02.25.09

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers
• Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

GNU/Linux

• Microsoft CEO Scoffs at Mac Share Gains

  Steve has a surprising view of the computing universe to put Linux before Apple. Most certainly, Linux’s larger server share puts it overall ahead of Mac OS. But Steve wasn’t talking about server here, but Windows client. So why rank Apple behind Linux?

• The Windows-versus-Linux server face-off

  Regarding migration of current workloads, 43 percent of respondents in a Gartner survey at a Linux-oriented conference anticipated migrating mostly from Unix to Linux, 13 percent said they would migrate mostly from Windows to Linux, and only 4 percent said they would switch off Linux to go to Windows. Twenty-one percent had no plans to migrate workloads.

• Adobe AIR 1.5.1 Released

  Today we released Adobe AIR 1.5.1, a relatively minor update that includes a number of bug fixes. The new builds are available for Windows, Mac and Linux on the Adobe AIR download center.

• Pleora adds Linux enhancement to GigE SDK

  Pleora Technologies has unveiled new capabilities for its iPORT software development kit for customers with Linux operating systems. With Version 3.0.0 of the iPORT Vision Suite for Linux, Pleora’s iPORT SDK now allows Linux-based GigE imaging programs to run on 64-bit architectures, effectively doubling the level of processing power available to Linux developers.

• VMworld Europe : vCenter now available as a beta for Linux

  The announcement was expected since last Fall, when VMware revealed during VMworld that the company was hard at work on a linux version of its administration console, Virtual Center. The wait is now over : vCenter Server for Linux is available as a beta.

• Carmack: Quake Live on Mac, Linux ‘high on my priority list’

  Don’t worry Mac and Linux gamers: Though the public beta of Quake Live that opened its doors yesterday only supports Windows, id Software’s John Carmack tells Joystiq that “it’s pretty high on my priority list to have the Mac and Linux support.”

• ZaReason: An Amazing Attack of Linux Cluefulness

  Genuine cluefulness in any business is a rare pleasure, and that is why I like ZaReason so much. ZaReason sells Linux boxes: desktop, server, netbook, and pretty much whatever you want, just ask. I first “met” Cathy Malmrose, the CEO of ZaReason, on the Linuxchix mailing lists, but her business didn’t really grab my attention until I heard about their Ubuntu keyboard.

• FOSDEM Video: Listening, Asking, Testing at the Conference

  Linux Magazine Online takes you out for a walk at FOSDEM 2009 in Brussels.

• What to say to your children when they can no longer use windows on the PC

  If children know Linux and get in contact with it at a young age, they might become very experienced computer users. And Linux system administrators are better paid then windows administrators. Furthermore they will have a better life as Linux users than as windows users. No spyware and bloatware to keep them back in life.

  This are just some of the things you can tell your children when they are unhappy about you throwing out windows.

• Lists

  • Linux podcasts: Five of the best

    FLOSS Weekly

    [...]

    Sourcetrunk

    [...]

    Ubuntu UK Podcast

    [...]

    Going Linux

    [...]

    The Linux Action Show

  • Top 50 Linux Alternatives to Popular Apps

    Linux is quickly gaining popularity, but there are still many users afraid to convert as they are not familiar with the applications. Today our Linux guru Blair Mathis is back to introduce fifty of the most popular applications on this OS

• Installfests

  • HeliOS Project Brings Linux Technology to the East Side

    The 4 distros for this particular install were Ubuntu Ulitimate, OpenSuse, Mint and AntiX. The main room center will more than likely be uniform installs of Ultimate Ubuntu. That will make teaching classes a bit easier and lessen confusion.

  • Linux Install Fest at Dishaa ‘09

    ‘Linux Install Fest’ will be held as part of Dishaa ‘09, the annual event of the Computer Science Department of the Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, on February 28 and March 1 at Kanakakkunnu Palace. The fest is being organised in association with the Free Software Users Group (FSUG).

• Graphical Effects

  • Eye Candy: Pimping the Gnome Desktop on Ubuntu

    If there’s one thing Linux is better at than any other operating system, it’s allowing you to pimp the desktop.

  • Why are so many windows stiff?

    It was said that windows are one’s eyes to the world. And for so many years in my computing growth, I was convinced that there was only one way to look at the world. When I discovered Linux, I never thought that I would have a completely different perspective of The Road Ahead. But it was not until 2004 that I started to get serious about Linux. And when I first installed PCLinuxOS, I knew for certain what I wanted.

    Looking around my peers and their Windows and OSX, I cannot help but wonder what sort of user experiences they were getting? If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that they were trapped at a time when innovation had failed them. Sure, some of them take the extra steps to catch up with time but their ways and additions seemed superficial.

    My first view of an average user’s desktop experience was in|situ|’s Metisse and Sun/Java.Net’s 3D Looking Glass.

    [...]

    The technology may seem just another eye candy to some users, but I can assure you that aside from making your OS extremely … let me highlight that word again – EXTREMELY … beautiful, functionalities are abundant and for one thing it makes organizing ones desktop much easier. Of course, like learning to use a new application, it takes getting used to before it could even be totally appreciated.

• Kernel Space

  • The Phoronix Test Suite Gets A GUI

    Since releasing the Phoronix Test Suite to the public a year ago, one of the most popular feature requests has been for a graphical user interface. The Phoronix Test Suite is not exactly difficult to use from a command line, but this feature has been in development for Phoronix Test Suite 2.0. However, with this morning’s release of Phoronix Test Suite 1.8.0 Alpha 2, a preview of this GUI has been introduced. Those testing Linux, OpenSolaris, BSD, and Mac OS X systems now have a simple yet intuitive interface for facilitating their system benchmarks.

  • X Server 1.6.0 Has Been Released

    Version 1.3 of the Resize and Rotate extension in X Server 1.6 supports projective transformations, panning, and other new options. More details on that can be found in our RandR 1.3 Explained, Demonstrated article along with a video showing some of the RandR 1.3 features. DRI2, of course, allows a number of new features such as the ability to enable direct rendering to redirected windows.

  • Getting Acquainted With the ext4 File System

    The majority of computer users don’t spend much time thinking about the file system their operating system uses. Granted, people installing alternative operating systems might give more consideration to the available file systems than the general population — unless there’s a specific need for a certain file system, many go with their distribution’s default option.

  • The Future of Linux File Systems and Volume Managers

    This is a topic I can be extremely passionate about. I enjoy working with data storage technologies and especially enjoy topics on file systems/volume managers. It is true when they say, “Once you get into data storage it is difficult getting out.” That is because the industry is fascinating. Working with enterprise class equipment is an experience that cannot be forgotten. We are talking about rack mountable blade servers, RAID and JBOD storage arrays working with SCSI-based technologies such as Fibre Channel, SAS (SATA under the SAS), protocol analyzers and more. And that is only the hardware. Step into the software aspect of it such as High Availability, i.e. Clustering, Dynamic Multipathing, Load Balancing, things tend to get a bit more exciting.

• Distributions

  • Debian Lenny: Returning Home to the Mothership

    Lenny looks and works just fine on my system, and it is noticeably peppier. Maybe that’s from using the nv driver; whatever it is, screen redraws and moving windows do not have the lag that Kubuntu and Ubuntu do, and scrolling Web pages is smoother and faster.

  • The Beginner’s Guide to Linux, Part 1: Finding the Right Distribution

    We are certain that many of you want to try Linux to see what it is like, but have no idea where to start or how to get into it. This article is the first installment in a four-part guide that will gradually introduce you to the Linux environment and how to adjust to it if you are a new user.

    One of the hardest things to do while starting out is finding a distro that is right for you. Many users try several before settling on one of two that they really like. Once they find a distro that feels right, they are often reluctant to switch unless the distro becomes unsuitable for their needs for whatever reason.

  • Review: Mepis 8.0

    I AM a little conflicted about Mepis.

    It is part of the family of Debian-based Linux distributions which I tend to favour, and it is a distribution I used for quite a lengthy period in the past.

    Plus, there is much to like about version 8.0, released recently to coincide with the launch of its parent distribution, Debian 5.0 ‘Lenny’.

  • Linux forensics – Part 1: Helix

    Helix is a highly useful toolbox. The dual mode is especially valuable, since quite a few system administrators are not that proficient in Linux. Furthermore, it allows Helix users to approach Windows-related problems with several methods, first trying to cope with problems while still logged in Windows and then escalating to the Linux live CD mode.

    Helix is a stable, complete package, with a broad range of great utilities that will significantly increase your ability to respond to problems, threats and incidents in your environment.

  • Red Hat

    • Fedora 10 regains Linux fans

      I know personally, I’m been very impressed by Fedora 10. This edition of Fedora is the first one in years to have won a long-term place on my Linux desktop line-up in my office/lab. While I have over two-dozen computers that I use for evaluations, that still isn’t enough. So I only keep operating systems around that I think are either truly useful or matter to many users. Fedora makes it on both accounts.

      I suspect too that Red Hat, which is re-entering the Linux desktop market, has been working hard to improve Fedora as a desktop system for the last few months. From where I sit, it’s certainly Red Hat’s best desktop in years.

    • Fedora Users Gather In Berlin for LinuxTag And Fedora 11 Development

      The Fedora Project, a Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration project, announced today that the Fedora Project will host the Fedora Users and Developers Conference (FUDCon) between June 26-28, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. FUDCon is a periodically held, community event where the Fedora community meets to discuss and collaborate on cutting edge technology features that eventually become part of the next release of the Fedora platform.

    • Red Hat Fedora Linux 10 nears 1 million user mark

      When combined with other actively used Fedora distributions as of Feb 16, 2009, Fedora’s counting method reports 12,188,598 Fedora Linux installations across Fedora 7,8,9 and 10 releases.

    • Red Hat upgrades its mission

      Red Hat has long been the big Kahuna in open-source software, but a new mission statement points to an even bigger role for the company.

      Red Hat has long billed itself as “the defining technology company of the 21st century (seeking) through (its) actions (to) strengthen the social fabric by continually democratizing content and technology.”

  • Ubuntu

    • Ubuntu 9.04′s New Login Screen

      Ubuntu 9.04 is getting closer and closer to the final release and we thought that it would be nice to give you guys a sneak peek at some of the upcoming features. The new version of Ubuntu will be released in less than two months, on April 23rd, and it will be dubbed Jaunty Jackalope. One of these new features was introduced with tonight’s updates and it is a brand new login screen a.k.a. GDM (GNOME Display Manager) theme, which is black and has a nice Ubuntu logo in the right bottom corner. The new login screen is entitled “Human” and it was created by Kenneth Wimer and Mat Tomaszewski for Canonical.

    • Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 34

    • Startup Adds Ubuntu as OS for Unified Communications

      Unison now offers both desktop and server versions of its unified communications software on Ubuntu Linux. Unison’s software, which runs exclusively on Linux server OSes but can run on either a Linux or Windows desktop, already runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS.

    • Subtle Improvements In Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 5

      Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 5 should be out tomorrow (or Friday if there are any last minute delays) while the final alpha will be out in mid-March. The final release of Ubuntu 9.04 is scheduled for the 23rd of April.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Media player targets embedded Linux devices

    Embedded development firm NthCode announced a media player for IP-ready DVD players, TVs, and other Linux-based devices. NthCode Player automatically connects to home networks, and then catalogs all available media, offering WebKit browser access to media, plus feeds from BitTorrent and RSS, says the company.

  • Tiny X86 COM runs Debian, supports IPv6

    SSV announced an x86-compatible computer-on-module (COM) that measures 3.2 by 1.1-inches (81 x 28mm), and targets TCP/IPv4-6 embedded networking applications. Attaching to custom I/O boards via “DIL” (dual in line) sockets, the DIL/NetPC DNP/2486 runs an IPv6-ready Debian Linux stack on a 300MHz Vortex86SX system-on-chip (SoC).

  • Freescale to unveil handheld SoC at user conference

    MontaVista is once again collaborating with Freescale on training for the five global events. The Linux tools and operating system firm has been an FTF sponsor since the program’s inception. Additionally, the two companies previously partnered on a multi-country road show, in which they demonstrated their combined products.

  • Kindle

    • Kindle’s Feeling Reviewers’ Love

      As Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) ships the second version of its popular e-reader Kindle, the reviews flowing in so far are waxing warm and fuzzy about device enhancements — even though they are nearly silent on price.

    • Amazon’s E-Book Strategy Re-Kindles Debate on Open Standards

      In addition to various DRM arrangements and licensing, many other proprietary e-book formats are out on the market, like eReader. Many are pushing some open formats, such as the International Digital Publishing Forum’s ePub to become a universal standard in the industry.

    • 5 Reasons Why I Bought a Kindle 2

      Until the release of this version of the Kindle, I hadn’t been particularly interested in buying one. Frankly, I thought the first Kindle was ugly and a rather stupid idea. I chuckled and snorted with derision when Amazon first announced it, sure that it would be just another e-book bomb like so many before it. But oddly enough, the Kindle turned out to be a reasonable success with around 500,000 estimated sales last year.

  • Phones

    • Sesca Unveils Open Source Qt-based Mobile Phone Stack

      The reference implementation uses Openmoko’s NeoFreerunner and features advanced touch screen and customizable graphical user interface (GUI). The Ample also offers versatile applications such as a multimedia player and communications tools.

    • Phone design runs Android

      Chinese mobile ODM (original design maker) Yuhua is shipping a hardware reference design for a smartphone that runs the Linux-based Android mobile stack. The Xphone-SDK runs Android on a 624MHz PXA-310 SoC, with 128MB SDRAM and 256MB of flash.

  • Sub-notebooks

    • Thin Acer Aspire One netbook suggests SSD, Linux

      Before Acer moved to 10-inch netbooks from 8.9-inch versions, it used such a slot to bolster the limited storage capacity for its SSD-equipped Aspire Ones.

    • Ubuntu 9.10 will have special focus on Netbooks

      Mark Shuttleworth, the founder and leader of Ubuntu, recently announced the next version of Ubuntu – Karmic Koala (v 9.10) will improve the Ubuntu experience on netbooks.

    • The EeePC as a low-power music player

      After one becomes used to a Linux-powered music system with unattended playback of a large music library, manually swapping individual CDs every 45 minutes seems like a lot of trouble.

Free Software/Open Source

• Hawking Open Source in Tough Times

  When budgets are tightening pretty much everywhere, selling businesses on new software systems is not an easy job. However, open source development and support firms are using the world’s economic malaise to underscore their value propositions, hoping cash-strapped companies may give free software a closer look.

• Opengear Reports Record Order Bookings in Q4 2008

  Opengear experienced record order bookings in the fourth quarter of 2008 ending December 31, 2008 and has started off the first quarter of 2009 with what will be a record first quarter for the company despite the economic slowdown. Opengear attributes their success to an increase in new channel partners and customers, leading edge marketing initiatives, next generation product features and the best customer service and technical support in the console server market space.

• How To Lean Towards Free & Open

  People talk a lot about “going open”, or leaving proprietary apps of various kinds for open source equivalents. My way of putting it has been to say “leaning open”, to emphasize that you don’t need to do this by diving into the deep end of the pool and praying you learn how to swim right then and there. In this and future installments I’m going to be talking about that process in detail.

• Mozilla

  • Mozilla Community Marketing Guide is live

    After a few months working on it, Mozilla’s Marketing Team has just launched the Community Marketing Guide!
    This guide is intended to help everyone interested in Mozilla marketing by pointing them to the marketing resources they need, or helping them to be inspired with fresh ideas on marketing Mozilla software. A community is very important for developing and maintaining a healthy project, so in the marketing guide you will find resources to help evangelise and promote Mozilla.

  • Mozilla interview: Opening up mobile browsing

    Location, privacy and web standards: as the first alpha and beta releases of Fennec, Mozilla’s mobile browser, come out, Mozilla VP Jay Sullivan tells us the phone isn’t a separate world any more.

  • about:mozilla – Change the Web, Labs meetup, Marketing mailing list, Meeting notes, two awards, Camino, Education, and more…

    In this issue…

    * Harnessing Firefox Add-ons and Web apps to make change
    * Labs meetup, Mountain View + London
    * Mozilla Marketing mailing list
    * Mozilla Project status meeting notes

  • screencast of open web video in firefox 3.1

    I’ve made a screencast to describe some of the new video capabilities and how they can interact with the rest of the open web technologies we’re building into Firefox 3.1. Although I’ve embedded it below with a video tag (with a fallback to vimeo) I strongly suggest that you view the full sized version in either OGG Theora format or Quicktime H.264 for maximum clarity. It’s als up on vimeo.

• Business

  • Ingres Announces Open Source Solutions as the Way to Save Money and Eliminate Risk

    Staff cuts and budget reductions – all signs of the difficult economic times organizations face today. Organizations are cancelling or delaying important new projects and evaluating cost-cutting measures just to survive. At the same time, proprietary software vendors are increasing license fees, and support and maintenance costs seemingly without concern as to how this affects their customers.

  • Ingres, Alfresco debut open-source SharePoint rival

    Open-source vendors Ingres and Alfresco are teaming up on a software appliance that bundles the Ingres database with Alfresco’s content management platform, hoping the combination will prove to be an enticing alternative to Microsoft SharePoint.

    The two vendors have already bundled their products but decided to go a step further with the appliance, which adds a Linux operating system and can be installed on commodity hardware, said Deb Woods, vice president of product management at Ingres.

  • Acquia, Alfresco Partner With Optaros for First Drupal CMIS Interface

    Proposed as a new standard for content management by industry-leading organizations including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Alfresco, CMIS allows for interoperability between multiple sites and content repositories. Visit http://buytaert.net/cmis for more information on CMIS.

  • Using Drupal

    I have read a lot of Drupal books as well as online materials. This particular book is one I was looking forward to for a long time. It was just released in December 2008 and is from O’Reilly Press. I have never made it a secret that I find O’Reilly’s books to be consistently good, and usually the best in any category in which they have offerings available. This book lived up to my expectations.

  • Open Enterprise Interview: Bertrand Diard, Talend CEO

    If open source did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it, if only to deal with the ragbag collection of data formats out there.

    For open source has a unique flexibility and extensibility not generally available to proprietary programs, which allows it to cope with most applications and situations. This makes it ideal as a kind of software “glue” for stitching together pre-existing computer systems, which were created in an ad-hoc way with little thought of any eventual need to make them talk efficiently to each other.

    This powerful feature of open source was pretty much the driving force behind the creation of the data integration company Talend. Here its cofounder and CEO, Bertrand Diard, talks eloquently about the genesis of his company, open source’s unique advantages in this sphere, the state of free software in his native France, and just why Talend decided to snuggle up to Microsoft last year.

  • Is M&A stifling Oracle’s creativity?

    Even so, a big question is looming as to whether Oracle, which spends just 10 to 15 percent of its budget on research and development, can keep up with competitors and, in particular, open source.

    “Open source?!” you say, “that’s just a big commodifier of others’ innovations.” Not so. In fact, if you look at the budgets of most emerging open-source companies, we spend significantly more on development than Oracle and, importantly, more of that R&D budget goes toward real innovation, not reinventing the wheel. Indeed, that’s the whole premise behind open-source development: efficient reuse of code.

    That’s not the whole story, however. As Mirchandani points out in a follow-on post, Oracle customers are troubled by its support morass. Such customers are likely to be enticed by open-source offerings, which make support, not license fees, the centerpiece of their offerings.

  • Community-Source Development Appeals in Tough Times

    A combination of traditional and open-source development models, community source can save companies money and reduce vendor lock-in.

    The concept of community-source development is catching on with enterprise organizations, both inside and outside of corporate and organizational walls for its ability to cut costs, increase collaboration and avoid vendor lock-in.

• Business Intelligence

  • What Business Intelligence Options Exist in Tough Economic Times?

    It still remains to be seen whether or not organizations will choose to invest in business intelligence during a recession. Due to financial and market uncertainties, there are generally two ways organizations might look at business intelligence (BI) and its overall value to the organization. First, that cutting budgets and limiting IT spending will save costs. Or second, that it becomes even more important to manage an organization’s performance and that this will, in turn, lower overall expenses and help organizations stay competitive. Whichever way organizations on a large scale choose to look at things remains to be seen as both sentiments have potential value.

  • Centro Deploys Pentaho Business Intelligence for Better Tactical and Strategic Decision Making

• Releases

  • Appcelerator Releases New Preview Of Open Source Developer Platform Titanium, Adds Bells And Whistles

    This morning, Mountain View-based startup Appcelerator is taking the wraps off its second Preview Release for Titanium, an open-source developer platform meant to compete with Adobe AIR and the likes for building rich internet, mobile and desktop applications.

  • Progress’ open source FUSE ESB makes gains in recession

    Fuse ESB is based on Apache’s ServiceMix. Progress also sells a proprietary Sonic ESB platform that will be retrofitted in 2009 to better support open source and open standards and mix and match Fuse components, executives say.

    Version 4.0 of FUSE, which was delivered late last year, offers OSGi support. And the recently released version 4.1 offers OSGi support and a good chunk of JBI (Java Business Integration) compliance, noted Debbie Moynihan, director of Fuse at Progress Software.

  • Dedicated Server Open Source Collaboration Software, Enhances Language Support

    Integrated open source e-mail and collaboration solutions for enterprises firm, Open-Xchange, has developed a comprehensive feature update for the Open-Xchange Server 6 product family.

  • FreeSWITCH (Open Source VoIP App) 1.0.3 Released

    The FreeSWITCH team is pleased to announce the release of version 1.0.3. The developers have focused a lot of attention on quality in this release. The changelog has 127 items, most of which are bug fixes, tweaks, and improvements. However, a new FreeSWITCH release just wouldn’t be complete without some new goodies.

• Government

  • Open Source India: An answer to economic meltdown!

    In these times of economic meltdown, the mantra “every penny saved is penny earned” has become the rule-of-thumb for all organisations when planning any form of expenditure. While IT managers are hard-pressed to lower their cost of IT Infrastructure, software development firms are looking at better ways of developing software for their clients.

    If you go by IT Gurus, FOSS (free and open source) is touted as one of the best solutions to handle these challenges. But can FOSS really help India to gain a competitive edge in ‘developing’ and ‘adopting’ IT?

  • Obama, Carl Malamud, and Where Are All of the Open Source People?

    While it is a long shot to make Carl the head of the GPO (the decisions are made by Congress, and the statutory requirements may be an issue*), the campaign for Carl raises a larger issue. Where are the free spirits and open source people in the Obama Administration? So far, they are certainly not getting high profile jobs, unlike, for example, the many copyright lawyers who are known for their devotion to the entertainment business.

  • Open Sourcing America’s Operating System

  • Wedding Open Source to Government Service Delivery

    One of the challenges I’m most interested in is how we can wed “open” systems to government hierarchies. In a lecture series I’ve developed for Health Canada I’ve developed a way of explaining how we do this already with our 911 service.

    To being, I like using 911 as an example because people are familiar and comfortable with it. More importantly, virtually everyone agrees that it is not only an essential piece of modern government service but also among the most effective.

• Open (But No Source Code)

  • Toon Radio Goes Open Source

    Toon Radio has two tiers for this service. The basic service is free and is designed for most uses. The premium tier is not free, but allows for submission longer than an hour in length. For both, Toon Radio plans to play submissions on a first in, first out basis, except when submissions cannot fit inside Open Source’s time slot.

  • Free E-Books and E-Book Resources

    Google Book Search is emerging as one of the most popular free ways to read books, on either a computer or a portable phone. Google currently has 1.5 million e-books available.

• Applications

  • Zmanda’s Cloud-based Open Source Backup for SMEs

    Let’s face it, in these tough economic times, what could play better than a low-cost backup offering based on open source technologies?

    That’s what Zmanda is hoping as it rolls out new cloud and enterprise data backup and recovery offerings.

  • FlightGear Flight Simulator

    This past weekend, I was considering purchasing a flight simulator for my PC. While researching various options, I found a free, online simulator called FlightGear. It’s an open source game, which means anyone who knows what they’re doing can write and program for it. (An example of a closed source game would be Microsoft Flight Simulator, which has only the people hired by Microsoft developing the game.) There are hundreds of modern and historic airplanes and helicopters available and detailed scenery of the entire world.

  • Fictional Air Combat 0.1.3

    I recently discovered YAFS on SF.net: Fictional Air Combat, which is an action flight simulation at an early development stage.

  • NetSol Expands Open Source Library

    The newly added services include blogging software WordPress, content management service Joomla!, and photo organizer Gallery2.

    Since these applications are open source and are widely used, Network Solutions is constantly developing and adding new features that web based business will find useful.

Standards/Consortia

• The Benefits of Open Standards for European SMEs, OFE Brief no. 2, 2009

  Open Standards create the opportunity to integrate solutions at lowest cost, providing local innovation and niche high value services to their customers. Open Standards encourage growth and innovation without the step function increase in costs paid to external licence holders.

• DNSSEC: Forgetting The User, Again.

  A lot of very smart people are working very hard to make the Internet trustworthy. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has launched a beta Interim Trust Anchor Repository so top-level domain owners can publish DNSSEC material while ICANN works out signing of the root zones. The ITAR is one more step in the road to DNSSEC. But DNSSEC is a technical solution and, like other technical solutions, ultimately misses the point.

Censorship

• Aussie internet-net will be drawn wider

  The Australian government is already planning to block legal internet content when its “great firewall” eventually goes live. That is the fear expressed by some of the most trenchant critics of this scheme, including Senators Simon Birmingham (for the Liberal Party) and Scott Ludlam (for the Greens) following another shift in emphasis by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy in evidence to the Environment, Communications and the Arts committee on Monday.

• Recording Industry, Politicians Continue To Give Bogus Reasons To Support 3 Strikes In New Zealand

  Lawrence D’Oliveiro continues to keep us informed on the more ridiculous aspects of the push by both the recording industry and certain politicians in New Zealand to push through that country’s highly controversial policy to cut off file sharers based on accusations rather than actual convictions for file sharing. First up is that the country’s Prime Minister appears to be flat-out lying when he claims that New Zealand has to implement such a plan to remain in compliance with international obligations. That’s simply not true. He claims that other countries, like Australia and the UK have already implemented similar plans, but that’s also not true. Both countries have considered such a plan, but the UK, for instance, has already said that it will not require ISPs to cut anyone off the internet. To claim that New Zealand has to do so or that other countries have already agreed to the same thing is simply untrue.

• British Charities Discover Web Filters Don’t Work

  Firms providing some 5% of the country’s broadband connections haven’t implemented the blacklist, either because they recognize that it doesn’t work, or because of the expense. Keep in mind this is the same blacklist that blocked Wikipedia and screwed up UK edits of the site, and also blocked the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine

• Small ISPs reject call to filter out child abuse sites

  ISPs have rejected a call by childrens’ charities to implement the government’s approved blocklist for images of child sexual abuse, because the list does not stop anyone who wants to accessing such material.

• Leading Academics Hit Out as Government Abandons Evidence-Based Policy on Copyright.

  In an open letter sent today to David Lammy, UK Minister for Innovation, some of the country’s most eminent economists and intellectual property scholars, have hit out at government proposals to consider changing policy on term extension. The letter, which has also been sent to the Cabinet Office, the Treasury and the Culture Minister, voices serious concern at the lack of evidence justifying a change that seems to show the Government prefers special interests over facts.

Copyrights

• How Do You Ban Someone From Posessing A ‘Recording Device’?

  Michael Geist points out that a guy in Canada has been convicted under an anti-camcording law for recording a showing of the movie Dan in Real Life (I’m sure it was big on all the torrent sites). However, what struck me as interesting was the punishment handed out. The guy is on 24 months of probation, has to perform 120 hours of community service, is barred from entering a movie theater or associating with anyone involved in movie piracy. And… he is barred from owning any recording device

• Pirate Bay prosecutors get jiggy with charge sheet – again

  Prosecutors in the entertainment industry versus The Pirate Bay trial have made further amendments to the charge sheet in the hope of nailing a conviction against the defendants.