Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 17/1/2012: SOPA Action, Android at the NSA



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Quarterly LQ [Linux Questions] Zero Reply Drive
    One of the main goals of LQ is to help members get questions about Linux answered. One way we help facilitate this is with the "Zero Reply" functionality, which allows you to easily find threads with no replies.


  • Desktop

    • Free Windows Tool Offers a One-Stop Shop for Linux
      Windows users have many reasons for wanting to download and check out the Linux operating system, whether it's to get a more secure environment to use for online banking, for example, or to get a full-blown Windows replacement.




  • Server





  • Kernel Space

    • Microsoft's ReFS File-System: Competitor To Btrfs?
      Microsoft has released extensive details on their next-generation ReFS file-system to be introduced with Windows Server 8. How though does the file-system compare to Btrfs and the Linux file-systems?

      Unlike Microsoft's exFAT file-system that's designed just for flash memory cards and external storage mediums, ReFS is designed to be a real successor to Microsoft's aging NTFS file-system that's been widespread since the Windows 2000/XP days. ReFS is short for a Resilient File System and will be introduced as a production-ready file-system with Windows Server 8. The non-server Windows 8 won't have ReFS support, but per typical Microsoft fashion, will come to the consumer operating system variants at a later date.


    • Intel Has 50 Patches For ACPI/Power In Linux 3.3
      The fun for the Linux 3.3 kernel merge window is not over quite yet; Intel this morning published 50 patches for integration into this next Linux kernel that affect ACPI and power management, primarily around ACPI 5.0 support for the Linux kernel.


    • Graphics Stack

      • VA-API Video Acceleration On Intel Medfield
        It turns out that Intel's recently-launched Medfield SoC for tablets and smart-phones will support VA-API for video acceleration.


      • Cogl, Clutter, Cogland Get It On With Wayland
        With the next GNOME 3.4 development release due out on Wednesday, several GNOME3 packages are being checked-in for release. In this latest round of updates, Clutter and Cogl have both been updated again to take better advantage of the Wayland Display Server.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments

    • The Fragmentation of the Linux Desktop
      As recently as a year ago, the Linux desktop was easy to describe. GNOME and KDE dominated, both offered an ecosystem of applications, and neither much different from Windows and OS X in their goals or design. Xfce was a distant third, with other desktop environments trailing even further behind.


    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • WIP: Plasma Active Handbook
        The Book is written in Docbook 4.5 (XML) and uses XSLT/FO for producing the book. The book started in german, so the most is done in the german part of the book. Today i've added all Topics from the german book to the english one. This Plasma Active Documentation is created and driven by open-slx.




    • GNOME Desktop

      • Decrappify GNOME3 Powermanagement
        GNOME3 has actually become quite usable, but I was really annoiyed by the inability to disable actions on “critical low battery” (Additionally, there is no way to define what “critical low battery” is and with a big battery I assume this might well mean that you cannot use the machine anymore even though there is half an hour of juice left). Add to that bnc#738782 which leaves my screen unlocked after suspend and I decided it was time to use someting sane — like xfce4-power-manager — instead.


      • MATE Desktop


        The other day on the #opensuse-gnome IRC channel there was a debate about the MATE Desktop and openSUSE. While I like GNOME3, I still feel more comfortable with GNOME2 and this “MATE Desktop” is somehow interesting. Mariusz Fik, a Polish contributor for openSUSE is most likely taking the lead on this project, for which I’ve decided to give some help with the packaging.






  • Distributions

    • Aligning Linux Distributions with Presidential Hopefuls
      Most politicians probably don’t use Linux. After all, some of them have barely figured out computers at all. But since the American presidential campaigning season is once again upon us, I’ve been wondering to myself lately: If the candidates did run Linux, which distribution would they choose? At the risk of offending various groups of people, here are my answers, for better or for worse.

      To be clear, and to temper some of the passionately loathsome comments that a post like this might inspire, I’ll preface these thoughts with an assurance that they are not intended as an endorsement of any candidate, party or ideology. Personally, I’d like to resurrect Rousseau’s state of nature, if only I thought it could endure. And there would be no Linux there, since everyone would be running around the forest. But that’s neither here nor there.


    • BackBox Linux 2.01 review – turning heads in the pen testing scene
      A relative newcomer to the forensic and penetration testing live CD scene, Italian project BackBox is already turning heads as it hits version 2.01. Gareth Halfacree explains why…


    • ArtistX 1.2 Released
      After nearly ten years of development and more than ten versions, the ArtistX 1.2 multimedia studio on a DVD is finally released. It's an Ubuntu 11.10-based live DVD that turns a common computer into a full multimedia production studio.


    • Debian Family



      • Derivatives



        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Is Ubuntu trying to act like Google?
            But Ubuntu the brand, and Canonical as a company, is seriously confusing to me. What exactly is it there for, outside of being the backing for the Ubuntu distro? Apparently they provide some sort of “enterprise consulting” and training. Apparently you can also buy support from Canonical as a regular consumer (just found this out on their website) for just over $100 (American). And of course there’s the deal with Dell (and others?) to act as an OEM for a few computer models. So they do have a business, but I don’t see how they have a profitable one.










  • Devices/Embedded

    • We’re auctioning ten beta Raspberry Pis!


    • Phones



      • Android

        • INSIDE Secure Introduces Open NFC Stack for Google Android 4.0
          "The Ice Cream Sandwich release brings even greater NFC functionality to the Android operating system, and INSIDE is making our latest version of Open NFC available to give connectivity chip vendors, smartphone and tablet manufacturers and software developers a head start in achieving NFC hardware independence," said Charles Walton, COO for INSIDE Secure. "Once again, INSIDE is offering the Android community a complete, open-source NFC stack solution that can be used to greatly speed development and time to market, requiring only that the small hardware abstraction layer (HAL) portion be tailored for specific hardware."


        • Galaxy Nexus: A Dazzling Phone With an Enormous Appetite
          The Samsung Galaxy Nexus features an impressive screen, a nice camera and the latest and greatest version of Android -- Ice Cream Sandwich. Its voice control option is no Siri, but it gets the job done. However, the phone seems to guzzle power, significantly depleting the battery in just a few hours of moderate use.


        • Android variant Cyanogenmod passes one million installs
          Yesterday Koushik Dutta, a member of the Cyanogenmod team, announced that the distribution had reached the one million installs milestone. Cyanogenmod is a community led distribution based on Google's Android known for supporting many smartphones and tablets.

          According to Cyanogenmod's statistics, just under 24 per cent of Cyanogenmod users run 7.1. While detractors claim that Android is fragmented between several different vendors, Cyanogenmod's statistics show that the vast majority of its users run Cyanogenmod 7.0 or above, near the latest bleeding edge of Android.


        • NSA releases ultra-secure open source Android derivative


        • NSA Releases a Security-enhanced Version of Android


        • Workforce mobility driving growth in global handheld device market
          Mobile, handheld computers are changing the way people do business. A new report from GIA says that open source operating systems such as Google’s Android are expected to dominate the market going forward, while single-source systems such as Apple’s iOS and RIM are going to lose market share.


        • Android Ice Cream Sandwich gets free NFC stack
          Inside Secure SA, a fabless supplier of near field communications (NFC) chips, has announced a free, open-source NFC protocol stack that it has made available for version 4.0 of the Google Android platform that is otherwise known as Ice Cream Sandwich.






    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Introducing Ubuntu Secured Remix 11.10
        Softpedia is proud to introduce today a new Linux operating system based on the popular Ubuntu distribution, Ubuntu Secured Remix.

        Ubuntu Secured Remix 11.10 is actually based on the Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system and is a slightly modified version of the Ubuntu Desktop Live CD.








Free Software/Open Source



  • INSIDE Secure Introduces Open NFC Stack for Google Android 4.0


  • Release of OpenNebula 3.2 for Data Center Virtualization and Private Cloud Computing
    The OpenNebula Project is proud to announce the release of a new stable version of its widely deployed open-source management platform for enterprise data center virtualization. OpenNebula 3.2 is the first stable distribution produced by OpenNebula's new release cycle aimed at faster delivery of new features and innovations to the community, based on their requirements and feedback, while also increasing technical quality.


  • Take a decision to enter FOSS in 2012
    So, the year changed again and with it come quite often new decisions. Some swear to work out the superfluous kilos, pounds, or whatever standardized measure your country uses, gained too fast during the festivals. If it is your decision, it is for sure good for your body and I wish you success that goes beyond the act of subscribing to a local gym (and never appearing there after first month).

    But this could be also a nice time to take a decision that you were procrastinating with for too long. That one is good for your intellect and programming skills (even though you don't consider yourself a programmer yet). What about starting to contribute to a Free and Open Source Software project (FOSS)?


  • Big Switch Networks Intros Open-Source OpenFlow Controller
    Big Switch Networks, a new vendor in the nascent, but growing field of OpenFlow-based networking, has introduced an open source controller for companies that want to build applications on top of the controller in an environment where the network intelligence is in the software-based controller rather than in the physical hardware of routers and switches. Big Switch, which also has a commercial controller offering in beta release, said it is offering the open source controller, called Floodlight, to stimulate development on the OpenFlow protocol.


  • Events



    • Playing games, going UpSCALE at SCALE 10X
      The Southern California Linux Expo SCALE 10X is putting the final touches on the first-of-the-year Linux expo in North America. Games? SCALE has them, as well as classes at SCALE U and the rapid-fire UpSCALE talks and more.


    • Looking forward to FOSDEM


    • Keynote Q-and-A: Selena Deckelmann


    • Speaker Q-and-A: Alison Chaiken
      A: My name is Alison Chaiken. For years I worked on cool technologies in the area of device physics and BioMEMS, but the projects I worked on always ended in cancellation and opportunities were diminishing. I've used Unix and Linux for almost 30 years on my personal systems. When the original Bug and Gumstix came out, suddenly I had the epiphany that by I could convert my hobby into a career with more positive impact on the world.




  • Business





    • Semi-Open Source

      • Nuxeo Opens U.S. Headquarters in NYC
        Nuxeo, the provider of an open source content management platform for business applications, today announced the opening of its U.S. headquarters in New York City. The company initially expanded into the United States in 2009, and already has offices in Boston and Silicon Valley.






  • BSD

    • FreeBSD 9.0 Delivers More Power to Serve
      One of the oldest open source operating systems is getting a new release. FreeBSD 9.0 was officially released this week, providing users with a boost in performance and capabilities over the FreeBSD 8.0 branch that was released in 2009.


    • FreeBSD 9 release updates ZFS support
      OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEM FreeBSD has released FreeBSD 9.0, almost a year after its previous release, updating ZFS to pool version 28.




  • Project Releases



  • Openness/Sharing

    • What makes a city open source?
      What qualities make a city open source? Is it technology, government policies, or businesses? No. It's the mindset of the people. It's the philosophy and the culture.

      About a year ago, I started trying to define an open source city. I'm very interested in seeing my own city (Raleigh, NC) become a hub for open source and a leader in open government. With Red Hat's announcement to stay headquartered in Raleigh earlier this month, the City of Raleigh appears poised to "establish a growing ecosystem of partners and providers around the open source leader and to bolster Raleigh’s reputation as a leading open source community."


    • Open Data

      • Google IP addresses link Indian contractor to vandalism of Open Street Map
        Someone hiding behind a range of Google IP addresses in India has been up to no good. Allegedly, the person or persons behind the range of Google IPs have been accessing the open-source map project called Open Street Map and using tools there to vandalize maps of major cities. The vandalism has included things that could get some users of the map into danger.


      • Google Contractor Caught Mucking Up Competing Open Street Maps
        Late last week, a story broke about how a Google contractor was apparently scraping info from a Kenyan crowd-sourced phone directory, Mocality, and then calling businesses pretending that there was a joint Google-Mocality venture for which businesses had to pay. Google responded that it was "mortified" by these actions, and are investigating them. However, ReadWriteWeb, is now reporting that the very same contractor has now been called out for vandalizing Open Street Maps, the more open alternative to Google Maps that has been getting a lot more attention lately. It appears the vandalism was deliberate, doing things that are hard to spot -- like reversing the direction on one-way streets.


      • Google accused of vandalising OpenStreetMap
        Google has once again been accused of underhand business tactics, this time by OpenStreetMap. The not-for-profit organisation published a light-on-detail blog post alleging that Mountain View was "moving and abusing" the mapping outfit's data.

        However the very same post appears to have been completely debunked by an OSM sysadmin, who claims to have first uncovered the issue.


    • Open Hardware

      • 'Open-source' robotic surgery platform going to top medical research labs
        "We decided to follow an open-source model, because if all of these labs have a common research platform for doing robotic surgery, the whole field will be able to advance more quickly," said Jacob Rosen, associate professor of computer engineering in the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz and principal investigator on the project.






  • Programming

    • The Danger of Day-Tight Compartments
      What I was really happy about, however, was the Microchip MPLAB X, which runs nicely under my OS of choice, Linux. I promised that this week I'd show you a little bit about MPLAB X under Linux, and I'm as good as my word.

      The IDE is based on Netbeans (see the Figure) which is, of course, a Java program so it isn't too surprising that it runs well under Linux. Netbeans is on par with other modern development environments — it interfaces with bug trackers, version control, and additional tools you expect to use while writing software.


    • new ruby RPM bindings


    • The FOR looping statement. A semantic compiler plugin






Leftovers



Recent Techrights' Posts

'Dark Patterns' or a Trap at the European Patent Office (EPO)
insincere if not malicious E-mail from the EPO's dictators
There's an Abundance of Articles About the New Release of Kali Linux, But This One is a Fake
It can add nothing except casual misinformation (fed back into the model to reinforce lies)
IBM's Leadership Ruining Lives of People Who Thought Working for IBM Would be OK
Nobody gets fire-lined for buying IBM?
The United States' Authorities Ought to Become Enforcers of the General Public License (GPL) for National Security's Sake
US federal agencies ought to pursue availability of code and GPL compliance (copyleft), not bans
The Problem of Microsoft Security Problems is Microsoft (the Solution is to Quit Microsoft) and "Salt Typhoon" Coverage Must Name CALEA Back Doors
Name the holes, not those who exploit them.
A "Year of Efficiency"
No, we don't mean layoffs
15 Countries Where Yandex is Already Seen to be Bigger Than Microsoft (in Search)
Georgia, Syrian Arab Republic, Cyprus, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Turkey, and Russia
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 19, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, December 19, 2024
Gemini Links 19/12/2024: Fast Year Passes and Advent of Code Ongoing
Links for the day
Twitter is Going to Fall Out of Top 100 Domains as Clownflare (DNS MitM) Sees It
evidence of Twitter's (X's) collapse
[Meme] Making Choices at the EPO
Decisions, decisions...
Large and Significant Error Correction in South America?
Windows now has less than half what Android achieved in terms of "market share"
Links 19/12/2024: Astronaut Record and Observer Absorbed
Links for the day
Links 19/12/2024: Seven Dirty Words and Isle Release v0.0.3 (Alpha)
Links for the day
Links 19/12/2024: Nurses Besieged by "Apps", More Harms of Social Control Media Illuminated
Links for the day
Links 19/12/2024: Magnitude 7.3 Earthquake and Privacy Camp
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/12/2024: Port Of Miami Explosion, TurboQOA, Gnus
Links for the day
Fake Articles About 'Linux'
Dated yesterday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 18, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 18, 2024
FSF Has Made It Halfway to Its Target (Funding Goal) a Week Before Christmas Day
$400,000 definitely seems reachable now, especially if they extend the "deadline"
[Meme] The Master Churnalist
Speaking of press releases being passed off as "journalism"
Spamnil's TFiR: Still Pretending Press Releases Are 'Articles' (TFiR 'Originals' as Plagiarism or Fluff)
Same as last year
Links 18/12/2024: Zakir Hussain Dies, TuneIn Layoffs
Links for the day
Links 18/12/2024: Karate Love and Advent of Code
Links for the day
Windows (or Microsoft) Has Become the "One Percent" (Market Share) in Chad
How long before it falls below 1%?
Arvind Krishna, IBM's CEO, Will Eventually Suck Up to Donald Trump Like His Predecessor Did or the Watson Family Did With Adolf Hitler
Literally Hitler
Being a Geek Need Not Mean Being Sedentary
"In the past 18 months," Berkholz writes, "I’ve lost 75 pounds and gone from completely sedentary to fit, while minimizing the effort to do so (but needing a whole lot of persistence and grit)."
GAFAM Kissing the Ring of the Mafia Don
"resistance" to dictatorship and defenders of democracy?
Slop Spaghetti From the Chef, Second Time Today
Fresh slop ready out the oven!
IBM - Like Microsoft - Lies About the Number of People It's Laying Off (Several Tens of Thousands, Not Counting R.T.O. "Silent" Layoffs and Contractors/Perma-Temps)
How many waves of silent layoffs have we seen so far at IBM this year?
Links 18/12/2024: EU Launches Probe Into TikTok (At Last!)
Links for the day
Links 18/12/2024: Doha/Qatar Trafficking, Bloat Comfort Zone, and Advent of Code 2024
Links for the day
Saving What's Left of Decent and Independent Journalism on the Web
We increasingly (over time) try to make local copies (hosted on our server) of important documents; it's hard to rely on third parties
[Meme] Microsoft's Latest Marketing Pitch
"Stop Being Poor; buy a new PC with TPMs"
In South Africa, a Very Large Nation, Web Developers Can Already Ignore Microsoft Browsers (Edge Measured Below 3% in 55 Nations)
The dumb assumption you must naively test with Microsoft browsers is no longer applicable in a lot of places
Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the Voice of Bill Gates and Satya Nadella
Not hard to see what they've done with the money
Microsoft Boasts That Its (Microsoft-Sponsored) "Open Source AI" Propaganda Got Cited in Media (That's Just What the Money Did)
This is a grotesque openwashing campaign
In Many Places Around the World, Perhaps as Expected, Yandex is Nearly Bigger Than Microsoft (Like in Several African Countries)
Microsoft may soon fall to "third place" in search
Keeping Productive This Christmas
We've (pre)paid for hosting till almost January 2026 and fully back on the saddle
IBM and Canonical Leave Money on the Table Because Microsoft Pays Them Not to Compete and Instead Market Windows, WSL, Microsoft 'Clown Computing', and TPMs
Where are the regulators?
Other Editors Who Agree "Hey Hi" (AI) is Just Hype But Won't Say So Publicly as It Might Upset Key Sponsors
Some media would gladly participate in a scam to make money
Brian Fagioli's Latest "Linux" Article Appears to be Fake
Another form of plagiarism/ripoff using bots?
IBM (and Red Hat) is a Patent Troll, Still Leveraging Software Patents to Extract Money Out of Other Companies by Suing Them
Basically, when it comes to patents, IBM is demonstrably part of the problem, not the solution
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 17, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 17, 2024