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10.23.11

Microsoft by Proxy: How a Monopolist Distorts New Zealand’s Views to Turn New Zealand Into Patents-subjugated Colony

Posted in Site News at 3:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Bronze babyland statue

Summary: New examples of Microsoft agenda being served by A J Park and Outercurve, which is a Microsoft proxy

EARLIER on we mentioned patent actions from Microsoft, the world’s leading patent extortionist, which goes as far as New Zealand to promote software patents. In this interesting message from a local group Microsoft’s role gets explained as follows:

I’ve been getting harassed a bit today :) by representatives from Microsoft and AJ Park (and another MS apologist, Chris Auld of Intergen, MS’ favourite partner) who are trying to convince the government to retract its position excluding software from patentability, as is proposed in the Patent Amendment bill which is scheduled to be passed into law sometime in the next session of parliament.

This small but well-funded pro-patents group have written this

http://www.ajpark.com/articles/2011/04/fog_warning_on_computer_implemented_inventions.php

ostensibly written by AJ Park’s Matt Adams, but, based on a slip by Waldo Kuipers of Microsoft NZ in a recent tweet, most likely written by Microsoft.

Their aim appears to be to use clever semantic arguments to indicate that people (some, but by no means all, of whom are affiliated with the NZOSS) who made submissions to the Commerce Commission Select Committee in the original *democratic process* were actually not arguing against software patents, and were, in fact, inadvertently arguing *for* them…

We wrote about A J Park in [1, 2, 3]. The situation in New Zealand is important because it echoes much of what we see in Europe. Microsoft typically lobbies for software patents by proxy, just as it openwashes itself by proxy (e.g. Outercurve [1, 2]). Here is the latest example of openwashing .NET through its proxy (fully run and funded by Microsoft). Darryl K. Taft is characteristically playing along with Microsoft on this, helping the whitewash efforts of a convinced monopoly abuser. Microsoft depends on this type of spin to harm the competition; it helps sell proprietary software (lock-in) by removing perceived distinguishers while also pretending to represent the position of its competition.

Patents Roundup: Apple Control Freak, Patents as a Business Model, and Oracle vs. Android

Posted in Apple, Oracle, Patents at 3:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


Jobs image licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (version 1.2 or any later versions); Ellison patch By Thomas Hawk

Summary: A mishmash of stories about software patents in the United States

THE agency known as the US International Trade Commission [1, 2, 3] has got far too much power that it does not deserve. It can be seen as a US-based office for the interests of any US-based company that wants to ban its competition and Apple misuses those powers to block competition just as Steve Jobs once hoped (more on that later, in a separate post).

The news is still abuzz with software patents, but only in the United States (Microsoft is trying to lobby for software patents in other countries, but that too will be a separate post).

Some companies are in fact basing themselves on a patent monopolies. To quote this new example:

…a new patent covering aspects of its mobile video and mobile personalization technologies.

The intent here is to exclude or to sue rivals. Is this really a valid business model? And as for Oracle, it too has turned to patents, having made statements against patents in the past. But it is being reported that Oracle’s case, which has already gone on for over a year, gets postponed:

A judge postponed an Oct. 31 trial over Oracle Corp.’s claims that Google Inc.’s Android software infringed patents on the Java programming language.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco vacated the scheduled trial date, saying it conflicts with a criminal gang case in his courtroom that will continue through January. He asked lawyers for Oracle and Google to consent to a trial before a magistrate judge. If they don’t agree, Alsup said he’s considering ‘swapping the case to another federal judge,” and the companies will have no right to object.

‘I have not been so overworked in 37 years of professional life,” Alsup said. The hearing concluded today with no new trial date scheduled.

The British press has more information about it:

Google over alleged Android patent infringements of Oracle-owned Java software has been postponed again, due to a criminal trial that will start the week before the two tech giants were due to meet.

Groklaw‘s take is as follows:

The two motions for summary judgment Oracle wants to file are, first, regarding “the copyrightability of the selection and arrangement of names in the API design specifications at issue”. Second, it wants to file a motion for summary judgment regarding “Google’s four equitable defenses — laches, equitable estoppel, implied license and waiver” and Google agrees that it can be decided as a matter of law. This has to do with Google’s arguments that nobody on Sun objected and in fact praised Android.

It did indeed and there is denial of evidence that can support Google according to other reports that call patents “intellectual property”. Funnily enough we found this new article titled “RIM’s operating system BBX in patent trouble”. It says that “A New Mexico firm claims the ‘BBX” name is protected by trademarks it holds and is threatening to take legal action against RIM unless it stops using the moniker.” Watch the headline that speaks of patents. The article is about trademarks, not patents. It is just more evidence of how poor journalism can be when it comes to these topics, with the term “IP” thrown around spuriously as well.

The Choice Between Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Linux

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Novell, SLES/SLED, Windows at 2:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Wyse’s idea of choice and what SUSE is achieving

NOVELL is a mess, but it still serves Microsoft’s interests rather well. Microsoft calls the shot at SUSE and Novell uploads new videos that promote its brand, even though it is deprecated.

When customers get the choice between Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Linux then companies like this one offer a false sort of choice. Back in the days Novell also offered OOXML as a “choice” (symbolic) and look what it’s coming to. In a matter of days we shall post more detailed analysis of Novell/Attachmate/SUSE.

10.22.11

Microsoft is Still Fighting Hard Against GNU/Linux, Resorting to Dirty Tricks

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 7:53 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: A couple of new examples of Microsoft breaking rules to break Linux or break apart Linux contracts

Antitrust complaints have already been filed against Microsoft in response to blocking of Linux through UEFI [1, 2, 3, 4], so ZDNet’s Microsoft’s bloggers start disinformation campaigns (two of them so far). It is like a coverup attempt.

Over in Tamil-Nadu [1, 2, 3] there are some interesting developments going on and Glyn Moody, having read an article we helped research, compared this to Newham's Microsoft fiasco. Another thing he said in his blog post about Microsoft’s response to GNU/Linux adoption:

This looks like an important win for free software – not least because it could give impetus to similar plans elsewhere in Latin America. No surprise, then, that the FUD had already started appearing even before this decision was made public – for example this article on the “risks” of free software – which calls for “technology neutrality” and “interoperable standards”.

But isn’t it interesting that the same groups never called for such “neutrality” and “interoperability” between open source and closed source when it was the former that was completely locked out by biased procurement specifications? Strange that….

We wrote about this deception before. Lobbyists of Microsoft use this semantic trick a lot. It is important to be familiar with the common FUD tactics.

Survey: In 2 Years, Vista 7 Enters Just a Quarter of Businesses

Posted in Microsoft, Vista 7, Vista 8, Windows at 7:34 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Vista 7 sticker
“The hardest thing about replacing Windows 7 with Linux is getting the damn sticker off,” Tim wrote. (credit: OpenBytes)

Summary: More evidence of the declining impact of Microsoft Windows

IN OUR page about Vista 7 we have accumulated many reports about the variant of Vista that enjoyed a huge marketing budget. Pogson writes about the desktop monopoly sinking in relation to Vista 7, which according to this report does not received a warm welcome from businesses, still. To quote:

Computerworld’s survey reveals that only one quarter of businesses have migrated to ’7′ and most are still using XP. The reasons are many, but they all boil down to one thing. The migration to ’7′ is not a good investment.

In relation to Vista 8, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols adds that it is a “bad bet” for the following reasons:

Given my choice of desktops, I’m running Linux, but over the years Windows has gone from being a bad joke of a desktop operating systems–Windows ME and Vista–to being a reasonably good choice-Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7. But Windows 8? What the heck is Microsoft thinking?

After looking at Metro, Windows 8’s default interface, for the last month, all I see a lame, reactionary response to iPad and Android. In a broader sense, it’s Microsoft’s response to the move away from the desktop to smartphones and tablets.

This is why we choose to focus on Apple quite so increasingly. Microsoft is still chasing a form factor that is not quite growing. Within a few years it seems likely that Microsoft won’t be around to hurt Linux/Android as much as Apple does. We used to focus more on Novell as well. The goal has always been the same — to defend software freedom, whoever its greatest foes may be.

IRC Proceedings: October 22nd, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 7:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#boycottnovell-social log

#techbytes log

Enter the IRC channels now

10.21.11

IRC Proceedings: October 21st, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 7:52 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#boycottnovell-social log

#techbytes log

Enter the IRC channels now

Links 21/10/2011: Mandriva 2011 Powerpack, Apache Cassandra 1.0

Posted in News Roundup at 7:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

  • Kernel Space

    • Jump-Starting Open Source Participation

      One of the great things about being The Linux Foundation is that we get to work with the foremost open source contributors in the world on a regular basis. What’s just as exciting, though, is watching companies evolve from traditional, closed source development organizations into full-fledged open source contributors. This is happening every day, and the pace is astounding.

      However, this transition doesn’t usually happen overnight. We’re often asked, “How can I be more effective at consuming open source and up-streaming our own code?” Most companies would love to be active participants but also recognize that it takes a number of years to get to where they want to get. The implied question is actually, “How can I accelerate this process so that I see the benefits sooner?”

      In a similar vein, we also get asked about starting new open source projects and releasing existing proprietary technology as open source. This trend is becoming increasingly common as companies discover their business partners have a vested interest in the success of their technology and are willing to share in the destiny of the code.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • How to Optimize KDE Desktop Effects
      • How I Learned to Love the KDE 4 Series

        For nine years, my default desktop was GNOME. About the third of the time, I’d use another desktop or a shell, either for the purposes of review or just for a change, but I’d always return to GNOME. It was a no-fuss interface in which I could do my common tasks without any problem. But a glitch on my system that left GNOME unstartable coincided with the release of KDE 4.2, and — not having the time to reinstall — I switched to KDE. I haven’t looked back since.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • GNOME 3.2.1 Has Been Released

        A day after Owen Taylor’s announcement for GNOME Shell 3.2.1, here comes the final and stable release of the GNOME 3.2.1 desktop environment.

        GNOME 3.2.1 is the first maintenance release of the wonderful open source GNOME 3.2 desktop environment for Linux-based operating system.

      • GNOME 3.2.1 Brings A Bunch Of Bug Fixes

        The first point release to the Oktoberfest-christened GNOME 3.2 was released today. Like usual, this GNOME update (v3.2.1) just brings translation updates and bug-fixes. There’s also some “tiny improvements” but nothing major.

  • Distributions

    • A Slackware Primer
    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Red Hat Family

      • IcedTea 2.0 based on JDK7 – without CACAO

        Version 2.0 of the JDK build environment, IcedTea, has been published. The software harness enables compilation of the source code provided by the OpenJDK project using only free developer tools. This is the first version released that supports the new OpenJDK 7.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • What Makes the New Ubuntu 11.10 So Great?
          • Unity is the end of Ubuntu
          • As Ubuntu Linux Turns 7, ‘Precise Pangolin’ Planning Begins

            It was exactly seven years ago that the very first version of Ubuntu Linux–dubbed “Warty Warthog”–was released, kicking off a long line of increasingly popular versions of the free and open source operating system.

          • Seven Years Old

            Seven years ago Ubuntu 4.10, the Warty Warthog, was released. It was the very first Ubuntu release.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

            Released to schedule on October 13, Ubuntu 11.10 (codenamed Oneiric Ocelot) sees the end of official support for the GNOME desktop, the OS relying instead on Canonical’s own Unity desktop in either the default 3D or 2D mode. Oneiric is something of a consolidation release, with improvements mostly limited to completing the switch to Unity begun in 11.04, along with general polish in terms of look and feel. You can persue the official Ubuntu 11.10 release notes and take an online tour of Oneiric at the Ubuntu web site.

          • Precision Planning; Prepping for 12.04 LTS

            In just over a week, quite a large cross-section of the Ubuntu community and representatives from many free software projects and companies will gather in Orlando to map out the Precise Pangolin. Now’s the time to prepare for the event, with 11.10 out (well done everybody!) and the key infrastructure slotting into place.

            Figuring out the optimal balance of goals is the work of the summit, but we can lay out some over-arching themes that have been in progress during this meta-cycle and come to their full fruition in the LTS release. We can also remind ourselves of the ways in which an LTS is different, and the impact that will have on our choices in Orlando.

          • Introducing Ubuntu 11.10 Without Unity

            Now that Ubuntu 11.10 was released, we are proud to announce today, Octomber 18th, the immediate availability for download of a new Linux operating system based on the newly released Ubuntu 11.10 distribution.

            The new Ubuntu-based operating system introduced here is called Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix and it’s build on top of the Oneiric Ocelot release, but without the Unity shell.

          • Ubuntu’s Adoption Curve, Past and Present

            We’re about to embark on a new cycle and with that comes the hopes of many that the Perfect LTS can be a really good break through release. I was reading a comment by the ever ready Jeff Spaleta over on Mark Shuttleworth’s Blog. His assertion was that Ubuntu has been loosing people according to the Wikimedia web stats data, so I decided to put this to the test.

          • Ubuntu 12.04 Will Be Pixel-Perfect: Mark Shuttleworth

            Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, chose the day when Ubuntu turned 7 to laid the plan of the next version of Ubuntu, code named Precise Pangolin.

            Ubuntu 12.04 is a very important release for Ubuntu and users as it is an LTS release. LTS means Long Term Support. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, releases LTS versions every two years and supports it for 3 years. What’s more interesting about the LTS version is that it is supported for 5 years on servers, thus making it perfect for enterprises and governments.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 review

            This new edition, dubbed the Oneiric Ocelot (it means “dreamy”), is much less adventurous. It brings no new features to speak of, just a clutch of interface refinements, more like a service pack than a new version.

          • This week in design: Floating orchestras, Mark Shuttleworth talks Ubuntu
          • From Warty to Oneiric, Ubuntu Linux turns 7
  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • “Nokia’s N9: A Damaging Love-Hate Relationship”
      • Android

        • Sprint debuts $100 Android phones from Motorola and HTC

          Sprint unveiled two $100 Android 2.3 smartphones with 1.2GHz processors. The rugged Motorola Admiral offers a 3.1-inch screen and exposed keyboard, and operates on Sprint’s Direct Connect push-to-talk network, and the HTC Evo Design 4G is a four-inch “worldphone” that supports Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network.

        • Samsung beats Apple in smartphone sales

          SAMSUNG Electronics shipped more than 20 million smartphones in the quarter ended September 30, a person familiar with the situation said, beating close competitor Apple, which sold 17.1 million units in its fiscal fourth quarter, ended September 24.

        • Android Ice Cream Sandwich versus iOS 5: Killer features

          Yet, this comparison must be done. For one thing, Google and Apple have both recently unveiled huge changes that respectively make their mobile operating systems far more powerful, and in some ways more similar to each other. For another thing, weighing the pros and cons of each platform against the other is a scenario that’s played out daily among many people who are deciding which phone to buy.

        • Samsung beats Apple in smartphone sales

          A lot has been written about the red hot battle between smartphone giants Samsung Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4S. Analysts and tech observers dissected specs and compared features, but there was no consensus. However, the battle of wits took a turn when two were dragged to a brutal, unforgiving drop test. And hold your breath, Samsung Galaxy S2 took the prize for being sturdy.

        • Sprint Announces $99 EVO Design 4G for October 23

          Sprint has added yet another member to their growing family of EVO products today, tapping the EVO Design 4G with an October 23rd release date. Bowing at a mere $99.99 ($50 mail-in rebate), the handset is the first in the product line to feature World Roaming capabilities. Hardware for this Android 2.3-powered phone include 1.2GHz processor, a 4-inch qHD display, and a pair (5-megapixel rear, 1.3-megapixel front-facing) of cameras.

        • Sprint announces $99 Motorola Admiral for October 23
        • Motorola RAZR Ice Cream Sandwich update coming early 2012

          Motorola has revealed that the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Motorola RAZR will be pushed out OTA at the beginning of 2012.

          The Motorola RAZR was announced on Tuesday at a New York event for the Verizon network in the US, before the European announcement was made on Wednesday in Berlin.

        • Google confirms Android 4.0 ICS is open source

          Google has confirmed that the source code for Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ will be made public, after it refused to release the code for its predecessor ‘Honeycomb.’

        • Anti makes wardriving child’s play with a rooted Android phone

          There’s a lot of focus on security these days. Web security, keeping your passwords intact, and maintaining a secure online presence. Viruses, malware, and anything that can come from the web, right over your net conenction and cause an untold amount of devastation to your world. A valid concern, for sure, but I have found that by adjusting your browsing behavior and looking before you click can often remove most of the threat.

        • Google says Android 4.0 source code to be available “soon”
    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Kobo spins its first color Android e-reader

        Kobo announced a $200 Android 2.3 tablet with a seven-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel AFFS+ anti-glare display. The Kobo Vox eReader features an 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, and access to the Kobo eBook Store, says the company.

      • Asus names Eee Slider release date

        First demo’d way back in March 2011 – we tried it out back then – the Slider is a 10.1in, 1280 x 800 screen on the back of which Asus has built a slide-forward base unit, complete with Qwerty keyboard.

      • Asus’ Transformer Prime may launch with Ice Cream Sandwich

        As expected, Asus chairman Jonney Shih was on hand at All Things Digital AsiaD conference where he gave the world its first look at the next-generation Android tablet. According to Engadget this tablet will be known as the Transformer Prime when it debuts on November 9th. Specifications include a quad-core Tegra 3 Kal-El processor, and an 8.3mm thick body with USB and mini-HDMI ports.

      • Netflix now officially supports Android 3.1 tablets

        Netflix has released a new version of its video-streaming app for Android devices that officially adds support for Android 3.x (Honeycomb) tablets. The October 19 release of Netflix app v1.5.0 build 360 also extends Netflix’s Android support to Canada and Latin America for the first time.

Free Software/Open Source

  • “Open Source Leverages The Wisdom Of The Masses”
  • Events

  • SaaS

    • Cloud, open source, and new network models: Part 2
    • Services, Production and Clouds

      He views cloud computing as being primarily a story of production. For users, cloud computing can be viewed as an enhanced dynamic utility, making intensive computing much more accessible and thus diffusing the potential for innovation. For providers, cloud computing significantly improves their ability to deliver very high volume of services at significantly lower costs and higher quality. For both users and providers, cloud computing truly represents the industrialization of information-based service activities.

    • Cloudera and SGI Partner to Take High Performance Computing on Apache Hadoop to the Next Level
    • Nuxeo Takes Enterprise Content Management Platform into the Cloud
    • How Yahoo Spawned Hadoop, the Future of Big Data

      The email went to Eric14. His real name is Eric Baldeschwieler, but no one calls him that. At fourteen letters, Baldeschwieler is a mouthful, and he works in a world where a name takes a backseat to an online handle.

      The sender was Rob Bearden, a serial entrepreneur from Atlanta, Georgia, famous for actually making money from open source software. He e-mailed Baldeschwieler because he was looking to build a new company around what is widely regarded as The Next Big Thing in corporate computing. The irony is that Baldeschwieler worked for an outfit few would associate with enterprise technology. And if you listen to the pundits, it wasn’t a technology company at all. He worked for Yahoo.

  • Databases

  • CMS

    • New Features for Joomla 1.7

      Joomla 1.7 stable release was available on the 19th July 2011. The new features are primarily behind the scenes, and are not as “visible” as features have been for other Joomla upgrades. Yet the new features are very powerful and they include one click upgrades, and Joomla Platform is now split from the cms.

    • Top 10 Benefits of Drupal

      Drupal is an open-source rich with several resources that make it incrediblybest alternative amongst all available open source CMS (content management systems) applications. It makes the mission of web application development so unproblematic and picturesque that you can build Drupal based lovely website on your own. You even don’t need to be professionally solid for web designing or development.

    • Your Input: 2011 State of the Open Source CMS Market Survey is Out
  • Education

    • Moodlerooms Ensures Standards Compliance for Moodle 2 User Community
    • Cengage Will Partner with Moodlerooms, Unicon for Tighter Integration

      Cengage Learning has announced it will partner with Moodlerooms and with Unicon on open source learning projects. Both partnerships are designed to increase functionality for the respective learning platforms through Cengage’s new service, Mindlinks.

    • Hackers are vital to the university culture of openness and innovation

      Have you noticed anything missing from the ongoing phone hacking scandal involving the News of the World? There are no hackers involved. This is the latest example of hacking’s troubled history with the mainstream media, which confuses the “playful cleverness” of expert computer programmers with the malicious meddling of computer crackers and criminal journalists. With this confusion, the rich and fruitful history of the true hackers is diminished and a thriving intellectual culture focused on problem solving, self-directed learning and the free exchange of knowledge is undermined.

      Much has been written about hackers and hacking, but rarely is it contextualised as part of the scholarly tradition. Yet careful reading of the history of hacking reveals that it is very much a part of the work and values of universities and that the hacker ethic is shared, in part at least, by most academics working today.

      We can trace the history of hacking back to MIT University in the early 1960s and greater access to shared computers. At the core of hacking is the academic practice of peer review: the opportunity for academics to closely examine, modify and use other people’s work. Hackers extended this through the creation of legal licenses that allow the copyright holder of software to grant anyone the ability to use, modify and re-distribute their work providing the modified version is licensed under the same terms. The great MIT hacker Richard Stallman called this hack Copyleft and his general public license (GPL) has become the most popular open-source software licence in use today. In 2001, Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig founded Creative Commons, an organisation that borrowed much from these free software licences to create a similar set for other types of creative works. The activity of hackers has provided academics and their institutions with the legal basis upon which to overcome the traditional restrictions of copyright and permit the public use, modification and redistribution of research articles, research data and teaching materials.

  • Business

    • Email Firm Open-Xchange Names GM Americas, Announces Expansion Plans
    • Business gives open source thumbs-up

      Around 50% of surveyed companies claim that vendor-supported open source software provides either the same or better features and benefits than proprietary software.

      This is the key finding in this year’s ITWeb open source survey, administered in conjunction with Linux Warehouse, which attracted more business management respondents than last year’s survey.
      Click here

      The majority of respondents voted overwhelmingly that open source is either the same or better than proprietary in terms of features, speed performance, ease of use, tools and utilities, documentation, technical support, cost of ownership, scalability and ease of change.

    • Open-Xchange Adds SVP Sales and General Manager
    • Semi-Open Source

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Project Releases

  • Public Services/Government

    • Department of Immigration revises open source tender

      The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) is reviewing a planned web development and hosting tender that appeared to favour open source over proprietary technology.

      The department issued a pre-release notice on September 29 for a new business application and website for the Office of the Migration Agents’ Registration Authority (MARA), which sat under its remit.

      MARA needed to replace an existing Microsoft Access database with a secure, user-friendly and “innovative database solution … built upon proven open-source frameworks and technologies”.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Spies Want to Go Open-Source to Stop the Next WikiLeaks

      At their main trade show GEOINT this week, the intelligence community talked a lot about making progress in preventing the next Bradley Manning from leaking government secrets. Keeping a tight grip on sensitive information has proved to be a challenge for spies in a technological age that celebrates the free flow of data, but Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, thinks they’re making progress. “The trick is, can we allow robust sharing for analytical and operational purposes and protect the information at the same time?” Rogers told Eli Lake at The Daily Beast. “I argue yes, there are lots of ways to do it.”

    • The Open Source Geospatial Foundation and the International Cartographic Association (ICA) Memorandum of Understanding
    • Goepel increases engagement in open source initiative

      Goepel electronic has developed a new demonstration kit within the framework of the goJTAG initiative.

      In addition to the USB 2.0 controlled Boundary Scan controller, PicoTAP and respective software, it contains a specific demo board for practical exercises.

    • How to become a data journalist: open source tools for journos

      Data journalism: the new, wild frontier where the intrepid reporter is free to create any informative and investigative project their heart desires – providing that they have the tools to do so.

      But how do you get started? Where are these mysterious programmes that make data journalism accessible to the regional reporter and independent blogger?

      Never fear, launching an investigative project based on data needn’t be a huge financial expense. There are plenty of open source technologies out there to satisfy the aspiring data journalist.

    • How an extinct zebra could upend the networking market

      The growing popularity of software defined networking has resulted in a spurt in networking startups, and that is going to get a further boost in coming months thanks to Google and an open-source project shepherded by the Internet Systems Consortium, a non-profit entity. The ISC is supporting a project to stabilize and test Quagga, open-source networking software. The project, called the Open Source Routing Project, is exciting because it could help make a cheap, open-source router a reality.

    • Open source film awaits your remix

      A Melbourne-based director Ryan Alexander Lloyd has released the raw footage of his upcoming film onto the internet for free.

    • Open Data

      • Public data for all – opening up Europe’s public sector

        I’ve said before that I’m a big fan of open data. Opening up public data will get citizens involved in society and political life, increase the transparency of public administration, and improve public decision making. Those benefits cannot be overestimated. And public data can be used in many unexpected ways, too: as the father of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, put it: “if people put data onto the web… it will be used by other people to do wonderful things in ways that they never would have imagined”.

Leftovers

  • Finance

    • Fed Too Chummy With Goldman Sachs, GE: Report

      The Federal Reserve needs to take steps to control the conflict of interest involving Reserve Bank directors that also run some of the largest Wall Street banks and U.S. corporations, including Goldman Sachs(GS) and General Electric(GE), a government audit report on Wednesday said.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Flu with that Burger? ALEC Wants Sick People Serving You Food

      Last week, the city of Philadelphia mandated paid sick days for “workers whose employers have contracts with the city or apply for city subsidies.” Last month, Seattle also passed a paid sick leave ordinance. Connecticut passed a bill in June that will make it the first state in the nation to mandate paid sick leave for service workers. Food service workers are a special concern of such laws.

      Workers in these locations will no longer have to come to work with the flu or other infectious illness, endangering the health of their coworkers and customers and exacerbating their own health.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Connecting Europe: Commission offers broadband a boost of €50-100 billion

      It’s my dream to get Every European Digital. And that means everyone needs to be covered by fast broadband connections.

      The economic benefits are clear: increasing broadband penetration by just 10 percentage points can boost GDP by 0.9 – 1.5%. But we face problems in delivering new networks: insufficient investment, problems in accessing capital, and a weak business case for operators to roll out everywhere. And we also face difficulty in making online public services available across Europe.

    • Do Bell’s Throttling Practices Violate CRTC Net Neutrality Rules?: It Says P2P Congestion Declining

      Bell’s letter raises several interesting issues. First, it is an acknowledgment of what groups like CIPPIC, PIAC and others were saying as far back as 2009 in the net neutrality hearing. Peer-to-peer traffic is declining as an overall percentage of network traffic and the stresses on the system are far more likely to come from online video services such as Netflix.

  • Copyrights

    • Copyright Debate Hits the House of Commons: Opposition Won’t Support C-11 Due to Digital Locks

      Copyright dominated debate at the House of Commons on Tuesday as Bill C-11 was the primary subject of debate. Digital locks was one of the most discussed issues (new levies were the other), with the main opposition parties lining up to oppose the bill due to the digital lock provisions. For example, the NDP’s Charlie Angus stated:

    • Free Justin Bieber! (Why Streaming Shouldn’t be a Felony)

      U.S. authorities have demanded the extradition of Justin Bieber, the Canadian singer who turned blatant copyright infringements into a profitable career. The teen star is accused of streaming unauthorized songs to millions of people without compensating the copyright holders and now faces a 5 year prison sentence.

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