Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers
• Atmospheric Scattering in Blender Game Engine

GNU/Linux

• Kerio WinRoute Firewall no longer requires Windows

  Long established software firewall Kerio WinRoute Firewall 6.7.1 now ships as a appliance incorporating a hardened Linux operating system.

• Desktop Linux needs salesmen!

  The fact is that there are many projects and organizations devoted to maintaining and improving Linux, there are a few organizations devoted to the promotion of Desktop Linux, but there are almost no organizations devoted to the sales and advertising of desktop Linux.

• Linux Dairy Council Steps to the Plate…

  What The Linux Dairy Council prescribes is finding people that will stop and help someone in obvious distress carry some boxes inside.

  Or show them that there is an easier way to use their computers.

  The Linux Dairy Council Vision Statement:

  The LDC is a project to help promote Linux in general, rather than specific distros. To help coordinate marketing and education activities around Linux by creating materials and organizing activities with other projects.

• Linux Outlaws 120 – The Brown Mod

  This week on Linux Outlaws: Dan & Fab discuss all the recent F/OSS news such as Skype open-sourcing their Linux client, Microsoft opening the PST format, Apple dropping ZFS, open source e-voting and they also interview Popey from the Ubuntu UK Podcast about Karmic Koala and why he loves the Satanic Edition so much.

• Desktop

  • Linux for grandma & grandpa

    And thinking of practical, once Grandpa has a Linux desktop, you’ll be able to spend your weekend with him watching football instead of updating his AVG or cleaning out malware. I don’t know about you, but I know which way I prefer to spend my weekends!

  • Why isn’t Linux perfect?

    Linux isn’t perfect, Windows isn’t perfect, Apple isn’t perfect, Unix isn’t perfect. They never will be. Quit expecting them to be and take a look realistically at what each one offers that will help you make the best out of each unique situation.

  • Windows 7 or Ubuntu 9.10 – battle of the operating systems

    Whether you’re a die-hard Windows fan or a Linux evangelist, here is the lowdown on the latest updates

  • Current State of Intel Video, Ubuntu, and Composited Desktops

    The most interesting aspect of the project, from my perspective, is Mutter. Mutter is essentially Metacity with the Clutter technologies baked into it. As Joe Gregorio noted back at OSCON, Clutter’s a popular project these days, and for good reason. Built by the Intel-acquired OpenedHand team, among others, Clutter offers aesthetically pleasing, thoroughly modern graphics capabilities that, even better, are fast. Indeed, of the available compositing options for my hardware, the only one that performs adequately is the next generation option in the Clutter based GNOME Shell. That is most unusual; the bleeding edge stuff is typically very slow.

  • A few tips for dialup users running Linux

    Most people tend to forget that there are still hundreds of millions of computer users worldwide still connected to the Web using 56K modems, having to dial up every time they want to enjoy the Internet experience.

  • Linux: still better for coding

    Something like one year ago I switched from Linux to Mac OS X. It was not an easy switch if you think that my desktop on Linux used to be this one, that is, just fvmw2 with a minimal configuration, super fast virtual desktop, border-less windows.

    [...]

    The strength of Linux, or why Mac OS X is weak as development environment

• Server

  • Large Hadron Collider team flicks switch on Xeon grid

    “We found an old Irwindale from 2005 sitting in a corner and we checked against that too,” adds the OpenLab CTO. “Moving up from then to now, running Linux – Linux is our OS of choice – we saw 4x performance increase from the cores, and as much as 6x with the use of symmetric multi-threading.”

  • SOA implementation evolves from open source to Oracle SOA suite

    Griffin’s IT team used the LAMP stack to build and deploy the services. LAMP is an open source Web development platform based on Linux. The services used Apache as the Web server, MySQL as the relational database management system and PHP as the object-oriented scripting language.

  • Linux dedicated servers ‘offer business benefits’

    According to Steven J Vaughan-Nichols, the firm is a well-established presence in the sector and continues to meet the dedicated server needs of many customers seeking external IT support.

  • Most Reliable Hosting Company Sites in October 2009

    1 www.singlehop.com Linux 0.000 0.817 0.043 0.090 0.344
    2 www.acens.com Linux 0.000 0.257 0.074 0.330 0.566
    3 INetU unknown 0:00:00 0.005 0.368 0.028 0.064 0.123
    4 Server Intellect Windows Server 2008 0:00:00 0.005 0.602 0.045 0.095 0.190
    5 One.com Linux 0:00:00 0.005 0.133 0.098 0.196 0.196
    6 ServInt Linux 0:00:00 0.010 0.614 0.020 0.050 0.096
    7 iWeb Technologies Linux 0:00:00 0.010 0.138 0.045 0.090 0.090
    8 New York Internet FreeBSD 0:00:00 0.014 0.308 0.029 0.064 0.149
    9 Verio Linux 0:00:00 0.014 0.655 0.075 0.150 0.150
    10 Virtual Internet Linux 0:00:00 0.014 0.662 0.084 0.237 0.493

  • Florida-based Tsunamic Technologies rebrands as Sabalcore Computing

    Located in East Orange County, the company, which provides Linux-based cluster computing power to large-scale users such as the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command, secured the Sabalcore.com web domain and recently relaunched itself as Sabalcore, Inc.

  • 3Leaf Dynamic Data Center: True Hardware Virtualization

    Consider that a DDC-Server configured with 1TB of shared memory, 192 cores of AMD processors at 2.8 GHz and 8TB of storage, all connected via an InfiniBand switch and complete with cables, Linux OS and DDC-Pool software lists for $250,000. A DDC-Server with 256GB of shared memory, 96 cores of AMD Istanbul processors at 2.4 GHz, 4TB of storage with an InfiniBand switch, cables, Linux OS and DDC-Pool software is listed at $99,000.

  • Insulating Innovators with Cloud Computing

    Looking around the conference hall at the Cloud Computing Conference, companies such as 3tera offer a provisioning tool that is able to automatically produce images of servers, switches, and routers within a virtual environment. You need a new LINUX box, you drag and drop a pre-configured LINUX image into your environment. It “spools” and is ready for access within about 2 seconds. From the user’s perspective, it is a physical LINUX server that could very well be mounted in the next room. The object functions exactly as a physical server would behave.

• Kernel Space

  • Building A Benchmarking Test Farm With Phoromatic

    Phoromatic was originally mentioned during the Phoronix Test Suite 2.0 development cycle, but the web-based service has not gone public in beta until this morning. The Phoromatic module in the Phoronix Test Suite 2.2 client provides a few updates to the Phoromatic support and interested users are encouraged to use the just-released Bardu Beta 2 or newer. This was pushed back from 2.0 Sandtorg due to strapped development resources, waiting for a few internal pts-core API changes in 2.2 Bardu, and then awaiting feedback from various PTS-using companies.

  • Faster booting with Upstart

    A good portion of the boot time on current Linux systems is spent on system initialisation and starting dozens of daemons sequentially. The Ubuntu 9.10 development team have started to parallelise and accelerate the boot process through the large scale use of Upstart.

  • Kernel Log – Discussions at the 2009 Kernel Summit, FatELF in the firing line, new graphics drivers

    This year’s Kernel Summit saw Linux developers, led by Linus Torvalds, discussing the development process and gaining an insight into how Google uses the Linux kernel in-house. Ulrich Drepper and Alan Cox think universal binaries in Linux are a step in the wrong direction. Various graphics drivers have recently been updated to add new functionality.

• Applications

  • Skype preps open source Linux VoIP UI

    Skype announced that it is working on an open source UI layer for its Linux VoIP client. Although apparently not fully open source, the upcoming version of the Skype client for Linux could enable more open development of client front ends, including those for mobile devices.

  • Skype to open-source far too little

    While Skype has acknowledged an interest in making its Linux client open-source, this may not mean very much in practice.

  • Windows 7 Versus Linux.

    So, if you really need PhotoShop, you can use it in Linux. I you don’t need Photoshop, you can run Gimp for free! It works just like Photoshop and is every bit as powerful.

  • Value added equals useless bloat.

    What is it with installing programs these days? Just about any program you wish to install comes with some useless so called value added junk which does nothing but use up computer resources and slow it down. Being a technical person I can of course easily remove or disable those extras but I really feel sorry for those who don’t know any better.

• Games

  • Widelands (RTS Game): An Open Source Settlers I & II Remake

    Widelands is an open source (works on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX) real-time strategy game, built upon the SDL and other open source libraries. If you knew Settlers I & II (© Bluebyte), then you already have a rough idea what Widelands is all about because Widelands is heavily inspired by those two games.

  • Egoboo is a fun 3D Rogue-like game for Windows, Mac, and Linux

    Egoboo is a (90 megabyte!!) 3D Rogue-like game. Rogue is a very, very old game — the original adventure game, really — and Egoboo builds on its legacy, throws in a little hack-and-slash… and it’s even a bit of a RPG! There is loot, there are gribbly monsters that are out to eat your face, and there are plenty of pretty zones to explore (plus there’s a map editor!)

• Desktop Environments

  • Some More Gnome Panel Clock Applet Styles

    There is a short re-cap at the bottom on how to install these themes, and if you have any more great ones to share please do and I’ll update the post!

  • KDE

    • KDevelop Beta 6 and PHP Beta 1 Released

      The KDevelop team is proud to announce the sixth beta of KDevelop4. There haven’t been any major features started since beta 5 as this is mostly a bugfix release (demonstrated by the list of fixed bugs). This also marks the end of the KDE 4.2 support. With this release KDevelop4 requires KDE 4.3 and Qt 4.5 to fully supply the GUI we want to provide our users with. It is also the last release that we’re doing on behalf of ourselves, all upcoming betas will be done together with KDE 4.4. We are aiming at releasing with KDE 4.4.0 as we think that KDevelop4 is ready feature-wise and really needs to get a first release out of the door.

    • Finding Geotagged Photos in digiKam

    • Switching from Compiz to the KDE Native Composite Engine

      Originally when I switched from GNOME to KDE 4, I kept using Compiz. But with the unknown state of Compiz++ / Compiz-Fusion, I opted to give the KDE 4 native compositing engine an honest shot.

    • Amarok Joins Software Freedom Conservancy and Starts Rokvember Fund Raiser

      The Amarok team is aiming to raise $10,000 for the coming year and asking users to help the project by making tax-deductible donations during our Rokvember fund raiser.

• Distributions

  • The Psychology Of A Distrohopper

    Actually, I shouldn’t say “their” mentality as I must confess that I too am a distrohopper. I started out ages ago playing with different Linux distributions and just kept right on going with it. To this day I get excited when I see that a particular distro has a new release coming out. I usually can’t wait to get my hands on it to test it and see what great new stuff is in it.

  • Mandriva 2010 Screen Shots

  • Review: Parted Magic 4.5

    Every so often there comes a distribution that sets itself apart from all others in ways far beyond mention. Parted Magic is one of those. It is *the* defacto distribution for all hard drive maintenance. And the more it grows, the better it gets. So let’s look at this distro and see what it has to offer.

  • YMMV – Your Mileage May Vary

    No distro is perfect. Exaggerated reports or isolated cases will not be very helpful either in assessing these things. So just keep in mind, YMMV for each time that you want to use something.

  • [Sabayon] 5.1 Rolling Along

    Well, it’s been a while since 5.1 packages entered into mainline and I am pleased to see that for the most part, it went pretty smooth. I think I heard more complaints about the amount of packages vs. updating issues. I can live with that. Portage is constantly changing, very active and can be a challenge to keep up to at times. This keeps entropy maintainers busy bringing you the latest and greatest stuff.

  • Distributions *are* the strength of Linux

    People disagree, some people think that no operating system has any need for distributions, with all their difference and their central repositories that aren’t as central. But one of the thing that impress most the users who switch is, in many cases (at least that I could look at myself) the presence of distributions and the ability to install almost any software by simply looking it up in the package manager.

  • New Releases

    • Ubuntu Rescue Remix Version 9.10

    • SLAMPP 2.0.2 is released

      Just a quick announcement from me. We have released SLAMPP 2.0.2 yesterday. This is a maintenance release of current 2.0.x tree with some fixes and new documentation. Please get your copy here at http://slampp.abangadek.com.

    • grml

      [31 Oct 2009] New stable releases version 2009.10 available: grml, grml64, grml-medium, grml64-medium, grml-small and grml64-small.

    • Elastix 1.6 ready!

      We are proud to announce the release of Elastix 1.6 stable. It can be downloaded in 32-bit or 64-bit ISOs. This release has several improvements from Elastix 1.5, that would fix bugs from Elastix and CentOS. Here are some of the more important changes:

      * Asterisk updated to 1.4.26.1-4
      * Dahdi updated to 2.2.0.2-6

      [...]

    • GParted 0.4.8-1

    • Scientific Linux 5.4 – i386 & x86_64

      There are packages that we used to have to add to Scientific Linux, that are now already in Enterprise 5, and so we do not have to add them ourselves. Fuse, and it’s kernel modules, are now provided by The Upstream Vendor (TUV). The Atheros wireless chipset is now supported by TUV.

    • SliTaz GNU/Linux

      4 November 2009 – New Cooking 20091104

  • Red Hat Family

    • Fedora 12 vs. Ubuntu 9.10 Benchmarks

      In many of the tests Ubuntu 9.10 had carried the lead — both by small and large margins — but the Karmic Koala had stumbled when it came to the OpenGL performance, PostgreSQL, and NASA NPB. Of those areas, the OpenGL performance is the most intriguing with such a dramatic difference when using the same exact graphics driver from NVIDIA, which we will continue to explore and run other OpenGL tests available through the Phoronix Test Suite.

  • Debian Family

    • The Myth of the Bad Ubuntu Release

      OK, so there’s something that always disturbs me when release time comes around. Here’s a rough chronology of every Ubuntu release (at least since I’ve been involved, so that goes back to Breezy Badger) and what the “buzz” around the internet says:

      1. Alphas come out: buzz says, “not much to see here folks, move along.”
      2. Beta comes out: buzz says, “wow, great release, but where’s the new artwork?” and I’m thinking “How on earth can the pull this off?”
      3. RC rolls around: buzz says, “new awesomeness right around the corner!” and I’m thinking “darn it, there’s a lot more to do.”
      4. Release day: buzz says, “OMG I have to download this” and I’m thinking “phew, that’s over, I’m glad I rsync’d/zsync’d yesterday”
      5. The week after a release: buzz says, “Noooooo, this is the worst Ubuntu release EVER!” and I’m thinking “wow, they really did pull it off”
      6. Rinse and Repeat

    • Meet the Platform Team Managers: Matt Zimmerman

      In this final interview in my Where Karmic’s Karma Comes From series, we meet Matt Zimmerman, Ubuntu CTO and chair of the Ubuntu Technical Board. Matt brings each team together with his tireless efforts to ensure quality, professionalism, and polish to each release.

    • Q&A: Ubuntu 9.10 security

      Kees Cook is the security engineer and Gerry Carr is the head of platform marketing at Canonical. In this interview they discuss the security improvements in Ubuntu 9.10, the security challenges the Ubuntu team faces as well as what the latest version of Ubuntu offers to the developer community.

    • Canonical Matching Creative Commons Donations

      Here at Canonical we are all big fans of the Creative Commons. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they have created a set of Free Culture licenses that make it simple for people to release open content. They also run a variety of resources to make finding and remixing content simple and empowering.

    • Working with Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala: initial impressions

      I’ve been playing with the latest Ubuntu desktop release, 9.10 Karmic Koala, since the first beta and I’ve now been using it full time for business work for three days. Here are my impressions and comments…

    • How to compile a kernel for Ubuntu Karmic

    • Ubuntu 9.10: How To Upgrade

    • UOW: The Ubuntu Learning Project

      Yesterday Elizabeth Krumbach (pleia2) gave an Ubuntu Open Week presentation describing the Ubuntu Community Learning Project. This is the project that aims to create the materials that teachers can use to teach Ubuntu and other Free Software tools to everyone.

    • Jolicloud – Distro Review

      All in all Jolicloud is a very solid netbook distro. It has replaced Ubuntu Karmic as the default operating system on my Asus EEE PC. If you own a tiny computer it is definitely one worth checking out. Rock solid distro thus far and I feel the Joli team will only deliver more spectacular features before they come into a full 1.0 release.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Phones

    • Google: Android fragmentation not ‘bad thing’

      Google has defended its decision to allow unfettered Android tweaking, saying that although this may fragment the Googlephone market, it’s what’s best for developers.

      “Everybody talks about fragmentation as a bad thing, but I think you need to look at it from the perspective of the developer,” Eric Chu, Google’s group manager for Android mobile platforms, told the wireless-happy OpenMobileSummit in downtown San Francisco this afternoon. “How much work does the developer have to do to address the fragmentation? If there are a million devices and they’re in three fragments, they don’t care.”

    • Giz Explains: Android, and How It Will Take Over the World

      But the first step in the Android takeover is necessarily the phones. Android 2.0 means the handsets aren’t just interesting anymore; they’re truly buyable. As Matt said this week:

      In time, Android very well could be the internet phone, hands down, in terms of raw capabilities…. Android 2.0′s potential finally feels as enormous as the iPhone’s, and I get kinda tingly thinking about it.

    • Vodafone 360 Samsung handset boosts Mobile Linux

      The LiMo Foundation is heralding the launch of the Vodafone 360 Samsung M1, the second LiMo-compliant device built upon LiMo Platform release 2, writes editor Richard Wilson.

    • HTC HD2 vs Nokia N900 keyboard comparison

      One of the most common questions we’re being asked in the aftermath of our HTC HD2 unboxing is how its on-screen QWERTY keyboard compares to one of the other eye-catching smartphones of the quarter, the Nokia N900. We’ve staged a quick size and keyboard comparison, and you can find the gallery – and read our early opinions on both devices – after the cut.

    • Nokia’s Plans for Symbian vs. Maemo

    • Nokia N900 mobile phone dropping Nov 16th?

      The slider mobile phone will be powered by Linux Maemo, making it the first Nokia phone to feature the company’s much-anticipated operating system. Previously, the platform has been employed solely on the company’s selection on Internet Tablets.

  • Sub-notebooks

    • Linux owns 32 percent of netbook market, says study

      ABI Research is projecting that in 2009 Linux will represent 32 percent of netbook sales, far higher than the seven percent figure claimed by Microsoft, says a report. ABI also estimates that Linux will overtake Windows on netbooks by 2013, largely due to sales in less-developed countries, says the story.

    • Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic Koala) on Netbooks – Part 2 (Netbook Remix)

      Ok, so much for slogging through a lot of the details. Overall, I like the Karmic Netbook Release better than I did the previous ones. I think it is visually better, clearer, easier to understand and use. Some time ago I set up an HP Mini 2140 with UNR for a friend. I will be seeing her again soon, and I will show her the new UNR release and ask if she would like for me to upgrade it for her.

    • Moblin 2.1 Officially Released With Improvements

      Last month we provided a Moblin 2.1 preview, but to reiterate some of the key features there is the Moblin Garage (effectively an “app store” for this mobile-oriented distribution), Clutter 1.0 integration, Bluetooth device support, improved connection management, localization support, and even a much-improved web-browser.

    • Moblin v2.1 ‘project release’ for netbooks available to download

    • HP Mini 5101

      You have to be prepared to live with Windows XP Home, Windows 7 Starter or Linux and deal with the usual netbook constraints such as a 10.1-inch screen, no optical drive and an Intel Atom N280 processor.

Free Software/Open Source

• Open Source Politics

  “Michael Moore ignores capitalism’s blessings” is a much better article, not that I necessarily agree with the politics behind it, but simply because it wasn’t apparently written by someone who played with liquid mercury throughout their childhood.

  One of the most interesting aspects of this article is that the author is holding up Open Source as a success of Capitalism and good-old-fashioned American gumption, which is quite a contrast from the usual anti-American / Communism brush that critics usually love to pull out.

  [...]

  That’s a long way from having to convince people you aren’t some anti-capitalist communist zealot hippie that wants to destroy the economy with Free Software.

• 8 Resources for Expanding Your Open Source Skillset

  Are you skilled with the super powerful open source 3D graphics and animation application Blender? If you’re unfamiliar with Blender, it’s so flexible that impressive, full-length animated movies have been created with it. In this post, you’ll find a review of an online book on beginning and advanced Blender skills. The book is called Blender Basics.

• WEEK at 25: Open Source Has Proven a Remarkably Fertile Platform

  One platform that began to take shape at that time was focused not on hardware or software but on licensing. Richard Stallman quit his job at MIT to start the GNU project, an effort to produce a clone of the Unix operating system to be distributed under a license that would ensure users’ freedom to run, modify and redistribute the software. The open-source model has since driven much innovation in enterprise technology.

• New Open Source Stack saves money

  Scientists of Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) release EtherNet/IP? open-source software stack to help product developers cost-effectively connect devices to industrial Ethernet.

• Italian Region Tuscany Uses Open Source Software For GIS Application For Healthcare, Law and Other Purposes

  The administration of the Tuscany region in Italy this month published a new version of Sagadb, an open source Geographic Information System (GIS) application.

  The software allows users to view a map to access public available information. The system is also being used by museums, libraries, courts of law and by health care organisations in the region.

• Paris Schools To Use Existing Open Source Portal Eliot

  The 471 schools of the Paris region (officially referred to as ‘Île-de-France region’) that are to be involved in the portal project that was announced in October 2009 will be using Eliot, a web-based workflow software that was originally developed for three schools of the region.

• Upcoming open-source analytics offering on display in NYC

  The founders and co-lead of Business Intelligence Reporting Tools (BIRT) are looking ahead when it comes to the next generation of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), open-source BI software. In an event held Tuesday in New York City, San Mateo-based Actuate offered partners and analysts a peak at the company’s next release, Actuate 11.

• Sun showcases open source technologies

  Sun Microsystems has announced that Columbia University will use an open source Sun solution to run its digital preservation project, and also that the University of Zurich is deploying Project Wonderland projects to advance an ambitious global eLearning initiative.

• Sakai Foundation Announces Teaching and Learning Innovation Competition

  The Sakai Foundation is seeking nominees for its third annual international Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award. Representatives from the Foundation announced next year’s competition at the EDUCAUSE Conference in Denver, CO, today. The intent of the award is to highlight examples of innovative and transformative educational applications of Sakai.

• Open source software and the need for speed

  Open source is obviously often viewed as a part of agile development and more effective software development, as well as distribution. As the pressure to keep up in mobile, cloud computing and elsewhere continues to build, it will be interesting to see how far open source software’s speed advantages will take it.

• Mozilla

  • Mozilla plans major Firefox interface overhaul

    Mozilla plans to overhaul the look and feel of Firefox for Windows, a redesign that will resemble Google’s Chrome in several key elements, according to screenshots and discussions on the open-source developer’s Web site.

  • Mozilla plots Firefox interface overhaul

  • Mozilla: Firefox 3.6 won’t be late

    Mozilla may have released the first beta of Firefox 3.6 nearly two months late, but the organization believes the final version still will arrive on schedule before the end of the year.

    The Mozilla wiki page on version 3.6, code-named Namoroka, listed early September for the scheduled release of the first beta, but it actually arrived October 30. Despite that, Mike Shaver, vice president of engineering, said Mozilla wants to release the browser before the holidays and is sticking by the overall schedule for the open-source Web browser.

  • The 10 dumbest Firefox add-ons ever

    Firefox is one of the towering achievements of the open-source movement, accounting for almost a quarter of all Web site visits just five years after its launch. One of the reasons for its enormous popularity is that it can be easily customised with a range of add-ons — from download accelerators to funky themes, they make your browsing experience faster, slicker or just better looking. The official Mozilla Firefox add-ons site now lists over 10,000 extensions for download.

• Apache

  • Apache Software Foundation: 10 years and still open to innovation

    It’s been 10 years since the Apache Software Foundation hung out its feather, creating what has become a series of communities filled with focused project entrepreneurs working on a laundry list of innovative efforts, one of which landed in the White House just a few weeks ago.

  • Live from ApacheCon: Subversion Joins ASF

    The Apache Software Foundation is celebrating 10 years since its incorporation, and so we’re partying like it’s 1999 here at ApacheCon. By which I mean ApacheCon has remained true to its roots with a community-driven feel that seemed more common in the Open Source events of 10 years ago.

  • Apache at 10: You Can’t Buy Us

    Money can’t buy everything, especially when it comes to freely available open source software from the Apache Software Foundation (ASF).

• Openness

  • Open and Accessible

    One of the many things I love about working in the world of open source is that this field is much more about passion than profit. Think of how many extra hours you or your friends and colleagues put in on nights and weekends (and occasional holidays). You don’t do that for just a “Job”.

    [...]

    But when I step back and look at all the individual pieces we contribute – like when Emma takes the time to teach some elderly people how to get a handle on their gadgets, or when ZaReason works with volunteers to refurbish and donate 16 computers to Kids on Computers, or The Apache Foundation works with partners to provide live streaming for FREE to people who can’t make it to ApacheCon US this year, or Google’s amazing outreach with the Google Summer of Code – I see that our small parts are actually increasing accessibility in a big way.

• Programming

  • Zend, Oracle Hook Up for Enterprise-Class Linux and PHP

    Users of the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) now have one-stop access to Zend Server via ULN, helping to speed installation for their PHP-based Web applications. The Unbreakable Linux Network is a resource for Oracle Unbreakable Linux support subscribers, with access to software patches, updates, and fixes.

    “Oracle and Zend have a long-standing commitment to the PHP community, with a history of collaboration that has ensured integration between Oracle and Zend’s PHP-based solutions,” said Andi Gutmans, Zend CEO. “Together, we are now delivering an enterprise-grade PHP stack from top to bottom supporting the development, deployment, and management of business-critical PHP applications on Oracle. This full stack will also ease deployment in virtual environments using Oracle VM.”

  • Zend and Oracle Join Forces to Deliver Enterprise-Class Linux and PHP Solution

• Standards/Consortia

  • Netherlands government launches ODF service at Italian Plugfest

    The Dutch government program “Netherlands in Open Connection” and OpenDoc Society have announced the public availability of a beta version of Officeshots.org. Officeshots is an online webservice that makes it possible to compare the output quality of various office suites as well as web-based productivity applications. The project is financially supported by a grant from the Netherlands based not-for-profit investor NLNet Foundation.

  • IBM’s ‘enterprise Facebook’ is a hit

    Based on OpenOffice, Symphony includes a spreadsheet, word processor and graphics presentation application. “You give them e-mail, but you have to give them a word processor as well so they can deal with documents that arrive,” said Lobo.

  • Is Adobe harming open-source efforts?

    Computers cannot easily parse government documents rendered within the Portable Document Format, according to the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency. The group argues that because of this, the widely used document standard is actually detrimental to government transparency efforts.

    The difficult parsing means that people have to work harder to reuse government data, the organization asserts.

  • Security body joins debate over EU Interoperability Framework

    The European Network and Information Security Agency (Enisa) today stepped into the row over version 2 of the EU Interoperability Framework, which aims to offer governments and businesses guidance on using open source software.

  • The Web may have won, but Gopher tunnels on

    Remember Gopher? The protocol predated the Web, and a hardy band of enthusiasts have kept Gopherspace alive. Ars takes a look back at Gopher and shows you how to use it to browse Twitter and 4chan.

Leftovers

• Maryland Voters Test New Cryptographic Voting System

  It’s an election system voters and math geeks can embrace.

• Students in Denmark Allowed Full Access to the Internet During Exams

  Denmark is a country which has traditionally embraced modern technology. For over a decade pupils have been able to type up their exam answers on computers.

• Helping Out SSDs

  The last article talked about the anatomy of SSDs and the origins of some of the their characteristics. In this article, we break down tuning storage and file systems for SSDs with an eye toward improving performance and helping overcome some of the platform’s limitations.

• AMD opening shop in the Middle East?

  It looks like AMD and Globalfoundries are going to set up shop in Dubai after taking a hefty chunk of change from an investment firm based in the emirate. AMD CEO Dirk Meyer told Emirates Business that the firm is looking to a open chip design center in Dubai, and maybe a fabrication plant in Abu Dhabi.

• Second Life Steps Into The Enterprise

  Second Life is attracting a cult following among businesses, who say the virtual world gives them richer collaboration than teleconference calls or video conferences. But Second Life still has limitations that pose barriers to enterprise adoption.

• Finance

  • Goldman Sachs & AIG, What A Tangled Hedge They Weave

    Was the risk that Goldman hedged with AIG as bad as Goldman Sachs Alternative Mortgage Products’ GSAMP Trust 2006-S3? Any risk manager worth their salt would have reasonable doubt about this deal and conduct a fraud audit. A fraud audit doesn’t mean you are accusing anyone of fraud, only that the audit will be thorough, because there are indications of grave problems. If there is fraud, however, the audit should be rigorous enough to uncover it.

  • Wall Street and Goldman Sachs Party On

    The recent revelations about the criminal “pump and dump” speculative behavior of the Goldman Sachs Syndicate, along with its heartless new role as Repo-Man of Americans’ homes, drives home the point, once again, that the federal government must do something to tame Wall Street or we’re just setting ourselves up to be scammed again.

  • Goldman got cozy with loan star that crashed and burned

    Goldman has yet to explain why it risked its blue-chip reputation and financial health to buy and repackage at least $135 billion in loans mostly originated by companies that have since gone bust.

  • A brief history of Goldman Sachs heads

    Looking at the list, it seems to comprise men who are very long on hubris, and who have no doubt that if they can run Goldman Sachs, they can do anything else, with normal rules not really applying to them. All of them, post-Goldman, have been tarnished. If Lloyd Blankfein has any sense, he’ll retire quietly.

  • How Goldman Sachs secretly bet on the housing crash

    Suits filed by the pension funds, however, allege that Goldman made materially false or misleading statements in its public offerings, failing to disclose that many loans were based on inflated appraisals and were bought from firms with poor lending practices.

  • Low Road to High Finance: McClatchy Expose Reveals How Goldman Sachs Sold Off Billions in Mortgage Securities After Anticipating Housing Collapse

  • Commentary: Goldman Sachs saga shows unregulated market is a jungle

    Yet, thanks to U.S. taxpayers’ bailout and its dumping of bad debts, Goldman Sachs is more than back on its feet and planning to pay billions in bonuses.

  • Goldman Benefits From Debt Gold Mine

    All banks benefit from the Federal Reserve’s zero-interest-rate policy, but Goldman Sachs Group appears to be benefiting more than most.

  • Goldman Sachs exotic housing bet; was it illegal ?

    In the recent report published by McClatchy some new and interesting details concerning those hedges are being brought into the spotlight. We hope that the regulatory bodies will perform their task and launch an investigation about the nature of those hedges.

  • Goldman Sachs: Our Pumpin’ Dumpin’ Repo-Man!

    Meanwhile revelations continue to surface about Goldman’s “pump-and-dump” operation with a mountain of financial derivatives which they claimed to believe were rock-solid…

• AstroTurf

  • CSIRO bid to gag emissions trading scheme policy attack

    THE nation’s peak science agency has tried to gag the publication of a paper by one of its senior environmental economists attacking the Rudd government’s climate change policies.

  • Tell Obama: No pesticide lobbyist nominees

    President Obama just nominated Islam Siddiqui, a top official from CropLife — the pesticide industry’s powerful trade group — as America’s chief agricultural negotiator for international trade. If confirmed by the Senate, Siddiqui, who has spent the last several years of his career fighting various restrictions and bans on environmentally hazardous pesticides, would bring that inappropriately aggressive stance on broadening pesticide use to the White House and influence trade negotiations with Europe and the developing world.

• Health

  • Critics blast Kellogg’s claim that cereals can boost immunity

    Kellogg, the nation’s largest cereal maker, is being called to task by critics who object to the swine flu-conscious claim now bannered in bold lettering on the front of Cocoa Krispies cereal boxes: “Now helps support your child’s IMMUNITY.”

    Of all claims on cereal boxes, “this one belongs in the hall of fame,” says Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. “By their logic, you can spray vitamins on a pile of leaves, and it will boost immunity.”

  • An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All

    Then there are the threats. Offit once got an email from a Seattle man that read, “I will hang you by your neck until you are dead!” Other bracing messages include “You have blood on your hands” and “Your day of reckoning will come.” A few years ago, a man on the phone ominously told Offit he knew where the doctor’s two children went to school. At a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an anti-vaccine protester emerged from a crowd of people holding signs that featured Offit’s face emblazoned with the word terrorist and grabbed the unsuspecting, 6-foot-tall physician by the jacket.

  • Top of the Charts

• Internet/Censorship/Web Abuse/Rights

  • The end of US Internet freedom looms

    WHILE MANY HAVE WELCOMED the unfettered reign of the Internet service providers (ISPs) coming to an end in the US in favour of network neutrality, a team of learned legal minds has warned that all might not be as it seems.

    The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided that it will police the Internet to make sure that the large ISPs – telecom and cable companies, mostly – do not force a two-tiered Internet on the American public.

  • Law Professor Sues Over ‘Above the Law’ Blog Posts–Jones v. Minkin

    Given its history of provocative and occasionally aggressive blog posts, it’s actually a little surprising that popular law blog Above the Law has not been sued before. A blogger’s life is inherently filled with peril. We bet our houses with every blog post, and eventually the law of large numbers starts working against us. The risks are even greater for bloggers covering legal topics. By definition, we routinely cover people who are prepared to mix it up in court. As a result, it’s almost inevitable that blawgers who keep at it long enough will get sued eventually.

  • UK Law Firm Sets Up Special Team To Hunt Down Anonymous Commenters

    Stephanie Migot writes in to let us know how UK law firm Wragge & Co has decided to set up a special “cyber tracing” team, whose job it will be to scour the internet for anyone making negative anonymous comments about any of their clients and then take action.

• Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

  • Murdoch admits delays on paywall scheme

    Rupert Murdoch has confirmed that his company is unlikely to hit its June deadline for putting up paywalls around its newspaper websites.

  • Stop punishing fans and start selling to them

    The goal of any business, generally, is to be profitable. The simplest equation for a successful business is to sell something for more than it cost you to produce. The more of that you can do, the more successful you are. However, markets change all the time and a strong business responds to that change to maximize its long term profits.

    But when it comes to the entertainment industry there’s an odd dynamic at work. It seems more important to punish those involved in the changing market, rather than focus on maximizing profit. Yet it does no good to punish people who will never buy if it doesn’t do anything to increase actual revenue.

  • Star Wars creator in battle over film replicas

    Now Lucasfilm has brought an action in the Court of Appeal to try to prove that the Stormtrooper suits are sculptures and therefore works of art covered by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.

  • Pirate Party Gets Second Seat in European Parliament

    With the Lisbon Treaty being signed by all European Union member states, the Pirate Party has gained another seat in the European Parliament. The second Pirate Party seat will be occupied by the 22 year old Amelia Andersdotter, who will become the youngest Member of the European Parliament.