Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 13/10/2011: Sabayon 7, Enron Whistleblower Defends WikiLeaks



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Samba now accepts corporate-copyrighted code


  • Samba makes change to enlist corporate developer support
    The Samba project is making changes to encourage company participation while keeping corporate legal departments at bay.

    The project has announced the creation of the Samba Developer’s Certificate of Origin 1.0, which enables employees to retain personal copyrights on code developed and contributed to Samba.

    “What this does is allows employees who contribute to Samba on a workday to contribute this code to Samba whilst still allowing the corporation to keep copyright on the code, ” said Allison, in a statement posted on ZDNet today. “It should make it a lot easier for corporate legal departments to sign-off on contributing their changes back to the main Samba code base, as they don’t need to assign copyright to the engineer anymore.”


  • Russian Government Will Migrate To Linux By 2015


  • "Linux Is A Disruptive Force"
    OSI Days speaker, Mishi Choudhary is the executive director of International Practice at Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) in New York. In this interview, she tells Linux For You, how she became a part of team open source, her fervent desire to see more Indian developers and about the Freedom Box Project while giving a sneak preview into the key topics of her upcoming session at the OSI Days. Also, as a technological and legal expert, she combines the expertise of the two to dole out invaluable knowledge to a law abiding society that consists of more than just tech-savvy citizens!




  • Kernel Space



  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments

    • Integrating NetworkManager into KDE while keeping the Gnome out
      I think that I am not wrong when I say that Networkmanager is the de-facto way of network configuration management in Linux. Most Linux distributions have implemented it. Slackware on the other hand, traditionally encourages the use of “vi” for network configuration management (by editing “/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf“)… but in recent times, the WICD daemon has been added to the “/extra” directory of Slackware, and that includes a graphical network configuration utility. A lot of (particularly mobile) users like WICD, and so do I.


    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Active building blocks: Nepomuk
        As said by the title of my last post, one of the things that we are trying to do with Active is "humanizing electrons"... make devices behave how people think instead of making people think like the implementation details behave.

        To do that, it is necessary to phase out or better, demote and have in a less prominent way some of the concepts that always been with us, but not because they were good, because for tone technical reason or another 20 years ago we were forced to do this way.


      • KDE: All Grown Up!
        So, in the not too distant future KDE will turn 15 years old. This is normally a time when I will go back and reflect on lessons that can be learned from past activities in the SCM. This year is no different.

        After my last blog post I was asked about the history of how many people had committed to KDE. So, for your viewing pleasure:


      • Show Photos on Google Earth and Google Maps with digiKam
        digiKam offers several ways to showcase your photos. You can view images as a slideshow, push them to a photo sharing service of your choice, and even export them as a static HTML gallery. But that’s not all; digiKam can output selected photos as a KML bundle, so you can view your snaps on the Google Maps service and the Google Earth application.




    • GNOME Desktop





  • Distributions



    • Gentoo Family



    • Red Hat Family

      • ClearOS
        All-in-one Linux-based network servers aren't a new concept. Distributions like Clark Connect have been around for many years and fit their niche quite well. Lately, however, there seems to be a new batch of all-in-one solutions that offer a similar business model.

        A couple months ago, we reviewed Untangle, which is a commercial distribution offering a feature-limited free version. Recently, one of our readers, Tracy Holz, pointed me to a similar project, ClearOS. Although Untangle is largely a firewall and network services system, ClearOS attempts to do more. Using a combination of open-source and commercial tools, it can be a one-stop server platform for many networks.


      • .ae Domain Administration Builds Stable and Highly Available IT Infrastructure With Red Hat Enterprise Solutions - Press Release
        Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that .ae Domain Administration (.aeDA), the regulatory body and registry operator for the .ae domain name, has standardized its registry infrastructure on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 operating system with support from Red Hat Network Satellite.


      • New Red Hat Solutions Enable Customers to Become Intelligent, Integrated Enterprises


      • Red Hat Affirms Commitment to AMQP as Company's Strategic Open Messaging Protocol


      • Buy Recommendations From Analysts: (TI), (SD), (RHT), (MJN), (CF)
        Red Hat, Inc (RHT): has a consensus rating of 2.2. This indicates that analysts have a buy recommendation on the stock. The latest rating action was on Mar 24, 2011 when Robert W. Baird upgraded the company from Neutral to Outperform. The result of 22 opinions makes for a mean price target on the stock of $48.73 ranging from as low as $32.0 to as high as $61.0. This month there are 7 strong buys, 10 buys, 5 holds, 1 underperforms, and 2 sells. Shares of Red Hat, Inc traded higher by 1.83% or $0.81/share to $44.98.


      • Red Hat And Nuance Set Sights On Buy Points


      • Red Hat Pledges Commitment to AMQP Open Messaging
        Red Hat has affirmed its commitment to the open-source Advanced Message Queuing Protocol as the company’s strategic messaging protocol going forward.


      • Fedora



        • Fourth Fedora Design Bounty Ninja identified!
          The Fedora Design Team Bounty is a type of blog post where we’ll outline a quick-and-easy design project that needs doing for the Fedora Community, outlining all the tools, files, and other resources you’ll need to complete the project. If you’re a designer and are interested in getting involved in the free and open source community, this is a good opportunity to get your feet wet!


        • Fedora 16 beta
          Fedora 16 features the new 3.1.0 kernel. In spite of the dramatic number change, there are no dramatic feature changes.






    • Debian Family

      • Debian KDE: Performance, Comfort and Stability
        Instead, I'll ask you what Desktop Environment does Debian have? The most likely answer here would be GNOME. That is because GNOME comes as default for Debian. But of course such a Universal Operating System like Debian cannot have only one Desktop Environment available. If you look at Download page, you'll find other options there: KDE, LXDE and XFCE. Last two are actually shipped on same CD image. But the KDE one is most interesting for me because it was on the 4th place of users poll for best KDE distro, ahead of such KDE-centric distros like Pardus or Aptosid.


      • Derivatives



        • Canonical/Ubuntu



          • Thanks to HP and Canonical Simple Scan team
            I’d just like to say a huge thanks to HP and the folks at Canonical who work on Simple Scan – at long last, HP fixed up the ADF support for my 1212nf multifunction printer in hplip, and Simple Scan has completely awesome multiple document scanning / saving capabilities.


          • Nick Barcet: Ubuntu, the only web server OS showing growth?
            According to W3Techs, Ubuntu is the only web server OS showing a continuous growth rate for (at least) the last year. After passing Suse and Fedora last year, we passed in front of RHEL usage in July. CentOS and Debian are still ahead though.


          • 15 Things I Did After Installing New Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot
            Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot is scheduled to arrive on Oct 13, 2011. A lot of things have changed with Ubuntu in the mean time. This Ubuntu 11.10 screenshot tour will give you a quick preview of important changes in the upcoming Ubuntu Oneiric release. I have been using Ubuntu 11.10 as my netbook's primary OS ever since the second alpha release of Ubuntu 11.10 happened. Here is a quick list of things to do after installing Ubuntu 11.10.


          • Ubuntu Upgrade a Mixed Bag at Best
            As a die-hard Ubuntu 10.10 user, I was less than blown away by the newest version, Ubuntu 11.10. The addition of the new Gnome 3 shell in Ubuntu 11.10 forces a paradigm shift in your computing habits. That does not mean that nothing good is included in the newest Ubuntu release, though. File-sharing and personal cloud storage just got a whole lot more convenient.


          • The Buzz On the New Ubuntu
            As noted here, the official release of Ubuntu 11.10, Oneiric Ocelot, is due this week. In addition, many people are already using the beta releases, and, at ThisisTheCountdown.com you can track the minutes and seconds leading up to the next major release of Ubuntu, and get QR codes and URL strips. Version 11.10 has already generated a lot of discussion, including both praise and criticism. Here are some of the early reports.


          • Ubuntu Ocelot Debuts as Kernel.org Returns


          • Ubuntu 11.10 Will Be Released Today
            The title says it all! Canonical will unleash the highly anticipated Ubuntu 11.10 operating system somewhere around 10:00 AM GTM tomorrow, October 13th.


          • Ubuntu Cloud: The Reseller Opportunity


          • Ubuntu 11.10 Available For Pre-Order


          • Flavours and Variants

            • Vinux | Ubuntu Linux for the visually impaired
              Have you heard about Vinux? Vinux is a GNU/Linux distribution specially targetted for Visually impaired computer users. It has a host of tools for making the tech lifes of people with vision disorders a lot better. Vinux is based on Ubuntu Linux. Read on to find out more.


            • Mint, Linux Mint
              On Google+ recently, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols brought back a May 2011 item he posted on Linux Mint because “[w]ith all the chatter on one of my posts about Linux desktops, perhaps it’s time for me to drag out this review of my current favourite Linux desktop.”

              It may seem trivial to some, but Steven calls Linux Mint “Mint” throughout the review, and in the back and forth on the comments, that seems to be OK with some. Correction: It seems to be OK with everyone but me. In my opinion, calling it just “Mint” is wrong — especially since the screen shot featured in the article says “Linux Mint” and the symbol is an “LM” — and I find it a little grating to do so, like someone calling me by my last name (Note: Unless you’re a drill sergeant, don’t do that).

              So who’s right? Is it “Mint” or “Linux Mint”?












  • Devices/Embedded

    • Mentor Graphics and Freescale team up on Cortex-A9-based vehicle tech
      Mentor Graphics announced it is bringing its Genivi-compliant Mentor Embedded Linux In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) Base Platform platform to Freescale Semiconductor's ARM Cortex A9-based i.MX6 system on chips (SoCs). Meanwhile, the Linux Foundation announced the first Automotive Linux Summit (ALS), to be held Nov. 28 in Yokohama, Japan.


    • $50 Roku box offers 720p Netflix, Hulu, and new HBO GO
      Roku announced its lowest-cost streaming media player yet, also adding a new HBO GO service to its service line-up. The $50 Roku LT offers the same Linux-based operating system, Netflix support, 720p video playback quality, and support for 300 channels as the $60 Roku 2 HD, but jettisons the microSD port and Bluetooth connections, according to the company.


    • Linux-based CUE system to debut on 2012 Cadillacs
      Cadillac announced a Linux-based in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and navigation system that will debut in the 2012 Cadillac XTS. The Cadillac User Experience (CUE) system's triple-core ARM11 processor controls both an eight-inch capacitive multitouch main touchscreen and an optional 12.3-inch cluster display, and features proximity sensing, haptic feedback, natural language voice recognition, and an open app development platform.


    • Virtual target eases software development
      The SOC FPGA virtual target is a PC-based functional simulation of an Altera SOC FPGA development board and is a binary- and register-compatible, functional equivalent of the SOC FPGA board.


    • Phones



      • Android

        • Top 5 Alternative Music Players for Android
          Many audiophiles who use an Android phone as their mp3 player are a bit unsatisfied with default music application. For them, the stock application misses out on a lot of features that a modern music player should provide. If you’re one of them, then read on as we list the best alternatives for Android’s default music player.


        • Cyanogenmod 7.1 now available for ultimate Android customization
          Open source projects follow a pretty standard pattern in my experience. If the project becomes popular, it grows at a breakneck pace. New features, bug fixes, and more are suggested and submitted daily. Eventually, you have to say no to a couple of things. Once enough things are said no to, those who come up with those ideas move on to the next logical thing, which is to take your ideals and your creativity and make your own version of that project. Soon, you’ve got a hundred flavors of Linux and a few hundred thousand people with their own opinions as to why theirs is better than yours.


        • Motorola Spyder and Xoom 2 turn up in more leaked shots
          As you can see above, the Spyder also has what appears to be a slightly more tactile back, which could well be the Kevlar coating that's been rumored for the phone. Interestingly, our tipster also says that the processor in this particular Spyder is clocked at 1.5GHz, although the final version will apparently indeed be 1.2GHz, as the earlier leaks have suggested. Check out the gallery below for a closer look at both devices.


        • Motorola Announces LAPDOCK 100 for Webtop-enabled Smartphones
          Late last night Motorola Mobility formally introduced their newest accessory/companion for webtop-enabled smartphone such as the Droid Bionic and Atrix 4G. Called the LAPDOCK 100, it arrives at AT&T (online) on October 17th and later this quarter through Verizon and Sprint.


        • Quad-core Asus Eee Pad Transformer 2 tablet may be set for November 7th launch
          Asus’s followup to the popular Eee Pad Transformer tablet maybe be set for a launch early next month. The LambdaTek Component Shop currently lists the Asus Eee Pad Transformer 2, referred to as model number TF201-1I020A, for €£537.85 including VAT. Other details on the retailer’s site are limited, though the Transformer 2 listing mentions a quad-core Tegra 3 processor from NVIDIA, 32GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, a 10.1-inch display and Android 3 Honeycomb.


        • LG Doubleplay for T-Mobile: First Press Shots










Free Software/Open Source



  • "Open Source Is Powering Pretty Much Everything"
    I began to use Linux as my main OS more than five years ago and started programming in open source languages more than seven years ago. In spite of the fact that I struggled to find a reason to use Linux instead of MacOS, I still kept using Linux every day. PHP was one of the first open source languages I started using and I continue to use it even after so many years. A couple of years ago, I took the initiative of working on open source projects and contributing to other projects like Doctrine ORM and Zend Framework. I ultimately ended up basing my whole business on creating open source projects and technologies.


  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla

      • Which Browser Has Your Back? That Would Be Firefox
        Hard on the heels of recent reports that Google's Chrome browser may overtake Firefox by year's end, Mozilla on Monday released its annual “State of Mozilla” report including rosy financial results and a discussion of its efforts moving forward.


      • Will Google Continue Subsidizing Mozilla?
        For several months now, Google's Chrome browser has been posting larger market share gains, by percentage growth, than open source rivals. In fact, many analysts predict that its market share will overtake Mozilla Firefox's next year. The successful rise of Mozilla’s Firefox browser is a legendary story in the open source community, but many people don't realize that Mozilla gets most of its revenues from Google. In fact, nearly all of Mozilla's revenues come from deals that involve feeding users into search/ad ecosystems. In November of this year, though, Mozilla's deal with Google is up for renewal. Is there a chance that it could go away?






  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Open source office suites: LibreOffice takes on OpenOffice
      It has now been one year since The Document Foundation (TDF) announced the LibreOffice project, and by all counts, the open source software suite is flourishing. After just one year, TDF estimates that there are now 25 million LibreOffice users worldwide.


    • Java Reloaded
      What a difference a year makes! Twelve months ago, the world of Java was beset by fear and uncertainty. There was grave concern about Oracle's takeover of the language via its acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Many people wondered how committed the company was to the forward progress of the language. And given the Oracle's initial ham-fisted handling of several developer communities (such as Open Solaris and the Hudson project), there was a pervasive feeling that the company could easily ruin the language through either neglect or, more likely, by pursuing its own agenda so aggressively that it would destroy the existing Java community. The then-recent lawsuit against Google only furthered these concerns.




  • CMS

    • WordPress 3.3 Beta 1 gets new media uploader
      The first beta of WordPress version 3.3 has been announced by lead developer Ryan Boren. Among the improvements are a new HTML5 media uploader. In previous WordPress releases the uploader used a standard file selection dialog for selecting files to be uploaded, whereas this latest version uses Plupload, an open source upload handler that includes drag and drop functionality. Image resizing is available within the browser. Plupload has fallback methods including Flash and HTML4 for browsers that don't support HTML5.




  • Education

    • Universities foster the next big tech innovation through open source
      While many technical innovations are produced by massive teams of developers at industry giants such as Google and Microsoft, a number of game-changing technologies are sprouting from grass roots efforts at universities. Through the advent of open source software, multiple developers at colleges around the globe are able to contribute code and innovate new developments without a penny of commercial investment. Tech leaders and investors alike are surprised to learn how the next big breakthrough in technology may not come from their own development teams, but from groups of students and educators collaborating through the Internet.




  • Funding

    • The State of Diaspora and Fundraising Round Two
      Today the project posted a plea for $25, or whatever you can spare, to "keep building Diaspora."

      How much are they trying to raise? At least enough to open their own office and provide resources to implement their "larger vision" of "a safer, more secure, and more private social Web."

      Diaspora core member Maxwell Salzberg says "we are trying to obtain ongoing community support. We want to maintain Diaspora as a community-financed project, so the core product can remain non-commercial."





  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • There's a New GNU fdisk in Town
      GNU fdisk is one of those utilities we don't think about much. It's been around for ages, it does its job, and it really doesn't noticed often. But don't tell the GNU fdisk folks that--they've been busy re-writing fdisk to modernize it a bit.




  • Open Hardware

    • Open Source Project redefines the traditional coffee shop
      Inside the Open Source Project café, the scent of brewing coffee is identical to every other coffee shop — but the similarities stop there.

      Since it opened in May, the Open Source Project has been attracting customers for its coffee, but it keeps them around for its relaxed atmosphere and eclectic mix of an art gallery, music venue and café rolled into one.






Leftovers

  • Dennis Ritchie, 1941-2011: Computer scientist, Unix co-creator, C programming language designer


  • Time wasted with buggy software
    Yesterday, I was troubleshooting an issue with Microsoft Exchange 2010. There was a resource mailbox (a room mailbox) that all of a sudden stopped showing its free/busy data to the users in the company in the Scheduling Assistant and in OWA. However, the users could open the resource mailbox calendar in Outlook 2010, and view the contents of the calendar just fine. So, they appeared to have permissions to the calendar folder in one view, but not another view. The first tool I grabbed was "ExFolders.exe" which is an Exchange binary, located in the "bin" folder on the Exchange 2010 server. This tool is supposed to allow the administrator to connect to a mailbox and adjust permissions. Unfortunately in my case, it did not work as advertised. I used the tool and viewed the permissions on the "Calendar" folder in the resource mailbox which appeared correct. I removed the permissions and re-added them with the ExFolders.exe tool, double checked that they set by closing ExFolders.exe and opening it up again. But Outlook and OWA would continue to show "you do not have permissions to view free/busy data" for the resource mailbox. I went in circles for about 2 hours, trying to figure out why permissions looked correct in ExFolders.exe, yet users could not access its free/busy data, even though they could view the Calendar contents just fine (which puzzled me even more).


  • Health/Nutrition

    • Wisconsin GOP Pushes ALEC Anti-Consumer Bill to Protect Drug Makers
      In the name of "job creation," Wisconsin GOP legislators are taking another page from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) playbook and pushing a bill that gives huge corporations that manufacture drugs and medical devices immunity from lawsuits when their products injure or kill.


    • ALEC and Coca-Cola: A "Classic" Collaboration
      What is Coca-Cola doing behind closed doors with Koch Industries and other multinational corporations in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)? Coca-Cola Refreshments' Director of Public Affairs and Communications, Gene Rackley, represents Coke on ALEC's "Private Enterprise" Board, along with Koch Industries' Michael Morgan.

      Coke and ALEC have a lot in common. Both love free trade and have been big boosters of free trade agreements, such as the Korea, Panama and Columbia agreements facing votes this week in Congress. Both are dubious about recycling, especially taxes applied to industry to pay for mandatory recycling. But in one area, ALEC policy benefits Coke and other sweet drink makers directly.




  • Security



    • Internet Explorer is the safest Web browser!? Ha!


    • There Will Be No Virus For Internet Explorer 9
      So, Microsoft is supposedly using some flawed *technology* to conclude their browser is the best. It's more like telling my dog barks the loudest.

      [..]

      Our brand name is the reason the attacks on IE9 are non-existent. Every cracker knows that our products are insecure and the first thing a user does is install either Google Chrome or Firefox, leaving IE9 to rot. Since no one is using IE9, what's the point of writing virus for it.




  • Cablegate

    • Enron whistle-blower praises rise of WikiLeaks
      Sherron Watkins, who tried to get her bosses to stop the fraud that brought down Enron Corp. a decade ago, thinks websites like WikiLeaks will strengthen the hand of future corporate whistle-blowers.






  • Finance

    • Foes of South Korea Free Trade Deal Struggle to Be Heard


    • EU speeds up capital rules for big banks
      Europe's biggest banks must raise billions of euros in capital to better withstand market turmoil, the European Commission proposed Wednesday, as it embarked on a major push to contain the continent's escalating debt troubles and avert a second recession.


    • Whose Jobs Are at Risk in Free Trade
      With Congress expected on Wednesday to take up trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama as well as a benefits package for workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition, the Joint Economic Committee of Congress has released a report showing that the workers most likely to be hurt by free trade are the same groups that will have the most difficult time getting new jobs.


    • Iran’s top leader says Wall Street protests will topple capitalism in America
      Iran’s top leader said Wednesday that the wave of protests spreading from New York’s Wall Street to other U.S. cities reflects a serious crisis that will ultimately topple capitalism in America.


    • Swiss bank confirms staff indicted in US tax case
      One current and one former employee at the Swiss private bank Julius Baer have been indicted in the United States in a $600 million tax evasion case.

      A Julius Baer AG spokesman, Martin Somogyi, said the Zurich-based bank was cooperating with U.S. authorities in their investigation. He provided no further details.


    • Banking Industry Revamp Moves Step Closer to Law
      Wall Street is bracing for major changes from a new rule that would overhaul how the banking industry conducts its trading.

      The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation unanimously approved on Tuesday an initial version of the regulation, known as the Volcker Rule. Two other regulators followed suit, and the Securities and Exchange Commission is scheduled to vote on Wednesday.


    • Wall Street Protests Inspire Ire Over Bank Recruiting
      As protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement continue to camp out in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, students at some of the nation’s top colleges are also taking up the banner of antibank activism, beginning with their schools’ on-campus recruiting programs.


    • Wall Street protests draw overseas attention
      The Occupy Wall Street movement, which has spawned grass-roots activities around the U.S. and prompted comments from President Barack Obama, is now drawing political remarks from overseas.
    • Chicago to Wall Street: Pay US Back!
      While the Occupy Wall Street movement is sweeping the country and peaceful arrests are mounting, Chicagoans took to the streets this week to hold the big banks accountable for crashing the economy and to demand city, state and federal policies that work for working families.

      For many, the goal was stopping the foreclosure mill and telling the big banks it was time to Pay US Back! for the $4.7 trillion bailout. For others, the demands focused on the fallout from the financial crisis including contentious contract negotiations with the administration of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel.




  • Privacy

    • Google Engineer disses Google+
      Steve Yegge, a Google engineer, stuck his foot in his mouth in what was meant to be a Google-insiders only rant about Google+, but behind the flames there were some valid points.


    • Google Fine With Steve's Rant, Apple Fired Engineer For Showing iPad To Steve!
      Google's Steve Yegge posted a Google Plus post which was intented for internal sharing. Mistakenly, it was published as public. In his post he rants about Google's half hearted attempts. But, it tells us something about Google which is not mentioned in the post. It tells us that openness is in the DNA of Google and employees can share their thoughts openly. Yet another browny point for Google.

      On the contrary Steve Jobs fired an engineer only because he showed the iPad to none other than Steve Woznaik, the co-founder of Apple.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • ISPs "exaggerate the cost of data"
      Both fixed and mobile providers have claimed that increased internet traffic has resulted in "ballooning" costs for networks. Some ISPs have argued that content providers should pay them to help meet the cost of supplying bandwidth-intensive services such as the BBC iPlayer.




  • ACTA

    • Just Say ‘No’ to ACTA
      The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which has already been signed by eight countries, poses a dangerous threat to the inherent freedom and openess of the Internet. Under ACTA, ISPs and websites will be given more power to track what we do online, while forcing them to turn over our information and reporting our activity to the authorities -- all in the name of copyright protection! This controversial intellectual property accord, which was negotiated in secret, violates our fundamental rights to free speech and access to our culture.


    • Wyden to President: Isn’t Congress Supposed to Approve International Trade Agreements?






Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 58 Out of 200: 5RB and Brett Wilson LLP Helped Garrett and Graveley Make Equivalent of GAFAM NDAs Superficially 'Enforceable' in the UK, Using Threats
laziness results in many hours and high lawyers' fees
"A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin that he commits; on the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed." (Deuteronomy 19-21)
The spouse of Garrett repeatedly points out that Garrett can barely code or can only do so very poorly
Rust People Sabotage Stability for the Sake of a Falsely-Promised 'Security'
Set aside severe performance issues, poor handling of "edge cases", general bugs, lack of compatibility, and even crashes
Huge Strike at the European Patent Office (EPO) This Coming Friday (May 1st)
International Worker’s day
 
Journalistic Malpractice: Helping Microsoft Paint 'Voluntary' Layoffs (Before PIPs) as "Buyouts"
What does this tell us about today's media?
The Man IBMers Regard or Already See as Likely Successor of Krishna (or Next CEO of IBM) is a Slop Fanatic
How dangerously misguided
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part VI - Management of the European Patent Office (EPO) Covered Up Cocaine Use, Even Colleagues Not Informed
the self-described "fu--ing president"
Who Controls Fedora? IBM and GAFAM.
Don't for a moment believe that IBM understands GNU/Linux. We are quite certain nobody in IBM's Board of Directors uses it.
State of Slop About GNU/Linux
As the incentive to publish is reduced (competing with slop is no fun), the effort/money invested in stories goes down
Links 26/04/2026: Korean Inflation, GLP-1 Drugs Linked to Cognitive Impairment, Lithuania's Public Broadcaster LRT Besieged
Links for the day
Hopefully Smooth Sailing in OS Upgrade
There are some contingencies at hand
Links 25/04/2026: "Horrible Economics of AI Are Starting to Come Crashing Down", More Restrictions Placed on Social Control Media
Links for the day
Getting Aggressive Suggestive of Loss - Part IV - Shutting Down My Existence
Would anyone out there tolerate such messages sent from burner accounts?
Gemini Links 26/04/2026: Gemini Movie Database (or GeminiMDB) and Star Trek III
Links for the day
Weeks Before Linux Removed Over 100,000 Lines of Code Due to Slop 'Bug Reports' Microsoft Paid 'Linux' Foundation to Advance Slop in the Name of 'Security'
What can possible go wrong? Both for security and for stability.
Tracking Ages of People
To stay "safe" tell us your age
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 25, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, April 25, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 57 Out of 200: 5RB and Brett Wilson LLP Made the Garrett and Graveley Particulars of Claims a Lot Like Photocopies!
They seem very much irritated that I speak about this
Links 25/04/2026: Nokia Wins Embargo in Kangaroo Court Where Judges Are Salaried Nokia Staff (UPC), Allison Pearson Defamation Case (UK) Succeeds, Smokey Robinson and "Puff Daddy" (US) Fail
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2026: Weekly Echoes, Gemtext Tables, and Using Offpunk
Links for the day
Corporate Media Did Not Specify What Microsoft Means by "Buyouts" (Layoffs), It May Be Hardly Different From Severance
Time will tell, but investigative journalism hardly exists anymore, so we won't hold our breath
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part V - "Diversity" and "Inclusion" at EPO Means Sleeping With Sister of "Cocaine Communication Manager" and Making Them Millionaires
Remember that top applicants or key stakeholders of the EPO are already complaining about a lack of quality
Links 25/04/2026: Fake GAFAM Valuations (Gripping the Market Based on False Accounting), "Evidence Isn't Just for Research", and "Putin Defends Mobile Internet Outages"
Links for the day
Dr. Andy Farnell on Why Calling Slop or Chaff "Hey Hi" (AI) Harm Us All, Except for "Ten or Twenty Rich Industrialists"
"words to avoid"
Internet Trolls Likely Trying to Distract From the Demise of IBM, Problems With Red Hat
there seems to be trolling online aimed at suppressing discussion
Debian Upgrade Coming Up (Soon)
Yesterday we contacted the datacentre staff about it
Getting Aggressive Suggestive of Loss - Part III - Threats From Burner Accounts Formally Treated as a Crime
Countries that cannot preserve freedom from self-censorship are countries where free press ultimately cannot prevail
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 24, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, April 24, 2026
Gemini Links 25/04/2026: 3.4k+ Capsules, Microsoft Layoffs, Call for Nuclear Disarmament, "Internet is Sad and Lonely"
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2026: Zelenskyy Says Ukraine's War Position "Most Stable", Samsung Workers on Strike Due to Pay
Links for the day
Recent Happenings at IBM Reaffirm Rumours About the CEO; He Might be Resigning (or Pushed Out) Soon
If the rumours are true (no, we did not check those tax records for ourselves), it's not unthinkable that IBM is already doing what Apple did months ago
Gemini Links 24/04/2026: Public Reticulum Gateway Node, Smol Computers, and Old E-mail
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2026: Intel Abandoning Computer Freedom (Even Further), Iran Reports That American Software and Hardware Remotely Sabotaged/Hijacked During War
Links for the day
24/7 Wall St. Editor-In-Chief and CEO Calls IBM Is "America’s Worst Big Tech Company", Talent is Leaving, Supposedly Strategic Units Culled
21 hours ago by Douglas A. McIntyre
The Great Wonders of Slop "Efficiency"
Thankfully nothing was lost in the transmission and lots of work (datacentre emissions) got "done"
IBM's Debt Increased Over $5 Billion in 3 Months While IBM Laid Off Many in Europe, US, Confluent, HashiCorp, and Red Hat
An increase of $5,000,000,000+ in debt in just 3 months!
IBMers Expect Another Giant Wave of Layoffs, Talk (and Sing) About the PIPs
The media won't be covering the key facts
Drama at the European Patent Office (EPO) This Week
We'll be covering the EPO quite a lot this weekend and next week
As We Predicted, Francophonie Countries in the EU and Outside the EU Dumping Microsoft for National Security Reasons
We expected Belgium or some other Francophonie place to do so next
Even to Microsoft Insiders It Seems Like XBox Has Already Died or Surrendered to the Japanese Companies
Now the Microsoft layoffs are evident for people to see
EPO Cocainegate Escalates - Part VI - The Strikes Go On and On (Major Strike Today)
We'll be covering this later today in relation to what the Office dubs "ethics"
Absolutely Terrible Journalism About Microsoft Layoffs This Week
7 hours ago by Leila Sheridan
SLAPP Censorship - Part 56 Out of 200: 5RB and Brett Wilson LLP's Copy-Paste Machination for Garrett and Graveley
Here is another straightforward example of their junior barrister overusing copy-paste on his Mac
Getting Aggressive Suggestive of Loss - Part II - Lawyers Are Not "Hired Guns" (and Should Never Act Like Ones)
The matter is being investigated
Nadella is Killing Microsoft. Slop Kills It Even Faster.
A decade from now we'll look back at slop like we look back at skateboards
Huge Microsoft Layoffs Coming Shortly (With Financial Report)
There will be lots of slop layoffs. Be ready. It's a bubble.
Gemini Links 24/04/2026: Data Breaches and Unofficial Gemini Protocol Specification Archive
Links for the day
Microsoft Offers About 10,000 of Its Senior American (Read: Expensive) Workers to be Laid Off
How many slopfarms and media parrots play along?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 23, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, April 23, 2026