07.11.10

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• Gujarat set to follow Kerala’s LDF in IT education

  The Gujarat government is all set to follow Kerala’s Marxist-led Left-Democratic Front (LDF) in IT education in schools. Following Kerala schools, it has decided to use only Linux operating system, the open-source free software, in the computers installed in 3,650 schools.

  Linux will also be installed in another state-run 2,750 schools, where computers will be installed this year. Freely downloadable, Linux is internationally regarded as alternative to Microsoft Windows.

• Russian state-OS based on Linux

  According to the publication “Kommersant”, the state enterprise “Russian Technologies” has almost completed the acquisition of shares LLC Alt Linux. This Russian company is developing software based on Linux. Interestingly, at the same time the Russian investment fund NGI acquired stake in Mandriva, the initiative is approved by the adviser to the Russian president Leonid Reiman. According to Kommersant, the result of both of these projects could be the creation of an operating system focused on the Russian public sector.

  In this case, the developers of each of these systems based on Linux can get the appropriate government funding, and this can be quite a good amount. So, every year the government allocates to the field of IT for government, government agencies and defense industry about 12 billion dollars. How did you find the publication, “Russian Technologies” will be adapted by “Alt Linux” for educational institutions and the future goals of the project “Electronic Government”.

• Farewell to Windows: The Ubuntu Option

  Picture this: you have just left Yongsan, having put down well over a million won for a new laptop: 15-inch screen, RAM out the wazoo and enough space on your hard drive to store every single K-Pop music video in existence. You turn it on, and despite the salesman’s assertions of “Yes, Englishee, yes!” Windows is not only in Korean, but suspiciously already activated and operating a “free” version of office. This is the “service” you get for your patronage of Kim’s Wide World of Computer Goodness in the back streets of Yongsan.

• PCI DSS from a Linux Sysadmin’s Perspective

  This post only scratches the surface of what is required of Linux administrators responsible for systems which must adhere to the PCI DSS. The standard is detailed and requires good planning and a commitment to maintain the final achieved security posture.

• Ballnux

  • openSUSE Weekly News #131 is out!

  • Siga (System Information GAthering) Project forked

• Applications

  • Microblogging

    • Identi.ca’s official desktop app ain’t ‘alf bad

      Identi.ca is the open source equivalent to Twitter based on the StausNet (formerly Laconica) micro-blogging server.

    • gtweety – Yet another desktop twitter app for GNOME

      Like Turpial was when we first featured it, the application isn’t available in English. gTweety’s interface is 100% Czech but, as with Turpial, this doesn’t impact on usage as much as you might imagine – the UI is laid out in a logical fashion.

      On the surface it may seem more than a smidge similar to other gnome-specific twitter clients. If offers separate views for Timeline, Replies & Direct Messages, quick access to updating and the usual notify-osd alerts.

  • Proprietary

    • Google SketchUp in Linux – A reality!

      Google SketchUp is one of my favorite applications. It’s a free 3D software that I use to create my fabulous 3D models. It works well and lets my imagination and fingers do their magic. It’s an excellent therapy for mind and soul. There’s only one problem, so to speak. It has been designed to work on Windows and Mac only, with no Linux version in the offing.

      All in all, it’s not a tragedy, since I believe in using any software and/or operating system that meets the requirements. If you need to draw a bit, you power Windows and do what needs to be done. But some people may not have the privilege to make the cross-platform choice. For them, Google SketchUp is on the wish-list. Or is it?

      [...]

      There you go. If SketchUp was a showstopper keeping you from migrating to Linux, that roadblock has just been removed. Even if you’re more of a polygamist when it comes to operating systems, you now have an extra choice of enjoying a great program on yet another platform. Either way, it’s a win-win situation.

  • Instructionals

    • Sitecom WL-353 Linux How-to

    • How to Increase the Size of VirtualBox Virtual Machine Disk Image

    • How to Lock / UnLock (Enable / Disable) Linux User Account

    • How To Disable Ping Replies in Linux using icmp_echo_ignore_all

    • Simplicity of Making, Burning, and Copying ISO Files Using FlBurn

    • Recording and copying system configuration in Debian/Ubuntu

    • Kate: Scripted Actions

    • Xfce Window Manager Tweaks

      But there are certain advanced configurations that I want to illustrate that might not be as obvious to the new-to-Xfce user. This time around we’re talking about the Window Manager Tweaks tool.

  • Games

    • The Flying Penguin 0.1

      The Flying Penguin is a game where you try to fly the penguin as far as possible with limited fuel. While in the air, you have to collect floating fish to gain extra fuel. This is a native OpenGL game inspired by the flash game Hedgehog Launch.

• Distributions

  • The Path to Sabayon 5.4

    The next Sabayon Linux release will be 5.4 as usual it will have the usual skew of package updates and bug fixes. We are tracking the bugs earmarked for fixing before 5.4 using the Sabayon 5.4 Tracking Bug. This means that you can see which bugs will be fixed for 5.4 and the status of each issue individually; it also means you can report bugs and we can easily target those before each release. This is a new public approach for to nailing down issues before release and is due in part to structural changes within the Sabayon testers group.

  • Red Hat Family

    • Expect to be a billion dollar co by next fiscal: Red Hat

      A: We are involved in developing free software as well. I am often asked, how can a company make money selling free software? What’s important to recognize is that the recent Red Hats has been successful because we don’t actually sell software. The software itself is functionally free. The source code is available. But an enterprise is not just implementing features and functionality, they need to implement a solution which needs to last for years. When the New York stock exchange which runs on Red Hat enterprise Linux spent millions of dollars to develop their exchange, they want to make sure that it works for the next 5-10 years.

    • Red Hat Close to 50 and 200 Day Moving Averages

    • Fedora

      • Fedora Design Bounty: Fedora slide deck template

        Fedora project members, from pretty much every part of our project (especially Ambassadors), give presentations all over the world: from FUDcons (Fedora Users’ and Developers’ Conference) all over the world, to FOSS.in in India, to the Linux Symposium in Canada, LinuxTag in Germany, to FISL in Brazil, to SCALE in Calfornia – and many, many more.

  • Debian Family

    • Firefox returns to Debian?

      Debian comes with a rebranded version of Firefox called Iceweasle. The reasons for this are that the Firefox logo was copyright, and everything in Debian must be strictly free software- thus free to modify- and Debian maintains its own Firefox/Iceweasle package after Mozilla itself has stopped providing security updates for them. (Debian Lenny comes with Iceweasle 3.0- perfectly stable- which is the aim of Debian stable releases by definition- but old.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • An OS is only as good as its package manager

        Ubuntu is based on Debian, so it uses a package manager called aptitude. This system allows users to easily add and remove software. Without a package manager, Ubuntu users would have to compile and install software from source code.

      • Something is wrong with the software publishing plan for Ubuntu

        Lately I have been watching a couple of threads related to Ubuntu packaging and publishing whichs makes me feel something is wrong.

        With all respect, I believe Matt was probably dreaming when he came up with the “We’ve packaged all of the free software” title. There are plenty of applications not properly archive maintained or even packaged due to the lack of human resources.

      • Flavours and Variants

        • Kubuntu Netbook Remix Is Now Dead – But Not Really!

          Kubuntu Netbook Remix is basically Kubuntu with the KDE Plasma Netbook interface instead of the KDE Plasma Desktop used in the desktop versions. Till Lucid Lynx, Kubuntu Desktop and Kubuntu Netbook Remix were available for download as separate ISOs.

          However, from the next release of Kubuntu, i.e. Kubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, the Kubuntu Netbook Remix will not be released along with it. Rather, the Plasma Netbook package will be included in the Kubuntu Desktop ISO. At the time installation, using some screen resolution detection algorithm, it will be automatically decided if Plasma Desktop or Plasma Netbook is to be turned on by default. There will also be an option to change it manually in the System Settings.

        • Early Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Benchmarks

          There is still three months left until Ubuntu 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat” will be officially released along with the Ubuntu Netbook spin and the various other incarnations of this popular Linux distribution, but today we have some initial netbook tests of this next version of Ubuntu Linux. While Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook may boast a new user-interface now that it is using the Unity Desktop, the changes that have taken place “under the hood” have led to some performance differences compared to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Netbook.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Android

    • sensorMote for Android

      sensorMote for Android, is an Android application that allows you to control your media from your phone with simple hand gestures!!

    • Android Market on the Verge of Hitting 100K

      This really is amazing news, and a testament to just how popular Android has become. In September 2009, the Android Market had only 10,000 apps. Now, just 10 months later the Market has over 90,000 apps and is on track to surpass 100,000 before the month is over. If Android Market continues to grow at its current pace, we could very well see it catching up to the iTunes market within a year.

    • Why I Turned In My iPhone and Went Android

      For me, more than the over-used phrase of “open”, the promise of true multitasking, and the platform’s integration with Google Apps, was one word – “Choice”. Choice of handsets. Choice of carriers. Choice of manufacturers. Second behind the word choice has to be “Momentum”. I can see that Android has momentum in terms of improved quality, in terms of the number of devices sold and users, and yes, applications, which are growing in quantity, soon to be followed by quality. I really do believe that if Android does not already have a market share lead over Apple yet in this discussion, they soon will. It is inevitable. The growth in the number of handsets, carriers and users will drive more developers to the platform, and the holdouts who are not there will eventually make the move. And yes, third is “Cloud” – the idea that I don’t need to be tied to my desktop computer to manage data on the phone, but instead, the phone is built to tap into data stored on the Web. Fourth is “Capability”. The Android platform, as the Droid commercials offer, simply does more. The power of the mobile hotspot cannot be understated, and the iPhone is a zero there.

    • Smartphone as ThinClients

      Trend of computing show that we are looking for a lightweight device.
      Future is all about a single device (a smartphone) which will do following task

      * Office & Internet Computing
      * Communication (audio, video)

    • New CEIVA Snap for Android App

      CEIVA Logic, Inc announced earlier this week that they have released an application to the Android Market that will allow users to send photos over-the-air from their mobile device to any CEIVA-connected photo frame. The application is called CEIVA Snap and since CEIVA invented connected digital photo frames, we’re sure this app will be a winner. Additional features allow users to view and store their photos on their devices all while on the go from anywhere.

    • Marvin v1.3.0 – Android app of the week!

      Marvin is a free ZX Spectrum emulator for phones running Android. Currently in v1.3, the package can be found in the market place and better still, its free! Marvin offers emulation of both the 48k and the 128k Spectrum, so lets look at how well it performs that task.

  • Tablets

    • Affordable Android-powered iPad-like Tablet Computers Galore

      Affordable Android-powered iPad-like Tablet Computers Galore: While browsing through dealextreme.com, a popular online shop for electronic products here in Asia, I was really surprised to see several iPad-like tablet computers that are sold for as low as $99 (US). Another surprising thing is that they are all powered by Android.

Free Software/Open Source

• Web Browsers

  • Reviewing the latest speed wars in Web Browsers

    I’ve been around a long time, and I can vividly remember when GNU Emacs was soundly criticized for being so large, using up so much memory. Well, those complaints went away a long time ago. Before we even had 1 GHz desktop computer systems, I found that GNU Emacs would load in just a few seconds on computers with as little as 200 MHz and 32 MB memory. It’s so much better today. The typical Web browser is four or five times larger just to download, and the amount of virtual memory they use can easily exceed a factor of ten beyond what an even loaded Emacs would consume.

    Where does that leave the typical Web browser then? Two years ago, Web browsers were probably near their all time low in terms of efficiency and performance. Yes, they were offering more and more features, but the cost of those features were becoming prohibitive.

• Openness/Sharing

  • The Open Science Shift

    Recent years have seen technological revolutions in informatics, communications, and the life sciences. Xconomy readers are deeply engaged with these trends, but may be unaware of the most important development of all, the transition (sometimes painful), to an Open Science system better suited for a global, networked, knowledge economy. Sadly, rapid technical progress has thus far not been matched by a revolution in the democratization of scientific problem solving. Instead, the practices and institutions that comprise our science and innovation paradigm are badly strained, and in some cases, arguably crumbling in the face of rapid technological and economic change.

• Open Access/Content

  • Open Course Production

    In short: maybe we shouldn’t just be releasing content created in a closed process as Open Educational Resources (OERs); rather, we should be producing them in public using an open source production model?

• Programming

  • The Urge to Brag

    Way back in the late ’90s and early 2000s, many Perl fans could rattle off a list of big projects using Perl: Slashdot, Amazon.com, IMDB. Eyebrows popped up (maybe at one point), as if the fact that billions of dollars of online sales went through Perl were validation of a language.

• Standards/Consortia

  • Proposal of new project for UOF

    UOF is not in same structure of ODF, some features(such as Media Object and Conditional format of Spreadsheet ) can not transform well only with XSLT, so we need to develop a set of extensions to transform them into a friendly structure first. For UOF API we must bind a bundle of interfaces and services on OpenOffice.org in order to OpenOffice.org can be integrated into office system with UOF API. The mission of this project is improving the interoperability of UOF.We’re going in for transforming the format between UOF and ODF with XSLT.There’s an UOF filter including an extension to solve some very important problems with Calc and OLE.

  • Convert XHTML to ODF using Xalan-J?

Leftovers

• Science

  • 3D Printer Wants to Print Human Organs

    The 3D-Bioplotter takes computer aided designs from a PC and build biomaterials. Anxious geeks building girlfriends in AutoCAD as we speak.

• Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

  • “Do I have your permission to say something sexual?” – Scotland’s new law against “indecent communication”

    In October Scotland’s new Sexual Offences Act will come into force. Unlike the 2003 Act that was written for England and Wales, the Scottish act contains a clause outlawing “indecent communication”. It will soon be illegal to communicate with someone sexually – either in writing or in speech – without obtaining their consent, or without the ‘reasonable belief’ that they do consent to it. Quite simply they have taken the standard traditionally applied to rape – to the actual penetration of another person’s body – and applied it to what people say.

  • Facebook & political unrest?

    A Chinese government-backed think tank has accused the U.S. and other Western governments of using social-networking sites such as Facebook to spur political unrest and called for stepped-up scrutiny of the wildly popular sites.

• Copyrights

  • Brazil’s copyright law forbids using DRM to block fair use

    A UN treaty called the WIPO Copyright Treaty requires countries to pass laws protecting “software locks” (also called DRM or TPM). Countries around the world have adopted the treaty in different ways: in the US, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits all circumvention of software locks, even when they don’t protect copyright (for example, it would be illegal to for me to break the DRM on a Kindle to access my own novels, were they sold with Kindle DRM).

  • Copyright Board Issues Commercial Radio Decision

    It should also be noted that if Bill C-32 passes as is, the right to collect from commercial radio stations for “reproduction” activities – i.e. copying and storing music on servers so that it can be archived, stored and broadcast efficiently – will be gone, provided that broadcasters can live with the limited exception provided for such reproduction which would last a maximum of thirty days. If the broadcasters can work with this proposed regime, they could save annual payments of $11 million to CSI, $10 million to AVLA/SOPROQ and $200,000 to ArtistI.

  • Judge Slams RIAA, $675k Fine Ruled Unconstitutional

    Another break happened today in the RIAA’s case against Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum, as the $675k fine was reduced by 90%. The judge in the case criticised the RIAA and held that the jury’s damages were unconstitutional. Even the reduced fine is described as “severe, even harsh” by the District Judge.

  • ISPs Don’t Have To Block The Pirate Bay, Court Rules

    Two ISPs have won their court battle against an anti-piracy group which had demanded that they block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. Yesterday a judge at the Antwerp Commercial Court rejected the blocking demands and labeled them “disproportionate”. The Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation has reacted angrily, accusing the ISPs of siding with The Pirate Bay.

  • Digital Economy Bill

    • Mandelson accused of running ‘worst election campaign in Labour history’

      Lord Mandelson has been accused of “running the worst general campaign in Labour’s history”, as he reignited the feud between Blairites and allies of Gordon Brown ahead of the publication of his memoirs.

      In an interview to promote the book, entitled The Third Man, Mandelson said Brown had been served badly by his aides, who had “unbridled contempt” for Tony Blair.