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Links 29/10/2011: Google TV 2.0, Orion 0.3





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • People see and want but then don't.
    Then there is Linux. It makes no promises, it offers no excuses. It is what it is and you can take it or leave it. Linux has it's beauty spots and it's warts and they are both out there, side by side, for all to see. Linux has features that windows users see and they exclaim "I want this on my computer!" They claim this quite emphatically, sometimes even going so far as to actually installing Linux and using it for a while.


  • 20 years of Linux: Looking back, forging ahead
    In the larger scheme, however, Linux is arguably one of the most influential technologies of our time. It’s providing the backbone for tech applications that are changing the way the world works and plays. The most powerful computers in the world use it to crunch complicated algorythms. Linux has paved the way for companies’ move of information into “the cloud” and for the general spirit of collaboration that has fueled everything from social networking to Wikipedia.

    This year, Linux turns 20. The computing community is celebrating the anniversary of the date when Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds released Linux to the world, looking back at Torvalds’ vision for modern computing and looking ahead at some of the ways Linux might change business in the future.


  • Hanging on by their fingertips – the last bastion of the proprietary-ware industry
    Want to watch a Blu-ray on your PC? That’ll be €£50 please. Simon, for one, is fed up of this game. Join him as he looks at one of the many wheezes the proprietary software and hardware industry are still trying to pull…

    I’ve just opened up my e-mail mailbox, to be greeted by press releases for another round of product announcements. The one that caught my eye, as it does every year, is the release for another piece of DVD playback software. In this case, it’s Corel WinDVD Pro 11, although it’s not the only offender. And if you’re looking for an example of the wheezes the proprietary hardware and software industries pull, then look no further.


  • Desktop

    • Desktops - the final Linux frontier
      Linux Inside Where will you find Linux … Inside your phone? In your car? In your living room? Open Source Software has long been at home in the data center, providing the engine to drive everything from web servers to high performance computing to Cloud. Its versatility, combined with low cost and massive community are pushing it out of the raised floor and into your pocket.Let's take a look inside a typical consumer router as an example. Chances are, you'll find Linux at the core.


    • Canonical and Dell Push Ubuntu PCs Into China
      Ubuntu has found some new horizons in China. In a post on Canonical's blog, it was announced that Canonical and Dell will bring PCs loaded with Ubuntu to the Chinese market. According to the post: "The stores will feature Ubuntu on a range of Dell computers, and will carry branded marketing collateral in-store, trained staff positioning the benefits and advantages of Ubuntu to consumers and will be supported by a retail team of Ubuntu merchandisers, set up to support the stores. The work was carried out by the Canonical teams based in Beijing and Shanghai, working with Dell China."


    • Ubuntu Gets Retail Shelf-Space In 220 Retail Stores In China




  • Audiocasts/Shows





  • Kernel Space



  • Applications



  • Distributions



  • Devices/Embedded



    • Phones



      • Android

        • Top 5 Android Launchers Worth Trying Out


        • Android smartwatch smackdown!
          Two startups are about to go “chrono y chrono” with competing Android smartwatch gizmos. The “I’m Watch” exclusively targets smartwatch applications, whereas the “WIMM Platform” is meant to create “a new market of connected wearable devices that deliver timely, relevant information at a glance” — of which smartwatches are but one example.


        • Google TV 2.0 gains Honeycomb, Android Market
          Google unveiled Google TV 2.0, which will roll out on Sony TVs and Logitech Revue boxes Oct. 30. Featuring Android 3.1 ("Honeycomb"), the upgrade includes a revamped interface featuring a new customizable home screen and app shortcuts, provides hundreds of Android Market apps, and offers improved search for TV and YouTube, says the company.


        • Droid Razr goes on sale as Mot unveils Fire XT smartphone
          Motorola Mobility and Verizon Wireless began selling the Droid Razr Android smartphone on pre-order for $300, with shipments promised by Nov. 10. Meanwhile, a 3.5-inch Motorola Fire XT Android smartphone was announced in Italy; Motorola Mobility announced strong third-quarter earnings of $3.3 billion; and more evidence piled up regarding an imminent release of two Motorola Xoom 2 tablets.










Free Software/Open Source



  • To the Surface: Great Open Source Projects That Don't Make the Headlines
    Here at OStatic, we regularly do posts designed to surface unsung but very impressive open source projects. Occasionally, an early look at any one of these unsung projects leads to ongoing coverage. For example, this site broke the news about the Eucalyptus cloud computing project at U.C. Santa Barbara long before there ever was the commercial entity Eucalyptus Systems. If you're looking to expand your open source arsenal with some tools you've never heard of, here are some good resources.


  • Web Browsers



  • SaaS

    • Demand for Ruby, Hadoop and HTML5 rockets, C devs still best paid
      Demand for Ruby, Hadoop and HTML5 developers jumped this year, with jobs requiring those skills increasing 70 per cent compared to the same period in 2010, according to a survey of the tech jobs in London by recruiters Adzuna. Adzuna collated every tech job advertised for London last month, a total of 100,000. HTML coders are still the most in demand, but also the most poorly paid – both at entry and top levels.


    • First OpenStack cloud now open for business
      Managed-hosting provider turned cloud provider Internap now has an OpenStack-based cloud ready for public consumption, beating even OpenStack founder Rackspace to the punch. It’s a big day for OpenStack, the open-source cloud computing platform designed to rival VMware and create competition for Amazon Web Services, but it’s likely only the first of many.


    • First commercial OpenStack-based cloud compute service announced




  • Databases

    • Neo Launches NoSQL Graph Database
      NoSQL type databases have become increasingly popular over the last several years as a way to deliver better scalability and performance. There are a number of different types of NoSQL databases, including a graph database structure, which is what open source startup Neo Technology is all about.

      Neo Technology is the lead commercial sponsor behind the open source Neo4j NoSQL database. This week the company is launching its Spring Data Neo4j 2.0 release, bringing the database to the popular Spring Java framework. The company has also just completed raising $10.6 million in Series A funding.




  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • New LibreOffice Extension Website Live
      Have you heard about those great LibreOffice extensions but have had a problem locating them? Well, those extensions (and templates) are going to be easier to find now thanks to The Document Foundation's new online repository.




  • Business

    • Digium Cranks Open Source Asterisk to 10
      I make no apologies for being a huge fan of the Asterisk open source PBX project. I've been a user since the 1.0 release, which is coincidentally the first time I ever wrote about the project, all the way back in 2004.


    • Digium Confirms Asterisk 10 Release, Media Engine Gets Makeover
      Digium Thursday confirmed the release of Asterisk 10, the latest version of the 12-year-old Asterisk open-source telephony platform that's slowly but surely gaining traction in the broader telephony market.

      Digium, which is Asterisk's primary developer, announced the release in line with this week's AstriCon conference in Denver. According to Digium, the freely available Asterisk platform has seen millions of downloads in the past few years, including 2 million in 2010 alone.




  • Project Releases

    • Announcing Orion 0.3
      The Orion project is pleased to announce the availability of its 0.3 release. If you’re using Orion Hub, then congratulations on successfully upgrading to the new release! If you don’t have an account, sign up for free here. If you’re the kind of person who still likes to download and install tools, you can find the latest server on our download page.




  • Public Services/Government





Leftovers

  • The KNOS Project demo review
    BSD-based operating systems are considered very secure. More so than Linux, in fact. Now, there are many reasons why this may or may not be so, including the market share, the speed and quality of software validation, the release cycle, the internal security mechanism, the skill and mentality of developers, administrators and users, the deployment setup, and many other factors, all of which are highly debatable.


  • Science



  • Security



  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • NYFD Removes Gas, Generators From Protest
      New York firefighters removed about a dozen gasoline cans and six generators from Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street protesters have camped for almost six weeks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

      About 30 to 40 firefighters were sent to the park along with the police department’s community affairs unit, Bloomberg said today on his weekly WOR radio show.

      The equipment, which helped power computers and mobile phones and keep people warm as temperatures dipped near freezing, are safety hazards and illegal, Bloomberg said. Forecasts call for rain and snow in the metropolitan area tomorrow.




  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance



  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • At OWS, Cenk Uygur Announces Effort to Amend Constitution, Get Money Out of Politics
      The "Occupy" movement has been inspired in part by the increasingly outsized political power of the top 1%, which has made elected officials more responsive to deep-pocket donors than those they were elected to represent. In response to the other 99% being left politically and economically disempowered, former MSNBC host Cenk Uygur has announced plans to work toward amending the U.S. Constitution to get big money out of politics and restore representative democracy.


    • Right Wing Front Groups Flood Ohio With Anti-Union Spin
      With Ohio voters looking to overturn Governor John Kasich’s union-busting Senate Bill 5 through a statewide referendum, national Republican donors, strategists and corporations are pumping money into the state to defend the Governor and his bill.




  • ACTA





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