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Links 1/5/2015: HP Ubuntu Laptops, Arch Linux 2015.05.01





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • May 2015 Issue of Linux Journal: Cool Projects


  • 6 Ways to Futureproof Your Linux Infrastructure
    Future-proofing isn't just about investing in the latest hardware and buying into the latest technology to keep your IT team happy. There are sound business reasons to do it and sensible, cost effective strategies.


  • Desktop



  • Server



    • 5 must-watch Docker videos
      When you're interested in learning a new technology, sometimes the best way is to watch it in action—or at the very least, to have someone explain it one-on-one. Unfortunately, we don't all have a personal technology coach for every new thing out there, so we turn to the next best thing: a great video.


    • Univention Corporate Server for everyone
      This week saw the official launch of the new Core Edition of Univention Corporate Server. With this move, we are now making it possible to employ our successful Open Source system for server and IT management free of charge in companies too.


    • Using ARM chips and Linux, Barcelona center dreams of being 'Airbus of supercomputing'
      In the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), big data isn't a new or revolutionary concept. The center, located on the campus of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, has been managing huge volumes of data for companies from fields as diverse as energy and pharmaceuticals since 2005, helping them cut costs and boost returns.






  • Kernel Space



    • Btrfs RAID Testing Begins With Linux 4.0
      This time around I'm doing the Btrfs RAID benchmarks on four traditional HDDs (though separately also been working on Linux RAID tests on a 6 SAS drive server). For this testing I picked up for WD Green 1TB 3.5-inch, SATA 6Gb/s, 64MB Cache WD10EZRX drives. At Amazon they cost only $52 USD a piece and should be interesting to test in a four-disk RAID array.


    • Lucid Sleep Support Is Being Worked On For The Upstream Linux Kernel
      Chrome OS supports "Lucid Sleep", which is a mode of allowing the system to carry out various tasks while the system is in a low-power mode or even suspended, and similar to Microsoft InstantGo. This feature, which allows for tasks like checking of new emails or instant messages while the system is suspended, is being worked on for (hopeful) eventual upstreaming into the mainline Linux kernel.




  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



    • Is Xfce Still a Lightweight Distribution?
      In February 2015, Xfce 4.12 was released. The first Xfce release in nearly three years, it was greeted with enthusiasm. Yet at the same time, a few users questioned whether the new version was as light on memory as earlier releases.

      It's a good question -- and by that comment, I mean, as people usually do, that it has no clear answer. Some indicators suggest that Xfce remains as efficient as ever, while others suggest Xfce is not much different from other popular desktop environments, such as KDE.

      [...]

      KDE Plasma 4.14 has only 1 megabyte unallocated, which means that, until recently, Xfce really did use less RAM. Nor has that greatly changed, since Plasma 5.2 has 8 unallocated megabytes. Despite KDE's recent efforts to reduce memory requirements, it trails the new release of Xfce. Running free - m with watch confirms that, as applications are opened and closed, Xfce 4.12 consistently uses less memory.

      However, these results tell only part of the story. The fact that KDE Plasma 5.2 opens with 371 megabytes of buffered and cache memory compared to Xfce's 4.12 suggests that Plasma should open applications faster than Xfce -- and that does seem to be the case. For instance, while Xfce 4.12 takes six seconds apiece to open Firefox and LibreOffice, Plasma 5.2 takes just over four seconds apiece. Apparently, what matters is not just the amount of free memory, but how the allocated memory is used.


    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt



      • digiKam Recipes 4.7.1 Released
        A new release of digiKam Recipes is ready for your reading pleasure. This version features completely rewritten material on using digiKam to emulate various photographic effects (including the new recipe on how to create a faded vintage look). The book features two new recipes: Geotag Photos with Geofix and Update the LensFun Database. As always, the new release includes minor updates, fixes and tweaks.




    • GNOME Desktop/GTK





  • Distributions



    • New Releases



      • Exton|OS 64 bit with Mate and kernel 3.19.0-14-exton :: build 150428
        Exton|OS build 150428 is based on Ubuntu 15.04 64 bit (released April 23, 2015) and Debian Jessie (Debian 8). Exton|OS’s ISO file is a ISO-hybrid, which means that it can very easily be transferred (copied) to a USB pen drive. You can then even run Exton|OS from the USB stick and save all your system changes on the stick. I.e. you will enjoy persistence! I’ve found two scripts which make the installation to USB very simple. The scripts are quite ingenious. My tests show that they work flawlessly on USB installations of all normal Ubuntu systems. Read my INSTRUCTION how to use the scripts.




    • Screenshots/Screencasts



    • Arch Family



    • Red Hat Family



      • PHP version 5.5.25RC1 and 5.6.9RC1
        RPM of PHP version 5.6.9RC1 as SCL are available in remi-test repository for Fedora 19-22 and Enterprise Linux 6-7.

        RPM of PHP version 5.5.25RC1 as SCL are available in remi-test repository for Fedora 21-22 and Enterprise Linux 6-7.


      • Red Hat Director Sells $5,370,579.20 in Stock (RHT)


      • Fedora



        • Fedora Store, University initiative, GSoC, and Fedora conferences
          Clearly an item which deserves top billing! The first batch of Fedora t-shirts sold out quickly in most sizes, and there was a little bit of trouble reordering — but now they’re back in stock in unisex and also in women’s cut. Also, since the actual store provider’s URL isn’t very memorable, we’ve created the shortcut http://store.fedoraproject.org/ — just click that and you’ll go straight to the Fedora swag.






    • Debian Family



      • New Debian leader wants to improve communications
        Back in 2013, Lucas Nussbaum was hardly a month old in the job when Wheezy was released. And this month, Neil McGovern took over on 17 April and saw version 8.0, otherwise known as Jessie, released eight days later.


      • Debian GNU/Hurd 2015 released!


      • When Official Debian Support Ends, Who Will Save You?
        With a new version of Debian recently released, it's an exciting time for users who long for newer applications and cutting-edge features. But for some users, the new release is a cause for concern. A new release means their current installation is reaching the end of its lifecycle, and for one reason or another, they can't make the switch. And, this leaves them at risk from a variety of security risks and crippling bugs, but there is hope in the shape of an independent project.


      • Debian 8: Linux’s most reliable distro makes its biggest change since 1993
        Debian 8—nicknamed "Jessie" after the cowgirl character in Toy Story 2 and 3—debuted last week, but it feels overdue. The release was in development within the Testing channel for quite a while, and, if you recall, Debian Linux consists of three major development branches: Stable, Testing, and Unstable. In order for a new iteration of Debian to officially go public, work must progress through each stage (starting in Unstable, ending in Stable). But it wasn't until the official feature freeze for this release in November 2014 that the contents of Testing really became what you'll actually find in Debian 8 today.


      • Derivatives



        • Canonical/Ubuntu



          • Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) Reached End of Life on April 30, 2015
            On April 30, Canonical, through Adam Conrad, sent an email to all Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) users notifying them that the operating system is no longer supported starting with May 1, 2015.


          • New Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities Patched in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
            Canonical announced today, April 30, that new kernel updates are available for its Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) operating systems.


          • Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet Review
            By the time we had a chance to review Ubuntu 15.04, the final release date had passed and it had already shipped. But it’s important to point out that our final review is based on a Beta release. However, the tasks that we threw at the latest iteration of Ubuntu, were easily completed without any major issues.

            The boot process of Ubuntu 15.04 was great. Even when running the operating system in Live mode, it is so responsive that you could be forgiven for thinking that it was physically installed on real metal. Read below, for a bit more of an in-depth glance at what we think of Ubuntu 15.04.


          • Canonical unveils AMD-based HP Ubuntu laptops for XP laggards
            Canonical has partnered with AMD, HP and Ebuyer.com to launch three Ubuntu laptops designed for business buyers.

            The €£200 HP Probook 255, €£250 Probook 355 and €£300 ProBook 455 will be made available for pre-order on Ebuyer.com at the end of May.


          • HP has another go at low-cost Linux laptops


          • Flavours and Variants











  • Devices/Embedded



    • Linksys WRT1200AC: A fast, full-featured, open-source-friendly router
      Sometimes, less is truly more. When it comes to the Linksys WRT1200AC, the little brother to the WRT1900AC router introduced last year, it might be best to say less is just enough.

      The 1200AC is a slimmed-down version of the 1900AC, with two fewer antennas and around $100 knocked off the list price. Despite these reductions, it's no less versatile or powerful. All of the good aspects of the 1900AC -- the expandable hardware, the feature-packed firmware, the convenient setup process -- are still here.


    • Linux-ready i.MX6 SBC is loaded with wireless options
      Forlinx launched an SBC that runs Linux or Android on a quad-core i.MX6, and offers extras like WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G, and an image sensor interface.

      China-based Forlinx Embedded Technology first appeared on LinuxGizmos last October when it released an OK335xS-II SBC with a TI Sitara AM3354 SoC. Like the OK335xS-II, the new i.MX6-based, sandwich-style SBC embeds a soldered COM, which appears to be available separately. The COM is slightly larger than the previous model, at 60mm square, and the baseboard is a sizable 190 x 130mm.


    • ARM widens the appeal of its IoT OS with mbed client that runs on Linux
      The race for the hearts and minds of IoT developers is in full swing and ARM has been positioning itself as the defacto standard for IoT devices. Based on its hardware alone that isn’t an unreasonable proposition, but to sweeten the deal ARM has been working hard on its software offering.


    • Pico-ITX SBC runs Linux on Bay Trail, expands modularly
      Advantech has launched a Pico-ITX SBC that runs Linux on an Atom E3825 or Celeron J1900, and offers modular expansion and optional -40 to 85€°C operation.

      Like Advantech’s MIO-2262, which offered the old Atom N2000 “Cedarview” processors, the new MIO-2263 uses the company’s MI/O-Ultra modular expansion format, which it also refers to as MIOe. The MIOe expansion interface expands upon the coastline and onboard interfaces with additional I/O including PCIe and DisplayPort.


    • Phones



      • Tizen



        • Samsung's Tizen app aspirations go global as it expands to 182 countries
          Depending on the country you live in, you may not have seen or heard about Samsung's Tizen app store. That's about to change. The company -- which just regained the smartphone sales crown from Apple -- is expanding the Tizen store from two to 182 countries around the world.


        • Understanding Tizen Programming
          Tizen have been in development for several years now and we are proud to have products in the market place in the form of Smart watches, a Smart Phone, Smart TV and Smart Cameras. This is a great opportunity for application and game developers to explore a new ecosystem.




      • Android



        • Sony's Xperia Z3 returns to T-Mobile, but Android Lollipop update could be 'months' away
          The peculiar case of the Sony Xperia Z3 in the United States continues with a fresh twist: T-Mobile has gotten fresh stock of the handset and is resuming sales online and, by the end of this week, in stores. It was roughly a month ago that the Z3 made an unannounced disappearance from T-Mobile's retail outlets, seemingly having been discontinued due to lack of consumer interest. At the time, T-Mobile tweeted in response to a disappointed customer with the simple statement that "the Z3 is no longer available."


        • Asus ZenFone 5 LTE Starts Receiving Android 5.0 Lollipop Update


        • Google Posts Android 5.1.1 Factory Images for Nexus 7 WiFi (2012 & 2013) and Nexus 10
          More Android 5.1.1 factory images are being released by Google, this time for the Nexus 7 WiFi (2012 and 2013), plus the Nexus 10. Each are receiving build LMY47V, which is the latest available.

          Android 5.1.1, at least from what we have researched, is mostly bug fixes for Android 5.1. Users should not expect to see anything too crazy once updated.


        • You Can Now Use Shazam, Instacart, And Other Android Apps With “Okay Google” Commands
          You’ve been able to use your voice (“Ok Google”) to do all sorts of stuff on Android for a while now. But said stuff has almost entirely been built-in by Google itself; third-party developers haven’t really been able to tap into that functionality.
        • ["OK, Google, Listen To NPR"] Custom Voice Actions Launch On Android, Allow You To Control Selected 3rd Party Apps
          Over on the Android Developer's Google+ page an awesome new feature for Google's voice search was just announced. A small selection of applications will now open directly when using certain voice commands. For example, you can now say "Ok Google, find houses near me on Zillow" and Google will automatically start the Zillow app, showing a map of properties near your current location (this also works with the applications for Trulia and Realtor.com). Previously a query like this would have directed you to Zillow's mobile site and given you a link to download Zillow's app.


        • Verizon Releases Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 5.0 Lollipop Update, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular Next
          The Android 5.0 Lollipop update has been officially released to owners of the Samsung Galaxy S4. Users on the Verizon network are now receiving the update, leaving Sprint, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular to follow.


        • How to Watch the 2015 NFL Draft Live on Android or iPhone
          The smokescreens are starting to settle and all 32 teams are making the final preparations for the 2015 NFL Draft, which is just a few hours away, and here we’ll explain how to watch the draft live from Android, iPhone, or online. Will the Titans use that second round pick, or trade it away? We’ll have to wait and see, and here’s how you can catch all the action live from any device.


        • Seek Thermal - Android Infrared Camera Review
          The costs associated with thermal imaging systems have restricted their usage and kept it out of reach of the average consumer / impulse-buy territory. However, there have been some recent advancements in this field that have made the prices of such system more palatable to the non-professional users. Thanks to the advent of smart mobile devices, the costs associated with the storage, control and user-interface for these systems could be taken out for most markets. One of the first forays into this space was the $250 FLIR ONE personal thermal imager from FLIR Systems. Unfortunately, by restricting the hardware design to work only with the Apple iPhone 5 and 5s, they lost out on widespread market appeal. Seek Thermal entered the market with a splash by launching their first smartphone-attached infrared camera for just $199. Two distinct models carrying the same features and capabilities were launched, only differing in the connector - one with a microUSB interface for Android devices and another with a Lightning connector for iOS devices. Before talking in detail about the Android version of the camera and the associated mobile app, let us take a moment to understand how thermal imaging works - particularly since this is not something we have covered on our site before.










Free Software/Open Source



  • My Open Source Recording Studio
    One of the ways I pay my bills is through content production for a trading card game called Magic: the Gathering. In addition to creating written content, I also produce video content in a series called “Crash Test”. Today I am going to talk about the hardware and open source software I use to produce these videos.


  • Google's open source addressing system could replace longitude and latitude
    Google often decides to go about things in its own way, and is frequently found approaching common problems from a unique angle. The latest candidate to receive the Google treatment is the humble address. Not web addresses or email addresses, but regular postal addresses. So what's the deal?


  • Events



    • Is Collaborative Software Development the Next Big Thing?
      The industry has had large collaboratively developed projects for some time, of course: Linux is the most obvious example. But to a large extent, projects such as Linux or more recently Cloud Foundry and OpenStack have been the exception that proved the rule. They were notable outliers of cross-organizational projects in a sea of proprietary, single entity initiatives. For commercial software organizations, Linux was a commodity or standard, and the higher margin revenue opportunities lay above that commonly-held, owned-by-no-one substrate. In other words, software vendors were and are content to collaborate on one project if it meant they could introduce multiple proprietary products to run on top of the open source base.




  • Web Browsers



    • Chrome



    • Mozilla



      • Mozilla: Deprecating Non-Secure HTTP
        Today we are announcing our intent to phase out non-secure HTTP.

        There’s pretty broad agreement that HTTPS is the way forward for the web. In recent months, there have been statements from IETF, IAB (even the other IAB), W3C, and the US Government calling for universal use of encryption by Internet applications, which in the case of the web means HTTPS.






  • SaaS/Big Data



  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



    • LibreOffice Numbers & Names
      LibreOffice started with the 3.3 release; it then added micro releases with a third number next to the first two digits. As time went forward, so did the releases: 3.4.0, 3.4.1, 3.5.0, 3.5.1, onwards to the 3.6 branch, the last one to carry the number 3 as its major release number, and to the 4.0 and the 4.x.x based releases. This summer we will be releasing the 5.0, and you will hear a lot more about the changes and improvements that are being put into it. But when you think about it, we started our version numbering exactly based on the one of OpenOffice.org . In 2010, it meant something technically and something for the community and more broadly the users of OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice. Fast forward to 2015: does anybody really know what a “4.3” release mean? What message does this numbering scheme convey?




  • CMS



    • How containers will shape the Drupal ecosystem
      I recently had the opportunity to interview David Strauss about how Pantheon uses containers to isolate many Drupal applications from development to production environments. His upcoming DrupalCon talk, PHP Containers at Scale: 5K Containers per Server, will give us an idea of the techniques for defining and configuring containers to get the most out of our infrastructure resources.

      Having recently dove into the container realm myself, I wanted to learn from the experts about the challenges of managing containers in a production environment. Running millions of production containers related to Drupal, David is certainly an expert resource to ask about this subject. I look forward to learning more details at DrupalCon!


    • WordPress promises patch for zero-day "within hours"
      WordPress statement hints at no prior notice on disclosure, contrary to researcher claims




  • BSD



    • OpenBSD 5.7
      This is a partial list of new features and systems included in OpenBSD 5.7. For a comprehensive list, see the changelog leading to 5.7.




  • Project Releases



  • Openness/Sharing



    • After OpenStreetMap - OpenSeaMap
      As I've noted a number of times before, one of the most exciting aspects of the world of openness is the way in which ideas are not only shared within a given domain - amongst free software hackers, for example - but across completely different domains too. Thus the GNU project inspired first Nupedia, and then Wikipedia. Wikipedia, in its turn, inspired OpenStreetMap. And now OpenStreetMap has given rise to OpenSeaMap:

      OpenSeaMap is an open source, worldwide project to create a free nautical chart. There is a great need for freely accessible maps for navigation purposes, so in 2009, OpenSeaMap came into life. The goal of OpenSeaMap is to record interesting and useful nautical information for the sailor which is then incorporated into a free map of the world. This includes beacons, buoys and other navigation aids as well as port information, repair shops and chandlerys. OpenSeaMap is a subproject of OpenStreetMap and uses its database.


    • Help map Nepal, OpenMRS for Ebola, Apache Mesos for Apple, and more open source news


    • Revolutionizing content management, finances, LDAP, and more






Leftovers



  • Hidden cameras reveal airport workers stealing from luggage
    Inside a plane at Miami International Airport, baggage handlers are going on a shopping spree with passengers' bags.

    What they don't know is that they are being recorded on a hidden camera. The Miami-Dade Police Department set up the camera as part of an ongoing police investigation into luggage thefts by the very airport workers who are supposed to get bags safely onto planes.


  • Security



    • Linux / BSD Servers Pwned by Mumblehard Trojan
      WeLiveSecurity said victims should look for "unsolicited cronjob entries for all the users on their servers." The backdoor will probably be found in /tmp or /var/tmp. "Mounting the tmp directory with the noexec option prevents the backdoor from starting in the first place."


    • Human Error Still the Largest Security Concern
      If one listens to the mainstream media, these are the biggest cyber security threats facing American businesses. When hackers from these regions make any move against western businesses and governments, the news is magnified ten-fold in comparison to the actual source of the attacks: human error on the part of the victim organizations.


    • Report: six anti-virus solutions pass annual Linux test
      2015 will yet again not be the 'Year of the Linux Desktop', yet behind the scenes' Linux plays an important role in many organisations by running the servers on which files are stored centrally.


    • OpenSSL Past, Present and Future
      The OpenSSL Audit, sponsored by the Core Infrastructure Initiative, is under way and the first set of results could trickle in by early summer. Like TrueCrypt, OpenSSL developers are curious to see the vulnerabilities dredged up during the inspection, and like its file encryption cousin, have fingers crossed that a backdoor isn’t lurking.






  • Finance



    • Tom Friedman: If We Don't Sign The TPP Agreement, The World Will Be Overtaken By ISIS, Anarchy And China
      Famed NY Times columnist Tom Friedman is pretty widely mocked for his ridiculous platitudes that are designed to sound smart (or, more directly, to make readers think that Tom Friedman is smarter than you). But, outside of corporate boardrooms and elite politicians, it seems plenty of people recognize that Friedman's musings don't make much sense. There's even a Thomas Friedman OpEd Generator that does a pretty good job, showing how formulaic his articles are.

      The key element in a Tom Friedman piece is to take some basic, simplified conventional wisdom, and try to gussy it up so that it sounds really profound. Often, this means ignoring all of the nuances and complexity behind the simple idea. A decade ago, he turned this into a whole book, The World is Flat, about globalization and how it was changing the world. He wasn't wrong, but his insights weren't particularly insightful or useful. Furthermore, he's so wedded to his thesis, that he still fails to realize that he was focused on a very exaggerated view of things, without understanding all of the related forces and consequences of what he was selling.


    • NYT Warns Greece Away From Argentina’s Seven-Year Boom
      There is no doubt that 2002 was worse for the people of Argentina as a result of the default, but by the second half of the year, the economy returned to growth and grew strongly for the next seven years. (There are serious issues about the accuracy of the Argentine data, but this is primarily a question for more recent years, not the initial recovery.) By the end of 2003, Argentina had made up all of the ground loss due to the default, and was clearly far ahead of its stay-the-course path.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • GOP Prosecutor Defends Scott Walker Criminal Probe, Says "Let's Get the Truth Out"
      The current criminal investigation into Walker involves serious allegations that the governor and his campaign disregarded the state's campaign finance laws during the 2012 recall elections.

      Indeed, when Republican and Democratic District Attorneys petitioned for the investigation, Walker was already the highest-profile politician in modern Wisconsin history and a likely presidential contender. Launching a criminal investigation into the most powerful political figure in the state could not have been an easy choice: these career politicians initiated the probe because they believed there was a strong legal and evidentiary basis for doing so under Wisconsin's long-standing campaign finance laws.

      Republican prosecutors gathered evidence of Walker secretly raising millions of dollars for the supposedly "independent" nonprofit Wisconsin Club for Growth (WiCFG), with the express purpose of bypassing campaign finance disclosure laws. Talking points prepared for the governor advised him to "stress that donations to WiCFG are not disclosed," to call the group "his 501c4," and to tell donors "that you can accept corporate contributions and it is not reported."




  • Privacy



    • Encryption won't work if it has a back door only the 'good guys' have keys to
      David Cameron has made some headline-grabbing election promises, but none so technically implausible as his vow to eliminate communications tools that “we cannot read” earlier this year. He’s not alone in proposing a ban on effective cryptographic tools. The FBI wants the same thing, and their zeal to protect the state from citizens’ secrecy has even prompted it to alter its exemplary security advice. The suggestion that Americans should encrypt their devices so as to protect their data when they inevitably lose them, have them stolen or throw them away without securely erasing them has been expunged from the FBI’s site.

      It’s impossible to overstate how bonkers the idea of sabotaging cryptography is to people who understand information security. If you want to secure your sensitive data either at rest – on your hard drive, in the cloud, on that phone you left on the train last week and never saw again – or on the wire, when you’re sending it to your doctor or your bank or to your work colleagues, you have to use good cryptography. Use deliberately compromised cryptography, that has a back door that only the “good guys” are supposed to have the keys to, and you have effectively no security. You might as well skywrite it as encrypt it with pre-broken, sabotaged encryption.



    • How can I delete my Facebook account?
      Facebook has a help page: How do I permanently delete my account? This advises you to download a copy of your Facebook data, because you will lose it if you do delete your account. You can also do this by logging into Facebook, clicking the down arrow, and selecting Settings. Click the bottom entry that says “Download a copy of your Facebook data”.

      If you really, really want to delete your Facebook account, log on, go to the Delete my account page and click the button that says “Delete my account”. After that, no one will be able to see your Facebook info, though it may take a few months for your posts and photos to be removed from Facebook’s servers. However, note that any messages or emails you have sent to other people will not be removed. These are in the recipients’ accounts, not in yours.


    • Cabinet minister accepted donation from corporate spy
      A cabinet minister has accepted a donation from a corporate investigator with a history of spying on political campaigners.

      The education secretary, Nicky Morgan, who received €£3,220 from Paul Mercer, is fighting to be re-elected in her marginal seat of Loughborough in Leicestershire. Mercer, who has lived in the area for many years, is taking an active part in promoting her campaign.

      His covert work monitoring campaigners was exposed in 2007 when legal papers revealed that he was paid €£2,500 a month by the security department of the arms manufacturer BAE.




  • Civil Rights



    • Irate Congressman gives cops easy rule: “just follow the damn Constitution”
      Despite the best efforts of law enforcement to convince a Congressional subcommittee that technology firms actually need to weaken encryption in order to serve the public interest, lawmakers were not having it.

      Daniel Conley, the district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, testified Wednesday before the committee that companies like Apple and Google were helping criminals by hardening encryption on their smartphones. He echoed previous statements by the recently-departed Attorney General, Eric Holder.






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Microsoft's Washington Layoffs Aren't Everything, They're Definitely Not Happening in Just One State in the US
Washington is just more strict with WARN notices
Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Lagrange v1.18.6, No Stagnation in Geminispace, and Fake Coding (Slop)
Links for the day
The Register's Editor in Chief (Who Left for Google) Told Me "AI" Was a Bubble, But Now The Register Gets Paid to Participate in Inflating This Bubble
A lot of the online media is a scam
Introducing Mission:Libre and FreeXR (and BreakXR)
efforts that accompany the foundations put there by the Free Software Foundation in 1985
Slopwatch: WebProNews, LinuxSecurity, and Some Success Stories
Google News still has a slopfarm issue
Links 05/08/2025: Hey Hi (AI) Passing Fads and GAFAM "Embracing the Military"
Links for the day
Links 05/08/2025: Samsung and Microsoft Layoffs
Links for the day
Rumours of Mass Layoffs at Red Hat Next Week (August 11th, 2025)
The eleventh means next Monday
IBM is Shutting Down (Piecewise)
IBM is basically being liquidated
The Debian Language Police Department (PD)
"there has never been complaints about anyone that was offended by this -off package"
Tesla's Debt More Than Doubled in 2 Years and the Company Will Operate in the Red (at a Loss) Quite Soon
If your first-quarter net income is $409 million and you borrow billions from banks, plus interest to pay on those loans, then you're not far from returning to losses
When The Register MS Says "Linux Backdoor" It Actually Talks About Malware
The leading story in The Register US/MS this morning is Microsoft
Microsoft Windows Fell to 19% "Market Share" in Montenegro
Microsoft must be well aware of this trend
Why We Also Include Gopher Links in Our Gemini (Protocol) Links
There are still many people who use Gopher to relay their messages (like blog posts). They're mostly technical people.
Shouting is an Indication of a Lack of Convincing Argument
Beware what they are attempting to distract from
Mongolia: Microsoft Windows at All-Time Low
in 2009 when Windows was at 99.45% in Mongolia the company was "worth" less than 200 billion dollars
About a Quarter of Today's "linux" News in Google News Came From One Domain and It's a Slopfarm
Not kidding!
Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Zombie Threat and Switching to NixOS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 04, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 04, 2025
ChatGPT in Trouble
Watch out for the newer buzzwords
The Register MS Links to the Wrong statCounter Page
They link to older data
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains How Google Turned From "Librarian" Into "Oracle", Telling Us What to Think Instead of Where to Look
Google was always a lousy librarian
Microsoft Layoffs Continue in August 2025
If Microsoft is doing so well, how come about 10 rounds of layoffs in about 7 months in 2025?
Microsoft and Windows Have Many Back Doors, But LLM Slop Keep Claiming That Linux Has "Backdoor"
It's another example of LLM slop as FUD amplifier, via slopfarms as well
In Many Countries Vista 11 Adoption Stalled or Became Negative
Not just because people move to GNU/Linux
Microsofters' Lawyers Are Name-calling and Insulting Microsoft Critics, Even Their Spouses
How not to win arguments
Flagging or Tagging Slop That We Find Online
Right now we use ImageMagick
Links 04/08/2025: Very Bad Weather and Travel Restrictions in China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/08/2025: Misiamisia and Mobile Linux
Links for the day
Microsoft's Stock is Like a Religion, Microsoft Goes Into 'Hiding' (From Shareholders)
like a religious person or devout believer, the media just parrot anything Microsoft says
Links 04/08/2025: 80 Years Since Last Nuclear War, IPv6 in China
Links for the day
Groklaw Static Site Relaunches With New Theme, But Many Pages and All the Comments Are Missing
We suppose that's still a lot better than the site being offline, as it was for several months
"For Five decades; For freedoms; For all users" (Original EMACS Turns 50 Next Year)
Linus Benedict Torvalds was only 6 when EMACS started
In Spain, Microsoft's Search Engine Market Share Fell to 2%
16 years have passed since Bing was introduced
Protecting GNU/Linux-Centric Journalism From Serial Sloppers
Unoriginal slop is taking away traffic from the people who did all the real work
It Looks Like Managers at Oracle Now Use LLM Slop to Write Blog Posts
Did he cheat by prompting LLMs for mindless text "filler"?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 03, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/08/2025: Qubes OS and Curious crypto case of certificates (CCCC)
Links for the day