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Links 11/4/2012: Linux 3.4 RC2, Red Hat Storage 2.0 Beta, Kubuntu Finds New Sponsor





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



Leftovers

  • U.S. Government Files Antitrust Suit Against Apple and Five Publishers
    The U.S. took legal aim at Apple Inc. and five of America's largest publishing firms on Wednesday, hitting them with an antitrust lawsuit for allegedly setting pricing patterns for eBooks that limit competition. The suit contends that Apple and the group of publishing companies cost consumers millions of dollars through an arrangement where publishers set the pricing of eBooks, eliminating variable costs for them that could have been set by retailers and distributors.


  • U.S. Suit Says Apple, Publishers Colluded on E-Book Prices


  • Security



    • Microsoft seals up Windows zero-day flaw in April Patch Tuesday
      Microsoft released six bulletins on Tuesday to fix a total of 11 vulnerabilities, one of which has become the target of active attacks against unpatched applications.

      One of the four critical patches in the batch – MS12-027 – addresses an Active X issue that impacts numerous application and creates a mechanism to drop malware onto vulnerable Windows systems.

      Microsoft warned of attacks in the wild against the zero-day flaw, which affects an unusually wide range of Microsoft products and Microsoft users. Applications affected include Office 2003 through 2010 on Windows; SQL Server 2000 through 2008 R2; BizTalk Server 2002; Commerce Server 2002 through 2009 R2; Visual FoxPro 8; and Visual Basic 6 Runtime.




  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • US Coal Exports at Highest Level in Twenty Years
      For the full year of 2011, the US exported 107,259 thousand short tons of coal. This was the highest level of coal exports since 1991. More impressive: exports recorded a more than 25% leap compared to the previous year, 2010. (see data here, opens to PDF). Additionally, this was also a dramatic breakout in volume from the previous decade, which ranged from 40,000 – 80,000 thousand short tons per annum. The below chart, from EIA Washington, does not capture the full year, though it certainly portrays the trend. Nota bene: this chart tracks the quarterly volumes of coal exports:






  • Finance



  • Censorship

    • Net Filtering Violates the Rule of Law
      Last year, in their decision regarding the controversial LOPPSI bill, French constitutional judges held that Article 4 of the bill, which allows the French government to censor the Internet under the pretext of fighting child pornography, is not contrary to the Constitution. In doing so, the French constitutional court failed to protect fundamental freedoms on the Internet, and in particular freedom of expression. Hope now lies with European institutions, the only ones with the power to prohibit such administrative website blocking and its inherent risks of abuse.




  • Privacy

    • When the cops subpoena your Facebook information, here's what Facebook sends the cops
      This week's Boston Phoenix cover story -- Hunting the Craigslist Killer: An Untold Detective Story from the Digital Frontier -- would not have been possible without access to a huge trove of case files released by the Boston Police Department. Many of those documents have never been made public -- until now. As a kind of online appendix to the article, we're publishing over a dozen documents from the file, ranging from transcripts of interviews to the subpoenas that investigators obtained from the tech companies that helped them track the killer's digital fingerprints. We've also published the crime scene photos and uploaded recordings made by investigators as they interviewed the killer, Philip Markoff, and others involved in the case.

      One of the most fascinating documents we came across was the BPD's subpoena of Philip Markoff's Facebook information. It's interesting for a number of reasons -- for one thing, Facebook has been pretty tight-lipped about the subpoena process, even refusing to acknowledge how many subpoenas they've served. Social-networking data is a contested part of a complicated legal ecosystem -- in some cases, courts have found that such data is protected by the Stored Communications Act.




  • Civil Rights

    • Uncivil Liberties: The Coalition's Surveillance Chaos
      It has been a of week of chaos for Britain's government on civil liberties. Theresa May signaling the intention to bring in legislation to allow law enforcement agencies to check email, web, social media and gaming forum traffic unleashed a wave of protest. It also unleashed contradiction in the government parties. The Conservatives were quick to exploit the "being tough on crime" angle in the Sun. LibDem president Tim Farron was fielded to promise to shoot down the proposals Nick Clegg was set up to defend just a few short days before.

      We have had leaks, briefings, interviews, spin and letters. Lots of letters. The whole debacle has been capped with Home Office and the Prime Minister's websites being DDoSed by Anonymous.


    • The “99% Spring” to Train 100,000 Activists




  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Copyrights



      • ACTA

        • EU Parliament Must Stand Firm On Its Political Assessment of ACTA
          Paris, April 10th 2012 - The European Parliament has decided not to refer ACTA to the EU Court of Justice, and will normally hold its final vote this summer, as originally planned. This coming week marks a new opportunity for EU citizens to engage with their elected representatives in Brussels, calling on them to move swiftly toward a thorough political assessment of ACTA.










Recent Techrights' Posts

Netcraft's New Web Server Survey Shows Microsoft Down in Every Category
That Microsoft is still visible in
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Garbage and Fake 'Articles' About GNU and Linux, Courtesy of Serial Sloppers and Slopfarms
Today there is a frustrating amount of FUD online that wasn't published by humans but instead generated by LLMs
From Strangling Women to SLAPPing Journalists (Microsoft in a Nutshell)
We won't ever capitulate to Microsofters who strangle women
 
What the LLM Scrapers Are Doing to Tux Machines
So far today it looks like we'll have served about 1.5 million requests at midnight. That's more than 50,000 per hour or 1,000 per minute.
Links 27/02/2025: Google Clown Computing Layoffs and Slack Goes Down as Usual
Links for the day
Links 27/02/2025: The Engagement Rehab and Another New Zine
Links for the day
Links 27/02/2025: Microsoft Trying Ads as Sales Fall, Preserving Data From Social Control Media a Real Problem
Links for the day
Hiding Crimes Against Women (i.e. Reputation Laundering) by Misusing Inapplicable Privacy Laws From Another Continent
As it turns out, "privacy" does not cover hiding illegal activities and if public information exists to prove these illegal activities, then it's perfectly OK to share it
Zurich CEO suicide, Martin Senn proximity to Adrian and Diana von Bidder-Senn, Debian
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Debian, CentOS, RHEL source code demise now linked, accelerated after invalid trademark judgment
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Civil Society Should Demand Removal of People Who Sought Removal of Richard Stallman
Perhaps it's noteworthy that the FSF is now being attacked (again)
RTO for You, But Not for Me: How IBM's Managers Try to Disguise Layoffs as "Resignations" or "Retirements"
What ever happened to corporate ethics?
Links 27/02/2025: Conflict Updates, Hacks Caught Red-Handed Misusing Licence to Exercise Law to Submit LLM Slop to Courts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/02/2025: Fuzzy Frontiers and New Arrivals at Geminispace
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 26, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Always Doing This Site for Principles, Not Money
Pro bono
The Short Lifecycle of Twitter Outrage
The upside is that the "tempo" of social control media is so fast (to cause addiction or "engagement" as the pushers put it) that the persistence of lies in social control media is rather poor
Microsoft Devoured the Open Source Initiative (OSI), Now It's Just a Chain of Blunders
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is against openness
Chronological Index of Techrights
The index was created after Alex Oliva expressed interest
IBM employee from Zurich, Switzerland arrested, jailed for tunnel mistake that may have arisen due to sign colours
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Free Software Foundation's Fund-raising Efforts Continue Unabated (and With Positive Results)
Perhaps the cherry on the cake is that Microsoft influence agents now try to attack the people who run the FSF, for merely have the 'wrong' views on political affairs
Links 26/02/2025: Microsoft's "AI Value" Bubble is Blowing Up, Starbucks in Trouble as Well
Links for the day
Rumour About IBM Layoffs in the UK
That was 2 hours ago
Links 26/02/2025: Science, Hardware, and Politics
Links for the day
Timeline of Microsoft's 2025 Crisis and Growing Panic
Microsoft already had 3 waves of layoffs this year (not even 2 months have passed)
Slopwatch: Another Offending 'Linux' Site Found (Fake Articles About "Linux"), Postgres/PostgreSQL/PSQL Targeted by FUD from LLMs
It's all slop, as one can suspect
IBM Consulting: Layoffs Already in Progress
"What are the Deep Blue Thought Leaders World becoming? A rubbish heap?"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 25, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Links 25/02/2025: US Backs BRICS at UN, Ukraine's Defence Enters 4th Year
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/02/2025: Marginalia and LOWWIRE
Links for the day
Credit Suisse collapse obfuscated Parreaux, Thiébaud & Partners scandal
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
New Richard Stallman Interview Published by Free University of Bozen-Bolzano a Day After His Talk There
We're not seeing any difficult or controversial questions
The Musk Slipped, Countries Need Digital Independence
What's happening in Germany this month might result in quicker adoption of Free software
Government Sites That Use Centralised CAs Are Still Remotely Controlled by MElon and GAFAM at the Oval Office
Even governments outside the US
Eternal Vigilance
I too received more death threats than I can recall over the years
Spanish Version of the Free Software Foundation's Book "Introduction to the Command Line"
The "GNU Press Shop [is] temporarily closed"
Dr. Andy Farnell Publishes Second Part of Series About Freedom Fighters (It Started With Richard Stallman)
A few minutes ago Dr. Farnell published the second part
Things That Were Presumed Public Enemy #1 (or Foremost Threat)
The world's most powerful military is now governed by clowns who don't know what the heck they're doing
Microsoft is Admitting That It Has No Viable Business Model, Starting to Experiment
Microsoft's proprietary spyware with ads cannot really compete with Calligra and LibreOffice
Asking Journalists to Pay for Merely Reporting Violent Abuse Against Women (and Telling Them to Kill Themselves)
As regular readers are likely aware by now, for material we published years ago some likely broke man without a proper job (except in a company made up or invented by him) wants money
Bluewashing: IBM Replaces Red Hat With IBM (Bobby Leibrock) at the Top
Based on his education, Bobby is just some suit; he thinks of money, not tech
Links 25/02/2025: Mass Layoffs at Starbucks, Kaspersky Banned on Australian Government Systems
Links for the day
Links 25/02/2025: Strawberry Lemonade, Introducing Fiss, and YouTube Acting Aggressive
Links for the day
UK: Twitter Falls to Lowest Traffic Levels in 5 Years (Start of Lockdowns), Down From More Than 37% to Only 6.5%
Months ago Twitter (aka "X") was blasted by the British government for inciting right-wing violence
Judgment translated to English in FINMA & Debian trademark fiasco
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Brigading (in Social Control Media) Did Not Silence the Creator of GNU/Linux
there are no impending talks at the moment
Confirmed: IBM Layoffs Will Strike Consulting Quite Hard
the flagging of staff is a way to signal to them it's time to go or get the boot
Sami Tikkanen Explains What Happened to Computer Science Education in Finland and Elsewhere
The 'broligarchs', a collective which typically created anything of their own, do not want the general population to possess skills that let it be anything other than passive consumers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 24, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, February 24, 2025