Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers

GNU/Linux

• Applications

  
  
  

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Blender for Motion Design, Part5

    
    
    

    • The ‘SWORD’ incident…

    
    
    
  
  
  

  • Games

    • Xonotic 0.5 Release

      Today we can bring you some great news, a brand new release of Xonotic! It has been quite a while since the 0.1 preview version, but we have made immense progress over the last few months. In this blog post we’ll be showing off the latest improvements and tell you about the changes we made from the feedback we had after the initial release.

    
    
    
  
  
  




• Desktop Environments

  
  
  

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

    • Plasma Active: Crunching towards One

      Plasma Active aims at creating a desirable user experience for a spectrum of devices, based on a fully Free software stack, developed in the open. The first release is planned for October. In the following article, you can read about the latest status and recent improvements made.

    
    
    

    • Back from the Desktop Summit 2011 in Berlin

      Perhaps I am the last one writing about the wonderful Desktop Summit in Berlin some days ago. Nevertheless I want to summarize my personal highlights.
      
      The Desktop Summit was awesome. I had the pleasure to meet people (old and new friends from all over the world), discuss complicated stuff face-to-face and of cause: have a lot of fun together.
      
      In a combined cross desktop marketing BoF we discussed some ideas how we (GNOME and KDE) could join forces to get bigger media coverage (e.g. TV, radio or big newspapers). One intresting first step is by paying attention on our messages. It occured that the message was: "... is THE Linux Desktop Environment" or "A is better than B".

    
    
    

    • Google Summer of Code & Season of KDE

      How awesome are the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and Season of KDE (SoK) programs? According to Daniel Moctezuma, "All the work done by students in GSoC/SoK will have an impact in Free Software and the world." Daniel is one of the 2011 GSoC students. Lydia Pintscher is the main administrator of these programs for KDE. She made the following report.
      
      [...]
      
      It makes me proud that KDE as a community is able and willing to teach newcomers to Free Software on such a large scale, while delivering high-quality results in terms of code produced and students mentored.

    
    
    
  
  
  

  • GNOME Desktop

    • Intel SNA With Unity, Unity 2D & GNOME Shell

      After the benchmarks a few days back of Intel Sandy Bridge Acceleration On Non-SNB Hardware, Chris Wilson of Intel who has been responsible for much of the "Sandy Bridge New Acceleration" work requested more tests, but this time to see the effect that the compositing window manager has on this new acceleration architecture. As a result, here is some quick tests of Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics under the Unity, Unity 2D, and GNOME Shell desktops.

    
    
    
  
  
  




• Distributions

  • Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 review - More goodness

    Praising an operating system over and over is a sure sign of fanboyism, which is punishable by flogging in some countries, or at the very least, leads to ostracization in the higher social circles. But it is truly difficult to find fault with the Puppy Linux, release after release. And while I tested Lucid Puppy not that long ago, I had an urge for more great stuff, so I redid my testing with the latest release, version 5.2.8.

  
  
  

  • New Releases

    • Resulinux 3.11

    
    
    
  
  
  




• Devices/Embedded

  
  
  

  • Phones

    
    
    

    • Android

      • Android Update brings PAN/NAP to Motorola defy

        After my summer vacation, I finally did the official update on my defy, which brought the thing to Android 2.2.2.

      
      
      

      • It’s an Android future, with or without Google

        Making its public debut with the release of the HTC Dream/G1, Google’s Android mobile operating system has provided the search giant with a massively successful mobile ecosystem that, whilst doesn’t directly generate revenues through licensing, it provides smartphone manufacturers with a free, powerful and customisable software platform – generating millions of dollars in sales – and also helps possibly the world’s biggest advertising company dominate another advertising vertical.

      
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • Tablet Sales Jump Forecast

      Moskowitz did acknowledge the possibility that the Amazon tablet could be a major player, though cited concerns about the Android OS as a weak spot.

    
    
    
  
  
  

Free Software/Open Source

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • LibreOffice API documentation available

    The new documentation covers the complete LibreOffice 3.4 API, has reference documentation for the Java UNO Runtime and C++ UNO runtime systems, and an overview of the UNO development tools.

  
  
  

Leftovers

• Windows 7 driver signing conundrum

  Personally I think the whole driver model for Windows is a huge mess, especially when problems come up like this,





• Security

  
  
  

  • Linux.com and The Linux Foundation taken offline following security breach

  • Linux Foundation Hijacked By Crackers

  
  
  




• Defence/Police/Aggression

  • TSA Agent Threatens Woman With Defamation, Demands $500k For Calling Intrusive Search 'Rape'

    After investigating whether or not she could file sexual assault charges, and being told that this was probably a non-starter, she instead wrote about the experience, and named the TSA agent who she dealt with: Thedala Magee. Alkon felt that if people can't stop these kinds of searches, they should at least be able to name the TSA agents who are doing them.

  
  
  

  • Libya: 19 Suffocated in Gaddafi Detention

    The discovery on September 8, 2011, of 18 bodies buried in western Libya corroborates reports of the death by suffocation of detainees held by Gaddafi forces in June in the town of al-Khoms, Human Rights Watch said today. Another victim died a few days later, so was not buried with the other 18.

  
  
  

  • Mall of America visitors unknowingly end up in counterterrorism reports

    As he shopped for a children’s watch inside the sprawling Mall of America, two security guards approached and began questioning him. Although he was not accused of wrongdoing, the guards filed a confidential report about Kleinerman that was forwarded to local police.
    
    The reason: Guards thought he might pose a threat because they believed he had been looking at them in a suspicious way.
    
    

  
  
  




• Cablegate

  • Reef safeguard cut back

    THE federal government has secretly wound back a critical environmental protection for the Great Barrier Reef against shipping accidents in order to avoid a diplomatic stoush with the US and Singapore.

  
  
  

  • Leaks reveal it's past time to speak for West Papua

    The leaked documents also reveal the penetration of Indonesian surveillance on Papuans: everyone from teachers to taxi drivers is on the Kopassus payroll. I have first-hand experience of it. In 2002 I worked with advocate John Rumbiak (now in exile in the US) at Elsham, a Papuan human rights organisation. As an Australian exchange student at an Indonesian university, I had entry where journalists were denied - but it did not spare me from surveillance or intimidation.

  
  
  

  • Tales from Mexico's drug wars, WikiLeaks style

    Mexico's offensive against the drug cartels that plague the nation has been fraught with controversy. Over the past four and a half years, tens of thousands have been killed, including many civilians, and the violence continues unabated.
    
    The drug war is made up of hundreds of incidents and decisions, both public and behind-the-scenes, that the media dutifully reports, unless, as in the case of some Mexican media, there is self-censorship out of fear.

  
  
  

  • Justice Department Reports Drug Seizures Do Little to Stop Cartels

    The government’s long-running war on drugs is having little impact, according to documents just released. The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) of the Justice Department reports demand for drugs is rising and the demand is being supplied by major transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) or cartels, which adapt to government “counterdrug efforts” modifying interrelationships, altering drug production levels and adjusting trafficking routes and methods.

  
  
  



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  Finance

  • Wall Street Banks: Too Big To Blame For Subprime?

    Goldman Sachs has historically been one of the more bullish investment houses on Wall Street, but the firm has recently taken a dark macro view. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 1 that Goldman issued a 54-page report sent to their institutional clients on August 16th arguing that as much as $1 trillion in capital may be needed to shore up European banks; that small businesses in the U.S., a past driver of job production, are still languishing; and that China’s growth may not be sustainable.

  
  
  

  • Is Goldman Sachs Doomed?

    No Franchise lasts forever. In the 1990′s, the Chicago Bulls were considered the best basketball team ever. Today, the same sentiments do not exist. When the junk bond market was red hot in the 1980′s, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette was the premier investment bank on Wall Street. Before DLJ, the big dog was Drexel Burnham Lambert.
    
    [...]
    
    If history truly repeats itself, Goldman Sachs may one day be considered as a second-rate bank, or may even become defunct.

  
  
  

  • $4 Gas: Brought to You by Wall Street

    It was the summer of 2008, and the entire country was outraged over $4 gas. It seemed like everyone had bought into the idea that the solution to high gas prices was more drilling for oil: Sarah Palin and other prominent Republicans had taken up the "Drill, baby, drill" refrain. Democrats in Congress, so afraid of consumer backlash, let the 27-year-old moratorium on new drilling in the outer continental shelf quietly expire. But what most people didn't realize at the time was the role that big financial players like Goldman Sachs—not simple supply and demand—played in pushing gas prices sky-high.

  
  
  




• Civil Rights

  • Is it Legal to Photograph or Videotape Police?

    The ACLU, photographers' groups, and others have been complaining about such incidents for years — and we have been consistently winning in court. Recently, an appeals court ruled, on behalf of an ACLU client, that Americans have a First Amendment right to videotape the police making an arrest in a public park.

  
  
  

  • Clothing brands agree to look into mass faintings in Cambodia

    Cambodia is home to some 300 factories where clothing for export is manufactured. They supply major global brands such as Gap, H&M, Wal-Mart and Puma.