• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Applications

• Games

  • Mac and Linux versions of Strike Suit Zero available now!

    Born Ready Games is happy to announce that both Mac and Linux versions of Strike Suit Zero are available to download through Steam today. Joining them will be the Raptor Strike Suit and Heroes of the Fleet DLC.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • KDE Konnect: control your KDE devices from your phone

    Today we are surrounded by ‘smart’ devices all around us – smartphones, tablets, TVs, PCs and many more. These devices naturally don’t interact with each other. There are some device specific apps developed by some companies but those work within the device spectrum of that company, for example Samsung All Share comes only for Samsung Android devices and work only with Samsung smart TVs.

Distributions

• New Releases

  • Maintenance Release: PCLinuxOS-KDE-FullMonty 2013.08

    PCLinuxOS KDE FullMonty 2013.08 (32/64 bit) is now available for download.

  • Porteus 2.1 final and Porteus Kiosk Edition 2.1 are out!

    The Porteus Community is pleased to announce the distribution release of Porteus 2.1 (Standard Desktop Edition), as well as Porteus Kiosk Edition 2.1! Major additions since our 2.0 release include restructuring our layout to have standalone iso’s for five desktop environments (KDE4, RazorQT, Mate, Xfce and LXDE) and adding optional prepackaged modules for Google-Chrome, Opera, Libreoffice, Abiword, print/scan support and development software, all available through a new download interface that allows users to build and download customized ISO’s at http://build.porteus.org.

• Debian Family

  • 20 Years of Debian GNU/Linux

    Debian GNU/Linux celebrates its 20th birthday anniversary this month. I have been using Debian GNU/Linux only a few years and I regret not having known Debian earlier. The growth, vitality, and quality of the project has been amazing. With Debian GNU/Linux I have been able to do a lot with a tiny investment in IT. It is a force-multiplier for good Free Software.

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Ubuntu Edge Passes $9 Million, Smashes Crowd-Funding Record

        Over $9 million has now been pledged to the Ubuntu Edge campaign on IndieGoGo, helping it smash yet another crowd-funding record.

        This figure, whilst $23 million short of the required $32 million goal, makes Ubuntu Edge the second largest crowd-funding campaign in history. It shunts the Ouya games console, which raised $8.5 million over a 30 day period, into 3rd place.

      • Canonical Pushes Linux to the Edge With Bloomberg Backing

        The goal is to raise $32 million in 30 days to build 40,000 Ubuntu Edge next-generation smartphones.

      • Canonical lowers Edge pricing, launches app contest

        Canonical dropped the Indiegogo price for its Ubuntu Edge phone from $775 to $695. Meanwhile, the Ubuntu project launched an Ubuntu App Showdown contest for the best Ubuntu for Phones app that can be developed between now and Sept. 15.

      • Flavours and Variants

        • Mysterious countdown appears on elementary OS website

          It would appear that either yesterday, or the day before yesterday, a mysterious countdown was added to the elementary OS website. Or rather, the whole website was replaced by a countdown. So far, I haven’t found any definite indications of what exactly we’re counting down to.

Devices/Embedded

• Micromax Announces Artila ARM9 Linux Industrial Computer for Portable, Reliable Control

• Phones

  • Android

    • Intel Education Tablets run Android on Atoms

      Intel announced two educational tablets that run Android 4.x on Atom Z24xx processors. The 10-inch and 7-inch Intel Education Tablets feature Intel educational software, dual cameras, temperature probes, magnification lenses, and stylus options.

    • Android tablet and smartphone shipments surge

      During the second quarter of 2013, shipments of Android tablets doubled those of iOS, with 62.6 percent worldwide market share, according to IDC, while DigiTimes expects Android tablets to out-ship iOS models for the first time in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, IDC reports that Android smartphone sales rose to 79.3 percent of the worldwide market, or six times the Q2 share of iOS.

Web Browsers

• Chrome

• Mozilla

  • New Tor Browser Bundles with Firefox 17.0.8esr

BSD

• PC-BSD 20130806 is out

Public Services/Government

• Tackling “thorny issues” of open government at the OGP London summit

  The Open Government Partnership summit in London is gaining momentum, as evidenced by the growing engagement from civil society organisations. The OGP is reaching an important milestone, with the closure of its first cycle of country commitments and independent assessments.

Some Xerox Scanners Can Alter Documents by Accident

On the scale of things too horrible to contemplate, “document-altering scanner” is right up there with “flesh-eating bacteria.” This week Xerox (XRX) acknowledged that some of its scanners can, with certain settings, change the numbers in scanned documents. On Wednesday it announced a fix for the problem, which a spokesman called “really an anomaly.”

The problem came to light when David Kriesel, a German computer scientist, scanned a construction plan on a Xerox machine and noticed that the document that came out wasn’t identical to the one that went in: Numbers for some room measurements had changed. Kriesel alerted Xerox, wrote about the problem on his blog and began to investigate how widespread the problem is.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• Drone Warfare Makes Killing a Spectator Sport

  Oh, the serious news! I read it with ever-fresh incredulity. It’s written for gamers. It reduces us to gamers as it updates us on the latest bends and twists in the geopolitical scene. We’re still playing War on Terror, the aim of which is to kill as many insurgents as possible; when they’re all dead, we win (apparently). The trick is to avoid inflaming the locals, who then transition out of passive irrelevance and join the insurgency. They get inflamed when we kill civilians, such as their children.

• Redefining Security and Intelligence in an independent Scotland

  Military and intelligence stories have been all over the news recently. Be it indiscriminate eavesdropping programs, WMD infrastructure, or our impending doom at the hands of terrorists if we vote “yes”, there is a common denominator in the statements of the high heid yins: these are issue for the big boys, the role set out for the rest of us is to cower in fear and not to hurt our wee brains trying to understand. In the independence debate, we are warned that an independent Scotland is going to be overrun by terrorists, disastrously cyber-attacked, or run out of money trying to prevent these disasters from happening. The catalyst of the recent wave of scare stories is a report by a bunch of military and intelligence insiders, the crowd treated in the mainstream media as holding an exclusive grasp of the serious issue of our national security. But this deference is exactly the type of elitist approach that led us into the intelligence SNAFU we are in at the moment – with the agencies at odds with the democratic process and public control. The independence debate is a chance for us to crack open the debate on intelligence and the military, and imagine what a security apparatus actually subservient to democracy might look like.

Transparency Reporting

• Snowden, Greenwald and Wikileaks are winning

  Americans are becoming more concerned that government ‘anti-terror’ programmes are actually restricting civil liberties.

Finance

• ‘We Won’t Pay’: Greek activists reconnect power to poverty-stricken homes

  With a Eurozone record of 27 percent of Greeks unemployed, people are taking a pro-active approach to the crisis. Activists from the ‘We Won’t Pay’ movement, which boasts 10,000 members, are illegally reconnecting power to hundreds of homes.

  Tough austerity measures have left many people in Greece unable to pay their electricity bills. The ‘We Don’t Pay’ movement which has over 10,000 members helps many of those by illegally reconnecting power to their homes, despite legal action against them.

• Greece becoming new Kosovo as youth jobless hits 65pc

  Greek youth unemployment has soared to a record 64.9pc as the country’s downward spiral continues almost unchecked.

• Watch as plutocrats mold us into a New America, a nation more pleasing to their sight

  Increasing wealth creates positive feedback, much like a hurricane moving over warm water. A more powerful 1% allows them to command the political and economic high ground of America, so that they can gain further wealth — and shape a New America more to their liking. This process has run for several generations; now the results are plain to see — for all that wish to look. Today we have first of three tales of New America.

• Greg Palast: Why Are the Greek People Agreeing to Their Own Destruction?

  In his career as an investigative journalist, economist, and bestselling author – Vultures’ Picnic, Billionaires and Ballot Bandits, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy – Greg Palast has not been afraid to tackle some of the most powerful names in politics and finance. From uncovering Katherine Harris’ purge of African-American voters from Florida’s voter rolls in the year 2000 to revealing the truth behind the “assistance” provided by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to ailing economies, Palast has not held back in revealing the corruption and criminal actions of the wealthy and powerful. In a recent interview on Dialogos Radio, Palast turned his attention to Greece and to the austerity policies that have been imposed on the country by the IMF, the European Union, and the European Central Bank.

Censorship

• Microsoft’s Bing Removes Several Hundred Thousand “Pirate” Search Results

  Over the past month copyright holders and Google have clashed over infringing search results and how they should be dealt with. Due to its smaller market share Microsoft’s Bing has rarely been mentioned, but the company informs TorrentFreak that they also remove hundreds of thousands of infringing URLs each month. Interestingly enough, Microsoft itself is one of the most active senders of DMCA notices to Bing.

• Pirate Party Reports IT Minister to the Police for Copyright Infringement

  As the crackdown on copyright infringement in Sweden continues, the local Pirate Party has today held up a mirror to the politicians who support the tough enforcement regime. Marking the ten-year anniversary of The Pirate Bay, the Pirate Party have reported Sweden’s IT Minister to the police after she was spotted infringing copyright online on a number of occasions.

Privacy

• Lavabit email service abruptly shut down citing government interference

  The email service reportedly used by surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden abruptly shut down on Thursday after its owner cryptically announced his refusal to become “complicit in crimes against the American people.”

  Lavabit, an email service that boasted of its security features and claimed 350,000 customers, is no more, apparently after rejecting a court order for cooperation with the US government to participate in surveillance on its customers. It is the first such company known to have shuttered rather than comply with government surveillance.

• After Lavabit shutdown, another encrypted e-mail service closes

  Silent Circle, a company that specializes in encrypted communications, said it is preemptively turning off its Silent Mail product. It’s doing so despite no urging at all from the government—no subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else, company co-founder Jon Callas wrote in a blog post today. “We see the writing on the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now.”

• Silent Circle Preemptively Shuts Down Encrypted Email Service To Prevent NSA Spying

• Edward Snowden’s Email Provider Shuts Down Amid Secret Court Battle

  A pro-privacy email service long used by NSA leaker Edward Snowden abruptly shut down today, blaming a secret U.S. court battle it has been fighting for six weeks — one that it seems to be losing so far.

• Snowden’s email provider, Lavabit, shutters citing legal pressure

  An email provider reportedly used by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden shut down on Thursday, citing an ongoing court battle that it could not discuss.

  Lavabit, which launched in 2004, specialized in providing a high-security email service that employed advanced encryption. It was designed to thwart the kind of surveillance techniques that Snowden revealed in June were used by the U.S. government.

• Encrypted email service linked to Edward Snowden shuts down

  An encrypted email service believed to have been used by American fugitive Edward Snowden was shut down abruptly on Thursday amid a legal fight that appeared to involve US government attempts to win access to customer information.

• After Lavabit, Silent Circle also shuts down email service

  “We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now,” Silent Circle wrote in a blog post on Friday in reference to the closure by Lavabit.

• With NSA and NYPD under scrutiny, is tide turning on surveillance?

  On Wednesday, the New York Police Department agreed to expunge more than a half million names from its stop-and-frisk database – another blow to the embattled crime-fighting tactic that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has hailed as a key policy in the city’s plunging crime rate.

• NSA Searches All Messages To and From US

  That doesn’t mean they don’t target us, of course, it just means they need to find a loophole. Today we learned one of those loopholes is to collect literally all emails and other text-based messages that involve a foreigner, figuring that if pressed they can insist the foreigner, not the Americans were the “target.”

• US NSA to cut system administrators by 90 pct to limit data access

  The US National Security Agency, hit by disclosures of classified data by former contractor Edward Snowden, said it intends to eliminate about 90 percent of its system administrators to reduce the number of people with access to secret information.

  Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, the US spy agency charged with monitoring foreign electronic communications, told a cybersecurity conference in New York City that automating much of the work would improve security.

• CIA Gun-running, Qatar-Libya-Syria.

  A report from CNN’s Jake Tapper has reintroduced “Benghazi-Gate” to the US media spotlight. The report claims that “dozens” of CIA operatives were on the ground in Benghazi on the night of the attack, and the CIA is going to great lengths to suppress details of them and their whereabouts being released. The report alleges that the CIA is engaged in “unprecedented” attempts to stifle employee leaks, and “intimidation” to keep the secrets of Benghazi hidden, allegedly going as far as changing the names of CIA operatives and “dispersing” them around the country.

• In His Majesty’s CIA

  So, why did you join the CIA? To be mobster Henry Hill, shoved into an Agency witness protection program? Except, unlike Hill, it isn’t you who’s being protected. It’s the president, higher-ups, and the Agency itself. You — you’re more a prisoner than a pampered witness. Remember the 60s’ cult classic Brit TV series, The Prisoner? Once you’re in the Agency, you’re never out.

• Ex-CIA Chief Praises Official Leaks for Letting Terrorists ‘Know We’re Alert’ After Condemning Snowden For Doing the Same

  Lots of people are asking good questions about the veracity of the Obama administration’s claims regarding this latest terrorist attack that they foiled by intercepting electronic communications between Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of core al Qaeda, and Nasir al Wuhayshi, a high level operative in the Yemeni affiliate.

• CYBER SECURITY: NSA, FBI, CIA Want Company Cooperation

  The leaders of the top three U.S. intelligence agencies made an unusual joint public appearance Thursday to make a pitch for companies to cooperate more with the government in cybersecurity efforts, and defended the work their agencies do amid controversy over vast data mining programs that critics say invade Americans’ privacy.

• White House publishes preliminary list of cybersecurity incentives

• Email Company Reportedly Used By Edward Snowden Shuts Down Rather Than Hand Data Over To Feds

  When Edward Snowden emailed journalists and activists in July to invite them to a briefing at the Moscow airport during his long stay there, he used the email account “edsnowden@lavabit.com” according to one of the invitees. Texas-based Lavabit came into being in 2004 as an alternative to Google’s Gmail, as an email provider that wouldn’t scan users’ email for keywords. Being identified as the provider of choice for the country’s most famous NSA whistleblower led to a flurry of attention for Lavabit and its encrypted email services, from journalists, and also, apparently, from government investigators. Lavabit founder Ladar Levison announced Thursday that he’s shutting down the company rather than cooperating with a government investigation (presumably into Snowden).

• Lavabit, the secure email service Edward Snowden uses abruptly shuts down

  Lavabit, a US company offering extremely secure and privacy protecting email service, has suddenly shut down. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reportedly used the service to securely send emails without government interception.

• Are small-fry encrypted email ISPs using feds as excuse for closure?

  ISPs and email hosting providers need to be willing to and plan for the need to work with government officials.

• Building a panopticon: The evolution of the NSA’s XKeyscore

  How the NSA went from off-the-shelf to a homegrown “Google for packets.”

• What It Means to Be An NSA “Target”: New Information Shows Why We Need Immediate FISA Amendments Act Reform

  An important New York Times investigation from today reporting that the NSA “is searching the contents of vast amounts of Americans’ e-mail and text communications into and out of the country,” coupled with leaked documents published by the Guardian, seriously calls into question the accuracy of crucial statements made by government officials about NSA surveillance.

  The government has previously tried to reassure the public about its use of FISA Amendments Act Section 702 surveillance practices, emphasizing that, under Section 702, the government may not “intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the United States.” Indeed, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Senator Feinstein, in a letter to constituents who wrote to her expressing concern about the NSA’s spying program, said this: “[T]he government cannot listen to an American’s telephone calls or read their emails without a court warrant issued upon a showing of probable cause.”

• NSA reading content of Americans’ international communications

• How the NSA plans to avoid future leaks: replace employees with machines

  NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander might have had a difficult time recruiting hackers at the Def Con and Black Hat security conferences, but he might not need to recruit again anytime soon. Speaking at a cybersecurity conference in New York City — where he sat down with the heads of the FBI and CIA — he told an audience that he’d like to replace the vast majority of his employees and contractors with machines. No joke.

• NSA gets burned by a sysadmin, decides to burn 90% of its sysadmins

• The NSA Intends To Fire 90% Of Their System Administrators To Eliminate Future Leaks

• NSA chief suggests replacing humans with machines to stop future Snowdens

• NSA head: Replace would-be Snowdens with computers to stop future leaks

• NSA To Lay Off 90 Percent Of Its System Administrators

• General Keith Alexander: NSA will cut 90% of system administrators

• Apple, Google and AT&T meet Obama to discuss NSA surveillance concerns

  Silicon Valley companies concerned at effect on business as revelations over US government spying spread more widely

• Deutsche Telekom snubs U.S. email servers after snooping scandal

  Germany’s leading telecoms operator will channel email traffic exclusively through its domestic servers in response to public outrage over U.S. spy programs accessing citizens’ private messages, Deutsche Telekom said on Friday.

• 5 Sneaky Ways The NSA Spies On Americans

  The U.S. government needs only three degrees of separation to look at Kevin Bacon’s phone records.

  [...]

  5. The NSA assumes you’re foreign until proven otherwise.

  The NSA tries to determine whether communication is foreign through strategies like matching known phone numbers against an internal database. Whenever an attempt to determine one way or another fails, the program assumes the person in question is foreign and continues unabated.

• Obama’s former adviser ridicules statement that NSA doesn’t spy on Americans

  United States President Barack Obama insists his government isn’t in the business of domestic surveillance, but one of his former advisers says that’s contrary to the truth.

  “Everybody knows I love this president, but this is ridiculous,” former-Special Adviser for Green Jobs Van Jones said Wednesday on CNN. “First of all, we do have a domestic spying program, and what we need to be able to do is figure out how to balance these things, not pretend like there’s no balancing to be done.”

• Snowden leaks: Germany sent massive amounts of data to the NSA

• Cost-Benefit Analysis Of NSA Surveillance Says It’s Simply Not Worth It

  A new study suggests that the direct losses to US tech companies from people and companies fleeing to other services (often overseas) is likely to be between $22 billion and $35 billion over just the next three years. Germany is already looking at pushing for rules in the EU that would effectively ban Europeans from using services from US companies that participate in NSA surveillance programs (which is a bit hypocritical since it appears many EU governments are involved in similar, or even worse, surveillance efforts).

• For NSA, Americans’ Emails Are an Open Book

  “President Obama is certainly being creative with the truth,” said Yasha Heidari, managing partner in the Heidari Power Law Group. Allowing the NSA’s activities to take place calls into question the president’s adherence to basic principles of the American Constitution, he suggested. “As a former Constitutional law professor, it is hard to believe that he does not know this.”

• Deutsche Telekom reacts to NSA spying with initiative to protect German emails

• It Doesn’t Count as Outreach When Obama Talks About the NSA in Secret

  On Thursday, Obama met behind closed doors at the White House with tech company executives and privacy groups to discuss his administration’s system of surveillance. The context was radically different from the last conversation he participated in on the subject, his chat with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. But both conversations reinforce the ongoing problem with that surveillance: informed, public debate on the subject appears to be impossible.

  [...]

  An open, public, informed conversation on surveillance has been the president’s stated goal since shortly after the Edward Snowden leaks began. How authentic that desire is isn’t clear. But how possible it is isn’t either.

• Study: NSA leaks could cost U.S. $22-35 billion

• NSA’s Overreach Weakens US Diplomatic Position With EU

  For German companies, industrial espionage has historically been a problem related to the east, with Russia and China topping the list of security concerns year in and year out. But not so much anymore.

• Can Australia’s digital spooks escape an NSA-level backlash?

  Lavabit and Silent Circle’s secure email services have been shut down as part of a generational-scale anti-surveillance pushback, but only US and UK agencies are under the microscope. Why not Australia?

• No, this isn’t a scene from Minority Report. This trash can is stalking you

  Smartphone-monitoring bins in London track places of work, past behavior, and more.

• White House talks privacy, surveillance with tech CEOs, Vint Cerf, and others

  The White House hosted a closed-door meeting with a number of tech luminaries and executives on Thursday to talk about privacy issues. Apple CEO Tim Cook, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, and Vint Cerf (the co-inventor of TCP/IP) were reported to be in attendance, according to Politico.

• President Obama: “The Odds of Dying In a Terrorist Attack Are a Lot LOWER than They Are of Dying In a Car Accident”

  The Jewish Daily Forward noted in May that – even including the people killed in the Boston bombing – you are more likely to be killed by a toddler than a terrorist. And see these statistics from CNN.

Civil Rights

• Feds Instruct Law Enforcement to Cover Up Investigations of Americans

  Agencies of the federal government are sharing the massive database of personal information being obtained by surveillance, and police are being taught how to hide the details from judges and lawyers, a Reuters report reveals.

• Sen. Feinstein During ‘Shield’ Law Debate: ‘Real’ Journalists Draw Salaries

  I can see this stipulation working against whoever the government feels is worthy of the title “journalist.” News develops. It seldom has a distinct starting point. Of course, if someone is a journalist, it stands to reason that they’re always “planning” to publish their findings. But that might be a lot harder to prove when the government starts slinging subpoenas.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Copyrights

  • Cable and TV Networks Fee Fight Fallout— Who Pays? The Public

    Public Knowledge has a couple of pieces up on the fight between CBS and Time Warner Cable over TWC’s payment for the right to rebroadcast broadcasts and then charge the public link here and link here. CBS has already been amply rewarded through advertising on its over the air broadcasts free use of the public airwaves. But in the current fight, it wants still more money. Congress set this up in 1992 legislation which allowed the networks to charge for retransmission permission of its broadcasts.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

IBM opens up Power chips, ARM-style, to take on Chipzilla

With its embedded Power chip business under assault from makers of ARM and x86 processors – and to a lesser extent MIPS chips – and having lost the game console business to AMD, IBM had to do something dramatic to expand the addressable market for its Power processors. And that something, which Big Blue has just rolled out, is called the OpenPower Consortium. which takes a few pages from the ARM Holdings playbook to breathe some new life into the Power architecture.

30 day challenge: Chromebook Pixel

This is getting long, so I’ll close with an anecdote. My Dad visited earlier this month. I gave him a Samsung Chromebook as a loaner for his visit and he’s been using it happily. He logged into his Gmail account in Chrome and his bookmarks and other Chrome settings just showed up. Dad’s laptop back home is about 5 years old, so we stopped by the Apple store. I was going to outfit him with a top-of-the-line MacBook; since he goes for years between upgrades, I wanted him to have a laptop that would last as long as possible. But after noticing the price, he balked. “Matt, we can buy ten Chromebooks for that much money,” he told me. We’re still discussing it, but the $250 Samsung Chromebook does everything he needs. I think more and more people will discover that’s true for them as well. I’ve been surprised how well the Chromebook Pixel works for me.

Windows to Linux Migration – Necessary

Server

• Oklahoma University Drives Productivity With Commercial Linux

  The OU began using Red Hat Linux back in 2002, when the OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER) became one of the first in the nation to open a Pentium 4 Xeon cluster, which ran the community version of Red Hat Linux, according to a recent story in FutureGov.

• Take a look at the new IBM Power Linux 7R4 high-performance server

• Google and IBM Team Up to Work On Next Generation Data Center Technology

  Earlier this week, Google, IBM, Mellanox, NVIDIA and Tyan announced plansto form the OpenPOWER Consortium – “an open development alliance based on IBM’s POWER microprocessor architecture.” According to the release, the Consortium will collaborate on both hardware and software to build out new hyperscale and cloud data centers.

  The release is light on details, which makes sense given they are announcing their intent to form a consortium, but I did find the news interesting on a number of fronts:

• IBM Sees Power in Consortium Numbers, Goes Open Source

  Analyst Roger Kay said that since “IBM was pretty much the only company using Power technology, it is looking for a way to expand the market for that technology.” He added that Intel is really the only other company supporting its own architecture entirely. “it is very difficult and expensive for a single company to maintain an architecture,” he said.

Audiocasts/Shows

• Linux Outlaws 318 – Just Ask Hitler

• Podcast Season 5 Episode 14

Kernel Space

• Linux 3.10 Goes Long Term: Why It Matters for the Enterprise, Consumers

  Linux kernel developers have selected a new long-term kernel that could serve as the basis for enterprise Linux distributions as well as consumer electronics devices.

• Linux Kernel News – July 2013

• 10-Way Linux File-System Comparison On Linux 3.10

  On the latest Linux 3.10 stable kernel we have taken ten common Linux file-systems and generated an interesting performance comparisons. The Linux file-systems being tested in this article include XFS, Btrfs, EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, ReiserFS, Reiser4, JFS, F2FS, and ZFS.

• Graphics Stack

  • The AMD Catalyst 13.8 beta video driver for Linux is out, and it breaks my system

    So I finally get working 3D acceleration and suspend/resume and get rid of artifacts in Fedora 19 on my HP Pavilion g6 laptop (AMD A4-4300M APU with AMD Radeon HD 7420G graphics) with the 13.6 beta version of the AMD Catalyst driver for Linux.

Applications

• dnstop: A little prodding, and bingo!

• Stellarium 0.12.2 released!

• Giada – Audio tool for DJs, live performers and electronic musicians

• Artha – simple but powerful offline dictionary

• Final Term: A terminal emulator to rule them all

• Best Google Reader Replacements for Android and Linux

  RIP Google Reader: October 7, 2005 – July 1, 2013. Yes, it’s official, Google Reader is dead. One of the best content aggregators (feed readers) on the web, that too by one of the best companies on the web, has just been discontinued. Google, noticing that Google Reader’s usage was declining, announced on March 13, 2013 that it was going to discontinue the product by July 2013. This led to a huge discontent among many Google Reader users who thought that the change was completely unnecessary and that Google was pulling the plug on a very important product. In fact, more than 100,000 people signed a petition on change.org opposing the axing of Reader. Needless to say, saying goodbye to Google Reader was one of the hardest things ever for techies who preferred all their news in one place.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • The Cron Daemon

  • Script Roundup: vim-arpeggio, Matchmaker

  • How to build a network attached storage (NAS) server with Openfiler

  • How to build a network attached storage (NAS) server with Openfiler

  • GRUB2 Rescue

  • How to install Steam client on debian 7 (Wheezy)

  • How to set up a Subversion (SVN) server on CentOS or Fedora

  • Backup And Restore All Installed Packages To CD/DVD Using APTonCD On Ubuntu/Debian

  • Researched for YOU – Best articles to study cat command in Linux

  • Auto-CAD: Room and Furniture

  • UNIX / Linux du Command Tutorial with Practical Examples

  • Installing Lighttpd With PHP5 (PHP-FPM) And MySQL Support On Fedora 19

  • Autotrash – Purges files from your trash based on age and/or filename

  • How to back up hard drives for disaster recovery with Clonezilla

  • When to use Linux memory swap to solve server performance problems

  • Remote Desktop from a Linux client machine

  • Managing Your Own Open Source Efforts

  • 60 Commands of Linux : A Guide from Newbies to System Administrator

  • Mobile Vim Cheat Sheet

  • macchanger: Ready for the masquerade

  • How to install powerpill( a pacman wrapper) on Arch Linux

  • How to drive people crazy with syslog

  • Unix routing basics: Getting from here to there

  • How to become a graphic designer

    I graduated University with a diploma in mechanical engineering, after that I switched the field and worked most of the time as a computer engineer, that was my day job. Graphic design was something I did in my spare time and was something I learned by myself, by reading, experimenting, being a part on FOSS projects and so on. And I had a few successes, all while using almost exclusively FOSS software.

    Now when I find myself as a freelancer, it made sense to complete my professional background by receiving certification as a graphic designer. How to do that? By taking a recognized professional training for adults. Following is the experience of a FOSS guy going trough a traditional graphic design training.

  • python bytecode: single scope

    Python bytecode, meet the language behind the language! It’s a language like any other, with its own syntax, semantics, design patterns and pitfalls. It’s even better than Python, because it’s executed directly, not compiled to some intermediate easy-enough-to-interpret language. So if those bytecode compilation times are bugging you, you know what to do.

• Wine or Emulation

  • Darling, a Wine-like emulator to run Mac OSX apps on Linux

    GNULinux users are already familiar with Wine which allows them to run supported Windows application on their GNULinux systems. Wines is however not an answer as at times it doesn’t support the latest versions of the apps. Now GNULinux users can also run Apple Mac apps on their systems.

  • OS X apps run on Linux with Wine-like emulator for Mac software

    Linux users who want to run Windows applications without switching operating systems have been able to do so for years with Wine, software that lets apps designed for Windows run on Unix-like systems.

• Games

  • Humble Bundle and Weekly Sale without games for Linux

    While the Humble Bundle team has always been a big supporter of gaming on Linux, there are No Games for Linux in the current Humble Bundle and Weekly Sale.

  • Secrets of Rætikon flies to PC, Mac, Linux this year

    Broken Rules’ new aerial exploration game, Secrets of Rætikon, will start trekking through the low-poly forest on PC, Mac and Linux this year. Its previous game, Chasing Aurora, was a Wii U exclusive, but its first title, And Yet It Moves, launched on PC, Mac, Linux, WiiWare and iOS. Broken Rules says Secrets of Rætikon may “possibly” come to consoles, too.

  • Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians Now Available

  • Secrets of Rætikon gliding to Windows PC, Mac and Linux

    Secrets of Rætikon, the aerial exploration game from Chasing Aurora developers, Broken Rules Games, will launch on Windows PC, Mac and Linux, the Vienna-based studio announced today.

  • SECRETS OF RÆTIKON to launch on PC, Mac and Linux

  • MEGABYTE PUNCH is now available on PC Mac and Linux

    Independent game developer Reptile Games is pleased to announce their game, Megabyte Punch is currently available to the public via the Humble Bundle Store, Desura and Gamersgate. Described best as a mash-up of SSB, Megaman and Custom Robo. Megabyte Punch is an electro fighting/beat ‘em up game in which players can build and customize their own player. The game is currently on sale for $11.99 (US), 20% off its original price of $14.99 for PC (Windows), Mac and Linux. Megabyte Punch fans can also purchase a special edition of the game that comes with the original Soundtrack with 27 tracks, HD Wallpapers, and extra custom levels for $20.00.

  • Estranged HL2 Single Player Adventure Mod On Its Way To Linux!

  • Unvanquished FPS Looks Stunning and It Gets Better with Every New Version

    Unvanquished, a free, open-source first-person shooter combining real-time strategy elements with a futuristic and sci-fi setting, has just received a substantial update.

  • Leadwerks Makes Its Kickstarter Goal, Promises 3D Game Development On Linux, Will Come With Support For Android And Ouya

  • Shadowrun Returns post-launch support detailed, Linux support coming

    Harebrained Schemes have unveiled plans for their support of Shadowrun Returns, now that the game is out in the wild and being played by millions.

    The first patch has now been released (get the change notes here) and more changes are on the way, including Linux support and localisation for Spanish, Italian, German, and French.

  • Leadwerks’ successful Kickstarter campaign will bring game development to Linux

    Development company Leadwerks had started a Kickstarter campaign some time ago that aimed to improve game development environments on computers running on Linux. The company’s initial aim of $20,000 has been far surpassed, with 787 backers having funded the project for a total of $42,358.

  • Super Ubie Land To Come To Linux Tuesday The 13th!

  • 6 Games Coming to Steam for Linux

    Where are my Linux gaming guys? I got some good news for you. Very, very good news! Prepare to play six new games on your Linux box in the coming months. Now, I present you the games. Read below. http://store.steampowered.com/

  • FreeOrion Open Source Turn-based Space Empire And Galactic Conquest New Version

  • Beatbuddy: Tale Of The Guardians With Awesome Music Hits Linux

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • Thoughts on Quick2

  • AudioCd. Week 7.

    I also reviewed AudioCdCollection bugs. It is hard to keep track on fixed bugs, because I can’t close fixed one in bugzilla. So I’ll list bugs here and shall update this post:

  • Curry all over the C++11

  • New in kdepim 4.12: mboximporter

  • Ground Overlay Rendering Is Here

    After solving bugs that occurred mainly during the rendering of overlays having a GeoDataLatLonBox with a rotation parameter other than 0, Marble is now capable of displaying ground overlays by simply opening a KML file referencing one.

    However, the rotation angle was not the only problem source, as issues also appeared when displaying overlays that extended over the antimeridian. In fact, this turned out to be the most annoying corner case, as dealing with it meant treating multiple situations separately and led to ugly code.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Scrolling in GTK+

  • GUADEC 2013, Day 3

  • GTK+ meeting notes

Distributions

• Wifislax 4.6 review

  Wifislax is a Slackware-based Linux distribution designed for wireless hacking and forensics. It’s not on the list of Pentesting, digital forensics, and hacking distributions that I published last week, but with this article, it just got added.

• New Releases

  • “ROSA Planet” switches to rolling release scheme

  • IPFire 2.13 – Core Update 71 released

    This is the official release announcement for IPFire 2.13 – Core Update 71. This update comes with some new features and minor bug fixes.

  • Alpine 2.6.3 released

  • Karoshi 9.0.0

• Red Hat Family

  • Why combine Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenStack? Integration and Ecosystem Benefits.

    Editor’s note: In this series of blog posts, Tim Burke has been reviewing Red Hat’s journey from Red Hat Enterprise Linux to the newly announced Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform. This is Tim’s third post in the four-part series. The first two can be found here and here.

  • Red Hat Continues Global Expansion, Achieves LEED Certification

    Red Hat, Inc. (NYS: RHT) , the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced continued global expansion with new and expanded facilities around the world. Red Hat also announced that its facilities in Raleigh, N.C., Westford, Mass., and Beijing are expected to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, highlighting the company’s commitment to building environmentally sound offices. Today, Red Hat has more than 80 offices worldwide with more than 5,700 employees.

  • Red Hatters Build Lantern of Food for Charity

    If you think Red Hat is just about Linux, then you’re mistaken. Red Hat is quite active locally sponsoring various activities and educational programs trying to give back to the community which has embraced it so enthusiastically. Most recently Red Hat employees built a 10-foot lantern for charity during CANstruction, a local event held to benefit food banks.

  • Gluster Developer Community Surges by Nearly 300 Percent, Ships GlusterFS 3.4 Open Software-defined Storage Distribution

    Congratulations to the Gluster Community! In addition to shipping GlusterFS 3.4, the latest release of the open source, scale-out storage system, the Gluster Community has significantly increased its number of projects and contributing developers in just three short months. Since May 2013, the Gluster Community has grown from seven projects for the GlusterFS distribution to more than 30 incubating open software-defined storage projects for big data, demonstrating nearly 300 percent growth in the number of developers.

  • Red Hat Announces GlusterFS 3.4 Software-Defined Storage

    GlusterFS, Red Hat’s (RHT) open source software-defined storage solution for Big Data and the cloud, continues to gain momentum. This week, Red Hat announced that the Gluster Community, a consortium of organizations interested in the storage technology, has nearly tripled in size since its launch back in June. Plus, the company unveiled a version 3.4 of GlusterFS.

  • Fedora

    • This week in Fedora Infrastructure

• Debian Family

  • Derivatives

    • Canonial/Ubuntu

      • Ubuntu Stops Supporting Apple’s PowerPC-Based Systems

        When a new Ubuntu launch date approaches, Canonical developers like to start shaking things up. This time is the turn of Ubuntu for PowerPC.

        Canonical devs have observed that the PowerPC version of Ubuntu hadn’t been built in a while, mostly due to failures in particular subcomponents of the Unity stack.

      • Perspective: Do you have it?

        Forget nitpicking about certain points Hall makes that are well off-base — Ubuntu/Canonical’s lack of contributions back to the community is widely documented, and if someone brought Cadillac blueprints to the Yugo factory, the Yugo folks would probably laugh themselves into a change of underwear before asking, “Do you realize how much it would cost to retool our factory — any factory — to make a car for which the factory was not designed?”

      • Meet Sol, the Solar-powered Ubuntu notebook with a 10-hour battery

        Canadian-based WeWi Telecommunications Inc. has created an Ubuntu-based laptop that harnesses solar energy from the sun for power. The Sol claims to last for up to 10 hours via the internal battery, can run directly off solar energy and can be fully charged via solar power in just two hours.

      • SOL solar-powered Ubuntu laptop arrives with 10-hour sun-juiced battery

        Laptop battery life is something that we all can’t seem to be happy with. No matter how long the battery is able to last, there are always times when we curse into the wind when we get that dreaded battery warning while on the road. However, a new Ubuntu laptop looks to solve those problems by coming with a solar panel attached to keep the battery juiced up without a power cord.

      • Sol Solar Powered Laptop Running Ubuntu Unveiled

      • This $300 Solar-Powered Ubuntu Laptop Lasts 10 Hours on 2 Hours of Sun

      • Why the Ubuntu Edge is a success, even if it never exists

        Former Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth is not deterred by the prospect of his ambitious Indiegogo campaign failing to meet its goal. In many ways, the project has already succeeded.

      • Penguins, I give you: The SOLAR-POWERED Ubuntu laptop

        SOL is for when you need to be “digitally empowered on the top of a mountain or in the middle of the desert” according to the David-Attenborough-inspired promo video.

      • On the Edge of failure: Ubuntu smartphone looks unlikely to reach crowdfunding goal

        The Edge, a smartphone that runs a mobile edition of the popular desktop OS Ubuntu, will only get made if would-be users pledge $32 million via the crowdfunding site Indiegogo. With a strict time limit of 30 days, this ambitious campaign needs to average more than $1 million per day, however the first half of that period has seen great initial momentum slow down to a crawl. In its 15 days on Indigegogo, the Edge project has attracted $8.3 million in pledges, leaving it nearly $24 million short.

      • Enterprise drops $80,000 on crowdfunded Ubuntu Edge smartphones

      • Bloomberg backs Ubuntu Edge project with $80,000 pledge but may not reach $32m goal

      • SOL: The $350 Ubuntu laptop that runs on solar power

      • Ubuntu Phone Seeks To Be Crowd-Funded — for $32 Million

        ne of the most interesting aspects of the Ubuntu Edge is that it will run both Linux and Android, instead of solely running Linux like you would expect it to. To start, people running the phone in Android mode will access Ubuntu through the Ubuntu for Android app; further down the line, Canonical will push out a native desktop version of Ubuntu for the Edge.

      • Ubuntu Edge, XBMC, and Firefox 23

        Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth and friends have been working to bring the open source operating system to smartphones and tablets. And last month they introduced a side-project, a phone called the Ubuntu Edge which would dual boot Android and Ubuntu and work both as a phone and a desktop computer (when docked to a mouse, keyboard, and monitor).

      • Solar-Powered Ubuntu Laptop Lasts 10 Hours on a Charge

      • Top 10 Ubuntu App Downloads for July 2013

        On August 6, Canonical published the usual top 10 app downloads chart, this time for July 2013, extracted straight from the Ubuntu Software Center.

        Guess what? Steam is still the undefeated king of the top 10 free apps chart from the Ubuntu Software Center, which tells us that many Ubuntu users are hard core gamers.

      • UberStudent Pushes Users to the Head of the Class

        UberStudent bundles several learning platforms not found in typical Linux distros. Plus, each application category in the menu has a sub-category of related menus. For instance, there are WebApps, Documentation and Resources. Remember, this is a specially designed distro for those transitioning to Linux. So everything is configured to work out of the box.

      • Is Unity 8 Super Fast or What?

        Just a few days ago, Unity 8 became available for Ubuntu 13.10. However, it is just an Alpha release and it’s not coming to the ‘stable city’ until Ubuntu 14.xx release.

      • UbuntuKylin steals the show at OCOW Summit

        On 28-29 June, the eighth Open Source China – Open Source World Summit, sponsored by China OSS Promotion Union (COPU), occurred in Beijing at Beihang University1.

        UbuntuKylin was the talk of the conference. The UbuntuKylin project is a collaborative effort between CSIP,2 Canonical and NUDT.3 Initially released in April 2013, UbuntuKylin is an official Ubuntu flavour that will follow the Ubuntu six-monthly release cycle.

      • Getting lyrics in Sonata under Ubuntu

        Back in June one of the links I posted was for a HowTo to use the Music Player Daemon (MPD) for enjoying the music files on your computer without the overhead required by Amarok, Exaile and the such. While I didn’t use it at first I have come to love Sonata as my primary audio player. It’s lightweight, loads fast, lets me search through my entire library, even though it’s on two different partitions, and I can search by the artist rather than the location if I want to. There’s even an Info panel that can show you track and album info, as well as the lyrics.

      • Reglue piggybacks on Ubuntu Edge’s crowdfunding

        To say that Larry “the Free Software Guy” Cafiero criticizes Ubuntu and Canonical is like calling a hurricane breezy. A journalist in his work and a blogger in his spare time, Cafiero frequently shows himself to be harder hitting and more to the point than most free software writers. Recently, however, he has found a way to highlight his criticism while encouraging critics and supporters alike to donate to a cause in which both can believe.

      • Bloomberg Pledge $80,000 to Ubuntu Edge Campaign

        Bloomberg LP, a revered US-based financial information & news service, has pledged a record $80,000 to the Ubuntu Edge campaign on IndieGoGo.

      • Ubuntu Edge Price Lowered Again, Now Fixed At $695

        Canonical have, once again, lowered the price of the Ubuntu Edge super-phone – but this time they say it’ll be sticking.

      • World’s first sport utility laptop is fully solar-powered and runs Linux

        For most of us, an off-the-shelf laptop is sufficient for our needs, where power outlets and WiFi are easy to come by, and a dry and clean environment is the norm.

      • Ubuntu Edge Fixed at $695 as Campaign Receives $80K

        The Ubuntu Edge campaign received today a hearty donation of $80,000 from Bloomberg, a US-based financial information and news service. The donation took Canonical’s funds collection to a figure in excess of 8.5 million dollars. As huge as it may sound, the amount of collected funds is just about 25% of the target $32 million that Canonical aims to raise by 22nd August. The campaign seems to be going well, and it looks like Canonical will eventually be able to put a smile on the faces of thousands of funders, who generously pledged their money, by handing them their very own Ubuntu Edge. Many open source commentators are seeing Bloomberg’s move as first of major corporate backings for Canonical’s ambitious project. OMG Ubuntu said in their coverage of this story, “This donation gives the campaign more than money – it gives it a shot of credibility…”

      • Ubuntu launches second App Showdown

        You might recall Ubuntu’s App Showdown last year. It was a competition for people to make apps for Ubuntu. The developer of last year’s winning application, Lightread, received a System76 laptop and Nokia 9 smartphone (which the second and third place developers also got). Back then, around a 130 applications were submitted.

      • Ubuntu Edge smartphone not likely to meet crowdfunding goal

        Canonical’s recent Indiegogo campaign to fund the development of an Ubuntu-based smartphone got off to a great start as it managed to raise $3.45 million from donors within the first 24 hours. Since then, however, progress has slowed to a snail’s pace and it looks unlikely that the project will meet its goal of $32 million.

      • Ubuntu Edge campaign picks up an enterprise backer in Bloomberg

      • Canonical’s Ubuntu Edge campaign nabs its first corporate backer as Bloomberg pledges $80,000

      • Ubuntu Has a Solar-Powered Laptop, 2-Hour Charge Time for 10 Hours Battery Life

      • Ubuntu Edge smartphone given a life line by Bloomberg

        Bloomberg has pledged $80,000 (over £53,000) towards the Ubuntu Edge dual OS smartphone crowdfunding campaign, though the funding round may still ultimately fail with no phones ever being made.

      • Crowdfunded Ubuntu Phone Will Be A Big Success, Even If It Never Happens

      • The all-terrain, solar powered Linux sport utility laptop!

        If you’re one of those folks who loves the great outdoors, and who needs to take a laptop with you, then you’ll dig the SOL from WeWi. SOL is a solar powered laptop that is built to withstand everything nature can throw at it.

      • Ubuntu Edge Open Source Superphone Gets Priced at $695

        Canonical announced that its Ubuntu Edge superphone has a permanent (until the end of its fundraising campaign) price tag of $695. “No limited quantities, no more price changes,” reads a post. “You wanted a more affordable Edge, and now you’ve got it.”

      • Canonical cuts the price of the Ubuntu Edge to $695 for the remainder of its Indiegogo campaign

      • Bloomberg Pledges $80,000 Toward the Ubuntu Edge Phone

      • Ubuntu App Showdown challenges development for Ubuntu Touch

      • Mir Now Supports VT Switching

        Canonical’s Mir Display Server for Ubuntu Linux has proper support for handling switching to virtual terminals.

        Up to now Mir really hasn’t worked in combination with the common Linux VT switching through Ctrl + Alt + Fn keys, but now as of this morning the support is fresh in Mir’s Bazaar repository.

      • Flavours and Variants

        • The Performance Penalty Of Xfce/Xubuntu On XMir

          With there being experimental XMir-based Xubuntu 13.10 images available for the Xfce desktop spin and a request going out for testing, I ran some Phoronix performance tests to compare the XMir performance penalty for 2D and 3D workloads.

        • Review: Linux Mint 15 “Olivia” KDE + Xfce

          I realize that I haven’t posted anything in the last 2.5 weeks. That’s because in that time I got quite busy with a combination of UROP work, video making for the MIT-K12 project, and studying for the General and Physics GREs. Given that I will be taking the General GRE in just over a week, and given that I will be going home for vacation shortly thereafter, I won’t be able to post much after this for this month aside from a probable post reflecting on the summer. That said, it is a Sunday as I write this, and I figured I could use a break from the studying. So to do that, I’m reviewing Linux Mint 15 “Olivia” KDE and Xfce.

        • My Return to Xubuntu: A Review

          A few months ago, I had a Linux first — I reached the end-of-support of a distro. I never thought of myself as a distro hopper, especially with my main laptop, but I guess I hop around enough to have never made it to the end-of-support.

        • gNewSense 3.0 released

          gNewSense is the GNU/Linux distribution which is used by none other than Richard Stallman himself. It’s one of those distributions which fully adhered to the philosophies of free software.

        • gNewSense 3.0 “Parkes” Released

          /li>

        • A First Look at Pear OS 8′s Welcome Screen

          Shortly after the release of Pear OS 8 Alpha 2, David Tavares was proud to announce that a new welcome screen would be available in the upcoming Pear OS 8 Linux operating system.

Devices/Embedded

• PiCast: The open source, Raspberry Pi Chromecast alternative

• $5 8 GB SD card with NOOBS for Raspberry Pi now available

  Easy set-up SD card for novice users now offered with any new Raspberry Pi purchase for $5 on an 8 GB SD card

• Pwn probe runs sneaky new Linux distro

  Pwnie Express has opened pre-orders on a Linux-based penetration testing device that supports 4G out-of-band SSH access. The Pwn Plug R2 runs the Kali Linux-based Pwnix distribution on a 1.2GHz Marvell Armada 370 SoC, and offers dual gigabit Ethernet ports, high-gain WiFi and Bluetooth, and a variety of one-click pen-testing tricks, like running the device as an Evil AP.

• Tiny SBC runs Linux on Xilinx ARM+FPGA SoC

  Avnet has unveiled a smaller, lower cost follow-on to its community backed ARM+FPGA based ZedBoard. The $199 Linux-ready MicroZed board is built with a Xilinx Zynq-7010 SoC, and can be used as either a single-board computer (SBC) or as a computer-on-module (COM) feeding 100 programmable GPIO signals into a carrier board.

• Image processing tech runs Linux, targets UAV apps

  RFEL has unveiled board-level versions of its HALO video processing technology, which runs Linux on a Xylinx Zynq ARM+FPGA system-on-chip. Previously introduced as a ruggedized subsystem aimed at military intelligence applications, such as UAVs, the new HALO boards provide embeddable versions of RFEL’s sophisticated image stabilization and fusion engines, which can form composite images by merging visible and IR data.

• Top 10 Open Source Linux Boards Under $200

  Since Linux.com last surveyed the community-backed open source board scene in June 2012, some projects have faded, but a number of new boards have popped up to take their place. In fact, most of our top 10 Linux or Android-ready open source single board computers (SBCs) have shipped in the last few months.

• Pwn probe runs sneaky new Linux distro

• STMicro simplifies connection to Linux Systems

  STMicroelectronics has released ready-to-use software drivers for communication with Linux systems.

• Tiny computer-on-module runs Linux on Atom N2800

  Advantech announced a tiny module based on the COM Express Mini form-factor and built around an Intel 1.86GHz dual-core Atom N2800 processor. The business-card sized SOM-7565 A2 supports up to 4GB of RAM and 8GB of flash, offers a wide range of I/O, expands with three PCIe lanes, consumes 8 to 9.5 Watts, and supports -40 to 85°C operation with its optional heatsink.

• Controller adopts real-time Linux on ARM+FPGA SoC

  National Instruments (NI) announced a redesigned version of its CompactRIO controller that runs a new NI Linux Real-Time OS on the Xilinx ARM+FPGA hybrid Zynq-7020 system-on-chip. The NI cRIO-9068 controller is fully compatible with the NI LabVIEW development environment, as well as more than 100 I/O modules available for the CompactRIO.

• Micromax Announces Artila ARM9 Linux Industrial Computer for Portable, Reliable Control

  Micromax, a provider of industrial electronic products and automation solutions for 45 years, announces the Artila Electronics Matrix-516, the new generation of its ARM-based box computers. Artila’s Matrix-516 industrial box computer is a small form-factor, Linux-ready computing platform that offers reliable, 24/7 unattended control at low-power consumption levels.

• Amazon opens Appstore doors to web apps

  Amazon has begun accepting web apps and mobile-optimized websites for sale in its Amazon Appstore for Kindle and Android devices, allowing developers to market their HTML-based wares to mobile users in over 200 countries.

• Phones

  • Android

    • The Moto X Bet

      If you haven’t been following the saga of the Moto X, the short version is that it’s one of the first post-Google acquisition products from the company that gave us the Star Tac and the RAZR. Besides carrying the expectations of a market that needs to see something compelling from Motorola because it’s been a while, the X is also the focal point for analysts seeking an answer to one simple question: why did Google pay over twelve billion dollars for the company? Given the input the folks from Mountain View have had into the product, it’s been assumed that the Moto X would, if not answer that question outright, at least provide a hint.

    • LG launches G2, an edge to edge premium Android smartphone

      LG has announces its G2 phone without the Optimus branding, marking its commitment to high end Android smartphones. The phone will be available across the globe through more than 130 carriers, which includes the all four major US carriers.

    • Did Qualcomm force Android’s open source project head to quit?

      I can’t hear Linus Torvalds saying “Qualcomm, k You” and flipping a finger at the camera. If reports are true Qualcomm may very much need it.

    • Android Candy: Hire a Cerberus to Find Your Phone

      In a recent career shift, I went from an employer who provided me an iPhone to one who provides me with an Android (Galaxy S4 to be specific). Although I was happy to move to a Linux-based handset, I was concerned about replacing the “Find My iPhone” capability that Apple provides. Not only does my family use it to keep track of each other, but we also relied on it when a phone was misplaced. Does the Google Play store offer anything comparable? Um, yes.

    • Android one-click Google authentication method puts users, businesses at risk

      A feature that allows Android users to authenticate themselves on Google websites without having to enter their account password can be abused by rogue apps to give attackers access to Google accounts, a security researcher showed Saturday at the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas.

      The feature is called “weblogin” and works by generating a unique token that can be used to directly authenticate users on Google websites using the accounts they have already configured on their devices.

    • What To Expect From Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie!

      The Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is already out and everyone is now looking forward to Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. Though there is no official confirmation from Google about the new name of this OS, on the basis of the alphabetical pattern of the previous Android code names, the tech industry is speculating the name to be ‘Key Lime Pie’.

      Starting from the 1.5 version, Google has been naming its Android versions in an alphabetical order. Starting from Cupcake to Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean. Hence the Key Lime Pie, which starts with letter K is obviously the next. Also in the last Google’s I/O we saw the name in a teaser that Google created for the developers.

    • Sony Releases Open Source Files For the Gigantic Xperia Z Ultra

    • NVIDIA posts Shield factory image, open-source files

    • NVidia opensources SHIELD operating system

    • NVIDIA SHIELD gets open source materials and recovery image for modding

    • Let The Fun Begin… Some More: NVIDIA Releases Open Source Files And Recovery Image For SHIELD

    • NVIDIA SHIELD open source materials and recovery image available for download, makes custom ROMs possible

    • Android-based IVI head unit gets an iOS playdate

      Intel subsidiary Wind River announced a collaboration with Chinese embedded software company PATEO on an Android-based automotive in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system. PATEO is using Wind River Connectivity Solution Accelerator for Android to enable an Android IVI system to play music and videos from iPhones, iPads, and iPods.

      The Wind River Connectivity Solution Accelerator for Android was announced in May, and with a very specific goal: The software enables a car’s infotainment head unit to be used for viewing and playing content streamed from late-model iPhones, iPads, and iPods. The Connectivity Solution Accelerator makes the car’s IVI head unit act like an accessory to the iOS device. With the iOS device docked into the car’s infotainment system, the head unit can play music and videos and the car’s steering wheel can be used as a remote control.

    • Top 5 Android apps to help you lose fat

      If you are trying to lose a few kilos, dieting and exercising are what you need to do. However, while it seems to be simple, you may dont have any idea about what foods to eat, what exercises to do and you also lose the motivation and determination easily. So here are 5 Android apps that can give you some help to make your fat loss journey easier and more convenient.

    • Don’t buy Nexus 7 (2013) or Qualcomm devices if you plan to root

      Google upgraded its Nexus 7 tablet with better hardware and also used it to introduce Android 4.3 to the world. I already have Nexus 7 (2012), Nexus 10 and Nexus 4 which all got the 4.3 upgrade. But among all these devices Nexus 7 is the most loved one due to the perfect size – ebook reading (the ones I own and not locked into Amazon Kindle), playing games and watching movies is quit pleasant. Since I already have retina-beating Nexus 10 there was not much incentive for me to go for Nexus 7, but there was a remote possibility of getting it for my wife.

    • Google, Qualcomm, and Android/Linux

    • Android open source maintainer quits over proprietary code issues

      Google may develop the Android software that runs on millions of phones and tablets. But the company also releases the source code for most new builds of Android once it’s ready for public consumption — and at that point outside developers start ripping it apart to see what makes it tick, often building custom versions of Android based on that source code.

    • Android Open Source Project maintainer leaves role in wake of Nexus 7 open source issues

    • NVIDIA Shield now has open source software support

    • Nvidia Shield OS goes open-source

    • Nvidia Releases Shield Open Source Software

    • NVIDIA SHIELD open source materials and recovery image available for download, makes custom ROMs possible

• Sub-notebooks/Tablets

  • XO Tablet Hands On Review: WOW!! OLPC Finally Got It Right!

    When the XO-1 Laptop first came out in 2006, I was in awe of the hardware innovations. From bunny ears for better WiFi to a hardened swivel-screen top, to its low power consumption, OLPC had one innovation after another.

  • Is Android beating Apple in the tablet market?

    Today in Open Source: Android tablets beating Apple’s iPad? Plus: Mozilla Firefox 23 released, and reviews of Linux Mint 15 KDE and Xfce

Open Source Code At Heart of Wall Street Programmer’s Bust

Programmers and Wall Street haters alike may join together to support a convicted computer programmer from Goldman Sachs after reading the full-throated defense he receives at Vanity Fair by noted financial journalist Michael Lewis.

[...]

During the last six weeks of his employment, Aleynikov emailed himself four times the source code he was working with. The files contained open source code, code that the programmer had tweaked and Goldman Sachs proprietary coding. The government claims the programmer sent himself 32 megabytes of code, but it was essentially the same 8 megabytes of code sent four times over. Goldman Sachs’ entire system contains more than one gigabyte of code—so what the Russian took was minuscule in comparison to the whole.

Boffin Provides a List of Open Source Audio Recorder Software for Its Readers

List of Open Source Email Software Published by Boffin Today

Open Source Chat Software Listing Released In SoftwareReviewBoffin.Com

Is This Finally the Year of Open Source…in China?

One of the long-running jokes in the free software world is that this year will finally be the year of open source on the desktop – just like it was last year, and the year before that. Thanks to the astounding rise of Android, people now realise that the desktop is last decade’s platform, and that mobile – smartphones and tablets – are the future. But I’d argue that there is something even more important these, and that is the widespread deployment of open source in China.

For The Greater Good

I often wonder about the motivations of others involved with the open source community, as I did last month. Linux.com reposted an article by Jeremy Kahn titled Open source as a civic duty that answers the question in the best way possible. Open source is not about you, it’s about us, all of us.

Open Source Poised for Innovation Explosion

Open source software is now a common component in most organizations’ IT infrastructure, particularly at the server OS layer where Linux has made significant inroads. Now open source software is becoming more common in other data center realms such as storage, and is poised for significant growth.

Open-Source Apache Flex Finally Comes to Linux

NEWS ANALYSIS: The Flex Framework for rich Internet application development continues its evolution beyond Adobe’s confines as adoption and interest grows.

Colosa Partners with OSSCube on Open Source BPM Workflow Solution

Colosa, which develops the ProcessMaker Open Source Process Management (BPM) and Workflow Suite, has announced a channel partnership with OSSCube aimed at integrating Colosa’s Business BPM platform into enterprise application software environments.

Say something to the youth of America about open source

Selena Deckelmann, a data architect and contributor to PostgreSQL, gave a keynote speech at the Computer Science Teachers Association conference this year called, What open source communities can do for teachers. At the end she encouraged the audience (of teachers) to connect with free and open source developers in their communities to work with them to schedule 15-20 minute talks about their work students.

Big IT comes together to open source some IBM hardware and software

Google, IBM, Mellanox, NVIDIA and Tyan today announced plans to form the OpenPOWER Consortium — an open development alliance based on IBM’s POWER microprocessor architecture. The Consortium intends to build advanced server, networking, storage and GPU-acceleration technology aimed at delivering more choice, control and flexibility to developers of next-generation, hyperscale and cloud data centers.

Boffin Provides a List of Open Source Audio Recorder Software for Its Readers

Is Apache the Most Important Open Source Project?

Back in the mists of time – I’m talking about 2000 here – when free software was still viewed by many as a rather exotic idea, I published a book detailing its history up to that point. Naturally, I wrote about Apache (the Web server, not the foundation) there, since even in those early days it was already the sectoral leader. As I pointed out:

Solari Update: Open Source Ecology with Marcin Jakubowski

This Thursday we will post my interview with Marcin Jakubowski. Marcin is a physicist and technologist who became a farmer. After learning the economics of small farming in rural Missouri, Marcin started Open Source Ecology (OSE) to apply open source techniques to small farm and enterprise hardware. His vision of 50 open source blueprints is called the Global Village Construction Set – radically lowering the cost of machines and tools that ensure the success of small farms and communities.

How open source is your business / team / developer?

Events

• DevelopIntelligence Announces New Open Source Web Development Training Courses

• What’s on ALEC’s Agenda for its 40th Anniversary Meeting in Chicago?

  This week, the corporate and legislator members of the American Legislative Exchange Council are meeting at the swank Palmer House hotel in Chicago to celebrate the organization’s 40th anniversary, be educated in corporate sponsored workshops and adopt legislative priorities for the coming year. Here is what is on the agenda for ALEC’s 40th — notably, some of the workshops carry a $40,000 pricetag for corporate sponsors.

• Hack ownCloud in Berlin

  In the wake of PRISM and other spying programs by the US and UK governments, companies and organizations will now be shy of using proprietary cloud as it will give the US government direct access to their sensitive data.

• Open Networking Foundation Names Judges of Open-Source “OpenFlow Driver” Competition

Web Browsers

• Chrome

  • Firefox easily outperforms Chrome with many tabs open

    When the Chrome web browser appeared from Google it was notable for two reasons: the rate of development and the speed of the browser. Chrome continues to see regular releases that push forward with new/better functionality as well as continuing to get faster. It is one of, if not the fastest browser available at the moment.

  • Brouhaha Arises Over How Google Chrome Exposes Passwords

    There is quite a brouhaha developing over how the Google Chrome browser treats passwords, due to the fact that anyone with access to a Chrome user’s computer can find all stored passwords very easily. The Chrome security team is defending the practice, but if you are a Chrome user, you should take a look at what the issue is.

  • Google Chrome ‘Hacked’: How Your Passwords Can Be Exposed

• Mozilla

  • Firefox 23 Adds Features, Security to Open-Source Browser

    Mozilla adds new social-sharing features, issues 13 security advisories and deploys a mixed-content security capability to limit the risk of mixing unencrypted data with secured content.
    The open-source Mozilla Foundation is out today with its Firefox 23 Web browser for multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux and Android devices. The new release comes just six weeks after the last major Firefox release, and brings a number of feature and security updates to the browser.

  • Firefox 23 Out: Comes with Social API, Network Monitor

    It’s finally up for grabs! After about one and a half months since its last stable release, Firefox is out in its new avatar, version 23. FF 23 brings in a whole lot of changes, apart from new logo; not precisely a new logo, but a retouched one (last change was made in FF 3.5). Among a myriad of changes are—Social share functionality, Network Monitor (a developer tool), and mixed content blocking (http stuff on https page).

  • Firefox 23 released for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android users

    Mozilla Corporation has released an updated Firefox – Firefox 23 – for its Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android users.

  • Firefox 23 lands with a new logo and mixed content blocking

    Firefox 23, released today, contains the usual mix of security work, standards conformance improvements, and minor bug fixes that we’ve come to expect from the regular browser releases. On top of these, it sports a trio of changes that you might actually notice.

  • End of an era as Firefox bins ‘blink’ tag

  • The blink tag is finally dead, killed off by Firefox 23

    When Mozilla released Firefox 23 on Tuesday, the updated browser put an unofficial end to one of the annoyances of the early Web—the “blink” tag.

    According to the release notes for the new browser, Firefox 23 completely drops support for the “blink” element, preventing browsers from rendering text that, well, blinks.

  • Firefox says goodbye to the blink tag

  • Mozilla and Bango Bring Phone Bill-based Payments to Firefox OS Users

    Bango PLC, a mobile payment and analytics company, has announced the integration of its Bango Payments Platform with Mozilla’s Firefox Marketplace. Among other things, the news represents an important step forward for Mozilla’s Firefox OS strategy, because it will allow users of Firefox OS-based mobile phones to pay for the apps they buy directly from their phone bills.

SaaS/Big Data

• Why open hybrid clouds are the future

  A well-designed hybrid cloud enables organizations to take advantage of the scalability and cost efficiency of a public cloud, and retain the data governance, security and control of a private cloud

• IBM Hardware Furloughs: Blame Cloud Computing

  IBM will furlough U.S. hardware employees to cut costs in late August and early September 2013. Employees will take a week off with one-third pay, Bloomberg reported. Ouch. The key takeaway: Cloud computing is squeezing IBM’s hardware business, and the value of IBM’s x86 server business could be falling — even more — each quarter.

• Drilling into Big Data with Apache Drill

  Apache’s Drill goal is striving to do nothing less than answer queries from petabytes of data and trillions of records in less than a second.

Databases

• RhodeCode Follows Trail Blazed by MySQL with Release of Open Source Enterprise Solution

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• Bisecting LibreOffice (64-Bit Linux needed)

• Apache OpenOffice 4 vs. LibreOffice 4.1

  Not so fast, LibreOffice — OpenOffice has a shiny, new, and improved major release of its own

• Florian is Comparing MSO to LibreOffice – Needs YOUR Input

CMS

• Destination in sight for Flight Centre’s Drupal journey

  Brisbane-headquartered travel agency Flight Centre is undergoing a wholesale transition to the open-source Drupal Web platform for its network of websites, which collectively handle millions of page views per week.

  The shift, away from IBM Web Content Manager has been underway for about 12 months now, according to Flight Centre’s area leader of digital solutions, Jamie Glenn. The travel company is about two-thirds of the way through the transition, Glenn said. The company has around 30 brands and some 60 websites.

Business

• Semi-Open Source

  • SugarCRM Gets Open Source Workflow With Advanced OpenWorkflow

Funding

• Sabai Technology’s Open Source Router Kickstarter Campaign Nears Completion

  In July, technology startup Sabai Technology launched a Kickstarter campaign. The project is called JaiRo and is described as an open source x86 router project.

BSD

• FreeBSD 9.2-RC1 available

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• First batch of videos from LibrePlanet 2013 published!

  The first round of videos from LibrePlanet 2013 is now available for streaming and downloading. LibrePlanet is an annual conference sponsored and organized by the Free Software Foundation, with LibrePlanet 2013 being the best one yet. All current associate members of the FSF enjoy the perk of being able to attend LibrePlanet without paying an entry fee. This year we set out to make sure LibrePlanet featured fully functioning live video streaming using only free software, and it was a great success. The videos are now available for viewing in VP8/Vorbis, both free media formats, and are hosted on an instance of GNU MediaGoblin, the social media sharing platform which many of you helped support.

• Go Ahead and Try to Lead a Secure, Private Online Life

  E-mail is the obvious starting point and, if you don’t trust that government agencies won’t get their hands on Microsoft (MSFT) and Google’s (GOOG) master keys, you should set up your own private e-mail service. A good package is Mozilla’s Thunderbird client, combined with the Enigmail security extension and the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG). Here’s a guide to setting these up. Follow those instructions and set up a self-hosted e-mail server such as Kolab (not a trivial task), and you’re about as protected as you can get on that front.

Public Services/Government

• Open source as a civic duty

  I occasionally get asked why I spend so much of my free time writing software and giving it away for free. There are a number of reasons for this—I like to build things and I use it as an excuse to practice and improve my skills—but one of the most driving motivators for me is that I see open source contributions as a civic duty, a moral obligation to the rest of the world.

• Radware adds open source DDoS protection to OpenDaylight Project

  Application delivery and security vendor Radware has contributed an open source distributed denial-of-service protection application to the OpenDaylight Project.

• The good, the bad and the ugly of NHS open source adoption

  The drive to bring open source technologies into focus for public services and the NHS in particular has been a recurring theme for more than half a decade now.

  VP of Harris Healthcare EMEA Wayne Parslow has been calling on the NHS to “embrace” open platforms, standards and software — but he also heeds that we need to take care.

  Parslow has spoken out on PublicService.co.uk highlighting the general reduction in software license fees that should be possible with any move to open technologies.

  There is also huge potential for the NHS to develop more custom built applications and IT solutions bespoke to its core needs.

• NHS technology: Being open to open source

  An opinion piece debating the idea of implementing open source NHS technology in today’s healthcare marketplace

• When open source and drones mix: US Navy better than Army and Air Force

  The US Navy makes more efficient use of open source technology in complex unmanned aircraft than its counterparts in the Army and Air Force.

Licensing

• What motivates free software developers to choose between copyleft and permissive licences?

  Free software licenses can be divided into two broad categories: copyleft licenses (like the GPL), which require derivatives of the software to be licensed under the same terms; and permissive licenses (like the MIT/X11 license), which allow the software to be reused in any project, even closed-source projects. There are variations, of course—the LGPL, for example, is a ‘weak copyleft’, allowing licensed works to be used in closed-source works, but requiring improvements to the work itself to be released under a copyleft license.

Openness/Sharing

• Brief overview of the differences and similarities between open source software development and co-creation in digital games.

  The following blog was, unless otherwise noted, independently written by a member of Gamasutra’s game development community. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Gamasutra or its parent company.

• Help ocean scientists build open-source research tools

  CTD units are incredibly important to ocean research, measuring three basic factors of sea water — conductivity, temperature, and depth. Almost every major research vessel has one.

• Open Source Digital Voting Foundation Announces IRS Tax-Exempt Determination

• Krishagni Announces the Release of caTissue Plus v3.0 – Open Source Biobanking LIMS for Biorepository/Biospecimen Management

  Krishagni today announced the release of caTissue Plus v3.0 – Free and Open Source Biospecimen management software. caTissue Plus, initially developed with NCI funding, facilitates biorepository management by tracking biospecimens from collection to utilization across multiple projects, annotations, containers, specimen requests, distributions, and multiple reporting options.

• Open Hardware

  • IBM Furloughs U.S. Hardware Employees to Reduce Costs

    International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) said it’s requiring the majority of U.S. employees in its hardware unit to take a week off with reduced pay, cutting costs as demand slows for products such as servers.

  • Open-Source SDR Board Uses Programmable Radio IC

    Nuand has adopted the Lime Microsystems LMS6002D field programmable RF chip in its bladeRF open-source software defined radio (SDR). A Kickstarter-funded project, the bladeRF raised almost double its $100,000 target from more than 500 backers. Following Myriad RF and Fairwaves, it is the third open-source RF board launched this year.

  • Libelium Sensors launch into space in first open source satellite

  • Space station poised to launch open-source satellites

    Want to do your own space experiment? From next week, you will be able to run science projects on the world’s first open-source satellites. And it won’t break the bank.

    ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X were launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on 3 August aboard a Japanese resupply vehicle (which is also carrying fresh food, supplies and a talking humanoid robot).

    Known as CubeSats, each mini satellite packs an array of devices – including cameras, spectrometers and a Geiger counter – into a cube just 10 centimetres to a side.

  • Open source CubeSats satellites go into orbit

    From next week it will be possible to run science projects on the world’s first open-source satellites.

    ArduSat-1 and ArduSat-X were launched to the International Space Station on 3 August aboard a Japanese resupply vehicle which will arrive tomorrow.

    New Scientist reports the 10cm volume CubeSats contain an array of devices including cameras, spectrometers and a Geiger counter.

Security

• Network Security Remains a Blind Spot for Businesses

  Areas of blind spots within the typical enterprise are many, including applications, network traffic, network devices and user activity.

• Fort Disco: The new brute-force botnet

  Internet security firm Arbor Networks reports that a new botnet, Fort Disco, is made up of over 25,000 Windows PCs and is targeting blog sites and content management systems (CMS)es. Once these are infected, they can then be used to spread the botnet’s malware and to attack other systems.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• Ted Koppel and Terrorism

  OK–so the right way to deal with the threat of terrorism is to announce that the U.S. response to any act of terrorism anywhere will be to attack Iran.

  Who wrote this? Ted Koppel. Either his analysis is evolving, or he believes that threatening to unleash massive unprovoked military attacks on another country is not terrorism.

• US Officials Cite Deadly Drone Strike in Yemen to Defend NSA Spying Operations

  US drones launched missiles at vehicles carrying four men, alleged to be members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen’s Marib province early Tuesday. The attack was the latest development in the global terror alert announced by the Obama administration last Friday. On Monday, the administration indicated that the alleged terror plot was centered in Yemen.

• Happy Gulf of Tonkin Anniversary (and Thanks, NSA, for Lying about It for 40 Years)!

  So yesterday marked an unhappy anniversary: 49 years since Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing the Vietnam War. (H/T Caleb Brown.)

  LBJ compared the resolution to “grandma’s nightshirt” because it “covered everything.” Like the 2002 Iraq War Resolution, it was worded broadly enough to allow the president to make the final decision about war all by himself—and vaguely enough to allow those who voted for it to deny responsibility for the war they’d authorized.

• 3 suspected US drones kill 12 militants in Yemen

  Three U.S. drone strikes killed a total of 12 suspected al-Qaida militants Thursday, a Yemeni military official said, raising to eight the number of attacks in less than two weeks as the Arab nation is on high alert against terrorism.

• US Drone Strikes Kill 11, Yemen Says Plot ‘Foiled’

  According to Yemeni officials, AQAP plotted to take over several cities in southeastern Yemen, including key port towns and the major cities of Hadramaut Province, blowing up pipelines in an attempt to sew confusion.

• Double-Tap Drone Strikes In Pakistan Killed Rescuers, Report Says

  The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) published a report last week confirming that the Central Intelligence Agency appears to have briefly revived its controversial “double-tap” drone tactic in a Pakistani region in mid-2012.

• CIA: more Libyan secrets coming out

• CIA, FBI, and NSA taking steps to limit intelligence leaks

• Amazon’s CIA cloud renews questions around what is a private cloud

• Jay Carney on CNN’s big CIA/Benghazi scoop: I don’t know nothing ’bout nothing

  Via Ace, consider this post an apology to our readership. A few days ago I led you to believe that it was somehow important for the White House press corps to ask the press secretary about one of the biggest foreign policy scoops in weeks. That was obviously in error, as I suspected at the time. It wasn’t important; this guy wouldn’t give you a straight answer on what his favorite color is (“I would refer you to my kindergarten finger-paintings on that”), never mind accusations about top-secret CIA activity linked to a major terror attack. Like I said in the earlier post, the press briefing now operates not as the White House’s conduit to the public but rather as an opportunity for the media to show the public that it’s asking worthwhile questions of the president even though there’s not a whisper of a chance that they’ll get useful information from them. The Brits have question time with the prime minister in parliament, we have this travesty. Second look at monarchy?

• CIA official terms Syria war biggest threat to US security

  The war in Syria poses the greatest threat to US security because of the risk of the government falling and the country becoming a weapons-rich haven for Al Qaeda, according to a CIA official.

• Did the CIA Just Run an Intel Operation on the Daily Beast?

  Today the Daily Beast reported that an intercepted conference call between “more than 20 al Qaeda operatives” led nearly two dozen U.S. embassies scattered across Southwest Asia and North Africa to shut down over the weekend, a precautionary measure that American officials later extended through August 10. Based on testimony from three unnamed U.S. officials, reporters Eli Lake and Josh Rogin say al Qaeda lieutenants in Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Islamic Maghreb discussed vague plans of attack with al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and the terrorist group’s Yemeni leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi. One of the unnamed officers compared the call to a meeting of the “Legion of Doom.”

• Syria war biggest threat to US security: CIA official

Transparency Reporting

• Amazon, WilkiLeaks, the Washington Post and the CIA

  …the company is becoming a “major vendor” to the U.S. government…

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• Japan says Fukushima leak worse than thought

  Highly radioactive water from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is pouring out at a rate of 300 tons a day, officials said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up.

Finance

• Group builds tiny homes for local homeless

  Madison resident Betty Ybarra has never owned a home, but that’ll soon change.

  “I was very skeptical this could even happen” she tells NBC15 about her new home she’s currently helping to build through an Occupy Madison project.

  The group is currently building small homes. It isn’t much. Each are about 100 square feet. But it’s enough to help someone get back on their feet.

• President announces ‘Guaranteed Minimum Income’ for all citizens

  PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades on Friday announced the complete reform of social policy based on the principle of securing a Guaranteed Minimum Income for all citizens.

  It should be fully in place by June 2014, he said.

• WSJ Pretends Public Infrastructure Spending Has No Positive Effect On Economy

  The Wall Street Journal claimed that because private investment typically precedes infrastructure projects, President Obama’s call for increased infrastructure investments is misguided. This position, however, ignores the historically positive effect of public investment on private activity and the nation’s current need for infrastructure improvements.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Covering Weiner

  A candidate running well behind in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary is not usually someone national media pay attention to. But when the candidate is a former Congressman now involved in his second sex scandal, the media’s level of interest is considerably greater.

  [...]

  See, it turns out that spending so much time talking about Weiner is important– it gives corporate journalists a way to handicap the 2016 election.

• Media Matters Founder David Brock Calls On NBC, CNN To Cancel Clinton Specials

• ALEC’s Chicago Conference Incites Protest, Multiple Arrests

  Six people were arrested Monday when protesters descended upon the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago to push back against the impending visit of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), whose conservative agenda, activists say, promotes policies and legislation that protects corporate interests and disenfranchises workers and voters.

• The Conservative Strategy To Defeat Wendy Davis: Sexism

  Erick Erickson doubled down on his sexist attack on Texas State Senator Wendy Davis as “Abortion Barbie,” writing on RedState that the moniker “fits perfectly” and recommending it be used on the campaign trail.

• NSA Defenders Take to the Airwaves

  The vague-yet-apparently-very-serious intelligence about a possible Al-Qaeda attack became a big issue on the Sunday chat shows–and a chance for supporters of National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs to claim that the agency’s controversial tactics are working.

• ALEC 2013 Agenda Harkens Back to a Bygone Era

• ALEC at 40: Turning Back the Clock on Prosperity and Progress

  Today, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a new report: “ALEC at 40: Turning Back the Clock on Prosperity and Progress.” The report identifies and analyzes 466 American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bills introduced in 2013.

• A Side of Climate Change Denial with Your Coffee? ALEC Dishes up Some Hard to Swallow Spin with the Heartland Institute

  This morning in Chicago hundreds of primarily Republican state legislators are getting more indoctrination against doing anything about climate change from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

  This year, ALEC has chosen its long-time partner, the Heartland Institute, to help host the session. Heartland is so extreme on the issue of climate change that it sought to equate people who believe the climate is changing with the Unabomber, through a billboard campaign that featured a mugshot of Ted Kaczynski with the line: “I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?” Heartland lost numerous funders in response to a citizens campaign about the ad last year.

Privacy

• Tox: A Replacement for Skype and Your Privacy?

  In the era of NSA spying and the rise of widespread government monitoring programs or even just the era of Skype, if you’re looking for something new and secure alternatives then Tox Messaging is coming soon for you.

• Won’t someone think of the students…?

  For privacy campaigners, the issue of big data has been a cause for some time, with a growing trend of governments, businesses and other institutions gathering increasing amounts of data which is then analysed, often without consent from individuals.

  It seems that universities are increasingly thinking about using the vast amount of data collected to analyse how facilities are used and identify students who may fail or drop out of their course. By doing this, universities are acting like they don’t require permission to use the data in this way and are seriously undermining student trust.

• New Legislation To Make Smart Meters Mandatory For Entire Nation

  There is a sinister agenda underway to forcibly convert every standard electric meter in the U.S. to the “smart” variety under the guise of promoting renewable energy interests.

  [...]

  Landis Gyr recently had a company voicemail message that admitted smart meter technology is part of the NSA’s “PRISM” spying and surveillance program. Since gaining national attention about this admission, Landis Gyr has apparently altered its company voicemail message to omit this indicting information.

• NSA PRISM: provides direct access to servers of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple and others

  It is just a matter of time before unauthorised, real-time access to information about the behaviours and habits of you and your family at home are put under the microscope via Smart Meter data. Don’t give them the chance to put privacy-violating infrastructure in your home which can at any time be compromised and used against you by any number of parties – foreign and domestic. You have the right to refuse Smart Meters – use it! – See more at: http://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/nsa-prism-provides-direct-access-to-servers-of-google-facebook-microsoft-yahoo-apple-and-others/#sthash.gMYZYr3G.dpuf

• Open Source Encryption for everybody

  With an increasing importance placed on communication via social media, privacy is imperative now more than ever over the Internet. The NSA scandal has shown that there is a great demand for secure communication on the Internet. However, many people do not try to protect their privacy by any means either because encryption is difficult to implement in social media or simply because they are unaware of the resources out there for encryption. Encryption needs to be made easily available for everyone so that privacy is no longer a concern.

• NY Times Reveals NSA Searches All Emails In & Out Of The US; Will It Offer Up Its Source For Prosecution?

  Again this is the kind of thing that many people had assumed was going on, but it hadn’t been confirmed until now. Of course, the NSA’s response was not to talk about whether or not this was true, but to claim, yet again, that everything it’s doing is “authorized,” which is a way of deflecting the fact that it’s almost certainly unconstitutional. In this case, the claim is that the NSA isn’t storing these emails, but rather: “temporarily copying and then sifting through the contents of what is apparently most e-mails and other text-based communications that cross the border,” and the whole process only takes “a small number of seconds” before the records are deleted.

• NSA monitoring Americans’ emails for mentions of terrorists: report

• No domestic spying? How NSA collects Americans’ cross-border emails

• NSA captures Americans’ Internet content if it mentions overseas suspects

• The NSA Is Collecting Emails and Texts for Just Mentioning “Targets”

  There’s a story in the New York Times today that details how the NSA hasn’t just been tracking communications to and from (potential) foreigners of interest—it’s actually tracking all emails and text messages that potentially mention these targets. That dragnet just got a lot wider. This is the actualization of the tired and at one time absurd “oops better not say bomb on email” jokes.

• The NSA Searches US Citizens’ Cross-Border Email That Mentions Foreign Targets

  It’s difficult to keep track of what the NSA does and doesn’t do, and today, the New York Times piled on. Citing “senior intelligence officials,” the paper is reporting that, under a broad interpretation of the FISA Amendments Act, the NSA intercepts communications of U.S. citizens whose communications cross borders and mention foreign targets. You don’t have to communicate with someone being targeted directly to potentially have the NSA collect and search your email.

• US taxmen told to hush up shadowy drug squad unit laundering NSA intel

  A manual for America’s taxmen detailing US drug squads’ access to NSA intelligence has emerged – and revealed that the controversial supply of information has been an open secret in government for years.

  Reuters reports that the handbook, which was issued to IRS tax collectors between 2005 and 2006, instructs officials to omit reference to any tip-offs supplied by the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Operations Division, especially from affidavits and court proceedings.

• U.S. officials say NSA leaks may hamper cyber policy debate

  Weeks of revelations about secret U.S. surveillance programs could stymie progress on negotiations over new laws and regulations meant to beef up the country’s defences against the growing threat of cyber attacks, cyber security experts say.

• The N.S.A. and Its Targets: Lavabit Shuts Down

  Not every suspension-of-service notice for an e-mail company comes with a link to a legal-defense fund. Ladar Levison, the owner and operator of Lavabit, whose clients, reportedly, have included Edward Snowden, made it sound today as though he could use the help. “I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit,” Levison wrote in a note posted on his site.

• Fears over NSA surveillance revelations endanger US cloud computing industry

• NSA spy leaks: US, Russia to hold talks despite Snowden

  Some members of Mr Snowden’s family are applying for visas to visit him in Russia, his lawyer says.

• If You’ve Communicated With Someone Outside Of the U.S., the NSA Has Spied On You

• Cyberscare: Ex-NSA chief calls transparency groups, hackers next terrorists

  The cyberscare, like the redscare or the greenscare of the ’90′s, is already under way. We’ve seen it take root with the fierce federal persecution of Aaron Swartz, the hefty charges and prison sentence facing LulzSec hacktivist Jeremy Hammond and the three-year jail sentence handed down to Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer for pointing out and sharing a vulnerability in AT&T’s user information network. On Tuesday, former NSA chief Michael Hayden put it into words.

• Carney on email: ‘It’s not being read’

• New revelations: Germany sends ‘massive amounts’ of phone, email data to NSA

  Germany’s BND intelligence service sends “massive amounts” of intercepts to the NSA daily, according to a report based on Edward Snowden’s leaks. It suggests a tight relationship has been developed between the two agencies – which the BND claims is legal.

  Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Snowden and obtained by Der Spiegel revealed that the 500 million pieces of phone and email communications metadata collected by the NSA in Germany last December were “apparently” provided with the BND’s approval.

• IRS gets help from DEA and NSA to collect data

  The Internal Revenue Service reportedly received incriminating information on US citizens from the Drug Enforcement Agency, with the assistance of the National Security Agency, before concealing the paper trail from defendants.

  Details of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) program that provides tips to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and then advises them to “recreate the investigative trail” were published in a manual used by IRS agents for two years, Reuters revealed.

• NSA ‘dragnet’ wider than previously suspected, says NYT

• NSA after superconducting supercomputers

  According to Computerworld such a low-energy system move evolve into an exascale system, which would be about 1,000 faster than today’s petaflop system.

  The US Director of National Intelligence published a notice asking for help to develop superconducting systems. Such a system can offer “an attractive low-power alternative” to current technology.

• Spygate Will End the NSA and Invasion of Privacy by Our Government

  Thursday an NSA source informed the world of a primary and egregious lie by President Obama about the information collected by the program called PRISM. Obama’s ‘Spygate’ will force the end of the NSA operation, and end the invasion of privacy by our elected officials.

• Opposition May Bring Change to NSA

• Tit-for-tat in dispute over NSA data sharing

  Germany’s opposition has condemned aspects of information-sharing between the country’s intelligence services and their US counterparts. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition-leading Christian Democrats have cried foul.

• The NSA Searches Some Americans’ Emails for Any Mention of Foreign Suspects

• NSA examines ‘all’ cross-border text-based messages for ‘target’ keywords

• Former NSA boss compares privacy activists to al Qaida terrorists

  Former NSA chief Michael Hayden, who ran the shady US spying bureaucracy from 1999 to 2009, responded to a question about Edward Snowden by painting privacy activists as terrorists and comparing them to al Qaida.

  “If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden, and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?” Hayden asked, reffering to “nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years”.

  He continued: “They may want to come after the US government, but frankly, you know, the dot-mil stuff is about the hardest target in the United States”.

• US: Snowden Leaked 20,000 Files from NSA

  There are many more revelations to come from the leaks about US spying from Edward Snowden, with journalist Glenn Greenwald testifying that he had received around 20,000 files from the American whistleblower and fugitive.

  Greenwald has been the journalist working with Snowden to release information about the US spying programmes both domestic and international that have caused such controversy around the globe. He has worked with The Guardian the UK to reveal secrets about NSA spying within US borders and on Western Europe, as well as with Brazillian newspaper O Globo, where he has focused his revelations on those affecting Brazil and South America.

• Why believe anything the government says about the NSA?

Civil Rights

• Putin opposes communist initiative for government dissolution

  Speaking at a youth camp President Vladimir Putin has hinted that he was not planning to sack the government in the foreseeable future and said that he was satisfied by its work.

• August 2 Project Censored Show with Howard Zinn

  Mickey Huff in studio with Peter Phillips review the NEW award-winning documentary “Project Censored the Movie: Ending the Reign of Junk Food News” AND newly released interview outtakes with Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky talking about Project Censored, war, history, and the media. These are only available to the general public here and now for the first time!

• Latvia to extradite alleged hacker to US despite sentence concerns

  The Latvian government says it will extradite a 28-year-old man accused of creating the Web injects for the highly destructive Gozi malware, which targeted over a million computers globally, specifically aimed at bank accounts. US prosecutors say the malware was used to steal millions of dollars from its targets.

• [Old] No shooting at protest? Police may block mobile devices via Apple

  Apple has patented a piece of technology which would allow government and police to block transmission of information, including video and photographs, from any public gathering or venue they deem “sensitive”, and “protected from externalities.”

• Senators ponder if bloggers deserve First Amendment protection

  As the U.S. Senate continues to debate a national law to protect journalists from protecting their sources, two Senators believe unpaid bloggers and websites like WikiLeaks shouldn’t get extended First Amendment protections.

• NDAA opponents take fight to Coos Bay

  While local opponents of the National Defense Authorization Act won a partial victory at the county level last week, they may encounter an even tougher battle within the city limits.

  The Coos Bay City Council voted 5-2 Wednesday night to postpone further discussion of an anti-NDAA resolution until councilors had time to research the issue.

Internet/Net Neutrality

• Nominet trying again with .uk proposals

  Nominet are again consulting on their idea to introduce .uk domain registration. But the proposals are little better than before.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Copyrights

  • Russia Prepares to Broaden Brand New Anti-Piracy Law

    Anti-piracy legislation introduced in Russia less than a week ago is already back with legislators. The Ministry of Culture says that the law will be amended to include not only movies and TV shows as previously planned, but a wide range of other creative content. Website owners will be required to make their contact details available to rightsholders in order to speed up complaints while tech companies such as Google have until Friday to put forward their suggestions.

  • Hollywood Keeps Censoring Pirate Bay Documentary, Director Outraged

    Over the past few months several Hollywood studios have asked Google to remove links to the “free-to-share” Pirate Bay documentary TPB-AFK. The film’s director, Simon Klose, has contacted the search engine in an attempt to have the links put back online but thus far without success. Meanwhile, film studios continue to submit new DMCA requests to censor the documentary.