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Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



  • To Get Developer Adoption Today You Have To Build a Community
    Michael Williams, BIRT Product Evangelist & Forums Manager at Actuate, outlines some key points to keep in mind for building your own open source community.


  • Cisco developing open-source block ciphers
    Cisco says it is experimenting with ciphers it claims can better protect traffic privacy in cloud systems and result in bandwidth and storage savings.


  • Cisco Releases Open Source FNR Cipher
    Cisco has released a new open-source block cipher called FNR that is designed for encrypting small chunks of data, such as MAC addresses or IP addresses. The cipher is still in the experimental stage, but Cisco has released the source code and a demo application.


  • 12 challenges for open source projects
    Open source is the combined contributions of millions of independent volunteers. This single concept brings with it a few inherent realities. In this article let's look at a few potentially concerning points about the nature of open source contributions.

    One of the major, oft-touted benefits of open source software is the diverse, large, and ever ready army of developers contributing to the project. This can be an incredibly powerful argument when demonstrating the value of open source to a corporation. However, the larger the community and the bigger the pool of contributors the more opportunity there exists for problems or potential security risks.


  • Events



    • Where’s the money in open source?’ - limited places for exclusive event
      Open source is a growing and arguably successful strategy for making our corner of the world a better place. While altruism motivates many individuals and some companies to make things open source, others are in it for the money. On the other hand, many companies use or are forced to use open source for its perceived cost-saving value, often disregarding its risks. So what’s the business case for open source?




  • Web Browsers



  • SaaS/Big Data



    • ownCloud Conf coming... And REWE offers a cheap way to get there!
      ownCloud is organizing an ownCloud conference/hackathon at the Technische Universität Berlin this August. And as Steffen Lindner shared on twitter, the German REWE supermarket is offering cheap tickets to go to Berlin from all over Germany during the event!


    • OpenStack speaking opportunities, design guide book sprint, and more


    • Cloud trends point to PaaS, open source as the future
      As the cloud market matures, customer behavior is changing and questions remain about where the true value of the technology will lie in the future.

      A group of industry professionals tackled a variety of topics as part of a panel discussion on the future of the cloud last week at a Cloud Standards Customer Council symposium. They discussed the impact of savvy customers and looked ahead at trends around burgeoning cloud services, vendor lock-in issues and the role of open source.


    • Debate: How Many Open Source Platforms Are Enough?
      “When it gets there, we will support the OpenStack API,” Mikos relented.

      Dholakia noted that CloudStack, like Eucalyptus and OpenStack, has long maintained a “compatibility layer for the Amazon API precisely because, as business folk, we follow the dollars.”


    • GoGrid CEO John Keagy Building Coalition For Open Source Cloud Orchestration Engine
      Over the last several months, GoGrid CEO John Keagy has been quietly holding meetings with partners and rivals alike to share an ambitious plan.

      His brainchild has the potential to shake up the entire cloud services industry by uniting some of its largest players around an open source project: a universal cloud orchestration engine called OpenOrchestration.org.




  • Databases



  • CMS



    • 5 Factors to Help You Choose an Open-Source CMS
      Being able to present that content effectively depends on having the right foundation for your site, and that means choosing a content management system (CMS) that will best match up with your site’s intended purpose.




  • Healthcare



    • What's behind the success of free and open source healthcare?
      I ask more questions in this survey of free and open source healthcare developers for my thesis project: "The state of open source electronic medical records: An anthropology study." My goal is to better understand the characteristics, motivations, and knowledge background of healthcare developers in order to determine what is behind the success of free/open source software in healthcare.




  • BSD



    • Clang Is Already Working On "Highly Experimental" C++1z Support
      With LLVM developers already having lots of C++1y / C++14 support implemented, they have begun working on "highly experimental" support for C++1z -- the next major revision to the C++ programming language anticipated for release in 2017.

      C++14/C++1y should be officially released this year as a small update over C++11, for which LLVM/Clang (and GCC) already have decent support. In fact, with the current Clang 3.4 stable release all of the key C++11 functionality should be in place.




  • Public Services/Government



  • Licensing



    • Red Hat, Joyent, and others break down licensing barriers
      Open source is an environment where no permission is required to use the source code; the flexibility to do as you wish is already provided. The open source license creates this permissionless environment, and developers are able to gather around a source code commons to meet their individual needs without having to seek approval from anywhere. Requiring a CLA to contribute immediately obstructs this goal.




  • Openness/Sharing



  • Programming



    • Should Everyone Learn to Code?
      "I do think that everybody should learn to code, at least on a basic level," said Linux Rants blogger Mike Stone. "It would teach them to break down a problem into small, manageable portions and solve each of those parts logically." It's actually "less about the code itself than solving a problem logically," he said. "That's a skill that I think everybody should have."






Leftovers



  • Hardware



    • Intel Expresses Interest In AMD's Mantle API
      Intel has asked AMD about access to their Mantle technology for experimenting with this graphics API alternative to Direct3D and OpenGL.

      Intel and AMD confirmed to PCWorld that the two companies were communicating about Mantle cooperation but "[Intel] remains committed to what it calls open standards like Microsoft's DirectX API."




  • Security

    • 3 UX Mistakes That Make Sites More Hackable
      Do you know that the URL bar in your browser is a potential security hole? I didn't either. I barely look at the thing unless I'm punching in a search term. But according to Drew Davidson, vice president of design at ÄKTA, that thin strip of UI chrome is a little keyhole that a hacker can use to infiltrate a company's website.


    • Canonical Closes a Few PHP Vulnerabilities in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS


    • Google's BoringSSL Aspires to Be the Hassle-Free Version of OpenSSL


    • Google Forks Open Source OpenSSL Web Security Code
      In the wake of Heartbleed, there may soon be as many variants of the open source OpenSSL software for encrypting Web traffic as there are Pokemon characters—or something like that. A few days ago, Google (GOOG) became the latest organization to announce its own OpenSSL spin, which it's calling BoringSSL.


    • High Risk Security Hole Discovered In Qualcomm's GPU Driver
      Rob Clark, the developer employed by Red Hat who has near single-handedly been developing Freedreno as a reverse-engineered, open-source GPU driver for Qualcomm's Adreno graphics hardware, made a big discovery. Rob was playing around with the Amazon Fire TV that boasts a Qualcomm SoC and runs on the Qualcomm proprietary graphics driver when discovering a "high risk" security issue.


    • Google's Nest thermostat hacked with Linux -- backdoor enabled on device
      Sometimes it feels like the whole world went and got crazy. It's true, with every passing day, all types of newfangled gadgets, doodads and wild ideas are released. Google is at the forefront, with Google Glass, self-driving cars and Nest internet-connected thermostats. Truth be told, I'm hardly a Luddite, but I am wary of having a computer and camera strapped to my head or having my home connected to the internet.
    • Study: 7 in 10 concerned about security of Internet-of-Things
      The Internet-of-Things is a thing. If you haven't heard about it yet, get ready because we're in the early stages of an explosion of technology that will connect, monitor, and in some cases share almost every aspect of our lives. Fortinet conducted a survey of consumers to find out what people think about the security and privacy concerns of the Internet-of-Things.


    • The creed behind Cisco's IoT evangelism




  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression



    • Polish FM’s Anti-US Outburst Reflects Shrinking American Clout
    • Opinion: The Worthless US? - by Gwynne Dyer
      “The Polish-American alliance is worthless, even harmful, as it gives Poland a false sense of security. It's bullshit.” – Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski, secretly taped in early 2014. Discuss. Use only one side of the paper.

      The publication of Radoslav Sikorski’s comments in the Polish weekly magazine Wprost will not help his bid to become the European Union’s foreign policy chief, but there are senior foreign policy officials elsewhere who might be tempted to make similar remarks (though perhaps not in alcohol-fuelled conversations in well-known restaurants where they might be overheard). And there are those in Washington who are saying the same thing.

      [...]

      Despite the general US obsession with the “terrorist threat”, Obama may actually realise how little the outcome of the current turmoil in Iraq really matters to American security, and Iraq’s oil, post-fracking, is not even a consideration any more. No core American national interests here. So the US cavalry will not be riding over the hill to the rescue.


    • Justice Department Releases Memo That Uses 9/11 Law to Justify U.S. Drone Killings
      A secret government memo was released Monday that reveals that the Obama administration used the war against al-Qaida to justify the use of drones to kill Americans suspected of terrorism overseas.


    • Five Takeaways from the Newly Released Drone Memo
      This morning, a federal appeals court released a government memorandum, dated July 16, 2010, authorizing both the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen, in Yemen.

      The publication of the Office of Legal Counsel memo comes, as the court noted, after a lengthy delay. The ACLU (along with the New York Times) has been fighting for this memo since we first asked for it in a Freedom of Information Act request submitted in October 2011.

      Today's release by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is an important victory for transparency. But while the memo advances the public record in significant ways, it still does not answer many key questions about the government's claimed authority to kill U.S. citizens outside of active battlefields. Here are several important takeaways from today's release.


    • U.S. memo justifying drone killings is released
      The 41-page memo — whose contents had previously been summarized and released piecemeal — was heavily redacted for national security reasons, with several entire pages and other passages whited out.
    • US justified drone killings by citing al-Qaida law
      The Obama administration justified using drones to kill Americans suspected of terrorism overseas by citing the war against al-Qaida and by saying a surprise attack against an American in a foreign land would not violate the laws of war, according to a previously secret government memorandum.
    • Memo outlines justification for drone strikes on citizens
    • Long-sought secret US memo on lethal drone strike released
    • Memo details U.S. justifications for drone killings


    • US cited controversial law in decision to kill American citizen by drone


    • So that’s why they kept the drone kill memo secret
      Alternatively, Barron suggests, a government gets to use force if doing so is part of a war. This, of course, ignores the UN Charter and the Kellogg Briand Pact and the illegality of wars, as well as the novelty of claiming that a war exists everywhere on earth forever and ever. (None of Barron’s arguments justifies governmental murder on US soil any less than off US soil.)

      In essence, Barron seems to argue, the people who wrote the laws were thinking about private citizens and terrorists, not the government (which, somehow, cannot be a terrorist), and therefore it’s OK for the government to violate the laws.

      Then there’s the problem of Congressional authorization of war, or lack thereof, which Barron gets around by pretending that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force was as broad as the White House pretends rather than worded to allow targeting only those responsible for the 9/11 attacks.


    • Senators Seek More Information About Targeted Killings With Drones
      “I believe every American has the right to know when their government believes it is allowed to kill them, and the public release of this memo is a positive step toward reducing the secrecy that surrounds this question,” Sen. Ron Wyden said in a statement. “However, there are many important questions that this memo does not address.”


    • Release of Legal Memo Justifying Anwar Al-Awlaki’s Killing Paves Way for Disclosure of More Records


    • The Release of Obama's Drone Memo Doesn't Change the Complex History of U.S. Drone Policy
      In May of 2013, Attorney General Eric Holder published a letter in response to requests from Senator Patrick Leahey for more information on the justification of targeted killings, as it applies to American Citizens. Holder wrote that Americans could be targeted "in a foreign country against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al Qa'ida or its associated forces, and who is actively engaged in planning to kill Americans, in the following circumstances: (1) the U.S. government has determined, after a thorough and careful review, that the individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States; (2) capture is not feasible; and (3) the operation would be conducted in a manner consistent with applicable law of war principles."


    • Obama cites Israeli Supreme Court to justify killing Americans without trial
      Below that, the memo cites Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) v. Government of Israel, a 2006 Israeli Supreme Court decision that ruled that the targeted assassinations of hundreds of Palestinians since the start of the second intifada were legal and did not violate international law.


    • Minneapolis lawyers helped expose drone killing memo


    • There is more to the Iraq crisis than meets the eye
      According to many strategic experts and journalists like Seymour Hersh, the ISIS, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (who was released from a US captivity in 2007 or 2009 is a CIA asset), are basically covert operations of US-Saudi intelligence agencies. If true, once again we see the evidence of CIA-Mossad creating terror organisations to achieve their strategic objectives, which would prove that the US and its allies deploy terror to attain their strategic objectives.


    • Ahmed Chalabi Pushed For The US Invasion Of Iraq. Will He Be The Country’s Next PM?
      Ahmed Chalabi rolled into a displaced persons camp in northern Iraq on Saturday with his entourage, and held an impromptu press conference that looked very much like a campaign stop.
    • 'It fell on deaf ears': CIA and MI6 knew about ISIS assault in advance, failed to react


    • ISIS in Iraq stinks of CIA/NATO ‘dirty war’ op
      The very details of the ISIS military success in the key Iraqi oil center, Mosul, are suspect. According to well-informed Iraqi journalists, ISIS overran the strategic Mosul region, site of some of the world’s most prolific oilfields, with barely a shot fired in resistance. According to one report, residents of Tikrit reported remarkable displays of “soldiers handing over their weapons and uniforms peacefully to militants who ordinarily would have been expected to kill government soldiers on the spot.”


    • US moral atrocities in Syria: sending children die for free education promise
      Syrian rebel groups are recruiting 15-year-old children to battle against the government forces after promising them a free education, says the Human Rights Watch report, released on June, 23. Worse still, those groups are strongly backed by the US and Israel, US political commentator told Radio VR.


    • Obama's 'drone memo' is finally public. Now show us the library of secret law
      To this administration, transparency comes in the form of deleted pages. But too much of America's legal excuse for killing an American citizen remains classified


    • “Civilian casualties” authorized under secret US drone-strike memo
      US justifies killings as acts of war despite civilian deaths, global precedent.


    • The DOJ memo confirms that the government’s drone killing program is built on gross distortions of law.
      The DOJ memo confirms that the government’s drone killing program is built on gross distortions of law.


    • The Obama drone memo is a brazen executive power grab


    • A Thin Rationale for Drone Killings
      Instead, the memo turns out to be a slapdash pastiche of legal theories — some based on obscure interpretations of British and Israeli law — that was clearly tailored to the desired result. Perhaps the administration held out so long to avoid exposing the thin foundation on which it based such a momentous decision.


    • Progressives jab Obama for drone memo redactions
      The first 11 pages of the 41-page document were redacted. The Justice Department's justification for a CIA strike of al-Awlaki was also heavily redacted.
    • Ethical aspect of drone strikes
      Sitting in front of screens pressing kill buttons drone pilots often don’t have enough knowledge about what is going on in the area they target and what they are doing to the people in that zone. This removes an important moral barrier making killing as easy as in a computer game. As technology rapidly develops, new drones are getting better surveillance cameras and operators have opportunity to watch their targets better. This restores the crucial moral constraint to a certain extent. At the same time technology development is fraught with another danger which is higher automation of many killer robots including UAVs, says Mark Coeckelbergh, a professor of philosophy at the University of Twente, the Netherlands.


    • Drones: targeted killing tantamount to assassination


    • Pakistan military air strikes kill hundreds, including civilians, over past six months
      A wave of air strikes by the Pakistani military in the country’s tribal northwest has killed at least 291 people, including a minimum 16 civilians, over the past six months, a Bureau investigation has found.


    • South African mining firm is the first to purchase riot control drone
      The first purchase orders have been made for the Skunk Riot Control Copter, a terrifying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with paintballs, pepper spray and blinding flashlights.


    • Investigation Reveals Crashing Drones


    • Israeli UAV crashes onto roof of private home in Hebron


    • Anti-drone Tech Firm Receives Death Threats, Confrontational Emails
      Ciesielka said, "We expect the capability of this drone detection system to evolve over time, like any technology. We at DDC need testers to provide valid feedback. All technology has to start somewhere.


    • 'Peace President' Obama paradoxically made the world more dangerous [revisionism by GOP]


    • Tony Blair, Hillary Rodham Clinton among those scheduled to speak at Aspen Ideas Festival
      Blair and Clinton are both set to speak at the festival on Monday, along with former CIA Director David Petraeus.


    • North Korea Takes Aim at Assassination Flick
      Franco and Rogen play “celebrity journalists” who land an interview with Kim, which prompts the CIA to recruit them in an assassination plot.


    • Kim Jung Un: Film about my assassination is desperate
    • Death of the Masked Men
      It is unseemly that the quiet passing of John Hadden – an American who tried to avert Israel’s 1967 attack on Egypt, and then keep it from escalating – is so utterly overshadowed by laudatory obituaries for the Israeli he exposed looting weapons-grade nuclear material from Pennsylvania.


    • This Is One of the Craziest Fox News Rants Ever, and It's Not Hannity or O'Reilly


    • When Fox becomes Conspiracy Theory Central
      It’s embarrassing to admit when obvious click-bait headlines work like a charm, but when BuzzFeed ran the headline, “Is This The Craziest Rant A Fox News Host Has Ever Done?” it proved hard to resist. After all, we’ve seen some pretty crazy rants over the years.


    • A hack returns: Ed Klein’s new Benghazi bombshell is garbage
      There’s a certain rhythm to politics, an element of predictability that is as reliable as the tides, or a finely made Swiss timepiece. Among these imperturbable political rhythms is the hackery of Ed Klein: Whenever Hillary Clinton is in the news, it’s guaranteed that Klein will pop up with a salacious and poorly sourced book attacking the former first lady, and that it will get a lot of attention from conservatives who should know better than to trust Klein but don’t actually care.


    • Trouble in the two-party system
      That’s in contrast to the relatively stable competition of the last 20 years, when Democrats have won four of six presidential elections and Republicans won House majorities in eight of 10 congressional contests, always by less than landslide margins. The parties’ stands on issues have remained familiar from one cycle to the next.


    • Rand Paul vs. Dick Cheney
      Advocates of a noninterventionist foreign policy and the restoration of civil liberties in America haven’t had a reason to be optimistic in the past decade or so – but that is rapidly changing.


    • Netanyahu Can Disinform on Iran Just as Well as Iraq
      The problem might be how "well-briefed" David Gregory is. Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program; there are some allegations that the country may have done some research that was geared towards eventual weapons development, but those allegations remain just that–allegations.


    • Greta Van Susteren And Bret Baier Defend “Softball” Hillary Clinton Interview
      A few days ago, Hillary Clinton was interviewed on Fox News by Greta Van Susteren and Bret Baier. Many viewers were expecting a half hour of painful questions and accusations. After all, Van Susteren is the Fox News host who slammed comedian Jon Stewart, grilled congressional candidate Mike Dickinson, and came head to head with fellow Fox News anchor Erick Erickson.


    • Glenn Greenwald: People Say Fox News’ Obama Criticism Puts Soldiers ‘in Danger’
      During an interview this afternoon on the NSA revelations leaked by Edward Snowden last year, Shepard Smith and Glenn Greenwald got into a tense exchange over how Fox News’ coverage of President Obama impacts U.S. soldiers.

      “Do you spend any time worrying that people might have died in this?” Smith asked Greenwald.


    • Glenn Greenwald on Uprising
      Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald tells the story of whistleblower Edward Snowden in a new book called No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the US Surveillance State. Greenwald is also the author of How Would a Patriot Act? and With Liberty and Justice for Some. He is a former constitutional law and civil rights litigator. And, since he began breaking the stories of the NSA’s mass surveillance he has taken on a new role as a founding editor of the new media outlet, The Intercept.


    • US Congress Should Sponsor Snowden’s Return - Former Whistleblower




  • Transparency Reporting



  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • Journalism Without Information
      I thought of that when I saw the new issue of Time magazine (6/30/14), which featured a short item on Kevin McCarthy, the new majority leader in Congress. As such, he is someone who certainly will be wielding enormous political power.


    • Scott Walker Says the Dark Money Probe Is 'Over,' but He's Wrong
      The federal judge who halted the state investigation, Rudolph Randa, wrote an opinion so detached from First Amendment precedent, Wisconsin law, and the facts of the case that many legal experts believe that it will be reversed by the Seventh Circuit appellate court reviewing it. (Plus, Randa's May 6 ruling was a preliminary ruling, not a final decision.) Other legal experts think Randa should not even be involved in the case, given that he is a regular attendee at "judicial junkets" funded by the Bradley and Koch foundations, which are closely tied to Walker and the group that filed the federal lawsuit, Wisconsin Club for Growth.


    • This Is the New Stat Facebook Should Be Worrying About
      “A solid majority of American adults say that social media have no influence at all on their purchasing decisions — suggesting that the advertising may be reaching smaller segments of the market, or that the influence on consumers is indirect or goes unnoticed,” Gallup concluded. The company said people are more likely to consult in-store displays, television commercials, mail catalogs and magazines than a brand’s Facebook or Twitter account when making a purchasing decision.




  • Censorship



    • Russia asks Twitter to block a dozen accounts
      Russia has asked Twitter to block access to a dozen accounts it deems "extremist", the head of the country's telecoms watchdog said, as Moscow seeks greater control over internet sites based beyond its borders.




  • Privacy



  • Rights



    • Lord Byron, Terrorist
      The dreadful violence and destruction the West has inflicted and promoted in recent years in its efforts to gain control of the mineral resources of the Middle East continues to play out. Those who see communities with which they identify abroad engaged in military conflict will always produce a small number of people going to join the fight. This is in no sense unusual, and in no sense a threat to ordinary citizens in the UK. The link to terrorism here is entirely a fiction. The unfortunate thing is that the mainstream media allows no outlet for people to mock its false assertions and point out its sinister agenda.


    • CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou Advocates for Prison Sentencing Reform in New ‘Letter from Loretto’
      Reflecting on mass incarceration in the United States, which he has experienced firsthand during his time in prison at the Federal Correctional Institution of Loretto, Pennsylvania, CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou advocates for prison sentencing reform in his latest letter from jail.

      Firedoglake has been publishing “Letters from Loretto” by Kiriakou, who was the first member of the CIA to publicly acknowledge that torture was official US policy under the George W. Bush administration. He was convicted in October 2012 after he pled guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) when he confirmed the name of an officer involved in the CIA’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation (RDI) program to a reporter. He was sentenced in January 2013, and reported to prison on February 28, 2013.


    • Back to Black: Interrogation Sites on the High Seas


    • Senate's CIA Torture Report Awaiting Final White House Approval
      The release of a long-delayed, $40 million Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's "rendition, detention and interrogation" program during the George W. Bush administration is pending final approval from the Obama White House, Politico reported.
    • CIA report now on to White House
      The Obama administration is inching toward declassification of the Senate’s report on the CIA’s controversial interrogation techniques.

      The Central Intelligence Agency has finished redacting sensitive information from a 500-page summary of the 6,800-page report that the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to make public in April, Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in an interview Monday night.


    • The growing Police State in America


    • Police violence and law enforcement militarization in the greater borderlands
      Slightly more than three months after the police shooting of homeless camper James Boyd catapulted Albuquerque into the international spotlight, activists returned to the streets to advance their movement against police brutality.

      On a blistering Summer Solstice Day, whose blazing mid-day sky was oddly crested by a half-moon, more than 200 people marched up Central Avenue near the University of New Mexico chanting “Justice Now” and “They say justified, we say homicide!”


    • Opinion: It’s Time for Civilian Oversight of OPD
      Based on the most recent report issued by federal monitor Robert Warshaw, the Oakland Police Department will most likely require months of additional monitoring by the court — after eleven years of failure to comply with the Negotiated Settlement Agreement (NSA). No other city in the United States has required this length of time to bring its police department into compliance with a federal consent decree.


    • BRUCE: America’s expanding police state
      We all know about the scope of National Security Agency (NSA) spying. It's fair to say at this point in our lives that the notion of privacy is all but dead and gone. However, it didn't start there. In her book, Mrs. Chumley takes us on a ride through history, reminding us of the original intentions of the Founding Fathers versus the assault on the original design by "21st century realities."


    • For The Last Time, Freedom Isn’t Free


    • 2014 Pioneer Award Nominations Are Now Open
      Nominations are now open for EFF’s 23rd Annual Pioneer Awards, to be presented this fall in San Francisco. EFF established the Pioneer Awards in 1992 to recognize leaders on the electronic frontier who are extending freedom and innovation in the realm of information technology. Nominations are open until midnight on Wednesday, July 2. Nominate the next Pioneer Award winner today!




  • Internet/Net Neutrality



    • New Open Source Firmware Encourages Wi-Fi Sharing
      The "Open Wireless Movement" was devised years ago by the EFF, Free Press, Mozilla and others to advocate for the sharing of broadband via publicly-accessible Wi-Fi hotspots. At the upcoming Hackers on Planet Earth conference, the group says they're going to unveil new "Open Wireless Router" firmware that simplifies the process of safely and securely offering free Wi-Fi without hindering your own network.


    • What Everyone Gets Wrong in the Debate Over Net Neutrality
      The only trouble is that, here in the year 2014, complaints about a fast-lane don’t make much sense. Today, privileged companies—including Google, Facebook, and Netflix—already benefit from what are essentially internet fast lanes, and this has been the case for years. Such web giants—and others—now have direct connections to big ISPs like Comcast and Verizon, and they run dedicated computer servers deep inside these ISPs. In technical lingo, these are known as “peering connections” and “content delivery servers,” and they’re a vital part of the way the internet works.




  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • TTIP Update XXX
      As well as all the varied developments I discussed in the previous TTIP update, plenty has been happening recently in the hotly-contested area of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has published another of its informative reviews of developments in the ISDS field [.pdf]. This edition is particularly welcome since it focuses on the interaction between the EU and US.


    • Copyrights



      • UK ISPs Quietly Block More Torrent Site Proxies
        Several UK Internet providers have quietly added a list of new domains to their secretive anti-piracy blocklists. TorrentFreak was able to confirm that several popular torrent site proxies were added over the past weekend. However, the blocked domains have been quickly replaced by new ones, continuing the cat-and-mouse game that never seems to end.


      • The rules for using images from the internet
        Think it's fine use downloaded images in your own website, poster or publication? You could be breaking copyright law... We show you how to use images legally and find free images that are available for commercial use.








Recent Techrights' Posts

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The "silent" layoffs continue until the end of this month if not longer
[Meme] Just Blame Whoever Takes Advantage of Your Back Doors
The media will even sympathise with malicious and/or incompetent companies if they blame "Russia"
This Remembrance Sunday We Must Also Remember That Some 'Security Companies' Want More Cyberwar
Some companies profit from the cyberwar; hence, their objective is not to end the war
Non-Tech Enshittification: Post Office Perils and the Czech is in the Mail
We still hope that the parcel will be recovered (maybe at customs) or will be sent back some day
[Meme] Don't Try This at Home (But a Datacentre Might be OK)
Quit outsourcing to Social Control Media
There's No Free Lunch in Video Hosting
they say there's no free lunch; if you aren't paying for hosting and serving of "your" videos, you're not the customer and those videos, once uploaded, aren't quite yours anymore
Parroting Microsoft Talking Points About Computer Security
This past summer Richard M. Stallman (RMS) openly complained in a public event that the term "security" had come to mean all sorts of ridiculous things, including the very oppose of real security
Visits to OpenAI's Site Plunged by More Than 67% in the Past Half a Year Alone
'autocorrect on steroids' is mostly worthless
Pocock Running for Office Again
Pocock dealt with all sorts of 'politics' in Free software and, unlike many politicians, he has a background in science and technology
[Meme] Turning the EPO Into a Speculation Bank, Monetising It by Breaking the Law, Playing Real Estate (and Mortgage) Financial Games
travesty
Real Estate and Workplace Problems at the European Patent Office, Which Grants Fake Patents Under the Guise of "Law"
Report on the 54th meeting of the Munich LOHSEC of 20 June 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 08, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 08, 2024
Links 09/11/2024: Politics, Climate, and Why Physical Cash is Crucial
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/11/2024: Minerals, Rants, and Maintaining Planetary Balance
Links for the day
Plagiarism by Bots: Guardian Digital, Inc (linuxsecurity.com) Still Creates Fake Articles About "Linux"
100% fake
[Teaser] [Meme] New Ways to Impoverish Patent Examiners (Entrusted to Block Unjust Monopolies or Monopoly Applications)
Coming tomorrow!
Apple Tax funds: railways, defective concrete blocks in Ireland's North and West
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Daniel Pocock, Nomination for Ireland, Dublin Bay South, General Election 2024
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 08/11/2024: TikTok Bans and Clownflare Issues/Perils
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/11/2024: RPS, O.D.I.N., and RSS in Yahoo News
Links for the day
Donald Trump as Censor in Chief Can Now Leverage Censorship Companies and Fake Protection Disguised as 'Security'
Centralised CAs were trouble all along
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part VI
By Dr. Andy Farnell
A Death of a News Industry
A theme we explored thrice today
Deciphering Centralised CAs and Why Their Demise Should be a Goal
Encryption in transmission is good; but who controls the key exchange and certification/authentication/validation?
Links 08/11/2024: Strikes, Recessions, and Slowdowns
Links for the day
"Many Applications Labelled as "Cybersecurity" and Given a Veneer of Legitimacy Are Really "Weaponised" and Abusive Code"
New from Dr. Andy Farnell
[Teaster] [Meme] New Ways of Wrecking (NWoW)
The EPO
Gateway for News and Blogs
In the long run, this site and its sister site (less overlap between them now) should hopefully become a popular destination for people who look for information, not chaff
Going Even Faster
We hope the site will be faster soon
Psychopaths Who Reaffirm Our Work's Value
Psychopaths and sociopaths lack empathy, so they're willing to go very far and stoop as low as they deem necessary
[Meme] How Low Can You Go at the European Patent Office?
Not just in terms of patent quality
More Cuts/End to Benefits for EPO Workers (Europe's Working Conditions Incompatible With the European Patent Convention)
"The Office is now reviving it but plans to introduce new cuts on benefits"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 07, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, November 07, 2024
Security Advisory: Debian falls for social engineering hacks
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 08/11/2024: US Election, RetroChallenge 2024, and More
Links for the day