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Links 3/6/2015: More Ubuntu Phones, Qt Releases





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



  • SourceForge commits reputational suicide
    Despite seeming reformed last year, SourceForge has been caught red-handed abusing the reputations of open source projects


  • Test It Right: 3 Open Source Load Testing Tools for Your Application!


  • Did Slashdot bury negative stories about SourceForge?


  • Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned SourceForge
    If you’ve followed any tech news aggregator in the past week, you’ve probably seen the story about how SourceForge is taking over admin accounts for existing projects and injecting adware in installers for packages like GIMP. For anyone not following the story, SourceForge has a long history of adware laden installers, but they used to be opt-in. It appears that the process is now mandatory for many projects.

    People have been wary of SourceForge ever since they added a feature to allow projects to opt-in to adware bundling, but you could at least claim that projects are doing it by choice. But now that SourceForge is clearly being malicious, they’ve wiped out all of the user trust that was built up over sixteen years of operating. No clueful person is going to ever download something from SourceForge again. If search engines start penalizing SourceForge for distributing adware, they won’t even get traffic from people who haven’t seen this story, wiping out basically all of their value.


  • Sourceforge Hijacking Projects to Deliver Malware
    It's been a crazy few days in Linuxville to be sure. Sourceforge is accused of locking out GIMP developers and inserting malware into the application for users to download. Scott Dowdle spotted a "GNOME versus KDE" in MR. ROBOT and Ubuntu was seen in a Google promotional video. David Both shows users how to use Konqueror and Attila Orosz takes a look at Deepin 2014.3. And finally, is the Bling factor in Linux doomed?


  • Buffalo First to Ship Wireless Routers with DD-WRT NXT Open Source Firmware


  • Buffalo Wireless Routers Have DD-WRT NXT Open Source Firmware
    Buffalo First to Ship Wireless Routers with DD-WRT NXT Open Source Firmware


  • Why Intel Invests in Open Source [VIDEO]
    Few if any companies in the world today are as deeply involved in open source work as tech giant Intel. Helping to lead Intel's open source efforts is Imad Sousou, VP in Intel's Software and Services Group and GM of the Intel Open Source Technology Center


  • Debunking the Myths of the Open Source Community
    The Linux operating system is the most popular open-source software in the world and has been ported to more computer hardware platforms than any other operating system. Readers will know the story of the underdog who rose to become the world’s leading server operating system. Android especially, a Linux derivative, has caused a stir in recent years with two out of three tablets and 75 percent of all smartphones using the Linux derivative operating system.


  • 'Cardinal' Takes Flight: ONOS Ships New Open Source SDN OS Version
    ONOS' community today announced the availability of the third release of its open source SDN Open Network Operating System (ONOS), named Cardinal. Providing the best value proposition for scale, performance and high availability, Cardinal adds comprehensive feature sets and performance improvements to enable a new variety of deployments and solution proof of concepts (POCs). Cardinal delivers several significant enhancements, mainly in the areas of Application Intent Framework, southbound interfaces and new distributed core features and capabilities.


  • Open source and Apple: The nagging nausea
    Open source software fans hate walled gardens. After all, they believe in communities supporting each other for the greater good. Sure, they fight over the details and who gets the most support, but that's part of what it means to be a creator, an owner, a participant in both the journey and the final result.


  • Events



  • Web Browsers



  • SaaS/Big Data



  • Databases



  • Business



  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



    • GCC's JIT Library Could Soon Be Around 5x Faster
      David Malcom, the developer at Red Hat who has been spearheading the work on libgccjit, is making some progress on speeding up this embeddedable JIT compiler for the GNU Compiler Collection.




  • Licensing



    • Why Companies That Use Open Source Need a Compliance Program
      Corporate use of open source software is now the norm with more than 60 percent of companies saying that they build their products with open source software, according to the 2015 Future of Open Source survey. But that same survey also revealed that most companies that use FOSS in their products don’t have formal procedures in place for ensuring that their software complies with open source licenses and regulations.




  • Openness/Sharing



    • New open digital humanities projects
      The Digital Public Library of America and Europeana are collaborating on a project to standardize usage rights statements. Despite operating under different copyright laws (United States and European Union), the DPLA and Europeana are keen to have a clear and compatible way to share copyright information with collaborators and users. To that end, work has begun on developing a technical framework for interoperable rights statements. Currently, they are seeking comments on their Rights Statement White Paper and their Technical Infrastructure White Paper. The deadline for comments on both papers is June 26, 2015.




  • Programming



    • PyPy 2.6 Released, ~7x Faster Than CPython
      Version 2.6 of the PyPy JIT-compiler-based interpreter for Python has been released. With PyPy 2.6 there's some Python compatibility improvements along with Numpy improvements and preliminary support for a new lightweight stats profiler.






Leftovers



  • Hardware



  • Security



  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression



    • Charlie Kennedy
      Charlie told me the story of how, as party leader, he was invited by Blair to Downing Street to be shown the original key evidence on Iraqi WMD. Charlie was really worried as he walked there, that there really would be compelling evidence as Blair said, and he would then be unable to maintain the party line against the war. When he saw the actual intelligence on which the dodgy dossier was based, he was astounded. It was incredibly weak and “totally unconvincing”. Blair was not present while Charlie saw the reports, but he saw him afterwards and told Blair he was quite astonished by the paucity of the evidence. Blair went white and looked really rattled, and resorted to a plea for patriotic solidarity. He then reminded Charlie he was not allowed to reveal what he had seen. Charlie felt bound by good faith – he had been shown the intelligence in confidence – not to publish this. Not I think his best moral judgement.




  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife





  • Finance



    • PM Gifts MPs 10% Pay Rise
      DAVID CAMERON effectively handed penny-pinching MPs a backdated 10 per cent pay rise yesterday after the PM dropped his opposition to the extra cash.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



  • Censorship



    • Government should be able to block websites, says report


      Government agencies should have the right to block access to any websites they wish, says Parliamentary Committee, provided there is an adequate oversight mechanism in place.

      House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications has handed down its report into whether Government agencies should ‘disrupt the operation of illegal online services.’


    • The Streisand Effect With Chinese Characteristics
      Even in China, people find ways to circumvent the country's famous Great Firewall that tries to block access to some external sites with material deemed politically dangerous. Interestingly, an editorial in the Chinese-government tabloid, the Global Times, written in response to the students' publication, recognizes that fact...




  • Privacy



    • Senate delays vote on NSA phone records dragnet
      A controversial program allowing the U.S. National Security Agency to collect millions of domestic telephone records expired Sunday night after the Senate failed to vote on a bill to extend the authority for the surveillance.




  • Civil Rights



    • TSA Not Detecting Weapons at Security Checkpoints
      This is bad. I have often made the point that airport security doesn't have to be 100% effective in detecting guns and bombs.


    • EXCLUSIVE: Undercover DHS Tests Find Security Failures at US Airports
      An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, ABC News has learned.


    • Medical Marijuana Patient Protests After House Raided, Vibrator Allegedly Confiscated
      With her four teenagers inside, Ginnifer Hency’s house was raided by officers who suspected she was using and selling marijuana.

      In fact, she was. Hency, a multiple sclerosis patient with a medical marijuana card, was charged with intent to deliver, “even though I’m allowed to possess and deliver,” Hency said, in testimony before the Michigan House Committee.

      Medical marijuana use had been suggested by her neurologist, Hency said, adding that she can’t take run-of-the-mill pain medication because of a heart condition.


    • Fatal police shootings in 2015 approaching 400 nationwide
      In an alley in Denver, police gunned down a 17-year-old girl joyriding in a stolen car. In the backwoods of North Carolina, police opened fire on a gun-wielding moonshiner. And in a high-rise apartment in Birmingham, Ala., police shot an elderly man after his son asked them to make sure he was okay. Douglas Harris, 77, answered the door with a gun.


    • EU arts policies could lead to ISDS lawsuits, admits German government
      The German federal government has admitted that an EU country's arts policies could lead to it being sued by foreign corporations before investor tribunals under trade agreements being negotiated with Canada and the US. Both the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) currently include the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, which allows foreign investors to claim millions of pounds from governments for "indirect expropriation" such as an alleged loss of future profits.




  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Copyrights



      • Hollywood: Piracy Poses A Great Cybersecurity Threat


        The MPAA is advising the U.S. Government's Internet Policy Task Force to help combat piracy, which they say poses a great cybersecurity threat. According to Hollywood, cyber criminals use pirated content as bait, to exploit citizens through malware and other scams. TSA Not Detecting Weapons at Security Checkpoints








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