• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

If Linux were a dog

As I zoned out this morning, sipping coffee and watching my dogs wrestle on the couch, I wondered, “If my dogs were Linux distributions, which ones would they be?” Yes, these are the thoughts that run through my head as I get started in the morning.

Audiocasts/Shows

• Luminosity of Free Software, episode 7

Kernel Space

• OverlayFS File-System Proposed For Linux 3.10 Kernel

  The Overlay File-System has been in development for several years and is used by some notable Linux distributions, but has yet to be merged into the mainline Linux kernel after having to be pulled a few times in the past. The new plan is to merge OverlayFS for the Linux 3.10 kernel.

  With the patches now up to their sixteenth revision, Miklos Szeredi has called upon Linus Torvalds and Al Viro (the VFS maintainer) to consider pulling OverlayFS for inclusion into the Linux 3.10 release.

• Graphics Stack

  • 2D Support Still Coming To NVIDIA’s Open Tegra

    The 2D graphics acceleration support for NVIDIA Tegra 2 and Tegra 3 ARM SoCs is still maturing and going through code revisions before entering the mainline Linux kernel, hopefully for Linux 3.10.

    The latest NVIDIA Tegra 2D patches were published on Wednesday by Terje Bergstrom and can currently be found on the kernel mailing list. These patches are currently up to their seventh revision.

Applications

• NEdit: With Great Power Comes Not-So-Hot Usability

• Proprietary

  • Fluendo Codec Pack 18 Supports GStreamer 1.0

    Fluendo, the well-known company that backs the development of GStreamer and has also sponsored projects like PiTiVi and other open-source multimedia projects, has released Codec Pack 18. Special about Codec Pack 18 is that it’s intended for use with GStreamer 1.0.

    GStreamer 1.0 was released last September ahead of GNOME 3.6. GStreamer 1.0 is a long-time coming and most GStreamer-based open-source programs have been adopting the new APIs. For ensuring there is high-quality codec coverage, Fluendo released Codec Pack 18 this morning.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Don’t uninstall Ubuntu, just change the interface

  • Book Excerpt: DevOps Troubleshooting: Linux Server Best Practices

  • UUIDs and Linux: Everything you ever need to know

  • Compile your own kernel – Tutorial

  • Setup your personal Cloud server in minutes using ownCloud

  • Delete directly without using/needing Trash in Xfce’s Thunar file manager with a Custom Action

  • How To Roll Your Own 13.04 Ubuntu Gnome Remix

  • Set Up Squid Siblings On CentOS 6.3 With WCCP

• Games

  • Valve’s Day of Defeat Released For Linux

    Valve’s original Day of Defeat game and the Day of Defeat: Source titles are now in beta on Linux via the Steam client.

    Phoronix readers have begun writing in this evening that “Day of Defeat” — the original and Source versions — are now available via the Steam Linux client as beta.

  • “10 Million” the game will hit Linux this week!

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • the case: brand

    This is part of the “Case for KDE” series of blog entries in which I explore various non-technical aspects of KDE. What follows are my personal thoughts and observations rather than an officially sanctioned position statement by the KDE community.

    I figured I would start with the topic of branding as it is a fairly simple topic .. a nice way to ease into this little adventure. It’s also a topic that has been getting increasing amounts of attention in the Free software communities in the last few years as products become more successful, projects progress and more companies appear on the scene.

  • KDE SC 4.11 Planned For Release In Mid-August

    The release schedule for KDE SC 4.11 has been set and the next major release of the KDE Plasma desktop will come in mid-August.

    Albert Astals Cid announced the KDE SC 4.11 release schedule, which can be found on the KDE.org Wiki.

  • KDE Homerun (Search & Launch Button/Containment)

  • PCManFM Qt port is 85% finished now!

    This is the Qt port of PCManFM with desktop management feature turned on. The desktop icons and the wallpaper were painted by PCManFM-Qt, just like the gtk+ version of the original PCManFM. The new Qt port is in a pretty good shape now.
    Although it’s not yet ready for production use, it’s almost there. About 85% of the planned features are finished.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Gnome throws its weight behind Wayland

    Gnome developer Matthias Clasen has proposed to make Gnome work on Wayland. Clasen made this proposal after meeting with X and Wayland developers (most X developers are the ones working on Wayland).

    In order to make Gnome work on Wayland, GNOME shell needs to be turned into a Wayland compositor. The team also needs to complete the GTK+ Wayland backend and all the X dependencies in the desktop infrastructure need to be replaced by Wayland equivalents.

  • GNOME plans to promote Wayland port

  • In Defense of GNOME Icons

    Recently I saw a few people commenting along of ‘GNOME 3 icons being crap’ so I investigated what the actual core of the issue might be. When dissing the years of work that went into creating the system theme and pushing app icons upstream, most of the commenters seem to actually have a problem with the folder icon.

Distributions

• New Releases

  • ALT 6.9.0-20130313

  • Stella 6.4

  • Kali 1.0

  • Kali Linux arrives as enterprise-ready version of BackTrack

  • Kali Linux Comes As BackTrack Successor

    Kali Linux 1.0 was announced today during Blackhat Europe. Kali Linux is a derivative of the Debian-based Backtrack Linux.

  • Kali Linux is now available for download

  • Educational Linux distro provides tech-bundle for kids and educators

    How are we going to teach the next generation about open source and Linux? More importantly, how can we get the right technology into classrooms to empower our educators to teach our children the open source way?

    The opportunities that open source presents to education and academics is growing each day. Opensource.com highlights individual tools like Scratch and TuxPaint that are starting to make an impact—but, what about an entire education distribution? How do we make it easier to get an entire toolset into the hands of school systems, teachers, and students? How can we really move the needle and present a revolutionary open source operating system designed for kids and education?

• Screenshots

  • Screenshots Directory > GhostBSD 3.0 Screenshots (03/12/2013)

• Red Hat Family

  • A new ESB and messaging platform join Red Hat’s middleware

    Red Hat has announced the addition of two new products to its middleware portfolio. The company acquired JBoss Fuse and JBoss A-MQ with the takeover of Progress subsidiary FuseSource last year. The first product is an open source Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) that builds on the Apache Camel Enterprise Integration framework; Red Hat notes that it now employs 25 contributors to that Apache project.

  • Red Hat Introduces JBoss Fuse And JBoss A-MQ

    Red Hat, Inc., the global provider of open source solutions, has announced that it has added Red Hat JBoss Fuse and Red Hat JBoss A-MQ to its enterprise middleware portfolio. The products are based on technologies acquired from FuseSource in Sept. 2012 and are designed to enhance Red Hat’s enterprise integration and messaging capabilities.

  • Fedora

    • Fedora 19 Test Days starts this week

    • Improving the Fedora boot experience

      If you’re subscribed to Fedora’s devel list, then you probably noticed this thread about improving Fedora’s boot experience explode over the past two days.

• Debian Family

  • Derivatives

    • Linux Mint Debian 201303 RC Sneak Peek

      Linux Mint Debian 201303 RC is has been released. Linux Mint Debian is one of my favorite distros, so I’m very happy to see an update to it.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Ubuntu 13.04 ‘Raring Ringtail’: Beta 1 preview

        Despite having cut back on the milestone releases, the Beta 1 release for Ubuntu 13.04, codenamed Raring Ringtail, has appeared on schedule. As yet, though, there’s not a great deal new to report.

      • Ubuntu developer offers a peek at core apps

        Back in January Canonical reached out to the Ubuntu community for help designing the core apps for Ubuntu Touch. Although the SDK preview for the platform is just over two months old Canonical already has something to show from the development of its key apps. A post on Michael Hall’s blog this week has revealed screenshots for some of the core apps giving a good idea of what they’re going to look like when finished and of the general design language.

      • Canonical: The Next Apple

        “On the verge of success, [Shuttleworth] is waving the white flag, demanding defeat if he cannot be like Apple and M$,” said blogger Robert Pogson. “It’s a Greek tragedy, where the winner sees defeat and commits suicide. Sometimes great leaders are “just greatly wrong. The error here seems to be based on the idea that a single GUI should somehow work on huge monitors or tiny smartphones.”

      • Ubuntu Q&A This Week

      • Refining and Improving Virtual UDS

        Last week we ran our very first virtual Ubuntu Developer Summit. The event lasted two days and gave us an opportunity to try out a new format and to see how well it worked. Generally it seems we got some pretty favorable feedback, but there are definitely some areas in which we want to sand off the rough edges and improve the structure of the event.

        I would like us to get the Virtual UDS format so tight and refined that it could be used to organize any kind of ad-hoc online set of meetings. As an example, I can imagine a similar event but focused explicitly on LoCo teams, or documentation, or translations. We want to make the format reliable enough and repeatable enough that anyone in our (or any other community) can use it. This will help our community to plan more regularly and get together more to do cool and interesting things.

      • Ubuntu SDK Apps are coming

      • Ubuntu Linux Gets Certified on Dell 12G Servers

        When the Intel Xeon E5 first debuted, both HP and Dell revealed that their respective servers would be certified for Red Hat and SUSE Linux. Canonical, the lead sponsor behind Ubuntu Linux, indicated at the time that it too would be certified with major server vendors on the Xeon E5 as well.

        This week Canonical announced that Ubuntu 12.04 has now been certified across the latest generation of Dell 12G servers powered by the Intel Xeon E5.

      • Unity 7.0 Desktop Coming To Ubuntu 13.04

        The Unity 7 desktop has been granted a feature freeze exception so that the updated desktop with “a lot of new code” can be landed in Ubuntu 13.04.

        Michael Hall of Canonical in a new blog post covers some of the Unity 7 work that will soon be found in Ubuntu 13.04. A PPA is being used for testing the Unity 7 packages for about two weeks before being pushed into the Ubuntu “Raring” repository, but it will happen in time for the April release of Ubuntu 13.04.

      • Unity 7 Fast-tracked Into Ubuntu 13.04

        Michael also addresses the 100 scope promise for 13.04 and has pre-maturely announced that thay’ve fallen short, but does mention that there “will be more scopes installed on the client than in previous releases, and even more that we will be able to implement on the server-side.” Hall also touches on the ever-present privacy concerns of Ubuntu users saying we’ve “tried to strike a balance between control and convenience, privacy and productivity”, but seems to allude to the idea that more data-sharing components of the dash will be activated by default. So, expect controls to turn off more than just Amazon.

      • Canonical and Dell collaborate on PowerEdge server support

      • Flavours and Variants

        • Trisquel to focus on LTS versions with Trisquel 6.0 release

          Based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, the latest release of Trisquel comes with GNOME Fallback Mode (from GNOME 3.4) as its default desktop environment. Trisquel 6.0 LTS, code-named “Toutatis”, uses the 3.2 Linux-libre kernel that removes all non-free elements from the upstream kernel.

          Trisquel is an FSF-approved distribution, and as such does not include any packages that cannot be considered free software, which is also the reason it is continuing to release with GNOME’s Fallback Mode. The developers cannot assume that the target computers for their distribution will have 3D acceleration available because of the lack of proprietary driver modules in the kernel.

Devices/Embedded

• A developer’s perspective on Google’s self-driving cars (video)

  One of the most interesting sessions at last month’s Embedded Linux Conference in San Francisco was a keynote presentation about the technologies, capabilities, and challenges associated with Google’s self-driving cars, which have now traversed some 400,000 miles on public roadways. Think of it as “Prius meets The Matrix.”

• Embedded Linux dev kit supports Intel’s 3rd Generation Core CPUs

  Wind River has added support for Intel’s 3rd generation Core processors to its embedded Linux distribution and tools suite. The added Core processor support comes in the form of an integrated hardware/software Embedded Development Kit (EDK) bundle.

  Wind River describes Wind River Linux 5 as a hardened embedded Linux distribution, with advanced tools and a rich partner ecosystem. As a combination of ready-to-use hardware and software, the company’s new EDK is intended to accelerate the development of devices based on the 3rd Generation Core processors.

• Atheros open sources firmware for two wireless chips

  Qualcomm Atheros has released the source code of firmware for two of its 802.11n wireless chips on GitHub. The source code and build tools for the firmware are released partly under the GPLv2 and and partly under the MIT license. The GitHub page provides build instructions for those wanting to compile their own firmware.

• Intel toolsuite supports Linux device software developers

• Roku 3 review

  There are two things you should know about me right up front. One is the list of shows I’m currently watching: at this moment I’m at various points in The West Wing, Homeland, House of Cards, Scandal, Alias, Mad Men, Community, The Office, Parks and Recreation, How I Met Your Mother, Workaholics, The League, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Girls, New Girl, Modern Family, The Newsroom, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Louie, and The Wire. (And those are just the ones I’ve watched recently.) I also watch a lot of movies, and religiously follow three different sports. The second thing you should know is that I don’t have cable, so I’m entirely reliant on the internet to get my fill.

  That combination has led me to audition nearly a dozen different set-top boxes over the last couple of years. I’ve used an Xbox 360 for my TV-watching needs; I’ve been a relatively happy WD TV Live Hub owner; my Apple TV remains one of the most-used gadgets I own; I at one point used a Chromebox for streaming movies straight through a browser; I’ve even repurposed a Mac Mini and an old Windows laptop as ersatz media centers. One device has just never done the trick for me, because I watch so many things and the industry is unfortunately in a place where almost no device or service has everything I need.

• Phones

  • Ballnux

    • HTC announces unlocked version of the One

      HTC starts to get the hang of the Developer Edition trend, called a necessary compromise because the original plan to stop making smartphones with locked bootloaders didn’t worked as Peter Chou (HTC CEO) expected.

  • Android

    • Ouya newbies: First-time developers bet big on $99 Android console

      Marco Williams never knew how hard game development would be. He and the team at Hashbang Games—which included his brother and his best friend—spent eight months working on Orbital Blaster, a space shooter that pays homage to games like Galaga. The development process was riddled with problems from the get-go, and even the process of making a simple game turned out to be a bigger endeavor than expected. To make matters worse, Williams’ effort to fund the game’s development on Kickstarter failed at around three percent of its $75,000 funding goal.

    • Andy Rubin Steps Down as Chief of Google Android

      “Having exceeded even the crazy ambitious goals we dreamed of for Android—and with a really strong leadership team in place—Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google,” Google CEO Larry Page wrote in a March 13 note on Google’s official blog. “Going forward, Sundar Pichai will lead Android, in addition to his existing work with Chrome and Apps.”

    • 50 Android Apps for Business on the Go

      There’s no question that all the new Android devices make working outside the office and while traveling easy-peasey. But you can make your work easier still by using an app specifically designed to perform tasks on a smaller screen and with a minimum of input from your keyboard

      Take a look at these 50 Android apps on Google Play and see which ones fit your workflow best.

      1) OfficeSuite Pro 7. Think of this app as Microsoft Office lite. It does pretty much the same thing as the full version except it uses less memory and processing power on your phone. This app allows you to easily create and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly on your phone. You can also open, read, and edit attachments, including PDFs using those same programs. $14.99

    • Leaked Motorola device tips Google influence

      So you want to see what a new, post-acquisition Motorola handset looks like now that Google is more (or not at all) involved. Behold the first few images and video of an unknown model that appears to be one of the first of such collaborations. To be clear, this is not the rumored X-Phone. This, rather, appears to be something entirely different.

• Sub-notebooks/Tablets

  • Amazon shaves Kindle Fire HD 8.9 price to $269.99

Open sourcing the Internet of Things

Thingsquare, a company founded by Contiki OS creator Adam Dunkels, today released the code for its wireless networking system, Mist, which is designed to make it easy to connect low-power devices to the Internet.

The company has posted the source code for the Thingsquare Mist firmware, which lets wireless-capable microcontrollers connect directly to the Internet.

Back to open source

Open source has something of a poor reputation among certain developer communities. There can be potential issues with intellectual property, plus the challenge in loss of revenue through traditional sales. Then there’s the persistent fear of disclosing trade secrets to the benefit of the competition.

Events

• Open Source at CeBIT 2013

  Open Source software has had a special area for itself at the CeBIT trade show for the last five years. The H went along to see what was new this year and in the process met Knoppix creator, Klaus Knopper, saw the latest in 3D printing, and talked with John “Maddog” Hall about Project Cauã.

• The Big Tent of Open Source has Room for Anarchists, Intelligence Agencies and Businesses Alike

  I’ve always known that Open Source was a “Big Tent”. I worked at the Linuxcaffe (R.I.P.) in Toronto for 4 years, where I met a diverse clientele and was exposed to many exciting Open Source projects. The cafe’s atmosphere was inspired by the tolerance of the Open Source community, and made all sorts feel at home.

  That sense was reinforced when I went to this year’s Linux.conf.au conference at the end of January. It was my first conference of any kind, and the first time I had ever been surrounded by people who cared enough about Open Source to spend a week swimming in it.

Web Browsers

• Mozilla

  • How to make Firefox the Fort Knox of browsers

  • Mozilla Provides An Early Peek At Its Updated Firefox OS Simulator

    Mozilla’s Firefox OS will soon be making its debut on devices sold around the world, but until then Mozilla is still working to get developers crafting web apps that will run nicely on Firefox hardware. To that end, Mozilla has seen fit to provide developers with an early preview of its updated Firefox OS simulator and all the new functionality baked into it.

    Mozilla has been pushing out these simulators and updates since late last year, but the most notable change with this 3.0 release is that developers can now push existing work-in-progress applications to a connected Firefox OS device (assuming devs have one floating around). Other additions to the mix include the ability to simulate a rotated display as well as support for mucking around with the geolocation API to generate longitude and latitude values.

  • All Things Appy: 5 Best Firefox Add-ons for Mobile-Desktop Syncing

    If you haven’t customized your Firefox browser, you’re missing a lot. Add-ons can provide a host of new features to improve the way your browser or application works for you. One indispensable category consists of add-ons that sync your preferences across a variety of devices and platforms. The five most useful syncing add-ons: LastPass Password Manager; Xmarks; Siphon; Pocket; and the Firefox browser for Android.

  • Mozilla Unveils Firefox OS Simulator Version 3.0

  • Firefox Not Coming to iOS Confirms Sullivan

SaaS/Big Data

• ownCloud 5 Released, open competitor to Dropbox

  Cloud based storage and file syncing services like Dropbox or Google Drive wile offer great comfort of having access to your data while on move (you don need the internet), it does pose very serious security, privacy and ownership risks. Any data that you put on these public cloud storage service is accessible to these companies and is under government surveillance. The worst part is you can be blocked from accessing your data because of some gazillion issues. So, while such cloud data syncing or storage services have amazing advantages they have risk as well. It think it should be regulated and in case of blocked account as user must be allowed to download a copy of his data before he loses access to it.

• Piston Cloud To Offer OpenStack Training Courses

• Is BMW the ultimate open cloud driving machine?

  Cloud computing represents an unparalleled opportunity to deliver resiliency and scale to meet our business challenges.

  This is the opinion of Mario Mueller, chair of the Open Data Center Alliance and vice president of IT Infrastructure at BMW.

  In the spirit of true openness, Mueller has published BMW’s strategy for cloud adoption.

Project Releases

• texinfo 5.1 released

Openness/Sharing

• Army making open-source physiology engine

  An open-source physiology engine that anyone can use to develop medical simulations is being developed by the U.S. Army’s Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center.

• Crowdfunded science exhibit encourages duplication

• Open Access/Content

  • New claims of prosecutor misconduct in Aaron Swartz case

    The late activist’s lawyers have released complaint made to DoJ that prosecutors withheld evidence, overreached

    [...]

    In a letter (made public Wednesday) to an internal Justice Department ethics unit from January 2013, Swartz’s lawyers argue that Heymann engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by “withholding key evidence from Swartz’s defense team and overreaching in his attempt to coerce Aaron into waiving his right to trial.” A press release regarding the letter to the ethics unit noted:

    In the letter to the Justice Department, Swartz’s attorney, Elliot Peters, elaborates on a legal complaint made earlier in the month that indicates how Heymann had withheld exculpatory evidence at a December 2012 hearing that would have demonstrated whether the government had properly obtained a warrant to search Swartz’s computer and thumb drive. Email evidence later revealed that Heymann made false statements about his ability to provide and obtain those materials. In that December hearing, Swartz’s legal defense team was given that evidence only after the hearing had concluded.

  • Aaron Swartz’s lawyer accuses prosecutor of misconduct

    Lawyers will move to unseal evidence against Swartz later this week.

  • Aaron Swartz to receive posthumous ‘Freedom of Information’ award for open access advocacy

    Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz is slated to receive posthumous recognition in Washington for his efforts promoting free access to taxpayer-funded research.

    The James Madison Freedom of Information Award is administered by the American Library Association, and recognizes “individuals who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s right to know national information.”

  • Open Thread: Evolving the library for the 21st century

  • House Judiciary Hearing on Investigating and Prosecuting Cyber Threats: CFAA – ~pj Updated

    Today, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations held a hearing to discuss “Investigating and Prosecuting 21st Century Cyber Threats”. Of course, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act took center stage.

    I know this interests many of you because of the Aaron Swartz case. So here’s the video of the entire hearing, including the testimony of Orin Kerr, which begins at around the 52:11 mark. His written testimony is here [PDF]. He’s been trying to get reforms of the CFAA for many years. And EFF has materials on what you can do, should you choose to, here.

• Open Hardware

  • Lime Microsystems – First open-source RF hardware project set up to simplify design and further innovation

    Lime Microsystems has launched an open-source RF initiative to widen the community of developers and aid RF innovation. Launched as a non-profit initiative, Myriad-RF aims to give both hobbyists and experienced design engineers a range of low-cost RF boards and free design files available for general use. Future board designs will come from the wider Myriad-RF community, with the first board (Myriad-RF 1) designed by Taiwanese distributor Azio Electronics.

  • Arduino-compatible microcomputer speaks Bluetooth v4.0

    The RFduino from Nordic Semiconductor is an Arduino-compatible open-source microcomputer that can communicate wirelessly with any Bluetooth v4.0 compatible smartphone or tablet. The new microcomputer is based on an RFD51822 module with a Nordic nRF51822 SoC. The Nordic nRF51822 features a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0-based processor and is fully FCC and CE-compliant.

Programming

• Fix a bug every 8.7 minutes

  With almost 30 years of active development under its belt, BRL-CAD is believed to be the second oldest open source codebase in the world that’s still under active development (VistA, the EHR of the Veterans Administration being the oldest). It has also been the primary tri-service solid modeling CAD system used by the U.S. military to model weapons systems for vulnerability and lethality analyses.

• Spring and Groovy/Grails tool suites get performance boost

  SpringSource has released version 3.2.0 of the Spring Tool Suite (STS) and Groovy/Grails Tool Suite (GGTS). The new versions include updates to Eclipse Juno SR2, support for high resolution displays on Mac OS X, support for Spring Integration 2.2 and compilers for Grails 2.2.1 and Groovy 2.0.7.

Standards/Consortia

• Google kills CalDAV API support, pushes its own Calendar API

  Google has announced its plans to depreciate open standard CalDAV API for calender syn and will replace it with it’s own proprietary Google Calendar API.

• NIST Works to Drum Up Cyber Standards Support

Sun apologises to Gordon Brown over son’s medical records accusation

Tabloid prints apology to former PM for claiming he had accused the paper of blagging details about his son having cystic fibrosis

Submission to DPP consultation on social media prosecutions

In December 2012 the Director of Public Prosecutions launched a consultation on “interim guidelines on prosecuting cases involving communications sent via social media”. The guidelines “set out the approach that prosecutors should take when making decisions in relation to cases where it is alleged that criminal offences have been committed by the sending of a communication via social media.” This was in response to a number of cases through which people were subject to overzealous prosecutions for their comments on social networks, often under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. For more information see our wiki page.

Security

• Reuters journalist indicted over Anonymous hack

  The deputy social media editor for Reuters has been indicted by the US Justice Department for allegedly conspiring with members of the hacktivist movement Anonymous.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• Brooklyn Community Says ‘Enough is Enough!’ After Police Kill 16-Year-Old Boy

  Following a candlelit vigil in Brooklyn, NY for 16-year-old Kimani Gray, who was shot dead by undercover police officers over the weekend, residents staged a candlelit vigil and march to express their outrage and were met by riot police on the streets.

• The Falklanders Have the Right to be Stupid

  When there is a 99.8% vote for something, either it isn’t a democracy or it is a very stupid question. Nobody has ever disputed that the majority of the Falkland Islanders wish to remain British. The point of the referendum was simply to annoy and upset Argentina, and that is very stupid indeed.

• NSA head says 13 ‘offensive teams’ being trained for cyberwarfare

  As Director of National Intelligence James Clapper discussed the “remote” threat of a major cyberattack within the next two years, NSA and US Cyber Command director Gen. Keith Alexander told Congress that the US was training its own cyberwarriors as well. In yesterday’s hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Alexander emphasized that “this team, this defend-the-nation team, is not a defensive team… This is an offensive team that the Defense Department would use to defend the nation if it were attacked in cyberspace. 13 of the teams that we’re creating are for that mission alone.”

• DoD Plans to Use Preemptive Deadly Force on Hackers, Cyber Threats
  

  The paper written by the Defense Science Board described the best types of bombs to use on hackers to be “Global selective strike systems e.g. penetrating bomber, submarines with long range cruise missiles, Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS), survivable national and combatant command,” while “Nuclear weapons would remain the ultimate response and anchor the deterrence ladder” for cyber threats.

• The NSA Is Training Covert Hackers To Attack Other Countries

• NSA Director Alexander: US Building Cyberattack Teams

• Targeting China: Washington Announces Formation of “Offensive Cyber War Units”

• Former NSA director joins security firm Endgame’s board after it raises $23M

  “Don’t be tomorrow’s headline,” reads security company Endgame‘s sparse website. The company, which touts that its technology — meant to catch an attack in progress — is used by “top national security agencies” raised $23 million in its second round of funding today.

• Endgame gets $23M, former NSA director

• Obama Wants The CIA And NSA To Have Your Financial Records

  The Obama Administration wants to hand over access to your financial records to the CIA, NSA, and other law enforcement agencies. According to a new report from Reuters, a Treasury Department plan gives spy agencies full access to more raw financial data then ever before, under the guise of national security. Already, financial institutions are required to report “suspicious customer activity” to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, but spy agencies must make case-by-case requests to access the FinCEN database.

• Report: U.S. drawing up plans to increase CIA, NSA access to massive financial database

• CIA, NSA could soon have unfettered access to Americans’ financial info

• Obama Wants a Look at Your Bank Account

  The reason for this is because intelligence agencies are not law enforcement agencies. Under the law, law enforcement has to present its evidence in a court of law and the evidence can be challenged by the defendant. Intelligence agencies have usually one purpose in mind when the acquire evidence, destroy the target. To put it simply, it is the job of intelligence agencies to help kill people. There is no court of law or due process. Why do the CIA and the NSA need access to the financial information of millions of ordinary Americans? Is the country really that much more unsafe by making the CIA and NSA request the information on a case by case basis?

• Sen. Ron Wyden: Still ‘long way to go’ getting answers on drone memos

• Outlaw Drone Strikes in the United States

• Don’t Let Boeing Block Reasonable Rules for Drones

  Much-needed legislation to control surveillance by government drones has gained bipartisan support in Olympia. HB 1771 puts reasonable rules in place that would protect the public against warrantless surveillance while allowing drone use for legitimate purposes – like avalanche patrols and rescue operations. But Boeing is lobbying heavily to block the bill. Tell the Governor not to give in to Boeing – the people of Washington want safeguards against suspicionless surveillance.

• Eyewitness “Certain” Kimani Gray Was Unarmed When Police Shot Him

  The only civilian eyewitness to come forward in the case of a Brooklyn teen shot dead by a pair of plainclothes New York City police officers is “certain” the 16 year-old was empty-handed when the cops opened fire.

• Drones don’t just kill. Their psychological effects are creating enemies

  Imagine that you are living somewhere in Pakistan, Yemen, or Gaza where the United States and its allies suspects a terrorist presence. Day and night, you hear a constant buzzing in the sky. Like a lawnmower. You know that this flying robot is watching everything you do. You can always hear it. Sometimes, it fires missiles into your village. You are told the robot is targeting extremists, but its missiles have killed family, friends, and neighbours. So, your behaviour changes: you stop going out, you stop congregating in public, and you likely start hating the country that controls the flying robot. And you probably start to sympathize a bit more with the people these robots, called drones, are monitoring.

Cablegate

• A Real Hero

  Please listen to a truly great military hero, Bradley Manning. He has been kept in abusive solitary confinement for a very long time now. He is plainly unbowed and undiminished.

• Bradley Manning’s Voice Now Available on The Internet Archive and The Pirate Bay

• WikiLeaks: Ecuador seeks new talks over Julian Assange

  Ecuador said it would ask for new talks with the Foreign Office on Julian Assange that could see the fugitive founder of the WikiLeaks website face justice in Sweden if Teresa May, the Home Secretary, places conditions on his extradition.

• Patino hopes to solve Assange Case this year

• ‘Manning fulfilled moral duty, conscience of US on trial’

• Death to Whistle-Blowers?

  LAST month Pfc. Bradley Manning pleaded guilty to several offenses related to leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, a plea that could land him in jail for 20 years. But Private Manning still faces trial on the most serious charges, including the potential capital offense of “aiding the enemy” — though the prosecution is not seeking the death penalty in this case, “only” a life sentence.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• Monarch Migration Plunges to Lowest Level in Decades

  The number of monarch butterflies that completed an annual migration to their winter home in a Mexican forest sank this year to its lowest level in at least two decades, due mostly to extreme weather and changed farming practices in North America, the Mexican government and a conservation alliance reported on Wednesday.

Finance

• A market analogy

  “Let me translate that into economic language what Papa just said. A market is what Papa does not have and does not want in the house. He wants goods and services produced by household members distributed according to criteria of love, respect, need and desire. Mama didn’t charge family members for pieces of the turkey she bought, cleaned, cooked and served. You are not allowed to estabilish a market inside the house for the cleaning service you were asked to perform. The market is banned, Papa explains, because a market would destroy the love amongst us, would be incompatible with the family relationships.”
  – Richard Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Armistice’s Day Is Done–Contrary to NYT

  The Army Field Manual states, “In case it [the armistice] is indefinite, a belligerent may resume operations at any time after notice.”

• Wave of “Ag Gag” Bills Threaten Food Safety and Freedom of the Press

  Remember “fecal soup”? A CBS “60 Minutes” exposé in 1987 documented widespread food safety violations by the poultry industry, making use of undercover video from a hidden camera placed by the “60 Minutes” crew. The episode vindicated U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) whistleblower Hobart Bartley, who had been ignored and threatened by his superiors and finally transferred to another plant when he warned of unsanitary conditions at a Simmons Industries plant in Missouri. Bartley was particularly irate about the “eight-foot-high vat of water called the ‘chiller,’ where as many as 10,000 chicken carcasses were routinely left to float, soaking up moisture to increase their selling weight. Dried blood, feces, and hair were floating in along with the dead birds. Diane Sawyer later called it ‘fecal soup.’”

• Walker’s Anti-Union Law Should Remain Blocked, Court Says

  A Wisconsin appeals court has refused to put a hold on a lower court’s decision that overturned key provisions of Governor Scott Walker’s controversial Act 10, which severely limited collective bargaining rights for most public employees. The appellate decision will allow teacher’s unions and others to continue collectively negotiating contracts.

• Google Has Started Removing Ad Blockers from the Play Store

• James O’Keefe Pays $100K Settlement after Deceiving Public about ACORN (and ALEC Helped Take Down ACORN)

Privacy

• Wiretapping Firm Says Telecom Providers Could Be Handing Over More Data Than Authorized

  Wiretapping emails and phone calls has always been a contentious law enforcement tactic. But now surveillance is becoming more of a legal minefield than ever in the United States, thanks to a clash between European and American eavesdropping regulations—and some telecom firms could be handing over data on suspects without court authorization.

• Facebook unfriends CISPA cybersecurity bill over ‘privacy’

  Authors of cybersecurity bill criticized for privacy invasions used Facebook’s enthusiasm to attract political support in D.C. Now the company’s execs have backed away from CISPA.

• Why CISPA Could Actually Lead To More Hacking Attacks

  One thing we’ve talked about for years is that lawmakers are notoriously bad at thinking through the unintended consequences of legislation they put forth. They seem to think that whatever they set the law to be will work perfectly, and that there won’t be any other consequences. This is one reason why we’re so wary of simple “fixes” even when the idea or purpose sound good up front. “Protecting artists” sounds good… unless it destroys the kinds of services artists need. Cybersecurity sounds good, unless it actually makes it easier to violate your privacy. And, now, people are realizing that not only may cybersecurity rules like CISPA be awful for privacy, but they could potentially lead to more “cyber” attacks, as companies look to “hack back” against those who attack them.

• Cyberattacks: The complexities of attacking back

  As digital malefactors continue raiding U.S. businesses for their most valuable corporate secrets, some in Washington are wondering whether companies should test the limits and cyberattack their cyberattackers.

  The private sector already can police its own computers and networks, but an uptick in serious intrusions from China and elsewhere is catalyzing a market for tools that might deceive or disrupt hackers and spies — a controversial development that has important limits under federal law.

• As-it-happened coverage: SPD surveillance-cameras meeting on Alki – ‘We’re not hiding anything’

• Sunshine Week: EFF Takes Fight Against Secret Surveillance Law to Federal Court

  Section 215 of the Patriot Act has been secretly interpreted by the government in ways, according to Senators briefed on the interpretation, that are misleading and would “stun” the American public. Today, EFF will ask a federal judge in Oakland to order the government to turn over those secret interpretations of the law.

  As we mentioned yesterday, this week is Sunshine Week – a week dedicated to celebrating the promise of transparent and accountable government. And what better way to celebrate than by fighting against secret surveillance law in federal court?

• Democratic State Surveillance, Transparency and Trust – by Andrew Clement

  Those of us who believe that democratic governments have a central role to play in multi-stakeholder cyberspace governance have received in the past few weeks a bracing reminder of both the hazards of this ideal in practice and the importance of broad-based civil society mobilization. Democratic states, while not sufficient for effective internet governance, are necessary parties because no other institutions have yet emerged that combine as well as they do the inclusivity, legitimacy and resources to help manage the internet effectively in the broad public interest. However, when such states violate the democratic principles that they espouse and are built on, they seriously undermine their legitimacy as well as the viability of the internet governance project overall.

  Two events in February related to state surveillance in North America illustrate such problematic governmental behaviour and point to the importance of transparency for restoring trust in governance processes.

Civil Rights

• The spy within: researchers, hackers spar over state-sponsored malware

  What does it mean when nations start spreading computer viruses? It’s already happening

• HMRC Under Pressure As British Surveillance Software Used In Ethiopia And Vietnam

  Government pressured to reveal what steps it has taken to stop Gamma selling its FinFisher kit to repressive regimes

• Gamma FinSpy Surveillance Servers in 25 Countries

• “Surveillance sans frontières”

  In China alone, 40 000 civil servants are put to monitor…

• HMRC must investigate potential breach of UK export laws by Gamma International in face of new evidence

  Citizen Lab has uncovered evidence that 25 countries now have command and control servers for FinSpy backdoors, part of Gamma International’s FinFisher “remote monitoring solution”, including Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, Qatar, Serbia, Singapore, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam. The Citizen Lab research shows a continued trend of FinFIsher technology deployments with strong indications of politically motivated targeting; for example, a FinSpy campaign in Ethiopia uses pictures of Ginbot 7, an Ethiopian political opposition group, as bait to infect users. The report also contains strong evidence of a Vietnamese FinSpy Mobile Campaign.

• Finfisher Spyware Seen Targeting Victims in Vietnam, Ethiopia

  … used to track activists in more countries than previously thought…

• From Ethiopia to Vietnam, researchers map reach of German-made government spy software

• Researchers find German-made spyware across globe

  The discovery of a group of servers linked to an elusive espionage campaign is providing new details about a high-tech piece of spy software that some fear may be targeting dissidents living under oppressive regimes.
  A Canadian research center said Wednesday that it had identified 25 different countries that host servers linked to FinFisher, a Trojan horse program which can dodge anti-virus protections to steal data, log keystrokes, eavesdrop on Skype calls, and turn microphones and webcams into live surveillance devices.

• Surveillance software used to spy on activists around the world

• FinSpy Software Used To Surveil Activists Around The World, Report Says

• Freedom of Information Regulations: Still Outdated, Still Undermining Openness

• Obama’s secrecy fixation causing Sunshine Week implosion

  Even the most loyal establishment Democrats are now harshly denouncing the president for his war on transparency

Internet/Net Neutrality

• France Proposes New Rules for Internet Equal Access

  The French government on Tuesday called for a law requiring Internet service providers to give all the traffic on their networks equal priority, saying existing rules were insufficient for protecting free speech online and ensuring fair competition among Web publishers.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Multitasking with Chrome OS and Linux on the Chromebook Pixel

The ultimate Linux starter kit for small business

Microsoft did its best to usher in a new era of desktop computing with the launch of Windows 8, but many businesses and individuals are opting out. Linux-based operating systems, meanwhile, present an increasingly compelling alternative. Benefits include tougher security and superior customization—not to mention that Linux is usually free.

Kernel Space

• Atheros Publishes Open-Source WiFi Firmware

  Atheros has been more friendly towards Linux customers in recent years with open-source WiFi/network Linux drivers. Atheros has even been kind towards BSD users. The latest Atheros open-source contribution is the opening up of their firmware for two wireless chipsets.

• Graphics Stack

  • Intel Releases LLVM IR SDK Plug-In For Eclipse

    Intel announced the first version of an LLVM IR SDK. The LLVM IR SDK is comprised of an LLVM IR editor plug-in for the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment.

  • Intel Comes Up With A Linux Graphics Driver Installer

  • Gallium3D’s Direct3D 10/11 State Tracker To Be Nuked

    The Direct3D state tracker for Gallium3D that for a short time provided hope of a native Direct3D implementation for Linux of the Microsoft Direct3D 10/11 APIs without simply being a translator layer to OpenGL, is set to be nuked from mainline Mesa.

  • OSMesa State Tracker + LLVMpipe Support Published

    Brian Paul has published an initial OSMesa state tracker along with OSMesa support for the LLVMpipe and Softpipe drivers.

    OSMesa is the API exposing Mesa’s off-screen rendering capabilities. The off-screen rendering infrastructure isn’t dependent upon any specific operating system windowing system, or graphics hardware. OSMesa rendering is simply done in user-space with main system memory. An example use-case all along for OSMesa has been “to use Mesa as an off-line, batch-style renderer.”

  • GLAMOR Acceleration Might Work On Newer X.Org

  • Linaro Eyes Up OpenGL ES 3.0, Mesa Improvements

    Last week at Linaro Connect Asia 2013, there was a session about OpenGL ES 3.0 and what the Linaro working group can accomplish.

    The OpenGL ES 3.0 session at Linaro Connect Asia 2013 was to gather Linaro member requirements for GLES3, discussion the Mesa activity, and review the Piglit regression test framework. The open question asked as a goal is “Within OpenGL ES, WebGL, OpenVG, Renderscript where should [Linaro]
    be investing time?”

  • Linaro Developers Plan ARM LLVM Improvements

    Developers from the member companies involved with Linaro are planning continued improvements to the LLVM compiler infrastructure that will benefit ARM developers and customers. With this ARM LLVM work there should also be Gallium3D LLVMpipe enhancements.

    Last week at Linaro Connect Asia 2013, aside from talking about OpenGL ES 3.0 improvements, there were also sessions about improving LLVM ARM support.

  • AMD Publishes Compute Support For RadeonSI

    The AMD “RadeonSI” Gallium3D driver now has basic compute (GPGPU/OpenCL) support.

    There has been R600 Gallium3D OpenCL support for running basic OpenCL demos and now the support has come to the RadeonSI driver, which supports the Radeon HD 7000 series and there’s early Radeon HD 8000 series support.

  • Intel Continues Advancing OpenGL GLSL Support

    Intel Open-Source Technology Center developers continue advancing support for the OpenGL Shading Language. Their latest work is on supporting Interface Blocks for GLSL 1.50.

    Jordan Justen of Intel published the initial Interface Block support, as mandated by GLSL 1.50. The shading language 1.50 version is for matching OpenGL 3.2.

Applications

• Proprietary

  • TeamViewer 8 for Linux launched

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Compile your own kernel – Tutorial

  • How to: Create a fading gif with GIMP

  • Dual-boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10 in UEFI mode

  • Serving CGI Scripts With Nginx On Fedora 18

• Games

  • Unigine Now Does Panoramas, MC Projection Rendering

    The Unigine Game Engine has picked up several new features, including support for different panorama modes and multi-channel projection rendering.

    Through a new Unigine Engine plug-in, 180 degree panoramas can be rendered within the engine using panoramic projection with curved edges, linear panorama without edge distortion, and fisheye spherical panorama.

    Another new plug-in (AppProjection) supports single and multi-channel projections. This can be used to create a large immersive curbed screen display covering 360 degrees.

  • Latest Humble Bundle Crosses One Million Dollars

    The latest Humble Indie Bundle game offering, “Humble Bundle with Android 5″, has crossed one million dollars in sales. There’s still time to go and more DRM-free cross-platform games have been added to the pay-what-you-want sale.

  • GameMaker: Studio now supports Linux publishing

    YoYo Games today announced its game development software suite GameMaker: Studio now supports Linux publishing for the first time.

  • GAMEMAKER: STUDIO SUPPORTS LINUX PUBLISHING FOR THE FIRST TIME — UBUNTU EXPORT MODULE AVAILABLE NOW

  • Xi3 and Valve at Odds Over Windows Versus Linux for Gaming

    A partially transparent veil of secrecy hangs over Xi3′s pint-sized Piston Console. When first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year, some surmised it was the official Steam Box, though Xi3 never came out and said it. And now that Xi3 is taking pre-orders, there’s still no mention of it being a Steam Box, though it’s clearly intended for living room gaming using Steam’s Big Picture mode. Xi3 released a statement today that adds a little insight into its relationship with Valve, and also hints that things aren’t as rosy between the two as previously thought.

  • Piston ‘Steam Box’ maker breaks from Valve’s vision of a Linux-powered system

  • Potatoman Seeks the Troof, Pixeljam Octology finds its way to Linux

Desktop Environments/WMs

• Xfce 4.12 Desktop Release Ends Up Behind Schedule

  While Xfce 4.12 was scheduled to be released on 10 March, the release didn’t happen and it looks like the release won’t be coming anytime soon.

  Last September plans were expressed with a road-map to release Xfce 4.12 in mid-March. Xfce 4.12 was possibly going to be ported to GTK3, but a full-port to GTK3 was decided later on to not be feasible for this release though some packages may be friendly towards the updated tool-kit.

• LightDM Caught Off-Guard By Mir, Plans For Wayland

  Development of the LightDM display manager is now in an awkward state by Canonical’s announcement of developing — and ultimately switching to — the Mir Display Server rather than Wayland.

  David Edmundson, who for a long time has been working on LightDM and has led when it comes to LightDM-KDE, wrote an interesting blog post this morning about how Mir conflicts with LightDM — the display manager that’s also used by Ubuntu.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • GNOME 3.8 Beta 2 Is Now Available for Testing

    Alejandro Piñeiro Iglesias from the GNOME Release Team was happy to announce a few days ago that the second and last Beta release of the upcoming GNOME 3.8 desktop environment was ready for download and testing.

    This time, the release has been delayed with only two days from the original schedule and it is available for download and testing on the main GNOME FTP server, bringing numerous updated components, several improvements across basic apps, new features, countless bugfixes and many updated translations.

  • GNOME Will Move Full-Speed With Wayland Support

    We already know that KDE developers aren’t fond of Mir, Canonical’s display server for the Unity desktop not derived from X.Org and Wayland. KDE developers aren’t happy about it, some Xfce developers have also expressed dissatisfaction with the recent Canonical changes, and now there’s a GNOME response. What’s GNOME doing about Mir? They’re laying out plans right now to move hard and fast with Wayland support!

    There’s been experimental work on bringing the GNOME Shell and Mutter to Wayland/Weston, but nothing that’s been merged yet and ready for GNOME desktop users. The GTK3 tool-kit does have Wayland support and it’s continuing to be improved. Rather than GNOME jumping on the Mir bandwagon, they want to move now at a vicious rate in supporting Wayland.

Distributions

• Kali Linux Is A Security-Testing Suite

• Debian Family

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Dell, Canonical tag team on Ubuntu Server tune-up for PowerEdgies

        Enterprises don’t want to just know that an operating system will run on a piece of iron, they want to know who they are entitled to yell at when it stops working properly. And that’s why a new support agreement has been inked between Canonical, the commercial entity behind the Ubuntu Server distribution of Linux, and Dell, one of the largest server makers in the world.

        As David Duffey, director of technical partnerships at Canonical, explained in a blog post announcing the expanded relationship between the two companies, Dell fired up reference architectures for the PowerEdge-C density-optimized servers back in July 2011, and the following May these reference architectures were tweaked to support Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, the long-term support variant of Ubuntu that most enterprise customers go with for their iron.

      • Ubuntu Linux gets a new official flavor

        Ubuntu fans may recall Ubuntu GNOME Remix, the unofficial flavor of the Linux distribution that was launched last fall for users not fond of the software’s default Unity desktop environment.

      • More Mir Talking Points Come Out Of Canonical

        With the start of another week comes another round of information on the Mir Display Server out of Canonical.

        Mark Shuttleworth shared on Google+ a post by Christopher Halse Rogers about the Canonical motives for working on Mir. Interestingly, Mark claims, “Contrary to competitor FUD, from people who are not working as openly as they would have you believe, Mir is more likely to enable high-quality graphics for ALL flavours of Ubuntu, and any distro that chooses it. Graphics vendors have been happy to engage and ensure it works well on all architectures.”

      • Shuttleworth Comments On Future Ubuntu Releases

      • Ubuntu, Shuttleworth & rolling releases

        Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company, has an ambitious plan with a short time-frame: One operating system for computers, smartphones, tablets and TVs by early 2014. One problem with this is how do you get there fast enough and one answer, rolling releases, has got developers upset. Now, Canonical and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has a new proposal on how to handle rolling releases.

      • Ubuntu Linux Gets Certified on Dell 12G Servers

      • Dell, Canonical announce new Ubuntu 12.04 support for servers

      • Devs tease early screenshots of Ubuntu Touch Core Apps

        Ubuntu developer Michael Hall has posted screenshots of early versions of what Canonical is calling the “Core Apps” for Ubuntu Touch, the new flavor of the popular Linux distribution that’s being rewritten to run on mobile devices as well as PCs.

        There wasn’t much you could actually do with Ubuntu Touch when Canonical released the Developer Preview firmware images in February. The OS would boot, it supported basic internet access over Wi-Fi, and you could place calls with the smartphone version, but most of the preinstalled “apps” were actually just placeholders for software that had yet to be written.

        But according to Hall, work is already underway to build a set of apps to handle most of the everyday functions users expect from their phones and fondleslabs.

      • Dell, Canonical Partner on Ubuntu for PowerEdge Servers

      • Early apps for touch-based Ubuntu reveal a mostly clean aesthetic

      • New Ubuntu Spinoff Extends Life of Legacy Hardware

        It’s easy to assume, from the stunning rate at which OEMs roll out newer and better versions of PCs, phones, tablets and other popular hardware, that few consumers want to hold on to aging devices. But if a new community-based spinoff of Ubuntu named LXLE is any indication, there are those who are, in fact, keen on keeping legacy computers running–even if it means building the requisite software themselves.

Devices/Embedded

• Tiny computer module boasts 1.65GHz AMD APU, Linux

  AndersDX is shipping a miniature computer-on-module (COM) based on a dual-core 1.65GHz AMD G-Series APU. The CM-iGT provides rich graphics and multimedia capabilities and is supported with embedded Linux.

  The CM-iGT’s AMD G-Series APU integrates a dual-core, 64-bit x86 CPU clocked at up to 1.65GHz (depending on board model). The module also supports up to 4GB DDR3 DRAM and up to 32GB flash onboard memory.

• Phones

  • Ballnux

    • HTC’s Mackenzie: We’re embracing our role as a challenger to Samsung, Apple

      HTC is searching for a comeback. After selling 43.2 million phones in 2011, according to research firm Gartner, HTC saw sales slide in 2012 down to 32.1 million units amid intense competition from the likes of Samsung Electronics and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at the high end and Huawei and ZTE at the lower end of the market. HTC is plotting a return to prominence on the back of the HTC One, the Taiwanese smartphone maker’s latest flagship device. At the recent Mobile World Congress trade show, FierceWireless Editor Phil Goldstein talked with Jason Mackenzie, HTC’s global president of sales, about the company’s brand, the software features of the One and how the company can get its smartphone swagger back. The following is an edited version of the conversation.

  • Android

    • Motorola X-Phone now rumored as Motorola NXT as new details emerge

    • Google shows off hacked speaking shoe at SXSW, promises it’s not getting into the footwear business

    • Sony Mobile makes headway with Xperia Z; to move to other platforms

      Sales of Sony Mobile Communications’ new high-end flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z, have been successful, which could help the vendor ramp up sales of its entry-level to mid-range Android smartphones as well as to speed up its deployment in other mobile platforms, according to sources in the handset supply chain.

    • Smarten up your TV with the $50 FAVI Android SmartStick

      If you picked up a new television over the last couple of years the chances are good that you weighed the option of a “smart” TV. Thanks to HDMI and a growing assortment of add-on products, those who opted for a standard model can now smarten their TV up. One such device that’s is worth considering the FAVI Entertainment SmartStick.

    • More information on the Motorola X — this time for real?

      This morning we brought you what initially appeared to be something approaching a realistic rumour regarding the Motorola X Phone. As it turns out, that news was largely unreliable and unsubstantiated rumour, and in respect of the imagery at least, provably false. You can see the pre-aged image used to create the fake as the article image; it’s clearly a (relatively) poorly made render.

    • Google’s Andy Rubin Steps Down As Android Boss

      Google’s Android boss is stepping down from his role.

      Sundar Pichai will take over the Android division at Google and run it in addition to his duties as the boss of the Chrome Web browser and Chrome operating system.

      Google CEO Larry Page said in an announcement that Rubin will “start a new chapter at Google,” but doesn’t specify what the new job will be.

    • Andy Rubin, Android’s founder, leaves project

      “Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google.”

Web Browsers

• Mozilla

  • Internet Advertising Bureau Doesn’t Like Mozilla’s Cookie-Blocking Plans

SaaS/Big Data

• IBM CEO Rometty Says Big Data Are the Next Great Natural Resource

  IBM CEO schools executives on how to make data-based decisions and predicts the decline of management by gut instinct.

• MIT Researchers’ Open Source Tool Can Optimize Databases in the Cloud

  In a steady fashion, almost all users of digital technology and devices are using open source, simply because so many open source software components help drive proprietary applications and platforms. The proliferation of open source components is starting to have a very positive effect on the cloud computing scene. As just one example, Netflix–which has a very robust cloud-based proprietary platform–has released Chaos Monkey and a number of other meaningful open source components that can make cloud deployments stronger.

  Now, news comes from MIT that researchers are open sourcing software components for cloud-based database-driven applications that could reduce hardware requirements by 95 percent while improving performance.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• LibreOffice 4.0 Delivers Numerous Upgrades

  LibreOffice 4.0 is now available to download with user interface enhancements, and a multitude of fun new features. Here I will review many of the new features for all the LibreOffice lovers out there. This release delivers a cleaner interface and all-around improved usability.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• MediaGoblin 0.3.3: Pixel Party

Project Releases

• ArtistX 1.4

Public Services/Government

• TN, UP, Rajasthan to splurge on proprietary software over open source; Microsoft, Adobe, Norton and McAfee get large govt orders

  India may have policy of preferring free and open source applications, but still the world’s largest software maker Microsoft and others, including Adobe, Norton and McAfee, have managed to weasel their way into some of the largest government purchases in the country’s history.

  Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are in the process of procuring over eight million laptops preloaded with proprietary software in clear violation of India’s national policy on information and communication technology and incurring avoidable expenditure of large sums of money, activists said.

• Open source to run on PCs donated by Italian bank and France’s La Poste

  Switching to free and open source software contributes to sustainability by making a more efficient use of computer hardware, allowing to use PCs for longer than when following proprietary software vendor’s upgrade cycle, two very recent examples show.

Openness/Sharing

• Open Access/Content

  • MIT’s role in Aaron Swartz prosecution assailed at memorial

    Friends, family and colleagues memorialized computer activist Aaron Swartz and put MIT’s role in his prosecution front and center on Tuesday afternoon at MIT Media Lab.

  • Startups And Innovators Speak Out In Favor Of Fixing CFAA

    The good folks over at the EFF have posted a letter from a group of startups and innovators to Congress seeking reform of the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act), which has been abused for years, most notably and recently, in the case against Aaron Swartz (full disclosure: I helped review the initial letter and helped the EFF get some of the signatures on the letter). This is important, because, as we have noted, plenty of innovators and entrepreneurs could have been charged under this law for some of their random hacking experiments, some of which directly led them to create amazing innovations.

  • Towards learning from losing Aaron Swartz

    When I learned that Aaron Swartz had taken his own life, I cried. I am still desperately sad, for him, his family, for the close friends who loved him, and for our community. We lost a rare and special person, one who did so much in his short life to make the world a better place. Any do-gooder, including myself, could be proud were we to accomplish as much. We don’t know what else he would have acheived were he to have lived. But I admit that I also cried for myself, because I felt guilty that I didn’t do more to help Aaron in his criminal case. This article is about part of that challenge, the challenge to improve computer crime laws, and the criminal justice system more generally. Hopefully in the end, there’ll be something that I, and you, can do about it.

  • Aaron Swartz Lawyers Accuse Prosecutor Stephen Heymann Of Misconduct

    Federal prosecutor Stephen Heymann engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by withholding key evidence from the defense team of Aaron Swartz, the late Internet activist’s legal team alleged in a letter to an internal Justice Department ethics unit.

Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio Of Buenos Aires, Elected Leader Of Catholic Church

Google Reader Axed, Shutting Down July 1st

Security

• Pentagon creating teams to launch cyberattacks as threat grows

• Businesses prepare for cyberattacks, in secret

  A group of New Zealand organisations responsible for critical infrastructure have established voluntary standards for the security of such systems against digital attack.

  The New Zealand Cyber Security Voluntary Standards for Industrial Control Systems were devised with the support of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

• You Only Click Twice: FinFisher’s Global Proliferation

  …FinSpy Mobile sample found in the wild, which appears to have been used in Vietnam.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• ‘Iran can’t covertly produce atomic bomb’ – US intelligence chief

• ‘What Palestinians Said Was Israeli Aggression’: The Death of Omar al-Masharawi

  And the Associated Press noted that the UN “couldn’t ‘unequivocally conclude’ that the death was caused by an errantly fired Palestinian rocket.”

  The BBC (3/11/13) casts doubt on the attribution of the infant’s death to a Palestinian rocket, noting “that the Israeli military had reported no rockets being fired out of Gaza so soon after the start of the conflict.” It also pointed out that UN team, arriving four weeks after the attack, “did not carry out a forensic investigation, but said their team did not think the damage was consistent with an Israeli air strike.” Al-Masharawi’s father, for his part, calls the UN finding “rubbish.”

• Tiny, Suicidal Drone/Missile Mashup Is Part of U.S.’ Afghanistan Arsenal

• Interview: ‘The Terror Factory: Inside The FBI’s Manufactured War On Terrorism’

  But the problem with that is that Ali Soufan, in his review, and other agents I’ve talked to, consistently cite Faisal Shahzad, for example — he’s the man who came close to bombing Times Square — or Najibullah Zazi, who came close to bombing the subway system. They cite these men as examples of real terrorists and why sting operations are so necessary.

  But the problem with their argument, I think, is that neither of those men was actually caught in a terrorism sting operation. To date, we have yet to find the real would-be terrorist: Someone who was about to strike, who had the weapon, who had the means, who is thwarted by a sting operation.

• Chinese authorities crack down on 18-day village uprising over landgrabs

  Chinese authorities have violently cracked down on an 18-day uprising over landgrabs in a southern Chinese village, arresting nine people and hospitalising dozens.

  This weekend, security forces stormed the village of Shangpu, a farming community of 3,000 in southern Guangdong province, cut the electricity supply and phone service, beat demonstrators and fired tear gas into crowds, injuring 30 to 40 people.

• US Still Fighting “Threat” of Liberation Theology

  As just one example, an Embassy cable from June 9, 2009, explains how the former Colombian analogue of the FBI, the DAS, had been spying on and “Neutralizing” (a code word which can include actions up to assassination) particular human rights groups, including Father Giraldo’s group, the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (“CIJP” or “Justicia y Paz”). (12) This cable noted that this surveillance has been ordered by the then-President of Colombia himself, Alvaro Uribe. The cable noted that the “[s]urveillance included physical monitoring of individuals and their families (including minor children), phone and email intercepts, and collection of sensitive financial data. The unit appears to have also taken active measures to disrupt opposition events and intimidate human rights activists. . . . Journalists and human rights activists claim the surveillance [which began in 2004-2005] continues.” (emphasis added).

  One must seriously wonder whether, indeed, this state policy of “neutralizing” the CIJP continues even now, and whether the recent assassination attempt upon Father Alberto Franco of the CIJP on February 13, 2013, was indeed carried out pursuant to this policy. I myself will say for the record that should any further ill befall Father Franco or any other priest associated with the CIJP, the Colombian state and its U.S. backer must be held responsible.

• Navy Linguist Faces Additional Charge of Violating Espionage Act

  A Navy contract linguist charged with two counts of violating the Espionage Act by unlawfully retaining “national defense information” has been hit with a third charge of violating the law.

  James F. Hitselberger was working in Bahrain as a translator. A document collector, as Secrecy News’ Steven Aftergood describes, Hitselberger is a “peripatetic collector of rare documents.” In his living quarters, where a “classified document was allegedly found in April” of 2012, newspapers and numerous books could be found. Some of his “discoveries over the years” have been donated “to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, which actually maintains a James F. Hitselberger Collection.” The collection includes “political posters and leaflets that he gathered in pre-revolutionary Iran.”

• White House Changing Story on Anwar al-Awlaki? A Debate on NYT’s Inside Account of ’11 Drone Strike

  NASSER AL-AULAQI: I want Americans to know about my grandson, that he was very nice boy. He was very caring boy for his family, for his mother, for his brothers. He was born in August 1995 in the state of Colorado, city of Denver. He was raised in America, when he was a child until he was seven years old. And I never thought that one day this boy, this nice boy, will be killed by his own government.

• CIA Boosts Support for Iraqi Militias

  The White House has directed the CIA to increase its cooperation and backing of Iraqi state militias to fight al-Qaeda affiliates there and cut off the flow of fighters pouring into Syria.

• What, no Bible? Conservatives angered that Brennan took oath on Constitution

• CIA Director Brennan sworn in on Constitution instead of Bible (Photos)

• CIA Director John Brennan Turns Down Bible, Takes Oath Of Office On Constitution

  While there is nothing that prevents officials from being sworn in on a Bible, there’s certainly nothing wrong with following Brennan’s example and honoring the U.S. Constitution. Doing so not only sends a positive message, it frees government from giving the appearance of religious favoritism.

  When CIA Director John Brennan placed his hand on a copy of the U.S. Constitution last week to take his oath of office, did he defy the very document on which he swore? Absolutely not.

• “Scientific Assassinations” Are Part of the CIA’s Modus Operandi

  Carroll also wrote that Chavez, himself, believed that the cancers that befell former leftist leaders of Latin America, including Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, diagnosed with colon cancer and Brazilian President Ignacio Lula da Silva, treated for throat cancer, were part of a CIA plot directed against left-wing leaders. Curiously, Carroll suggests that Uruguay’s former leftist president, Tabare Vazquez, also recovered from cancer.

• “Poison Dart”: Secret CIA Weapon of Assassination, Triggers Heart Attack

  The astonishing information about this secret weapon of the CIA comes from U.S. Senate testimony in 1975 on rogue activities of the CIA. This weapon is only one of many James Bond-like discoveries of the Church Committee hearings, officially known as the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities.

• Afghan Student Details Capture, Torture by CIA ‘Strike Force’

  Qayum reported that the strike force put a black hood over his head and took him to an “undisclosed location” where he was beaten and asked if he knew any “Taliban commanders.” They also asked if he could help them capture a neighbor from his home village.

• The last surviving conspirator against Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler dies, age 90

  Ewald von Kleist, the last surviving member of a group of German officers who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944, has died at age 90. After the war von Kleist played a prominent role in transatlantic relations.

• Rare first editions saved from Nazi book burnings returned to Austria after 75 years

  George Newman (formerly Hans Neumann) was 14 when he fled Vienna, fearing Nazi persecution, for England in 1938. Now, 75 years later, he has returned to Austria for a ceremony at the National Library, where he has donated hundreds of books and documents back to the Austrian nation which would otherwise have been burned by the Nazi regime.

• U.S. Must Have Checks On Drone Killings

  John Brennan, newly confirmed director of the CIA, assured Americans in a speech last year on targeted killing that there is “absolutely nothing casual” about the process of targeted killing, including that of American citizens. He included in this the use of remotely controlled drone airplanes that have been used to strike and kill people identified as al-Qaida terrorists.

• Drones: over there, over here?

  Congress is considering hearings into the use of deadly drones against terrorists, including U.S. citizens, overseas. It should expand its oversight to cover the entire subject of drones and their long-term implications.

  What matters immediately is the Obama administration’s indefensible secrecy about targeted killings overseas, particularly when U.S. citizens are the targets.

• How To Regulate Drones

  I started to think about the intersection of robotics and the law in earnest a few years ago when I left private practice. In 2011, I came to the conclusion that drones had the potential to create a new Warren and Brandeis moment. Some combination of our visceral reaction to robotic technology, our fascination with flight, and our association of drones with the theater of war could, I thought, trigger a reexamination of privacy law. Drones have indeed captured the public imagination. And we are entering something of a policy window, to borrow a concept from Priscilla Regan. But just how citizens and lawmakers ultimately come down on the domestic use of drones remains to be seen. In this post, I will talk about what I think are the worst and best ways to regulate drones with respect to privacy.

• Americans killed by American drones

Cablegate

• Zimbabwe: Draft Constitution, Sanctions, Violence, Wikileaks

  But then Mr Mugabe does not think that way. Perhaps he doesn’t have confidence in his own party which is populated with some of the most treacherous and most weird people in the whole wide world! Mugabe knows he can trust them at his own risk especially with the Willowgate Scandal, War Victims’ Compensation Fund looting, Wikileaks and their general incompetence in mind.

• “WikiLeaks had widespread ramifications”

  From the information movement initiated by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange triggering political revolutions and the “Right to Know” becoming common parlance, WikiLeaks has had “widespread ramifications across the world”, said Australian human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson on Tuesday. Ms. Robinson, who is a member of Mr. Assange’s legal team, was participating in a round-table discussion here involving activists, lawyers and journalists.

• Protest in support of Bradley Manning in Kabul, Afghanistan

• WikiLeaks: recording of Bradley Manning court testimony leaked

• Leaked Audio of Bradley Manning’s statement released by Freedom of the Press Foundation

• Defying court’s rules, anti-secrecy group posts tape of Bradley Manning statement

• Finally: hear Bradley Manning in his own voice

  A full audio recording of the whistleblower is released today despite a court prohibition on such recordings

• Group releases Bradley Manning court audio

• Daniel Ellsberg: In Hearing Bradley Manning Act Out of Conscience, Secret Tape Refutes Media Slander

  To discuss Bradley Manning’s recorded court statement that was recently leaked to the press, we’re joined by perhaps the country’s most famous whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, the secret history of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. “What we’ve heard are people like The New York Times who have consistently slandered him … that he was vague and couldn’t think of specific instances that had led him to inform the American people of injustices,” Ellsberg says. “The American people can now, for the first time, hear Bradley in his own words, emotionally and in the greatest specific detail, tell what it was that he felt that needed revelation.” [includes rush transcript]

• Bradley Manning Speaks: In Leaked Court Recording, Army Whistleblower Tells His Story for First Time

• Freedom of the Press Foundation Publishes Leaked Audio of Bradley Manning’s Statement

• A Salute to Bradley Manning, Whistleblower, As We Hear His Words for the First Time

• A Salute to Bradley Manning, Whistleblower, As We Hear His Words For The First Time

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• Good report on Federal wildlife torture from a surprising source

  The story covers an investigation that was spurred, in part, by revelations that USDA “Wildlife Services” employee Jamie P. Olson had posted photos of his dogs tearing trapped coyotes to pieces on Facebook. (Previously, on Pharyngula.) The issue’s been kept on the front burner by my colleague Camilla Fox at Project Coyote; she and her organization deserve your attention and support.

• Mali and Canadian mining in Africa

  The UK has just agreed to send 40 troops and another $5 million to support the French led operation and Harper is due to renew his contribution to the takeover on March 14. Other African nations have also begun to mobilize troops.

Finance

• SEC Eyes Rules to Fight Trading Glitches

  The Securities and Exchange Commission took a step to curtail the chance computer glitches disrupt markets, proposing rules that also would impose standards for the electronic architecture of private trading venues known as dark pools.

• The Government Has It Bass-Ackwards: Failing To Prosecute Criminal Fraud by the Big Banks Is Killing – NOT Saving – the Economy

Censorship

• European Parliament Just Voted To Ban Porn, But Refrains From Extending Scope To Internet Following Protests, And Hides Who Vote

• European Parliament Decides Not To Ban Internet Porn

• World Day Against Cyber Censorship

  The Internet and social networks have been conclusively established as tools for protest, campaigning, and circulating information, and as vehicles for advancing human rights and democratic values. The aim of the day is to defend human rights online, promote Internet accessibility for all, and expose enemies of Internet openness — along with governments that are gradually becoming more controlling over how their citizens use the Internet.

• Director: NSA bans film on Egyptian Jews

Privacy

• EXCLUSIVE – U.S. to let spy agencies scour Americans’ finances

• Boeing Declares War on Privacy in Washington State

  Washington state has led the way in many respects when it comes to the drone issue, something I highlighted recently in my article: Just Say NO: Seattle Residents Kill the City’s Drone Program. It’s not just Seattle though, there is a bi-partisan bill in the Washington state legislature, H.B. 1771, which limits drone use within the entire state. The bill has already passed its House Committee hearing and, as expected, the state’s corporate overlords have started to fight back. Specifically, Boeing. From the Examiner:

• Era of the digital mercenaries

  “My computer was arrested before I was.” This perceptive comment was made by a Syrian activist who had been arrested and tortured by the Assad regime. Caught by means of online surveillance, Karim Taymour told a Bloomberg[1] journalist that, during interrogation, he was shown a stack of hundreds of pages of printouts of his Skype chats and files downloaded remotely from his computer hard drive. His torturers clearly knew as much as if they had been with him in his room, or more precisely, in his computer.

• The Second Great Crypto War

  The first great conflict over cryptography and state power happened in the 1990s. In one corner were cryptographers equipped with subtle math, digital technologies, and new ideas. In the other were the Clinton administration and its National Security Agency (NSA), which sought to maintain and extend the federal government’s control over cryptography. They struggled over the concept that cryptography could be classified as munitions, over requirements to include NSA-friendly chips in communication hardware, and, in general, over the shape of post–Cold War security.

• Hackers Attack Bank Minutes After NSA Chief Warns Senate About Hackers Attacking Banks

  The general wasn’t kidding. Within an hour or so of Alexander’s testimony reports that Chase Bank’s website had been hacked started to bubble up. Shortly before 7 p.m. Chase confirmed to CNBC that they had indeed been targeted. Hackers hit Chase with — you guessed it — a DOS attack, bringing down the company’s website. It’s unclear if any customer data was compromised. It’s also absolutely unclear if the hack has anything to do with the series of hearings in the Senate on Tuesday that mention cyber security and the threat of a cyber attack. Hacking into a bank’s website right after the head of the NSA warns the Senate about hackers hacking into banks’ websites is certainly a clever way to win attention.

• Talking leadership with NSA’s deputy director

• NSA Whistleblower Drake to Speak at NPC Luncheon

  This coming Friday, March 15, Government Accountability Project (GAP) client and National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Tom Drake will speak at a luncheon at the National Press Club (NPC).

  This event is part of the NPC’s involvement in Sunshine Week, a national initiative promoting open government and transparency.

  Drake will speak at 1:00 p.m., and a lunch preceding his remarks will be served at 12:30 p.m. Tickets are required for this event; more information about this and other details can be found on the NPC webpage. Journalists can also submit questions to Drake in advance, with instructions to do so contained on the NPC page.

• Is This What Google Really Thinks About Privacy?

  His “ruminations” may indeed be his personal thoughts, and not official Google policy, but for that very reason represent his real opinions of issues, not just the public gloss that is put upon them. Given his pivotal role at Google when it comes to privacy, it is likely that the Google management team largely share those views – otherwise they would presumably have fired Fleischer and found someone else they felt more comfortable with. Thus his frank comments probably provide us with tantalising glimpses of what Google really thinks about privacy.

• Apple Can’t Duck Giving Documents in Privacy Lawsuit

  Apple Inc. (AAPL) must show in detail how it’s complying with court orders to turn over evidence in a privacy lawsuit, a judge ruled, saying he can no longer rely on what the company tells him in the case.

  U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal in San Jose, California, issued the order after the plaintiffs’ lawyers claimed Apple withheld documents it had previously been ordered to produce. Apple is accused in the lawsuit of collecting data on the locations of customers through iPhones, even after the device’s geo-location feature was turned off.

• JUDGE SLAMS APPLE IN PRIVACY SUIT, SAYS HE CAN NO LONGER TAKE WHAT COMPANY SAYS AT FACE VALUE

• Apple finally fixes App Store flaw by turning on encryption

  Company moves to protect its iOS customers from security and privacy attacks over Wi-Fi by turning on encryption, at least half a year after being alerted to the problem.

Civil Rights

• Gov’t won’t even give page counts of secret PATRIOT Act documents

  Lawsuits challenging government secrecy have fared pretty terribly in the post-9/11 era, with the most recent example being the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that a group of journalists and activists have no right to sue over the FISA spying law.

  Only a few cases of this sort are left, including two Bay Area lawsuits being pushed forward by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. One is the San Francisco case over NSA wiretapping, which the government is trying to shut down using the “state secrets” privilege. The other is EFF’s case demanding to see documents about how the government is interpreting Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act.

• US court says feds need reasonable suspicion to search laptops at borders

DRM

• Disappointing: Tim Berners-Lee Defends DRM In HTML 5

  Berners-Lee is so good on so many issues (most of his talk seemed to be about the importance of openness) that this response really stands out as not fitting with his general view of the world. Cory Doctorow has responded eloquently to TBL, explaining why he should be against the DRM proposal.

  [...]

  The Big Content guys have been seeking to remake the web in their image (i.e., “TV”) for over a decade now, still believing that they’re the main reason people get online. They’re not. There’s room for them within the ecosystem, but professional broadcast-quality content is just a part of the system, not the whole thing. If the world moves to HTML5 without DRM, the content guys will whine about it… and then follow. Especially as the more knowledgeable and forward-looking content creators jump in and succeed.

• What I wish Tim Berners-Lee understood about DRM

  Adding DRM to the HTML standard will have far-reaching effects, incompatible with the W3C’s most important policies

• Netflix kills third party app platform, current apps will continue to work

  In a blog post with the understated (to say the least) title “Changes to the Public API Program,” Netflix has announced that it’s shutting down its public API program. Effectively, that means that no new apps that take advantage of the data Netflix used to provide — for example, for searching for new shows and movies to watch — will be possible. Netflix director of engineering, Daniel Jacobson, writes that “existing and active affiliates” will still have access to Netflix’s APIs, so any third-party apps you currently use should still work as normally. Along with the changes, Netflix has set its developer forum to “read-only,” shut down its “OData catalog” for programmatically accessing Netflix’s catalog, and directed all developers to Stack Overflow for their questions.

• NEW PHONE UNLOCKING BILL

Intellectual Monopolies

• Mexico Will Ask To Join US-EU Transatlantic Trade Agreement

  That suggests that the US is actively involved in this latest move — maybe even its instigator — and would look favorably on Mexico joining TAFTA. There’s also a hint in the article quoted above that Canada too might join TAFTA. Having both Mexico and Canada on board would be consistent with the US’s past approach, where it allowed them to join the TPP negotiations, but on fairly humiliating terms that limit their scope of action.

  Whether or not Mexico and Canada become part of TAFTA, and under what terms, it’s pretty clear what the US strategy here is. Just today we learned that South Korea is likely to join Japan in asking to sign up to the TPP talks. That would make TPP the defining international agreement for the entire Pacific region. TAFTA obviously aims to do the same for the Atlantic. As well as establishing the US as the key link between the giant TPP and TAFTA blocs, this double-headed approach would also isolate the main emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India and above all China — if they refuse to join as presumably junior partners. That globe-spanning pair of trade pacts, it would seem, are what Obama hopes to be remembered for when he leaves office: his legacy to America — and to history.

• Copyrights

  • Canadian Delusions: ACTA Supporters Pretend It’s Just About Counterfeit Goods

    One of the nastier tricks of copyright maximalists has been to lump together “counterfeiting” with “copyright infringement” in an effort to conveniently jump back and forth when making silly arguments. Basically, they can argue that copyright infringement is a huge issue, because of the massive amount of unauthorized sharing that happens online. But they have a lot of trouble showing real harm. On the other side, counterfeiting really isn’t that big of a problem when you look closely at the details, but there are a few, extremely limited cases (faulty counterfeit airplane parts, some fake drugs) where there could be real harm. So if you lump them all together you can claim “massive problems” with “real harm.” But that doesn’t work if you look at them individually.

    We recently wrote about some Canadian politicians introducing a bill to get Canada in compliance with ACTA, despite the fact that ACTA has been totally discredited around the globe. Some political opponents are now pushing back on that, calling the bill in question an attempt to get ACTA in “through the backdoor.” However, in response Canadian Industry Minister, Christian Paradis, just keeps repeating the “counterfeiting” mantra and ignoring the entire ACTA elephant in the room.

  • WordPress to fight “legally deficient and objectionable” Prenda subpoena

    Porn-trolling firm Prenda Law recently made another baffling move in a retaliatory defamation suit against its online critics: the firm sent a subpoena to Automattic, WordPress’ parent company, demanding a list of all of the IP addresses that have visited the anti-troll websites DieTrollDie and Fight Copyright Trolls, both of which are powered by WordPress. Prenda’s lawyer Paul Duffy wrote to Automattic in a letter accompanying the subpoena, “Due to the emergency nature of the requested information, it is imperative that your organization responds to the subpoena immediately.”

  • Copyright Trolls to Judge: Nope! We’re Not Coming to Scary Hearing