Posted in Microsoft, SCO, UNIX at 7:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: SCO sort of nym-shifts and already tells lies to the public, regarding Unix ownership
AS GROKLAW declares victory and ceases new activity (starting middle of May), SCO’s new lies will be harder to find and respond to. According to this new press release, UnXis [1, 2, 3, 4] is already lying, so it is not a great time for Groklaw to exit; it already disputes the following part, which is a lie: “UnXis is committed to investing $25 million over the next 18 months into product and technology developments, as well as building upon its world-class management, sales and customer support team. UnXis has retained all customer contracts, the UNIX and UNIXWARE trademarks and an installed base of 32,000 customer contracts maintained in 82 countries, including McDonald’s, Siemens, Sperbank, China Post, Thomson Reuters and the US Department of Defense.”
Actually, Novell owns Unix (likely to be passed to AttachMSFT soon).
Who would be left to rebut and counter disinformation from SCO^H^HUnXis? Speaking of disinformation, when Microsoft Florian is not busy making legal threats against those who expose him (we are still not not sure if Dana Blankenhorn got fired from ZDNet because of a post arising from Florian), he is lobbying hard and bragging. Such mobbyists only write about one strand of issues this week (except correspondence with Microsoft MVPs and boosters) and it’s Groklaw or Techrights; it’s his familiar intimidation and defamation tactics. Watch this Slashdot thread:
o on over to LWN and look at Florian’s continued meltdown about how PJ isn’t relevant and he is.
http://lwn.net/Articles/437650/ [lwn.net]
There’s a lot said there that exposes Florian’s true colors.
He heaps praise on the people who spread the most FUD about Linux. Robert Enderle, MOG, Dan “Lyin’” Lyons, and Ed Bott led the charge in the media against Linux. The only person he left out to praise was Rudy De Haas (“Paul Murphy” pseudonym). I’m sorry, but the list of above people have nothing worth listening to and his defense of them shows what side of the fence he’s on.
See other comments. Exposed pretty badly, eh? But looking ahead, the mobbyists will have more time to defame and distort the reality about Groklaw (revisionism), while Groklaw is no longer there to defend itself. We fear that Pamela Jones’ departure is a massive loss to everyone except SCO and Microsoft. █
Microsoft has been defeated by GNU/Linux avers The Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. But, there are Microsoft partners like Novell (and Mono) which will not give up so easily.
Mono team continues to bombard the free software world with Microsoft’s C# language and .Net implementation. Unfortunately, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has become an unaware puppet playing as proxy friend of Microsoft by making Banshee the default music player of Ubuntu. It means a hell lot of Mono will be pre-intsalled on your Ubuntu machine.
Every bit of Mono on my computer means hours of developer’s time wasted working on growing opium crops [Mono] of Microsoft. The dangers are more than we see at the surface. The more Ubuntu uses Banshee or Mono, the more stronghold Microsoft will find in the Linux world – a world Microsoft fantasizes of destroying.
I have no problem with Banshee as music player, I appreciate the hard work done by the developers. I have problems with its base – C# and .Net. I don’t want Microsoft to be in control of major applications that I use on the Linux devices. I can’t trust Microsoft — the repeated assaults on Linux companies — latest being Barns & Nobel — proves nothing has changed in Microsoft’s DNA. The company is and will always remain anti-competition.
Developer yanks unauthorized Windows Phone 7 update tool
[...]
Just hours after launching a tool that let Windows Phone 7 owners grab smartphone updates directly from Microsoft, the developer yanked the utility from his Web site.
[...]
Last week, a Microsoft executive apologized for the fiasco and acknowledged that customers were right to be angry. “We didn’t set out to let you down. But it’s clear we did,” said Eric Hautala, the general manager of Windows Phone 7′s customer experience engineering team, in a March 30 blog entry.
[...]
“Be careful when using unofficial hacker tools,” Prengel said, according to a translation of his original message in German. “They can put the phone in an undefined state [making] the installation of future updates impossible. Use at your own risk — neither Microsoft nor the device manufacturer or network operator assume liability for the consequences.”
It may be interesting to find out if Microsoft threatened the developer somehow. We may never know, but it got yanked, just as Microsoft had hoped. █
Summary: How Gartner and IDC predict a promising future for Vista Phony 7, even shortly after being paid by Microsoft
AMicrosoft training document[PDF] shows how the company admits that “[a]nalysts sell out – that’s their business model…” We quote that a lot because it’s an admission from Microsoft itself that it is fooling the public using analysts. Glyn Moody shows that Microsoft has just paid IDC for some propaganda (yes, again) and he then explains why “Microsoft Costs the World $500 Billion a Year”:
Well, that’s certainly true, but probably not in the way this study was meant to prove. After all, if you accept its figures, what this IDC study shows is that Microsoft and its mates take out of the world economy well over half a trillion dollars.
Shortly afterwards (after being paid by Microsoft), IDC also gave rosy projections for Vista Phony 7, despite it being an utter failure in the marketplace (so far, so bad). The same came from Gartner, which Microsoft had been paying a lot of money over the years. Gartner gave ridiculous projections for 2015 — ones that were ridiculed in our IRC channels and elsewhere as well, even in pro-Microsoft sites. As even Microsoft boosters explain: “Can we please return to some common sense? It is impossible to predict tablet and smartphone shipment numbers on a platform foundation four years into the future. Anyone who buys those numbers and takes them for fact has a serious reality-recognition issue.” The furthest into the future the predictions go, the fewer people will remember them and be able to call the analysts liars.
Analysts sell biases, not truths. Change in perception is what clients pay for. █
Resumen: Verdades sobre Techrights y cómo envolverse en él o contribuir (preferiblemente IRC).
Un antiguo lector nuestro ha sugerido en varias ocasiones que introducimos Techtrights correctamente, por lo menos a los que no sepan o han oído hablar él por la gente que nos difama o incita animosidad contra nosotros y toman represalias a veces contra los que nos mencionen. Sí, los que criticamos, generalmente nos están difamando aquellos cuyos intereses estén directamente en ángulo recto contra los del Software Free/Libre. Groklaw fue sujetado al mismo tipo de tratamiento por casi 8 años (especialmente al tocar temas polémicos como mono[http://techrights.org/2009/10/01/discrediting-groklaw/]), sólamente aquellos que han pasado tiempo alrededor de nuestro sitio saben que sus detractores mienten simplemente. Así pues, aquí está un manojo de mitos que deseamos tratar:
Mito: Techrights no tiene mucha gente participando.
Realidad: En Techrights, la comunicación usada fué comentarios y email del blog, pero desde mediados del 2008, el IRC Freenode ha sido el medios de comunicación favorecido (tiempo real, pensamiento en grupo en el sentido positivo, etc.), que también privatiza bajo la forma de registros diarios (las conversaciones en el IRC son menos formales, así que son separadas). Además utilizamos un componente de wiki, muchos de los que sean el uso implicado identi.ca para la coordinación, y en 2009 decidíamos restringir comentarios del blog a los lectores registrados solamente. Esto bajó la cantidad de comentarios a casi el 90%.
Mito: Techrights es un cambio de nombre de Boycott Novell.
Realidad: Este sitio se amplió hace mucho tiempo en términos de alcance (como SCO en el caso de Groklaw) y necesitamos organizar el sitio de una manera que divide las causas un poco más con eficacia. El boicoteo de Novell se convirtió en tan apenas parte de un dominio más grande, llamado Techrights. La transición fué largamente atrasada y tardó años debido a razones técnicas que resolvimos solamente a un grado (usando el wiki, URL redirecciones, y así sucesivamente).
Mito: El editor de Techrights es alguna persona loca.
Realidad: Esto es el argumento favorito de nuestros oponentes que atacan al mensajero para distraer al público del mensaje de Techrights. La gente que sabe mis calificaciones y me conoce personalmente podría claramente diferenciar. Nunca oculté mi identidad, al contrario. Estoy trabajando como investigador postdoctoral especializandome en análisis de imagenes y el modelado estadístico y he ganado algunas concesiones por mis logros técnicos, además de muchos trofeos por mis logros en deportes físicos, competitivos. También tengo una afinidad para la administración de servidores de UNIX/Linux, con interés particular en el uso de racimos para mejorar su funcionamiento (necesario para mi trabajo ya mencionado, como trabajo con muchos gigabytes de grupos de datos tridimensionales). La gente que difama el carácter del mensajero basado en comparación personales en vez de discusiones técnicas (insultos baratos) se están inclinando sólamente tan bajo como uno puede hacerlo. Los comentarios difamatorios más groseros dudan mi grado del doctorado o cuestionan que haya ido a alguna universidad obscura cuando de hecho gané mi grado honorario en un departamento 5 estrellas (lo más arriba posible en el Reino Unido), siendo supervisado por su jefe del departamento que recibió un OBE de la Reina de Inglaterra. Mis credenciales en Ingeniería de Programas Informáticos son de primera clase alineada con honores. Todavía escribo código diariamente y mi Software es Free/Libre. No impongo mi personalidad en este sitio Web porque el sitio no es acerca de mí, él sitio es sobre asuntos que a la gente les interesa y afecta másy más. He sacrificado mucho para hacer crecer su comunidad y escalar su contenido (cuerpo de trabajo diverso) a pesar de las muchas amenazas y ataques personales en mí contra, así que ésas personas vengativas deben recordar que soy también una persona con sentimientos y haber sido calumniado es desagradable, no sólo inmoral. Soy muy accesible, no soy enojado o peligroso, y animan los que todavía creen los estereotipos a contactarme que yo respondo siempre.
Mito: Techrights cría o engendra el odio.
Realidad: El sitio podría ser interpretado así cuando viene de un empuje llamado Boycott Novell , pero la persona que eligió el nombre no escribe más aquí, debido a carencia del tiempo y otras razones personales. La realidad es, la historia de la gente que escribe aquí demuestra un historial de defensa de GNU/Linux (sí, sobre todo el campo del GPL Licencia Pública General), no críticas a ciertas compañías. Muchos de nosotros somos desarrolladores que contribuimos activamente a la comunidad. Como los acoplamientos diarios en este sitio debe demostrar, esto sigue siendo un foco de atención nuestro. Las buenas noticias no necesitan generar respuestas, mientras que las malas noticias tienden a requerir una discusión centrada alrededor de refutaciones. Esta es la razón por la cual los temas que cubrimos en post independientes son típicamente de naturaleza negativa. Muchos sitions son como éstos y ha llegado a ser llamados “progresistas”.
Mito: Techrights editorialmente depende de otros sitios.
Realidad: A excepción de los muchos acoplamientos externos que proporcionamos (algunos opositores nuestros diatriban que éstos no son suficiente porque también hacemos una remisión extensivamente), somos editorialmente independientes. Solía escribir para sitios de noticias, pero debido a mi independencia de juicio y depender de la censura de un redactor decidí concentrar mis esfuerzos en Techrights. Gente que contribuye a Techrights no tiene sus opiniones cambiadas/reescritas o sus puntos de vista desalentados al punto de la autocensura.
Mito: Censores de Techrights
Realidad: En casi 5 años de funcionar este sitio, nunca hemos suprimido cualquier comentario del blog, no incluso los vulgares que llevan palabrotas e incluso amenazas clasificadas “x”. Esto nos llevó en un cierto plazo a requerir a que los usuarios por lo menos se registren, lo que lleva a cierta ciertas responsabilidad de lo que se dice. Los “cobardes anónimos” tienden a ser imprudentes e IP address de las cuarteles de Novell fueron usadas para comentar aquí anónimamente también (están haciendolo según se informa afuera de este sitio ahora, a veces anónimamente).
Mito: Techrights fué crackeado (agrietado)
Realidad: Techrights nunca fué crackeado. Éste es parte de la mitología sembrada por trolls pagados y nuestros acosadores, que desde el Internet intentan difamar al sitio por todo medio disponible, incluso la difamación que ellos mismos plantan desdela Web y entonces citan como “prueba”. Cuando estuvimos bajo ataques de DDOS que nos tragaron por días algunos payasos se atrevieron a sugerir que nos DDOSed a nosotros mismos. Rídiculo, porque ésa es su explicación más lógica.
Mito: Techrights es contratado por alguien hacer análisis favorables a productos/servicios de aquellos que los contratan.
Realidad: Otro punto favorito de los trolls pagados y aquellos que ganan su subsistencia de esta manera precisamente. Nadie quién se asocia a este sitio recibió nunca cualquier incentivo – dinero de de otra manera – para hacer funcionar este sitio. Este sition web es una forma de activismo de los pueblos y es un pasatiempo.
Con todo esto en mente, por favor consideren hacernos más fuertes refutando las mentiras que se repiten alrededor del Web y también haciendo primer contacto en los canales del IRC[http://techrights.org/irc-channel/]. Es aquí donde ocurre mucha de nuestra actividad y es muy amistosa.
Noticias de hoy de Groklaw
* El Defensor de Linux Groklaw Cerró – En Victoria[http://wraltechwire.com/business/tech_wire/opinion/blogpost/9418199/]
Groklaw, el sitio web creado y mantenido por el paralegal Pamela Jones para luchar a nombre de Linux ante el tribunal lucha entablada por la empresa de software SCO, está cerrando.
Jones, también conocido como el PJ, emprendió una batalla feroz contra SCO, compañía que amenazó al mundo de Linux con sus juegos contra IBM y Novell [por Unix]. SCO terminó por perder ante el tribunal, y Jones escribió en Groklaw el sábado que ella lo cerraba.
Sé que mucho usted será infeliz oírlo, así que déjeme explican brevemente, porque se toma mi decisión y es firme. En una oración simple, la razón es ésta: la crisis SCO iniciada sobre linux ha terminado, y linux ganado. SCO como lo sabíamos no es no más, ella dijo.
* Groklaw Deja de Publicar Nuevos Artículos[http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Groklaw-to-cease-publishing-new-articles-1225022.html]
* Cambio de Dirección[http://webmink.com/2011/04/10/links-for-2011-04-10/]
Pamela declara la victoria, resiste la tentación de diversificar y anuncia que Groklaw no publicará más artículos originales. Personalmente pienso que esto es una gran pérdida para la comunidad del Software Free/Libre y del mundo en general; un lugar investigador de la comunidad es definitivamente necesario contradecir el acoplamiento de la conspiración que sabemos es el trabajo diario de los cabilderos de la industria y de los “profesionales” de los estándares.
Pamela lo qué has hecho no tiene precio. Usted no sólo se levantó por la libertad del software y contra patentes del software pero por la libertad de los pueblos de todo el mundo, contra el colonialismo digital. Estamos tristes con su decisión pero mantenga por favor todos sus archivos en linea, así que gente de todos los países puede conseguir una ojeada de qué sucedió realmente estos ocho años pasados e impidamos la reescritura de la historia por monopolistas que tienen como objetivo el esclavizar al resto del mundo con su supuestas “invenciones” y “estandares”. P.J. la extrañaremos.
“I added a little paragraph at the end regarding PJ,” added Eduardo Landaveri, who kindly provided the translation above.
“Pamela what have you done have no price. You stood up not only for software freedom and against software patents but for the freedom of peoples all over the world fro digital colonialism. We’re sad with your decision but please maintain all your archives so people from all countries can get a glimpse of what really happened these last eight years and defeat the rewriting of history for monopolist that only look to enslave the rest of the world with their supposed “inventions” and “standards” We’ll miss you P.J” █
Posted in Site News at 6:14 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Over thirteen thousand posts are in this Web site right now, having just hit another milestone
Techrights is still growing, more people are getting involved (in IRC, Wiki, translations, etc.), and we have just posted another 1,000 blog posts (it was 12,000 at the end of November), which complement many other pages* that we publish more silently to organise all the material, making it more easily accessible.
Techrights will not stop publishing new articles. It has no foreseeable barrier, so now is a good time to get involved by joining us in IRC, sending us information, and/or offering articles to publish. Techrights will also turn 5 later this year. There will be a party. █
___ * Google, for instance, claims to have indexed over 50,000 pages.
Summary: Tonight we decided to talk about Groklaw and fake/bot Twitter accounts
In addition to the above, we also covered Internet trolls, GNU/Linux advocacy, copyright maximalists with a sense of entitlement, etc. Tim will post the show notes very shortly.
Posted in FUD, Microsoft, SCO at 3:52 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Image credited to Groklaw.net
Summary: Not even a day goes by and the mobbyists already engage in revisionism and distortion of the truth about Groklaw; Techrights responds
THIS is sad to watch. As pointed out to us by a reader last night (see IRC logs, which we have finally caught up with), now starts the revisionism about Groklaw and about Pamela Jones, its esteemed and talented editor. She won’t be able to defend herself and rebut the spin for much longer as her online presence is strictly in Groklaw (due to imposters). We have already attempted to set the record straight, but some people insist on echoing the words spread in a PR-esque fashion by all the usual suspects. Examples of the arguments to watch out for are: 1) Pamela encouraged IBM to sue using patents (they forgot to mention that IBM was provoked to do this by an agitator and disrupter which is partly owned by Microsoft) and 2) Pamela celebrated Red Hat’s patents (well, she actually celebrated Red Hat’s ability to settle litigation by patent trolls, even in a GPLv3-compliant way). This recently developed into somewhat of an argument we intended to put an end to, not to restart
Richard Stallman will explain how software patents obstruct software development. Software patents are patents that cover software ideas. They restrict the development of software, so that every design decision brings a risk of getting sued. Patents in other fields restrict factories, but software patents restrict every computer user. Economic research shows that they even retard progress.
Meanwhile, as Groklaw helped highlight back in February, Microsoft seems to be turning Nokia into a patent agitator and Muktwareclaims that the Elop-led “Nokia Confirms They Are Stabbing The Free Software Community”:
Nokia has finally confirmed that they are closing the recently opened Symbian platform. Why is Nokia closing Symbian, when it could have had great potential by being taken care by a wider community? Could there be Microsoft influence? I don’t know.
I am upset with Nokia as the company has betrayed the wider free software community which believed, trusted and invested in platforms like Maemo, MeeGo and Symbian backed by the company. The promises that Nokia made to the free software community have been broken. It’s shameful.
It is even worse if one takes into account the new patent strategy, which came along with Microsoft’s president, Elop [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. They might choose to sue Android phone makers or even Google.
The bottom line is, Groklaw was always against software patents. It actively preached against them and recognised them as a threat. In several E-mails before the weekend I discussed this with Pamela, who clarified her position but permitted no direct quoting (I had not asked for permission). So for anyone who is still fooled by defamation of Groklaw, rest assured that her site strives to deliver an accurate assessment, even if that sometimes mean that discomforting views will get across to readers.
Groklaw not only criticises software patents. Patents in general are in doubt over there and in last week’s news we found an article which gives method for swinging on a swing as an example. It’s titled “Patently absurd system encourages litigation, not innovation” and it says:
For those tempted to laugh it off as the antics of Aussies, note that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office saw fit in 2002 to hand a 5-year-old from Minnesota the exclusive rights to use, sell or license a method for swinging on a swing. (It will surprise no one that his father was a patent attorney.)
These are silly examples that point to a serious problem: Patent offices around the globe are apparently only too willing to grant rights to inventors who haven’t done a whole lot of inventing. And businesses are only too ready to rush their claims to court to gain an upper hand in the market or draw revenue from dubious innovations.
The doodles that Google puts out are pretty familiar to regular users. A recent one relates to Harry Houdini’s 137th birthday, showing a cute cartoon of a suited magician in broken handcuffs. What users may not know is that this doodle stands patented. For a minute, when I first read that, I was pretty amused. “No way!” was my first reaction. However, I took a minute to investigate and sure enough, on March 22, Google was granted a patent titled “Systems and methods for enticing users to access a web site”.
I dreaded scrolling down to read the claims-section of the patent; however, this patent only had four claims. Claims are essentially the heart of a patent application, upon which legal rights are granted/disputed.
Moving on from the subject of patents, Groklaw is being defamed in other ways, quite notably by Microsoft Florian. He recycles not only false material from Dan Lyons about Groklaw being “funded by IBM” (a lie which IBM rebutted under oath in the courtroom); now he starts with the very old lie that Pamela does not exist or that the site is composed by a group of people. Well, Florian never shied away from lies, so there he goes again. Watch him getting all chummy with Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza [1, 2] and with Microsoft spinner Rob Enderle [1, 2, 3] these days over at Twitter. He mostly speaks to Microsoft people over at Twitter and it’s truly telling. This quite rightly upsets friends of the Groklaw site and one reader suggests (by E-mail): “now that PJ is closing up Groklaw, you might explain what Techrights is about and invite people over.” A member of Groklaw, “spaetz”, noted last night that: “I don’t CARE if she is a woman, a man or a whole legal department.”
Recently we’ve been getting people from Groklaw in the IRC channels and they are very insightful, even eager to help. If Groklaw will no longer be active we sure hope to provide them with a service comparable to News Picks and also some analysis, which is not as legalese-oriented and courtroom-based as Pamela’s (we are neither qualified to do so, nor have we the access to court documents).
Groklaw has been invaluable to us; we could not do without it. Regarding the Novell/CPTN situation, for example, Groklaw noticed the following:
Maureen O’Gara quotes Florian too, of course, which tells you all you need to know, I suspect. But if Florian were correct this time, as opposed to all the prior times, and this deal was a foregone conclusion, so to speak, why would FCO write to OSI at all? And yet… they did. OSI sent their response on April 4th, raising some rather serious questions, and in each case saying that OSI lacks the ability to know the answers, but the FCO has the means and the authority to look into the issues raised. But by April 12th? Does Florian ever predict the future in a way that predicts anything but success for proprietary players any more? List the urls, if you have any. And, more significantly, did he predict that the terms of the CPTN deal would have to morph into the form that they have, thanks to OSI raising concerns with the FCO?
In short, I suggest you wait and see what happens. He doesn’t know. The FCO didn’t write to him, you know, or ask for his views.
For those who do not know what Maureen O’Gara (the fake ‘reporter’ [1, 2, 3, 4]) did to Groklaw, read this from the court (strong evidence, no speculations needed):
“A. [Maureen O'Gara:] PJ is the purported author of the Groklaw site.
Q. What is the Groklaw site?
A. [Maureen O'Gara:] It is a website that follows the SCO case — I should say cases, maybe, but –
Q. And then you did, in fact, write a story about PJ or Pamela Jones, didn’t you?
A. [Maureen O'Gara:] Yes.
Q. So, in 196, Stowell says in the subject line, “I need you to send a jab PJ’s way,” and that’s March 30 2005?
A. [Maureen O'Gara:] Yeah.
Q. And 197 is your May 9 to 13, 2005 issue of Client Server News 2000, correct?
MR. JACOBS: Your Honor, Novell moves into evidence D-14.
MR. NORMAND: No objection, Your Honor.
THE COURT: It will be admitted.
(Novell Exhibit D-14 received in evidence.)
A. [Maureen O'Gara:] Yeah.
Q. And the lead story is Who is Pamela Jones?
A. [Maureen O'Gara:] Yeah.
1665
Q. Right?
A. [Maureen O'Gara:] Yes.
Q. Is there — is there a causal relationship between Blake Stowell’s e-mail to you and the appearance of the story in Client Server News 2000, May 9 to 13, 2005?
A. [Maureen O'Gara:] No.
Q. You did it independently? You did the story on PJ –
A. [Maureen O'Gara:] I have reason to do a story on Pamela Jones that has nothing to do with SCO.
Q. And, in your — in that article you said, “A few weeks ago, I went looking for the elusive harridan who supposedly writes the Groklaw blog about the SCO v. IBM suit.” “
Later on, Maureen O’Gara and the Microsoft/SCO gang would try to portray Pamela as paranoid. As though she had no reasons to be concerned… and now they try to pretend she never existed, either. SJVN rebuts as follows, and not for the first time, either:
During those years, she was frequently attacked by people who claimed she was an agent for IBM. Her privacy was attacked by so-called journalists. Others claimed, and still claim to this day, that there is no PJ. That’s utter nonsense.
Pamela Jones does exist. I’ve met her several times and she’s a friend. She’s also a very private person in her personal life and frankly she doesn’t trust SCO, or its friends, as far as she could throw them. Since she’s been stalked by them, I can’t say that I blame her.
SJVN wrote about him meeting Pamela about 3 years ago when the same old lies about her existence had bubbled up to the surface again, seeking to discredit and de-legitimise the messenger of course.
There are other inaccurate claims about Groklaw; it is not really “Shutting Down”, as some people put it; it does not need Byfield’s “Eulogy”, either (he has been critical of Groklaw over the years, dismissing the likes of Groklaw as "conspiracy theorists"). He wrote:
When I got up this morning, the news was all over Facebook and the free software news sites: Groklaw, the site that was influential in the SCO legal cases, will stop publication on May 16. It’s news that I hear with decidedly mixed feelings.
Well, mixed feelings, eh? So now he can more easily pretend that freedom fighters as “anti-corporations” and/or irrational. To put the situation more correctly, Brad adds that “The site will remain active, and its archives accessible. But no new commentary will be posted.”
Indeed.
For those who are new to Techrights, our aim is to fight FUD which is aimed at Free software (against Linux, Android, and so on). As we mentioned briefly the other day, Gartner is the latest with the FUD baton [via Pogson] and people in Twitter are currently linking to our Gartner FUD and misconduct wiki page because they too realise that we have FUD in our hands. Those who are new to the site may wish to start familiarising themselves with the wiki. █
For each episode, we provide the show in both mp3 and ogg audio formats, and we post extensive show notes. You can download any episode from the direct links below, or you can play it in your browser with a flash player. You can also receive the podcast automatically if you have software like iTunes, Amarok, Rhythmbox or gPodder.
The actual anniversary isn’t until August of this year, but heck, making noise about Linux throughout spring and summer doesn’t sound like a bad idea. So the Linux Foundation made this nifty little dry-erase animation…
The Linux Foundation is kicking off a year long celebration of the 20th anniversary of Linux and they want all community members to participate. Here’s how: submit a video that demonstrates the impact of the operating system on computing, business and/or culture over the last 20 years, today or into the future. The videos will be judged by community rankings as well as celebrity judge, Linus Torvalds.
In a way, Linux got its start before Linus ever sat down to start work on the kernel. Specifically, the foundation that made the kernel possible was kicked off in September of 1983 when Richard M. Stallman announced the GNU Project with the words “Free Unix!” to a Unix “wizards” newsgroup. The announcement may also have included the first recursive acronym (GNU’s Not Unix) and set off a bunch of confusion about what Stallman meant by free.
PCI compliance is all about protecting your core servers, and you can’t be careful enough when you go about this. Protecting your servers is all about guarding key components from the rest of your online systems, and most important of all, perhaps, is isolating the server that you use for crucial credit card data from the rest of the systems on your network. This is really the heart and soul of PCI compliance. Now I’m sure that the team you have in charge of security and PCI compliance has set up a Linux based system for your core servers. However, it’s very unlikely that every system on your network uses Linux. Under such circumstances, every system that does not use Linux is a potential threat to the security of your network and to integrity of your PCI compliance.
Who says good software has to be expensive … or cost money at all? This week on Upgrade Your Life, Yahoo! News’ Becky Worley shows how to save hundreds of dollars, with free alternatives to pricey PC and Mac software packages.
Recently, I setup a bootable Linux USB key, to act as a portable OS. On the laptop I’m using as my test machine, boot to USB is unavailable in the BIOS. I was happy to find “Plop Boot Manager,” it is a great program that allows me to boot my test machine (an old Dell laptop) from my Linux USB key. The following is from the Plop web site:
“The Plop Boot Manager is a small program to boot different operating systems. The boot manager has a builtin ide cdrom and usb driver to access those hardware without the help/need of a bios. You can boot the operating systems from harddisk, floppy, CD/DVD or from USB. You can start the boot manager from floppy, CD, network and there are many more ways to start the boot manager. You can install the boot manager on your harddisk. There is no extra partition required for the boot manager.”
The importance of security should never be underestimated. The consequences of losing data can be disastrous for any organisation. For example, the loss of a single unencrypted laptop may have huge repercussions. This could include breaching data protection legislation with the risk of a significant fine, a loss in the confidence of an organisation, as well as the risk that sensitive data may fall into the hands of a competitor or third party with malicious intent.
Test it out in a terminal to make sure it works OK. Please note that it will take a wee while to launch if the VM isn’t already running. Once it’s running, it will launch immediately. Once it’s working OK, you can create a launcher in your favourite dock or launching app. I won’t be able to explain how to do that for the countless number of launchers out there. But almost all have a field to put in the command to be run when you click the launcher icon. Put the above command (customised for your situation of course) in that “command” field.
Project Bossanova has high hopes to develop “the first 3D game built especially with Linux as the first priority. It will set the standard in gameplay, graphics, compatibility, community integration and more.” In addition, they plan to have the game, now announced as RunServer’s MMT, to be open-source. This is an MMOPRG game and it’s being built using the Unigine Engine.
Project Bossanova itself is not a game but they’re simply trying to focus on and sponsor a game who’s primary focus is on Linux support. The game they chose is RunServer’s MMT, which was first shown off at the Game Developers’ Conference 2009 in Moscow. It’s built using our favorite game engine, the Unigine Engine. RunServer also integrates their own middle-ware code.
This game is about exploring the consequences of being able to move in four spatial dimensions. It plays like a regular three-dimensional platformer, but at the press of a button one of the dimensions is exchanged with the fourth dimension, allowing for four-dimensional movement.
Think about a two-dimensional character living on a horizontal, flat two-dimensional plane. To this character, height would be a foreign concept. A number of actions we three-dimensional beings take for granted feel like absolute magic to this two-dimensional character.
Both Sebastian and Marco have now blogged about Plasma Active, and we’re working on getting more presentable information on what we’re working towards put together.
In a nutshell, Plasma Active is about getting the KDE Platform with Plasma providing a compelling user interface ready for and available on hardware devices outside the usual laptop and desktop form factors. While we continue to do a pretty good job on our traditional turf, we have work ahead of us if we wish to realize the dream of covering as much of the device spectrum as possible.
The KDE team has just announced on April 6th the second maintenance release for KDE Software Compilation 4.6. This is a minor update, focusing on bug fixing and translation updates.
KDE Software Compilation 4.6.2 is the second in a series of monthly bug fixing releases to the KDE Software Compilation 4.6 series and it brings various translation updates and improvements. Everyone should update their existing KDE SC machines running version 4.6.1 or earlier (see a short tutorial below).
Face recognition has been one of the most requested digiKam features, and the latest version of the photo management application provides this functionality.
As the name suggests, the face recognition functionality can be used to find photos containing faces and attach face tags to persons in photos. This lets you quickly locate all photos of a specific person using digiKam filtering capabilities.
Released just a few days ago, GNOME 3 is the latest major version of the GNOME desktop environment. If you are currently running a GNOME-based Linux or BSD distribution, you are probably using version 2.30 or 2.32, but that should change in the upcoming release cycle when many of the distributions will be shipping with GNOME 3 as the default. So while we wait, this article will attempt to give you an idea of what to expect. Rather than discuss the difference between old and new GNOME from the development angle, the article presents information from a lay user’s perspective. Can I find my away around the new desktop without consulting a manual or documentation?
Following the release of GNOME 3.0, the world has been celebrating GNOME 3 here and there starting from April 6th: 141 registered GNOME 3 release parties spreading over 47 countries according to this wiki page. Being on the GNOME.Asia committee for 4 years already, I am happy to see that 43% (61 parties) of the release parties are from Asia (in 15 countries), India actually organizing the most (20% i.e. 29 parties in total), followed by Greater China (9% i.e. 12 parties in total). That makes me feel that all those efforts and time spent on GNOME.Asia are starting to bear fruit.
slackToday we have a guest article By: Guillermo Garron from Go2linux, i really like his site so if you don’t know it i really suggest you to go and ckeck it.
Linux-based distributions like Fedora, Ubuntu, and openSUSE have completely revolutionized the traditional desktop. However, there are some distributions that don’t quite match the standards that these Distrowatch-toppers have set. Here’s a look at 3 such Linux distributions, that you’ll never want to try.
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS-5.6 for i386 and x86_64 Architectures.
CentOS-5.6 is based on the upstream release EL 5.6 and includes packages from all variants including Server and Client. All upstream repositories have been combined into one, to make it easier for end users to work with.
I recently wrote about Linux distributive which was derived from Red Hat once Red Hat became commercial. But Fedora is not the only derivative in there!
As long as Red Hat is still open source software, anyone can use their source code for own purposes. That’s the way how CentOS was born.
Do I have bad karma to run Debian? I have 6 posts about Debian so far, and only one of them relates to full success, where I was able to run a full-power Debian on my laptop. Maybe I myself and Debian are just creatures of different worlds and we cannot live together?
Do I have bad karma to run Debian? I have 6 posts about Debian so far, and only one of them relates to full success, where I was able to run a full-power Debian on my laptop. Maybe I myself and Debian are just creatures of different worlds and we cannot live together?
The ubuntu desktop never stops to amuse and never stops to innovate. The ubuntu unity packs in with load full of features and one never stops to wonder how much thought have been gone into come up with all those ideas, if only some efforts was also put into the planning and implementation of those nice ideas. Many times I felt that the developers are are so immersed with developing features that they fail to step back and think how to go about the implementation and thus fail to attain the best possible implementation of those features. Instead of as a feature many of these innovations appear to be as an annoyance or a bug.
Finally one Canonical employee and community member ‘Jorge Castro’ replied well to the above Unity usability myth. He also made a screencast of his desktop running Natty to demo how Unity will do multitasking well.
Meanwhile Ubuntu fans have created another Ubuntu derivative. Unlike other Ubuntu based distros which are painted with some other theme flavor, this one sports the DE most of the community wants. It is an unofficial Ubuntu derivative which is going to ship with the stock Gnome 3.0. So, users now have the choice to use the official Unity Ubuntu or unofficial Gnome 3 Ubuntu.
Have an idea for a great Linux application that’s missing from the 30,000+ downloads in the Ubuntu repositories? Or just interested in learning some programming pointers? If you answered yes, the latest and greatest Ubuntu App Developer Week, which starts Monday, April 11, 2011, is for you. Keep reading for details…
Ubuntu App Developer Week, will take place in online in the #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat IRC channels on April 11-15, 2011 from 16:00 to 21:00 UTC each day.
David Planella of the Ubuntu Community Team at Canonical says “Our goal is to give all attendees a taste of the wide variety of tools on the Ubuntu platform that can be used to create awesome applications, and to showcase some applications that have been created and explain how they were put together.”
It’s been awhile since I had the time to install another distribution and really put it through it’s paces enough to write a full review of it. After crying wolf about a lack of information on the Elementary OS website, I felt I owed it to their team to give the disc a (free) download and put their OS through it’s paces.
Just over 2 weeks ago, I wrote about how Linux Mint is moving the Xfce edition to a Debian base. Well, a few days ago, they released the official Linux Mint Xfce 201104.
For those of you who didn’t read that post, in short, Linux Mint Xfce is now Debian-based instead of Ubuntu-based. The developers had a few things to say about this: (1) the desktop will be faster and lighter on resources (114 MB of RAM at idle, 177 MB of RAM with Mozilla Firefox, LibreOffice Writer, and LibreOffice Calc open all at the same time), (2) the Xfce edition will now include more mainstream applications like Rhythmbox instead of Exaile, and (3) the Xfce edition, being based on Debian Testing, will be a rolling-release branch. All these things sounded very exciting to me, so I decided to try it out.
Following several months of use, and one major firmware update, DeviceGuru is now ready to relate our experience with using the D-Link Boxee Box. Despite seeming a bit more like a late-stage beta than a fully-released product, the device has gradually taken over command and control of our non-DVD TV watching experience.
It was only a matter of time before AMD followed Nvidia’s lead and finally jumped onto the Android bandwagon, as the company is now recruiting engineers to create chipset drivers for Android. According to unnamed sources, the nation’s second largest CPU manufacturer is now looking to offer notebook and tablet partners chipset solutions supporting Google’s popular mobile platform.
The 5th annual Linux Collaboration Summit is happening this week in San Francisco. This summit gathers core kernel developers, distribution maintainers, ISVs, end users, system vendors and other community organizations for plenary sessions and workgroup meetings to meet face-to-face to tackle and solve the most pressing issues facing Linux today.
The Linux Foundation kicked off the 5th Annual Linux Collaboration Summit with four announcements: the formation of the new High Availability working group, the release of the Carrier Grade Linux 5.0 specification, Yocto Project Release 1.0 availability, and the 20th Anniversary Video Contest.
Nearly three years ago, when open source hacker Brian Aker created a fork of MySQL it did not look like anything that was much needed – at the time Sun owned MySQL and the popular database software looked to have a bright future.
As (Free/Open Souce Software) user generated news website continues to gain ever increasing authority in political circles, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has entered his views on the Alternative Vote pre-referendum poll on http://www.blottr.com, and put forward his position for readers.
After nearly three years of development the fourth generation of the Horde open source e-mail and groupware suite was released this week bringing with it a more modern code base and social networking features.
The core of Horde includes the Horde Application Framework, and PHP Web application framework that is used to develop the family of groupware applications for messaging, time keeping and contact management, among others.
Horde 4 makes more use of the PHP Extension and Application Repository and installing and updating Horde apps has been simplified with its own PEAR server.
ARM and its licensees are striving to expand their overall market presence by tackling Intel’s x86 in servers and client desktop and laptop computers. Intel has responded by attacking ARM on its own turf: handsets, tablets, and the like.
Today, we’re going to learn how to write a script that you can run from the command line that will actually do stuff. It’s a very simple script, so don’t expect anything spectacular. I was wondering what I could use as an example script for this lesson when I remembered a question someone at LinuxQuestions.org asked the other day about how to tell which users are currently logged into a Linux system. Let’s make a little script to give us that information.
Almost anyone who wants to come to the U.S. — either as a visitor or a resident — has to physically visit a U.S. consulate in their country of origin to apply for a visa and undergo an interview by an Embassy officer. In Mexico, those applying for U.S residency can only do so at one location: the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juárez — where over 3,000 people were killed in 2010 alone.
Ian McGugan has a good review of Bill Cohan’s huge new book on Goldman Sachs which includes an intriguing quote about how Bob Rubin “encouraged a culture of undisciplined risk taking” — something which goes directly against the reputation he’s spent many years cultivating. It comes from Chapter 15, which starts in the dangerous year of 1994 and which is full of juicy gossip about the very human frailties of the people running Goldman.
There’s something endearing about Lloyd Blankfein. Born in the Bronx in 1954 and reared in a Brooklyn public-housing project, he hawked hot dogs at Yankee Stadium, dodged gangs, studied hard and didn’t know much about how the other half lived. “I always thought that a prep school was what some people went to after high school to prepare themselves for college,” he later said. At Harvard, he was “shunned” by the social clubs, worked in the cafeteria, watched “Star Trek” and hit the books. He went on to Harvard Law School, smoked too much, got fat, got married and got a job.
More than three decades later, through dint of hard work and shrewd judgment, Mr. Blankfein is at the helm of Goldman Sachs, the most powerful bank on what’s left of Wall Street—a position that has made him a wealthy man. In any normal estimation, his story would be something to emulate, even celebrate.
As more and more Americans face mortgage foreclosure, banks’ crucial ownership documents for the properties are often unclear and are sometimes even bogus, a condition that’s causing lawsuits and hampering an already weak housing market. Scott Pelley reports.
Wall Street has always been a dangerous place. Firms have been going in and out of business ever since speculators first gathered under a buttonwood tree near the southern tip of Manhattan in the late 18th century.
Despite the ongoing risks, during great swaths of its mostly charmed 142 years, Goldman Sachs has been both envied and feared for having the best talent, the best clients and the best political connections, and for its ability to alchemise them into extreme profitability and market prowess.
The latest craze in hiring an IT person is by a prospective employer looking at an applicants Facebook or LinkedIn page. Lovely idea to get the feel of how a person is socially but for the most part is a failure when you’re in search of a specialist for your network. The same is true for an Audio Technician, or any other “geek” type job.
India will not accept any attempt made by groups of countries to discuss intellectual property rights outside the multilateral forum of the world trade organisation, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma has said.
Responding to questions on India’s position on the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a new intellectual property treaty being framed by a group of developed nations, the minister said a few countries cannot get together and try to change what is and will always be a multilateral regime called the TRIPS agreement.
The show ends with Tim’s selected tracks, which are titled “Virus” and “The Curse and the Serpent”. We hope you will join us for future shows and 
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