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08.20.11

Links – More on the Demise of webOS, SpyPhone and Facebook Busted

Posted in Site News at 3:41 pm by Guest Editorial Team

Reader’s Picks

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Boycott Violence.

      It is interesting that people are so afraid of sex toys and drawings some kinds sexual fantasies that possession is outlawed but a whole industry exits to glorify violence as fun and normal. The same industry glamorizes a kind of narcissistic, and often violent sex too. There are healthier things to watch and do.

  • Security

    • BART falls to novice hacker

      she figured out how to get into BART’s website by a one-page PDF tutorial and googling “site:bartpoa.com inurl:.asp?”. She said she “exploited a gaping hole” in the site’s security to find all the BART officers’ names, e-mails, and addresses. … I’m satisfied because it really shows how bad the cyber defense of the enemies of free speech and free movement is.

      Windows, of course.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • Finance

  • Anti-Trust

    • PJ, in a news link about the demise of WebOS notes:

      Let’s see. Android, which is Linux, is being sued every which way. Then Nokia terminates MeeGO, which is Linux, and partners with Microsoft. Now HP terminates webOS, which is Linux, and exits the hardware business. This isn’t, by any chance, in some Machiavellian alternate universe, about shutting down Linux in the mobile marketplace, is it? Yes, I bought a Touchpad today. I was going to anyway. I’ve heard good things about the webOS community, and I know FOSS can do things to keep it improving, and I am thinking, if HP exits the business, who will be around to track me?

      She would do better paving it over with really free software because HP can sell the tracking and advertising rights to another company.

    • HP’s Carly Fiorina era is finally over…good riddance

      Walter Hewlett was right. Walter Hewlett, you may remember, was the low-key, cello-playing scion of the Hewlett family who fought HP’s then-CEO, Carly Fiorina, over her planned $25 billion merger with Compaq, which was announced 10 years ago next month. Hewlett’s point was simple: Just maybe it’s a really bad idea to double down on a low-margin business like PCs.
      … Hewlett’s opposition was no match for the publicity-savvy Fiorina and her team of brass-knuckled marketers, who seemed a better fit for politics than the high-tech industry.

      The top down, employees in the dark, rock star executive way webOS decisions were made show that Carly’s management style and spin control is alive and well. HP might be out of the Microsoft PC business but they are also out of their instrumentation business, the DEC Aplpha business and many other things the world is worse off without.

    • Oppose the ATT TMobile merger.
    • Patent troll targets Apple’s Disk Utility over alleged patent violation

      Lest you think Apple was Software Restore Solutions’ only target, however, the company unsuccessfully sued 26 software vendors last year over the ’511 patent, including Apple, Adobe, Autodesk, Capcom, Citrix, Corel, Intuit, Sega, Skype, and THQ, among others. The case was closed after all the defendants were dismissed, some with prejudice. Software Restore Solutions acquired the ’511 patent from Acacia, another apparent patent troll, which acquired the patent from original inventor Beck Systems. Litigating the ’511 patent appears to be Software Restore Solutions’ only business activity.

      Here you see a proxy train which ultimately leads back to Microsoft.s

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Nym shift

      An executive of Goldman Sachs changed his name and went to work for Rep. Issa, blocking regulations that might reduce the company’s profits.

    • An unconvincing Microsoft FUD wave rolls on, HTC Unlocks Phone To Upset Google, May Join Microsoft?

      Google wants users to unlock, root their phones and do what they want to do on it. Google phones allow users to use what ever sources they want to install apps, you can just drag and drop and install any (trusted) app. … the deal was needed to offer Android playes with the much needed ammunition to ward off trolls. This was the reason why Google bought Motorola. Every other theory is just an attempt to divert our attention.

      The author also insightfully frames the demise of webOS as an issue of HP CEO inaction and one of software patent threats. Though anyone can make their own OS with free software, only a community the size of Google’s Android can stand the threat of US judicial extortion.

    • More Murdoch, A whistle blower has been bankrupted by lawsuits and prevented from approaching regulators against his former employer, News America Advertising

      The company is the leading US provider of in-store advertising services, helping to bring products from firms such as Coca-Cola, Kraft and Nabisco to the attention of supermarket shoppers. Headed by Paul Carlucci, who now publishes Murdoch’s tabloid the New York Post, it enjoys annual revenues of more than $1bn and has a 90% stranglehold on the market.

  • Censorship

  • Privacy

    • South Koreans sue Apple over SpyPhone

      Earlier this month, the government of South Korea imposed a fine of three 3 million won ($2,855) on Apple’s division in the country after the controversy that became known as Locationgate, in which any device running iOS 4.0 or higher was tracking the user’s every move and location.

    • Apple locks SpyPhone developers out of device identifiers.

      No one has privacy with non free software but this move makes that clear.

    • Facebook’s ‘Like’ button illegal in German state

      The state of Schleswig-Holstein has ordered all government offices to remove the button from their Web presence and shut down any Facebook “fan” pages, on the grounds that these things violate German and European data privacy laws. A release from the Independent Centre for Privacy Protection in the German state claims that information collected from German users’ “liking” and other activities is sent back to the United States where Facebook uses it to create a profile, all of which runs afoul of Germany’s uberstrict privacy laws. Sites that don’t comply with the take-down order could face a 50,000 Euro fine

      It has been shown elsewhere that the “Like” button tracks people whether they like it or not, and Facebook collects data on people who are not members.

  • Civil Rights

    • How America’s safety net has become a dragnet

      In defiance of all reason and compassion, the criminalization of poverty has actually intensified as the weakened economy generates ever more poverty. … Perhaps the constant suspicions of drug use and theft that I encountered in low-wage workplaces should have alerted me to the fact that, when you leave the relative safety of the middle class, you might as well have given up your citizenship and taken residence in a hostile nation.

      Ordinances preventing people from sharing food with their neighbors are particularly mean but other terrible examples of cruelty are detailed.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • Poking More Holes in the First Sale Doctrine

        a graduate student lawfully acquired foreign editions of textbooks abroad and then resold them in the United States. The student was subsequently sued by the U.S. textbook owner for copyright infringement. Looking at the statutory language of the first sale provision together with another provision of the Copyright Act concerning importation of copyrighted works, the court concluded that the first sale doctrine applies only to copies that are manufactured domestically, and not to copies manufactured abroad.

        People should quit contributing to these textbooks and publish open access to be sure that their work will go to all markets, free of physical and legal restraints that only serve to gouge everyone as fully as possible.

The Era of Software Patents May be Ending Gradually. It Was Terrible Whilst It Lasted, Agree ‘Mainstream’ Sources.

Posted in Patents at 10:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The USPTO is choking its own country

Doll choked

Summary: The corporate press and even US courts gradually start accepting that thought processes should not be patentable and this classification may include a lot of software patents

NEWS SITES are abuzz with reports and more formal documents that all provide an assessment of news we last touched on yesterday.

To quote Law.com, an authority in its field despite the obvious bias (lawyers): “As we’ve reported, the Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski v. Kappos left many in the patent bar unsatisfied. Rather than resolving the hotly contested question of whether “business methods” are patentable, the justices issued a narrow opinion. Those hoping for a more forceful ruling than Bilski got their wish on Tuesday, in the form of a unanimous Federal Circuit decision that could be used to invalidate both method patents and patents for related software.”

Timothy B. Lee says that “Specialist Patent Courts Are Part Of The Problem”, noting (in page 2) that: “The creation of the Federal Circuit had another unintended consequence, too. The Supreme Court relies on disagreements among appeals courts—known as “circuit splits”—to help it figure out which issues require its attention. And when the Supreme Court takes a case, the existence of multiple, conflicting precedents gives the justices more raw material from which to fashion their own decisions.

“In the Chief Justice’s first three terms, the high court heard five different patent cases, and all of them resulted in unanimous or near-unanimous reversals of pro-patent decisions by the Federal Circuit.”
      –Timothy B. Lee“But when the Federal Circuit became the only court ruling on patent cases, there were no more circuit splits and no more competing legal precedents. That might be why the Supreme Court seems to have barely noticed that the Federal Circuit was dramatically reshaping patent law in the 1990s. The high court reviewed only about a dozen Federal Circuit decisions between 1982 and 2004, and the ones it did review tended to be on narrow, technical issues. The Supreme Court finally began to give the Federal Circuit’s handiwork some serious scrutiny when Chief Justice John Roberts took the bench. And the justices did not like what they saw. In the Chief Justice’s first three terms, the high court heard five different patent cases, and all of them resulted in unanimous or near-unanimous reversals of pro-patent decisions by the Federal Circuit.”

Might we see the next steps in a reform within weeks? Months? Years? Either way, it is a step in the right direction. Katherine Noyes’ good piece on why software patents need to go was mentioned by TechDirt, which also notes that: “There’s been a lot of attention lately to the massive problems with the patent system. Finally the problem has gone mainstream, in part thanks to the excellent This American Life episode on problems with the patent system. That seems to have emboldened other mainstream publications to finally run articles pointing out problems with the patent system, including the NY Times, the Huffington Post and PC World.

“Then there’s the Economist, who actually was one of the first mainstream publications to highlight problems with the patent system…”

Masnick writes this very long post (with a list of prominent critics of software patents) and he then makes a very detailed list of suggestions. Add to his list of critics the Washington Post, which has just published the article titled “The Terrible Cost Of Patents”, noting:

The cost of patents is going up, and that is not a good thing. After all, Google is paying $12.5 billion for Motorola largely for its huge mobile patent portfolio. In July, an anti-Google consortium ponied up $4.5 billion Nortel’s patents (and they overpayed). Interdigital, Kodak, and others are looking to sell their patent portfolios. We are in the middle of a patent bubble.

If you think about the cost of these patents, technology companies are spending billions of dollars on assets which they need primarily to defend themselves against the rising tide of patent litigation. Those are billions of dollars that Google, Apple, Microsoft and others won’t invest in new products, new jobs, new facilities or other economically productive activities. And by and large, they will not use these patents to create new products. Google is doing it just to protect Android from rival patent claims.

Here is another article which touches the subject:

Patents are a big draw these days and there’s no doubt that HP has a huge portfolio of patents that could bring in billions of dollars.

And guess what? the public pays for it. There is this grave misconception that it all comes at the expense of large corporations like Google and those who run such companies. But no… it’s the public which bears the burden of this “tax” on innovation (thought). Time for reform, no? At the very least limiting patents to what’s physical and demonstrable to a patent examiner. That’s what patent used to be once upon a time. Patents used to correspond to devices, not thought processes. █

Apple Caught Lying to Judges Again, Using Fabricated Evidence. Time to Fine/Ban Apple?

Posted in Apple, Courtroom, GNU/Linux, Google at 9:40 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


Jobs image licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (version 1.2 or any later versions); Ellison patch By Thomas Hawk

Summary: Steve Jobs’ mob is systematically manipulating images that his lawyers submit as ‘evidence’ with which to ban Linux-based devices

LAST YEAR a Microsoft Lawyer said that Microsoft “covers up alleged misconduct, mischaracterizes evidence [...] protects the perpetrators and retaliates against victims.” A few days ago we saw that Apple too is perturbing the legal system with potential illegalities like Microsoft's. According to another report from Holland/USA [via], “In a court filing, Apple resized a photo of the Galaxy S smartphone to match the dimensions of an iPhone 3G” (not just its hypePad).

Microsoft got fined $40,000,000 for trial misconduct. Will Apple be filed for submitting evidence which it knew was fake? How about banning Apple rather than devices Apple wants banned, using fake evidence as an instrument that deceives/manipulates judges?

Apple: where gullibility is the business model. █

SUSE Wants Credit After Selling Out to Microsoft and Legitimising Patent Extortion

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Novell, OpenSUSE, Patents, Red Hat, Servers at 9:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Pencil and paper

Summary: Poor reporting on the subject of SUSE and Microsoft’s promotion of SUSE, which helps Microsoft turn GNU/Linux into its own cash cow

Sean Kerner has published a valuable article where he quotes SUSE as saying that they “Don’t Get the Credit [They] Deserve”. Funny, eh?

Have a look at this piece where Kerner does not neglect to mention the Microsoft ties (the incidental case of good journalism from him):

According to Clark, Attachmate didn’t buy Novell just to ‘milk’ the SUSE business, it bought it with the intention of aggressively growing the business. To that end, at the LinuxCon event, SUSE hung out a ‘we’re hiring’ sign. Clark said SUSE is hiring approximately 20 people to help staff various parts of the business.

[...]

SUSE has also recently extended its deal with Microsoft to the tune of an additional $100 million. As part of the deal, Microsoft resells SUSE Linux and works with SUSE on interoperability issues. Microsoft also provides SUSE with a patent covenant that it promises not to sue SUSE users over any alleged infringement of Microsoft’s intellectual property that might be in open source software.

Microsoft is funding SUSE to harm free distributions. Nothing has changed since 2006. Now, watch this weird new blog post from the 451 Group. Well, in an amazingly whitewashy piece, it is Jay (of all people) who neglects to see the bigger picture (Microsoft trying to injure Red Hat, for example, while turning GNU/Linux into its own cash cow). Jay lets it seem like Microsoft is the “world’s broadest supporter of Linux” (trollish headline). But to quote:

Despite the concerns about Microsoft’s control over SUSE Linux or Linux in general, the fact of the matter is Microsoft’s investment of both dollars, including its SUSE deals worth a few hundred million, and investment of of resources, such as the interoperability work with Novell/SUSE, the kernel contribution, the cross-OS and hypervisor support work with Red Hat and the support of CentOS, Microsoft is significantly supporting Linux development and use in the enterprise.

I wrote last year about the uncertainty around Novell/SUSE kernel contribution given the Attachmate acquisition.

Microsoft is still turning GNU/Linux into its own cash cow, which at the same time makes it harder for GNU/Linux to compete. It is the same strategy it uses to attack Android. How can anyone not see this?

As we pointed out yesterday, there are those who play the role of “apologist” for SUSE for purely technical reasons. There is that component called “OpenSUSE” (which organises events and contests), but its goal is to help sell Microsoft-taxed SLE* at the expense of Red Hat and Debian GNU/Linux, for example. Who benefits from this? We are not arguing that OpenSUSE is technically broken; in fact, based on this new review “[t]he only real sore point in the whole [OpenSUSE] experience was the perceived slight slowness of the system, though the numbers in the system monitor somehow did not bear that out. Otherwise, it’s stable, relatively user-friendly, quite professional, and reminds me of my favorite distribution, Linux Mint.”

But it’s not about the technical nature of the distro. Vulnerabilities too aside [1, 2], the main issue is that Microsoft is exploiting SUSE — OpenSUSE included — to make Free software a Microsoft cash cow. To give SUSE credit or to say that Microsoft is “world’s broadest supporter of Linux” is worse than stupid; it’s possibly dishonest, depending on intent. █

The ‘Licensing’ FUD Against Android (Leading Back to Microsoft)

Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Google at 8:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

School gates

Summary: The new trend of copyrights-related Android FUD and the expected commonality shared by sources of this FUD

IT IS not unusual to see Bradley Kuhn complaining about Black Duck and OpenLogic, which both have strong ties linking them to Microsoft and a business model of spreading Free software fear. OpenLogic recently got a shot in the arm to help it promote ‘cloud’ computing (or “Fog Computing”, to avoid the euphemisms) [1, 2]. Black Duck is meanwhile releasing more proprietary stuff (may be patent-encumbered too) just while it’s seen issuing new FUD, this time against Android. We have seen that before, even from OpenLogic, and of course it comes from Microsoft’s booster Jon Brodkin who gives exposure to this FUD in IDG. Going under the daunting headline “Android developers face legal hurdles in license compliance”:

While Google’s Android is offered under the Apache and GPL licenses, the mobile operating system has components referencing 19 open source licenses overall, Black Duck Software executive Peter Vescuso told an audience at LinuxCon here.

Just like former Microsoft lawyers, the FUD against Android licensing just doesn’t stop. The FUD against Android comes from several directions and behind them we usually find the same suspect, Microsoft. There is also obligatory Android FUD from iPhone fan Mac Asay, who almost accepted a job at Microsoft (by his own admission). █

Links 20/8/2011: InstallJammer Fatigue, Puppy Linux Updated

Posted in News Roundup at 8:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • IBM’s Irving Wladawsky-Berger sings the praises of Linux
  • Linux Hardening – Quick Wins

    The best way to ensure that your Linux server is secure is to build it from scratch with a minimum amount of code that can be exploited by a hacker — a custom compiled kernel and the bare minimum of packages needed for the server to do its intended job.

  • Kernel Space

    • LinuxCon North America 2011

      As most are already aware, LinuxCon North America 2011 is taking place this week in Vancouver, Canada. What makes this year’s Linux Foundation conference special is that it’s celebrating the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Linux kernel by Linus Torvalds. Here are some photos from the special event.

    • LinuxCon wishes happy 20th to Linux

      The LinuxCon conference that ended Aug. 19 in Vancouver featured a 20th Anniversary Gala for Linux and plenty of discussions on a fast changing industry. Highlights included a call for a long-term Linux kernel, keynotes from Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurstand IBM Linux guru Irving Wladawsky-Berger, and fork-loving Linus Torvalds taking a mellow approach to the code rift with Android.

    • LinuxCon: the present and future of Linux

      This year’s LinuxCon North America 2011 is celebrating the imminent 20th anniversary of Linux – an opportunity to reflect on the current significance and future development of Linux. Linus Torvalds and Greg Kroah-Hartman talked about the Linux kernel, the new version scheme, the challenges and successes of the development process, and the increasing importance of the ARM platform.

  • Applications

  • Distributions

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Wind River Linux 4 gains new graphics stack

      Embedded specialist Wind River has announced the release of Update Pack 2 for version 4 of Wind River Linux. According to the Intel subsidiary, the update to its commercial embedded Linux runtime and development platform provides a fully integrated graphics software stack.

      The pre-integrated graphics stack in Update Pack 2 includes the Wind River Tilcon Graphics Suite, GTK, Qt, and X.Org, and works with the latest Intel and Texas Instruments’ processors. The release also offers a Web 2.0 Cross Web Development Toolkit, a Qt Development Toolkit, and new security features like the open source strongSwan VPN solution, which improves IP security, and the SEEdit policy editor.

    • Phones

      • What HP Should Do With WebOS?

        HP has announced that it is considering the spin-off or sale of its PC business unit. The announcement was made yesterday, part of the company’s Q3 2011 Earnings results. HP’s PC unit includes the WebOS-based smartphone and tablet computer business.

        If you recall, HP inherited WebOS, a Linux distribution originally designed for smartphones, but that can scale to larger computing devices, including tablet computers and desktops.

      • Should Google Buy HP’s PC Business?

      • Android

        • GridOS a new Android based OS

          A new Android based operating system is developed, with a complete new graphical user interface, called GridOS

        • HTC Unlocks Phone To Upset Google, May Join Microsoft?

          Android is under attack by Microsoft and Apple (who instead of competing by better products are trying to use messy patent system to kill competition) and it needed a patent portfolio to defend its partners like HTC and Samsung.

          Google chairman recently said that they will not let HTC lose. It must be noted that there were no direct cases on Google. Trolls like Microsoft were attacking HTC and Samsung. So, the deal was needed to offer Android playes with the much needed ammunition to ward off trolls. This was the reason why Google bought Motorola. Every other theory is just an attempt to divert our attention.

          Kevin also mentions the statement by Nokia CEO who was president of Microsoft Business Division before joining Nokia only to turn the company into a mistress of Microsoft. Elop’s statement holds no credibility as he has a clear bias here. Microsoft is known for sinking companies they sign exclusive deals with — Nortel, Novell and now Nokia. Nokia should have continued work on MeeGo and created yet another competitor to Microsoft and Apple. But, with Microsoft’s ex-president in-charge nothing else was expected.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Lenova’s IdeaPad K1 doesn’t measure up to iPad, Galaxy Tab

        Two months before Steve Jobs revealed the original iPad in 2010, Lenovo arrived at CES with a product called the IdeaPad U1. The U1 was a tablet with an innovative keyboard dock — the tablet itself ran a custom Linux interface (called Skylight) and when inserted into the dock it booted Windows 7. It was one of the most captivating products revealed that year, but like many gadgets shown at the mega tradeshow, it morphed into an entirely different go-to-market device. Before the year was up, the U1 had turned into the Lenovo LePad in China; the dock was sadly scrapped and the Skylight OS replaced with Android 2.2.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Lustre file system set for spit ‘n’ polish

    Whamcloud, the startup created in July 2010 to continue development of the open source Lustre supercomputer file system, has secured a $2.1m contract from OpenSFS to spruce it up with new features and functions.

    Luster – used on about 60 per cent of the largest supercomputers in the world – is a parallel clustered file system designed for both supporting petabytes of files and giving high-speed access to the data stored on the file system. Lustre was created by Peter Braam when he was a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, and was commercialized when he created Cluster File Systems in 2001.

  • Whamcloud Expanding Lustre

    The OpenSFS Lustre community group has contracted Lustre services firm Whamcloud in a multi-year deal to add new functionality. Lustre is an open source storage filesystem that has its origins at Sun and migrated to Oracle after the acquisition. Whamcloud and OpenSFS have not disclosed the financial terms of the deal.

    Startup Whamcloud has been pushing Lustre forward where it can since last year in an effort to help expand capabilities. Lustre is a highly scalable open source storage system used in HPC computing.

  • Working group on community metrics

    Are you one of us few, lucky people who attempt to keep track of the health of one or more communities?

  • SGI Acquires OpenCFD Ltd., the Leader in Open Source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Software
  • Twitter launches Bootstrap, open-source tools for making web apps

    Bootstrap is an open source set of files written in CSS (or Cascading Style Sheets, a programming language used to dictate how a website or web app looks and works) that covers some of the building blocks of most web apps, such as buttons, tables and forms, page templates, app navigation and even stylistic matters such as typography and color gradients.

  • Sirius Open Source Support now Open all hours!

    Most myths about Open Source have gone down in flames over the past few years as more and more serious enterprises, financial institutions, Governments and technology startups have moved to it. Perhaps the last remaining, and most persistent, is that “you can’t get support for it”…

    Britain’s most-respected and best-established Open Source business, Sirius, is celebrating six months uninterrupted 24/7 support operation by opening it’s doors and making the service available to all. Plus, until the end of August, the company is giving away round-the-clock support for the cost of business hours to the first twenty organisations taking it up.

  • Open source Initiative provides free JTAG/Boundary Scan Software and a number of hardware Kits

    GOEPEL electronics Ltd. recently announced the accession to the open source initiative goJTAG™ (gojtag.com). The networking founded and joined by various universities and several Companies pursues the goal to provide JTAG/Boundary Scan tools and knowledge based on an independent and non-commercial platform, sustainably accelerating the wide adoption of standardized IEEE 1194.x test methods. GOEPEL electronics engages in providing 20 hardware kits free of charge and according reference designs for interested parties in the UK.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla Considers Burying Firefox Version Numbers

        Quite a debate has arisen after a discussion on a Mozilla forum about how upcoming versions of the Firefox browser should not carry a version number in the familiar “About” box. As Computeworld has noted, on the online discussion, Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler, a director of Firefox, wrote: “We’re moving to a more Web-like convention where it’s simply not important what version you’re using as long as it’s the latest version. We have a goal to make version numbers irrelevant to our consumer audience.” While the backlash against this has become a little overblown, it is definitely not a good idea.

  • SaaS

    • Evolving Roles, Welcome Stefano Maffulli to the Community

      The explosion of OpenStack over the past year has once again highlighted the significant impact that an open source community can have on an industry. Within a single year, over 100 participating companies and 1,300 community members have joined together to create the de-facto open source cloud computing standard.

    • Data Integrity and Availability in Apache Hadoop HDFS

      Data integrity and availability are important for Apache Hadoop, especially for enterprises that use Apache Hadoop to store critical data. This blog will focus on a few important questions about Apache Hadoop’s track record for data integrity and availability and provide a glimpse into what is coming in terms of automatic failover for HDFS NameNode.

    • Cloud Foundry Platform as a Service (PaaS) in Ubuntu 11.10
    • Marten Mickos Says: Keep the Cloud Open

      Marten Mickos CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, formerly CEO of MySQL AB, echoed a common concern in his keynote at LinuxCon North America 2011. While celebrating the 20th anniversary of Linux and the past decade of accomplishments of open source, Mickos cautioned the audience gathered in Vancouver, BC that they need to be worried about protecting the “share and share alike” nature of open source in the cloud.

  • Databases

  • Public Services/Government

    • Bristol website launch highlights limitations of government SME policy

      The launch of Bristol City Council’s open source website this week has exposed the limitations of government SME procurement policy, with the authority relying on a contract with IT services giant Capgemini to do work it had promised to small local firms.

      The launch was the first substantial achievement of the council’s sometimes problematic September 2010 ICT policy, which aimed to use open source software as a platform for local economic regeneration as well as modernisation of its own systems.

      After unveiling the plans to 70 local firms last year and declaring its intention to break its website overhaul into smaller chunks of work that could be shared among a wider variety of suppliers, the council was seen as at the vanguard of coalition government IT policy that promised an end to all-encompassing outsourcing contracts with large suppliers.

  • Licensing

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Hardware

      • Open-Source Architecture: WikiHouse Puts Housing Design in Your Hands

        Prefab housing has been around since the 1940s. The entire point of prefab was not to have to worry about the construction–all that happened somewhere off-site. It was anonymous and standardized, and led to perfectly serviceable homes that lacked even a breath of personality. After decades in which prefab was relegated to postmodernist architects, the modern DIY movement got to it, resulting in WikiHouse: a mix of Wiki software, computer-aided design programming, and CNC machining techniques that puts building design straight into the hands of the end users.

  • Programming

    • The Cilk plus language goes open source

      Cilk Plus is an extension to C/C++ designed to make parallel programming easier. Intel owns it but it has now made it open source as part of the GCC compiler project.

Leftovers

  • Security

  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • Police got the wrong man: Salford teen charged with Miss Selfridge arson during Manchester riots is cleared

      Dane Williamson has spoken of his ‘hell’ after spending nine days behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

      Dane, 18, was arrested just hours after the Manchester riots and accused of setting fire to the Miss Selfridge store on Market Street. Despite denying being involved in the attack, which caused almost £500,000 worth of damage, he was later charged with criminal damage and recklessly endangering life and remanded in custody in Forest Bank prison.

      While behind bars, his flat in Salford was damaged by fire and he lost all of his possessions.
      But the case against him has been sensationally dropped.

      A 50-year-old man has now been arrested in connection with the incident but Greater Manchester Police are still hunting the suspect who started the Miss Selfridge blaze.

Links 20/8/2011: Linux Graphics Survey, Firefox 7 Beta

Posted in News Roundup at 4:12 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Linux and multi-form factor platforms
  • About Mothers and Linux

    I read constantly that “Linux is not ready for Mom” but I cannot help ask myself which distribution….or, to be more specific, which mother.

    Three days ago, we celebrated Mother’s Day in my country. Thus, my brother and I wanted to surprise our mother and my wife (who recently became the mother of a cute baby girl). We wanted to give them a memorable present, something that they could use both for entertainment and, why not, to learn. In an unplanned visit to a computer store, my eyes fixed upon the classic Asus Eee PC 900, the tiny netbook that drew me to the world of Linux with its version of Xandros. Next to it sat the Asus Eee PC 901. Temptation was formidable, so we ended up buying both despite the clerk never quite understood why we rejected his offer of some other netbooks (preloaded with the rip off known as Windows 7 Starter).

    [...]

    So, there you go: that’s two mothers who are happy with Linux.

  • Ten tenets the Linux world needs to rethink

    So much of the landscape of business and home computing has changed since the beginnings of the GPL and the Linux operating system. The time has surely come to reassess some of the movement’s fundamental thinking. All I would ask is that the points I list here be examined as possible areas for improvement that could help the public at large take up open source and Linux more fully.

  • Linux Journal Goes 100% Digital

    We’re going all-digital. That’s the news. Starting with our next issue, #209, we’re going off-rack and off-mailbox, but staying on-email and on-Web, where we can grow and improve. It’s the only path open to us, but it’s also a good one. Hang with me as I explain why. (See also Experience the New Linux Journal for details about the new format.)

  • Linux and the Tyranny of the Default

    Pariser’s point suddenly has implications for the Linux community. While default settings are changeable, it’s not a trivial act. For a default to be changed, a user must know the setting is changeable and how to change it. So to make a change to a piece of software or a distribution and say “The user can always change it back” is, as Pariser points out in his own example, a bit disingenuous.

  • Jumping between operating systems

    I was very pleased to find out that I was allowed to make a choice between two operating systems when I started in my new job. Of course, the choice was to be made between OS X and Windows. At the moment, Linux is used only on our development servers.

  • Desktop

    • Yes, GNU/Linux is on Desktops and Notebooks and Many Other Types of Computer

      Zemlin is still joking about The Year of The Linux Desktop. He’s so busy catering to big business he has forgotten that most “desktop” PCs (Personal Computers with a GUI, say) are run by ordinary people like my wife (GNU/Linux user for a couple of months now and my service calls are way down… ;-) ), and GNU/Linux works very well for them. The “Year” has come and gone a long time ago but GNU/Linux is still performing well on millions of desktops.

  • Server

    • Zentyal The Linux Small Business Server

      Zentyal, formerly known as eBox Platform, is a multi-purpose Linux Ubuntu remastered and it’s based on Ubuntu server 10.04 (LTS). It can function as a network gateway, unified threat manager, office server, infrastructure manager, and a unified communications server. The project’s source code is available under terms of the GNU General Public License, as well as under a variety of proprietary agreements. Zentyal is owned and sponsored by a single for-profit firm, the Spanish company eBox Technologies S.L., which holds the copyright to the codebase

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • Maddog, Moglen, and Frye: Icons of the Linux community discuss their first twenty years with Linux and its future

      In the afternoon keynotes of the first day of LinuxCon, Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin sat down to talk about the twentieth anniversary of Linux with Jon “Maddog” Hall, Eben Moglen, and Dan Frye, or as Zemlin called them, The Godfather, The Lawyer, and The Suit.

    • Linus Torvalds Tells All as Linux Hits 20

      Many people in the world consider Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, to be a visionary. Linus Torvalds himself does not.

      In a session at LinuxCon with kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman, Torvalds detailed his view of what he does and what is wrong and right in the kernel world.

      “I’m not really a visionary guy,” Torvalds said. “My vision extends to pragmatic issues for the next kernel release.”

    • The biggest Linux FUD hits of all time?

      I managed to catch Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin’s keynote for LinuxCon yesterday, and watched what was a combination of a Linux cheerleading session and a pretty tongue-in-cheek slam-fest of all things Microsoft.

    • Linux: Where it’s been and where it’s going

      WAITING FOR THE START OF Linux – A Short Retrospective and an Opinion on the Future, a talk by Dr Irving Wladawsky-Berger at Linuxcon North America, The INQUIRER was treated to two songs, ‘Hey Ya’ by rappers Outkast, and ‘Paper Planes’ by MIA.

      The songs are not similar. MIA’s, which samples ‘Straight to Hell’ by the Clash, is a piece of braggy call to arms in which the singer offers to “take your money”. The other, at least if you accompany a listen with viewing the video, is a celebration of being different, attention seeking and wacky.

    • The Next 20 Years? Who Knows?

      Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, took the stage in Vancouver, BC to talk about the challenges that Linux will face in the next 20 years. Whitehurst’s topic meshed nicely with the lead-in keynote from Jim Zemlin. While Zemlin examined the world without Linux, Whitehurst took a look at the next stage — Linux over the next 20 years.

    • Graphics Stack

      • It’s Time For The 2011 Linux Graphics Survey

        It’s time for the 2011 Linux Graphics Survey on Phoronix. Since 2007 (see the 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 results) we have been running an annual Linux graphics survey. The purpose of this survey is to help graphics driver developers, software / application developers, and other organizations understand the hardware/software configurations and features currently being used by Linux desktop users. It’s now time for the 2011 Linux Graphics Survey.

      • Remote Wayland Server Project: Does It Work Yet?

        With the 2011 Google Summer of Code, we now know how the Gallium3D OpenCL state tracker and morphological anti-aliasing (MLAA) turned out, but how did the remote display capabilities for the Wayland Display Server evolve over the summer? It’s something that hasn’t yet been reported about on Phoronix.

        The aim of the remote display for Wayland GSoC project was to pair a proxy compositing server with the client, a psuedo-client with the real compositing server, and enabling network communication between the pseudo-client and proxy compositor. Under this design, it would then be possible to run Wayland clients remotely in a seamless manner.

      • NVIDIA Releases 285.03 Beta Linux Driver

        While some NVIDIA Linux developers are up here in Vancouver for LinuxCon (met some friendly and informative NVIDIA engineers at the Linux Foundation gala last night), the NVIDIA Linux desktop team back in Santa Clara has put out the first 285.xx Linux driver series beta now that the 280 driver was made official earlier in the month.

      • Thoughts about Network Trancparency

        Every time there is an article about Wayland you can see that there a lots of uneducated comments about the “fact” that Wayland does not support network trancparency and because of that it is completely wrong to go for network trancparency. These discussions contain a lot of myths and even FUD and I consider it important to share my thoughts about these concerns as I am belonging to those who actively work to bring the benefits of Wayland to the KDE Plasma Workspaces.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Oil Drilling Threatens Arctic Ecosystem; Indigenous Ways Of Life

      The final frontier. Now that Shell and BP are mere steps away from drilling exploratory wells off the Coast of Alaska and Russia, everyone’s playfully referring to the Arctic as the “final frontier” for petroleum development.

    • Tar Sands Action to Commence Saturday at White House

      Saturday marks the commencement of the Tar Sands Action, which will take place in front of the White House.

      It is a two-week long civil disobedience campaign, planned to last through September 3, demanding that the Obama Administration turn down the proposal to build the Keystone XL Pipeline.

      The 1,980-mile pipeline is slated to transport the dirtiest oil in the world from Alberta’s tar sands down to southeast Texas. The pipeline’s route overlaps with the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies 82 percent of the people that live within the aquifer’s boundary their drinking water. It would also snake through the Nebraska Sand Hills, which is a vital wetland ecosystem, containing a diverse array of plant and animal life.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Enjoy A Clean, Improved Desktop With KDE 4.7

        One of Linux‘s most popular desktop environments, KDE, released their latest series (version 4.7) at the end of July. This version improves on work done in previous releases by adding new features while improving performance and stability.

        However, this new version does not provide a drastic change such as GNOME 3, as most changes are under the hood and are not visually reflected. Needless to say, you will still see an improvement while working, but they do not fall under the aesthetics category.

      • Taiwan, or: no rest for the weary

        Tomorrow evening I leave to participate in the Conference for Open Source Coders, Users and Promoters, or COSCUP, in Teipei, Taiwan. I will be presenting on Plasma Active and helping spread the KDE and Qt story (and love!) while I am there.

      • every new beginning

        The Berlin Desktop Summit was a roaring success from my experience at it. We, as they say, pushed forward on all fronts: cross-project collaboration, KDE Frameworks (the next major version of KDE’s libraries and runtime requirements), application development and, of course near to my heart, our Plasma workspaces.

      • KDE Commit-Digest for 14th August 2011
      • Wireless sharing with Plasma NM 0.9 (part 2)

        In my last post about shared connections I asked how I could make shared connections easier to setup. I have received some suggestions, but some of them were not that easy to implement (drag’n drop one connection onto an interface widget in Plasma NM’s main window) or still not easy to understand how to use. Then I got an idea to just add a new entry in the “Add” button, similar to when creating VPN connections. I am here to ask what you all think about this change to the connection editor:

      • KWin turns 12

        As we can see KWin has its root in KWM from KDE 1 (there are still one or two comments in KWin source tree saying KWM) and it seems like the capitalizations was added in later times :-)

    • GNOME Desktop

      • A Fork Of GNOME 2: The Mate Desktop

        A lot of people hate Canonical’s Unity desktop, but a lot of people also hate the current state of the GNOME 3.0 Shell too. For those that are still fond of the GNOME 2.x environment, there is a fork of GNOME2 that’s been little talked about up to this point. This fork is called the Mate Desktop Environment.

      • Marples-black – gtk2/3 dark style themes for Gnome

        Marples is a (gtk2/3) theme, for those who like dark themes. the name marples is derived and pays homage to Marp-1-blue theme by Malys777.

        The theme is beta right now. The writer is working on the theme everyday, so it is coming along nicely.

  • Distributions

    • How a Linux Distribution Review Should be Done

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Countdown to Mandriva 2011, Codename Announced

        In counting down the release to Mandriva 2011 Viacheslav “multik” Kaloshin, from ROSA Labs, has been blogging about a new significant changes in the works. So far they’ve been a bit ho-hum, but today he announced the 2011 official codename.

        “Some times ago, we asked in cooker and engineering mailing list about new codename for Mandriva 2011. This topic generated lots of emails, where suggestions were from star names to animals,” was said of the process. After a bit of discussion they narrowed the suggestions down to the Periodic Table of Elements. So, today the official codename for Mandriva 2011 is “Hydrogen.”

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat CEO thinks the desktop is becoming a legacy application

        A running joke at this years LinuxCon is that “X is the year of the Linux desktop.” Jim Zemlin, head of the conference’s sponsoring organization, The Linux Foundation, started it with his keynote in noting how often he’d made that prediction and how often he’s been wrong. The current prediction, which I believe Linus Torvalds made last night was : “2031! The year of the Linux desktop.” Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, has another year in mind for the Linux desktop though: Never. Oh, and the Windows and Mac desktops? Get ready to say good-bye to them soon.

      • What’s New in CentOS 6

    • Debian Family

      • SFLC Co-Hosts The Community Distribution Patent Policy FAQ with Debian

        Software patents increasingly threaten both large technology firms and independent developers. Naturally, this has caused uncertainty in the free software community. To help free and open source software developers better understand patents, the real risks they pose, and the limits to their reach, the Software Freedom Law Center is publishing on its website the Community Distribution Patent Policy FAQ.

      • Derivatives

        • Parsix 3.7 review

          Parsix is a Linux distribution based on Debian Testing. It is a community distribution with roots in Iran. It is not as popular as other community distributions, but development is active and well. The only previous review of Parsix on this website was of Parsix 3.2, which was more than a year ago. This article provides a detailed review of the latest stable version, Parsix 3.7, which was released on August 14, 2011. It is code-named Raul, after a character in Happy Feet, a computer-animated family film.

        • Linux Mint Debian 201108 RC (Gnome and Xfce) released!

          The team is proud to announce the release of LMDE 201108 RC with updated ISOs for Gnome and Xfce.

        • How system update can break love

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Will Ubuntu lead the next generation of Desktop computing?
          • Ubuntu Development Update

            Last week we hit Feature Freeze. This is the big date that all developer dread the most. Now features and new upstream versions have to have landed, everything else will be a matter the release team has to decide upon. We are rushing towards release with UI Freeze and Beta Freeze coming up next week. Exciting times!

          • Understanding Unity

            Search Focus: Today many people are search focused. With search engines (or url bars) being a primary way of reaching both information and applications. This is a easy and natural design to adapt to.

            Large Footprint Dash: The dash is not invoked lightly. It takes up a large footprint because a user shifts from task to data search mindset. A large foot print gives the opportunity to create distinguishable visual representations of data. Instead of small text driven ones.

          • Introduction To The Ubuntu Unity Desktop
          • Lucid Lives: 10 Apps Still Updated for Ubuntu 10.04

            With Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04 long since out, and Ubuntu 11.10 stirring up excitement with every update, it’s easy to forget that the 16 month old Long Term Support release of Ubuntu 10.04 remains installed on many a users computer.

          • Ubuntu 11.04 by Canonical
          • Android vs. Ubuntu – An open letter to Mark Shuttleworth

            The news of Google’s acquisition of Motorola’s mobile business is a potential game changer for the mobile computing market. The reasons Google made this purchase were obvious; they needed an arsenal of patents to fight the illegitimate battles of the patent wars to protect Android. As I have described in my previous post, these wars are an unfair and obtrusive burden on the entire tech industry, preventing innovation and bogging down our legal system. It’s too bad Google had to do this. I must admit I feel bad for their position. There may also have been the incentive to prevent fragmentation of the Android landscape by gaining more control of Android implementation. This incentive would have been secondary at best given the threat of the current law suits.

          • Behold The Power Cog [Minor Oneiric update alert]

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Will Nokia Ever Realize Open Source Is Not a Panacea?

        I was pretty sure there was something wrong with the whole thing in fall of 2009, when they first asked me. A Nokia employee contacted me to ask if I’d be willing to be a director of the Symbian Foundation (or so I thought that’s what they were asking — read on). I wrote them a thoughtful response explaining my then-current concerns about Symbian:

        * the poor choice of the Eclipse Public License for the eventual code,
        * the fact that Symbian couldn’t be built in any software freedom system environment, and
        * that the Symbian source code that had been released thus far didn’t actually run on any existing phones.

        I nevertheless offered to serve as a director for one year, and I would resign at that point if the problems that I’d listed weren’t resolved.

      • Android

        • Motorola Droid HD seen in wild with Droid Bionic

          Images of a super-thin Motorola Droid HD phone popped up on the web along with the latest iteration of the delayed, but soon-to-be-released Droid Bionic. The Droid HD appears to feature Android 2.3, a 4.5-inch qHD or higher resolution display, and an eight-megapixel camera.

        • Android GPLv2 termination worries: one more reason to upgrade to GPLv3

          Distributors lose their rights when they violate GPLv2, but the Free Software Foundation is more forgiving in its license enforcement to encourage continued participation in the free software community. GPLv3 has improved termination provisions to codify this approach, giving developers one more reason to upgrade.

        • Motorola Atrix Lapdock

          The Motorola Atrix Android handset has a suite of accessories that go beyond the typical docking options to transform it from a dual core Android smartphone into an multimedia hub or even a netbook. With the latter, the Atrix slots into the back of a very slimline looking notebook and phone’s CPU runs the show.

        • Android 3.1 coming to Google TV boxes soon

          Notwithstanding the Logitech Revue Google TV system’s drastic price reduction to $99, all new and existing devices will soon be updated to Google TV version 2, based on Android 3.1 (“Honeycomb”).

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • World’s largest single-school XO laptop solar power deployment

        We successfully carried out our first solar photovoltaic school deployment in Haiti, last week! The EFACAP school in Lascahobas, Haiti now has 2.4KW of solar pv capability to charge 500 laptops with a DC only designed and wired system. According to our research and to OLPC, our installation has the distinction of being the world’s largest single-school solar laptop charging deployment!

Free Software/Open Source

  • San Diego open-source software makers meet up and geek out

    A gaggle of software developers and an Internet celebrity sit down for a nighttime talk in the bowels of a massive computer-chip-development company …

    There’s no punch line, and for the San Diego techies who gather twice monthly in Qualcomm’s massive research facility to discuss the who’s who and what’s what of the computer world, this meeting was no joke. Rather, it was chance to network, to meet with kindred spirits and, perhaps most importantly, an opportunity to discuss some pretty geeky stuff.

  • Mårten Mickos: “F” as in freedom, and in fun, and in the future

    If you haven’t heard a keynote about the wonders of the cloud, you haven’t been to an open source conference lately. But Mårten Mickos’ LinuxCon cloud keynote was more than that–it was really a freedom keynote.

  • Events

    • Not-So-Angry Birds Need to Flock Together

      While we were out at dinner, the conversation drifted toward the FOSS company and how these two great guys were making the company profitable, but were working themselves to death doing it.

      Now as a consultant I often wear two hats, the technical side and the business side. As we sat there I became aware of my business hat being put on, but the fascinating part was when I turned to Julien, his hat was already on, and pointing in the same direction as mine. I love it when that happens….

      “You guys have to fix that problem”, he said. “You have to make the time to grow the company to bring in more people so you can focus more on running it and less on just ‘keeping it alive’”.

      All I had to do was just nod my head.

      “We do not have the time to build our company,” they said.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Firefox’s Tablet UI Scheduled for Firefox 9 Integration

        Firefox 7, for example will bring the Azure 2D graphics API and memory enhancements, Firefox 8 will make add-ons much safer to deal with and we now hear that Firefox 9 is likely to get the much anticipated tablet UI. Mozilla just posted the tablet UI as a deliverable for Firefox 9.

      • Firefox 7 beta brings major cuts in memory usage

        Just days after Mozilla released Firefox 6, the clock is already ticking on Firefox 7, which tipped up in the Firefox beta channel yesterday. There are all the usual improvements including enhancements to Firefox Sync, increased performance for HTML5 Canvas animation and better CSS3 support, but none of those really matter because there’s one important improvement that isn’t even visible to the user.

      • Major performance changes mark Firefox 7 beta

        Two days after Mozilla delivered Firefox 6 to its wide-release stable channel, Firefox 7 and its much-anticipated spate of better memory management and reduced load times got promoted from the developer’s Aurora build to the Beta channel. You can download Firefox 7 Beta for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • DK: 25,000 hospital staff Copenhagen region to use open source office suite

      Almost all of the 25,000 workers at thirteen hospitals in the Copenhagen region will over the next year begin to use Libre Office, an open source suite of office productivity tools. The group of hospitals is phasing out a proprietary alternative, ‘for long term strategic reasons’, which at the same time saves the group some 40 million Kroner (about 5.3 million euro) worth of proprietary licences.

  • CMS

    • Over 20% of new active domains run WordPress

      WordPress announced Friday that its open source blogging platform now powers 14.7 percent of the top million websites in the world, up from 8.5 percent. Astonishingly, the company found that 22 out of every 100 new active domains in the US are running WordPress.

  • Public Services/Government

    • National meet on Free Open Source Software

      he Federal Institute of Science and Technology will organise a two-day national conference on Free Open Source Software. The conference organised by the Computer Science Department of FISAT and the FISAT Free Software Cell will be held on FISAT campus on August 26 and 27.

      In the two-day meet, Praseed Pai, author of ‘Slang For .net’, will speak on Cross Platform Development. Shakti Kannan, Ambassador of Fedora, Pune, and Ranjith Siji, Chief Technology Officer of Walking Ant Technologies will speak on other sessions. Workshops on Android, Robotics and Open Source, PYQT and nS2 protocol simulator will be conducted by Soham Mondal of Android ECCO System, Bangalore, KPN Unni of CEO, KRIATE, Chennai, and Jyothish K John of FIT.

  • Licensing

    • Linux Compliance Hits Milestone with SPDX 1.0

      That’s where the new Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX) standard comes into play. The SPDX 1.0 release is being made at the Linux Foundation’s LinuxCon event in Vancouver. SPDX is a working group of the Linux Foundation.

      According to the Linux Foundation, the SPDX standard defines a standard file format that lists detailed license and copyright information for a software package and each file it comprises.

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Taking on Bachmann, Whose Pants Are Always On Fire

      If NBC’s David Gregory had asked just a couple of follow-up questions of Michele Bachmann on Meet the Press on Sunday, August 14, he would have found that her anecdote about how “Obamacare” will lead to economic ruin doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

      In fact, he would have found that the financial problems of the Iowa employer she cites to bolster her point are far more likely the result of the economic policies of former President George W. Bush.

      In answering Gregory’s question about how she would “turn the economy around within several months” if elected president, as she recently promised to do, Bachmann pledged to repeal both the health care reform law and the Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress enacted last year to reform the way financial institutions are regulated.

  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • 60% of Toronto arrests lead to strip searches

      More than 60 per cent of people arrested by Toronto police last year were forced to undergo a strip search, according to police statistics.

      But a police accountability group says routine searches are against the law and alleges Toronto police are using the practice to humiliate and intimidate people.

      Police figures show that 31,072 people were strip-searched in 2010, up from 29,789 the previous year.

  • Finance

    • Bank Consolidations Must Stop

      The trend of bank consolidations in this country must stop. The era of Too Big To Fail must end. In fact, it is time for many banking giants to be broken up and return to more manageable size with more emphasis on customer service then on over stated profits. Banks like any other company should grow and profit through increased revenue derived from competitive business practices serving and servicing their customers.

    • Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?

      Imagine a world in which a man who is repeatedly investigated for a string of serious crimes, but never prosecuted, has his slate wiped clean every time the cops fail to make a case. No more Lifetime channel specials where the murderer is unveiled after police stumble upon past intrigues in some old file – “Hey, chief, didja know this guy had two wives die falling down the stairs?” No more burglary sprees cracked when some sharp cop sees the same name pop up in one too many witness statements. This is a different world, one far friendlier to lawbreakers, where even the suspicion of wrongdoing gets wiped from the record.

    • Goldman Sachs attorneys MNAT IPO/Bankruptcy Fraud eToys
    • Why Goldman Sachs (and Warren Buffett) Always Win

      What you can see from this is that Goldman Sachs principal reason for existing is to pay its employees a lot of money. But, they employ a whole lot of other people’s money to do this. If you look at their Balance Sheet in 2008, you may be stunned to see that their total liabilities were $820,178,000,000. Yes, that is billions. This is definitely a lot of other people’s money. Let’s put this into perspective. Goldman Sachs total debt exceeds the publicly held debt of 22 of the 27 nations of the European Economic Community.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • What are Murdoch’s American misdeeds?

      In Britain, the phone hacking scandal at the heart of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is a yarn that seemingly never stops unleashing juicy new details.

      As the week began, a letter emerged alleging that senior News Corp. editors routinely discussed phone hacking — suggesting that executives likely knew about their newspapers’ illegal eavesdropping on voicemail messages of celebrities, politicians and crime victims. That revelation called into question whether Murdoch’s son James, a senior executive, misled Parliament in his recent testimony, when he said he was unaware of the practice.

    • New Documentary Explores Subconscious Manipulation by Corporations and Others

      Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich are among a diverse group interviewed in Jeff Warrick’s new documentary, “Programming the Nation.” The film is being released by the International Film Circuit and opens Friday, August 19th, at Quad Cinema in New York City. Warrick both directed and produced the film.

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