05.04.10

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• Another successful Company built around Linux

  I can remember when many opponents of Linux would claim that open source technology is not business friendly that the opportunities to profit are too limited. There are few people saying that these days even amongst the opponents. Many companies have profited from building services around Linux and many companies have risen through building products and services around Linux.

  The PTR Group is one of these companies. They have been around for 10 years now. They have enjoyed rapid growth with steady double digit annual growth percentages. They provide training to the two main distributors of embedded Linux products. They have been involved in getting Linux

• Virtual Linux: Platform and OS Linux Virtualization

  Virtual Linux is accomplished through many techniques, ranging from emulation to platform to OS virtualization. Indeed, Linux is a unique operating system in its breadth of virtualization solutions that are available. In this article, we’ll explore the various ways that virtualization is achieved and then review the various solutions provided through virtual Linux.

  When we talk about virtualization solutions, we tend to talk about specific products offered by specific companies. But when we talk about virtualization solutions with Linux, we instead talk about a rich and diverse open source ecosystem.

• wearable linux computer, makes you feel like cap’n crunch

  This is the 1D/2D scanner imager available as an extension to the wearable w200 rugged Linux computer. Finally the Linux equivalent of the cap’n crunch secret decoder ring.

• Desktop

  • Gamers Mad at Sony for Yanking PS3′s Linux Compatibility

    A group of Linux users has filed suit against Sony, upset about the company yanking Linux capability from its PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console.

    When PS3 made its debut in 2006, it gave users the option to run a so-called alternate operating system, something that couldn’t be said of Nintendo Wii or Xbox. The “Install Other OS” feature was popular among gamers who used Linux, the Unix operating system that is free to download.

• Server

  • Inside NASA’s world-class supercomputer center

    That place is the advanced supercomputing facility at the Ames Research Center here, the home of Pleiades, NASA’s flagship computer, a monster of a machine that, with a current rating of 973 teraflops–or 973 trillion floating point operations per second–is today ranked the sixth-most powerful supercomputer on Earth.

• Audiocasts

  • LB – Episode 54 – Kettle Meet Pot by Linux Basement

• Kernel Space

  • Stable kernels 2.6.32.12 and 2.6.33.3

    The 2.6.32.12 and 2.6.33.3 stable kernel updates are out.

  • Linux 2.6.34-rc6 Kernel Released

    The complete change-log for the Linux 2.6.34-rc6 kernel can be read at Kernel.org.

  • Linux Versus E. coli

    Both Linux and E. coli are organized into hierarchies. But their hierarchies have different shapes. E. coli’s genome is dominated by workhorses. Middle-managers and master regulators make up less than 5% of the total number of genes. In Linux, by contrast, over 80% of the functions are in the upper echelons. Each workhorse in Linux is controlled to many middle managers. In E. coli, on the other hand, each workhorse gene is typically controlled either by a few genes or just one. And so in E. coli it’s the higher levels where genes have the most links, not the workhorses.

  • Graphics Stack

    • LLVMpipe: OpenGL With Gallium3D on Your CPU

      The software rasterizer used in Mesa that allows for software acceleration of OpenGL on the CPU without any assistance from the graphics processor has largely been useless. Even with a modern-day, multi-core processor, the performance of Mesa’s software rasterizer has been abysmal. The performance of Mesa classic DRI drivers have traditionally been poor anyways compared to the high-performance, proprietary NVIDIA/ATI graphics drivers, but when dealing with just the software rasterizer there really aren’t any games or applications that run well. Fortunately, software acceleration on Gallium3D is very much a different story thanks to LLVM.

• Applications

  • What’s new with Radio Tray?

  • Gwibber on Gentoo

  • Proprietary

    • EULA for Opera Desktop Browser for Open Source Operating Systems

    • Opera Browser in Mandriva

      As of last Friday, Opera Browser has a new EULA aimed to make easier it’s inclusion into Linux and other Open Source operating systems.

  • Instructionals

    • How to make an ‘Obama’ HOPE Poster in GIMP

    • Workarounds for Unrecognized Clicks in Flash Player

    • Let’s Play With Tarballs

      A tarball is a compressed archive. Usually, a developer will provide his program in this format on his website or one of the third party software sites like SourceForge.

    • fsync() on a different thread: apparently a useless trick

    • How To Disable IPv6 In Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    • Keyboard Problem with Ubuntu 10.04 Login Window on VMware

    • Add Multimedia support in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

    • Why you should not use client-side window decorations…

      So finally I know who had the idea of client side decorations: it’s Canonical. Why didn’t I think of it before? I have been aware of the fact that GTK wants to do client-side window decorations since it was mentioned on the EWMH mailinglist and I think it is a completely stupid idea which has the potential to destroy one of the most important advantages of the free desktop: a consistent client handling.

    • Installing Nagios Core monitoring system (client and server)

    • Preparation for Mounting /var/run as tmpfs

    • PDF pagination only takes a few lines

    • Set up infinote server for collaborative use

    • Changing your password in Ubuntu

    • Downgrading GRUB [ Ubuntu 10.04 ]

    • When you hit a strange bug, make sure to rule out ccache

    • MySQL in SSH: Basic Guide

    • Ten Linux Commands Every Web Developer Should Know

    • Getting virt-install to work with Xen 4.0 guests on top of Ubuntu 10.04 Server

  • Games

    • TripleA

      TripleA is a free turn-based strategy board game and board game, which includes single player, local (hot-seat, an underrated play option IMO) and networked multiplayer.

      Recreate World War 2 with the Axis pushing through to Moscow and Japan devouring the Pacific, or recreate Napoleon’s march across Europe, or Rome defeating the Carthaginian Empire, or even Sauron conquering Middle Earth, or Zombies taking over America! If you have ever played a game where you push little plastic or virtual pieces around, roll dice, conquer the lands of your enemy, and produce new pieces to conquer with, Then you will be able to jump right into TripleA!

    • PlayOnLinux 3.7.6 is available

    • Some WINE with your Starcraft 2?

      I have been happily playing Starcraft 2 under Ubuntu 10.04 for the last three days now. All I have to say is that it is a true testament to how much progress the WINE project has made in recent years when it can be counted upon to run a new title that hasn’t even been fully released yet! Performance under WINE is not perfect, but on lower settings it is more than playable (which is what really counts). There seems to be a processor bottle neck on higher detail settings (also present in L4D2 under WINE actually) that hinders performance.

• K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)

  • The New in KDE 4.5 with pictures

    4 – tiling windows, and is a feature to show all windows with each other to facilitate movement between them.

  • Elementary Modification of the KDESC 4.4 Default Login (KDM & KSplash)

• Distributions

  • Fedora

    • Post-Goddard.

      Voting is now open for the Fedora 14 release name. Naming the next release is yet another way that our community is involved in making the future of Fedora. If you’re a member of any group in Fedora (beyond completing the CLA), you can vote on this ballot.

    • Fedora 14 Might Be Called Fytnargin

      As was reported last month, with development on Fedora 13 winding down for a release in two weeks, planning for Fedora 14 has got underway. One of the first steps taken by the Fedora and Red Hat communities is coming up with a new codename for the next release, for which they have been reaching out to the community for in recent times.

  • Debian Family

    • Debian Project News – May 3rd, 2010

    • “But why isn’t Debian using Launchpad?”

      So the other possibility would be to setup our own instance of Launchpad, given that Launchpad is now Free Software. However, it is not clear if it is actually possible: I was told by a Launchpad developer that they didn’t know of any external (outside Canonical) installation of Launchpad.

    • Ubuntu

      • Known Lucid Lynx issues/bugs with workarounds : UF post

      • 10.04 Workarounds

      • Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

      • Ubuntu Reviewed: Hands on With Lucid Lynx

      • Nice themes for ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) users

      • Next Ubuntu Linux To Be a Maverick

      • Ubuntu One Music Store: iTunes for Linux

        The Ubuntu 10.4 release marks a number of large improvements and features. One such feature is the addition of the Ubuntu One Music Store – the iTunes for Linux. Of course this is Linux, so it does iTunes one better. The Ubuntu One Music Store is comprised of a few pieces and in this article I am going to show you how to put them all together in order to create a very user-friendly, music-filled experience.

      • Variants

        • Kubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

          Here’s a list of some of what’s new in this release:

          The Kubuntu logo has been updated on the splash screen and in the desktop menus
          KDE Plasma Desktop 4.4
          Linux kernel 2.6.32
          Amarok 2.3
          Installer slideshow
          Touchpad configuration
          Firefox KDE integration
          System notification updates
          Gnome application system tray integration

          The updated Kubuntu logo is fine but seems to only appear on the bootsplash screen and the desktop menus. Beyond that there is no other branding to indicate that Canonical is behind the release of this distro.

• Devices/Embedded

  • European embedded Linux show seeks presentation ideas

    The Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF) announced a call for papers for the next Embedded Linux Conference Europe (ELCE), scheduled for Oct. 27-28 in Cambridge, UK. CELF is looking for a variety of technical presentations focused on the use of embedded Linux in consumer electronics products.

  • Phones

    • webOS update coming soon, PDK apps likely to land

      Well, what have we here? A friendly tipster, who just so happens to be a registered Palm developer, has sent us the latest informational email from the recently-swallowed outfit, and while the tone here may be gentle, the implications are certainly serious. According to the memo, a new webOS update is “coming soon,” and developers are being alerted that they’ll need to be prepared to test their apps when it hits.

    • Nokia

      • Comparing Maemo & Ubuntu

        While I’ve occasionally been critical of Ubuntu as a project, it is a distribution with very open processes, for the most part.

        I’d like to compare the experience of a casual Ubuntu user, an engaged Ubuntu user, an Ubuntu developer, and an upstream application developer to the equivalent MeeGo or Maemo experiences.

        The casual Ubuntu user gets regular stable updates on a predictable schedule, with long-term supported versions less frequently, but still on a predictable schedule. Stability, releases, this user doesn’t want to know what happens behind the scene, he wants to get software when it’s “done”.

      • MeeGo Presentations from the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit

        The MeeGo project was featured in two keynotes and an all day session during the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit. It was a great opportunity for me to meet more of the people who are contributing to MeeGo in person, and I was very happy with the MeeGo content at the event. In addition to great presentations, we had a lot of audience engagement, questions and discussion, which is critical during this early period for the project.

    • Android

      • Multitasking the Android Way

        Android is fairly unique in the ways it allows multiple applications to run at the same time. Developers coming from a different platform may find the way it operates surprising. Understanding its behavior is important for designing applications that will work well and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the Android platform. This article covers the reasons for Android’s multitasking design, its impact on how applications work, and how you can best take advantage of Android’s unique features.

        [...]

        So far, we have a way for applications to implicitly do work in the background, as long as the process doesn’t get killed by Android as part of its regular memory management. This is fine for things like loading web pages in the background, but what about features with harder requirements? Background music playback, data synchronization, location tracking, alarm clocks, etc.

      • Adobe Giving Free Android Handsets To Employees?

        BGR is reporting that Adobe will be giving away free Android handsets to their employees. While this has not been confirmed yet, it is believed that Adobe will give their employees a phone running Android 2.2 with Flash so that they become comfortable developing with Flash on the Android platform.

      • TMO Announces MyTouch 3G Slide!

        So, it sports Android 2.1, comes in three colors, has Swype installed, and has a pretty nifty screen. What’s missing from this press release though? How about a processor speed?

  • Sub-notebooks

    • OLPC laptops for East Africa and Palestinian children

      According to the BBC, approximately 30 million laptops are expected to be delivered to East Africa by 2015 and 500,000 units in the Middle East.

    • Joojoo 3G tablet will appear within 3 months

      TABLET UPSTART Fusion Garage plans to offer a 3G enabled version of its tablet, the Joojoo, within three months according to the firm’s CEO, Chandra Rathakrishanan.

    • We have an early Linux tablet video

      FUSION GARAGE has announced the availability of its Joojoo tablet in the UK, and The INQUIRER went along to the launch for a walk-through of the Linux handheld device and obtained an exclusive demonstation video.

Free Software/Open Source

• Musings of an open source peddler

• When can’t MATLAB add up?

  Update: Just had an email from someone who points out that Octave (Free MATLAB Clone) can handle 64bit integers just fine

  octave:1> a=int64(10);
  octave:2> b=int64(20);
  octave:3> a+b
  ans = 30
  octave:4>

• Oracle

  • Thanks for Suggesting Better Default Settings

    Many thanks go out to everyone who added one of the 90+ suggestions for the Better Defaults collection. Impress is currently in focus for Project Renaissance, so any suggestions relevant to Impress (presentation application) have now been taken to be evaluated by the iTeam. Those entries are therefore now in italics.

• CMS

  • State of Drupal presentation (April 2010)

    Two weeks ago at DrupalCon San Francisco I gave my traditional state of Drupal presentation. A total of 6000 people watched my keynote live; 3000 were present at DrupalCon, and another 3000 watched the live video stream. Nonetheless, a lot of people asked me for my slides. So in good tradition, you can download a copy of my slides (PDF, 48 MB) or you can watch a video recording of my keynote on archive.org.

• Government

  • Even the ‘worst’ open government plans include open source

    An independent group released its rankings for U.S. government agencies’ open government plans and said Treasury, Defense, Management and Budget, Energy and Justice had the weakest plans of the lot.

    NASA came out smelling like a rose, with the strongest-ranked open government plan, followed by the EPA and HUD, according to the rankings by OpenTheGovernment.org.

    [...]

    Some agencies have said they plan to revisit their plans based on the group’s evaluation, so OpenTheGovernment.org will re-evaluate them in June. It’ll be interesting to see how the use of open source continues to evolve in open government.

  • The spy who came in from the code

    If you were going to pick an adjective to describe the Central Intelligence Agency, “open” wouldn’t immediately spring to mind. But according to Carmen Medina, who recently retired from the CIA and will speak at Gov 2.0 Expo, openness is just what the agency needs.

• Licensing

  • Is an open license enough?

    Recently I have been trialling a new web based account/billing software. It is not a very mature project, but the features listed and performance so far have me believing that this is potentially a good solution. Also it is written in a language I am comfortable with (PHP), and it has an open license (GNU AGPL). Hence I may be able to contribute.

• Standards/Consortia

  • Happy Birthday ODF!

    On the Saturday 1st of May 2005, ODF 1.0 became an ISO standard. So as Rob Weir and the ODF Alliance already did, let me wish as well a happy birthday to OpenDocument Format. By this I would like to celebrate the fact that after 5 years, ODF is alive, kicking and growing its market share at a nice rate. But I would also like to thank everyone behind ODF, the engineers, the OASIS consortium, the volunteers, the implementers, and the users. Without you ODF could not exist, and as ODF 1.2 is almost out of the door it’s good to see how much the ODF ecosystem has grown and is growing.

Leftovers

• Speaker asks House officials to explore Skype use

  House officials could soon relax rules that prohibit lawmakers from using Skype and other video conferencing tools to communicate with their constituents.

• Science

  • James Cameron to develop 3D camera for new Mars rover

    Oscar-winning director James Cameron is helping NASA develop a high-resolution 3D camera for the next Mars rover, Curiosity, due to launch in 2011. The director of “Avatar” and other sci-fi flicks believes the public will better understand the mission if the rover has 3D imaging capabilities, according to a CBS News report.

  • NASA Mars rover spots its ultimate destination

    It has been years in the making but NASA said its Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has captured a new view of the rim of the planet’s Endeavour crater, perhaps the rover’s ultimate destination.

  • Top 5 myths about Google data centers

  • Army of smartphone chips could emulate the human brain

    IF YOU have a smartphone, you probably have a slice of Steve Furber’s brain in your pocket. By the time you read this, his 1-billion-neuron silicon brain will be in production at a microchip plant in Taiwan.

• Security/Aggression

  • Behind the scenes with the men who deploy airstrikes

    The enemy fighters have them surrounded. It’s the worst possible time for Staff Sergeant Kevin Rosner’s radio to stop working.

  • Tories plan bonfire of Labour laws

    This would scrap ID cards, home information packs and dozens of rarely enforced criminal offences introduced by Labour over 13 years.

  • Fined for talking about tax

    Have you ever suggested an ISA might be a good investment, helped an elderly relative reclaim overpaid tax, or been encouraged to use gift aid? This sort of advice could soon cost you £1,500 or more.

  • Q: Why do councils install cameras? A: to make money

    If we must have it, then CCTV should be used for protection, not for revenue raising – which, alas, has become its raison d’etre.

• Environment

  • Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe

    Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.

  • Can you hurt a chimp’s feelings?

    Video footage claiming to show chimps ‘grieving’ has sparked new debate over the ethical treatment of animals – but we should beware of jumping to conclusions

  • Leaked report: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano uses a map of the Gulf of Mexico during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 29, 2010. A leaked memorandum obtained by the Press-Register on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the Deepwater Horizon well site could be on the verge of becoming an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

  • Gulf Oil Spill Picture Gallery: The Last Four Minutes of the Deepwater Horizon [Exclusive]

    The remake of Nightmare on Elm Street may be hot at the box office, but it has nothing on the Nightmare on the Gulf of Mexico: the BP oil spill. If what you’ve seen to date hasn’t been disturbing enough, we’ve just received from a confidential source a series of pictures purportedly taken at the scene. We don’t have any way to verify the authenticity of the photos at the moment, but our source, who has inside information about the disaster, says that the photographer was on a nearby ship.

  • NASA Satellite Images Show Gulf Oil Spill Size Larger Than Florida

  • Progress toward Gulf oil well cap

    Energy giant BP Plc indicated some progress on Monday toward capping the underwater well that ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico almost two weeks ago, pushing a giant oil slick toward the U.S. Gulf Coast.

  • Schwarzenegger Ends Support For California Oil Drilling

    Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday withdrew his support of a plan to expand oil drilling off the California coast, citing the massive oil spill that resulted from a drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

  • Nuclear News: Iran’s uranium supply nearly out

    Yellowcake is a yellow powder produced from raw uranium and later used to make enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. When such uranium is highly enriched, it can fuel a nuclear bomb. However, according to the report, American research institute, Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), which tracks the Iranian nuclear industry, estimates that the country only has a small amount of uranium left. “We know that they are short (of uranium) for a nuclear energy program,” says David Albright, a former International Atomic Energy Agency inspector in Iraq and president of ISIS. “If you don’t have uranium you don’t have anything.”

  • Rush Limbaugh blames ‘environmentalist wackos’ for massive oil spill

  • Climate Change is a Player in the UK Elections

    The United Kingdom general election will be held next Thursday, May 6. There has been a lot of talk about the UK’s role in climate change by the British political parties and the media.

  • Admiral: Gulf drilling disaster ‘one of the most significant oil spills in US history’

    The Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster will develop into one of the worst spills in US history if the well is not sealed, the coast guard officer leading the response warned.

  • 15,000 kids skip school to protest oil pollution in Kuwait

    Thousands of students began a two-day strike on Sunday in protest at high pollution levels caused by oil facilities in a remote residential area of southern Kuwait.

• Finance

  • Greece erupts in violent protest as citizens face a future of harsh austerity

    May Day clashes in Athens as belt-tightening policies are set to reverse rights won by workers over 30 years

• Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

  • Lawsuit accuses GPS firm of aiding domestic abuse

    Should a company that provides GPS tracking service be liable for domestic violence inflicted with the help of that technology?

    A Milwaukee County lawsuit claims it should.

  • Why Do We Need Warrantless Wiretapping If Not A Single Wiretap Warrant Request Gets Rejected?

  • Sen. Conroy agrees circumvention makes filter pointless

    $24M buys the Government an Internet filter which they can install, but cannot stop people bypassing. Senator Conroy says so.

• Copyrights

  • Appeals court upholds ruling in Seinfeld cookbook case

    The author of a children’s cookbook cannot copyright ideas for slipping vegetables into children’s food, a federal appeals court said in upholding a ruling in favor of the wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld in a copyright infringement case.

  • ‘Catcher in the Rye’ copyright case to be reconsidered

    A lawsuit blocking publication of a purported “sequel” to J.D. Salinger’s classic novel “The Catcher in the Rye” will be reconsidered in federal court, but Salinger’s trustees are likely to prevail, an appeals court ruled Friday.

    The unauthorized spin-off, “60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye,” was barred from publication in the United States after Salinger — who died in January at age 91 — last year sued its Swedish author Fredrik Colting, who writes under the name J.D. California.

  • Sumner Redstone Says Murdoch’s Newspapers Will Fail

    Ad sales at CBS’s television network are approaching pre- recession levels, Moonves said, and are recovering faster than local advertising at television stations. Radio advertising has increased for the first time in five years, he said.