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07.14.14

Software Patents Demising in the US as Microsoft Patent Attacks on Android/Linux Suffer a Huge Setback

Posted in Microsoft, Mono, Patents at 4:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

M-Cam

Summary: M-Cam’s assessment of Microsoft’s bundle of extortion (using software patents) shows toothlessness, irrespective of the SCOTUS decision to effectively annul “abstract” software patents

China, reacting rationally to the threat of proprietary software from another sovereign nation, has done much to punish and marginalise Microsoft (e.g. banning Windows and Office in the public sector) due to Microsoft’s strong ties with the NSA. When it comes to patents, China also did what it could to stop Microsoft's extortion racket, causing real damage to Microsoft's "divide-and-conquer" approach. This is working out quite well because M-Cam, which we mentioned here before (it analyses patents) says that many of these patents are quite likely invalid, with or without the latest ruling from SCOTUS (prior art — not just triviality — can invalidate them). As SJVN put it: “China revealed exactly what patents Microsoft has in its Android patent portfolio. After examining these patents, M-Cam doubts the validity of many of Microsoft’s Android claims.”

Meanwhile, however, Microsoft’s proxies are trying to put more patents inside Android and other Linux-based platforms. It’s not just Xamarin which is doing this anymore. Remember that Mono has Microsoft copyrights in it, not just Microsoft software licences and patents. Now that there is something called MonoTizen (mentioned here back in May) we should really watch out. Based on this new post, a company called Kitsilano Software is behind it, run by Bob Summerwill who has been working with Unity3D (a poster child for Xamarin/Mono). Something happened some days ago:

Kitsilano Software released MonoTizen-1.0.0 today, 10th July 2014, to coincide with Tizen Developer Summit Russia 2014

Anything that brings these Microsoft patents close to Linux should be treated as a threat, especially now that Microsoft is struggling to make patent claims and derive fees from Linux. Microsoft does not always attack directly; as Nokia and others have taught us, Microsoft likes to shift patents to trolls, such as MOSAID. “70% of troll suits use patents from real companies,” says this new article, “Will “license-on-transfer” fix things?””

While Microsoft is trying hard to portray itself as "in peace" with FOSS (this is fiction, but one that Microsoft fights hard to push into the media), the truth of the matter is that it feeds patent trolls who attack FOSS. Giving them ammunition by putting Microsoft code (with patents on it) inside Linux is a dire error. Stuff like MonoTizen enables Microsoft to expand the bundle of extortion which is sends over to companies under NDA. █

07.13.14

Links 13/7/2014: KDE Activity Surge

Posted in News Roundup at 9:02 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

Pro-Microsoft Spin in Microsoft-Funded News Networks

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 8:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Satya Ballmer
Satya Ballmer

Summary: The rogue media (misinformation) campaign of Microsoft benefits from networks which have been paid by Microsoft over the years

TECHRIGHTS has been disturbed to find some of the corporate media actively participating in Microsoft PR campaigns such as 'Scroogled', paralleling a campaign to portray Microsoft as a privacy and Open Source champion. We have already named some of the networks which routinely do this, such as CNET (part of CBS), whose chief editor Charles Cooper seems to have become a Microsoft mouthpiece by proxy (see another recently-covered example from him).

Other Microsoft-paid networks whitewash Microsoft and play along with the perception management which comes with the alleged change of leadership (Microsoft’s real leaders are behind the scenes and they have hardly changed; neither has the strategy). These “useful idiots” of Microsoft — people who are willingly being bamboozled by the PR campaign — continue to cause great damage that pundits can only try to counter. The Nadella PR is just about as lame as the NSA’s PR, e.g. dressing up the new NSA chief in whites (white knight?) — not blacks — as some kind of a branding strategy which dissociates him from Keith Alexander et al. (men in dark suits),

“…some of the Microsoft-linked media is trying to indoctrinate the public and make as many people as possible love or respect Microsoft.”The PR offensive sometimes makes in into decent sites like Phoronix, which gets it wrong on occasions (see the comments on [1], an article which was published only days ago). Last week an article titled “Open-Source Software: Bad For Non-Profit Organizations?” [article now removed for being an entrapment/marketing] got published by Michael Larabel, only to be slammed in the site forums, where subscribers expressed disappointment. Larabel got bamboozled by a proprietary software pusher who argued that FOSS is bad for charities. As Larabel put it: “For non-profit organizations, open-source/free software might not actually be the best solution according to a director at a non-profit software solution provider.”

This is the type of lie we hear from Microsoft when it imposes proprietary spyware on all sorts of NGOs, which it would later extort for licensing fees, limiting their capacity for activism and spying on them (we covered this in past years and gave numerous examples).

In summary, some of the Microsoft-linked media is trying to indoctrinate the public and make as many people as possible love or respect Microsoft. It’s a shame that some of the spin leaks into Linux-friendly sites (Google hostility, software licence FUD, ‘death’ of GNU/Linux), so we probably need to highlight the existence of the misinformation campaigns. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. Manjaro Linux Developers Experience A Mass Exodus [Updated]

    It seems all of the Manjaro Linux developers might have parted way with the distribution’s development except for the project leader.

Cronyism at Play: European Hostility Towards Free/Libre Software Despite Espionage and Moles

Posted in Europe, Free/Libre Software at 8:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Europe continues to be held hostage with back doors, lock-in, and massive payments to foreign powers, despite evidence that these powers are destructive and hostile

EUROPE has an odd relationship with foreign powers in north America or with corporations that are based there and subsidise the politicians. Rather than seek autonomy, there seems to be a collusion which, among some things, leads to back doors in computer systems in France, Britain, and Ireland (to name just a few examples from western Europe). These back doors are controlled by and made accessible to the United States. This is an absurd situation which we wrote about several times in past years. There is no real sovereignty, not in the digital sense anyway. Only Free software with local companies to maintain and support it can ever guarantee self determination, which is why Europe should really have moved to Free software (entirely) a long time ago.

According to this article, the proprietary software lobby is trying to pressure Cabinet Office to get off its current course, which includes promotion of standards such as ODF. Cabinet Office has been the target of lobbying, usually behind the scenes. Here is Maude’s response to this lobby:

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has hit back at claims that Cabinet Office policy was responsible for recent IT problems at the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) and Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS).

Now watch what Maxwell says: “Government CTO Liam Maxwell agreed that poor procurement practices were at the root of the problems in BIS and DECC.

“Speaking to ComputerworldUK, Maxwell said: “The procurement was not done properly.”

Misplaced accusations are being used to discredit Cabinet Office, insinuating bad conduct. Shame tactics are turning technical considerations into politics.

Dr. Moody, who is still waiting for Cabinet Office to obey his FOIA request about the lobbying, argued the other day that the EU has an “Anti-Open Source Approach to Procurement”. This might actually go further up (higher level). The FSFE says that “The European Commission has recently renewed its commitment to a proprietary desktop and secret file formats. The Commission is refusing to get serious about breaking free from vendor lock-in, and is ignoring all available alternatives. In doing so, the EU’s civil service fails to practice what it preaches.”

Or as Moody put it:

In recent posts, I’ve looked at the increasing use of open source software by governments in countries as diverse as China, Russia, India and Germany. Here I want to contrast those moves with the continuing failure of the European Commission to embrace free software – with huge costs for European citizens as a result, to say nothing of lost sovereignty.

Now that Germany finds moles inside its government departments [1-47] (some sources say there might be a dozen) it is probably time for Europe to actually foster an industry based around Free software. China is close to banning Apple (not just Microsoft) products [48-62] and is now blocking parts of Facebook [63] as part of its extensive censorship policy [64], citing national security-related reasons. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. US agent arrest reveals gap between Obama and secret service

    The arrest of at least one American agent infiltrated the secret services in Germany, one of the closest allies of the United States, hinders the relationship between the two countries and reveals ignorance, by President Barack Obama, the actions of their own spies.

  2. CIA Officer Expelled From Germany Is Not The First
  3. U.S. Out of Germany
  4. Alleged CIA Spy in German May Have Worked for Russia All Along
  5. The Moscow Times: Alleged CIA spy in German may have worked for Russia all along
  6. Germany kicks out top US spy over espionage claims
  7. Obama and the CIA—who runs Washington?
  8. Opinion: Wake up, Washington
  9. ‘The Americans have humiliated us again’

    Germany’s expulsion of the CIA station chief in Berlin in a spy row with the United States has found widespread support in the country.

  10. Germany Calls For ‘Honest Foundation’ In Relations With U.S.
  11. NSA Spying on Germany
  12. Op-Ed: U.S. German spy scandal — less obvious problems for NSA
  13. What’s a Little Espionage Among ‘Friends’?
  14. Germany Confronts US On Spying, Demands Answers
  15. Obama Fails to Reach Out to Merkel Over CIA Expulsion
  16. US committed ‘grave political error’ with spying
  17. When the CIA keeps the president in the dark

    When President Obama spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel about Ukraine last week, there could have been an awkward moment prompted by the arrest the day before of a double agent allegedly working secretly for the CIA within German intelligence. At least there likely would have been, had Obama known about the arrest or the undercover spy to begin with.

  18. Germany’s Merkel reiterates U.S. spying unacceptable

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that Germany and the U.S. had different ideas on intelligence and that Germany will be “persistent” in delivering the message that U.S. espionage against a close ally is unacceptable. Her comments, in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF to be aired Sunday, came two days after Germany told the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country amid a German investigation of two government employees suspected of spying for the U.S.

  19. We are not in Cold War any more, says Merkel as spy row grows
  20. US double standards exposed in Berlin spy row

    A few years before he died in 2006, the former East German spy chief Markus Wolf, known as “the man without a face”, told me about the qualities he looked for in the agents his spies recruited in the West. Status was a poor indicator of effectiveness, he said, and secretaries and doormen were among the most valuable recruits. Political ideology was the best reason for passing secrets to another country but money and vengeance were good motivators too.

  21. Germany may have to tolerate NSA spying, says key Merkel aide
  22. John Kerry Lands in Vienna to Iron Out ‘Deep Differences’ in Iran Nuclear Talks

    On the sidelines of the talks, Kerry will also meet his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier to discuss recent spying allegations.

    Berlin has recently asked the CIA station chief to leave the country over snooping charges.

  23. Kerry arrives in Vienna for Iran nuclear talks
  24. Germany checking for more CIA moles in its intelligence agency
  25. More than a dozen US spies infiltrate German ministries, says Bild

    The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has recruited more than a dozen spies in several German government ministries, according to the Bild am Sonntag tabloid paper.

  26. Expulsion of top spy a ‘wake-up call’ for US
  27. German spies clamor for counter-espionage funding

    The discovery of US spies in Germany’s intelligence service and Defense Ministry has sparked outrage. Now German spies are calling for a boost in funds and staff directed toward counterintelligence.

  28. Merkel angrily blasts U.S. over new spying allegations

    Angela Merkel made her feelings toward Washington clear in an interview on German broadcaster ZDF today, reports Reuters.

    “We are not living in the Cold War anymore,” Merkel said. “We should concentrate on what is essential.”

    Germany’s government told Berlin’s CIA station chief to leave the country on Thursday, in the wake of new allegations of U.S. spying in the country. Of two suspected spies discovered by German officials, one reportedly worked for German foreign intelligence, while the other operated within the country’s defense ministry.

  29. Expulsion of US spy chief was inevitable
  30. Germany says expulsion of US spy chief was inevitable
  31. German spy agency searches for more moles after US breach

    BND president orders analysis of agency’s communications for irregularities, and foreign minister to meet John Kerry

  32. Serving two spymasters
  33. Germany plans to overhaul partnership with US
  34. Germany eyes overhauled US partnership in talks on spy row
  35. NSA Spying On Germany – OpEd
  36. What’s A Little Espionage Among ‘Friends’? – OpEd

    Germany, after all, has a powerful economy — one that, driven as it is by a strong manufacturing sector and a solid trade surplus, including with the US, in many ways is much stronger than the US economy. Germany has no need to worry about any risk of US trade sanctions, the way most countries do that consider trying to stand up to the US. Nor does Germany need to rely on the US military for protection. The country faces no threat from any direction. (As anti-war activist David Swanson puts it in his column US out of Germany, “Protection from Russia? If the Russian government weren’t demonstrating a level of restraint that dwarfs even that of the Brazilian soccer team’s defense there would be full-scale war in Ukraine right now. Russia is no more threatening Germany than Iran is preparing to nuke Washington or the U.N. is confiscating guns in Montana.”)

  37. Germany tells top U.S. spy official to leave the country
  38. Germany: Expulsion of U.S. spy was necessary
  39. Germany should offer political asylum to Snowden
  40. Spy scandal jeopardizes negotiations on free trade area between EU and US

    The spy scandal that has burst out in Germany jeopardizes negotiations on creating a free trade area between the EU and the USA, Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection of Germany Heiko Maas believes.

  41. German FM, press applaud expulsion of CIA chief
  42. German Chancellor Expels CIA Station Chief

    In an unprecedented move between allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ordered the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country or be forced out, reports the Washington Post.

  43. Germany calls on US to stop spying after expulsion order

    German politicians on Friday called on the United States to stop all spying activities against Germany and to work together to revive bilateral ties on the basis of honesty.

    This latest German plea follows Thursday’s expulsion of the U.S. intelligence chief in Berlin.

  44. Germany Said to Review ‘No-Spy’ Buying Rules Amid U.S. Row
  45. Report: Germany turned down US spy deal
  46. Suspected German spy was in contact with friend at State Dept – US officials
  47. German suspect was in contact with State Dept not US spies: officials

    German defense official under investigation for alleged spying was in contact with a US State Department officer rather than American intelligence agencies, raising questions about whether any espionage occurred, US officials familiar with the case told Reuters yesterday.

  48. China Calls iPhone National Security Threat
  49. China Calls iPhone A National Security Risk
  50. Chinese TV says iPhones are a threat to national security
  51. Chinese state media calls iPhone a security threat
  52. China calls the iPhone and iOS 7 threats to national security
  53. Apple’s iPhone poses national security threat, China says
  54. Chinese state-run media say Apple’s iPhone is a threat to federal security because it can track and time-stamp the locations of its users
  55. iPhone’s location tracking is a security threat, says China state media>
  56. China Says iPhone Location Tracker Could Expose State Secrets
  57. Apple iPhone Labeled “National Security Concern” in China>
  58. Apple’s iPhone branded a ‘national security concern’
  59. China Labels iPhone a Security Threat
  60. Chinese state broadcaster flags iPhone as security threat
  61. Chinese Media Terms Apple’s Location Tracking as Security Threat

    Mainstream Chinese Media has termed Apple’s iPhone as a national security threat. The state owned CCTV has reported that the location tracking feature in iPhone could collect data about location of the users.

  62. Now Chinese state TV says iPhones are a threat to national security
  63. Instagram becomes latest victim of Chinese censorship

    After blocking Google and its services in China in June, China’s internet censors blocked the popular networking app Line and Yahoo’s photo-sharing platform Flickr on July 1, the day of massive democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong on the 17th anniversary of the territory’s return to China. Instagram, the online photo and video sharing platform owned by Facebook, has now undergone a similar fate, reports Duowei, an outlet run by overseas Chinese.

  64. Are Hong Kong’s pan-democrats censoring opposing views by public figures while they blast censorship themselves?

Wirelessly-Controlled Contraceptives and Other Villainous Bill Gates Initiatives

Posted in Bill Gates at 7:31 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Euthanasia propaganda
Nazi Euthanasia Propaganda Poster, German government, about 1938.

Summary: Remote controls for people’s reproductive systems are now in the making and Bill Gates is a prominent investor in the technology

NSA, which enjoys Bill Gates’ support (and Microsoft’s) is taking over vast numbers of networks, which were made insecure by design (rigged peer review process, moles inside standards bodies, bribes to companies etc.) and we therefore must assume that any in-body implants which are wirelessly controlled are hugely dangerous. This is a point that Karen Sandler has been stressing for years, speaking in public about it, pressuring companies, informing doctors, and so on. Just see how worried Dick Cheney has become about his pacemakers (there are many articles about it). Many people want this man dead.

Bill Gates has made it no secret that he pursues depopulation. He spoke about it publicly, albeit not using the terminology of eugenics, even if the ideology isinherently similar. A lot of the corporate media wishes to characterise any discussion about depopulation as “conspiracy theory”, even though some very affluent people (usually billionaires with clout in the corporate media) routinely speak of such ‘humane’ aspirations, where selections for depopulation are financially-motivated (the criteria are not for common people to decide on).

“Questions over wireless-controlled contraceptives” is a new article that Martin told us about in IRC. “The BBC is carrying information on a type of contraception (funded in part by Bill Gates) that takes the form of a microchip, inserted under the skin,” the source said. Days beforehand we saw this opinion piece from The Mukt, a Free software-leaning site. Using hypothetical analogies it says:

In an alternate world of Quentin Tarantino Adolf Hitler systematically and peacefully eradicated Jews by giving them a ‘smart capsule’ disguised as birth control pill. The capsule was developed by German doctors which can release certain hormones and drugs remotely. They were regularly releasing contraceptive hormone in the blood stream lasting for 20 years. Which peacefully and effectively sterilize the entire segment without any suspect.

The article ends with this: “If you think if was just fiction, then I have bad news. Bill Gates’ Gates Foundation seems to be obsessed with control over food production and human production. According to reports the foundation is funding a new way to inject drugs into human body which can be controlled remotely.

“The Verge reports, “The Gates Foundation project looks to develop a pill that would automatically release a contraceptive hormone into the bloodstream, lasting for 16 years or until it’s disabled by a wireless signal. The project is planning to start preclinical testing in 2015 and reach the market in 2018, but there are still many questions to be answered, including security issues.”

“The technology being developed by the Gates Foundation can be a nightmare for human society and the wettest dream of suppressive government.”

This is not the first time that Gates gets involved in such controversial schemes, which not only anger contraception opponents but also people who know what a ruthless thug Gates is. He seeks control, not goodwill. His track record on this has been very consistent. █

07.12.14

Links 12/7/2014: CrossOver, New Wine

Posted in News Roundup at 2:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • BitPay’s Copay Open Source Multisig Wallet Launches in Beta

    We’ve heard a bit on BitPay’s doings in the open source field, and today, the company announced on their blog that they’ve got a multisig, open source wallet in the works called Copay.

    We’ve heard of Copay previously, but now it’s got its own website at Copay.io, and has launched in beta.

  • BitPay is pleased to announce Copay, an open source, multi-signature wallet
  • BitPay Releases Beta for Open-Source, Multi-Signature Bitcoin Wallet
  • Asciidoctor coder writes less documentation

    I’ve been working as the documentation manager for the Koha project for six and a half years, so when I saw that Sarah White would be talking about documentation at OSCON this year I knew I wanted a chance to interview her.

  • Understanding the metrics behind open source projects

    What do the numbers behind an open source project tell us about where it is headed? That’s the subject of Jesus M. Gonzalez-Barahona’s OSCON 2014 talk later this month, where he looks at four open source cloud computing projects—OpenStack, CloudStack, Eucalyptus, and OpenNebula—and turns those numbers into a meaningful analysis.

  • LinkedIn behind the scenes: How open source software can transform a company – and the world

    Open source also helps the branding of our engineering team – the fact that we work on world-class technical problems, the scale of the problems we have to solve, and the complexity of the features that we’re building. Being able to showcase our technology to the world is something that hopefully is going to be attractive to world class engineers around the world, which we would love to have work for us.

  • Metaswitch unveils open source NFV project Calico to bolster cloud datacentres

    Networking technology vendor Metaswitch Networks announced the formation of Project Calico, which will focus on developing an open source networking virtualisation solution it claims will help enable the implementation of large, cloud datacentre infrastructures as IP-based starts to account for the majority of network traffic.

  • Metaswitch Contributes Virtualised Network Code To Open Source

    UK-based Metaswitch Networks has given away some of its network virtualization code to the open source community, designating it as Project Calico.

    The technology integrates with OpenStack and provides the framework for orchestrated IP routing between virtual machines (VMs) and host machines, along with internal and inter-data centre interconnects. It describes Layer 3 virtualisation techniques, and is aimed at large cloud data centres.

  • As Chef gets bigger, it’s learning how to appease its open source community

    A former employee singled out the open source configuration management company for not practicing what it preaches, and as a result, Chef said it will be working on addressing its developer community.

  • Mellanox Contributes the World’s First Open Source Ethernet Switch MLAG Implementation
  • iSchool Pair Demo Open-Source Code at Labman Conference

    Two Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) information technology professionals wowed the crowd at this year’s Labman computer lab managers conference by presenting a live demonstration of their Remote Lab 2.0 software, which they recently released as open-source code.

  • CartoDB’s Odyssey.js Is An Open-Source Tool For Telling Stories With Interactive Maps

    Everything happens somewhere. That’s the logic behind Odyssey.js, an open-source tool that utilizes maps to help turn data into interactive multimedia stories without the user needing coding skills.

  • Building an Inter-University Private Cloud with Open Source ownCloud

    In late 2011, a lively discussion (we enjoy lively discussions here in Germany) among the IT managers of the publicly-funded research universities in Northrhine-Westfalia (NRW), Germany’s most populouIn late 2011, a lively discussion (we enjoy lively discussions here in Germany) among the IT managers of the publicly-funded research universities in Northrhine-Westfalia (NRW), Germany’s most populous federal state, started over a set of interrelated topics:s federal state, started over a set of interrelated topics:

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

      • Chrome Remote Desktop Plug-in Now Supports Linux Users

        Being able to access a computer remotely, or let someone else remotely access your computer, can be an enormous convenience. It can help you retrieve a much needed presentation that you left behind while on a trip, and it can help you allow a distant user to make changes to or access your files.

  • SaaS/Big Data

  • CMS

    • Introduction to 4 Open Source CMS

      A content management system (CMS is a computer application that allows publishing, editing and modifying content, organizing, deleting as

  • Funding

    • Is the IRS scheming to destroy open source projects?

      The IRS is one of the most feared and loathed parts of the federal government. It has recently been found to target political groups that don’t tow the line of the people currently in charge of the US government.

  • BSD

    • There’s Now Even LLVM Support For Pascal-86

      The latest programming language that can leverage using LLVM and its plethora of back-ends is Pascal-86, a language most Phoronix readers have probably never even heard of.

    • LLVM’s Clang Is Working Better For Building Windows Programs

      While LLVM’s Clang compiler is predominantly used on Linux, OS X, and BSD systems, the Microsoft Windows support has been a focus over the past several months and is reaching an improved state for building native Windows programs with Visual C++ compatibility.

  • Public Services/Government

    • Untapped potential? Rise of open source council web tools

      UK councils are so far failing to tap into the full money-saving potential and speed of open source web service tools, but moves are underway to address this, delegates heard at yesterday’s ‘Building perfect council websites’ conference in Birmingham.

      Although most councils still run a Microsoft-based ICT infrastructure, almost all do also now run at least some open source software, Kevin Jump, director of digital services firm Jumoo, told delegates.

      Jump is former web manager at Liverpool City Council, which migrated to open source CMS Umbraco in 2011.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Working to keep the Internet an open source

      In a nutshell, open-source is the opposite of proprietary. Consider the sale of a muffin. The person who sells you the muffin is selling you a proprietary product. The ingredients (what they are and from whence they came) are kept a secret. With open source, the person not just gives you the muffin; she also gives you the recipe and invites you to change it even more, and pass it along to the next person.

    • ‘Open source’ real estate brokerage willing to share best practices

      “We call it an open source real estate company,” he says. That’s because Go Realty not only shares lessons that agents have learned within the company, but with other companies.

    • Xiki shell Kickstarter, HummingBoard computer, and more

    • Open Access/Content

      • What is open knowledge and how do you spread it?

        Beatrice Martini shared the work she does alongside a talented group working to bring openness to the world for Open Knowledge with me earlier this year. This time she tells me what it’s like to bring to fruition an event like OKFestival 2014, organised by Open Knowledge. How does a gathering organized by one organisation (and a small team) reach out to the global ecosystem of open communities? How can participants co-create its message and mission?

    • Open Hardware

      • Open source robot is waiting for you to make it even more amazing

        It is not uncommon to hear that many people don’t like bugs. Those tiny, many-legged creatures are the source of our worst nightmares. Robots, on the other hand, are fantastic. Whether they come to us as Furby-sized companions or giant robot protector of the Earth Gundams, they amuse and entertain us to no end. So when we heard of the open source project combining insect-like parts and robotics, we timidly decided to check it out.

  • Programming

    • rest: Open Source REST Framework For Haskell

      Silk has recently open-sourced a REST framework for Haskell, called “rest”. It provides a DSL for defining REST services which can then be run in popular web frameworks such as happstack. This comes with features such as type-safe URLs, abstraction of format-type support, and a clean separation of API specification and business logic.

  • Standards/Consortia

Leftovers

  • FTC files suit against Amazon over accidental in-app purchases

    For most parents, seeing a random $358 charge on their credit card bill would elicit a lot of questions.

    But for the parents of the 71% of children who play mobile games such as Angry Birds or Temple Run, those seemingly random charges are becoming more common as the games allegedly trick children into buying virtual goods with real-world money.

  • Security

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • Why ABC Thought Suffering Palestinians Were Israelis

      But there’s a pretty well-established pattern of corporate media trying to paint the conflict as between equals, a type of false balance that treats the threats to Israeli lives and Palestinians lives as similar. But at times it’s much more than that; this ABC report, and others like it, foreground the fear that Israelis are dealing with as sirens warn of incoming rockets from Gaza. “Running in terror as sirens wail” is how ABC correspondent Alex Marquardt began the segment right after Sawyer’s introduction. He conveyed Israel’s view of the conflict before shifting to life in Gaza.

    • When Does the ‘Cycle of Violence’ Start?

      But determining when such a “cycle” begins is a political act. The current conflict is usually traced back to the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers on the West Bank (CNN, 7/7/14). When their bodies were found on June 30, Israel “retaliated” by attacking Gaza. The July 2 killing of Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir, allegedly a revenge murder by Israeli extremists, was reported as further escalating the conflict.

    • Let’s Name the Victims on Both Sides of Israel-Palestine Clashes

      Over a three-week rescue mission to find the three Israeli teenagers, more than 700 Palestinians were arrested, with more than 400 still being held, according to Palestinian prisoner’s rights organization Addameer. Many are being held in administrative detention, an Israeli practice that holds prisoners without charge or trial set, but renewable amounts of time. At least 58 of the arrestees are former prisoners released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap; their re-arrest directly contradicting the terms of the agreement. One of these prisoners is Samer Issawi, who was released last year after engaging in a prolonged hunger strike protesting his first arbitrary re-arrest.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • Finance

    • Just the beginning: 2 million come out fighting

      TWO MILLION people defied Tory strike ban threats yesterday to come out fighting against poverty pay — and PCS union leader Mark Serwotka warned the government it was “just the beginning.”

      Mr Serwotka rallied a sea of teachers, firefighters, council workers and civil servants in Trafalgar Square in his first major speech since recovering from heart surgery.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • NPR and the Eagerness of White Guy Sources

      NPR’s official response to the brouhaha was a memo, instructing staff to be more careful about sharing private thoughts on social media. Likewise missing the point that the problem lies in what the network does–and doesn’t do–in public.

    • ABC: Three Cheers for Walmart!

      The “economists” in question would appear to be the Boston Consulting Group, a consulting firm that advises major companies. It’s not a stretch to think that Walmart is one of them. So you might want to take those job creation numbers with a grain of salt.

      But ABC’s newscast looked less like journalism and more like PR–even including footage from a Walmart infomercial and a comment from the company’s CEO that this initiative “is not a PR thing.”

  • Censorship

  • Privacy

    • One Nation Under Surveillance
    • New German spy scandal — RT interview

      As a second Ger­man intel­li­gence officer was arres­ted for spy­ing for the Amer­ic­ans, here’s my recent RT inter­view on the sub­ject…

    • Germany Expels Top US Intelligence Official, Says It Will (Officially) Spy Back On US And UK

      Techdirt has been following the complicated German reaction to Edward Snowden’s revelations about US and UK surveillance of people in that country, whether or not in high places, for some while now. Although the German public has been deeply shocked by the leaks, the German government has been keen to preserve good relations with the US.

    • Opinion: Is online privacy lost? Forever?

      What is the way forward? – Is privacy already gone forever with the war being lost… or are there still some battles that may determine better outcomes for a subset of the human population? I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. In the mean time, I continue to fight off the little voice in my head that says I need a smart phone… and I try to learn more about and utilize some of the desktop tools that make me look suspicious.

    • Emergency laws to monitor phone and internet records ‘to stop terrorists’

      David Cameron says Iraq and Syria makes emergency data laws necessary, warning: ‘The consequences of not acting are grave’

    • Here’s a challenge: Can you shun Facebook for 99 days?

      What if you are asked to perform a different kind of fasting – to log out from Facebook for 99 days?

      Do not fret as this is a challenge set out by a Dutch creative agency Just.

      Called “99 Days of Freedom”, the non-profit initiative asks whether people would be happier without Facebook.

      It asks users to give up Facebook for a 99-day period, completing anonymous happiness surveys on days 33, 66 and 99.

    • Silent Circle guns for Skype with global expansion of encrypted calling service

      SECURE COMMUNICATIONS OUTFIT Silent Circle expanded its encrypted calling service globally on Thursday, allowing people worldwide to make secure phone calls without incurring roaming charges.

      Until now, Silent Circle’s apps – which enable users to make encrypted calls, send secure messages and transfer files – had to be used by both parties, but the firm announced on Thursday that it is expanding the service worldwide, allowing users to make private calls to non-Silent Circle subscribers across 79 countries.

    • Surveillance Stitch Up to be Rushed Through

      Pirate Party spokespeople are always ready to give a lively, informed, and often provocative view on the issues of the day. Whether it’s tech politics, civil liberties, the EU, local issues or anything else we’ll have something to say.

    • “Emergency” Data Retention: What I told my MP

      The European Court of Justice ruled in April that blanket data retention, which the government requires of ISPs, is illegal and ignores the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection. However, rather than take the time to debate and redraft the law, they are pushing through a new Bill in record time: released today and put before Parliament on Monday.

  • Civil Rights

    • Water Damage

      The FCO claim that records of extraordinary rendition flights to Diego Garcia were destroyed by water damage is an insult to all our intelligence. The FCO is refusing to say where the records were at the time, or what else was damaged in the (presumed) flood. This is of a piece with, but much more serious than, the “accidental” shredding of all Tony Blair’s parliamentary expenses claims. It is not that they expect us to believe them – they just don’t care. They have the power, and we don’t.

    • The Worst Butt Dialing Fiasco Ever

      His wife called 911. Thirty(!) SWAT team members, with machine guns, descended on the middle school at 5 p.m., and spent three hours searching it for the mysterious gunman. “At one point three news media choppers hovered overhead.”

    • The Absence of Liberalism

      The overruling of a European Court judgement to assert individual privacy, and the anti-democratic rushing of emergency legislation through parliament where no emergency exists, are the antithesis of liberalism. So of course is the jettisoning of all the Lib Dem manifesto pledges on civil liberties.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • FCC got over 647K comments on net neutrality, will it listen to ‘The People’?

      FCC chief, Tom Wheeler, today tweeted that they have received over 647k net-neutrality comments on the FCC website, as it reaches the July 15 deadline. Reply to these comments are due September 10th. There is an anger in the US against Wheeler’s proposed ‘fast lane plan’ which would destroy the net-neutrality as we know it.

  • DRM

  • Copyrights

    • UK Lawmakers Favor Legalization of MP3 and DVD Copying

      Earlier this year the UK Government promised to legalize the copying of MP3s, CDs and DVDs for personal use, but the changes have yet to pass. The entertainment industry and some lawmakers have voiced concerns over the plan, but the majority appears to be in favor of decriminalizing format shifting.

07.10.14

Links 10/7/2014: LXLE 14.04 in Headlines, Plasma 5

Posted in News Roundup at 4:57 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Issue with disc on Linux User & Developer 141

    Summary: Linux Mint 17 – the live-booting distro on the disc for 141 – does not install properly. Please download a newer version of the ISO from the Linux Mint website.

  • Desktop

    • Will upcoming Chromebooks have reversible USB ports?

      The answer to your USB worries was presented in April this year in the name of the reversible USB dubbed USB Type-C. Unlike the present USB, the new Universal Design Bus design will be smaller and symmetrical. So you no more have to worry about the orientation and can smoothly slip it inside the slot without fumbling. Now the latest news is that Chrome developers are reportedly working on supporting the new USB. So suggests the recent commits to the Chromium source code.

    • Free software to assist indigenous access to computers

      But he adds that it is important to make sure there are no compatibility problems between GNU/Linux and hardware, which is often a problem due to its complexity, and to ensure automatic updates are available.

    • No, Linux is not dead on the desktop

      I hate having to wade through these kinds of articles, but it’s necessary to answer them lest the perception take root that “Linux is doomed!” and all the usual blather that goes along with such nonsense. Every single time I read one of these articles my eyes roll into the back of my head and various profanities burst from my lips.

      The article focuses on the corporate desktop, but as we all know there has been a revolution going on inside companies as people move their focus from desktop computers to mobile devices. And Linux has been a part of that via Android and Chrome OS since the very beginning. And let’s not forget that we’ll soon have phones and tablets coming from Canonical that run Ubuntu.

      The author acknowledges the transition to mobile, but then downplays it and focuses back on Windows on the desktop. Well, if Windows is still the main OS being used on the desktop then who’s fault is that exactly? I hardly think that the users can be blamed for that, it’s much more likely the IT department that is making those kinds of decisions.

  • Server

    • Why is Docker the new craze in virtualization and cloud computing?

      It’s OSCON time again, and this year the tech sector is abuzz with talk of cloud infrastructure. One of the more interesting startups is Docker, an ultra-lightweight containerization app that’s brimming with potential

      I caught up with the VP of Services for Docker, James Turnbull, who’ll be running a Docker crash course at the con. Besides finding out what Docker is anyway, we discussed the cloud, open source contributing, and getting a real job.

    • DESKTOP CONTAINERS – THE WAY FORWARD

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux Kernel Testing Philosophy

      Almost all Linux kernel developers, if not all, are very active Linux users themselves. There is no requirement that testers should be developers, however, users and developers that are not familiar with the new code could be more effective at testing a new piece of code than the original author of that code. In other words, developer testing serves as an important step in verifying the functionality, however, developer testing alone is not sufficient to find interactions with other code, features, and unintended regressions on configurations and/or hardware, developer didn’t anticipate and didn’t have the opportunity and resources to test. Hence, users play a very important role in the Linux Kernel development process.

    • Linux Foundation SysAdmin Andy Grimberg Loves New Tech and Snowboarding

      I’ve been doing some form of systems administration since my freshman year in college (1994) and I’ve been making my living as only a sys admin since 2000…

    • Linux Kernel 3.14.12 LTS Brings Updated Nouveau and Radeon Drivers

      Now that the 3.14 branch of the Linux kernel has been declared LTS (Long Term Support), which means that it will be supported for a few years with patches, updated drivers, and general improvements, a new maintenance version is available for download.

    • The future of realtime Linux in doubt

      In a message about the release of the 3.14.10-rt7 realtime Linux kernel, Thomas Gleixner reiterated that the funding problems that have plagued realtime Linux (which he raised, again, at last year’s Real Time Linux Workshop) have only gotten worse.

    • DisplayPort MST Code Starts Lining Up For Linux 3.17, Other DRM Changes

      The DisplayPort MST support code that’s been in the works for several months is starting to land with the Linux 3.17 kernel that will be officially entering development stages next month.

    • try out experimental linux kernel features with the kernel-playground

      Josh Boyer (Fedora Kernel team member & FESCo Nominee) recently announced the new kernel-playground COPR repo. Basically, this is a repo for users that want to try out some new and shiny (yet not ready for primetime) kernel features in Fedora, such as the overlayfs “union” filesystem, and kdbus (the in-kernel d-bus replacement).

      It is important to note that this new kernel-playground is an “unsupported” kernel, designed for developers of the new features they include, as well as curious users that want to test out these bleeding edge features, and that.

    • To Linux Foundation SysAdmin Ryan Day, Elegance is the Best Tool

      System administrators keep our lives and work seamlessly humming. They are the super heroes who often go unnoticed and unrecognized only until things go wrong. And so, leading up to SysAdmin Day on July 25, we’re honoring the hard work of our Linux Foundation sysadmins with a series of profiles that highlights who they are and what they do.

      Ryan Day is one of nine Linux Foundation system administrators, and is part of the global team that supports developers working on collaborative projects. Here he describes a typical work day, talks about his favorite tools, his nightmare scenario, and how he spends his free time, among other things.

    • 3.16 Fedora ARM kernel status

      So 3.16 is has quite a few new features in terms of newly supported devices, also some what surprisingly this blog post will be out before 3.16! In terms of new device support all the SoCs listed here are exciting for a number of reasons for Fedora ARM. Aarch64 (ARM64) makes it’s first debut with support of real hardware although we’ve actually had kernel support enable for it for some time in Fedora even if only usable on the glacial Foundation emulator.

      The 3.16 release is also very likely to be the kernel that ships with Fedora 21 GA and with the Alpha due in about a month we’re starting to polish and test all the platforms and devices we want to support for GA.

    • Linux 3.16 File-System Tests On A Hard Drive

      In complementing the earlier Linux 3.16 file-system tests on an SSD (and the later Btrfs testing), here are benchmarks of EXT4, XFS, and Btrfs from the Linux 3.15 and 3.16 kernels being compared from a traditional rotating hard drive.

      As has become common practice at Phoronix, for each new development kernel we end up benchmarking the most commonly used, mainline Linux file-systems on a hard drive and solid state drive. With the SSD results out there in the aforelinked articles, in this article are results using a high-performance Western Digital HDD from a Core i7 Haswell system running Ubuntu and comparing the mainline stable Linux 3.15 kernel against a daily snapshot of Linux 3.16 from this week.

    • Linux Kernel 3.10.48 LTS Improves Support for Radeon GPUs
    • Linux Kernel 3.15.5 Is Now Available for Download

      The fifth maintenance release of the current stable Linux kernel package, version 3.15, was announced last evening, July 9, by none other than Greg Kroah-Hartman. The release introduces numerous improvements and bug fixes.

    • Linux Kernel 3.4.98 LTS Brings Updated Wireless Drivers and Better PowerPC Support

      Linux kernel 3.4.98 LTS is here to introduce better support for the PowerPC (PPC) computer architecture, several updated wireless, Radeon, ACPI, SCSI, and USB drivers, improvements to the CIFS and NFS filesystems, as well as networking enhancements, especially for Bluetooth and Wireless.

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • 11 ways LXLE Linux will make you forget all about XP

      Windows XP’s long run may have finally come to an end, but that doesn’t mean your XP-era hardware has to go too. No indeed: There are numerous options available in the Linux world, and one shining example is LXLE.

    • LXLE 14.04 review – new paradigms

      LXLE has been kicking around for a while now and, for a supposedly lightweight distro, it’s looking fearsomely feature-packed right now. Having said that, it’s hard not to love LXLE, as it’s treading the line between resource efficiency and usability pretty well, and is borderline addictive when it comes to the DE itself. The clue’s in the updated acronym; rather than standing for ‘Lubuntu eXtra Life Extension’, as it did in the days before Lubuntu LTS releases, when LXLE was around to fill that niche using the LXDE desktop environment, it’s now pitched as the ‘LXDE eXtra Luxury Edition’.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Here comes the first release of Plasma 5

        The KDE Community has announced the first release of Plasma 5. It’s a release candidate so it’s meant for testing and preview purpose, like the developer preview of Android L. The final release will be announced next week so this is the last chance for testers and developers to find issues and get them fixed before the release.

      • KDE’s Frameworks 5 released
      • Firefox Might Finally Be Moving Closer To Better KDE Integration

        For KDE desktop users unhappy with the level of integration with Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, the situation might finally be changing.

        There’s been a bug going back to early 2002 about properly integrating Mozilla with KDE, “Mozilla has ‘Windows Integration’ on win32, I believe it should have such a thing on KDE as well (gnome folks, feel free to file your own bug). We should at least provide an icon in the KDE menu, perhaps we could even tell KDE that some file types can be opened with Mozilla…” That bug, Mozilla Bug 140751, has been open for the past twelve years and finally now might be inching closer to being resolved.

      • Looking Forward To The Future Of KDE Frameworks 5

        While KDE Frameworks 5 was just released this week, there’s already new features and functionality sought after for future revisions of this modularized set of next-gen KDE libraries.

      • Exclusive interview with Nitrux founder Uri Herrera

        Nitrux SA. is well known for their themes and icons and recently they also collaborated with the KDE Community for the default icons of Plasma Next. Nitrux does much more than just themes and icons and in this exclusive interview, the founder and main designer of Nitrux, Uri Herrera talks about it.

      • KDE 4.14 Branched, Mix-Release Planned For December

        KDE 4.14 code is getting ready while being worked on for a December debut is a mix of KDE4 and KF5 application code.

        The KDE 4.14 software code has been branched from master for all KDE Software Compilation repositories (sans KActivites that’s being left out for a 4.14 release). In terms of what’s next for the master code-base, while before a potential “KDE 4.15″ release was talked about, it was agreed upon by KDE developers that 4.14 will be the last of KDE Applications that exclusively use KDE Platform 4.

      • Qt Creator 3.2 beta released

        We are happy to announce the Qt Creator 3.2 beta today. So you can already check out the many improvements we have done for the upcoming 3.2 release, and, not to forget, give us feedback on what we have so far. We mostly concentrated on stability and improvements, so no completely new platform supported this time, sorry Wink . I’ll randomly highlight some of the changes here, but you should probably check out our change log as well for a more thorough overview, and just download the binaries and try it for yourself.

      • On Plasma 5

        This is the first release of a new chapter of Plasma, in which a new release method will be used to celebrate the diverity of the KDE community.
        We used to have a 6 months “big release” of all things KDE, called in the beginning just “KDE”, then “KDE SC”, but this release is not that anymore, because KDE grown a lot in the past years, is not just that anymore, and “a single release of everything” scales only so much….

  • Distributions

    • SparkyLinux 3.4 GameOver — a Linux distro for gamers

      Historically, Linux and gaming were like oil and water — it did not mix. For the most part, this was just accepted as a fact of life. Quite frankly, this was OK as users were more interested in maintaining their box and chatting with other Linux users anyway. However, as time went by, jealousy of DOS, and then ultimately Windows, definitely grew as more and more amazing games were released for Microsoft’s operating system. Even Linus Torvalds himself dual-booted Linux and DOS to play Prince of Persia.

    • Operating System U: a new Linux, Wayland based operating system

      Enter Operating System U, OSu. It’s not Ohio State University with a lower-case “u.” The “u” is for you, the one reading this, and the one wishing to control your operating system. The standout thing about OSu is how much customization it gives to the user. That’s our mission and our statement. (It also happens to be our mission statement, but I’m done with little jokes).

      OSu is Linux-based. It boasts a Wayland display server, which I love because it squashes clunky xorg extensions and renders directly. We’re also looking at starlight and customization through GUI’s.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu Touch may be our last hope for a Linux tablet

            My daily computing experience is pretty “tablet-heavy.” My Nexus 7 is my constant companion. In fact, for the better part of the last year, I’ve done the vast majority of my actual work on this little Android tablet of mine.

          • Codio: A Multi-language IDE with Its Own Ubuntu Instance

            Codio is a browser-based IDE supporting a large number of languages and including its own Ubuntu instance to test the code.

          • Ubuntu Touch Apps Pass 100k Downloads Despite No Phones on Sale

          • Flavours and Variants

            • 5 reasons to switch to Deepin 2014

              Deepin 2014 is the latest version of Deepin, a Linux desktop that’s based on Ubuntu Desktop. Deepin 2014 is actually based on Ubuntu 14.04. It was released yesterday.

              Deepin has always been on my list of the best desktop distributions, and Deepin 2014 just vaulted it to the top-2 of that list. The aim of this post is to show you why that happened and why I highly recommend that you should take Deepin 2014 out for a spin. I guarantee that you will like practically all it brings to the table.

            • Tech-Friendly: Bring new life to an old PC with Linux Mint

              Linux Mint (Xfce) has a simple interface and is pretty perky, even on old computers. The installer will install Firefox, the LibreOffice office suite, and a variety of programs for managing e-mail, videos and music; perfect for a backup Internet surfing and word processing computer. The installer will ask if you want to install third-party utilities — choose “yes” for compatibility with websites that use Adobe Flash and other multimedia software. Depending on your computer, the installation should complete in fewer than 30 minutes.

            • Ultimate Edition 4.2 Final

              It is with great pleasure I give you Ultimate Edition 4.2 Lite.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Renesas – Virtual platform and fast Linux porting for new custom ASIC
    • Linaro’s Android Open-Source Project Ported to ARMv8-A

      Following the recent announcement of the Android L Developer Preview supporting the 64-bit ARMv8-A architecture, Linaro, the collaborative engineering organization developing open-source software for the ARM architecture, has announced that a port of the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP) to the ARMv8-A architecture has been made available as part of the Linaro 14.06 release.

    • Automotive Grade Linux Released: An Interview With Dan Cauchy

      On June 30, the Linux Foundation’s Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) project released the first version of its open source AGL stack for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI). Based on Tizen IVI, AGL adds a stylish user interface and various applications written in HTML5 and JavaScript. The AGL stack, which is partially compatible with the somewhat similar, open source Linux GENIVI Foundation spec, supports multiple hardware architectures.

    • Phones

      • Ballnux

        • Samsung Nixes Knox: The Android Security Saga Continues

          Granted, Google has been updating handset issues at a quicker pace – particularly when it comes to security patches, via Play Services –and so far, the telcos have not played spoilers. But remember: Google has not initiated a move to push an entirely new OS directly to users except to those who own Google’s telco independent Nexus brand devices. Keep in mind that there’s a big difference between updating a feature or security patch and producing an entirely new OS. OS updates typically up the Kernel and the radios. It will be interesting (and historical) if the telcos continue to stay out of the way.

      • Android

        • Afraid of the NSA? A new secrecy-cloaking mobile app lets you make, receive private phone calls; available on Android, iOS

          Silent Circle, a company known for mobile apps designed to thwart government surveillance, is introducing on Thursday a secrecy-cloaking phone service that lets customers make and receive private phone calls for as little as $12.95 a month.

        • Android DLP projector doubles as a mobile hotspot

          Sprint has launched the “LivePro,” an Android-based, ZTE-built DLP projector and 3G/4G mobile hotspot shareable by eight WiFi-users, with a 4-inch display.

          ZTE showed off the LivePro at January’s CES show as its “Projector Hotspot“, and it’s now coming to the U.S. via Sprint under the LivePro name. On July 11, Sprint will begin selling the device for $450, or $299 with a two-year contract. Of course, the real money is in the data plans, which start at $35 per month for 3GB of data.

        • Early Reviews of Android Wear Reflect Promise for the Platform

          This week, following much talk about it coming out of the Google I/O conference, there are a lot of discussions arising about Android Wear and whether it will become the next big mobile platform. Some early smartwatches running the open platform are appearing, and some reviewers are really liking them. Just as you once didn’t carry a smartphone, and then did, are you on the cusp of owning an open source smartwatch?

        • Security company says your data can easily be recovered from ‘wiped’ Android phones

          Software maker Avast is calling the security and thoroughness of Android’s factory reset feature into serious doubt today. The company says it purchased 20 used Android smartphones online and set out to test whether personal user data could be recovered from them. Each phone had been reset prior to being sold, according to Avast, so in theory the test should have failed miserably. But that’s not what happened.

          Using widely available forensic software, Avast says it was able to successfully pull up over 40,000 photos previously stored on the phones. Many of those featured children, and others were sexual in nature with women in “various stages of undress” and hundreds of “male nude selfies.” The company also managed to recover old Google search queries, emails, and texts. All told, Avast successfully identified four original phone owners using data that those people falsely assumed had been permanently deleted. Users must overwrite previous data to truly get rid of it, Avast says.

        • LG G Watch Rides In on 1st Android Wear Wave

          Founded in 2008, JFrog provides open source solutions for package repositories and software distribution aimed at a new breed of developers. With a focus on open source and the burgeoning cloud scene, JFrog has garnered their fair share of awards and press from industry heavyweights and communities alike.

        • Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 2012 get unofficial Android L

          Developers have cobbled together unofficial builds of Android L for the Nexus 4 and the first Nexus 7 model.

          Google’s approach to the release of Android L is a little different to that for previous versions of its OS: for the first time, it’s offering developers a preview version and a subset of source code for the forthcoming operating system.

        • CM11 M8 finally released with Android 4.4.4 and ‘Heads Up’

          So last month we saw the release of CM 11 M7 as a Snapshot. Again, those of you who are new to CM a ‘Snapshot’ is a nearly-stable release. This type of release is considered safe-to-use by CM and believed to contain all features and all bugs worked through. It is worth remembering being a Snapshot this does mean it is possible some unknown bugs may still exist although these will be minor. Now already we are seeing the next major release available today. CM 11 M8 was released this morning and offers Android 4.4.4. As the release has only just been made public the devices supported are rather limited although the variance will grow quite quickly knowing CM.

        • Odroid hacker board jumps to faster octacore SoC

          The Odroid-XU3 runs on a 5V 4A power supply, and once again features four energy monitoring chips for tracking the Big.Little cores. A plastic enclosure and an active cooler are available, along with numerous optional modules. OS support has been boosted to Android 4.4.2 and Ubuntu 14.04, available with full source code.
          Schematics will be posted upon shipment, and community support is available via the Odroid project. The quad-core Exynos4412 based Odroid-U3 board came in at third place after the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black in our recent Top 10 Hacker SBC survey.

        • Android mirroring is now available on Chromecast

          Chromecast users can now start ‘mirroring’ their Android devices over the WiFi. Google has pushed an update for Chromecast, which adds this new feature to the device. The feature was already there on Apple TV and the star Android developer Koushik Dutta (Koush) also offered mirroring for his ‘AllCast’ app.

        • Volvo Cars add Android Auto to its next generation cars

          Volvo Cars has joined the Open Automotive Alliance to make the Android smartphone platform available to drivers through its new ground breaking user interface. This move brings together one of the world’s most progressive car companies and the world’s most popular smartphone platform, developed by Google.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Metaswitch launches cloud datacentre open source project
  • Metaswitch Launches Open Source Project Calico

    Metaswitch Networks today is contributing the initial code base for Project Calico, an open-source solution that enables the implementation of large, standards-based, cloud data center infrastructures. The code is available to the worldwide community of network operators, software developers and systems integrators at Project Calico.

  • Distrowatch Disappearance, RentOS 7 Coming, and OSS Lost

    In tonight’s Linux news, Distrowatch.com went offline for much of Sunday. Serdar Yegulalp looks at the upcoming CentOS7, the first since joining hands with Red Hat officially. Bruce Byfield says Open Source has lost its way and is now wandering aimlessly with no purpose. And that’s not all.

  • OPEN SOURCE INITIATIVE (OSI) ANNOUNCES NEW AFFILIATE MEMBER
  • Building, deploying, and distributing software with JFrog

    Founded in 2008, JFrog provides open source solutions for package repositories and software distribution aimed at a new breed of developers. With a focus on open source and the burgeoning cloud scene, JFrog has garnered their fair share of awards and press from industry heavyweights and communities alike.

  • Top 5 open source customer relationship management tools

    Creating and maintaining relationships with customers can be a challenge. But it’s also essential for a business’ survival and growth. To maintain those relationships, a CRM system is a must. And CRM is one area in which open source shines brightly.

  • Open-Source Software: Bad For Non-Profit Organizations? [article now removed for being a trap]

    For non-profit organizations, open-source/free software might not actually be the best solution according to a director at a non-profit software solution provider.

  • Tech Giants Use Open Source to Get You to Cough Up for Other Products

    Most open source software projects come to life because someone is trying to scratch an itch.

    Some group of coders or a team of academics or a fast-moving startup will build some software that solves a very real computing problem, and then they’ll open source the code, sharing it with the world at large. Maybe, the coders are trying to help the larger world of software developers, believing that others will find the code useful too. Maybe, they’re trying to get more eyes on their code, hoping that others will contribute bug reports and fixes to the project. Or maybe, as is typically the case, they’re trying to do both.

  • The open source movement at IIT Bombay

    The activities of FOSSEE revolve around creating educational content around open source software and encouraging the introduction of courses on open source in syllabi of universities, apart from promoting it through publicity initiative.

  • DevOps is inherently open source, discuss

    DevOps (developer-operations) was born out of the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) by its very nature because it aims to address the “incongruous nature of integrating traditional LOB applications” with other applications.

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • PostgreSQL: What’s behind the pull of this open source database?

      Postgres continues to ride high in the database popularity stakes — and the new features appearing in its next release will only add to that appeal, according to Dave Page, a member of the open-source project’s core team and EnterpriseDB chief architect.

      The open-source relational database — full name PostgreSQL — for which EnterpriseDB sells apps and services as well as its own commercial fork, currently sits in fourth place in the DB-Engines rankings, behind Oracle, MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server.

    • New release of OpenStack Swift brings storage policies

      Object storage with OpenStack Swift gained an important feature in yesterday’s 2.0 release with the addition of storage policies. John Dickinson, Swift Program Technical Lead, called storage policies the “biggest thing to happen to Swift since it was open-sourced four years ago.” So what exactly are storage policies, and how do they affect the way data is stored in an open source cloud?

  • Databases

    • SolidFire: SSD Offers Huge Performance Boost to MongoDB

      MongoDB is a popular open source “NoSQL” database platform, offering functionality not available in traditional, relational databases, such as MySQL.

      SolidFire hopes the performance increases offered by its all-flash storage solution will attract enterprises aiming to maximize the speed of their MongoDB deployments. “Enterprises choose to deploy NoSQL solutions for a variety of reasons,” said SolidFire founder and CEO Dave Wright. “Our customers often cite performance, scalability, and ease of deployment as key factors in choosing to deploy MongoDB. The YCSB Benchmark demonstrates that utilizing SolidFire’s all-flash array with MongoDB allows businesses to achieve their objectives regardless of type of workload.”

  • Funding

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Honda Smart Home is now open source

      Earlier this year, Honda introduced its Smart Home, a home on the University of California Davis West Village campus that, among other things, produces more energy than it consumes. Interest in the Smart Home has been high, and due to that demand, Honda has announced that its Smart Home is now open source.

    • Lamassu announces Rakia, New Open-source Back-end System for ATMs

      Bitcoin ATM’s have been popping up in cities all over the world during the last 12 months and so are companies that manufacture these machines. Like any new technology, however, the company that keeps their products on the cutting-edge and provides a wide range of services will be the most successful. Bank ATMs often allow not only withdrawals but additional services such as direct deposits and bill paying as well.

    • Open storytelling to boost literacy

      I’m in love with open source, but I’ve been dating open content for many years. You would think these two would jump at the chance to cross-promote, but too often that doesn’t happen. Open source claims it has a headache. Open content says it’s too busy. Really, a headache? Really, too busy?

    • Open Data

  • Programming

    • It’s better to share with functional programming

      Katie Miller is a Developer Advocate at Red Hat for the open source Platform as a Service, OpenShift, and co-founder of the Lambda Ladies group for women in functional programming. She has a passion for language and linguistics, but also for the open source way.

      I have a Red Hat sticker on my laptop that simply says: It’s better to share.

      In this interview, Katie shares with me how she moved from journalism to a job in technology. Also, how she got introduced to functional programming, the Haskell programming language, and how open source is part of her daily life.

  • Standards/Consortia

Leftovers

OpenDocument Format (ODF) Still Alive and Kicking

Posted in Office Suites, OpenDocument, OpenOffice at 4:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

But we may need Google’s help

Building

Summary: Caligra, WebODF and various influential nations’ departure from Microsoft Office will help famous projects such as OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice make ODF the only international standard for editable documents exchange

NOW that the latest Microsoft Office may be banned in China (China, Korea and maybe Russia are moving away from Window and thus away from Microsoft Office too) there is a real chance, boosted not only by BRICS nations, that ODF will be very widespread. The recent new release of Caligra (covered some days ago in our daily links), the advance of WebODF [1] into various frameworks [2] and applications [3], the exciting news from Korea [4] and even actions towards standards and interoperability in Europe [5,6] give us many reasons for optimism. People who state that ODF is “dead” or “nobody uses it” basically try to justify defeatism and continued (exponential) dependence on Microsoft through the network effect.

While some people prefer simpler formats [7], others continue to stick to office suites. Microsoft is trying to invade the Android empire, putting lots of OOXML in it (with Google’s help [8,9]) and now we see claims that Microsoft is ‘supporting’ Android by merely giving proprietary spyware with lock-in to it (for OOXML), not just adding spyware to it and then packaging it as ‘Nokia by Microsoft’:

We have already seen the launch of Nokia’s first Android-powered smartphones under the Nokia X brand earlier this year. And now it seems Microsoft is planning to bring a similar experience for its users under the Lumia brand.

New information from the famous tipster @evleaks suggests that Android-powered Lumia smartphones are currently being developed under the ‘Nokia by Microsoft’ brand.

We have seen a lot of OOXML openwashing as of late. We also criticised Google for its stance on document formats. What we shall end up with as the widespread standards very much depends on the actions of large corporations, not just people (whose choices will be limited by corporations). We need to push hard for ODF and it will most likely win, especially as more and more nations dump Microsoft Office. Google has control over many users’ choice of document formats (Google Apps, Android, ChromeOS), so we need to put more pressure on Google to go against the flow (Microsoft formats) and with the future, which is ODF. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. WebODF v0.5.0 released: Highlights

    Today, after a long period of hard work and preparation, having deemed the existing WebODF codebase stable enough for everyday use and for integration into other projects, we have tagged the v0.5.0 release and published an announcement on the project website.

  2. WebODF meets ownCloud to fix what’s wrong with Google Docs

    Google Docs is a great resource for collaborative editing and online document editing, however it has one of the greatest problems of all – it doesn’t support the ISO approved document standard ODF. Which leaves governments, businesses and individuals locked into Microsoft’s .docx format.

  3. WebODF Travels

    Yesterday WebODF released v 0.5.0 complete with a library, web editor and FireFox plugin.

  4. South Korea gives up on Microsoft

    South Korea is using the fact that Windows XP is no longer supported as a reason to walk away from Microsoft completely.

    According to a government statement, South Korea wants to break from its Microsoft dependency and move to open source software by 2020″

  5. Optimising Joinup’s interoperability app repository

    First, we hope to boost reuse of these solutions by improving the project descriptions. Over the past months, we selected 40 projects on Joinup that we expect to have the highest potential for reuse, taking into account such factors as the maturity of the project, its use in cross-border cooperation and licence. Together with the project developers, we improved the descriptions of these projects and enhanced their metadata. For example, we added pointers to existing implementations, details on the intended users and ways to participate.

  6. What’s up with Open Standards?

    It is hard enough for people to understand what protocols such as TCP/IP do. These open standards however are invisible to most of them, even if they’re using them on a daily basis. Other open standards, such as OpenDocument Format, are probably not conceivable by some people, who think that an office document is “an extension of Microsoft Office”. I have even heard of teachers, here in France, who refused to even mention ODF because such a thing “could not possibly exist”. The conceptual distinction between a file and an application has not permeated much, even in the twenty first century.

  7. ODT to TXT, but keep the line numbering

    The title explains what this article is about. If you save an .odt file as text, or copy/paste the contents as a text file, or run odt2txt or the unoconv utility, you lose the apparent line structure of the original, and with it the line numbering. But there is a way…

  8. Google Shuts the Door on QuickOffice, as its Work is Done

    At last week’s Google I/O conference, the company announced new levels of compatibility with Microsoft Office documents in its Google Docs cloud-based applications, including the ability to edit Office documents. These capabilities are driven through QuickOffice, a toolset that Google acquired back in 2012. Quickoffice has provided close compatibility with the Microsoft Office file formats, ranging from .doc to .xlsx, for users of Google Docs.

  9. Google kills QuickOffice for iOS and Android, what does it document interoperability?

    When Google acquired QuickOffice back in, we assued it was an effort to bring Microsoft Office like capabilities to mobile devices as there was no polished Office Suite back then. Then Google started integrating QuickOffice into its own Google Docs and there were signs that the company may kill the standalone app.

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