Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 9/10/2011: Kororaa 15 “Squirt”, Android 4.0 Expected Soon





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux





  • Kernel Space



    • Graphics Stack

      • Colour Correction Concepts for Monitors


      • Intel i915 Gallium3D Driver Continues Advancing
        The Intel "i915" Gallium3D driver continues to advance thanks to love from Google. A new Intel employee is now even contributing to this unofficial driver too.

        Over the summer we have seen a number of changes to the Intel Gallium3D driver that supports the older i915/i945 era hardware. This driver is not officially supported by Intel, but Google's after it for use in their Chromebooks as their netbooks can do better since this Gallium3D driver has faster CPU-based code generation of vertex shaders than the classic Intel DRI driver. The work has mostly been done by Stéphane Marchesin, the former Nouveau driver project lead who is now part of Google's Chromium team.


      • First Look: AMD Trinity APU, Linux Already Runs Well






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • KDE SC 4.7.2 update arrives
        The KDE project has released the second point update to version 4.7 of its KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC). According to the developers, the maintenance update to the Linux and Unix desktop contains a variety of translation updates and bug fixes; as expected, no new features have been added.




    • GNOME Desktop





  • Distributions



    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Is On Track To Become A $1 Billion Company
        Red Hat has acquired Gluster, a company that uses software to tackle storage problems in a new way.

        We had the opportunity to talk to Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, about the acquisition, how Gluster's product works, and what it means to be steering a company into the $1 billion revenue mark.


      • Fedora

        • Review: Kororaa 15 "Squirt"
          I've been swamped these past couple weeks. I mean, I've been absolutely, completely, and totally bogged down by work. I had 4 problem sets to do, on top of my recently-started UROP and other work-study stuff I'm doing, so I seriously had no room to breathe, until now. I briefly thought about starting work for next week tonight, but then I realized that whatever sanity I had left at this point would go out the window if I worked any more. I needed a break, so what did I do instead of working? I wrote this review! (This is my pre-emptive excuse if some people may feel that this is not thorough enough, or whatever. Yeah, yeah, sue me.)






    • Debian Family



      • Derivatives



        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Not So Great Video About What Makes Ubuntu 11.10 So Great
            Ubuntu's YouTube channel has uploaded a new video introducing the latest version of Ubuntu which is 11.10. The video gives and overview of some of the new features of Ubuntu 11.10 but lacks the quality and professionalism. It doesn' show all the new features of Dash, which include refined search.


          • Flavours and Variants

            • Linux dark autumn clouds - Bodhi Linux is there!
              Not only for Windows, but also for Linux the hour of truth comes near. October-November are months with new releases and upgrades. Let's forget about Windows 8 for now; it's still an early Beta. However Ubuntu 11.10 and Linux Mint 12 will come out soon. So are updated desktops: Gnome and KDE to name but two. It's no secret that I am still not convinced that the Gnome based Gnome 3 shell and Ubuntu's Unity desktops are matured enough to compete with either Windows 8 Beta or Apple's OSX. What's more, I still don't like either of the two. So do many more Linux-users. The one UI fails this here, the other is messy there, which isn't inspiring and inviting me to even test these releases. I am running Mint 11 for now and will continue to do so with its 'old', but for me far more productive, more flexible Gnome 2 desktop, better suited to run production software.


            • Zorin OS: Promising, but Still Typically Linux
              Zorin OS also comes with a Zorin Look Changer which allows easily changing the layout of the desktop to match the look of Windows XP and Linux GNOME in addition to this default Windows 7 look. In a Zorin OS video presentation I’ve also noticed Mac OS X, but it wasn’t present in my install. Perhaps it is available for install from repositories or as part of a Premium version.












  • Devices/Embedded

    • Linux-based access point uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for proximity marketing
      iSign Media Solutions announced a Linux-based device designed to send out marketing messages via either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Including an integral web server and the ability to communicate with digital signage PCs, the "Smart Antenna" is an all-weather device that draws five Watts of power over an Ethernet cable, says the company.


    • Audio streaming device shrinks size, power, cost


    • Phones



      • Android

        • India Now Aims For $10 Android Tablet


          India is one of the champions of making cheap stuff. Tata's Nano, the world's cheapest car, is now dethroned by Aakash, one of the cheapest Android tablets. India created quite a buzz with the launch of $35 Android tablet which had the backing of the Indian government.

          The HRD minister of India Kapil Sibal is now aiming at $10 tablet. The minister has reportedly invited companies to make a cheaper Android tablet. With low income a majority of Indians can't buy expensive $500 tablets, thus being left behind. Given India's next to chaotic power outage situation where you don't even get electricity for 24 hours a day, a tablet may keep users well connected.


        • Google Nexus Prime Video Leaked, Coming Next Week
          Apple is not the only champion of creating hype about its products before they are launched. Unfortunately, iPhone 4S release was a major disaster as hype-mongering sites were calling it the iPhone 5 and some even said it had a bigger screen. Lesson: don't listen to the hype created by Apple fans, it's mostly vapor.


        • Android apps to run on iPad with Alien Dalvik 2.0
          Android apps will now be able to run on Apple's iPad and a host of other non-Android devices, courtesy of new software from the crew at Myriad Group.


        • Android 4.0 Launch Canceled, To Honor Steve Jobs






    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Sixth and most powerful E-Fun NextBook tablet surfaces
        E-Fun announced the sixth, highest-end member of its Nextbook family of Android tablets. Running Android 2.3 on a Rockchips RK2918 Cortex-A8 processor, the $300 Nextbook Premium 8 offers an eight-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive display, 4GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, and a front-facing camera, and a Kobo eBook Store app, says the company.


      • Open fire
        AMAZON'S Kindle Fire was always going to set the tablet world ablaze. Even before it starts shipping in November, though, it has managed to reignite the debate over the relative merits of open versus closed software. Supporters of openness trumpet it as a way to promote ideas and competition, leading to greater consumer satisfaction and optimal prices. Closed systems, goes the argument, remove choice and ramp up prices. If only it were that simple.

        For a start, the distinction between open and closed is fuzzy. The Fire, for example, relies on Google's Android operating system (not the latest, tablet-spec version 3, but an earlier one designed for smartphones). Android is open—in the sense that anyone may view, modify and employ the source code in free or commercial applications without a license (other than that which comes at no cost with the code). Modifications to the code may have to be distributed publicly, depending on the specific license in question. (Android is a melange of code from many open-source projects and licensing terms for the ingredients vary.)









Free Software/Open Source



Leftovers



  • Copyrights

    • The Economics of the Writing Business – Updated
      If you went through a publisher and agent, assuming you could find a publisher and agent willing to talk to you, you’d only earn $1,875.00. Why would you give away $6,875.00 to someone else when you could do it yourself, including hiring a cover artist, an editor, etc. There are places that charge a flat rate of less than $100.00 to do this for you if you can’t do it…






Recent Techrights' Posts

The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part II: Lying to the IRS is a Big Issue
The OSI of today pretends to be something that it is not
Bloodlust and Love of Blades (Fascination With Murder) Nothing New Among Microsofters
Violence is not a joke and no group is magically entitled to make such "jokes"
Links 01/06/2025: Bird Flu, Food Price Inflation, and Growing US-China Hostilities
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: "Vibe Coding" Turns Out to be a Fraud and Amazon Merits Boycott, Argue Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: "Stardust" and Ideal PC Setup
Links for the day
Links 01/06/2025: Windows TCO, Openwashing, "It's FOSS" Still Promoting Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: Simplification and Networks Everywhere
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 31, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Google Bribes EFF. EFF Promotes LLM Slop as 'Fair Use'. To GAFAM It's a Low-Cost Lobby Hedge.
So the bribes pay off ("slush fund") and the word spreads
Slopwatch: Fake Text and Images, Financial Bubbles, and Scams in "Intelligent" Clothing
Sometimes what they mean by "AI" is just cheap labour somewhere else, as we discussed in IRC a few hours ago
Why Microsoft is Collapsing (Similar to What's Happening at IBM), As Insiders See It
IBM seems like one heck of a mess
Reliable Computing Means Free (Libre) Computing
Sites that want to promote security ought to deal with the biggest issues
Links 31/05/2025: US Court Orders Sides With RFE/RL, War Updates From Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/05/2025: ARM Server and power_supply Subsystem
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2025: Slop Stigmatised as Disinformation, Catalyst/Driver of "Death of Communication"
Links for the day
Common Sense 101: Do Not Write Blog Posts Saying You Want to Murder Colleagues (or Yourself)
Only crazy people would think stabbings are a joke
Microsoft Bankruptcy
"Microsoft unit in Russia to file for bankruptcy, database shows"
Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
Links 31/05/2025: Microsoft-Connected Builder.ai is a Fraud and US is Purging Students Based on Race/Nationality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Limmat, Doomscrollers, and Arguments Parsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 30, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 30, 2025
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble Already Popped, But It's Not an Overnight Collapse
where Microsoft put its money
No More Steven Astorino at IBM, Chatter About Weekly/Nonstop Layoffs at IBM
What happened? Good luck guessing.
Looking at Corruption in Europe, Going Beyond the EPO
Expect a new series to kick off very soon
Slopwatch: Security SPAM and LLM Slop for SEO and FUD Purposes, Perpetually Tarnishing the Perception of Linux and (Open)SSH Security
A lot of this Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) comes from Microsoft and its LLMs
Links 30/05/2025: Google's LLM Slop Pushers Are Killing Journalism and Shira Perlmutter Fails to Stop Bribed Regime From Legalising Plagiarism (in "AI" Clothing)
Links for the day
Links 30/05/2025: Offline Arts and "Threshold of Patience"
Links for the day
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025