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Links 1/10/2010: Fedora Hiring, Ubuntu Starts Mobile Music Streaming, WebP Comes From Google



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Marcan Names PS3 Linux Bootloader on Firmware 3.41 AsbestOS
    Nintendo Wii developer Marcan has been sharing updates via Twitter on his progress with a PS3 Linux bootloader, one that is currently working on PlayStation 3 Firmware 3.41 (including on the PS3 Slim) and now named AsbestOS.


  • Desktop

    • 5 Things Linux Does Better Than Mac OS X
      I think the success of the Mac is mostly a matter of marketing. Whatever your own personal beliefs, though, there's no denying that there are certain things Linux clearly does better than Mac OS X. If you're trying to decide on a platform for your business, these factors are worth keeping in mind.


    • The $100.00 (USD) Coolest Linux Workspace Contest Finalists
      I apologize for the long delay of presenting the finalists of our $100.00 (USD) Coolest Linux Workspace Contest. But, as they say, it’s better late than never. So today, I'm going to present to you the 5 finalists, and we will let our readers and site visitors ultimately decide on who really deserves to win the most coveted price.




  • Server

    • A Day in the Life of Facebook Operations
      What does facebook sysadmins have to support?

      * Monthly 700 million minutes of time spent on fb * 6billion pieces of content updated * 3 billion photos * 1 million connect implementations * 1/2 billion active users

      Infrastructure Growth

      * fb reached a limit on leasing datacenter space * fb is building their own http://www.facebook.com/prinevilledatacenter * currently serving out of california and Virginia

      Initially a LAMP stack. LB -> Web Servers -> Services/Memcached/Databases






  • Kernel Space



    • Graphics Stack

      • ATI R600 Classic Mesa 7.9 Performance
        As we have talked about in numerous articles now and delivered various benchmarks for different graphics processors from those using a classic Mesa DRI driver to the newer NVIDIA/ATI hardware with Gallium3D support, Mesa 7.9 brings a lot to the table. There are many new features to be found in Mesa 7.9 for all drivers, but in this article, we are specifically looking to see how the OpenGL performance of the classic R600 driver has changed compared to Mesa 7.7 and Mesa 7.8.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments

    • Panel Discussion - Death of the Desktop @ COSSFest 2010 [Flash/Video]


    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • On the fly Preview on Quanta (also, my first real code for KDE)
        Since I begin to use KDE, my big desire It was to contribut with code, but I would have to study different things (indeed that was what I wanted the most: a challenge), and I admit that I thought many times that I would never be able to do it. So I decided to make talks about “KDE for Beginners” (beginners like I was), It was a quickly way to promote and contribut to FOSS, more quickly than to develop.

        I made one talk before Akademy, in the Seminar of Free Software Tchelinux at Caxias do Sul, and after, I made two talks, one at International Free Software Forum and the other happened in the 4th Seminar of Free Software Tchelinux at Pelotas. In these talks I met more KDE users, and who knows coming soon contributors as well.






  • Distributions

    • Linux Distro as Food ?
      Debian

      The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system. This operating system is called Debian GNU/Linux, or simply Debian for short. Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel. Debian comes with over 20,000 packages (precompiled software that is bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine) – all of it free.


    • Reviews

      • Review: ArchBang 2010.09 "apeiro"
        Overall, I think ArchBang has regressed a bit from its testing version, from not loading properly under 192 MB of RAM where the previous version could to not being able to handle Mozilla Firefox at all. It has a lot of potential, but I'm intentionally damning it with faint praise, as it definitely could use more polish and more testing. While #! has never failed me in this regard, #!'s website and documentation always includes the warning, "CrunchBang Linux is not recommended for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. CrunchBang Linux could possibly make your computer go CRUNCH! BANG!" While I think it's funny that #! phrases its disclaimer in this way and is upfront about any possible stability problem, I find it odd that #! has this warning at all given its stability; I think ArchBang needs a similar warning, though what does "ARCH! BANG!" mean?




    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • New development release name has been chosen, Cauldron!
        In Mandriva the development release was named Cooker. The development release of Mageia will be, like Cooker, a rolling distro. The idea here is that any new packages go into the development release first, where they’re tested and any bugs found in them are fixed; then when the development cycle nears its end the repositories are frozen in preparation for pushing a new stable release (after that the development distro starts again). Of course it’s not recommended to run development releases on day-to-day production machines as, by its very nature, it’s unstable and prone to break. Things tend to break quite a good number of times in development releases however they get fixed pretty fast too, so if you like living on the cutting edge don’t hesitate to join forces with those brave souls who’ll be testing Cauldron; the more the testers the better the stable release that’ll follow as more bugs will get squashed this way.




    • Red Hat Family



      • Fedora

        • Fedora 14 Beta is released! Screenshot Tour


        • You must be this tall to ride: __
          How do you get contributors? You recruit from your pool of users! How do you get users, to widen your potential contributor pool and to spread your free software / free culture message? You reach out to them, providing them a compelling reason to care. Okay, great, that’s easy right? We just get out there and send our message out – it’s a great cause – folks will want to help, right?


        • Fedora is hiring
          People regularly ask me about how they can work for Red Hat, specifically, how they can work on Fedora for Red Hat. Usually, my answer is "Contribute, do good work, get noticed, and you're likely to be hired", but at the moment, two positions have opened up.






    • Debian Family



      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat — First Impressions
          Wow.

          That’s what I can say about Maverick so far.


        • Canonical announces Ubuntu One music streaming service
          The Ubuntu One service originally launched last year with cloud file storage capabilities and support for synchronizing the user's e-mail address book and notes. Canonical later added the Ubuntu One music store, which integrates into GNOME's Rhythmbox audio player. When the user purchases music from the store, the files are deployed directly into their Ubuntu One cloud storage space and are automatically propagated to all of the computers that the user has connected to Ubuntu One. The new music streaming feature complements the music store by giving the user mobile access to their music. It's worth noting that the streaming feature works with any MP3 that the user uploads to their Ubuntu One storage account, not just the songs that they have purchased from the Ubuntu One music store.


        • Ubuntu One Blog: Mobile music streaming public beta now available


        • Future Ubuntu Releases Will be Shipped With LibreOffice, Says Mark Shuttleworth
          OpenOffice's future was doomed from the day when Oracle acquired SUN Microsystems. The eventuality became even more obvious when they pulled the plug on OpenSolaris. Thankfully, OpenOffice is an open source software and leading contributors of the original project has forked OpenOffice and the new project will be called LibreOffice.


        • Ubuntu 10.10 RC Available for Download Now
          A few minutes ago, the Ubuntu development team unleashed the Release Candidate (RC) version of the up-coming Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) operating system, due for release in October 10th, 2010. As usual, we've downloaded a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 10.10 development.


        • Using Ubuntu One Cloud Storage: From Basic to Creative


        • Flavours and Variants

          • Lubuntu Maverick Beta 2 iso available


            Julian Lavergne has released the Lubuntu Maverick Beta 2 iso is now available for testing. This is the last testing iso before the final release of Lubuntu 10.10. As the iso is still not build with Ubuntu architecture, this release and the final one will be named "Beta".


          • GnackTrack
            GnackTrack is a Live (and installable) Linux distibution designed for Penetration Testing and is based on Ubuntu. Although this sounds like BackTrack, it's most certainly not; it's very similar but based on the much loved GNOME!










  • Devices/Embedded

    • MIPS touts its quad-core IP as an Atom-beater
      Android was specifically cited as an operating system platform for the latter, but the 1074K CPS is said to run any MIPS32-compatible software, which would include Linux and Windows CE. At CES in January of this year, MIPS showed off a number of Android-based set-top box designs from its partners using MIPS-based Sigma Designs processors.

      The 1074K CPS core is supported by tools from CodeSourcery, CriticalBlue and others, including MIPS Technologies' own development tools and probes, and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) versions of Linux, MIPS adds.


    • Phones







Free Software/Open Source



  • O.S.A.N. Accouncement
    This is a community project. Its goal is to advertise Free / Libre / Open Source Software and Projects among the community and on non-commercial web sites. Nobody is making money out of this. Publishing banners and text advertisments is free for FLOSS projects. Likewise there is only a good feeling to be earned by hosting our ads. No money involved nowhere.


  • Nagios Trademark Truth
    I would greatly appreciate the Nagios Community’s assistance in helping me to resolve this issue by pressuring NETWAYS and Julian Hein to do the right thing and return what is not rightfully theirs.


  • Nagios Trademark Statement
    Nagios Enterprises posted a blogpost at their community site, accusing me, Julian Hein the owner and managing director of NETWAYS to have taken away their Nagios trademark and that they want it back. While some of the facts in the blogpost are true, some assumptions are not, some are taken out of their context and some may be just a result of misunderstandings.


  • Events

    • Open World Forum keynote panel: Challenges of open communities
      During this afternoon's final keynotes at the Open World Forum, five panelists met to discuss a few of the challenges of geographical and physical barriers open communities face.

      The panel was moderated by Cedric Thomas, CEO, OW2 Consortium, who was joined by:

      * Bertrand Delacretaz, Director, Apache Software Foundation * Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director, Eclipse Foundation * Simon Phipps, Director, Open Source Initiative, Chief Strategy Officer, ForgeRock * Louis Suarez-Potts, Open Office Community Manager, Oracle




  • Web Browsers

    • 2 Simple Chromium Extensions For Ubuntu Users
      We featured a post on 'Three Must have Firefox Add-ons for Ubuntu Users' some time back. I wanted to do a similar post for Chrome/Chromium but could not find many extensions specifically made for Ubuntu users. So I decided to share these two extensions available as of now.


    • Warning: Google Chrome Apparently *Removing* Key Privacy Feature


    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla CTO: Why Firefox wins over Chrome
        Eich noted however that the upcoming Firefox 4 release will compete well in the speed category against Chrome. But speed and a minimal user interface alone are not what will continue to make Firefox a great browser. He added that at one point Google approached him to try and get the Chrome engine into Firefox, but that didn't work out due to both technical and philosophical reasons.






  • SaaS



  • Databases

    • Let’s Open Joomla! to a Wider Audience
      Until now have already ported other famous Web applications like WordPress, MediaWiki, and phpBB. Today Joomla is one of them! We did our best to make a smart porting. We haven't altered a single functionality of the Joomla package, but created the CUBRID intermediary classes which parse the original MySQL queries to CUBRID compatible queries. At this moment the developers focused on bringing the CUBRID support. The final stable release will allow users to deploy the same Joomla distribution with both CUBRID and MySQL Database systems with no difference except for the performance. As we mentioned in the previous blog, the final stable version is expected to have higher performance on CUBRID than on MySQL due to the Web optimizations of the CUBRID Database. Let's cross our fingers for this.




  • Oracle

    • Goodbye OpenOffice. LibreOffice, Here I Come!
      I loved OpenOffice! For 6 years, OpenOffice was my bedrock and one of the key tools that allowed me to free myself from the chains of proprietary software. For that, I will forever be grateful. I am certain that the affection that I had for OpenOffice and its development team will be reborn as I discover LibreOffice. It would be pretty cool if the entire OpenOffice Team signed and sent a resignation letter to Oracle stating that they would be moving to the Document Foundation. Can you imagine the deafening silence when Oracle tried to recruit people to work on OpenOffice? One thing that Oracle did not realize is how badly they shot themselves in the foot when they decided to sue Google. Google has some very powerful friends in the form of Redhat, Canonical, and Novell. It is not surprising that all of these friends now support LibreOffice. I too will be supporting LibreOffice as I wave my old friend OpenOffice goodbye. It was great knowing you. LibreOffice, here I come!




  • CMS





  • Semi-Open Source

    • BlackBerry Widgets Renamed WebWorks, Goes Open Source
      BlackBerry Widgets, a web-based development platform RIM had released in October, has been renamed WebWorks, and will be an open-source project. Using the BlackBerry Web App Packager, developers will be able to create full-fledged programs using familiar web languages, like HTML5, CSS, XML and the like.




  • BSD

    • I brought out the OpenBSD 4.7-stable laptop and ran the latest patch
      Now that I know how to patch my OpenBSD-release installation and keep it updated as OpenBSD-stable, I pulled out the Toshiba Satellite 1100-S101 now running 4.7-stable, applied the latest patch, then rebuilt the kernel and rebooted.

      As I wrote in the earlier entry, once you have the sources and know how to apply patches and rebuild the kernel and system, keeping a patched OpenBSD box is pretty easy.




  • Project Releases



  • Licensing



    • Neo-proprietary tactic considered harmful to open source
      At some point, one could even argue that the most successful open source company (RedHat) is very closed to this model : they offer a great product for free (the RedHat Linux Distribution) and monetize services of only a small percent of their users.

      Fauxpensource has several definitions and even if this is not yet a widely used term. Some synonims are open-core or neo-proprietary. Neo-proprietary is the term I will use in this post as there is no common sounds or part with Open Source.




  • Openness/Sharing



    • Open Access/Content

      • Hal Plotkin Releases Free to Learn: An Open Educational Resources Policy Development Guidebook for Community College Governance Officials
        Yesterday Hal Plotkin announced the release of Free to Learn: An Open Educational Resources Policy Development Guidebook for Community College Governance Officials. The guide explains how the flexibility and diversity of Open Educational Resources (OER) can improve teaching and learning in higher education, all while retaining quality and enabling resource sharing and collaboration. Free to Learn features case studies and highlights several interviews with leaders of the OER community. The document suggests that community colleges are uniquely positioned to both take advantage of OER opportunities and to become pioneers in teaching through the creative and cost-effective use of OER.






  • Programming

    • The Humble README
      The README file goes back to the dawn of computing. We’re pretty sure Grace Hopper had one in a filing cabinet, right next to a folder marked “Bug”. It is a time-honored tradition: developers pour their heart and soul into a README file and users promptly ignore them. We probably can’t do anything about that here at SourceForge, but we can try.




  • Standards/Consortia





Leftovers



  • Science

    • IBM characterizes single-atom DRAM
      The ultimate memory chips of the future will encode bits on individual atoms, a capability recently demonstrated for iron atoms by IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., which unveiled a new pulsed technique for scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs).

      Pulsed-STMs yield nanosecond time-resolution, a requirement for designing the atomic-scale memory chips, solar panels and quantum computers of the future.

      "My hope is that we can spawn a great following doing nanosecond time resolution and atomic-scale spatial resolution with their STMs," said Andreas Heinrich, a physicist in the IBM's Almaden Lab.

      STMs, invented at IBM in the 1980s, have become the workhorse of the semiconductor materials industry. Their resolution extends all the way to the atomic scale, allowing individual atoms to be imaged. Unfortunately, STMs are slow at making such delicate measurements. Now IBM has perfected a new pulsed-STM technique that puts its ability to measure time on par with the nanoscale accuracy as its distance measurements.






  • Finance

    • Admission of Guilt With No Consequences...We Need Justice For All
      The story of bank fraud, committed by the banks themselves is an ongoing story that has been on the side lines since the very beginning of the "meltdown" in 2007. Banks lied then to protect themselves, they continued to cheat and lie to protect themselves, they lied (along with our highest elected officials) to get our money so that they could steal from us even more. This is a story of a financial system gone bad. It is a story of a government taken over by a financial system gone bad and it is a story of a once free people in a nation whose Constitution has gone bad. Everything we once had and stood for has been destroyed by our banks.


    • JPMorgan Suspending Foreclosures
      The lender, JPMorgan Chase, said on Wednesday that it was halting 56,000 foreclosures because some of its employees might have improperly prepared the necessary documents. All of the suspensions are in the 23 states where foreclosures must be approved by a court, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida and Illinois.

      The bank, which lends through its Chase Mortgage unit, has begun to “systematically re-examine” its filings to verify that they meet legal standards, a spokesman, Tom Kelly, said.

      Last week, GMAC Mortgage said it was suspending an undisclosed number of foreclosures to give it time to take a closer look at its own procedures. GMAC simultaneously began withdrawing affidavits in pending court cases, throwing their future into doubt.


    • Let’s Ramp Up The Fight Against Illegal Foreclosures and Fraud By Banks
      I have been writing on the topic of fraud by the banks since the beginning of the so called “mortgage meltdown” began in 2007. There was fraud during the bubble committed by the banks, not the loan originators as they claimed. Yes there was fraud at the originator level but without the coaching and approval of the banks the street level fraud would have been held to a minimum as it had been for years.

      Now the next wave of fraud being committed by the banks – illegal foreclosure – are being totally ignored by our courts and most of all by our government. This fraud has been public common knowledge for several years now but NO ONE LISTENS.




  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

    • Tie Theory
      Like Gladwell, I too grew up with stories of the civil rights movement. A lot was accomplished. Great odds were overcome. And of course it makes for high drama. Which is great on a movie screen but for the people living it, not so much. In fact, I’m guessing that most activists would prefer not to give up their lives or their freedom or their livelihoods to meet their goals. Think how much more Mr. King might have accomplished had he lived.


    • EU Commission takes UK to court over web privacy
      The European Commission is taking the UK to court for failing to comply with EU rules on internet privacy.

      The case in the EU's Court of Justice - called an "infringement procedure" - could lead to a fine for the UK if the judges support the Commission's view.

      The EU began investigating the UK last year, suspecting that UK law provided insufficient safeguards against illegal interception of internet traffic.


    • Lawyers to continue piracy fight
      A London law firm has pledged to continue to target file sharers, despite controversy surrounding the acquisition and care of users' data.

      Gallant Macmillan is to go to the High Court on 4 October to seek the personal details of hundreds of PlusNet users.

      Internet service providers have pledged to take a tougher stand before handing over data, after the leak of thousands of users' personal details by ACS:Law.


    • In the wake of the ACS:Law email leaks, will the BPI disclose their P2P surveillance methods?
      ACS:Law have managed to highlight the perils of companies operating as private surveillance agencies. By collecting extremely sensitive information – and letting it into the wild through their own incompetence – many people will be suffering serious personal trauma.

      Possibilities of this, or smaller scale abuse, are exactly why Peter Hustinx warned that private surveillance was unlikely to be a proportionate means of dealing with copyright infringement, compatible with privacy rights.


    • What BT, Sky and other ISPs should do about the likes of ACS:Law
      Open Rights Group spoke to BT today, and has requested a meeting with Sky to discuss how they handle future applications for people’s data when they are thought to be infringing copyright.


    • EU taking UK to court for privacy deficiencies highlighted by Phorm
      The result was that the EU Commission threatened to take the Uk to court. Such action is extremely rare, but today, they announced that they will do exactly that.

      At the time, ORG made a technical analysis of Phorm alongside the Foundation for Information Policy Research and wrote to Commissioner Reding and her Commission's officers in the wake of the Phorm complaint.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM



  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Copyrights

      • 3 More Adult Companies Sue 1,100 Bit Torrent Users
        Another wave of bit torrent piracy suits were filed Wednesday.

        The latest action targets 1,100 John Does in three suits waged by CP Productions Inc., First Time Videos and Future Blue Inc.

        All three suits were filed by attorney John L. Steele at U.S. District Court in Chicago and seek to identify each user through their Internet service providers. Each asks for injunctive relief and damages.


      • RIAA Continues to Be Attacked from DDoS Flood
        Security firm PandaLabs recently spoke with hacker group Anonymous about its global cyber-war with the pro-copyright industry. Called "Operation Payback," the DDoS assault was triggered by a similar attack on file sharing sites by an Indian firm. Now Anonymous is in offensive mode and looking to sign on more members by sending out flyers and recruiting people through Facebook, Digg, Reddit and other sites.

        Their mission? To fight back against the anti-piracy lobby. "There been a massive lobbyist-provoked surge in unfair infringements of personal freedom online, lately," one member said. "In the USA, a new bill has been proposed that could allow the USA to force top level registrars such as ICANN and Nominet to shut down websites, all with NO fair trial. Guilty until proven guilty! Our tactics are inspired by the very people who provoked us, AiPlex Software. A few weeks back they admitted to attacking file sharing sites with DDoS attacks."


      • White House IP Chief Talks Tough on Online Piracy
        Victoria Espinel, who serves as the nation's first intellectual property enforcement coordinator within the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration is working with a variety of stakeholders, including Internet service providers, search engines and payment processors, in what it is billing as a "voluntary cooperation initiative."










Clip of the Day



Jaromil - "dyne:bolic and dyne.org"



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Credit: TinyOgg

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