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Links 22/2/2013: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4, Dice Linux Jobs Survey



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • In Search of Linux's Greatest Moment
    "One would be hard pressed to argue that Android wasn't the REAL tipping point when it came to mainstream acceptance," said Slashdot blogger hairyfeet. "Does anybody think Valve would be making a Linux client if all those Android games didn't exist already, thus giving them ready games on tap? No question in my mind; the day Android was released trumps them all."


  • If You Don't Know Linux, You Better Learn Fast


  • New Computer, Old OS: How To Migrate Linux Between Machines


  • M$ Milks The Cash-Cow Dry -or- Consultant Recommends Migration to GNU/Linux
    GNU/Linux is a “supported OS”, eh? This could be just M$’s attempt to milk the last cent from those truly locked-in to XP. M$ made the cell, applied the barriers and threw away the key, holding thousands of corporations’ computers hostage. One can reinforce one’s cell by migrating to “7″ or one can escape and breathe fresh air with GNU/Linux. It’s seems an easy choice to me. I am sure the consultant thinks going to “7″ is the way but any nitwit can see this will happen all over again when “7″ dies… That’s the Wintel-treadmill, folks. An infinite number of steps forward with no advance.


  • Psst: The Chromebook Pixel can run Linux, too
    Google's new Chromebook Pixel computer is all about the cloud -- but it doesn't have to be.

    One thing I've heard from lots of folks in discussing the Chromebook Pixel is a desire to run a more traditional Linux OS on the system. Google's Chrome OS certainly has its advantages, but for some users, a dual-boot option is even more appealing.


  • Google's Pixel Chromebook Is a Distraction at the Wrong Time


  • Desktop



    • Google Launches Touchscreen Chromebook Pixel


    • Is $1,299 Too Much For The Chromebook Pixel?
      These could be executives going for meetings, creative people or even developers. I have seen quite a lot of developers on G+ showing interest in this device.


    • Linux Kernel Patched To Support Chromebook Pixel
      Just hours after the launch of the high-resolution touchscreen laptop - the Chromebook Pixel, Benson Leung from Google is busy patching the Linux kernel to support Pixel's hardware. These kernel patches provide support for the ISL light sensor, Atmel MXT Touchpad, and Atmel MXT Touchscreen as found on the high-end Chrome OS-powered device.



    • Dell’s XPS 13 laptop running Ubuntu gets a 1080p display


    • Dell's 'Sputnik' Ubuntu Linux laptop gets a key upgrade
      Although it's oriented primarily towards developers, Dell's "Project Sputnik" Ubuntu Linux ultrabook has attracted considerable interest from Linux fans.

      When I spoke with Barton George, a Dell director, upon the North American launch last fall of the XPS 13 Developer Edition, he noted two common requests that came up during the testing process: a "big brother version" with beefier specs, and availability outside the United States.


    • Dell's Linux-Powered XPS 13 Laptop with 1080p Display Runs Ubuntu
      It’s not the first Dell notebook running Ubuntu, but the latest model that Canonical is talking up differs from past Ubuntu laptops in that this is a Dell XPS 13 packed with killer components. All too often, Ubuntu gets plopped onto lower-end notebooks (see: the entire failed netbook craze), but this one rocks an Intel Core i7-3537U chip, 8GB of DDR3-1600MHz RAM, 256GB SSD, and a 13.3-inch full HD (1080p) Gorilla Glass display; Intel HD 4000 graphics is on board, too.


    • The Chromebook Pixel, for what’s next
      Chromebooks were designed to make computing speedy, simple and secure. For many of you, they have become the perfect, additional (and yes, affordable) computer: ideal for catching up on emails, sharing documents and chatting via Hangouts. We’re tremendously grateful to our partners—Samsung, Acer, Lenovo and HP—for their commitment. The momentum has been remarkable: the Samsung Chromebook has been #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list for laptops every day since it launched 125 days ago in the U.S., and Chromebooks now represent more than 10 percent of notebook sales at Currys PC World, the largest electronics retailer in the U.K.


    • Linux kernel patches surface for Chromebook Pixel
      Google's flagship Chromebook might be a solid piece of hardware, but its prohibitive $1,299-1,449 sticker price left us aching for the ability to dual-boot a more robust operating system. Lucky for us that Google's Benson Leung has a knack for Linux -- he's already patching the Linux kernel to support Pixel's hardware.


    • Chromebook With Touchscreen Coming This Year: Wall Street Journal
      Earlier this month, a video was leaked on YouTube which was created by Slinky agency. CEO of Slinky, Victor Koch wrote in his Google+ page, "Our all servers were attacked by hackers, and we apologize for the fact that many projects have been shown previously!" The video demoed a Chromebook with a 2560×1700 resolution touchscreen and an Ivybridge CPU. It certainly got the rumour mill going with the device being dubbed as the Google Link.






  • Kernel Space

    • 2013 Linux Jobs Forecast: Pressing Need for Linux Talent


    • DICE HOLDINGS, INC. : 2013 Linux Jobs Forecast: Pressing Need for Linux Talent


    • Companies are desperately seeking Linux talent, report says
      Here's even more good news for IT professionals with Linux skills. Last month, we got word from IT careers site Dice that salaries in Linux jobs are going up, and on Wednesday the Linux Foundation and Dice jointly presented a report of more promising findings.

      "The 2013 Linux Jobs Report shows that there is unlimited opportunity for college graduates and technology professionals who want to pursue careers in Linux," said Amanda McPherson, vice president of marketing and developer programs at the Linux Foundation.


    • Linaro extends Linux ARM to networking gear
      The not-for-profit Linaro plans to offer an open source Linux OS for ARM-based networking equipment


    • Linaro to Accelerate Linux Development for ARM Servers.
      Linaro, the not-for-profit engineering organization developing open source software for the ARM architecture, today announced the formation of the Linaro Networking Group (LNG) with twelve founding member companies including AppliedMicro, ARM, Enea, Freescale, LSI, MontaVista, Nokia Siemens Networks and Texas Instruments (TI) at the Embedded Linux Conference (ELC).


    • 99% Of Hiring Managers Plan To Hire A Linux Pro, Are You The One?
      If the tech skills you now put on your resume fail to impress the hiring manager, you might want to get yourself skilled in Linux. And if you are already immersed in Linux, this one goes out to you. According to the newly released Linux Jobs Report by The Linux Foundation and Dice, there is an increase in demand for Linux talent that is being met by aggressive recruitment strategies.


    • Study Finds Linux Skills Still In High Demand in Job Market


    • Survey: Linux Pros in High Demand Among Employers


    • Which Linux admin tools and tricks would YOU stake your career on?


    • Survey shows companies need Linux talent and they need it bad


    • ARM, Freescale and Texas Instruments form Linux Networking Group
      LINUX PROMOTER Linaro has announced that it formed a Linux Networking Group with ARM, Freescale and Texas Instruments among others to push the development of Linux based networking infrastructure.

      Linaro, which acts as a developer and hub for firms wanting to put Linux in their products, has put together a Linux Networking Group. The group consists mainly of chip vendors, including ARM, Freescale, LSI and Texas Instruments along with network infrastructure vendor Nokia Siemens. Its purpose is to research and develop Linux based network infrastructure equipment.


    • Kernel developer criticises Linux over security
      A senior Linux kernel developer has pointed to an instance of what he calls a lax approach to security in the Linux kernel, citing the case of a serious vulnerability that is now more than a month old and is yet to be fixed.

      Jonathan Corbet (pictured above), who is also the editor of the Linux Weekly News website, described in an article how a flaw in the kernel, which was initially discussed on a private mailing list, had been made public with a posting by a developer named Oleg Nesterov.


    • XFS On Linux 3.9 Takes Care Of Open Issues
      The XFS file-system update for the Linux 3.9 kernel isn't particularly exciting, but it does address some open bugs and regressions for this still very relevant and competitive Linux file-system.

      The XFS pull request for Linux 3.9 reads, "Please pull these XFS updates for 3.9-rc1. Here there are primarily fixes for regressions and bugs, but there are a few cleanups too. There are fixes for compound buffers, quota asserts, dir v2 block compaction, mount behavior, use-after-free with AIO, swap extents, an unmount hang, speculative preallocation, write verifiers, the allocator stack switch, recursion on xa_lock, an xfs_buf_find oops, and a memory barrier in xfs_ifunlock."
    • Linux Sound To Be Improved In 3.9 Kernel
      Takashi Iwai has mailed in the sound updates for the Linux 3.9 kernel. This Git pull has the much anticipated HDA Intel audio re-work.

      The biggest highlight of the sound updates for Linux 3.9 is the unification of the HD Audio codec driver so that there's now a generic parser that is used by each HDA codec driver. This big fundamental audio change is covered in more detail in the earlier Phoronix article.


    • Linux Professionals Receive Higher Salaries: Dice
      Average salaries for Linux pros come in at $90,853, compared with $85,619 for tech pros nationwide, according to a Dice survey.




  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
        Sony, the company who created Audio CDs which installed a rootkit on Windows computer to try to stop people copying music has pirated KDE artwork. The preferences-system.png icon from Oxygen is on their Choose your Vaio webpages (next to configure) but impressively is also on the UEFI firmware should you boot up into Assist mode.


      • A Vision of the Future of FOSS Collaboration
        Participation and open access are key themes in Free software. It encourages dynamic community structures that blur the line between technology consumer and creator. This has been so successful that echoes of it can be found throughout the technology world from mobile app user engagement to game community content creation. Bringing such interaction patterns into the mainstream is perhaps one of Free software's great social accomplishments. That is not to say that all is well: the topic of user empowerment and participation in Free software is often a contentious one. Depending on the day of the week and whom you ask, you may hear that Free software is an empowering agent for users with low barriers and high levels of interaction with developers .. or that there is a growing disconnect between users and the technology projects. Reality lies somewhere between those two poles, but few doubt that improvements could be made. How to do that is a question that floats in the air without many compelling answers. It turns out that there is another challenge facing Free software which could become a terrific opportunity for improving and even redefining user-developer interaction.


      • A new show in town
        For the next few weeks on mondays we'll post an hangout-based mini podcast that will cover what to expect from the next iteration of Plasma workspaces, what's happening in the development of KDE Frameworks 5 and the new Qt5 based goodness that is coming in KDE.


      • KDE Plasma Active Running on Nexus 7 [Video]
        KDE's Spark Tablet running Plasma Active user interface was quite a phenomenon during CES 2012, though there was no trace of it during the just concluded CES 2013. Only recently, we showcased a video of Ubuntu 13.04 running on a multi-touch device, now here comes a new one featuring KDE Plasma Active running smoothly on a Nexus 7 tablet.


      • PCManFM file manager is ported to Qt?
        It’s just one of my side projects and was an experiment to test how good libfm and Qt are. Since the core library of PCManFM, libfm, is carefully separated from its Gtk+ UI code, theoratically it can be ported to other GUI toolkits. To give it a test, I played with Qt recently. The result is quite satisfactory and impressive. I must admit that working with Qt is quite pleasant.




    • GNOME Desktop/GTK





  • Distributions



  • Devices/Embedded

    • Taiwan PC industry at a critical moment: An interview with Wistron chairman
      As the PC Industry is having trouble achieving growth, transformation has become a new trend among the industry players, Wistron chairman Simon Lin has told Digitimes in a recent interview. Dell's privatization is just a start, and PC brand vendors are seemingly driving faster and faster on a steep, narrow, winding mountain road. If Taiwan's PC supply chain players fail to keep up, they may be left behind or fall off the cliff at a sharp turn trying to catch up; however, such crises may turn out to be new opportunities for the Taiwan players, Lin believes.


    • Phones

      • I.B.M. to Take Big Step Into Mobile
        For I.B.M., mobile computing has come of age. At least, smartphones and tablets may be popular enough to make I.B.M. several billion dollars.

        The company is announcing a major mobile initiative involving software, services and partnerships with other large vendors. I.B.M. plans to deploy consultants to give companies mobile shopping strategies, write mobile apps, crunch mobile data and manage a company’s own mobile assets securely.

        Thousands of employees have been trained in mobile technologies, I.B.M. says, and corporate millions will be spent on research and acquisitions in coming years. I.B.M. also announced a deal with AT&T to offer software developers access to mobile applications from AT&T’s cloud.


      • Tizen mobile OS releases v2.0 code
        The men and women behind the open source Tizen mobile OS platform have stated an early claim to win developer hearts and minds ahead of Mobile World Congress next week with the official release of Tizen 2.0 source code and SDK.

        After a particularly slow start since its launch in by the Linux Foundation in September 2011, the platform received a massive boost when the world’s largest handset maker Samsung confirmed last month that it would launch devices based on the OS.


      • Ballnux



      • Android

        • Mobile productivity suite for Microsoft Office on Android
          Accellion, a California based mobile file sharing supplier, has introduced a Mobile Productivity Suite which it says combines mobile content creation and editing with secure file sync and sharing.


        • Video: Hands-on With the Ubuntu Touch Preview Build


        • Ubuntu Linux-based tablet interface offers slick UI
          Canonical has introduced the Ubuntu tablet interface, which will compete with Android, iOS and Windows with its own take on multitasking. The launch is the next step in Canonical's quest to unify phones, tablets, PCs and TVs.


        • Archos To Soon Launch Its First Android Phones
          Archos is all set to enter the mobile arena with the launch of three new Android-powered smartphones later this year. According to a report by Russian publication Hi-Tech, the French consumer electronics company will soon add a range of Platinum handsets running Android to its portfolio.

          The company recently announced three “Platinum” tablets that come equipped with high-definition IPS displays, 1.2GHz quad-core processors, microSD ports, 2GB of RAM and Android 4.1 at a low price tag.


        • Android wins a point in battle with Apple
          CONFESSION time. We were wrong! And a few readers have taken the trouble to set us straight on the matter of photo file transfer from iPad to computer.

          A couple of weeks ago, we wrote: ''Android tablets are better than Apple iOS devices for this process because when you get home you can connect them to your PC and transfer the photo files without having the torment of iTunes.''

          We were basing our assertion on experience with a first-generation iPad and a Windows PC. It turns out that newer iPads, running iOS 6, can be connected to a PC and they show up in the device list under My Computer.


        • 10 Free Android Apps for Easy Task Management


        • Google shows the world its official Android 4.2.2 changelog
          When Android 4.2.2 quietly debuted last week, most users were left guessing about what exactly had been included in the software update. Helpful community sites like AndroidPolice had put together a thorough listing of some of the new features in Android 4.2.2, but any official listing of updates had yet to be made. Today, Google published its official changelog for its Android 4.2.2 update, along with listing everything else that comes as a part of the Jelly Bean package.


        • Samsung rumored to employ Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 for Galaxy S4


        • ZTE first to offer Tegra 4 powered smartphone


        • Sprint Force LTE handset leaks, due March 1st from ZTE


        • Poor Pathetic HP Way Too Late to Android Tablet Market
          HP has decided to take another hack at tablets, this time using Android as the operating system. I don’t expect the results to be much different from last time.

          For those of you who don’t remember — and HP’s foray into tablets was so brief you would be forgiven if you’ve forgotten — HP bought Palm in April, 2010 for $1.2 billion. The idea at the time was take webOS, Palm’s mobile operating environment and build an HP line of tablets and mobile phones.






    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Canonical shows Ubuntu Tablet experience
        In the run up to Mobile World Congress next week, Canonical has presented what it plans to offer with its tablet experience. The company's aim is to have a range of convergent devices, with phones, tablets, desktops and TVs all running the same code base and offering optimised Unity-based user interfaces. Ubuntu for TV was unveiled at CES in January 2012. Next, it launched Ubuntu for Phones at the start of January 2013. But the third of the range of Ubuntu devices, tablets, had yet to be shown – now, Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth has presented the company's concept for tablets in a video:


      • Canonical is working with a chip vendor to optimise Ubuntu for smartphones


      • Ubuntu for Tablets Will Bring Linux to the Google Nexus


      • The Key for Ubuntu for Tablets Will Be Apps
        Slowly but surely, Ubuntu is heading in many new directions. Last year, Ubuntu TV ramped up, this year Ubuntu phones are upon us, and Canonical is also introducing features in Ubuntu designed for enterprises that may be tired of paying heavy licensing fees for proprietary software. This week, Canonical announced Ubuntu for Tablets (see the video here), which the company says will offer "unique multitasking productivity, effortless navigation and defense-ready security."


      • Ubuntu Offers One Operating System for Any Device


      • Ubuntu’s battle for relevance
        Long known as the standard-bearer for open source operating system (OS) Linux, Ubuntu today faces an existential crisis. These days, Linux has permeated everywhere in the sense that it still remains as a core layer beneath the Android OS. Unfortunately, Ubuntu does not find itself in that equation. Mostly, smartphones are all locked-down – enthusiast open source does not exist unless drivers are available.


      • Ubuntu for phones delayed until 2014, but on Nexus 4 now


      • Five Ubuntu Touch Facts


      • New Ubuntu Linux-driven tablets at MWC
        If you happen to journey over to the Ubuntu home page these days you see a notice that alerts you to the fact that the Mobile World Congress will be graced by tablets that are driven by Ubuntu’s Linux operating system.

        Under the moniker of Tastefully Tactile it is pushing it as a solid alternative in the post-PC era, a multitasking tool that provides the flexibility and functionality that modern users are seeking in their tablets.


      • Tablet adventures pt. 2
        SmartQ appear to still be trucking, selling rather more polished products these days. However, I learned my lesson last time. For my next venture into the tablet world, I won’t be going with that pretty-much-unknown Chinese box-shipper.

        No, no. I’m going with a completely different pretty-much-unknown Chinese box-shipper!

        After returning the RedEye – yeah, I returned it, after re-configuration the 880 is just working too well to keep fiddling with the RedEye – I had a couple hundred bucks languishing in my Amazon account, and that’s not enough for a new NAS box, so I figured I’d spend it on a Ainol Novo7 Flame (also known as the Fire – apparently they are the same hardware, but sold as the ‘Fire’ in Asia with Chinese-localized firmware, and ‘Flame’ in the rest of the world with English-localized firmware). The last one in stock at amazon.ca in fact, so sorry if anyone else wanted one.


      • Ubuntu on tablets: Who’s on board?


      • Tablets Grow. Legacy PCs decline. Tablets Poised To Overtake PCs.
        Well M$ and many others claimed smart thingies were a “flash in the pan” but it’s not looking that way to me. Huge growth sustained over years is not a fad but a movement to smaller cheaper computers. Apple lost dominance in smartphones last year and look to lose dominance in tablets this year. Meanwhile, M$ rides a sinking ship.


      • Ubuntu Tablet OS Hardware Requirements Revealed








Free Software/Open Source



  • Open Source Groupware checklists
    In the last months and years I had to deal with various requirements people have regarding groupware ecosystems. Open Source solutions have matured in this area and this article highlights some needs, but also some common pitfalls.


  • VMware: Zimbra Boom or Bust, Keep or Sell?
    The VAR Guy has long-respected Zimbra, the open-source email platform that VMware (NYSE: VMW) acquired from Yahoo in 2010. VMware has been pretty silent about Zimbra in recent months, and VMware’s decision in January 2013 to deemphasize certain products has triggered rumors that Zimbra may be in trouble. But is it?


  • Women and free software: bridging the gap
    There are many in the FOSS community who pay lip service to the cause of women's involvement in technology. It is a nice soapbox from which to grandstand and gain prominence. Raising funds is also easy when one promotes such a cause.


  • Events



  • Web Browsers



    • Chrome

      • Here Comes New App Launcher For Chrome Web Browser
        Google's Chrome team has ported a new app launcher to the Chrome browser dev channel on Windows. The new feature enables users to quickly open apps when outside of the browser. As of now, the launcher experience is only available on Windows, but it will soon be coming to OS X and Linux.


      • Chrome gets app launcher on Windows dev preview, OS X and Linux to nab it soon
        Chromebooks have had the luxury of an app launcher for quite a while, but now Windows users can get in on the action too, provided they download the latest version of Chrome from the browser's dev channel. In order for the launcher to appear in the taskbar, however, those running the fresh release will need to install a Chrome packaged app -- an application written in HTML,




    • Mozilla

      • Firefox 19 brings PDF viewer and 4 critical security fixes
        The latest release of Mozilla's Firefox open source web browser, version 19, brings few new features but does close four critical security holes. The release notes list only the arrival of PDF.js, the PDF viewer written in JavaScript, as a new feature. This, it is hoped, should reduce users' exposure to malicious PDF documents which exploit third party PDF reader plugins to get access to the underlying operating system.


      • Firefox 20 Beta shows off new panel-based Download Manager, redesigned Developer toolbar
        Mozilla has released Firefox Beta 20.0b1, the first public beta of a landmark release.

        Like its predecessor, Firefox 19 FINAL, which debuted the new inline PDF viewer, Firefox Beta 20.0b1 looks set to unveil another major new feature to the Firefox armoury: a redesigned, panel-based download manager.

        Version 20 also includes a major refresh of the Developer toolbar, providing tweaked and redesigned access to all of the major components, plus an option to view the tools in a separate window. A new Javascript benchmarking tool has also been added.


      • Firefox 19 brings PDF viewer and 4 critical security fixes


      • Firefox introduces PDF viewer to browse the Web without interruption
        Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux introduces a built-in browser PDF viewer that allows you to read PDFs directly within the browser, making reading PDFs easier because you don’t have to download the content or read it in a plugin like Reader. For example, you can use the PDF viewer to check out a menu from your favorite restaurant, view and print concert tickets or read reports without having to interrupt your browsing experience with extra clicks or downloads.


      • Built-in PDF reader for Firefox released
        When surfing a website, encountering a PDF file is one of those minor annoyances I wish I did not have to deal with. That’s because it interrupts the Web experience. With the release of a built-in PDF reader for Firefox by the Mozilla Foundation, such interruptions are now history.






  • SaaS/Big Data

    • Seagate Joins OpenStack, Provides Cloud Storage Cred
      The OpenStack cloud computing platform, which already has its own foundation and about 150 tech companies--many of them heavy hitters--supporting it, is starting to get support from key infrastructure players. On Wednesday, Seagate said that it will become a new corporate sponsor of both OpenStack and the Open Compute Project. The company announced that it "will help cloud builders to develop more scalable, customizable solutions using open platforms while reducing operating costs and providing benefits for consumers in the marketplace."


    • OpenStack: Seagate, HP Promote Cloud Platform Ahead of Conference




  • Databases



  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



  • Education



  • Healthcare



  • Business

    • Open Source Document Management
      I’ve not tried a document management system before, but these videos of LibreOffice checking documents in & out of document management systems via the new CMIS interfaces added in LibreOffice 4.0 make it look really easy. I’d like to try a group collaboration using one of these systems.




  • Funding

    • Open-source search tool Elasticsearch gets $24 million
      Open-source search provider Elasticsearch has secured $24 million in Series B venture funding, showing business demand for free and simple big-data analytics. Mike Volpi of Index Ventures led the funding round, which included contributions from Benchmark Capital and SV Angel.




  • Project Releases

    • Blender 2.66


    • Blender 2.66 Is Here: How to Get Going With It
      The Blender Foundation has announced the release of version 2.66 of the truly awesome 3D graphics and design application Blender. Among new features in this release are: rigid body physics simulation; dynamic topology sculpting; and matcap display. Other new features include Cycles hair rendering, support for high pixel density displays, much better handling of premultiplied and straight alpha transparency, a vertex bevel tool, a mesh cache modifier and a new SPH particle fluid dynamics solver.

    • 3.2.1 Release Announcement




  • Public Services/Government

    • Open States gathers legislative data from all 50 states
      After more than four years of work from volunteers and a full-time team here at Sunlight we're immensely proud to launch the full Open States site with searchable legislative data for all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Open States is the only comprehensive database of activities from all state capitols that makes it easy to find your state lawmaker, review their votes, search for legislation, track bills, and much more.




  • Openness/Sharing

    • Tom Hulme: 'Open-source your product to unlock its full potential'


    • Open Access/Content

      • Boundless, the free alternative to textbooks
        Boundless, the company that builds on existing open educational resources to provide free alternatives to traditionally costly college textbooks, has released 18 open textbooks under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA), the same license used by Wikipedia. Schools, students and the general public are free to share and remix these textbooks under this license. The 18 textbooks cover timeless college subjects, such as accounting, biology, chemistry, sociology, and economics. Boundless reports that students at more than half of US colleges have used its resources, and that they expect its number of users to grow.


      • Wyden Statement on White House Policy to Expand Access to Federally Funded Research


      • Increasing Public Access to the Results of Scientific Research
        Thank you for your participation in the We the People platform. The Obama Administration agrees that citizens deserve easy access to the results of research their tax dollars have paid for. As you may know, the Office of Science and Technology Policy has been looking into this issue for some time and has reached out to the public on two occasions for input on the question of how best to achieve this goal of democratizing the results of federally-funded research. Your petition has been important to our discussions of this issue.




    • Open Hardware







Leftovers

  • How is a local Wiki project different than Wikipedia?
    Reid Serozi (@reidserozi), founder of TriangleWiki, explains how the project was created from the structure of LocalWiki, a platform and storage hub for events, people, places, and things in an area. Information like this is put on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook regularly, but only lasts for a few seconds, a few minutes, or if we're lucky, a few days. LocalWikis are created to capture this content for the longterm.


  • Vatican scandal cited in Pope resignation
    Pope Benedict XVI resigned after an internal investigation informed him about a web of blackmail, corruption and gay sex in the Vatican, Italian media reports say.


  • Let All Of Europe Have A Referendum On The EU


  • SCO Gets to Dispose or Abandon or Destroy its Property, including Business Records ~pj
    I'm sure you will not be surprised to learn that SCO Group, now calling itself TSG, has been granted its wish by its most reliable fairy godmother, the Delaware bankruptcy court, and will be allowed to destroy or dispose of its remaining business records and computers. Nobody cared enough to intervene to block, not that the outcome would have been any different,


  • Science

    • Obama Seeking to Boost Study of Human Brain
      The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics.




  • Health/Nutrition

    • Study Reveals Extensive Seafood Mislabeling in U.S.
      Today the nonprofit ocean protection group Oceana released the results of the largest seafood fraud survey to date. Findings indicated that consumers need to be concerned with more than just horse meat in hamburgers or meat glue in steaks and other products.





  • Security



  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression



  • Cablegate



  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance



    • It’s Time for MoveOn to Move and Stop Blocking Change
      New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) task force received ample attention from news and activist organizations alike following its dramatic announcement at last year’s State of the Union Address. The task force was supposed to investigate and prosecute Wall Street fraud that led to the housing bubble and the eventual collapse of the broader economy. FDL alum David Dayen’s recent piece in Salon reminds us that, one year later, the “new” task force has essentially amounted to what the “old” task force always was: “a conduit for press releases about investigative actions already in progress.”



    • Health care IT industry profits from crony capitalism
      It is a little bit interesting that the New York Times never loses its enthusiasm for Big Government. They publish articles lauding proposals by politicians to spend billions in taxpayer money on something that is supposed to do a lot of good. Then a year later the newspaper will publish an article about how great it is that the do-gooding is actually happening. Then a year or two later the newspaper will do a follow-up about how much or most of the money turned out to be wasted, funneled into the pockets of cronies, etc. These cycles continue, usually about 50 of them in parallel, without the Times ever running an article on how government spending tends to be wasteful and to result in the enrichment of cronies.



    • Tom Friedman's Apple Hunch
      Charles Duhigg and David Kocieniewski (4/12/12) showed how Apple keeps an office in Nevada to avoid millions in California state taxes...


    • When You're Cutting Social Security, 'Wealthy' Begins at $25K
      Now, you can argue about what "wealthy" is, but I think you would find pretty widespread agreement on what wealthy isn't: $50,000 a year. If you sent the New York Times an op-ed outlining your plan to balance the budget by raising taxes on "wealthy" people who make 50k a year or more, it would be put in the same pile that gets the submissions about Elvis's UFO diet. But when you're talking about cutting entitlements, if you want to call those people "wealthy," that's perfectly reasonable.


    • Israel Grants Oil Rights in Syria to Murdoch and Rothschild
      Israel has granted oil exploration rights inside Syria, in the occupied Golan Heights, to Genie Energy. Major shareholders of Genie Energy – which also has interests in shale gas in the United States and shale oil in Israel – include Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild.


    • Two Regulator Directors Are Seeking To Ban Jon Corzine From Trading Futures Ever Again


    • Capitalism Becomes Questionable


    • America’s TBTF Bank Subsidy From Taxpayers: $83 Billion Per Year
      Day after day, whenever anyone challenges the TBTF banks’ scale, they are slammed down with a mutually assured destruction message that limitations would impair profitability and weaken the country’s position in global finance. So what if you were to discover, based on Bloomberg’s calculations,


    • A User's Guide To Washington Jargon


    • Why Should Taxpayers Give Big Banks $83 Billion a Year?
      On television, in interviews and in meetings with investors, executives of the biggest U.S. banks -- notably JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon -- make the case that size is a competitive advantage. It helps them lower costs and vie for customers on an international scale. Limiting it, they warn, would impair profitability and weaken the country’s position in global finance.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • Chinese Cyberwarfare, Explained
      Last week, Obama issued an executive order on cybersecurity...


    • Pete Peterson’s “Fix the Debt” Astroturf Supergroup Detailed in New Online Resource from the Publishers of ALECexposed.org
      Madison, WI -- One of the most hypocritical corporate PR campaigns in decades is advancing inside the beltway, attempting to convince the White House, Congress, and the American people that another cataclysmic economic crisis is around the corner that will destroy our economy unless urgent action is taken. Soon this astroturf supergroup may be coming to a state near you.


    • Peterson’s Puppet Populists
      Fix the Debt is the most hypocritical corporate PR campaign in decades, an ambitious attempt to convince the country that another cataclysmic economic crisis is around the corner and that urgent action is needed. Its strategy is pure astroturf: assemble power players in business and government under an activist banner, then take the message outside the Beltway and give it the appearance of grassroots activism by manufacturing an emergency to infuse a sense of imminent crisis.

      Behind this strategy are no fewer than 127 CEOs and even more “statesmen” pushing for a “grand bargain” to draw up an austerity budget by July 4. With many firms kicking in $1 million each on top of Peterson’s $5 million in seed money, this latest incarnation of the Peterson message machine must be taken seriously.


    • Pete Peterson’s Chorus of Calamity
      Fix the Debt financier Peter G. Peterson knows a thing or two about debt: he’s an expert at creating it. Peterson founded the private equity firm Blackstone Group in 1985 with Stephen Schwarzman (who compared raising taxes to “when Hitler invaded Poland”). Private equity firms don’t contribute much to the economy; they don’t make cars or milk the cows. Too frequently, they buy firms to loot them. After a leveraged buyout, they can leave companies so loaded up with debt they are forced to immediately slash their workforce or employees’ retirement security.


    • Citizens United 2.0? Supreme Court Could Further Open Door to Money in Politics
      The U.S. Supreme Court could open the door to even more money in politics than it did in the disastrous 2010 decision Citizens United v FEC as it considers a new case challenging limits on how much wealthy donors can give directly to federal candidates and political parties. If the court sides with the challengers in McCutcheon v FEC, political power and influence in America would be further concentrated in the hands of just a few wealthy donors.


    • Torture, Lies and Hollywood
      I WATCHED “Zero Dark Thirty” not as a former F.B.I. special agent who spent a decade chasing, interrogating and prosecuting top members of Al Qaeda but as someone who enjoys Hollywood movies. As a movie, I enjoyed it. As history, it’s bunk.

      [...]

      [by] A former F.B.I. special agent who interrogated Qaeda detainees and the author of “The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda.”


    • Whistleblower Dismissed for Exposing the National Intelligence Service's Involvement in the Presidential Election
      The National Intelligence Service (NIS) dismissed an employee for informing the Democratic United Party of allegations that the NIS was manipulating public opinion prior to the presidential election.

      The agency went further and reported the employee to the prosecution on charges of violating the National Intelligence Service Act. Civic organizations are denouncing the NIS for attempting to hide the truth instead of trying to right their wrongs.




  • Censorship

    • HOWTO: EFFECTIVELY ARGUE AGAINST INTERNET CENSORSHIP IDEAS


    • Sean Wilentz: Wrong on 'Untold History,' Wrong on History in General
      A quick glance might give you the impression Wilentz's grudge is all about a seemingly obscure, dusty corner of history (Henry Wallace and the 1948 election) that doesn't affect anyone's life today one way or the other. But it's not. Wilentz is pissed off because he understands Untold History is a damning indictment of an entire worldview – that of his political patrons and all comfortable establishment historians like him. And that worldview is genuinely a matter of life and death for all Americans in 2013. If you'd prefer that the plane you're taking next week not get hit by an surface-to-air missile liberated by Islamists from Libya's stockpile, and that you not personally get torn into several large chunks at 7,000 feet, you really should pay attention to this.




  • Privacy

    • Citizens' Privacy Jeopardized in EU Parliament Committees Again
      One month after the terrible opinion vote of the “Consumers” (IMCO) Committee, MEPs from the “Industry” (ITRE) committee, and to a lesser extent from the “Employment” (EMPL) one, have also voted to weaken protection of EU citizens' privacy. In the ITRE committee, because of the support of Members of the liberal (ALDE) group, conservatives' amendments lifting restrictions on the collection, processing and resale of citizens' personal data by companies have been adopted. Before the “Legal Affairs” (JURI) committee's opinion vote1 and the main, crucial, “Civil Liberties” (LIBE) committee's report vote2, citizens should act and urge their MEPs to break away from big corporations' lobbying and to protect their fundamental right to privacy.


    • RFID Taking the Mickey?


    • As-it-happened: Surveillance-camera briefing at City Hall; West Seattle meeting(s) ahead


    • Unfriending Big Brother
      The shared nightmare of the later 20th century was totalitarian governments taking over under the pretense of offering their citizens security: "Big Brother," in Orwell's phrase. Five years ago, Cory Doctorow's novel "Little Brother" seemed to say that we could stop worrying about all that.


    • Surveillance Technology - Inventing the Future


    • Drone ‘Nightmare Scenario’ Now Has A Name: ARGUS
      The PBS series NOVA, “Rise of the Drones,” recently aired a segment detailing the capabilities of a powerful aerial surveillance system known as ARGUS-IS, which is basically a super-high, 1.8 gigapixel resolution camera that can be mounted on a drone. As demonstrated in this clip, the system is capable of high-resolution monitoring and recording of an entire city. (The clip was written about in DefenseTech and in Slate.)

      In the clip, the developer explains how the technology (which he also refers to with the apt name “Wide Area Persistent Stare”) is “equivalent to having up to a hundred Predators look at an area the size of a medium-sized city at once.”




  • Civil Rights

    • In Conversation → Exclusive interview with Craig Murray
      Craig Murray may be Britain’s most controversial former Ambassador. He was dismissed from his post in Uzbekistan in 2004 amid lurid allegations about his personal life, and medically evacuated from there after becoming dangerously ill. He concludes he was poisoned and suspects CIA involvement.


    • NDAA AND PREPPERS
      “I considered myself very fortunate to be accused of treason and not of terrorism. When The National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) was signed into law by the President on New Year’s Eve, 2012, it empowered the Armed Forces to engage in civilian law enforcement and to selectively suspend due process and habeas corpus, along with the 1st, 5th, 6th and 14th Amendment rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. In the history of America, this insidious law posed the greatest threat to civil freedoms.

      “The war on terror isn’t a war on a country or a people; it’s a war on a tactical operation. Therefore, it has no restrictions and is endless. Subsequently, anyone alleged to be a threat to the nation’s stability or security, suspected of sympathizing with or supporting a person or group that the U.S. government designates a terrorist organization or an affiliate, may be imprisoned without charge or trial eternally.


    • Fox News 'Liberal' Isn't So Sure About College Rape
      Actually, this time I think it matters more than usual. On the Five (2/19/13), a discussion of rape on college campuses included what you might call a skeptic's take: Maybe there's not really any such thing.


    • An Interrogation Center at Yale? Proposed Pentagon Special Ops Training Facility Sparks Protests


    • DAVENPORT: Upholding our anthem
      In our diverse student body, there are voices that have expressed their distaste for the American military and foreign policy. Many argue that America is imperialistic or that it uses its military for personal gain behind a façade of righteousness.


    • IS SENATOR TED CRUZ OUR NEW MCCARTHY?
      Last week, Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s prosecutorial style of questioning Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for Defense Secretary, came so close to innuendo that it raised eyebrows in Congress, even among his Republican colleagues. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, called Cruz’s inquiry into Hagel’s past associations “out of bounds, quite frankly.” The Times reported that Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, rebuked Cruz for insinuating, without evidence, that Hagel may have collected speaking fees from North Korea. Some Democrats went so far as to liken Cruz, who is a newcomer to the Senate, to a darkly divisive predecessor, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, whose anti-Communist crusades devolved into infamous witch hunts. Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, stopped short of invoking McCarthy’s name, but there was no mistaking her allusion when she talked about being reminded of “a different time and place, when you said, ‘I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such-and-such a date,’ and of course there was nothing in the pocket.”


    • The Privacy Price To Cross The Border
      It’s rare that we want strangers pawing through our digital devices, giving them the opportunity to peruse emails, private messages, photos, Twitter DMs, Facebook pokes, and all the other myriad bits of our personal life captured by the digital umbilical cords that are our smartphones. And when I say “rare,” I mean that it’s something we hope never, ever happens to us. But if you’re crossing the border, it’s something that could happen to you; it happens to thousands of people each year. It even happens to nominally-famous types.


    • Germany to probe claims of staff abuse
      A German government minister called Sunday for a thorough probe into allegations that foreign seasonal workers hired in Germany by US online retail giant Amazon were harassed and intimidated.

      Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that any proof of wrongdoing could result in serious consequences for the temporary employment agency used by Amazon.


    • Angela Merkel wades into Amazon neo-Nazi row


    • Historic oversight corrected: Film 'Lincoln' inspires look into slavery vote




  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Your EU rights as a telecoms user
      A few years ago the EU agreed a package of measures for the EU telecoms market. Those delivered important new rules and rights for people who use landlines, mobiles and the Internet – and that means you!




  • DRM

    • DRM Lawsuit Filed By Independent Bookstores Against Amazon, 'Big Six' Publishers


    • What's next for books in the digital age? Outlook unclear
      That qualification reflects the uncertainty of the times. As volumes printed on paper evolve to newer media – at some point, a printed volume seems likely to become a luxury item – we're obliged to think about what constitutes a book in the digital age. I used to think I knew the answer, but I'm no longer remotely sure. Two recent events have not cleared things up. After listening to smart and well-informed speakers at a "Future of Publishing" panel in California late last year, as well as at last week's "O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing" conference in New York City, I found myself, if anything, less certain.

      It was easy, not so long ago, to say, "This is a book, and this isn't." From the early Codex to hand-penned Bibles (created by "scribes"), Gutenberg's printing press through the late 20th century, a book was a collection of bound pages. But as has happened with other media forms, digital technology has blurred the lines we once took for granted.


    • Google Adds DRM To HTML5 With WebM Support In Chrome OS?
      DRM, also known as Digital Repression Management, is one of the most dangerous technologies with insecure media company want to use for their 'works' such as online movies, games and books. While companies like Apple succeeded in getting rid of DRM from their 'music', now HTML5 is heading in the same direction, Google has implemented DRM in its Chrome OS with support for WebM.

      Google pushed an updated for the stable channel of Chrome OS bringing it up to the version 25.0.1364.87 for Samsung Chromebooks. One of the most notable 'features' of this update is HTML5 on Chrome OS has been restricted with DRM.


    • HDCP is dead. Long live HDCP. A peek into the curious world of HDMI copy protection...




  • Intellectual Monopolies





Recent Techrights' Posts

Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part V
By Dr. Andy Farnell
 
Links 02/11/2024: Facebook Stock Falls (Soaring Debt), Apple’s Quarterly Profit Down
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/11/2024: Burnout, Emacs Bookmarks, and Smooth Migration
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 01, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 01, 2024
Facebook's Debt Has Soared to All-Time High of Nearly 50 Billion Dollars
But the corporate media pretends all is well (while mass layoffs continue and slop takes over the social control media)
Geminispace Makes It Past 4,200 Capsules on November 1st
At last!
Links 01/11/2024: Election Interferences by X/Twitter/Musk, Strava as Espionage Tool
Links for the day
The October 2024 Web Server Survey Shows a Further Collapse for Microsoft in the Servers Market
Microsoft experienced the next largest loss of 699,464 sites (-3.45%)
Gemini Links 01/11/2024: TLS Sucks, twytere.com Announced
Links for the day
Links 01/11/2024: Few Things Are Cheaper Than This Antenna and "Nothing Lasts Forever"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 31, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, October 31, 2024
R.T.O. is Another Name (or Acronym) for Voluntary Layoffs
Amazon is trying to get many workers to leave on their own
Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision (to Fake Revenue Growth by Buying Revenue) Was a Failure
Of course the mass layoffs at Microsoft aren't just a Microsoft thing
Stagnant, Shrinking Businesses and "IBM's Corporate Culture Since the Late 1980s... Over 35 Years."
Recently, IBM was using share price as a talking point, insisting the company was doing OK while tens of thousands were being laid off
Links 01/11/2024: World News, Political Catchup
Links for the day
[Meme] Probably the Worst Possible Time to Get Information From Social Control Media
Musk does not want to prevent disinformation from spreading and the same is true for Facebook and TikTok; they have their own interests
SCO's Darl McBride Dead at Age 64
There's hardly any information about it, except we know he reached bankruptcy and 3 years later he died at a relatively young age
Update on Litigation Against the European Patent Office (EPO) at the ILO Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT)
Rewards and compensation for staff have long fallen, resulting in many experienced colleagues leaving and causing further declines in quality and compliance
Gemini Links 31/10/2024: NNCP, Declutter the Web, Cost of Community
Links for the day
Links 31/10/2024: Supermicro Plummets 33%, Block and Dropbox Mass Layoffs
Links for the day
Links 31/10/2024: Environmental Anxiety, Profound Changes in Hardware Market
Links for the day
Links 30/10/2024: TSMC Concerns and North Koreans in Ukraine War
Links for the day
Facebook is for Zombies
Social control media is for fools
Microsoft Now Has $235,290,000,000 in Liabilities, They Grow Over Time in Spite of Mass Layoffs (So Expect More Layoffs)
expect more mass layoffs
Links 31/10/2024: DST Woes, War Updates, Amazon RTO Backlash
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/10/2024: Attention Economy and Gemlogs
Links for the day
Happy Halloween
October is nearly over
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 30, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 30, 2024
For the Record: Linux is Controlled by the United States of America
"This is going to make many question the openness and inclusivity of the work done by Linux Foundation"
Microsoft: XBox Hardware Revenues Down About 30% (Ignore the Buzzwords and Activision Activity Dressed Up as "XBox")
For context, in a previous quarter XBox hardware sales were down by about 50%
Cooking the Books With "Cloud" And "AI" Was Not Enough to Fool Microsoft Investors
"Microsoft Shares Drop on Disappointing Azure Growth Forecast"