and unrar is supported by the GNOME (File Roller) and Ark (KDE) archive managers however it is a proprietary utility and unavailable for other architectures like ARM which are getting popular in Fedora as well.

        • Another week of rawhide (2013-05-21 edition)
        • When Xubuntu and Debian fail, Fedora it is for HP Pavilion g6-2210us laptop

          I’ve spent just about a month with this new HP Pavilion g6-2210us laptop that shipped with Windows 8. That means UEFI and Secure Boot.

          And new hardware. We all know how difficult Linux can be with new hardware.

        • Fedora 18 Comes To ARMv6, Raspberry Pi

          While Fedora 18 has been out for months and so has Fedora 18 for ARM, an ARMv6 spin of Fedora 18 targeting the popular Raspberry Pi development platform has finally been released.

          Fedora 19 isn’t too far out now, but Fedora 18 for ARMv6 to cater towards the very low-end Raspberry Pi hardware has been spun. This release is being falled “Pidora 18″ and was announced on Wednesday,

    • Debian Family

      • Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 rounded up

        The GNU/Hurd development team at the Debian project has released a version of the Distribution based on Debian 7 “Wheezy” and the GNU Hurd kernel. Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 is the first major release of the distribution after years of development work, even though it is not an official Debian release. The Hurd kernel is a Unix-like microkernel design based on the Mach kernel and has itself been under development since 1990.

      • CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

        CrunchBang 11 has been released so it’s time for a review. I last looked at CrunchBang back in 2009. Wow! Has it been that long? I’m pleased to report that CrunchBang 11 didn’t disappoint in any way.

      • Derivatives

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Linux-friendly SBC suits display apps on trains, planes, buses

      MEN Mikro announced a compact, rugged single-board computer based on Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom E600-series embedded processors. The Linux-friendly SC27 SBC is aimed at driver displays and in-seat infotainment systems in trains, buses, and airplanes, where wide-temperature operation and resistance to shock, vibration, and dust are critical.

    • Raspberry Pi Gets New Wayland Weston Renderer

      After working on the Raspberry Pi support for Wayland/Weston, Pekka Paalanen has announced a new “rpi-renderer” for the low-cost ARM development board.

      The rpi-renderer is better than the current gl-renderer and should be better for the hardware although it’s not as flexible.

    • Phones

Free Software/Open Source

  • Driving innovation with Open Source

    Yesterday, eighteen technology decision-makers from the Singapore Government gathered at the FutureGov lunch briefing — conducted in partnership with Red Hat — to discuss how Open Source technology can drive openness and innovation in the public sector.

  • Why The “Star Trek Computer” will be Open Source and Released Under Apache License v2

    If you remember the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, then you know exactly what someone means when they use the expression “the Star Trek Computer”. On TNG, “the computer” had abilities which were so far ahead of real-world tech of the time, that it took on an almost mythological status. And even to this day, people reference “The Star Trek Computer” as a sort of short-hand for the goal of advances in computing technology. We are mesmerized by the idea of a computer which can communicate with us in natural, spoken language, answering questions, locating data and calculating probabilities in a conversational manner, and – seemingly – with access to all of the data in the known Universe.

  • Concurrent is building a Hadoop assembly line in open source

    Cascading creator Concurrent has developed a new open source tool called Pattern for running machine learning models on Hadoop clusters. When combined with its SQL tool called Lingual, users can move data from one stage to another easily.

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • OpenStack Public Cloud Setbacks: Real or Imagined?

      Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) has killed its OpenStack public cloud plan. Rackspace (NYSE:RAX) is not growing as quickly as planned, despite betting the company on OpenStack. Some pundits now wonder if a giant like IBM can save OpenStack. Should cloud integrators be concerned about the open source platform? Absolutely not. Here’s why.

  • Databases

    • A Look Inside Tumblr’s Architecture

      tumblrYahoo recently purchased Tumblr for a cool $1.1 billion. Tumblr pushes some surprisingly high numbers through their service, so aninside look at the architecture that Yahoo bought is well worth the read. The portion I found most interesting are the details on the MySQL database setup, and how Tumblr uses MySQL to scale massively, and keep the service available.

    • SQLite gets memory-mapped I/O

      SQLite, the ubiquitous, lightweight, C-based SQL engine, which is embedded in many applications, has been updated to SQLite version 3.7.17 with support for memory-mapped I/O which could potentially double performance and use less RAM. The new functionality adds xFetch() and xUnfetch() methods which are automatically called if memory-mapped I/O is activated, to map the data into memory. The developers point out that there are disadvantages to the technique that require coders using the functions be more robust in how they handle pointers and errors and that it is possible to not see performance boosted in certain test cases. Therefore, by default, memory-mapped I/O is turned off. Programmers wishing to exploit the functionality should consult the documentation.

  • CMS

  • Business

  • Public Services/Government

    • Impact of open by default on local government

      For those of you that may not have read the memorandum in its entirety it directs federal agencies to make all data open and machine readable by default. Obviously there are caveats to that. Agencies can redact data that does not meet disclosure standards regarding security and privacy. The excitement centers around the language of open by default.

  • Licensing

    • Unlicensed code: Movement or Madness?

      One of the hot topics of commentary on open source development at the moment is the licensing situation on GitHub. When code is committed to GitHub, the copyright owner (usually the author or their employer) retains all rights to the code, and anyone wishing to re-use the code (by downloading it, or by “forking” and modifying it) is bound by the terms of the license the code is published under. The point of discussion in this case, is that many (indeed, the majority) of repositories on GitHub contain no license file at all.

    • Jante’s Shield

      It’s difficult to be critical of open source software. Often, it’s created by volunteers who are motivated purely by the challenge and the desire to do something good. This attitude is why we’ve got such a thriving ecosystem of distributions and software, and why the GPL has become such a disruptive idea. It has also enabled many companies to build a viable business model supporting, extending and distributing this software in ways that would never occur if they were shipping their own proprietary software. This is what causes the occasional friction in the community, and it’s completely understandable. On the one hand you have communities working together in a way that I think is similar to the Swedish ‘Law of Jante’ – the idea that individual success is downplayed in favour of the achievements made by the groups. On the other hand you have traditional company values, bigging up its individual success and vitality in order to compete with other (non-open source) businesses doing the same.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Science finds a better foundation for research in the open

      The flipside of having to resolve such issues, though, is the incredible power of transparency in the research process which openness offers. Any researcher that has hammered away at a piece of published research for months in a futile attempt to recreate its findings will understand the feeling of extreme frustration when the scientific literature falls short of reproducibility. If so much of our research isn’t repeatable, aren’t we building houses upon rather sandy foundations?

    • Open Hardware

  • Programming

    • Linux System Programming, 2ed
    • Google Code disables direct file downloads

      Google has announced that it will in future not allow direct file downloads from its Google Code hosting service. The company says that “increasing misuse” of the service has forced it to take the step in the interest of keeping the platform’s community “safe and secure”.

  • Standards/Consortia

    • Open Source, Open Standards 2013 Conference, 18/04/2013, America Square Conference Centre

      A member of the Geospatial Engineering team at Newcastle, David Alderson, recently attended a GovNet series conference in London, entitled “Open Source, Open Standards”. This was held at the America Square Conference Centre, and more information about the conference can be found here.

      The conference delegates were largely comprised of various government agencies including the Department for Transport, Office of National Statistics, representation from emergency services, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as well as representation from many local councils from around the UK. From within these various organisations the delegates were largely found to be based within some part of their specific IT operations.

Leftovers

  • Driver who tweeted about knocking cyclist over is under investigation

    A motorist is being investigated by police after she boasted on Twitter that she had knocked a cyclist off his bike.

  • Apple Mobile Devices Cleared for Use on U.S. Military Networks

    The Pentagon cleared Apple Inc. (AAPL) devices for use on its networks, setting the stage for the maker of iPhones and iPads to compete with Samsung Electronics Co. and BlackBerry for military sales.

    The Defense Department said in a statement today that it has approved the use of Cupertino, California-based Apple’s products running a version of the iOS 6 mobile platform.

  • A shield law for reporters? Thanks, but no thanks!

    A lot of journalists have embraced the idea. But I believe that journalists should say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

    Tempting as it might be, a federal shield law is a bad idea for journalists. We do not need it, and we may ultimately regret it. The relevant part of the First Amendment to the Constitution says: Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press. That powerful simple phrase “no law” means just that – no law, period. It means Congress simply cannot legislate in this area.

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Raw Milk Supporters Rally in Baraboo, Wisconsin for Farmer Vernon Hershberger’s Criminal Trial

      Farmer Vernon Hershberger’s trial started May 20 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and will most likely continue until May 24 at the earliest. Hershberger is a raw milk producer. As the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has reported, he is charged with four misdemeanor offenses: operating a retail food establishment without a license, operating a dairy farm as a milk producer without a license, operating as a dairy plant without a license, and violating a holding order. If convicted, the Amish father of ten children faces up to 30 months in county jail and fines of over $10,000.

      Supporters suspect that he is being singled out to make a cautionary example threatening other raw milk producers in Wisconsin (Wisconsin’s law allows “incidental sales” of raw milk on the farm, but its interpretation has been increasingly strict in the last few years).

  • Security

    • Report: DDoS service as a legitimate, FBI-approved business

      US security blogger Brian Krebs writes about a service that is relatively new, at least to the general public: DDoS attacks. Apparently, one enterprising “stress tester” discovered by Krebs even told the blogger that he was working for the FBI.

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust

      Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every minute.

  • Finance

  • Censorship


    • RIAA: 20 Million Piracy Takedowns Sent to Google, Still No End in Sight

      To mark the occasion of 20 million URL takedown notices sent to Google by RIAA member companies, the organization has complained that search engines still aren’t doing enough to reduce the piracy problem. The RIAA says it is using a bucket to deal with “an ocean of illegal downloading”, one in which content is replaced and re-indexed in a never-ending loop. Notice and takedown procedures aren’t fit for today’s reality and must be revised, the music group argues.

  • Privacy

    • Privacy Alert #1: Explicit Consent, the Cornerstone

      When you are browsing the web, can you say who collects information about you, what is the nature of that information and who may access it? Can you control who may know what about you? The European Commission intended to give you the power to do so, but European Parliament may vote otherwise, under pressure by corporate lobbies.

  • Civil Rights

    • Jailed Pussy Riot member declares hunger strike

      A jailed member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot told a court she is on a hunger strike after being barred from attending a parole appeal hearing in person, Russian state news agency Ria Novosti reported Wednesday.

      Maria Alyokhina was sentenced in August to two years in prison for performing a song critical of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a prominent Orthodox cathedral last year.

    • Feds Tracked Reporter’s Movements, Personal E-Mail in Criminal Conspiracy Investigation

      In an effort to unmask a leaker who fed a reporter classified information about North Korea, FBI investigators tracked the journalist’s movements in and out of a government building, obtained copies of e-mails from his personal account and also took the unprecedented step of alleging that the reporter engaged in a criminal conspiracy simply for doing his job.

    • US Suspends Constitution in Permanent World War on Terror
    • Capitalising on tragedy

      Yesterday’s events in Woolwich were appalling, but Lord Carlile and John Reid wasted no time in attempting to use this atrocity in justifying a return to reductions in personal privacy and other human rights.

    • Now is not the time for politics, Lord Reid

      Today, the country begins the process of coming to terms with the horrific attack in Woolwich yesterday.

      We know little about those who have committed this brutal terror attack. Videos and photographs have brought the chilling savagery of the perpetrators into our homes.

      As the Prime Minister said:

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Newegg nukes “corporate troll” Alcatel in third patent appeal win this year

      In 2011, Alcatel-Lucent had American e-commerce on the ropes. The French telecom had sued eight big retailers and Intuit saying that their e-commerce operations infringed Alcatel patents; one by one they were folding. Kmart, QVC, Lands’ End, and Intuit paid up at various stages of the litigation. Just before trial began Zappos, Sears, and Amazon also settled. That left two companies holding the bag: Overstock.com and Newegg, a company whose top lawyer had vowed not to ever settle with patent trolls.

    • European Parliament aims for fake openness in TTIP / TAFTA

      The draft European Parliament resolution on EU trade and investment negotiations with the United States of America aims for fake openness. Paragraph 21 of the draft resolution recalls the need for continuous and transparent engagement by the Commission with a wide range of stakeholders. I have visited some Civil Society Dialogues organised by the Commission. The Commission just states there are no problems and, sorry, as trade negotiations are secret, they can give no details. A masochist may find such meetings rewarding.

      Civil society organisations want access to draft negotiation texts, at least for regulatory aspects. Companies have access, the Commission discriminates against citizens, while access is a human right. See the FFII letter to European Parliament Trade committee; see also KEI comments.

    • How Cheap Genetic Testing Complicates Cancer Screening For Us All

      Sometimes, more medical information is a bad thing. The influential United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends against most women getting genetic screenings for their susceptibility to breast cancer. Why? Because the tests are imperfect: for every woman who gets tested for genes associated with onset breast cancer, even more will falsely test positive, leading spooked patients into needless surgery or psychological trauma. Super cheap genetic testing from enterprising health startups, such as 23andMe, have complicated cancer detection for us all by increasing the accessibility of imperfect medical information.

      After discovering a mutated BRCA1 gene, known to increase the likelihood of breast cancer 60 to 80 percent, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a radical preventive double mastectomy. Her brave confession in the New York Times brought much needed attention to breast cancer awareness, but it’s dangerous in the hands of a statistically illiterate population.

    • Copyrights

      • Kim Dotcom to Google, Twitter, Facebook: I Own Security Patent, Work With Me

        Kim Dotcom has announced that he is the inventor of the so-called two-step authentication system and has a patent to prove it. The Megaupload founder says the security mechanism, which has just been introduced by Twitter, is being used by U.S. companies more than a billion times every week without permission. Dotcom says he doesn’t want to sue, but might if the likes of Google and Facebook don’t help fund his legal battle with the U.S. Government.

      • Is a broadcast to everyone private under the Copyright Act?

        For the final post in my copyright series, I want to focus on another example in my series of discussions about formalism vs. policy in copyright. Today’s case is WNET v. Aereo, which allowed continued operation of a creative television streaming service. As I’ll discuss below, the case pretty clearly complies with the statutory scheme, much to the relief of those who believe content is overprotected and that new digital distribution methods should be allowed. This time, the policy opposition is best demonstrated by Judge Chin’s dissent in the case.

      • TAFTA: First Step Towards a Super-ACTA

        In a plenary vote, the European Parliament just adopted a mandate to the European Commission explicitly allowing it to “include strong protection of intellectual property rights (IPR)” in the proposed EU-US trade agreement negociations, the “Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement” (TAFTA), also know as “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” (TTIP).

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/23/threat-to-civil-rights-in-uk/feed/ 0 Links 22/5/2013: Debian GNU/Hurd, New Go Language Release http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/debian-gnu-hurd/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/debian-gnu-hurd/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 16:23:26 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68772

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Devon Ceptor: $99 Linux-based HDMI stick for enterprise

    Devon IT plans to launch a tiny device called the Ceptor in July which you can plug into any TV or monitor to turn it into a thin client machine. Basically the Ceptor is a $99 device that’s small enough to fit in your pocket. It has an ARM-based processor and runs a Linux-based operating system, but it’s really designed to let you login to remote server running virtual desktop software.

  • Steven Ovadia: I wiped Windows and never looked back

    I run My Linux Rig

  • Linux is an Art – Driving Force Behind Linux

    We comes across Linux (Foss) in our day-to-day life. In fact we are surrounded by Foss technologies. The first thing that might come to the mind of ours is that why is Linux appraised so much even in Windows and Mac user Community.

  • Server

  • Kernel Space

    • Is the Instrument Panel the Next Target for Open Source Software in Cars?

      The In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) System has received much of the focus from open source software initiatives in the automotive industry so far with the Automotive Grade Linux working group and the GENIVI alliance. But the instrument panel, which shares many technologies with IVI, is also ripe for development with Linux.

      The instrument cluster will probably be the next focus of open source software development in the automotive industry, said Rudolf Streif, Director of Embedded Solutions at the Linux Foundation. Traditionally the instrument panel was a set of mechanical guages that monitored speed, engine temperature, fuel levels and more. Most dashboards are electronic now and will eventually be replaced by another screen and integrated with the IVI system, he said.

    • Linux Kernel 3.9.3 Is Now Available for Download

      A few minutes ago, Greg Kroah-Hartman proudly announced that the third maintenance release for the stable Linux 3.9 kernel series is now available for download.

    • Linux 3.10-rc2 Kernel Takes In A Few Extra Pulls

      The second release candidate for the LinuThe second release candidate for the Linux 3.10 kernel is now out there. Torvalds released 3.10-rc2 on Monday with a few extra pulls that he wouldn’t have accepted later on in the release cycle. x 3.10 kernel is now out there. Torvalds released 3.10-rc2 on Monday with a few extra pulls that he wouldn’t have accepted later on in the release cycle.

    • Hot Relocation HDD To SSD Support For Btrfs

      In working to enhance the performance of the Btrfs file-system in cases where certain data/files are frequently used, a set of patches for providing hot relocation support has been posted.

      The Btrfs hot relocation support comes down to when storing data on a traditional (rotating) hard disk drive, when data gets “hot” (a.k.a. being frequently used), these patches would allow the data to be automatically migrated to a non-rotating disk (i.e. solid-state drive). By moving the frequently used data over to an SSD, the performance would obviously be much more optimal than keeping it on an SSD but making it so not all of your data would need to be stored on a costly SSD.

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • KTp 0.6.2 Released

        We have just released version 0.6.2 of KDE Telepathy, KDE’s instant messaging client.

      • rekonq, working on extension support
      • Calligra Author Gets a Distraction Free Mode

        wanted to throw a little light on a feature that just landed in the Calligra repositories: A distraction-free writing mode for Calligra Author and Calligra Words.

        The distraction-free mode means that we disable most UI elements and lets the user focus totally on the contents. This was one of the most asked-for features when I did a little survey half a year ago and asked which features that our potential users wanted. I say ‘potential’ because this was before the first release of Calligra Author and we didn’t have any users at all by then.

      • Okular welcomes configurable review tools

        This way you can decide that by default you want your highlighter to be green instead of yellow. Or even have two highlighters in the review bar.

      • Qt For Tizen Launches, Based On Qt 5.1

        Just two weeks after talking about a Qt 5 tool-kit port for the Tizen platform being worked on, the first release is now available.

      • Grid + Assistant = Awesome Perspective Assistant

        Been quiet some time since my last blog about Krita, well, I had been a bit busy with college work. Nonetheless, with whatever time I had, and all the help from Boud, I have been able to import a particular feature from the Perspective Grid to the Perspective Assistant.

  • Distributions

    • Emmabuntus 2 – The French Revolution

      One of my favourite things about writing about Linux is when I decide to review one of the smaller distributions.

    • New Releases

      • Neptune 3.1 is ready

        We worked hard and spend a lot of effort in creating this service release for Neptune 3.0. So if you like it please consider donating to us a small amount of money so we can further develop and strenghtens our efforts.

      • Puppy 5.6 (Precise)

    • Screenshots

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Mageia Linux 3 brings a raft of key updates

        Mageia has long been what you might call a “best-kept secret” of the Linux world, consistently residing among the top five distributions in DistroWatch’s page-hit rankings despite minimal marketing and hoopla.

        The distro has only been around since it was forked from Mandriva Linux back in 2010, of course, but after several weeks’ delay the Mageia project on Sunday finally launched the third major version of the free and open source operating system.

      • Mageia 3, the WONT FIX scim bug, and iBus
      • OpenMandriva Picks Name, Releases Alpha

        While the rest of Linuxdom was reading of the Debian 7.0 and Mageia 3 releases, the OpenMandriva gang have been hard at it trying to get their new distribution some attention. The OpenMandriva name was made official and an alpha was released into the wild.

      • More good news: We have an iso that installs
      • Mageia 3 KDE Review: Simple, refined, elegant and fantastic!

        To be honest, I have used quite a few KDE distros in last couple of years but never saw a resource efficient distro like Mageia 2. Under similar conditions, Mageia performed better than almost all the KDE distros I have used. Plus, with Mandriva Linux going commercial and PCLinuxOS becoming independent of Mandriva, Mageia and ROSA are perhaps the limited ways to know what’s brewing in the Mandriva camp. Incidentally both the Mandriva derivatives present really beautiful KDE distros!

      • Mageia 3 out, no more delays

    • Debian Family

      • 2013-05-debian gnu hurd 2013

        It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian “sid” at the time of the Debian “wheezy” release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release.

      • News about Debian GNU/Hurd
      • Removing unwanted applications in Debian

        One of the biggest pitfalls for a new Debian (or Linux) user is attempting to remove an unwanted application than came installed with the Desktop installed. This can result in the Debian package manager informing the user that there are various packages which can be autoremoved. Allowing the package manager to autoremove these packages then removes packages essential to the Desktop environment, destroying the installation. Why?

      • Derivatives

        • Tails 0.18 Screenshots
        • Tails 0.18 can install packages on the fly

          Version 0.18 of Tails, The Amnesiac Incognito Live System designed for users who need to protect their privacy and be as anonymous as possible, has been released with a preview of a new feature which allows a custom list of packages to be installed and automatically updated each time a network connection is made. The new feature makes use of the persistent volume support in the distribution but users should be aware of the ramifications of using the persistence when attempting to leave no traces.

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu: Restoring the Community Link

            The story of Ubuntu and the Missing Community Link has progressed in the last week. A conflict that initially seemed symbolic of the division between Canonical employees and Ubuntu volunteers has since transformed into an illustration of Ubuntu’s skill at handling community conflict.

            For now, at least, the issue appears to have been resolved, although concerns linger about how to avoid similar divisions in the future.

            The conflict arose when Canonical’s design team removed the link to the community site from the main menu on the Ubuntu home page to a sub-menu at the bottom of the page. The change resulted in one-third fewer click-throughs to the community site, but more importantly, the change seemed to confirm fears of a continuing de-emphasis of the Ubuntu community.

            As a result, Benjamin Kerensa and Mark Terranova, two prominent Ubuntu members, began a campaign to restore the position of the link. Much of the campaign was kept within conventional channels, but events reached a low point when Kerensa’s private video that compared Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth to Adolf Hitler was briefly made public by Mark Terranova.

          • May 2013 Ubuntu Developer Summit Summary
          • Respect in Community Discussion and Debate

            Recently there was yet another storm in a teacup that distracted us from creating and sharing Ubuntu and our flavors with others. I am not going to dive into the details of this particular incident…it has been exhaustively documented elsewhere…but at the heart of this case was a concern around the conduct in which some folks engaged around something they disagreed with. This is not the first time we have seen disappointing conduct in a debate, and I wanted to share some thoughts on this too.

          • The key to the success of Ubuntu

            To finish this aloud thinking, I really think that Ubuntu is doing something right. And that is, taking the important decisions fast, and sticking to a plan. I do not know if the path they are following will give them the final success, but I am sure that if the start listening everyone who disagree with that said path, they are never going to succeed.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Kubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail review – Cushty

              It is time to test the third sibling in the Ubuntu family, the one named Kubuntu. So far, we’ve had Ubuntu, which was somewhat bland. Then we also had Xubuntu, which worked like a charm, except for a kernel oops thingie affecting the entire range, a silly thing to coincide with the official release. The KDE version is next.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • New 32-way Raspberry Pi cluster built by US PhD candidate

      Joshua Kiepert, a PhD candidate from Boise University, has built an awesome 32-way cluster from Raspberry Pis. Although clusters from Pi’s have been made before, and even much larger, this is still a seriously cool project.

    • Raspberry Pis Chained Together Provide Massive Computing Muscle

      As we’ve covered before, when it comes to the top open source stories of the last 12 months, it’s clear that one of the biggest is the proliferation of tiny, inexpensive Linux-based computers at some of the smallest form factors ever seen. The Linux-based Raspberry Pi, priced at $25 and $35, leads the pack among these devices.

      But in a new twist on what Raspberry Pi devices are capable of, they’re being chained together to form supercomputers and powerful clusters. If it sounds like a joke, you may be surprised at the enormous computing power these lash-ups are capable of. They may even have the power to democratize supercomputing-level data crunching at very low price points.

    • HOT Raspberry Pi DIY Mini Desktop PC Build

      We recently set out to design a mini desktop computer with the wildly popular Raspberry Pi single board computer. The Raspberry Pi is a Linux-driven, ARM processor-based micro computer that is known for its low cost and small size. People use the device for a variety of projects, from micro-servers to low cost media players. Basically, our goal was to turn what is currently one of the cheapest bare-bones computer boards into a fully enclosed mini desktop computer that could be taken anywhere without the need for cabling or setup. One of the high level goals of this project was also to learn about programming with Linux and get a good feel for it with the Debian distribution.

    • TI OMAP5432 dev kit boasts Linux and Android support

      Texas Instruments (TI) introduced a development kit for designs based on the TI OMAP5432 SOC (system-on-chip), which integrates dual 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore CPUs. The OMAP5432 EVM (evaluation module) targets high performance, graphically oriented, low power embedded applications such as human-machine interfaces, portable data terminals, digital signage, and medical monitoring devices.

    • Arduino launches Wi-Fi board and ready-to-roll robotics platform

      Arduino has launched a new family of development boards and its first full robotics platform at Maker Faire Bay Area over the weekend. The Arduino Yún is the first release in a new line of Wi-Fi enabled boards and is based on the Arduino Leonardo coupled with an embedded Wi-Fi board running a MIPS variant of Linux. The Arduino Robot is the company’s first robotics platform that is fully functional out of the box and consists of two boards connected by a ribbon cable which are equipped with motors, wheels and sensors in a circular design that is reminiscent of the Roomba. The design also features a color LCD screen, microSD card slot, a compass, LEDs and control elements.

    • BeagleBone Camera Cape gains Android 4.1.2 support

      QuickLogic has released Android 4.1.2 support for its custom Parallel Camera Interface (CAM I/F) chip for TI’s Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 SOC (system-on-chip). The new support, which comes in addition to earlier Linux support, adds Android compatibility to the BeagleBone’s 3.1-megapixel Camera Cape.

    • Accessing the Raspberry Pi’s 1MHz timer

      A fixed-rate timer is not part of the ARM specification, but most ARM-based SoC’s have such a timer. The Raspberry Pi is no exception. However, reading its timer in Linux takes a Unix hacker’s understanding.

    • Phones

      • Jolla Smartphone Announced

        At an online presentation today, Jolla Ltd. released further details around the Jolla phone and its Sailfish operating system, an open source OS based on the Linux Meego project. The world’s first Jolla device was shown to an enthusiasic group of developers.

        [...]

        With Jolla, your other half, you have the ultimate freedom to let loose, innovate and individualize your own mobile world.

      • Jolla seeks Sailfish smartphone pre-orders

        Jolla Ltd. opened pre-order voucher sales for the first smartphone to run its Sailfish OS, an open source distribution based on the Linux MeeGo project. The dual-core, 4.5-inch Jolla phone features a gesture UI, Android app compatibility, and interchangeable “Other Half” back covers that switch user profiles.

      • Ballnux

      • Android

        • Sony releases its Android drivers for AOSP

          As part of its AOSP for Xperia project, Sony has released proprietary Wi-Fi drivers and OpenGL graphics libraries of its Xperia S smartphone, Xperia Z smartphone and Xperia Tablet Z. The company has opened GitHub repositories for all three devices that include Android source code from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), the proprietary drivers and instructions to build AOSP images with the drivers and libraries and then install them on the company’s devices.

        • Google I/O: How to build battery-efficient apps
        • Tough Cat B15 Android Phone Marks U.S. Debut

          The makers of tractors and other construction equipment are trying to drum up partners to sell its rough ‘n’ tumble Android smartphone.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Why we do this crazy thing we do

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS/Big Data

  • Databases

    • HeidiSQL 8.0 arrives with polished user interface

      Ansgar Becker has announced the release of HeidiSQL 8.0, the latest version of the open source SQL client for Windows. The new version brings a query history function, supports search and replace in results and introduces folders for tables, views, routines and sessions that allow users to better organise the user interface. HeidiSQL supports MySQL, MariaDB, Percona Server and Microsoft SQL databases and enables database administrators to browse and edit data as well as import and export data from SQL files.

    • SQLite Now Faster With Memory Mapped I/O

      SQLite 3.7.17 was released yesterday. What makes this new release of the popular lightweight SQL database software noteworthy is that it introduces support for memory-mapped I/O.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Seven great features of OpenOffice and Libre Office that you probably ignore

      For many people Apache OpenOffice and Libre Office, which I’ll call collectively FOs (Free Offices suites) for short, are nothing but “free, as in free beer” substitutes of Microsoft Office for basic to intermediate needs. Many users in this category may run the FOs for years without ever discovering some of their features, that is, without realizing the full power and flexibility of these tools.

  • CMS

    • Pantheon’s Drupal Open Source CMS Partner Program

      The demand for expertise in open-source programming has come up fairly frequenly in recent months (here’s an example). And the channel seems to be taking notice, as an announcement Tuesday by Pantheon of a partner program for connecting developers with expertise in Drupal, the open-source content management system (CMS), with organizations building enterprise-quality websites.

      Drupal, which is now more than a decade old, is a key open-source technology behind the modern Web. Alongside alternative open-source CMS engines, like WordPress, Drupal makes it easier to build complex websites. It’s the system behind some of the most popular sites out there, from McDonald’s to the Linux Foundation to — last but not least — Britney Spears’s homepage.

  • Funding

  • BSD

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Project Releases

    • ktap 0.1 released

      I’m pleased to announce that ktap release v0.1, this is the first official
      release of ktap project, it is expected that this release is not fully
      functional or very stable and we welcome bug reports and fixes for the issues.

    • [ANNOUNCE] ktap 0.1 released
    • KTAP Released For Linux Kernel Dynamic Tracing
    • Jira 6 adds mobile interface, revamps web interface

      Jira, Atlassian’s issue tracker and management software, has received a user interface revamp and got a new mobile interface. Jira began life as a software development tool, but according to Atlassian, a recent survey found two thirds of the user base also used it for tasks other than software development. With this in mind, Atlassian set out to make Jira more modern and quicker to use.

  • Public Services/Government

    • Top 5 misconceptions about open source in government programs

      On March 15, 2013, ComputerWeekly.com, the “leading provider of news, analysis, opinion, information and services for the UK IT community” published an article by Bryan Glick entitled: Government mandates ‘preference’ for open source. The article focuses on the release of the UK’s new Government Service Design Manual, which, from April 2013, will provide governing standards for the online services developed by the UK’s government for public consumption.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Rapid development of citizen cyberscience projects on Crowdcrafting.org

      At a workshop on Citizen Cyberscience held this week at University of Geneva, a novel open source software platform called Crowdcrafting was officially launched. This platform, which already has attracted thousands of participants during several months of testing, enables the rapid development of online citizen science applications, by both amateur and professional scientists.

    • Open Access/Content

      • Review of the new Digital Public Library of America

        (The official launch had been planned to occur at the Boston Public Library but the temporary closing of the library due to the Boston Marathon tragedy prompted that event to be postponed until the fall.)

  • Programming

    • Google Updates Go Open-Source Language
    • Zend Framework 2.2 focuses on consistency

      Most of these services now include “abstract factories” that are either registered by default or can be added to an application’s configuration. The service manager uses abstract factories to handle multiple services that follow the same instantiation pattern, but which have different names. The developers have also implemented new plugin manager instances, Zend\Stdlib\Hydrator\HydratorPluginManager and Zend\InputFilter\InputFilterPluginManager. The first can be used for retrieving hydrator instances and, for example, allows custom hydrators to be used across all form instances, while the second makes it possible to retrieve input filters. This allows input filters to be reused and ensures that all input instances are provided with custom validators and/or filters. The developers have also added the new translators and sessions factories.

Leftovers

  • Does a ‘fiscal cliff’ await software vendors switching to cloud?

    The move to cloud is seen as the ultimate form of product cannibalization for software vendors, since customers will be switching from high-end purchases to relatively low monthly payments.

  • Hardware

  • Finance

    • The Search for Change

      Of course UKIP are not a real alternative. I said “do not despise UKIP supporters”, not “do not despise UKIP”. UKIP are a false “alternative” dangled by the mainstream media and the bankers. But the support for them is evidence that the public do very much want some alternative. I shall append this to the article as it must be more ambiguous than I thought.

    • Sen. Warren Asks AG Holder Why No Wall Street Prosecutions
    • Sen. Warren demands to know why criminal bankers aren’t being locked up

      There’s been a rash of mega-settlements between the government and the nation’s largest banks in recent years over allegations of foreclosing on people without just cause, knowingly making bad loans and reselling the debt, making false statements to rob from retired pensioners, laundering money for drug cartels, repressive regimes and terrorists, and agreeing to settlements and then ignoring them, to name a few.

    • “True the Vote,” the Victim? Voter Vigilante Group Says IRS Targeted Its “Verify the Recall” Effort in Wisconsin

      The Texas-based Tea Party group True the Vote is claiming they were one of the groups inappropriately “targeted” by the IRS since their application for charitable status has been delayed for years. Although many Tea Party groups were singled-out by the IRS for improper reasons, there may be good reasons for the agency to take a close look at True the Vote’s application for charitable status, particularly given the group’s involvement with the Wisconsin “Verify the Recall” effort.

    • How the Government Targeted Occupy

      Freedom of conscience is one of the most fundamental human freedoms. This freedom is not merely about one’s ability to choose to believe or not believe in religion or a particular philosophy. In a democracy, freedom of conscience is about the ability to be critical of government and corporations, and to be free from the chilling fear that being critical will subject you to government surveillance.

      Freedom of conscience is not fully realized in isolation. Without the ability to share one’s thoughts, to speak out about injustice, or to join with others in peaceably assembling to petition for redress of grievances, this core freedom is not truly free. Americans should be able to exercise these most sacred rights in free society without worry of being monitored by the government.

    • Rise Up or Die

      Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information.

    • Yahoo: $1.1 Billion Tumblr Buyout Blunder?

      So Yahoo is buying its way into a crowded market to acquire a business that has no profits. Sounds like a disaster.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Censorship

  • Privacy

    • A Quick Look at some Mobile Providers’ Customer Data Policies

      There’s been concern recently about what mobile providers are doing with customers’ data after a Sunday Times article on EE selling information about them. We’ve had a brief look at some of their customer data policies to try to work out what’s going on.

  • Civil Rights

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • 3D Printing

      If you read this blog you must have an internet connection, so presumably have heard of 3D printing. It is a very disruptive technology with potential to change manufacturing in a variety of ways – and indeed even things such as medicine. I recently had some correspondence with Joshua Pearce whose engineering group is working on materials for use in 3D printing. He is concerned about a patent arms race in this area being drag on innovation. He is looking at creative ways to preempt some of the patent nonsense.

    • Trademarks

      • A monopoly over numbers?

        Are you familiar with the ISBN? A unique identifier issued by the U.S. Government to identify books? Did you know that the U.S. Government has granted a private company Bowker a monopoly over issuing them? They are very proud of it…as if it is a good thing!

    • Copyrights

      • Do we need a law?

        In the dimension of copyright, the issue of plagiarism often comes up. There is a common misunderstanding that there is a connection between copyright or plagiarism. Plagiarism is not generally a violation of copyright law – although in some cases where extensive copying takes place it may be. Rather it is a failure of attribution. Basically plagiarism is not illegal – but it is heavily punished through contract law. It is a good example of “why we don’t need a law for that” contrary the oft expressed opinion if something is bad we need a law against it.

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/debian-gnu-hurd/feed/ 0 The FRAND Apple-Microsoft Conspiracy Attempts to Destroy Android/Linux, Ban Imports http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/frand-conspiracy/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/frand-conspiracy/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 09:12:10 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68766 Judge Posner

Summary: How Microsoft and Apple are using patents in bulk (sometimes acquired in unison, e.g. from Novell and Nortel) to artificially lower market saturation of the Android operating system or drive costs up

IN THE LAND of the USPTO patents are not about inventions but about manipulations. They help manipulate competition. Recently, as Groklaw explains, FRAND battles were stopped by Judge Richard Posner (pictured above). Pamela Jones wrote: “The beat goes on in the Apple v. Motorola appeal of Judge Richard Posner’s ruling dismissing both parties’ claims with prejudice, saying neither was entitled to damages or an injunction. Both are appealing, but for different reasons. Motorola has now filed its redacted reply brief [PDF] in response to Apple’s response and reply brief [PDF]. And as soon as Judge James Robart issued his Microsoft-friendly ruling in Microsoft v. Motorola in the Seattle litigation, Apple sent a letter to this appeals court, bringing it to the court’s attention, because it supports Apple’s position and calls Motorola’s patents a trivial contribution to the standard.”

Posner a mixed bag

The seemingly progressive Posner, a judge who sternly opposes software patents [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], deserves no credit for other stances which defy human dignity and rights. Based on this report, Posner does not care about privacy. To quote: “For the most part, the op-ed makes it appear that Posner is only talking about video cameras on every street corner, every building, constantly watching our every public move. The argument in favor of such surveillance is much like the argument for videotaping police in the performance of their duty. They’re in public, where we are lawfully entitled to watch them, so no harm done.”

“The seemingly progressive Posner, a judge who sternly opposes software patents, deserves no credit for other stances which defy human dignity and rights.”Posner, however, gets it right on patents. When it comes to Blackberry appealing for Injunctions, he is shown to be in favour of free innovations, not sanctions. This is about FRAND, a growing threat to FOSS which a new paper calls broken. The title of the paper is “Fixing FRAND: A Pseudo-Pool Approach to Standards-Based Patent Licensing” and it deals not with the legitimacy of the patents themselves but with the way they are used. The growing debate over FRAND has manifested entire blogs dedicated to the subject (see the patent lawyers in Essential Patent, notably posts such as [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]). Worth pointing out is this post which shows Microsoft and Apple working together to harm Android using FRAND. It says: “As many commentators have noted, Judge Robart’s Microsoft-Motorola decision may provide a roadmap to courts and parties in other FRAND disputes. Not surprisingly, Apple recently brought the decision to the attention of both the Federal Circuit (in the appeal of Judge Posner’s decision to dismiss Motorola’s SEP-related claim for damages and injunctive relief) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (in Samsung’s case against Apple, in which the Commission is set to issue its Final Determination by May 31).”

“But Apple and Microsoft aren’t working together in this patent plot against Android,” Pamela Jones wrote very sarcastically. Here comes the Microsoft booster (the one who focuses on chastising Google over privacy but never Microsoft). The clever spin from the Murdoch press is cited Mike Masnick, alleging that Motorola — not Microsoft and Apple — is the bully. We saw this type of spin-doctoring from a Microsoft guy who now works for ZDNet. That was just several days ago.

Android finds support

In other news about patent attacks on Android, Jones gives this update about Linux backers helping Samsung against Apple and here is an update about Microsoft’s anti-Linux patent litigation. See this coverage from Murdoch’s Google-hostile press. As Jones put it in her response to it, “Apple was given an opportunity to license the patents and said it wouldn’t accept a rate set by a judge. So, if you are a patent holder, what do you do? When is the EU going to do something about the real problem, which is the grouping of proprietary companies against Android, using patents as the weapon? ”

“The corporate media might not call it extortion, but that’s just what it is.”In the US, Apple has been using the International Trade Commission to block Android devices along with Microsoft. As one recent article put it: “Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in particular has been taking swipes at Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) through targeting handset makers that use Android – it’s built on the Linux Kernel, which supposedly infringes multiple patents owned by Microsoft. As such, companies such as HTC – which uses Android on many of its handsets – must pay Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) for each handset it sells with that operating system installed.”

This is extortion. The corporate media might not call it extortion, but that’s just what it is. Call a spade by its name.

Spin-doctoring

Frank X. Shaw, the Microsoft Chief Liar from Waggener Edstrom, recently complained about anti-Microsoft bias in the media. Well, who is biased really? As Jones put it: “The company leading a smear campaign against Google would like us to say less negative things about Microsoft.”

Watch Microsoft's pal Harry McCracken spreading disinformation about Google. About that on example, Jones wrote: “That’s incorrect. The Pixel does have apps, as well as the browser.”

Microsoft has been using another liar, Mr. Sullivan, to spread lies with the goal of causing Google antitrust problems. From a response to that: “Like Sullivan I believe that Microsoft’s presence in the FairSearch coalition robs it of its credibility and legitimacy. Aside from the breath-taking hypocrisy of one of the world’s worst monopolists whining about anti-competitive behaviour, Microsoft has far too much invested in its own search business to be at all objective on the subject. Antitrust cases are about stopping monopolies from abusing their power – they are not about undercutting your direct competitor because your own product is second rate.

“The only antitrust abusers here are Apple and Microsoft. They distort the system to impede growth of a competitor.”“It is also worth remembering the original point of antitrust legislation: to shield consumers and businesses from being harmed by the actions of monopolies who controlled access to vital commodities like oil, steel and grain.”

The only antitrust abusers here are Apple and Microsoft. They distort the system to impede growth of a competitor. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/frand-conspiracy/feed/ 0 Gates Foundation: Buying Influence for Bill’s Ego and Bill’s Profit http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/money-power/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/money-power/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 08:26:11 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68760 Money talks and everybody listens

Investments

Summary: New examples of power being acquired and investments (i.e. for profit) being funnelled into the beneficiaries

The stocks/finance-oriented Web sites love to talk about the Gates Foundation not because of charity but because of investment. The ‘charity’ is often a convenient disguise for lobbying for one’s own investments and vested interests. Last month Gates invested in a company that uses patents, painting it also as a grant and investment (i.e. for-profit stake). “Meanwhile,” says one report, “Anacor Pharmaceuticals ANAC shares jumped more than 8% to $6.51 in recent action after the company announced it was receiving a $17.7 milllion grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to study two filarial worm diseases as well as tuberculosis. The foundation also will invest $5 million in Anacor common shares.”

“The goal here is to derive profit from influence and turn money into influence.”Gates is lobbying and buying influence by putting a stake there. Afterwards he gets given platforms for political and scientific lobbying. “Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will deliver a keynote,” says this story about vaccination. Gates is a vaccination expert? I didn’t know. Did he graduate from college at all? No, but he is rich, so that must mean he is smartest on matters of vaccination. He is also lobbying in colleges by making keynote talks there and receiving PR from the media over minor talking points [1, 2]. It’s inexcusable whitewash of a notoriously ruthless, corrupt businessman. These puff pieces characterise him as a gentleman (contradicting what his own employees said).

Going back to the investment in Anacor (covered in financial press for the most part, less so in medical press), it is an example of power grab, just like the education ‘reform’ initiatives backed by Gates, Murdoch, and Zuckerberg. Here is Murdoch’s press pushing the agenda, piggybacking Facebook and characterising it as some kind of charity when all it’s geared up towards is privatisation of education.

“In “‘creation myth’ of capitalist patriarchy”, rich & powerful men like Bill Gates own life through patents & IP.”
      –Jose R RodriguezIncidentally, last month we saw this other lobbying/entryism, accompanying a campaign of bribing more schools to align Gates’ way and take orders. Here is one of the latest examples, peppered and server using some PR with a personal story attached to it in corporate media like Murdoch’s Fox ‘news’ (among other corporate channels [1, 2, 3]).

The goal here is to derive profit from influence and turn money into influence. Recently, Vandana Shiva said that “[o]ne rich man named Bill Gates is financing one Australian scientist James Dale who knows one crop, the banana, to impose inefficient and hazardous GM bananas on millions of people in India and Uganda.” This is GMO promotion from Gates — an issue we wrote about many times before. “In “‘creation myth’ of capitalist patriarchy”,” quotes this activist, “rich & powerful men like Bill Gates own life through patents & IP.” █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/money-power/feed/ 0 Bill Gates Enters Financial Centres With His Goons Becoming US Budget Chief, Top Bankers http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/banking-with-gates/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/banking-with-gates/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 07:56:09 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68755 Bank

Summary: How Bill Gates’ staff is entering positions of financial power, indirectly giving Gates power over US (national and international) finance

Why would Bill Gates run for president when he can get his cronies put in positions of power and actually lobby presidents all around the world without having to be elected and re-elected? It is a life-long career for him and he has more political power than every president in isolation because presidents can rarely keep their position for longer than several years.

“Bill Gates may soon become US budget chief by proxy (his crony in charge).”The Gates Foundation, like an octopus with tentacles, has already put many members of staff in positions of power, e.g. in education, agriculture, and energy. Why would anyone entrust a looting giant for education of children or put his goons in charge of the national budget? Maybe because the system has already been rotten from the inside. Remember that Gates’ budget know-how is based mostly on dirty tricks; both he and Microsoft are not paying tax owing to political entryism. If one lets this sociopath send his goons around to control panels on various walks of life, the no wonder policy becomes people-hostile and corporations-leaning. The government is lobbied by corporations and Gates together (yes, side by side) and it shows. The government has its separation from commerce blurred, so it is akin to fascism.

In what’s not exactly news anymore, Bill Gates may soon become US budget chief by proxy (his crony in charge). To quote: “A former leader at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is close to confirmation as the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

“President Obama nominated Silvia Mathews Burwell to the position in March. On Wednesday she met with the Senate Budget Committee in Washington D.C. ”

“Microsoft itself seems to be another Enron waiting to implode”Also noteworthy is this: “The $4.2 billion-asset company said Thursday that Connie Collingsworth, general counsel of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been elected a director. Collingsworth, who once was a partner at Preston Gates & Ellis, manages the Seattle foundation’s legal needs and serves on its management committee.”

See more here. Banks get leadership from Gates.

Meanwhile, quite revealingly, Gates continues dumping Microsoft shares. Yes, “Bill Gates sold 12,605,492 shares of Microsoft ( MSFT ) for $390,360,320″ despite gaining 7 billion dollars in wealth last year. He just doesn’t bank on Microsoft growth. That’s why he left, to expand in other areas. Microsoft itself seems to be another Enron waiting to implode. Maybe it will need public subsidies (a bailout) that the US Budget Chief can facilitate. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/banking-with-gates/feed/ 0 IBM Ignores Small Companies’ Interests, Denies Patent Scope is a Problem, Focusing on Its Own Problems (Trolls) Instead http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/siia-lobby/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/siia-lobby/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 07:36:24 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68750 Big Blue versus small trolls

Semi trailer

Summary: How David Kappos and IBM (his longtime employer) continue to ignore the obvious problem which kills small businesses and everyone is complaining about

There is a recent study showing that quality of patents declined considerably, helping to prove why the USPTO gets the fire it’s under and very much deserves it. Greed took over and David Kappos recently denied yet again that there was a problem, based on some tweets. Kappos is from a patent giant, IBM, so he can be excused for being ignorant of the facts. Current IBM executives similarly groom the USPTO, as we demonstrated several times earlier this month.

Here is a recent report about patents killing an innovative startup and here is another. Earlier this week we saw this filing from the SIIA on what patents do to the industry. To quote some commentary about it: “You may enjoy going through them, but I thought you might like to see one of the more thoughtful of the public comments, the one from Ken Wasch [PDF], President of the Software & Information Industry Association, or SIIA, a trade association for the software industry with 700 plus members, because it provides details on how the patent trolls attack and what the results have been. I don’t see members listed on the site, but the Software Board lists a number of companies, including Red Hat and IBM, and a number of smaller companies. And the comment states that trolls are hindering innovation, being “masters at abusing and manipulating the patent system.” The footnotes alone are worth noting, but the really interesting part is how the comment explains how trolls do what they do. I learned something I’ve long wondered about, why trolls hide who they are in litigation.”

“IBM is not merely not part of the solution; IBM is part of the problem.”The problem is not just trolls (small patent aggressors) but software patents or scope of patents. Don’t expect an IBM-backed front group to say so though, they would rather alter the debate, replacing grassroots with corporate lobby which calls for elimination of only small aggressors.

When will IBM finally take a brave stance on patents and stop promoting software patents around the whole world, even in countries other than its home country? IBM is not merely not part of the solution; IBM is part of the problem. OIN has done nothing against trolls. SIIA itself, like the BSA which IBM had supported until not so long ago, is anti-FOSS [1, 2, 3], █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/22/siia-lobby/feed/ 0 The New York Times Publishes Factually-Flawed Patent Propaganda Benefiting Microsoft and Apple http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/eamonn-fingleton-revisionism/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/eamonn-fingleton-revisionism/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 16:26:48 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68744 Eamonn Fingleton

“If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.”

–Bill Gates, hypocrite

Summary: Eamonn Fingleton is rewriting history in the US’ top newspaper, insinuating that patents contributed to the rise of software duopolists

TECHDIRT SAYS THAT an “Author Claims That If Apple And Microsoft Started Today They’d Fail Without Stronger Patent Protection”. What utter nonsense. The very opposite is true. So who is the revisionist? Masnick’s site says “The NY Times has a slightly odd op-ed piece, written by Eamonn Fingleton, author of a book about how China is going to dominate the US economically.”

If China is going to dominate, then it’s because it’s a producing nation. Patents don’t matter much in this context. So-called ‘knowledge workers’ cannot dominate over labour forever, as the labour can relocate to domestic employers who reap all the benefits rather than foreigners doing so. Apple failed to convince the Koreans that it invented digital rubberbanding. Yes, Korean giant Samsung was actually defended by the biased US patent system, the USPTO. As this article helps show, Samsung is quickly becoming a front runner for Android, so this matters a lot. All that Apple can lean on now is patent regime of the US and some embargo instruments like the ITC, which is a subject we will address in a separate post another day. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/eamonn-fingleton-revisionism/feed/ 0 Software Patents Eligibility Likely to be Decided by SCOTUS http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/cls-bank-appeal-to-scotus/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/cls-bank-appeal-to-scotus/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 16:03:06 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68740 Indecision claimed thus far

Indecision

Summary: Analyses suggest that an escalation by appeal to SCOTUS is likely to be the next stage in ‘Bilski 2.0′

THE decision from CAFC about a software patent has helped generate a lot of contradictory coverage, where patent lawyers insist there is no change, whereas others claim many software patents — if not all — have just died [1, 2]. Bilski was a tad similar to that. Now comes the take of Red Hat’s Rob Tiller, a lawyer who seems not to be strongly against software patents, just softly. He wrote the following about the CAFC ruling: “The law of software patents took an interesting, and ultimately encouraging, turn a little more than a week ago. In the CLS Bank case, ten judges of the Federal Circuit issued five separate opinions, without any single legal theory gaining a majority. Their debate showed that the scope of the subject matter requirement for patenting software is far from settled. It also makes it more likely that the Supreme Court will speak to the issue, and get it right.”

“Their debate showed that the scope of the subject matter requirement for patenting software is far from settled. It also makes it more likely that the Supreme Court will speak to the issue, and get it right.”
      –Rob TillerHere is the take of another site sceptical of software patents. It asks: “What inventions are eligible for patent protection?”

It then says “the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (often called the nation’s patent court) was supposedly riding to the rescue. The court’s eagerly-awaited en banc decision in CLS Bank Int’l v. Alice Corp. [pdf] was widely expected to clarify the patentability of computer-related inventions, which play a vital role in the US economy. Unfortunately, instead of clarifying the law, the court’s 10 May ruling increased the confusion, casting doubt on more than 300,000 patents – including one-fifth of all patents issued last year.”

It is worth noting that one fifth of new patents in the USPTO are software patents now. Fox Rothschild LLP agreed with Tiller on the eventuality: “It’s also likely that the decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court.” SCOTUS rules in favour of corporate power (its Justices are appointed by politicians who are funded by corporations), but maybe it will surprise us this time around. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/cls-bank-appeal-to-scotus/feed/ 0 Does Bill Gates Try to Flush GNU/Linux Down the Toilet in Kerala? http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/gates-in-kerala/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/gates-in-kerala/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 15:34:58 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68735 Renting Microsoft software rather than using Free (as in freedom, or libre) software?

Signboard

Summary: Equipped with PR about toilets, Gates’ lobbying arm is stepping into a GNU/Linux and Free/libre software vanguard, namely Kerala

It is no longer controversial to say that many foundations set up by rich people have an agenda other than or beyond what they publicly say. Many journalists take that as a given because they have come across stories that convince them of that. The Gates Foundation has been arranging panels around the world and scheduled lobbying journeys for Gates to guard his ever-growing wealth and investments. Last month Dubai was the destination and Gates was scheduled to meet public officials there for lobbying and some investments (he is lobbying leaders as though he is a technology expert because he is wealthy, which evidently is his main skills, monopolising and then profiteering).

“They are lobbying governments to give taxpayers’ money to companies they invest in, essentially a subsidy for billionaires to profit from, as usual”One notable outcome of the meetings in the middle east is a pact of foundations of the super-rich, including another Gates pact with Alwaleed Bin Talal. See [1, 2, 3] for background about those two. They are lobbying governments to give taxpayers’ money to companies they invest in, essentially a subsidy for billionaires to profit from, as usual. That is the business model. As one report in the Indian press put it: “Other participants at the summit also announced their contributions — USD 457 million from Britain, USD 250 million from Canada, and USD 240 million from Norway.”

The headlines all parrot the same taking point about “eradicating polio”, but Gates should not be given credit (he tries to hoard and opportunistically monopolise credit). People in this area of research know he wasn’t the one to eradicate polio, which is almost eradicated anyway. He wants to grab credit for it and funnel further investment/taxpayers’ money to companies he is investing in, for personal gain, e.g. through patent monopolies. Watch the press release health-washing it for reputation laundering benefiting Gates and his plutocrat friend.

With all that said, let us recall the EDGI tactics of Microsoft, and in particular Gates’ role in it. When India was going towards software freedom something disruptive happened. Gates was announcing AIDS-related activities, essentially a lot of hype, to help Microsoft derail GNU/Linux-friendly policy in India. They are buying politicians this way and the hype usually turns out to be in vain some time down the line (a journalist recently gave me an example of this from Microsoft and Gates in Egypt).

Something similar might be happening in Kerala right now. The political camps there can be played off against one another based on new Wikileaks material and Gates seem to be appealing to politicians in Kerala, a famous adopter of GNU/Linux.

” We gave a lot of examples where Gates pushes for Microsoft in libraries in prior years.”The Gates Foundation has announced some health-related stuff and got a lot of fake press (PR) for it, e.g. [1, 2] (publicity and lobbying go hand in hand) , so watch out for politicians who call for Microsoft in schools and government (public sector) again. We saw this before.

Having just lobbied the middle east’s richest nations, Gates managed to impose Microsoft software on many libraries in the region. From last month’s news: “Reach Out To Asia (Rota) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced a three-year collaboration deal to increase public access to libraries in Asia and the Middle East.”

So basically that’s more Microsoft in the public sector, courtesy of Gates. We gave a lot of examples where Gates pushes for Microsoft in libraries in prior years [1, 2, 3]. Don’t let him do the same in Kerala with his toilets-themed (“sanitation”) PR. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/gates-in-kerala/feed/ 0 Links 21/5/2013: Handbrake Turns 0.9.9, NetBSD 6.1 http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/netbsd-6-1/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/netbsd-6-1/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 11:24:27 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68732

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • China and Linux: A Lesson in Industry Transformation

    Organizations around the globe are increasingly developing new applications for big data, mobile and cloud, not to mention the increasing creation and use of social tools, within major markets like banking, communications, retail, transportation and finance. These new applications are also fundamental to operating in a connected world where sensors, data centers, smartphones and even cars are now all connected in a large ecosystem.

  • Is The Canadian Government Rolling Out GNU/Linux Clients?

    The sudden increase by 2%, ~480K users, can only be a whole province’s schools or the Government of Canada. Nothing else is large enough for the sudden change. Even Dell could not do that pushing GNU/Linux at the retail level. The Government of Canada has been considering use of GNU/Linux for more than a decade but certainly not globally. They even considered dual-booting rather than one OS or the other per user. In 2011, Transport Canada documented how severely they were locked in to that other OS. There’s no way they suddenly switched. Recently the government rewarded a teacher who developed a GNU/Linux laboratory. They may have read about GNU/Linux and studied it but they don’t seem to have any motivation to switch despite having an estimate of break-even of 18months for migration.

  • Reality Check: 5 Linux Features You Want in Your Company

    One of my favorite things to do when I am teaching is explaining the whole Linux thing to my undergrad students. It takes a while to understand that no, their instructor isn’t crazy (about this), there really is a free operating system out there that’s pretty much running the Internet, supercomputers, and the DVR back in their dorm room.

  • Desktop

  • Kernel Space

    • The Windows Kernel’s Achilles’ Heel

      “Compared to the Linux kernel, the kernel of that other OS is as inspiring as wet noodles,” blogger Robert Pogson said. “No one can trust it to work for them. After decades of BSODs, vulnerabilities by the score and sluggish behavior on fast hardware, many suspect that there is evil in the black hole.”

    • Stable kernels 3.9.3, 3.4.46, and 3.0.79

      Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of the 3.9.3, 3.4.46, and 3.0.79 stable kernels. As always, they contain important fixes throughout the tree, so users should upgrade.

    • Graphics Stack

      • Using Six Monitors With AMD’s Open-Source Linux Driver

        Linux graphics drivers have come a long way in recent years for both the open and closed-source solutions from AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel. In this Sunday article, a Phoronix reader has shared his experiences in going from failing to setup two monitors under Linux just a few years ago with NVIDIA to now successfully driving six monitors on a single system using the AMD Linux driver.

      • Freedreno Gallium3D Now Banging The Adreno A3XX

        One month after Rob Clark began developing his Freedreno Gallium3D stack for Qualcomm’s Adreno A3xx hardware, he’s beginning to achieve visual success. While the code hasn’t yet been merged into mainline Mesa, on an A320 as found on the Google Nexus 4 he has es2gears (the OpenGL ES version of glxgears) successfully running on this open-source code.

  • Applications

    • Explore the Night Sky with Stellarium

      A visit to a planetarium might be fascinating, but doesn’t occur very often. The Stellarium software, however, provides a really interesting and convenient alternative. Moreover, Stellarium helps in observing the actual night sky. Because the software presents the sky photorealistically, nothing stands in the way of making it available in a classroom or during a lecture. And, because Stellarium is available in the repositories for all the major distributions, installation is at the click of a button.

    • QEMU 1.5 Supports VGA Passthrough, Better USB 3.0

      Just three months after the exciting QEMU 1.4 release, QEMU 1.5 is now available with many exciting and new features for those using this open-source software in a virtualized world. There’s the VFIO VGA pass-through support, USB 3.0 improvements, and much more.

    • Instructionals/Technical

    • Games

      • 24 Peachy Free Linux Games (Part 2 of 4)

        Linux has an ever-expanding library of thousands of free games, many of which are released under an open source license. A good selection of these titles are entertaining, highly addictive, offer captivating gameplay, and are most importantly, great fun to play. Identifying entertaining and challenging games is something that we have a passion for.

      • Reptile Games’ electro beat-’em-up Megabyte Punch coming to Linux
      • 24 Peachy Free Linux Games (Part 2 of 4)

        Linux has an ever-expanding library of thousands of free games, many of which are released under an open source license. A good selection of these titles are entertaining, highly addictive, offer captivating gameplay, and are most importantly, great fun to play. Identifying entertaining and challenging games is something that we have a passion for.

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

  • Distributions

    • Antergos Linux 2013.05.12 review

      Antergos Linux is a desktop distribution based on Arch Linux. The distribution started under the Cinnarch moniker with the objective of providing a Cinnamon-only desktop distribution using the same rolling release development model as its parent distribution.

      It got its new name after the developers came to the conclusion that it was going to be extremely difficult to reconcile the Cinnamon and Arch Linux development models, opting instead to use GNOME 3 as the default desktop environment and provide support for other desktop environments.

    • Best Linux Distro For a New User?

      There’s still a perception that Linux is difficult to use and is only for Geeks. This seems rather silly, since most casual users, the folks who use their computers only for surfing, email and word processing, would have little to no learning curve at all using many Linux distros these days. In fact, even with some of the more “advanced” distros, your grandma wouldn’t have any trouble sitting right down and doing whatever it is she does when she’s on the computer.

    • Hybryde Fusion: A very unique Linux distribution

      Hybryde Fusion is a new desktop distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop. Unlike most other Ubuntu-based distributions, it brings a few interesting features to the table.

      Hybryde Fusion 13.04 is the distribution’s first release and the developer, Larrieu Olivier, is based in France. I’m still playing with a test installation, so this is not a review, but a presentation of a bunch of screen shots just to show what this distribution has to offer.

    • Happy Anniversary, LinuxMigrante!

      Although Megatotoro migrated to Linux a bit later than I did, he took his migration seriously and learned a lot of Linux tricks before I did, all thanks to Mepis, Pardus, and AntiX, his distros of choice.

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Before Mageia 3: Mageia 2 in Perspective Redux

        The early articles of this site revolved around the late and somewhat lamented Mandriva, which faced troubles as a Linux distribution, product, and company. Although Distrowatch lists Mageia within its top 10 of most clicked distributions, Mageia receives the same coverage in the media as long running PCLinuxOS and Sabayon. In fact, popular frugal Linux distribution Puppy Linux is mentioned more in articles and forums than Mageia.

        Why run Mageia 2 when the developers will be releasing Mageia 3 ( an RC is already out) soon? Well, to see if an updated previous release is a stable one – typically a good sign that a distribution has matured and the next release deserves a go. The positive reception for openSUSE 12.3, for example, was already foreshadowed by the excellent openSUSE 12.2 (which I’m still running to this day).

      • Mageia 3 Released, Still Using Legacy GRUB

        At long last the third major version of Mageia, the popular community fork of Mandriva Linux, is now available. There’s a lot of new stuff to Mageia 3 like a new version of RPM and updated systemd, but the distribution is still not shipping GRUB2 by default.

      • Mageia 3: Here’s what I gained and what I lost

        Mageia 3 was released today and I downloaded the Live DVD version to replace my Mageia 2 Desktop install without further consideration. Normally, I test the betas and the RC of a distro carefully in a virtual machine. This time, sadly, I had no time to do that.

      • Linux Top 3: Mageia 3, Linux Mint 15 and New Linux Kernels for All
      • Mageia 3 arrives “all grown up” after two months’ delay

        Almost two months later than initially expected, the Mageia developers have released the third major version of their Linux distribution. Mageia was originally forked from Mandriva over two and a half years ago and is now “all grown up and ready to go dancing,” according to its developers. Mageia 3 updates the distribution’s kernel, systemd startup tools, the six available desktop environments and a large number of included applications. The release is dedicated to long-time Mandriva contributor and Intel employee Eugeni Dodonov who died last year in a road accident.

      • Mageia 3 is out!

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Chromium May Become Default Ubuntu Browser in Version 13.10

            Ever since 2005, Ubuntu has delivered Mozilla’s Firefox browser as its default browser, which has made millions of Ubuntu users loyal users of Firefox. But Firefox is hardly the only browser choice that Ubuntu users have. If you’ve tried Chromium–the open source core of Google’s Chrome browser–you already know that it’s fast, clean and very stable. That has now produced a lively discussion going on online about whether Ubuntu 13.10, due later this year, should ship with Chromium as the default browser.

          • Laptop Week Review: The Dell XPS 13 Developers Edition With Ubuntu

            Dude, you got a Linux-powered Dell! In all the years I’ve reviewed laptops I’ve never been as pleasantly surprised by an Ultrabook as I was with the Dell XPS 13 Developers Edition. This ultrathin, ultralight SSD laptop originally came in Windows flavor but, much to my surprise, I far prefer the Ubuntu edition of this device. It is solidly built, acceptably priced given the solid state drive, and surprisingly powerful.

          • What to Expect from Unity in Ubuntu 13.10
          • The Cost Of Ubuntu Disk Encryption

            It’s been a while since last running any Ubuntu Linux disk encryption benchmarks, but thanks to recent encryption improvements within the upstream Linux ecosystem, it’s time to deliver some new Linux disk encryption benchmarks. In this article are results comparing Ubuntu 13.04 without any form of disk encryption to using the home directory encryption feature (eCryptfs-based) and full-disk encryption (using LUKS with an encrypted LVM).

  • Devices/Embedded

    • $99 HDMI stick turns displays into virtual desktops

      Devon IT unveiled an HDMI stick that can turn any HDMI-compatible monitor or display into an interactive virtual desktop. “Ceptor” is somewhat larger than a typical USB memory stick, runs Devon IT’s Linux-based ZeTOS “zero client” operating system on a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 SOC (system-on-chip), and sells for $99.

    • Arduino Yun weds Arduino, WiFi and linux at Maker Faire 2013

    • Phones

      • Jolla prices first Sailfish OS smartphone at €399 for a 2013 launch

        Jolla has just unveiled its first smartphone, which will go on sale this year for €399 (roughly $510). Running the company’s MeeGo-derived Sailfish OS, it features a 4.5-inch display, a dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera, LTE (in selected markets), removable back covers, 16GB of onboard storage, and a microSD slot. According to Jolla, the handset will be “compliant” with Android apps, although it’s not sure how many apps will be supported, nor is it clear where users will download the apps from.

      • Jolla Launch

      • Ballnux

        • See the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active for the first time
        • Samsung Galaxy Grand Quattro Launched in India

          Following the success of Galaxy Grand, Samsung launched the Galaxy Grand Quattro in India today. Priced competitively at Rs.17,290, the grand Quattro targets the lower mid range segment.

          The Galaxy Grand Quattro features a 4.7 inch at 480×800 resolution. The Dual-SIM phone is powered by 1.2GHz quad core Cortex A5 processor, Adreno 203 GPU, 1GB RAM and is running Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2. It comes with a 5 megapixel shooter and 0.3 megapixel from facing camera. The internal memory is limited to 8GB, but has an expandable memory up to 32GB.

        • Samsung Calls Out Developers with $800,000 Galaxy S4 App Challenge

          If you’ve been following recent market share numbers for smartphones and mobile operating systems, then you know that Samsung has achieved a dominant position with its Android phones, and especially the Galaxy line of phones. Now, Samsung has launched its “Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013,” inviting developers who work with the company’s peer-to-peer software to develop competitive apps for the S4 phone. The contest includes $800,000 in prize money.

        • Did Samsung confirm a new Galaxy device: the Galaxy S4 Mega?

      • Android

        • Google Glass will be a big deal, so deal with it

          Perhaps no group has earned a borderline obscene pejorative as quickly as the wearers of Google Glass. I mean, the product, not due for release until early next year, is seen in the wild today only on the few thousand who are its early testers. And yet we already

          have the term “glasshole.” Google Glass has also been banned ahead of its release. This all seems to stem from the belief, voiced by writers such as Jason Perlow, that Google Glass is evil, since “it’s a ‘stealth’ recording device.”

        • Intel’s Android mobile chipset play embraces ARM

          Intel has released a new set of development tools for the Android Jelly Bean mobile device operating system called Beacon Mountain.

          Beacon Mountain version 0.5 is only compatible with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

        • Dell Project Ophelia USB Android stick to ship in July, priced at $100

          We know that “wherefore art thou?” was about Romeo, but if your question was for (Dell’s) Ophelia, then it’s likely more “when art thou.” The answer? July. The Android pendrive / USB computer we saw back at CES may be one of many, but distinctive thanks to its mainstream PC-maker origins. We’re still lacking a lot of the specifics, other than that there’s WiFi, Bluetooth, Wyse PocketCloud integration, plus, of course, HDMI and Android 4.something.

        • Dell Project Ophelia Android USB set to launch in July

          Dell’s latest move to insinuate itself into the Android market, Project Ophelia, will be hitting our shelves soon.

        • Intel releases ‘Beacon Mountain’ Android-on-Atom dev tool

          Indroid Inside Intel has released “Beacon Mountain” a development environment for Android apps on both its own Atom silicon and ARM chippery.

          Beacon Mountain emerged over the weekend, promising “productivity-oriented design, coding, and debugging tools for apps targeting … smartphones and tablets.”

        • Google H840 media player hits the FCC: Next Nexus Q?

          Last year Google introduced a media player called the Nexus Q which was designed to let you stream content from your phone or tablet (and from the internet) to your TV. It didn’t last long.

        • Verizon’s “XFON” Likely the XT1060, Also Runs a Snapdragon S4 Dual-core MSM8960

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

Free Software/Open Source

  • Twitter uses open source to automate security

    Twitter is increasingly using open source automation tools to ensure security processes are taken care of in all the code it produces.

    “Automation is where we see application security teams going in future,” Alex Smolen, Twitter product security team software engineer, told the Security Development Conference 2013 in San Francisco.

  • Has Open Source’s time come?

    In 1991, a Finnish university student posted a project on an internet discussion board that would change the world. Linus Torvalds had put up the first version of Linux, a computer operating system that within thirty-five years, millions of volunteer programmers around the world would have developed to a point where versions of Linux power 75% of mobile phones sold around the world in the first quarter of 2013 and the majority of websites on the internet, including the one you’re reading this article on right now.

  • RTKLIB Open Source GNSS Precise Positioning Software Supports NV08C Receiver
  • Don’t sell free software cheap

    How can I get paid for free software development? That’s a question many developers ask. And it’s a good question, because software development is expensive, no matter what the license is. Money is one way to pay for this, but fortunately there are many other ways to get paid for free software. The one thing you should never do, though, is to sell free software cheap.

  • Google’s chat client drops Jabber compatibility

    Google is currently deploying an update for its Talk chat client that will replace it with the new Hangouts app. Introduced last week at the I/O developer conference in San Francisco, the Hangouts application is designed to put an end to having three simultaneously available real-time Google communication services – Talk, Google+ Messenger and the original Google+ Hangouts – and is available for Android, iOS, Windows, and as a Chrome extension.

  • “Mobile-first” Bootstrap 3 is almost ready

    Mobile use cases are the major focus for the next version of the open source web frontend framework Bootstrap. Under the heading of “Bootstrap 3 will be mobile-first”, the developers have merged the responsive CSS templates into the core bootstrap.css file, dropping support for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3.6 in the process. The changes are aimed at making site designs implemented in Bootstrap adaptable to mobile resolutions by default, without the user having to explicitly enable additional functionality. Bootstrap, which originated at Twitter, has become popular with many developers and is used by hundreds of sites.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Ubuntu 13.10 may ditch Firefox for Chromium

        For years, Ubuntu and Firefox have strolled the open source countryside hand-in-hand. That could change with the release of Ubuntu 13.10, however, as Canonical is thinking about dumping Firefox for Chromium.

        It’s hard to believe that Firefox’s run as the default browser on Ubuntu could be coming to an end. In 2005, it was Firefox 1.0.2 that shipped with Hoary Hedgehog. Eight years later, you’ll find Firefox 20 in Ubuntu 13.04. When 13.10 arrives in the second half of this year, you may have to install the package manually from the Ubuntu Software Center if you want to keep surfing with the ‘fox.

  • CMS

  • BSD

    • Announcing NetBSD 6.1
    • NetBSD 6.1 and 6.0.2 released

      The NetBSD Foundation has announced the first feature update of NetBSD 6 in the form of NetBSD 6.1. The changes in 6.1 include fixes in the kernel for processes with attributes. Networking gets fixes for “atomic fragments” in IPv6, fixes for locking issues in the ipf packet filter, many changes to the npf packet filter library and a correction to the VirtIO NIC driver which had been crashing recent QEMU versions. Filesystem changes include various fixes and working big-endian support for smbfs and an ability to mount ext2fs and msdosfs in 32-bit compat mode.

  • Project Releases

    • Handbrake turns 0.9.9

      The developers of HandBrake, the popular open source video transcoder, have announced the release of version 0.9.9 of the popular video conversion application. Another two beta releases of HandBrake, one which previews the transcoder working with Intel’s Quick Sync Video SDK and another which uses OpenCL to accelerate cropping and scaling and decoding on windows, were also released.

    • Handbrake 0.9.9 Supports OpenCL Offloading

      Just three months after the exciting QEMU 1.4 release, QEMU 1.5 is now available with many exciting and new features for those using this open-source software in a virtualized world. There’s the VFIO VGA pass-through support, USB 3.0 improvements, and much more.

    • m23 rock 13.1 is ready!

  • Public Services/Government

  • Openness/Sharing

    • HetNet News: Range networks integrates its open-source equipment; new Firetide CEO

      Range Networks, which makes open-source cellular systems, announced that its equipment now integrates with operators’ SS7-MAP core networks and supports 4G. The company, which targets rural and developing markets and private industrial networks with low-cost network equipment, has been collaborating with SS7Ware and said that its One Core Network now supports 2G, 3G and 4G network nodes to be run off of the same core network. Previously, the company’s equipment was limited to 2G, 2.5G, and 3G GSM systems.

  • Programming

    • Perl 5.18 goes stable

      The latest release of Perl, Perl 5.18, is now available as a stable release. Among the many changes that have taken place over the twelve months of development and 400,000 changed lines of code, is a major overhaul of how hashing is implemented.

      The new hash implementation uses a random seed which will vary the return values from keys(), values() and each() each time a program is run; this change makes Perl’s hashes more robust and exposes hash-order dependency bugs. This improvement in security is accompanied by a fix for code injection through translations (CVE-2012-6329) and stopping Perl calling memset with a negative value (CVE-2012-5195), a problem which could become a heap overrun.

Leftovers

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • 20 children among 91 dead in Moore, Oklahoma tornado

      Twenty children were among at least 91 people killed when a powerful tornado swept through an Oklahoma City suburb, tearing down blocks of homes and two schools, local officials said.

      The state medical examiner’s office released the latest death toll but the number was climbing rapidly, as emergency crews combed through smashed homes and the collapsed remains of an elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Censorship

  • Civil Rights

    • Weev in solitary confinement for remotely tweeting from prison

      Weev, whose real name is Andrew Auernheimer, was taken to court and subsequently landed in jail following his infamous and controversial AT&T hack. He’s in prison for 41 months, but even holed up behind bars Weev is causing trouble of the non-violent kind. The Daily Dot reports that Weev is believed to be locked up in solitary confinement following an unsanctioned tweet that shouldn’t have been published in the first place.

      Auernheimer’s lawyer Tor Ekeland says the tweeting from his client’s @rabite handle is the cause of the sudden isolation – Auernheimer is even unable to speak with his lawyer. While Auernheimer isn’t allowed access to the Internet directly, there’s something called the Trust Fund Limited Computer System (TRULINCS), a system where inmates can send email messages to approved contacts. Basically, he would use this system to send messages to a secure contact who would then tweet for him – think of it like surrogate tweeting.

      What looked like his own tweets were actually messages Auernheimer was sending to an approved content to tweet for him … at least that’s what is being assumed. With the help of a friend or friends, Auernheimer has been able to tweet relatively frequently. You can see his stream embedded below.

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/21/netbsd-6-1/feed/ 0 Links 20/5/2013: First Salifish Smartphone, Mageia 3 Released http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/first-salifish-smartphone/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/first-salifish-smartphone/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 16:26:28 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68730

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • Logitech Adds ‘Linux Compatible’ Option to Product Site; Sign of Good Things to Come?

      As rich as the Linux OS is, one of its sticking-points is that a lot of companies don’t properly support their products for it. Your Logitech mouse might work just fine under the OS, of course, but it wouldn’t be the company to thank; rather, the support comes from the efforts of developers who share the same passion for the OS as you do. My ASUS Xonar audio card works brilliantly under Linux, but ASUS had nothing to do with it.

  • Applications

  • Distributions

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Mageia 3 Released with Steamy Goodness

        he third official release of, the popular Mandriva fork, Mageia is now available. After months of delays and a mountain of challenges, Patricia Fraser said, “We still can’t believe how much fun it is to make Mageia together, and we’ve been doing it for two and a half years.”

        Like every new release, Mageia 3 comes chocked full ‘o upgrades. Some of these include Linux 3.8.13, Xorg X Server 1.13.4, GCC 4.7.2, KDE 4.10.2, GNOME 3.6, LibreOffice 4.0.2, GIMP 2.8.2, and Firefox 17.05. But a few new surprises await as well.

    • Debian Family

      • Review of Debian GNU/Linux 7.0

        Debian GNU/Linux is one of the oldest surviving Linux distributions and will be celebrating its 20th anniversary later this year. The venerable project is home to hundreds of volunteers who maintain over 35,000 software packages. Debian has expanded over the years and currently supports nine hardware architectures, displaying an unusual level of flexibility for a Linux distribution. Debian isn’t just a long lived Linux distro, the project also maintains ports which allow developers and users to experiment with running GNU software on top of alternative kernels, including Hurd and the FreeBSD kernel. This amazing diversity, along with Debian’s reputation for stability, has caused many developers to base their own projects on Debian.

        Dozens of the world’s most popular and widely used open-source projects (including Ubuntu, Linux Mint and KNOPPIX) can trace their ancestry back to Debian. Apart from being one of the largest existing open-source projects Debian is also a social experiment. The project is run as a democracy, a rarity in the open-source world, where developers vote on important changes and are guided by a constitution. For the reasons given above, more so than the anticipated features, the release of a new version of Debian sends ripples through the open-source community. Debian may be a famously conservative project, but everything its developers do affect large portions of the open-source population. I was quite eager to see what Debian 7.0, code name Wheezy, would offer.

      • How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation

        Debian Edu / Skolelinux is an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools. It contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to pupils in the primary schools. It provide both the central server, network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of educational software. The project was founded almost 12 years ago, 2001-07-02. If you want to support the project, which is in need for cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity, please donate some money.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Development plans for Ubuntu 13.10

            Among the topics discussed by the developers at Ubuntu Developer Summit 13.05 were the planned new features for Ubuntu 13.10. The next version of the distribution, code-named “Saucy Salamander”, could include early versions of Ubuntu’s Mir display server and have the Qt-based Unity Next desktop environment for testing. However, the default configuration will continue to include the graphics stack of Ubuntu 12.10 with X11, Compiz and Unity 7. By 2014, Canonical plans to unify the code base for Ubuntu’s smartphone, tablet and PC desktops, based on Mir and Unity Next.

          • Ubuntu Touch: the (natural) next step in personal computing?

            I don’t think many people have realised that we are on the verge of a technological revolution. The computing world is changing, and this is the first time GNU/Linux is catching the revolution as it begins. Computers are getting smaller and smaller, while phones are getting bigger and bigger. Everybody can see that they about to converge — but in what form? Well, the answer is: GNU/Linux — before anybody else. The ingredients? A great GNU/Linux distribution, a leader with the right vision, and a few very bold, ground-breaking choices. Mix it well: the result is Ubuntu Touch. Let me go through these ingredients.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Linux Mint 15 “Olivia” gets release candidate

              The Linux Mint developers have announced a release candidate for the upcoming version of their distribution, Linux Mint 15. The release, which is code-named “Olivia”, is being built on Ubuntu 13.04 and is billed by Linux Mint founder Clement Lefebvre as “the most ambitious release since the start of the project.”

  • Devices/Embedded

    • OpenPandora review, part two

      Welcome, Willkommen, Bienvenue! To the second article in my Pandora series. As you recall, several weeks back, I received a test unit from Michael Mrozek, of the world’s smallest, most-powerful gaming micro-computer. In the first installment, we talked most about initial impressions, the look & feel, specifications, and a brief taste of the variety of its capabilities, technologies and interfaces.

      Now, we will dig deeper. In this article, I will focus on firmware refresh of the test unit, trying to bring the system to a newer edition, as well as dabble in the ins and outs of the Xfce desktop environment. I will leave the gaming-oriented MiniMenu and the Android mod for the third and last part in this would-be trilogy. Follow me.

    • Arduino launches Yún for WiFi connectivity under Linux

      THE SINGLE BOARD MICROCONTROLLER Arduino has been revamped to offer WiFi connectivity under Linux, in order to make connecting to complex web services much easier directly from the device.

      Named the Arduino Yún, which apparently is Chinese for “cloud”, the microcontroller claims to be the first of a family of WiFi products combined with a customised version of the Linux operating system (OS) distribution OpenWRT called Linino.

      Designed in collaboration with chip firm Dog Hunter, Linino provides signed packages to ensure the authenticity of the software installed on the device and, according to Arduino, Linino is the most used Linux distribution for embedded devices.

    • Phones

      • Jolla announces first Sailfish-based smartphone

        Finnish startup Jolla has announced its first smartphone, which shows off its Sailfish OS on a 4.5-inch screen.

      • Jolla announces its first Salifish OS smartphone
      • Here Comes Jolla, Yet Another Deviant Linux Smartphone
      • Sailfish OS phone “Jolla” debuts, available for preorders

      • Ballnux

        • Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 review – A surprise

          Holy shit! What you, Dedoimedo, you sellout, you hypocrite! Wait, calm down. All is well. There’s a reason why I decided to buy a tablet. One, I can afford it. Two, I really wanted to see what makes the retards get so excited. Three, I had an actual business need for this, but more about that later. Anyhow, this is my very first experience with a tablet. Honestly. I’ve never used one before. So it should be definitely most interesting. I’ve dabbled in Android a bit now and then, and overall, I was not really impressed. The x86 version for netbooks was ok but not magnificent, however, on the other hand, my smartphone experience was, overall, quite frustrating.

          Let’s how a pretentious old git like me managed to cope with this new modern technology. Better yet, why a pretentious old git like me would ever want to buy a device that is operated by touch only. Finally, this is a proper, thorough review of the Samsung tablet, probably of a higher quality, relevance and greater depth than anything else out there, because after all, it’s Dedoimedo writing this stellar review. Avanti.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

Free Software/Open Source

  • Why We Need Open Source: Three Cautionary Tales

    Open Enterprise mostly writes about “obvious” applications of open source – situations where money can be saved, or control regained, by shifting from proprietary to open code. That battle is more or less won: free software is widely recognised as inherently superior in practically all situations, as its rapid uptake across many markets demonstrates. But there are also some circumstances where it may not be so obvious that open source is the solution, because it’s not always clear what the problem is.

    For example, in the field of economics, there is a well-known paper by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff entitled, “Growth in a Time of Debt.” The main result is that “median growth rates for countries with public debt over 90 percent of GDP are roughly one percent lower than otherwise; average (mean) growth rates are several percent lower.” Needless to say, this has been seized upon and widely cited by those in favour of austerity.

  • Open source browser based code editors

    The humble browser. Its main purpose, for many years, was to serve up simple HTML documents and provide information on just about any subject you could think of. In the last decade, with broadband taking over from dial-up, and net connections getting ever quicker, websites have increasingly provided applications usually restricted to the desktop.

  • CMS

    • Open Source WordPress Grows on Yahoo Tumblr Buyout

      The big news in the tech world that emerged over the weekend is that Yahoo is set to repeat its decade old mistake and acquire Tumblr (Geocities redux) for $1 Billion.

      I’m not a fan of Tumblr, but I am a fan of freedom and WordPress, both of which are apparently now ‘winning’ as a side effect of this deal. While it’s still unclear precisely how Yahoo’s ownership may/may not affect Tumblr, users are already voting with their blogs.

  • Public Services/Government

    • Five Star Movement urges Italian city of Bari to move to open source

      The administration of the Italian city of Bari must increase its use of free and open source software solutions, say local representatives of the Five Star Movement. Switching to open source will be part of the movement’s election programme for the municipal elections in 2014.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Hardware

      • An Interview With Dr. Joshua Pearce Of Printers For Peace

        Joshua Pearce, PhD, is a researcher at Michigan Tech who rearches open source and low-impact solutions to engineering problems. He is also the founder of the Printers For Peace contest, an effort to bring together clever 3D-printed ideas that have loftier aims. You can win one of two 3D printers if you submit a winning project.

Leftovers

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

  • Cablegate

  • Finance

    • Bitcoin developer chats about regulation, open source, and the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto

      With Bitcoin all the rage and startups popping up left and right, it’s hard to know who’s an expert in the virtual currency and who just has an opinion. Most people would put Jeff Garzik in the former camp.

    • The world is rich – the rich are the problem

      There’s no shortage of food, no shortage of wealth to solve social crises. The problem is a system that enriches a few and starves the many. We hear day in day out about the massive poverty and hunger that exists in the world. NGO’s and various non-profits have been around for decades appealing for assistance in feeding the world’s poor. Some experts think it is simply an overpopulation problem and it is the poor that are to blame; if only they’d have fewer children, they advise. It is not too many people that are the problem. It is not the lack of medical knowledge or technical expertise that leads to staggering infant and adult death rates in some parts of the world. It is the lack of social infrastructure and the political will needed to provide it.

    • TV presenters, bankers and government advisers among 1,000 Britons linked to tax havens

      - Broadcaster and former footballer John Fashanu on list

      - Trade adviser Alpesh Patel also named on leaked database

      - It also includes Goldman Sachs and Coutts, The Queen’s bank

      - Data has been leaked in tranches by a whistleblower since 2009

      - HMRC keen to clamp down on wealth sheltered in tax havens

    • The IRS Scandal: It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Dissent or Terror: New Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide

      DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy today released the results of a year-long investigation: “Dissent or Terror: How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, In Partnership With Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street.”

      The report, a distillation of thousands of pages of records obtained from counter terrorism/law enforcement agencies, details how state/regional “fusion center” personnel monitored the Occupy Wall Street movement over the course of 2011 and 2012. Personnel engaged in this activity at fusion centers include employees of municipal, county and federal counter terrorism/homeland security entities. Such entities include local police departments, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (including U.S. DHS components such as the Transportation Security Administration).

    • Dissent or Terror: How Arizona’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, in Partnership with Corporate Interests, Turned on Occupy Phoenix

      Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a nationwide “counter terrorism” apparatus emerged. Components of this apparatus include the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (U.S. DHS), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), ODNI’s “National Counterterrorism Center” (NCTC), and state/regional “fusion centers.”

      “Fusion centers,” by and large, are staffed with personnel working in “counter terrorism”/ “homeland security” units of municipal, county, state, tribal and federal law enforcement/”public safety”/”counter terrorism” agencies. To a large degree, the “counter terrorism” operations of municipal, county, state and tribal agencies engaged in “fusion centers” are financed through a number of U.S. DHS grant programs.

  • Privacy

    • Lawmakers eye regulating domestic surveillance drones

      Amid growing concern over the use of drones by police and government officials for surveillance, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to limit the use of unmanned surveillance “eyes in the sky” aircraft.

    • Council debates banning drones from Evanston’s skies
    • Weaponized Drones used for Law Enforcement across America: How Your Town Can Stop Drones

      When Charlottesville passed a resolution against drones in February of this year, I heard from people all over the country again. Since that time, to my knowledge, one little town in Minnesota called St. Bonifacius has passed something, while dozens and dozens have tried and failed. The problem seems to be that drones can have good uses as well as bad. Of course, that’s grounds for halting the lawless and reckless spread of drones until we can figure out any ways in which their good use can be compatible with our Constitutional rights. But that would make too much sense. When there’s money to be made, technology to be played with, and terrorists to destroy our freedoms if we don’t hurry up and destroy them first, the American way is full steam ahead. But I actually think I might have at least a partial answer this time.

      [...]

      …drones armed with rubber bullets and tear gas.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • The Goodman Affair: Monsanto Targets the Heart of Science

      Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal, has jested that instead of scientific peer review, its rival The Lancet had a system of throwing a pile of papers down the stairs and publishing those that reached the bottom. On another occasion, Smith was challenged to publish an issue of the BMJ exclusively comprising papers that had failed peer review and see if anybody noticed. He replied, “How do you know I haven’t already done it?”

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/first-salifish-smartphone/feed/ 0 Microsoft Corruption (Illegal Tenders) Stopped by European Court http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/europe-on-illegal-tenders/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/europe-on-illegal-tenders/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 14:41:19 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68721 Europe stops illegal Microsoft-leaning ‘tenders’, US should follow suit (SCOTUS hallway imaged below)

SCOTUS hallway

Summary: Microsoft cannot bypass public tenders, based on a ruling from a court of law in Europe

Microsoft’s many offences are diverse in their nature. Just about any imaginable offence Microsoft has committed or is still committing. Right now Microsoft is offering lock-in in exchange for some gifts/cash, in liaison with Forbes. This, however, does not qualify as a bribe like this one which bypasses the public and uses politicians. As the Gates Foundation certainly knows, the best way to assure annual profit (or bailout) is to lobby politicians to hand over taxpayers’ money to corporations you have investments in (the Gates Foundation is a tax-exempt investment instrument). This has rendered many corporations political in nature and heavily reliant on lobbying. Microsoft is no exception.

“To Microsoft, anything that’s non-Microsoft is unfair.”On the one hand, what Microsoft does when it comes to government contracts is not so unique. On the other hand, notes ESOP, Microsoft has been engaging in several other illegal activities in Portugal. And the latest ESOP press release is titled “Court Annuls Public Tender for MS Software in Municipality of Almada” (there are usually incentives for officials who play along, i.e. bribes). The press release says: “Following a legal action brought by ESOP to the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Almada, public tender no. 31A2012 regarding licensing and maintenance of Microsoft software costing up to 550.000,00 EUR was annulled. The tender, now deemed illegal, was launched by the City of Almada and prevented all the competing solutions from being supplied.

“It is the first court decision of this type in Portugal. The court confirms that, according to the Portuguese Law, public tenders must include functional requirement and must NOT include specific brands.”

Moreover, says the text: “Compliance with public procurement rules will enable the City of Almada to receive more and better proposals for the supply of software, including solutions based on Open Source.”

Fair competition is not a term that Microsoft understand. To Microsoft, anything that's non-Microsoft is unfair.

If only more countries, including the UK, had the guts and the activist spirit to do what ESOP did in Portugal… █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/europe-on-illegal-tenders/feed/ 0 Not Satire: Microsoft Wants to Show the World How Security is Done http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/microsoft-security-standard/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/microsoft-security-standard/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 14:13:46 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68716 Microsoft tries to paint itself as “fighting the bad guys”

Musketeers

Summary: Software security ‘standard’ to be led by the company which made insecurity an acceptable engineering practice?

According to this new report (criticised heavily in this LXer thread), Microsoft is trying to lead security standards as if Microsoft is the master of security. Oh! The vanity!

“Previously, roughly half a decade ago, Microsoft fonts also enabled remote hijacking of one’s Windows-running PC.”Microsoft is not just bad at security but also at patching security flaws; many people, especially in businesses, won’t install updates from Microsoft without qualms because these tend to break the software every now and then, even weeks ago. As IDG put it: “The saga of botched patch MS13-036 takes new twists and turns — including a problem with Multiple Master fonts” (familiar story, not the first of this kind).

Go on and wonder how poor modularity must be if a security patch can impact fonts. Previously, roughly half a decade ago, Microsoft fonts also enabled remote hijacking of one’s Windows-running PC. █

“Our products just aren’t engineered for security.”

–Brian Valentine, Microsoft executive

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/microsoft-security-standard/feed/ 0 Microsoft is Struggling to Maintain Industry ‘Standards’ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/industry-standards/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/industry-standards/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 14:03:28 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68707 The world has moved on and beyond the “desktop”

Scapshot

Summary: With Microsoft’s common carrier and browser share down considerably Microsoft finds itself increasingly irrelevant and it tries subversive means of making another comeback

According to this new article from IDG, Forrester has no faith in Vista 8, despite Forrester ‘research’ (for a fee, for agenda) being Microsoft-funded for years. To quote: “Windows 8, the most significant upgrade to Microsoft’s operating system since Windows 95 and one of the most important products in the company’s history, will not achieve enough adoption in enterprises to be considered a standard, according to Forrester Research.”

“Even the Microsoft boosters have ceased trying to lie about Vista 8 sales.”Britain’s leading Microsoft booster can offer damage control no more. He wrote: “Those who upgraded to Windows 8 aren’t the only ones unhappy with the new touch-driven operating system – Wall Street is too. Just don’t expect any of the criticism hurled at Steve “Teflon” Ballmer, Microsoft’s shy and retiring boss, to stick.

“The chief executive is under fire from money men who responded to tech reporters trolling the markets for blistering opinions on Microsoft’s leadership, given that: PC sales are crashing; Windows Phone 8 smartmobes are in fourth place in the US mobile OS market; and Windows 8 Surface gadgets are barely on the worldwide tablet sales charts. The new touchscreen-friendly Windows has not been that well received, resulting the software giant undoing decisions made at the highest levels.”

Here are his closing words: “Arguably, Ballmer’s pain has been postponed. Microsoft’s Windows growth isn’t coming from new Windows 8 PCs sold to consumers, rather sales of Windows 8 licences to distribution channel partners and volume customers. Actual Windows 8 machines haven’t moved in any significant numbers. The PCs that are selling run Windows 7.”

Even the Microsoft boosters have ceased trying to lie about Vista 8 sales. Android already became far more of an industry standard than Vista 7 and 8 combined. Android will soon celebrate one billion activations. It sometimes seems like Google has helped harm many Microsoft de facto standards, including multimedia ones, not just operating systems. The hardest part to knock down is Microsoft’s most profitable monopoly, Office, which relies solely on format-induced lock-in.

According to this piece from the pro-Microsoft 'news' site ReadWrite, “Google is Prepping a Sneak Attack on Microsoft Office” and the author says: “Google sources also say they’re confident that Microsoft won’t be able to block QuickOffice with licensing issues or other legal threats. Eventually, these individuals say, QuickOffice will become the foundation of Google Apps, although that’s still a ways off.”

“The hardest part to knock down is Microsoft’s most profitable monopoly, Office, which relies solely on format-induced lock-in.”Pamela Jones responded as follows: “I hope Google doesn’t make the mistake of thinking that building your business on a Microsoft “standard” format that includes a right for Microsoft to add proprietary doodads is going to work out for them. And if they don’t include ODF, Microsoft will be correct that then Microsoft will be more open than Google in that one area. On the other hand, if the lawyers are in this decision because Microsoft is a litigation bully and competes in courtrooms instead of in the marketplace, who knows what has gone into the decision? Dealing with Microsoft is a headache, and it causes others endless troubles for absolutely no good reason with folks ending up doing things to protect themselves from attack that they’d otherwise never have done.

“And speaking of openness, what’s with ReadWrite’s new policy of making their articles impossible to copy and paste? This is the Internet, and there are principles and a culture, and they are violating them.”

Recall how Microsoft resorted to corruption for OOXML, which Google, for some reason, no longer opposes as fiercely as it used to, partly due to Microsoft's pollution in formats space.

“Google has made good progress on weaning Microsoft lock-in, but the job is not done yet.”According to a post about OGC, Microsoft is now trying to ‘pull an OOXML’ again, this time not against video chats through Web standards, namely WebRTC (a threat to Skype) but against another common standard. As one person put it: “Most (all?) current OGC web service standards to date have an Open Source reference implementation, which was often (always?) part funded by OGC testbeds, and open source implementations were tested against proprietary implementations during OGC testbeds. As far as I’m aware, there has been very little up-take from the Open Source community of the “GeoServices REST API”, and I’m unaware of any testing of non-ESRI applications during OGC testbeds. (Someone may be able to correct me here).”

Here is the source. Pamela Jones, who fought against OOXML, calls this “Another OOXML,” noting that it is “a “standard” proposed when there is already a FOSS overlapping standard in use. ESRI lists Microsoft, Oracle, Novell and SAP as partners.”

In order to starve Microsoft, a longtime abusive monopolist and patent racketeer (Microsoft tries to extract money from devices using FAT patents in exFAT), one needs to erode its lock-in. Google has made good progress on weaning Microsoft lock-in, but the job is not done yet. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/industry-standards/feed/ 0 Microsoft Entryism and Bribery Get the Microsoft Way Implemented http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/dirty-tactics-from-microsoft/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/dirty-tactics-from-microsoft/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 13:28:54 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68702 Violent revolution by Microsoft, CIA style

Canon

Summary: A recollection of very dirty tactics from Microsoft, which uses money to oppress, overthrow, and even hijack its opposition

Paul E. Singer (aka “Elliott“, a misnomer for a bunch predatory investors) can be accused of letting Microsoft grab Novell’s patent portfolio through CPTN. More recently we saw this vulture preying on another company and now we see it destroying BMC for personal gain. The Microsoft booster (only occasional) at the Financial Times says: ‘The deal marks a success for Elliott Management, the activist investor that accumulated 9.6 per cent of BMC shares and won two seats on the company’s board.”

That’s entryism. Pamela Jones wrote about it that “Elliott Management forced the Novell deal too. Since Microsoft was involved in all that, what is the real purpose of all this?”

Novell is no longer a focus of ours. We mostly ignore articles about SUSE, taking a passive approach. But Novell’s patents and the tactics of entryism cannot be ignored. Microsoft is now doing to Nokia what it did to Novell and at the end of the day we are left dealing with just another SCO. Here is some more coverage about Novell and SCO, courtesy of Jones:

What we have learned from those two cases is that Microsoft can turn opponents (like Nokia) into allies using entryism, essentially an infiltration and/or bribe. Microsoft funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars for Novell to change teams after Novell had become a fierce antitrust opponent of Microsoft and Microsoft paid tens of millions of dollars to SCO when it attacked Linux with empty copyright claims. More recently Microsoft also bribed Barnes & Noble to defect from legal action against Microsoft to a Microsoft alliance or even a sale to Microsoft (see [1, 2, 3] for background). Not too long ago Barnes & Noble complained about the patent system and shortly thereafter Microsoft tried to abduct and silence the company for good. Regarding the news that “Microsoft Mulling Nook Media LLC Purchase For $1 Billion” Pamela Jones wrote: “And so Microsoft kills off another Linux-based offering in the market, just as its deal with Nokia killed off another. Anti-trust regulators, are you noticing the subtle strategy?” Regarding the news that Microsoft claims to be making billions from Android ‘licensing’ (extortion), Pamela Jones wrote: “To regulators: please notice that it is Microsoft and Apple who are claiming that Motorola is asking for unconscionable amounts of money. But Microsoft is making much, much more per device. Remember that they claim if they had to pay Motorola less than this per device, somewhere between $3.50 and $4.00 per unit, they couldn’t stay in business. So, the question before you has to be, is Microsoft using patents to destroy its chief competition? And NO ONE has tested these patents to determine if they are even valid. It’s all done by bullying. Barnes & Noble revealed that the patents shown to them by Microsoft were junk, that they didn’t want them, use them or need them. Please look into this. Thank you.”

What Microsoft does is almost certainly illegal, but since it takes a lot of lawyers and lobbyists to enforce the law against criminal corporations, it is unlikely that anything other than a large corporations can successful press charges against Microsoft executives, leading to a jail term (e.g. for racketeering, bribery, and so on). We see this quite frequently in the energy and banking sectors. The law is not being practised (or practised only in one direction), hence it’s just relish. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/dirty-tactics-from-microsoft/feed/ 0 Patent Policy Laundering in the European Union and New Zealand http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/patent-policy-globalisation/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/patent-policy-globalisation/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 09:17:14 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68691 Policy globalisation

Laundry in Paris
Doing laundry in Paris, by LWY

Summary: How the so-called ‘free’ trade agreements help spread patent policy which favours software patents

The subject of software patents in Europe returned to the headlines in light of the Unitary patent, which this new paper calls a matter of playing with fire. Basically, the EPO’s overreach may prove counter-productive, not just contradictory to law (the EPO already disregards the law). Here is the EPO promoting the Unitary patent and Unified Patent Court, which are basically mechanisms for overriding the legal mechanisms of over a dozen nations (the UK already prepares for this policy laundering). It’s micro-globalisation, or the first stage of a broader assimilation all around the globe.

“It’s micro-globalisation, or the first stage of a broader assimilation all around the globe.”Ante from the FFII writes about cross-Atlantic treaties that have a similar effect of policy laundering. He writes: “With the software patents directive the Commission told us it was only about computer implemented inventions, not about software patents. Looking at the text, we knew that was not true.”

It seems like patent system globalisation is taking place (as we covered here many times before), jeopardising laws that ban software patents quite explicitly. In NZ (c/f software patents in New Zealand), for instance, the TPPA is believed to have impact on software parents policy. From the introduction of this very detailed post: “But how come the TPPA is connected with intellectual property (IP) and copyright law? The fact is that free trade and investment agreements have almost nothing to do with trade as we understand it. Their rules are designed for, and indirectly by, the most influential corporations in the countries involved. And guess who dominates? Major American corporations ranging from the world’s biggest drug companies and banks to Hollywood comprise almost 600 cleared advisors that get to see the secret text and lobby for their interests. Getting their demands into trade agreements is part of a general move towards “forum shifting” and “policy laundering” which refer to moving debate away from places where there is at least some requirement for public input and transparency, such as elected parliaments. Librarians, artists, writers, Internet businesses, schools, universities, museums, scientists and Internet users in general are all concerned about what the IP provisions of the TPPA will do to New Zealand’s copyright law.”

Scroll down to the following part: “Extending Patents To Software

“Ante from the FFII writes about cross-Atlantic treaties that have a similar effect of policy laundering.”“Another major issue is software patents. In New Zealand software is currently patentable merely because the Patents Act 1953 predated the widespread existence of software, and therefore does not specifically exclude it. In 2010, following submissions from a large number of software developers during the review of the Patents Act, the Commerce Commission Select Committee, recommended unanimously to the then Minister of Commerce, Simon Power, that software be specifically excluded from patentability in the resulting updated Patents Act. He and his successors have publicly supported this recommendation. New Zealand software developers saw this as a huge victory for common sense and for the future of innovation in New Zealand. But despite multi-partisan government support, the Patent Bill with its software patent exclusion has not yet been passed into law. Although the Government has made assurances to the contrary, many in the software industry wonder if the delay in passing the Patents Bill into law is due to the IP chapter in the TPPA being incompatible with a software patent exclusion.

“It is worth noting that IP claims are infecting other “non-IP” chapters of the TPPA. In fact a lot of the public health concerns relate to pharmaceutical patents blocking access by generic companies to their products, thereby delaying their availability on the market.15 This is part of the plan for undermining Pharmac. It was interesting to hear intellectual property being invoked as the basis of the case for Phillip Morris’ challenge to the New Zealand and Australian governments about their proposals for plain packaging of cigarettes.16In a completely Orwellian turn of events/phrase it seems that even the most corrupt of businesses – in this case Big Tobacco – are able to claim some weird moral ground through claims of IP and copyright.”"

So now we know that those ‘free’ trade agreements may actually be cross-continental bridges for patent policy. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/patent-policy-globalisation/feed/ 0 Ongoing Focus on Patent Litigation and Patent Trolls Reduces Focus on Software Patents http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/focus-in-reform/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/focus-in-reform/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 08:50:42 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68685 Out-of-focus reform

Text focus

Summary: The problem with increased focus on the players that use software patents litigiously and the litigation itself

The United States harbours almost every large patent troll. Not too long ago Masnick’s site said that for “some background. Spangenberg has built up quite a business for himself by buying up awful patents and suing tons of companies” (we wrote about this troll in [1, 2). His site also highlights this new tool for analysing the history of any given patent in the courtroom. Identifying trolls and weaponised patents won’t do enough to address the core problem though. One of the more outrageous stories as of late speaks of patent lawyers (non-producing) who demand £700 or so for the use of a scanner. That’s the per employee fee, as covered by Joe Mullin and Mike Masnick not so long ago. Another patent troll goes after large companies with Microsoft cash in its pocket. As another manager says “Don’t Turn My Company Into A Patent Troll!” it is becoming clear that patent trolling is an issue, but it is also the symptom of a bigger issue. At Yale they are focusing on trolls rather
than software patents and several companies are doing the same, losing sight of the patents themselves and instead focusing on the users. The trolls expert Joe Mullin previously showed that in the overwhelming majority of cases patent trolls use software patents, which may help explain why this problem is almost unique to the US. He recently said that “Apple’s intervention can’t stop the lawsuits [of smaller trolls]—five more were just filed.”

The problem is the patents themselves, not the smaller player that use them (Apple is a large entity which uses patents like a troll). Several propositions are put forth, but any solution which frames litigation or trolls as the problem (not questioning patents themselves) is not a long-term solution and probably not an solution at all. It’s inherently a scope issue. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/focus-in-reform/feed/ 0 Andrew Y. Schroeder Shows That Patent Lawyers Are Sociopaths http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/andrew-schroeder-intimidation/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/andrew-schroeder-intimidation/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 08:35:33 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68679 Andrew Schroeder

Summary: Bully and law misuser is trying to get his way with foul language, intimidation, and sheer lack of professionalism

The USPTO is not totally detached from the subculture of patent lawyers. One article from patent lawyer Quinn shows everyone (no link, on purpose), quite revealingly, that applicants worked closely with an examiner for several decades, passing a lot of software patents through him. If this is professionalism, then the term professionalism is now meaningless.

“Mr, Schroeder thinks he is above the law, making a temper attack of his even worse than before and making him look like the type of arrogant lawyer you should never ever hire.”The USPTO also claims to be open for comments, but its roundtables [1, 2] exclude people with views it does not agree with. This is censorship. It’s an echo chamber.

More importantly, helping to show lack of professionalism at the USPTO, applicants are given communication channels with examiners (they make themselves available for contact). And watch what this leads to. It’s bullying and intimidation, as covered by Masnick’s site. “There’s a lot of anger directed at the US Patent Office,” it says, “but it mainly originates with people frustrated by the office’s “rubber stamp” approval process that has littered the road to success with hundreds of trolling speedbumps, each one waving a stack of overly broad patents and demanding that actual innovators hand over enough cash to cover the rent on their empty East Texas offices.

“Patently O has uncovered some anger directed at the USPTO, this time coming from the opposite direction. After a client’s application for a telescoping sprinkler was rejected for not being anything the patent office hadn’t seen before, patent attorney Andrew Schroeder fired off an apoplectic set of “remarks” to the patent examiner. It starts by suggesting the examiner has a drinking problem and then sinks even lower. Way lower.”

“Many in his field are rude, arrogant, and self-serving to the point that there have zero tolerance to people who actually produce the work they leech off.”There is also this followup: “Our friends over at Above The Law have alerted us to the fact that Schroeder is back… and is he ever pissed off about people knowing just how pissed off he is. In what may be one of the worst-designed blogs ever made (and, warning, it’s so badly designed that it doesn’t even work at all if you have javascript turned off) Schroeder has announced that first, Dennis Crouch is the “Dickhead of the Year” for 2013 (I’m wondering who the past winners are) and (even better) that he believes Crouch violated the CFAA in finding and publishing his rant.

“Both posts are filled with poorly designed graphics, mostly mocking Crouch, which Schroeder proudly takes credit for late in that first post. These aren’t even “bad in an ironic way” graphics. They’re just bad. In the way that someone is when they first discover how Photoshop works and suddenly thinks they’re a master of design bad. But the rant is just as wacky. He never apologizes for the language he uses, beyond noting that it was “less than flattering.” No, his focus is on the claim that his insane rant — in which he accused a patent examiner of taking drugs, being drunk, not reading the patent application, of having to write with crayons and a variety of other euphemisms to suggest that the examiner has mental problems — was a “confidential” communication between himself and the examiner, and revealing it involved both (a) illegal hacking into the USPTO site and (b) being a “dickhead” for thinking it might be entertaining to highlight his ranting.”

The CFAA is used to criminalise just about anything done with a computer. Mr. Schroeder thinks he is above the law, making a temper attack of his even worse than before and making him look like the type of arrogant lawyer you should never ever hire. CBS did a piece about it, thankfully shaming this sociopath. Based on some experience with Techrights, Schroeder is not the only patent lawyer who is a sociopath. Many in his field are rude, arrogant, and self-serving to the point that there have zero tolerance to people who actually produce the work they leech off. There is more about this story here. Schroeder’s ridiculous-looking Web site is dressing everything up — including a map of the United States — as a US patent. Mental! █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/andrew-schroeder-intimidation/feed/ 0 IBM-backed Book on ‘Open Innovation’ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/ofe-book/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/ofe-book/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 08:05:40 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68675 Open Forum Europe

Summary: OpenForum Europe (OFE), which helps IBM’s turf wars in Europe, releases a new book filled with its talking point

OpenForum was named here many times before, and not always in purely positive context. Contrary to its name, OpenForum is not backed by many Open Source companies, but much of the time it does promote Open Source (and sometimes Free/libre software ) ideals. It should be treated not as grassroots but as corporations-controlled lobby,

“It should be treated not as grassroots but as corporations-controlled lobby,”IBM, a strong proponent of software patents, helped create OIN (led by its own staff originally), which is a case of using patents versus patents. IBM also helped form OpenForum, which helps its lobbying in Europe in particular.

Andy Updegrove at ConsortiumInfo.org writes about a book from an academy “affiliated with Openforum Europe” and here is the direct link. Updegrove is in it and it is called “open innovation”. I have not read the book, but it is worth noting that IBM believes open source relied on patents for innovation. The backer of this book probably helps weaken its impact. When it comes to patents, IBM is not on our side. Hopefully some new (future) leadership in IBM will help bring fresh change. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/ofe-book/feed/ 0 Joseph E. Stiglitz Criticises the Patent System http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/stiglitz-on-uspto-et-al/ http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/stiglitz-on-uspto-et-al/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 07:56:37 +0000 Dr. Roy Schestowitz http://techrights.org/?p=68669 Correction: Stiglitz is not a Nobel Laureate, but he won the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel”

Joseph E. Stiglitz

Summary: More critical words about the patent system and the way it is harming lives

The USPTO is a laughing stock. Some people ask, “Does Innovation Require the Patent Office?“

It has been a long time since the USPTO truly filtered applications based on novelty. “More broadly,” says Prof. Stiglitz, “there is increasing recognition that the patent system, as currently designed, not only imposes untold social costs, but also fails to maximize innovation – as Myriad’s gene patents demonstrate.”

Here is the full article by Joseph Stiglitz. He previously criticised patents for being treated like property (“IP is often compared to physical property rights but knowledge is fundamentally different,” he allegedly argued) — a problem we are still seeing. Yes, patents are treated like assets and property rather than ideas. Even a divorce case involves ‘splitting’ patents now.

“Even a divorce case involves ‘splitting’ patents now.”To demonstrate that patents are not really valuable but are mostly hype, consider the new McAfee patent on user hostility. As Masnick’s site puts it, “there are a couple of big issues here. First, who determines whether content is illegal? As Techdirt has reported many times, the only people who can give a definitive answer are judges: anything else is likely to be plagued with errors and arbitrary decisions. Since an ad-hoc system would naturally err on the side of caution, this would inevitably lead to perfectly legitimate sites being miscategorized and thus starved of visitors.”

Not that McAfee would mind. It is not in the business is spreading information. Its patent, in other words, just helps reduce innovation by censorship. █

]]> http://techrights.org/2013/05/20/stiglitz-on-uspto-et-al/feed/ 0