• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Stephen Hawking tries Linux powered Wheelchair made by Intel

Stephen Hawking, one of the smartest brains on the planet, gave Intel’s Linux powered wheelchair a try and talked about it. The company showcased their ‘Connected Wheelchair’ at the ongoing Intel Developer Conference (IDF).

CompuLab’s Intense-PC2 Is A Great Haswell-Based Mini Linux PC

Compared to most Linux PC vendors targeting consumers that are just selling re-branded white box systems with Linux preloaded, CompuLab continues to have an interesting set of original offerings that are Linux-friendly and built really well. The latest system we’ve had the pleasure of trying out is the Intense-PC2.

How to Build a Linux Media Server

Just about any Linux makes an excellent media server because it’s lightweight and stable, so you can use whatever flavor you’re most comfortable with. Any Ubuntu variant (Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and so on) is exceptionally nice to set up as a media server because they make it easy to get restricted codecs. I have Xubuntu running on a ZaReason MediaBox. This is a simple system for playing movies and music. It is not a DVR (digital video recorder), and it doesn’t need a TV tuner because I don’t have any broadcast TV. No cable, satellite, nor over-the-air even. Don’t want it and don’t miss it. But if that’s something you want you may have it, because Linux wants us to be happy.

On normal people using linux, part 3

Another friend approached me to get rid of Windows, the problem was vulnerabilities and virus. She was an artist for life and paint, so I explained to her that Adobe no more and she didn’t really feel moved by that so I tougth “hm… this can work out”.

Desktop

• Make Downloading Files Effortless

  A download manager is computer software that is dedicated to the task of downloading files, optimizing bandwidth usage, and operating in a more organized way. Some web browsers, such as Firefox, include a download manager as a feature, but their implementation lacks the sophistication of a dedicated download manager (or add-ons for the web browser), without using bandwidth optimally, and without good file management features.

  Users that regularly download files benefit from using a good download manager. The ability to maximize download speeds (with download acceleration), resume and schedule downloads, make safer and more rewarding downloading. Download managers have lost some of their popularity, but the best of them offer real benefits including tight integration with browsers, support for popular sites such as YouTube and much more.

• Enjoy Five Gorgeous Linux Desktops from the Google+ Community

  Linux is a very customizable ecosystem and this is one of the main features of the open source world, the possibility to do almost anything you want with your OS. Every Friday, the Linux community shows its desktops on Google+, so we picked up a few of the most interesting to share with everyone.

Server

• Understanding the key differences between LXC and Docker

  Linux containers (LXC) has the potential to transform how we run and scale applications. Container technology is not new, mainstream support in the vanilla kernel however is, paving the way for widespread adoption.

• Linux containers startup Flockport launches first of its kind LXC sharing website

  Mumbai, India based startup Flockport launched a first of its kind Linux container (LXC) sharing website for users, administrators and developers providing popular web applications in portable containers that can be deployed in seconds.

  Flockport is based on LXC. LXC containers are like virtual machines, only lightweight and faster with near bare metal performance. The containers are lightweight and efficient, and easy to clone, backup, snapshot and deploy in seconds.

Kernel Space

• Intel Skylake’s MPX Is Closer To Providing Linux Memory Protection

  Besides Intel publicly working on Skylake “Gen9″ graphics support for Linux, Intel open-source developers are also working on other areas of Skylake hardware enablement for Linux. Work on supporting the Intel Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) that are new to the Skylake micro-architecture are still being revised for the Linux kernel and the many other operating system code-bases that need to be updated to work with this security feature.

• Graphics Stack

  • Radeon DRM With Linux 3.18 To Support Concurrent Buffer Reads

    Another Radeon DRM driver update pull request has been submitted to drm-next for merging in the Linux 3.18 kernel.

  • Intel ILO Gallium3D Driver Sees New Improvements

    For users of the unofficial Intel Gallium3D driver, ILO, it’s been updated with some minor improvements.

  • Intel Haswell-ULT Graphics Don’t Change Much With Linux 3.17, Mesa 10.4

    The Linux 3.17 kernel that’s currently under development does provide many new features overall but for those using the Intel HD Graphics of Haswell-ULT chips, there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of any performance improvements and at least no regressions. Likewise, Mesa 10.4 isn’t doing too much for the Haswell hardware on the matter of frame-rates.

  • Wayland Is Still In Ubuntu 14.10

    Still packages and found within the Ubuntu Utopic (14.10) archive are the various Wayland packages. Right now within Ubuntu Universe is Wayland 1.5, the Weston 1.5 compositor release, and various other Wayland-related packages like for VA-API acceleration, the basic GLMark2 benchmark for Wayland, etc. Granted, most of these packages were just supplied by the upstream Debian base and are of no special interest to Canonical. The Wayland packages for Utopic can be found by this package search.

  • X.Org Server 1.16 Lands Officially In Ubuntu 14.10

    After writing earlier this week about a new AMD Catalyst driver paving the way for X Server 1.16 in Ubuntu 14.10, the updated packages have officially landed within the Ubuntu 14.10 “Utopic Unicorn” archive.

  • Wayland/Weston 1.6 RC2 Released

    The final release candidate of Wayland 1.6 along with the Weston reference compositor is now available for testing with hopes of officially releasing this quarterly update next week.

• Benchmarks

  • AMD RadeonSI Gallium3D Performance For 4K Linux Gaming

    While we routinely carry out Ultra HD (4K) Linux graphics/gaming benchmarks at Phoronix, it’s generally been conducted with the proprietary NVIDIA and AMD graphics drivers since the open-source drivers traditionally have had a challenge on performance even at 1080p. However, thanks to the maturing open-source Radeon driver stack, it’s possible with higher-end AMD graphics processors with the latest open-source Linux driver code to begin running at the 4K UHD resolution of 3840 x 2160.

Applications

• Calibre Is a Complete Software to Edit, Convert, and View eBooks

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Perform Multiple Operations in Linux with the ‘xargs’ Command

  • Share Files/Folders/Messages Using Cross-Platform ‘Dukto’ Application, Available For Ubuntu/Linux Mint

  • Beginner’s Guide To Setting Up SSH On Linux And Testing Your Setup

  • profiling is not understanding

  • Get started using the GPIO pins in RasPi issue 2!

• Games

  • Retrogaming With Linux

    You might be surprised to learn that outside of work, bringing up three children and a dog and writing about Linux that I try to find time for other hobbies such as being a navigator at classic car rallies and playing old computer games.

  • Train Fever is a modern-day Transport Tycoon with procedural content and a sophisticated city simulation

  • New ‘Grave’ Screens Arrive Ahead of Backer Demo

    Indie developer Broken Windows will be releasing a new demo for their upcoming surreal survival horror game Grave later today. The demo supports Windows, Mac and Linux, and will be available to any of 1,100+ people who helped its Kickstarter campaign raise over $37k in April. Only the PC demo has been confirmed, but there’s an Xbox One version that’s also planned.

  • Shovel Knight digs a tunnel to Mac, Linux version coming

    Shovel Knight has pogo-hopped his way to Mac computers, developer Yacht Club Games announced via its Steam and Kickstarter pages earlier this week. Steam users on Mac need not take any extra steps to get their copies up and running, but those who prefer to go through GOG and the Humble Store should keep an eye out for when new builds become available.

  • Play Linux Is a Gaming OS That Wants to Stop People from Dual-Booting with Windows

    Play Linux, an operating system based on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (Trusty Tahr) that focuses on gaming, has been released.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • Akademy Wednesday and Thursday Wrapup

    Akademy continues with hacking and BoF meetings. This wrapup meeting video covers sessions from Wednesday and Thursday including accessibility, release team, user information reporting, KDE applications websites, KDevelop and share-like-connect.

  • Beyond Unicode: Closing a gap in the support for mixed character set text in KDE workspaces

  • KDevelop 4.7.0 Released

    Today, the KDevelop team is proud to announce the final release of KDevelop 4.7.0. It is, again, a huge step forwards compared to the last release in terms of stability, performance and polishedness. This release is special, as it marks the end of the KDE4 era for us. As such, KDevelop 4.7.0 comes with a long-term stability guarantee. We will continue to improve it over the coming years, but will refrain from adding new features. For that, we have the upcoming KDevelop 5, based on KDE frameworks 5 and Qt 5, which our team is currently busy working on. See below for more on that topic.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • I’m looking at you

    I write to you all today on a solemn matter, one which I fear will be forgotten and ignored if nobody starts some discussion on this.

    Earlier this week, some of you may have noticed that for a very short time there was a rather angry post by Philip Van Hoof, he sounded quite frustrated and disturbed and the title of his post basically said to please remove him from the Planet GNOME feeds.

    Unfortunately this blog post was even deleted from his own blog, so there is nothing to refer to here, also it was gone so fast that I have a hunch many Planet GNOME readers did not get a chance to see what was going on.

    What I want to highlight in this post is not this frustrated angry post by Philip, but rather the precursor which seems to have led us to this sad turn of events.

Distributions

• Free Linux Firewall OS IPFire 2.15 Core 82 Has Windows Active-Directory Single Sign-On Web Proxy

  Michael Tremer, a developer for the ipfire.org team, has announced that IPFire 2.13 Core 82, a new stable build of the popular Linux-based firewall distribution, is available, bringing quite a few security fixes.

• Building Linux Distributions That Aren’t Boring [VIDEO]

  Has Linux become boring? That’s a question that Fedora Project Leader Matthew Miller is provocatively asking as he navigates a path forward for Linux.

• New Releases

  • Black Lab Linux 6 Beta 1 Released

    Today we are pleased to release the Beta 1 release of Black Lab Linux 6. This release has been in planning over the last several months and while we have been slaving away over it we have introduced some unique features.

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat extends its management reach to OpenStack and AWS

    Red Hat Inc. is bringing the centralized management and reporting capabilities of its Satellite platform to the hybrid cloud in a continuation of its efforts to expand beyond the operating system. The move marks the company’s first major product update since the departure of Brian Stevens, who set it on the course to becoming more than just a Linux distributor as chief technology officer.

  • Red Hat Sets Focus on Open Hybrid Cloud at GITEX 2014

  • Fedora

    • Guess What? Fedora 21 Alpha Has Been Delayed Again

      The Red Hat developers have decided to postpone the launch of the first Alpha for Fedora 21, yet again, for another week.

    • Fedora 21 Alpha to slip by one week

      Today at Go/No-Go meeting it was decided to slip Fedora 21 Alpha release by one week due to unresolved blocker bugs [1] and no release candidate available. More details in meeting minutes [2].

    • This Week’s Fedora Delay, Sparky Review, and New SteamOS

    • FUDCon LATAM, Activity Days, and Restructuring Fedora Leadership

      Fedora is a big project, and it’s hard to follow it all. This series highlights interesting happenings in five different areas every week. It isn’t comprehensive news coverage — just quick summaries with links to each.

• Debian Family

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Running The Oibaf PPA On Ubuntu 14.10

        While Ubuntu 14.10 is finally getting X.Org Server 1.16, it doesn’t yet have Mesa 10.3 but that can be easily addressed via third-party packages.

        Mesa 10.3 will hopefully still make it into Ubuntu 14.10 ahead of its debut next month since Mesa 10.3 brings many new features to the commonly used open-source Intel, Radeon, and Nouveau graphics drivers (along with promising drivers like Freedreno and VC4). If you want to try running the newest open-source user-space graphics driver code on Ubuntu 14.10, it can be easily achieved today using the well known Oibaf PPA.

      • Windows 9 lifts features from Ubuntu and Windows Phone

        In the version of Windows 9 demoed in the leaked video, the Metro style Start screen has been replaced with a traditional Windows desktop, complete with the taskbar at the bottom with frequently used app shortcuts. One new element that wasn’t in prior leaked screenshots is the search icon. It appears on the taskbar, next to the Start button. On the right side of the search icon is, at long last, the Virtual Desktop icon. Virtual desktops, a feature that allows users to create, save, and easily switch between multiple desktop configurations, has been available in competing operating systems, like Ubuntu, for some time. With it, a user could have a desktop with several image and video editing applications open and running, and then switch to a different desktop used for browsing the web, or one with a running game, waiting to resume progress. It’s a useful way to manage system resources, as well as screen real estate.

      • Windows 9 to Integrate Multi-tasking Desktops Feature

      • Flavours and Variants

        • Jeff Hoogland Leaves Bodhi

          Jeff Hoogland, the lead developer of Bodhi Linux, said in a blog post on Friday that “for a variety of reasons,” he is stepping down from the leadership of his “labor of love.”

        • Fate of Bodhi Linux in Balance as Founder Quits

          Our top story tonight is the resignation of Jeff Hoogland from his popular Linux project. Michael Larabel is reporting that X.Org Server 1.17 will probably have built-in KMS modesetting driver. Matthew Miller speaks to ServerWatch.com about Linux development. The Linux Rain reviews The Journey Down: Chapter Two. Unixmen reported today that Munich is giving out Ubuntu CDs to its citizens to increase Open Source awareness. And finally today, Leif Lodahl says Open Office and LibreOffice should join (or rejoin) forces to combat proprietary office alternatives.

        • When And Why A GNU/Linux Distro Dies

          Today, Bodhi Linux is on Death’s doorstep. The leader is quitting, leaving behind a git repository. Bodhi is a nice idea, a light desktop distro that is well documented and using APT packaging. It certainly delivers what many folks need. Why is it dying?

        • Stepping Down from Bodhi Linux Lead

Devices/Embedded

• AXIOM Beta Open-Source Camera Moves Closer To Reality

  The AXIOM Beta camera is designed to support two different image sensor modules (including the Cmosis CMV12000 that can allow up to frame rates up to 300 FPS), uses a Xilinx Zynq 7010/7020-based dual-core ARM SoC, supports various lens mounts, boasts three HDMI outputs with 4K support, and features a variety of built-in devices including a 3D accelerometer, 3D magnetometer, and 3D gyroscope. The camera, of course, runs Linux and fully open-source software. The camera’s hardware is also designed to be modular and upgrade friendly over time.

• Cortex-A5 SBC offers mainline Linux support

  Emtrion’s new SBC uses Atmel’s Cortex-A5-based ATSAMA5D36 SoC and offers HDMI, 2x Ethernet, a battery charger, -40 to 85°C operation, and draws less than 300mA.

• BattBorg: power your Raspberry Pi with almost any kind of battery

  “The BattBorg is a power converter for your Raspberry Pi which allows you to power the Raspberry Pi off batteries,” explains PiBorg’s Tim Freeburn. “It will work with most batteries/battery packs that are between 7-36V so it’s great for 12V car batteries, 8xAA battery packs, and so on. We’re including an AA battery holder in two of the kits as rechargeable AA’s are inexpensive, and readily available at most shops, and Ebay.”

• BMW Show off how you remote control the BMW i3 electric car with your Tizen Gear 2 / S Smartwatch

  The car is not simply something that you sit in to get from A to B. Now it is technically an extension of you and integrates with your wrist. Previously we have shown you OnStar remote controlling a Chevrolet car, well now at IFA 2014 it was BMW’s turn to show off their BMW i3 electric car, and also show what Samsung Gear 2 and Gear S users could do with their Tizen based Smartwatches.

• Robotic Arm Control from the BeagleBone Black

  In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to control a robotic arm from the BeagleBone Black. Then we’ll give your project the ability to manipulate real world objects and perform repetitive tasks for you.

  A robotic arm uses many servo motors to turn arm sections, wrists and move a gripper (fingers). The more servos used, the more moving joints the arm will have leading to greater flexibility. More servos also brings greater cost and control complexity.

  The base model of the Lynxmotion AL5D robot arm uses five servos; one for rotation, a shoulder joint, an elbow, a wrist and a gripper for holding things (sort of like the thumb coming together with all fingers).

• Phones

  • Android

    • Not appy with your Chromebook? Well now it can run Android apps

      To help bridge the gap between its two mobile platforms, Google has released a beta version of a technology that allows Chrome OS users to run Android apps on their desktops.

      Google OS boss Sundar Pichai first previewed the tech in March, during one of the less buzzed-about segments of his I/O conference keynote.

    • Android apps start coming to Google Chrome OS

      During the I/O summit in June Sundar Pichai of Google said that soon Android apps would come to Chrome OS – bringing the two operating system closer and also bridge the app-gap.

    • Chrome to get Android applications

      Its being reported that the Chrome OS is set to get Android applications in the coming months.

      This news probably has many people excited, firstly the non-tech folk who have a Chrome OS device and have looked in envy to the Play Store, whilst being on “show” for all Chrome OS users, doesn’t offer (at present) any compatibility. It will also have the tech “experts” excited, who don’t actually own or use a Chromebook and see this as another string to the bow of Google’s offering over the evil empires of Microsoft and Apple.

    • Dev boards run KitKat on quad-core Snapdragon 805

      Intrinsyc debuted an SODIMM-style COM with up to 3GB RAM and 64GB flash, running Android 4.4 on a quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 805, and a Nano-ITX baseboard.

    • Google’s About-To-Launch Android One Smartphones Could Further Its Dominance In Emerging Markets

      Google will reveal the first of its series of low-cost phones under the much-awaited Android One, an initiative through which it provides a key set of references for hardware to help device manufacturers make low-cost phones. The phones will be unveiled by Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP of Android, Chrome & Apps in New Delhi on Sept 15.

    • Robot OS to support Linux and Android on Snapdragon

      The OSRF plans to add ARM support to the Robot Operating System (ROS), starting with the Snapdragon 600 running Linux in Q4, followed by Android in 2015.

    • The iPhone 6 Is Actually A Lot Like A 2012 Android Phone

      Calm down, Apple fans. Your beloved iPhone 6 may not be all its cracked up to be. In fact, it’s a lot like an Android phone … from 2012.

    • Apple Watch Follows in Android’s Footsteps

      Apple once led the way in mobile devices, leaving those scurvy pirates of the Android world to imitate, innovate, and fill in the niches that Apple neglected. Unlike the iPhone and iPad, however, the Apple Watch announced this week appears to be following more than leading.

• Sub-notebooks/Tablets

  • This may be the first Dell tablet an Android user would want

    Intel Developer Forum is going on with full swing and Dell used the stage to showcase the world’s thinnest, Intel powered Android tablet.

Cassandra gets a clean up and speed up in release 2.1

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) announced on September 11 at the Cassandra Summit, the release of Apache Cassandra v2.1, the open-source, Big Data distributed database.

7 Crazy-Named, Crazy Good Open Source Enterprise IT Tools

Enterprise IT is a very serious matter, but you might not know it judging by the software tools that are often integral to enterprise application development and IT operations.

The list of odd names in today’s data centers and enterprise IT shops also highlights the ongoing trend of polyglot programming. Today’s applications and services are based on a wider variety of application components — languages, frameworks, databases, Web and application servers — and run on a wider array of infrastructure that includes bare metal servers, traditional data centers, virtual environments, and public, private or hybrid clouds.

Open Source is driving disruption in technology: Interview with Nithya Ruff of SanDisk

Nithya A. Ruff is the director of SanDisk Open Source Strategy Office. The company recently joined The Linux Foundation and we met up with her at LinuxCon to understand SanDisk’s plans for Linux and Open Source.

Be an entrepreneur with OpenSource, a talk for the II Forum of women and IT

This Friday 12 and Saturday 13, September (you know), will be held the II Forum of Woman and Open Technologies ( II Foro de Mujeres y Tecnologías Libres), organized by the ActivistasXSL, which will be held at the INCES at Caracas. I have been part of this group for several years, when I had the amazing opportunity of meet wonderful women that, like me, are part of this technological world.

Events

• Are You Going Conferencing?

  This year, we at FOSS Force are expanding our coverage of Linux, FOSS and OSS conferences. This got us wondering, in a self serving sort of way, how many of you regularly attend conferences?

  At this point, it’s looking as if we’ll have boots on the ground at three conferences, all scheduled for late October. In fact, we’re already hard at work coordinating our efforts to cover these events.

Web Browsers

• Chrome

  • Chromecast can play movies saved on your Google Drive

    Chromebook has become a true alternative of Windows and Mac PCs for an average user. Google continues to add more and more features to their Chromecast device. Now Chrome OS users can stream movies to Chromecast which are stored on their Google Drive.

  • Top Offline Games for Google Chrome

    Google Chromebook users sometimes have a hard time convincing Windows, Mac and Linux users why their laptop is a worthy purchase. This is because many people think that Chrome OS can’t do much of the stuff the usual desktop OS can do. After all, it’s just a browser in a laptop, right?

• Mozilla

  • Mozilla Thunderbird 13.1.1 Lands in Ubuntu

    Canonical has shared some details about a number of Thunderbird vulnerabilities identified in its Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating systems, and the devs have pushed a new version into the repositories.

  • Mozilla Delivers Adapter for Cross-Browser Testing in Firefox

    If you work with web content very much, you’re probably familiar with doing debugging and content editing directly from within a browser. You may also be familiar with debugging and testing web apps across browsers.

    For some time now, Mozilla has been focused on delivering tools for doing development tasks directly within Firefox. For example, users have been experimenting with WebIDE, a development environment for HTML5 apps built into Firefox. Now, Mozilla is offering an adapter that lets it connect the Firefox developer tools with Chrome and iOS to help developers test their web apps directly within Firefox.

  • Firefox Add-on Enables Web Development Across Browsers and Devices

    Developing across multiple browsers and devices is the main issue developers have when building applications. Wouldn’t it be great to debug your app across desktop, Android and iOS with one tool? We believe the Web is powerful enough to offer a Mobile Web development solution that meets these needs!

    Enter an experimental Firefox add-on called the Firefox Tools Adaptor that connects the Firefox Developer Tools to other major browser engines. This add-on is taking the awesome tools we’ve built to debug Firefox OS and Firefox on Android to the other major mobile browsers starting with Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS. So far these tools include our Inspector, Debugger and Console.

SaaS/Big Data

• Piston Cloud Computing Boosts OpenStack Security

  A key feature Piston is pushing forward in version 3.5 of its OpenStack cloud distribution is support for Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology.

• HP buys private-cloud software player Eucalyptus in a nod to Amazon

  Tech giant HP is buying Eucalyptus, an early cloud-software startup. The acquisition points to HP’s acknowledgement that the public cloud spans beyond just HP’s data centers.

• In Buying Eucalyptus, HP Strengthens its Growing Cloud Muscle

  It was all the way back in 2008 when OStatic broke the story about a cloud computing project at U.C. Santa Barbara called Eucalyptus. At the time, Rich Wolski and a team of university folks were focusing on creating a cloud computing framework that would be open source but include the feature set and feel of AWS. That was long before the project gave rise to Eucalyptus Systems.

• HP buys Eucalyptus as cloud consolidation commences for real

  Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos, once known for his anti-OpenStack rhetoric, now leads the HP OpenStack private-hybrid-public cloud effort

• OpenStack automation with cloud deployment tools

  In the cloud world, the mantra is “automate everything.” It’s no surprise that as OpenStack expands its scope, automation projects are emerging within it. But, the variety and the sheer number of these projects is still surprising: there are over twenty!

• Mirantis and Piston Deliver New OpenStack Upgrades

  Mirantis, which has been expanding its set of training, support and development initiatives surrounding the OpenStack cloud computing platform, today announced the launch of Mirantis OpenStack Express 2.0. The offering now enables enterprises to deploy the most current OpenStack edition, OpenStack Icehouse as an enterprise-grade cloud service. The new release simplifies the setup process by providing a minimal Web form.

• [Event Report] Openstack Pune Meetup

  Swapnil started with what is devstack and how it help to start with openstack what are the requirements and OS which a member can use to setup devstack environment. He also talk about how we can change configuration (local.conf, stackrc, openrc ..etc.) during run time or after install and where all those files are available. Then he talked about devstack tools like upload_image, install_pip, info and what are available hooks. He talked about available plugins for devstack and moved to use of devstack after installation. He also talked about how we use tox for openstack unit testing and then gave a basic introduction of tempest/gerrit workflow.

• HP Acquires Open Source Cloud Pioneer Eucalyptus

• HP embraces open source in the cloud with Eucalyptus acquisition

• HP to acquire open source software company Eucalyptus

• What HP’s Buyout of Eucalyptus Could Mean

• H-P buys open source cloud technology company Eucalyptus

• Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to Acquire Enterprise Cloud Open Source Software Provider, Eucalyptus

• Mirantis Releases OpenStack Express 2.0 with Icehouse Support

Databases

• There is no reason at all to use MySQL: Michael Widenius

  MySQL was once the most popular open source database (it still is), but it’s popularity and deployment is declining under the ownership of Oracle. The founder of MySQL Michael Widenius “Monty” was not happy when Oracle announced to acquire MySQL through Sun Microsystem. He created MariaDB, an open source, drop-in replacement of MySQL, which is gaining popularity lately.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• ‘Open and Libre Office projects should reunite’

  The software developers working on Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice – two closely related suites of open source office productivity tools – should overcome their schism and unite to compete with the ubiquitous proprietary alternative, urges Daniel Brunner, head of the IT department of Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court. Merging the two projects will convince more public administrations to use the open source office suite, he believes.

• Apache Open Office and LibreOffice should join forces

  Before I continue I would like to emphasize that I’m part of the game and therefore you should consider this as one of many voices in the choir and not some kind of “I know the truth” statement. I’m member of The Document Foundation and not a neutral opinion. I would also emphasize that I’m speaking on behalf of my self and not as member of any organization.

• LibreOffice cash-for-code strategy tests open source ethic

  The Document Foundation’s tender for the development of an Android implementation of LibreOffice begs serious questions, namely: Can an influx of cash into open source code creation succeed, and how do pay-for-code plays from nonprofit foundations affect the ethics and work ethic of today’s open source community?

CMS

• Step-by-step: create an online quiz on Moodle

  Teaching is called the noblest profession of all. When you teach somebody you give that person knowledge that they are going to use over a lifetime. As with any other profession, teaching also is slowly embracing technology in terms of remote education, MOOCs, online tutorials, and more. Typical of open source methods, it is helping a field innovate, helping teachers educate students faster and better.

Funding

• Engineering Group Becomes An Open Source Initiative Corporate Sponsor

  Engineering Group confirms its support for global open source communities and contributes to OSI’s growth

BSD

• CD-Sized Image Of BSD-Based TrueOS Released For Servers

  In announcing their quarterly package updates that bring a wide assortment of improvements, the PC-BSD crew shared they managed to make a CD-sized image of their TrueOS server operating system.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• ThinkPenguin wireless router now FSF-certified to respect your freedom

  Friday, September 12, 2014 — The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the ThinkPenguin Wireless N-Broadband Router (TPE-NWIFIROUTER). The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF’s standards in regard to users’ freedom, control over the product, and privacy. This is the first router to receive RYF certification from the FSF.

Openness/Sharing

• Tiny open source robot, Drupal’s creator on our changing economy, and more

• Open Access/Content

  • The True Story of How the Patent Bar Captured a Court and Shrank the Intellectual Commons

    Libertarians intuitively understand the case for patents: just as other property rights internalize the social benefits of improvements to land, automobile maintenance, or business investment, patents incentivize the creation of new inventions, which might otherwise be undersupplied.

Programming

• Twitter and Other Tech Companies to Adopt Bug Bounty Programs

  Twitter recently announced that it will give security researchers who find security flaws in its tools cold, hard cash, not just a pat on the back. The company is partnered with the existing bug bounty program HackerOne, which offers a minimum of $140 for each bug and has no maximum payout for bugs disclosed responsibly. Meanwhile, Gizmodo has called for Apple to launch a bug bounty program.

Drone captures Manchester Dogs’ Home fire aftermath

Aerial footage captured by a drone shows the burnt out remains of the Manchester Dogs’ Home

Apple’s free U2 “gift” angers many customers

HP’s Russia unit pleads guilty to bribery, pays $58.77 million fine

HP ultimately pays a $108 million tab to put violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act behind it in Russia, Poland and Mexico.

Security

• iPwned: How easy is it to mine Apple services, devices for data?

  Apple executives never mentioned the words “iCloud security” during the unveiling of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6+, and Apple Watch yesterday, choosing to focus on the sexier features of the upcoming iOS 8 and its connections to Apple’s iCloud service. But digital safety is certainly on everyone’s mind after the massive iCloud breach that resulted in many celebrity nude photos leaking across the Internet. While the company has promised fixes to both its mobile operating system and cloud storage service in the coming weeks, the perception of Apple’s current security feels iffy at best.

• Gmail Hacked? Not Quite, Says Google (but Change Your Password)

  Reports early Wednesday of millions of Gmail addresses and passwords being leaked had users of the popular email Web app understandably alarmed — but Google says the danger has been greatly exaggerated. “We found that less than 2% of the username and password combinations might have worked,” the company wrote in a blog post, “and our automated anti-hijacking systems would have blocked many of those login attempts.”

• Friday’s security updates

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• Paul Woodward – War in Context

  Woodward maintains the popular website/blog, War in Context, which “from its inception, has been an effort to apply critical intelligence in an arena where political judgment has repeatedly been twisted by blind emotions. It presupposes that a world out of balance will inevitably be a world in conflict.”

• Will The US Launch Airstrikes In Syria? – OpEd

• Obama to extend airstrikes to Syria, send more advisers

  President Obama on Wednesday outlined a broad battle plan to defeat the Islamic State, including US airstrikes in war-torn Syria and an expanded American military advisory role in Iraq. But he vowed no US ground troops would be engaged in combat.

• U.S. has supporting, rather than leading, role in battling ISIS [Commentary]

• American Middle East intervention is ill-advised

  Nick IbarraThe decapitation of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff at the hands of the group of militant jihadists calling themselves the ISIS (or ISIL, or just the Islamic State … it’s getting hard to keep up) struck a nerve with me as a journalist, as an American, and as a human being — and the desire to seek revenge is as easy to understand as it is entirely misguided.

• Air strikes, drones and advisers: the new template for America’s counter-terror fight

  US offensive against Isis militants in Iraq is an extension of the strategy the White House deployed in Somalia and Yemen

• Number of U.S. Air Strikes in Iraq Already Exceeds Those in Yemen, Somalia

  President Barack Obama laid out his strategy to “degrade” and “destroy” the extremist group ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, in an address to the nation on Wednesday.

  The campaign against ISIS would “not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” but would instead rely on “using our airpower and our support for partner forces on the ground,” Obama said.

• Obama’s about turn breathes life back into the Bush legacy

  The speech made by Barack Obama on Wednesday evening was one he hoped he would never have to make. Until now he had clung to the idea that his legacy in foreign affairs was simple: he had withdrawn troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and killed Osama bin Laden, thus disposing of George W Bush’s unfinished business.

• Kissinger: Drones have killed more civilians than the bombing of Cambodia in the Vietnam War

  Kissinger deflected criticism of the campaign, saying President Barack Obama has “hit more targets on a broader scale than the Nixon administration ever did.”

  “I think the principle is essentially the same,” Kissinger said. “You attack locations where you believe people operate who are killing you. You do it in the most limited way possible. And I bet if one did an honest account, there were fewer civilian casualties in Cambodia than there have been from American drone attacks.”

  A reader suggested we run Kissinger’s comparative death tally through the Truth-o-Meter. We examined whether the Cambodian bombings killed fewer civilians than drones. The civilian death toll from both lacks precision, but by any estimates we could find, Kissinger is wrong. The only question is, by how much.

• Somalia: Retaliation car bomb kills four U.S. officials

  A reported car bomb rammed into a convoy of troops of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) on Sept. 8, killing 12 people, including a U.S. military commander and three others from the United States. Reportedly, 27 people were injured.

• US drone kills 5 Qaeda militants in S. Yemen

• Number of U.S. Air Strikes in Iraq Already Exceeds Those in Yemen, Somalia

  President Barack Obama laid out his strategy to “degrade” and “destroy” the extremist group ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, in an address to the nation on Wednesday.

  The campaign against ISIS would “not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” but would instead rely on “using our airpower and our support for partner forces on the ground,” Obama said.

  In the speech, the president pointed to the U.S. campaigns in Yemen and Somalia as successful implementations of this approach.

• Yemen and Somalia are examples of U.S. mission creep, not success

  In his speech Wednesday night, President Obama laid out in somewhat unclear terms the planned U.S. campaign to combat the Islamic State, a murderous terrorist organization that has gained strength in the midst of political chaos in Iraq and Syria. U.S. action in Iraq will involve sustained targeted air strikes combined with ground offensives by the Iraqi army and Kurdish militias already fighting the Islamic State. In Syria, the challenge is thornier, with the United States leaning on a constellation of Sunni Arab allies to help reverse the Islamic State’s gains.

• Bombing at a Press Conference Beats Mindlessly Flexing Military Might

  The Russia-Ukraine conflict “requires our participation,” declared John McCain.

• Thirteen Years Later — Here We Go Again!

  Here we go again! One can only wonder when we’ll ever learn. Wars fought in vengeance can only lead to more war. The impulse to strike back without any comprehension of why we were struck only leads to more strikes. Yes, terrorism is outrageous. But do we ever take the time to analyze the source of that terror?

• Beyond stolen celeb photos: sexism in the surveillance state

• Airstrikes Are Like ‘Casual Sex,’ Says Former NSA Head Michael Hayden

• Man Who Grew Weary of Sifting Through Your Sexts Compares Air Strikes to Casual Sex

• Retired Gen. Hayden Compares U.S. ISIS Strategy To ‘Casual Sex’

• Former NSA director explains to Jake Tapper how airstrikes are like ‘casual sex’

• Fmr. NSA director explains how airstrikes are like casual sex; Twitter perks up

• Ex-NSA chief: Airstrikes like ‘casual sex’

• Bombing People Isn’t Like Casual Sex

  Lobbing missiles into foreign countries is a lot like a one night stand, says retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden.

  “The reliance on air power has all of the attraction of casual sex: It seems to offer gratification but with very little commitment,” Hayden told US News & World Report Thursday.

  Hayden – who served as director of the CIA and NSA across three presidents – was commenting on the Obama administration’s new plan to begin lethally targeting members of the Islamic State, the militant group currently holding ground in Iraq and Syria. While he welcomed the strikes, Hayden’s point was that more would need to be done to eliminate the fundamentalist group.

• Another War Announced: 94,000 US Air Strikes Since 9/11

  On Wednesday night President Barack Obama gave a nationally televised address in which he vowed that the United States would “degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.”

• Feds Wielded Baseball Bat to Win Yahoo’s NSA Cooperation

• We don’t need another dumb war

  Back when he was just a U.S. senator, Barack Obama used to say that he didn’t oppose all wars, just “dumb wars.” I assumed that by “dumb wars,” he meant wars to address phantom or exaggerated threats (see: Iraq, 2003), or wars launched to achieve domestic political objectives (see also: Iraq, 2003), or wars begun without sufficient attention to alternatives, capabilities or strategic consequences (see yet again: Iraq, 2003).

• Can Killer Drones Stop School Shootings?

  Americans may be sweating UAVs’ privacy implications, but in Wyoming, lawmakers are trying to make sure police can have weapons in the sky.

• Wyoming legislative committee moves bill to require police to get warrants for use of drones

• Four Myths About Obama’s War on ISIS

  The idea that ISIS poses an immediate threat to the United States–as opposed to its non-Sunni Muslim neighbors–has been a consistent theme in the media, encouraging the public to support war. Rep. Michael McCaul (R.-Texas) declared on ABC’s This Week (8/24/14) that the Islamic State is “intent on hitting the West and there are external operations, I believe, underway.” When CBS’s Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer (9/7/14) asked Republican Sen. Marco Rubio if he thought they posed a “threat to the homeland now,” Rubio replied: “I do. I believe they do.” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Meet the Press, 8/31/14) said the threat to the country was “potentially very serious.”

• “The Mentality of Brutality”: Islamic State Beheadings and “Civilized Barbarity”

  In the eighteenth century, the French had a revolution during which they beheaded numerous members of the aristocracy and even invented a machine to make beheading more humane. The French are America’s allies too. Are they horrid barbarians? When does a nation whose people kill others indiscriminately stop being barbaric?

• U.S. Somalia strategy: Can a failed model destroy ISIS?

  U.S. operations in Somalia also include drone surveillance and drone strikes, although the U.S. official was at pains to stress that these always follow a clear chain of command and are by no means indiscriminate.

• US eyes Somalia strategy as model for IS destruction

• James Foley on the Dehumanization of War: Acclaimed Filmmaker Haskell Wexler Shares 2012 Interview

• Why I Wrote The Book About Predator

• Review: Good Kill (TIFF 2014)

• Toronto Film Festival: Good Kill – film review

• Good Kill: righteous take on US drone warfare – Toronto film festival review

  The disconnect of American drone ops is perfectly captured, but the supporting cast’s characterisations are one-dimensional

• A drone pilot faces a crisis in ‘Good Kill’

  Don’t be fooled. Unmanned aerial vehicles have changed the way wars are fought, turning some forms of combat into a computer game with flesh-and-blood victims.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• German Minister calls for boycott of Shell

  “If you went to the Niger Delta and saw the standard of oil extraction, none of you would use the petrol stations of that oil firm,” he said. He said the company prioritized profit over concern for the environment. “That is unacceptable,” Müller added.

Finance

• Neo-Cons of the World Unite: You Have Nothing to Lose Except Your Slaves, Mansions and Huge Pots of Money

  David Folkerts-Landau, Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank, who has claimed that Scotland would have a “Great Depression” if independent, has a second home he bought for US $11.6 million dollars. His first home is in London – where he would have been well-placed to notice that Deutsche Bank was at the very heart of the LIBOR interest rate fixing scandal. Naturally neither Folkerts-Landau (he and his wife are friends of the Camerons) nor any other senior banker was jailed for that long term criminal illegality.

• Right-Wing Media Think Unemployed Americans Spend Too Little Time Working

  Conservative media are claiming that unemployed Americans are “lazy” because they supposedly spend too much time “shopping” and not enough time working or looking for work. But the data they cite includes the activities of stay-at-home parents, students, people with disabilities, and retirees who are “not employed.”

• Cutting Pensions and ‘Responsible’ Politics

  The race saw state treasurer Gina Raimondo prevail, and this was good news for those who believe that the right thing to do about underfunded state pension is to cut benefits. We’re told again and again that states simply cannot pay what they’ve promised to public sector workers–who are often targeted for being overpaid anyway (Extra!, 1/11).

• Putting the bankster foxes in charge of the BBC henhouse

  The Daily Mail revealed, one day after her appointment, that new BBC chief, Rona Fairhead, is being sued for supervising the laundering of billions of dollars for the Mexican drug cartels.

  From the Establishment dominated corporation there was not a hint of repentance, instead a secret gagging edict was issued to BBC staff not to mention or discuss the fact anywhere, specially on social media.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Scott Walker’s Favorite Judge Rescues Voter ID

  At a Federalist Society event in Washington D.C. last November, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker called 7th Circuit Judge Diane Sykes “one of our favorite jurists,” and joked about appointing her to the U.S. Supreme Court if elected president.

Censorship

• Google Shuts Down Stewart Baker’s Faux Attempt To Delist Techdirt’s Posts About Him

  If you’ll recall, one of the NSA’s (and TSA, DHS, etc.) foremost apologists, Stewart Baker, decided to highlight the ridiculousness of Europe’s “right to be forgotten” ruling by sending in a few requests of his own. One of the links targeted by Baker’s “for demonstration purposes only” requests was the tag “Stewart Baker” here at Techdirt.

Privacy

• Committee moves bill to restrict police drone use

• Hey parents, Uncle Sam wants your kids’ personal data — and will get it, unless you opt-out

• Kolab creates a privacy refugee camp in Switzerland

  The disclosure by NSA contractor Edward Snowden has exposed the ‘out-of-control’ surveillance system of the US and the UK. The more stories we are getting from Guardian and NYTimes, the more people are losing trust in the proprietary solutions offered by the companies which operate from the US and seemingly work closely with the spy agencies.

  This is a category of people who don’t yet understand the dangers of breach of privacy, but the more we are moving our lives into the digital world, the more important it is becoming to take control of our communication and privacy from the prying hands of those for whom we are the product.

  Then there are those need this privacy, due to the profession they are in or for purely sensible reasons that our privacy should be respected.

• Village expands its self-built broadband network

  Shunned by government and big telecom companies, a group of villagers in rural northwest Germany is set to expand the super-fast internet network they built to a second village. The Local’s Tomas Urbina went to meet the villagers as they prepare to put shovels in the ground.

• Bush Administration Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250,000 a Day if it didn’t Cooperate with Spy Program

  Yahoo’s participation last decade in the George W. Bush administration’s domestic spying program came only after the Internet giant was threatened with heavy penalties and fought unsuccessfully in court to resist the government’s orders to turn over private data about its users.

• Yahoo’s NSA challenge documents shed light on secret process

• Yahoo was threatened with $250,000 per day fine for opposing NSA data demands

  Over the last year trust in US companies has really slumped due to their complicity in the NSA surveillance programs. However court papers that were released show that Yahoo battled against the US government seven years ago over the expansion of surveillance laws. They also reveal that Yahoo was threatened by the government to hand over user data to the NSA for it’s PRISM program or receive a fine of $250,000 a day.

• Yahoo $250,000 daily fine over NSA data refusal was set to double ‘every week’

• NSA: Yahoo Threatened with Huge Fines for Refusal to Provide Data to US Government

• UPDATE 1-Wiretaps against Palestinians are wrong, Israeli ex-spies tell Netanyahu

  Dozens of reserve soldiers from Israel’s top electronic surveillance unit say they will no longer spy on Palestinians living under occupation, in an unprecedented rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security policies.

• Dozens of veterans of an elite Israeli military…

  Dozens of veterans of an elite Israeli military signals intelligence unit have said they will no longer serve in operations against Palestinians.

  Forty-three past and present reservists signed a letter about Unit 8200, which carries out electronic surveillance.

• 43 reservists refuse to serve, protest ‘abuse’

  Dozens of reserve officers in Unit 8200 — the unit of Israel’s Military Intelligence agency (Aman) that specializes in intercepting communications — have declared in a letter published Friday they refuse to continue and serve because of the way the army uses some of the information they obtain during their routine duties.

• Lisa Owen Interviews Glenn Greenwald

• Glenn Greenwald accuses New Zealand of spying on citizens

  US journalist Glenn Greenwald has claimed the New Zealand government is indiscriminately spying on its citizens. NZ Prime Minister John Key has rejected the accusation.

• Key dismisses ‘Dotcom’s henchman’ over spy claim

• ‘Dotcom’s little henchman’

  “There is no mass surveillance of New Zealanders by the GCSB and there never has been,” Mr Key told media this afternoon.

• Key dismisses GCSB spying claims from Greenwald

• When the US can’t spy it threatens

  In 2008, the U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user communications. At the time the company believed the threat was unconstitutional, but the US continued to insist that American tech companies participate in the National Security Agency’s PRISM program.

• Glenn Greenwald rattles New Zealand with ‘spying’ claims

  US journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, said New Zealand officials are spying on their citizens, a charge that has provoked a harsh response from NZ Prime Minister John Key.

• Key hits back at Greenwald’s claims of mass surveillance

  Mr Key has always said that he would resign if that was proven, but tonight he’s launched a counterattack.

  Mr Greenwald claims he will produce evidence that could take down the Prime Minister, but just a short while ago Mr Key hit back and upped the ante big time, promising to get ahead of Mr Greenwald and declassify top-secret documents that will prove him wrong.

• Greenwald questions mass surveillance in NZ

• NSA denies whistleblower Snowden ‘raised concerns’ in emails

  In May, however, the NSA did release a single email Snowden sent to NSA supervisors in April 2013 in which he questioned legal protocols in training materials.

• US court updates phone surveillance program

  A US court overseeing spy agencies has renewed the government’s authority to carry out a controversial phone surveillance program for another three months.

  Reauthorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect “metadata” in bulk about phone calls without warrants which includes the numbers called and call duration.

• US court renews phone surveillance programme

  As per the federal bodies, the US court that oversees the spy agencies renewed the authority of the government to have a controversial phone surveillance program for another three months. It was attributed to the delay in the passage of the Senate’s surveillance reform bill.

• Smartphones, dissected

  From the brick-like Motorola to today’s concerns about spying, Elizabeth Woyke’s fascinating book traces the history of smartphones

• Despite Obama’s Pledge to Curb It, NSA Mass Surveillance Wins Rubber Stamp

  Mass surveillance just earned another 90-day blank check, nine months after President Obama promised to rein in the NSA’s spying powers.

• Lawyer for Edward Snowden: Positive Developments in Switzerland But Issues Still Remain

  The attorney general of Switzerland did a review of whether National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden would have to be extradited to the United States if he came to the country to testify as part of an inquiry into NSA surveillance. He concluded that Snowden would be safe from extradition, however, “upper-level government commitments” might still affect his safety.

• Snowden nails US lie on its economic spying

  The US government is an expert at taking the moral high ground when it comes to justice. But instead of being apologetic after the devastating revelations made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in June last year, its top US officials, President Barack Obama included, have been claiming that the NSA has been doing exactly what every other nation does.

• Analysis Of Volunteer’s Metadata Stream Reveals His Life In Detail, Allows Passwords To Be Guessed

  Three years ago, Techdirt wrote about how German politician Malte Spitz obtained six months’ worth of basic geolocation data for his mobile phone. He then gave this to the German newspaper Die Zeit, which produced a great visualization of his travels during this time. That showed clearly how much was revealed from such basic data. Since then, of course, metadata has assumed an even greater importance, as it has emerged that the NSA routinely gathers huge quantities of it about innocent citizens. More chillingly, we also know that people are killed purely because of their metadata. But what exactly does metadata show about us? We now have a better idea thanks to the generosity of Ton Siedsma from Holland.

• Privacy International Lodges Legal Challenge To Official Secrecy Surrounding GCHQ Spying

  Although the scale of the surveillance being carried out by the NSA and GCHQ is daunting, digital rights groups are starting to fight back using the various legal options available to them. That’s particularly the case for the UK, where activists are trying to penetrate the obsessive secrecy that surrounds GCHQ’s spying activities. Back in December, we wrote about three groups bringing an action against GCHQ in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and how Amnesty International is using the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) to challenge the spying.

• Dropbox Calls For Support Of The Senate’s NSA Reform Bill

• ​The creepy side of data mining: Selling “sick” lists

  When it comes to health care and data mining, the two are now merging in a way that might cause some consumers to feel sick.

  A segment of the data mining industry is tapping everything from social media to medical websites to create marketing lists of individuals whom are believed to suffer from diseases like diabetes or cancer, according to a Bloomberg report. Often, the consumers have no idea they are on the list, or that their names and contact information are being bought by marketers.

• Yahoo Fought the NSA’s PRISM Program in Court

• Privacy Groups Worry Americans are Losing Their Appetite for NSA Surveillance Reform

  This spring, Congress appeared primed for an Edward Snowden-fueled pullback of the nation’s spy programs. Then the world fell apart.

• On 9/11 Anniversary, Fox News’s Andrew Napolitano Compares NSA to East German Stasi

  Appearing on the September 11 edition of Fox Business Network’s Cavuto program, Judge Andrew Napolitano compared the federal government’s counterterrorism efforts post-9/11 to the East German police state…

• Independent Scotland would struggle to monitor intelligence, report says

  An independent Scotland would need more politicians and a way of plugging a crucial gap in expertise to ensure the activities of its new intelligence service and those of its UK neighbour were properly scrutinised, according to a report.

  It argues that the Scottish government’s proposals for oversight “may not be adequate to the task, or to the hopes of newly independent Scots”.

• The NSA is Monitoring These 5 Games

  If you thought only your gaming buddies cared about your online activities, think again. The NSA and its British counterpart the GHCQ are both monitoring online video games, which they insist make for excellent tools of communication, training, and even money laundering, but gamers are not so sure. So far most of their effort in the gaming worlds are confined to popular games like these.

• Shanghai civil service rolls out non-Apple smartphone programme

• Senior GOP Lawmaker: Snowden Belongs in Jail, Not in Switzerland

  The powerful chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has condemned Edward Snowden’s plans to seek political asylum in Switzerland, whose attorney general says the former NSA contractor could be immune from U.S. extradition requests if he manages to make it to the central European country without being arrested.

Civil Rights

• Ferguson PD Lies About Why It Released Videotape Of Store Robbery, Lies Some More When Confronted With The Facts

  This tape’s release was purely self-motivated. Even the Dept. of Justice — which had stepped in shortly after everything went to hell in Ferguson — advised against it. The only conceivable reason for the release was a post-facto “justification” of Officer Darren Wilson’s decision to shoot an unarmed man several times.

  But the Ferguson PD tried to cover up this motivation. Matthew Key at TheBlot has dug into the events surrounding the release of the surveillance tape and found nothing but Ferguson PD lies.

• Confessions of an Ex-Obama Superfan

  When he won in 2008, I wept again. It was about him, but it was about the rest of us—together we’d found someone who could undo what had gone so wrong. For many like me, President Obama’s election was a milestone that marked a new America; an America that might be post-racial (almost), post-Guantanamo, post-war, post-recession, post-Sarah Palin. During the campaign, he was famously called clean, and it’s as though many of us expected him to take office with a broom in hand and sweep away all memory of the past decade. He could rebuild America.

• Police Reform Must Come from the Bottom Up to be Effective

  Another day, another unconstitutional ‘solution’ from the Congress. This time it comes from Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and it involves the federal control of police.

• Tech companies still under cloud after NSA revelations

  No company knows better than Yahoo the terrible cost of turning over sensitive information to the government.

• Big Brother and Tyranny

• NSA brings boom to German spy tourism

• Cold War spy post is Berlin’s newest tourist spot

  A Cold War listening post in the former West Berlin, used by Allied forces and now an abandoned ruin, has become a tourist attraction since the NSA spy scandal.

• No, Digital Natives Are Not Clueless About Protecting Their Privacy Online

  It is assumed that young people are increasingly comfortable sharing their private lives online. Older people assume this is because they don’t fully understand the implications of the public nature of the Internet. But new research proves that assumption to be wrong. Digital natives are more likely than any other age group to tweak their privacy settings.

• Editorial: Privacy Dichotomy

  On Thursday, a US court ordered that documents showing that the National Security Agency (NSA) was forcing Yahoo to submit user data, as per new internet surveillance rules, be made public. Yahoo had contested the NSA directive as “unconstitutional” in court after the government surveillance body threatened it with a $250,000-a-day fine for non-compliance. The matter has revived the online privacy debate, both in the US and elsewhere in the world, with, of course, pressure mounting on NSA to desist, given it was at the centre of the Snowden-leaks scandal of 2013.

• Russian Cisco Sales Slump by Quarter

  During the previous fiscal year, ending on the 26th of July, the turnover of the equipment and software giant Cisco has dropped by 24 percent, according to the annual report presented to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. This is the company’s lowest figure in any country of the EMEA.

• Student tackled by officers over cell phone tells her side of the story

  Perez, with her mom and her brother by her side, described the chain of events that led to the officers wrestling her to the floor.

  She says her reading teacher caught her using her cell phone in class, which is against school rules, and told her to go to the hallway. That’s where Perez says she was confronted by an assistant principal who demanded she relinquish the phone. Students caught using phones in class are required to turn them over to school administrators and then retrieve them at the end of the school day, for a fee.

• DHS Wants To Expand ‘See Something, Say Something’ To Retailers Selling You Pressure Cookers

  “See something, say something” continues to be the Dept. of Homeland Security’s favorite words. Concerned that its sprawling reach and 100-mile, border-encompassing “Constitution-Free Zone” aren’t protective enough, it has routinely called on the American people to report anything suspicious activities their fellow Americans might be participating in… like taking pictures of public structures… or using a hotel’s side exits.

Internet/Net Neutrality

• Everything You’ve Wanted To Know About Net Neutrality But Were Afraid To Ask

  Okay, ever since our big Net Neutrality Crowdfunding, we’ve had some new readers who aren’t as familiar with the details and issues — yet we’ve been mostly writing as if everyone is informed of the basics. So, we figured it only made sense to take a step back and do a bit of an explainer about net neutrality.

• Most Americans Don’t Want Internet ‘Fast Lanes,’ Poll Finds

  A particularly timely finding, as the public comment period for Federal Communications Commission’s proposed rule on net neutrality draws to a close

• Internet Slowdown Shifts Into High Gear

  Internet users spoke loudly, firmly, and in no uncertain terms on Wednesday in sending a message of overwhelming support for net neutrality protections during the Internet Slowdown campaign.

  Tech companies, websites, public interest organizations and more than a million users joined forces to bring the message of net neutrality forward by posting icons and links on their sites symbolically representing a slow-loading Internet, and by directing those clicking on the links to messages to Congress, the White House and the Federal Communications Commission.

• BitTorrent to ISPs: Pay us and our users to stay in the “slow lane”

  BitTorrent, Inc. CEO Eric Klinker doesn’t want Internet service providers to charge Web services for prioritized access to consumers—”fast lanes” as described in the debate over proposed network neutrality regulations.

  Instead, Klinker is (satirically) suggesting the opposite: that ISPs should pay companies and users to remain in a “slow lane.”

Intellectual Monopolies

• Copyrights

  • IT expert casts doubts on hacking allegations

    American computer security expert and hacker Jacob Appelbaum said that the evidence in Denmark’s largest ever hacking case is “tainted” and the prosecution “doesn’t understand anything related to technology at all”.

  • Dane makes first remarks in hacker case

    The Danish man accused alongside Pirate Bay co-found Gottfrid Svartholm Warg made his first public comments since being arrested in June 2013.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Linux toilet tweets each time you flush

Linux is everywhere these days, including in toilets. Yes, an unemployed but very creative man named Thomas Rucker has created a Linux-based toilet that sends tweets each time it is flushed. The tweets track water use and may be a harbinger of things to come as more everyday objects become connected to the Internet, reports Computerworld.

Laid off from job, man builds tweeting toilet

Take Thomas Ruecker’s project. With parts from an electric motor, a few household items, an open-source hardware board running Linux, and some coding, he built a connected toilet that Tweets with each flush.

Stephen Hawking Talks About the Linux-Based Intel Connected Wheelchair Project

When people say Intel, they usually think about processors, but the company also makes a host of other products, including very cool or useful concepts that might have some very important applications in everyday life.

Desktop

• City of Turin decides to ditch Windows XP for Ubuntu and €6m saving

  €6m: the amount the municipality of Turin hopes to save over five years by switching from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux in all of its offices.

Server

• Docker and the battle for open source cloud surpremacy

  A recent online survey of cloud professionals conducted by the Linux Foundation found OpenStack to be the most popular open-source cloud computing project by a wide margin. Its nearest rival, CloudStack, came at a distant fourth, with less than half the number of votes garnered by OpenStack. The greatest surprise, however, was the emergence of second-placed Docker. A relative newcomer on the scene, it has taken the cloud computing world by storm in a little over 12 months since it was officially announced. So what exactly is Docker, and will it become a significant threat to OpenStack’s dominance?

Kernel Space

• Intel 80GB 530 Series M.2 SSD On Linux

  Our latest solid-state storage Linux benchmarking at Phoronix is looking at Intel’s 530 Series SSD within the M.2 form factor.

• What’s New in Kernel Development

  It turns out Windows does certain things better than Linux—for example, in the area of rebooting. Apparently, there are several techniques that can be done in software to cause a system to reboot. But in some cases, the Linux system will go down successfully, and then not come up again. This is a problem, for example, in server farms with minimal human staff. If 20 systems are acting up and you want to reboot them all, it’s easier to give a single command from a remote terminal, than to send a human out into the noise and the cold to press each reset button by hand.

• The State of ZFS on Linux

  The ZFS on Linux kernel driver performs the same block device operations as its counterparts on other platforms. As a consequence, its ability to ensure data integrity is equivalent to its counterparts on other platforms and this ability far exceeds that of any other Linux filesystem for direct attached storage.

• Graphics Stack

  • The Developers Leading Wayland This Year

    With Wayland said to be shipping in millions of smart TVs, set-top boxes, IVI systems, and more, who are the top contributors to this modern display server technology? Here’s a look at the top contributions in recent months to Wayland and its Weston reference compositor.

  • Catalyst For X.Org Server 1.16 Readied, Updates In Ubuntu 14.10

    Two months after the release of X.Org Server 1.16, AMD finally has readied a Catalyst Linux driver update that is compatible with the latest xorg-server ABI. This driver is being sent into the Ubuntu 14.10 archive and thus allowing the entire Linux graphics stack in Ubuntu 14.10 to finally be updated.

• Benchmarks

  • GCC 4.9 vs. LLVM Clang 3.5 On Intel’s Haswell-E Platform Under Linux

    With my Intel Core i7 5960X Haswell-E Linux review out there, one of the quick to be requested extra tests is benchmarking the i7-5960X 16-thread processor with LLVM/Clang against GCC. Here’s some initial data comparing the compilers for this $1000+ processor.

Applications

• Listaller: Back to the future!

  The current release of Listaller handles all of this with a plugin for PackageKit, the cross-distro package-management abstraction layer. It hooks into PackageKit and reads information passing through to the native distributor backend, and if it encounters Listaller software, it handles it appropriately. It can also inject update information. This results in all Listaller software being shown in any PackageKit frontends, and people can work with it just like if the packages were native packages. Listaller package installations are controlled by a machine policy, so the administrator can decide that e.g. only packages from a trusted source (= GPG signature in trusted database) can be installed. Dependencies can be pulled from the distributor’s repositories, or optionally from external sources, like the PyPI.

• tty-clock: Taken for granted, for far too long

• tmenu: Just one step away

• dab: Those dots and boxes from your childhood

• nbwmon: An ncurses bandwidth monitor, of course

• banner: figlet on a diet

• bmon: Hey Ridley. …

• archey3 and alsi: What all the cool kids are doing

• screenfetch: Because all the cool kids are doing it

• XBMC Successor Kodi 14.x Enters Feature Freeze, New Release Detailed

  The XBMC developers are moving on and they are now working on Kodi, the successor of the XBMC project. The name change was announced a while ago and the devs have revealed some of the new features and changes in the new 14.x branch.

• VirtualBox 4.3.16 Brings X.Org Server 1.16 and Multiple Fixes

  A new version of VirtualBox, a virtualization product for enterprises and end users, has been announced by Oracle, bringing a number of fixes and small improvements.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • How To Install MongoDB On CentOS 7s

  • Find HorizSync VertRefresh rates to fix Linux display issue – Why my display is stuck at 640×480?

  • Installation and configuration of RainLoop on Debian 7 (Wheezy)

  • Manage your partitions like in anaconda with blivet-gui

  • How To Install FileZilla 3.9.0.5 On The Most Popular Linux Systems

  • How To Install FileZilla 3.9.0.5 On Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17, Elementary OS 0.3, Deepin 2014 And Other Ubuntu 14.04 Derivatives

  • How To Install SMPlayer 14.9 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

  • How To Install SMPlayer 14.9 On Fedora 20 And Fedora 19

  • How To Install CGManager 0.32.2 On Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn

  • How To Install QuiteRSS 0.17.0 On Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

  • Easily Install The Latest golang Compiler, LiteIDE and Various Go-Related Tweaks In Ubuntu With A Script

  • How to use Twitter in a Linux terminal with Rainbow Stream

  • Install Timekpr (Parental Control App) In Ubuntu 14.04

  • How To Install UberWriter 14.09.06 On Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17, Elementary OS 0.3, Deepin 2014 And Other Ubuntu 14.04 Derivatives

  • How To Install MC (Midnight Commander) 4.8.13 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

  • Recent Update Broke Ubuntu Desktop On Some Nvidia Optimus Laptops [Fix]

  • How to create a cloud-based encrypted file system on Linux

  • How To Install Kernel 3.17 RC4 On On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivative Systems

  • Dual Boot: Fix Time Differences Between Ubuntu And Windows

• Games

  • Unvanquished Free Multiplayer FPS Gets Major Update

    Unvanquished, a free, open source first-person shooter combining real-time strategy elements with a futuristic and sci-fi setting, has been updated yet again and this is one of the biggest releases so far.

  • Borderlands 2 Coming to Linux, Borderlands Gold Sale Currently on Xbox LIVE Marketplace

  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to Finally Arrive on Linux

    The Linux version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive seems to have been in the works for ages, but now there is finally some news about it, although it’s nothing definitive.

    Valve has ported most of its games catalog to the Linux platform, with just three exceptions: Alien Swarm, the first Left 4 Dead game in the series, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

  • Garry’s Mod hits over 6 million units sold on PC, Mac, Linux

Desktop Environments/WMs

• GNOME vs KDE, Linux Myths, and the Linux Toilet

  In tonight’s Linux news Matt Hartley dispels those persistent Linux myths. Bruce Byfield uses KDE and GNOME projects’ financial statements to analyze their priorities and direction. Ubuntu community wallpapers for 14.10 are beginning to be chosen and some guy built a Linux toilet in hopes of getting a job.

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • An optimization kata – profiling 101 at Akademy 2014

    During my workshop, I showed you how to improve the performance of a word-count application which also creates a word histogram and finds the longest word of a file.

  • KDE Akademy 2014 – Welcome, new KDE board!

    Akademy 2014 is still in full swing in Brno in the Czech Republic with the traditional hack week that started on Monday. At about 200 participants it was well attended and organized. This years conference will very likely mark a milestone of change for KDE – a new board was elected, and a strategy discussion was started that will affect the direction and development of the KDE community for a decent amount of time. When I traveled home from Akademy 2014 on the train from Brno to Berlin, I personally felt a sense of satisfaction, because the community has managed to steer clear of the dangers of bike shedding about the board succession, and is accepting the change imposed by a shifting environment as a positive force.

  • digiKam Recipes 4.0.9 Released

    Hot on the heels of the 3.17.01 release comes a new version of the digiKam Recipes ebook. As the version number indicates, this is a major release that features several significant improvements.

  • Accessible KDE, Kubuntu

    KDE is community. We welcome everyone, and make our software work for everyone. So, accessibility is central to all our work, in the community, in testing, coding, documentation. Frederik has been working to make this true in Qt and in KDE for many years, Peter has done valuable work with Simon and Jose is doing testing and some patches to fix stuff.

    However, now that KF5 is rolling out, we’re finding a few problems with our KDE software such as widgets, KDE configuration modules (kcm) and even websites. However, the a11y team is too small to handle all this! Obviously, we need to grow the team.

  • Phonon 4.8

  • Kubuntu Sponsors’ Presentation

Distributions

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat Renews Server Management Portfolio With Satellite 6

  • Red Hat Satellite orbits the Amazon cloud

    Red Hat Satellite 6, released Wednesday, also comes with an entirely new interface for writing server configurations. The company replaced its own software with the popular open source configuration management software Puppet.

    Comprising a number of open source IT configuration and management tools, Red Hat Satellite was designed to help administrators maintain large numbers of servers running RHEL, which is Red Hat’s flagship enterprise Linux distribution.

  • Red Hat Satellite 6 comes with improved server and cloud management

    There are many ways to manage Linux systems. Some people still swear by shell scripts with their fine control. Others like high-level tools such as cPanel that enable them to control servers with broad strokes. But, for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) users, nothing beats Red Hat Satellite (RHS).

  • Former Red Hat CTO drops into cloudy veep spot at Google

    Red Hat’s technology chief has floated over to Google following his abrupt and uncelebrated exit.

    Brian Stevens suddenly left the Linux distro and aspiring OpenStack cloud fluffer after 12 years as executive vice president and chief technology officer.

    As of this month, Stevens has become Google’s vice president of cloud platforms – just days after leaving Red Hat. He posted the new position on his LinkedIn page but there were no details about what exactly his new role entailed.

  • Red Hat Software Collections 1.2 beta: New software for Linux developers

    Want to keep your operating system on the straight and stable while at the same time using cutting edge development languages and programs? Then Red Hat has the tools for you with its beta release of Red Hat Software Collections (RHSC) 1.2.

• Debian Family

  • Freexian’s first report about Debian Long Term Support

    When we setup Freexian’s offer to bring together funding from multiple companies in order to sponsor the work of multiple developers on Debian LTS, one of the rules that I imposed is that all paid contributors must provide a public monthly report of their paid work.

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Ubuntu Touch RTM Is Moving Towards Promotion

        As you may know, Ubuntu Touch is being developed on three different branches: a stable branch, a devel branch and a RTM branch. While new features and changes are first tested on the devel branch and get moved to the stable one when they are stable enough, the RTM branch does not get new features, only security and stability fixes.

      • Ubuntu Touch RTM Is Getting Closer

        Before getting Ubuntu Touch on the market, developers will need to release an RTM version of the operating system, and it looks like they are very close to this milestone.

        Having an RTM version for an operating system is actually much harder than you can imagine. RTM stands for release to manufacturing, and it means that whatever product you have with this denomination then it’s pretty close, if not ready, to get into the hands of the public.

      • Devs Close NSS Exploit in All Supported Ubuntu OSes

      • Download The Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn Community Wallpapers

        The Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn community wallpapers were revealed today. They haven’t landed in Ubuntu 14.10 yet but if you don’t want to wait or you’re not using Ubuntu 14.10, you can download them already.

      • Ubuntu Touch Is an OS with a Heart in a World of Mindless Drones

        The mobile market seems to be saturated with products and software, and that includes operating systems. The people are pretty much divided into Android, iOS, and Windows Phone users. There are some scraps at the table, but that’s pretty much it. Where will Ubuntu for phones fit in this tight-knit ecosystem?

      • Is Mir and convergent desktop hampering the development of Ubuntu?

        The next evolution of Ubuntu is supposed to center around convergence. In order for that to happen, both Mir and Unity 8 must be ready for production environments. They aren’t. Period. In fact, the closest thing you can get to even trying the Mir/Unity 8 combination is a special ISO build called Ubuntu Desktop Next.

      • Ubuntu for Smartwatches?

        I read an interesting article on OMG! Ubuntu! about whether Canonical will enter the wearables business, now the smartwatch industry is hotting up.

        On one hand (pun intended), it makes sense. Ubuntu is all about convergence; a core platform from top to bottom that adjusts and expands across different form factors, with a core developer platform, and a focus on content.

      • On Wearable Technology

        That being said, I do not think smartwatches are anything but buzz right now regardless of what OS is running on them whether it be Android, iOS, Firefox OS, Ubuntu or others. I think we still need a couple years before this technology will be on par with smartphones and tablets and at a reasonable price point.

        I felt like I had to write something on this after reading this article on OMG Ubuntu on the possibility of a Ubuntu powered smartwatch.

      • 30 Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu

        At some point in time somebody convinced you to give Ubuntu a spin and now you are thinking “What now?”

      • Flavours and Variants

        • Elementary OS Freya Beta 1 Available For Developers And Testers

          If you’re a developer or tester and haven’t heard of Elementary OS Freya Beta 1 has been made available, then you’re missing out.

Devices/Embedded

• Edison IoT module ships with Atom/Quark combo SoC

  Intel launched its Edison COM for IoT apps, with a “Tangier” SoC that mixes a dual-core Atom running Linux with a Quark chip, plus optional breakout boards.

• Monstrous TiVo DVR has six tuners, holds 24TB

  TiVo announced a Linux-based “TiVo Mega” DVR with 24TB of storage — enough for 4,000 hours of HD video — plus six tuners and streaming to mobile devices.

• Sorry, Apple, Leikr Is Doing a Much Better Job with Its Linux-Based Watch

  The new Apple Watch was announced and the first models are scheduled to appear sometime in 2015, but the truth is that they are really late to the party. If you really want something truly professional, Linux-based, and full of features, you can choose Leikr.

• The Importance of Openness to the Internet of Things

  The IoT has the potential to transform peoples’ lives. However, IoT equipment and software have to be designed from the start with security in mind, said NCP Engineering CTO Joerg Hirschmann. That transformation will not occur if security is left to individual product makers. Securing the IoT will require a commitment to openness among manufacturers.

• Tizen IVI build with Yocto now available

  For developers and commercial companies Interested in Tizen IVI, here is the Tizen IVI image with Yocto, provided by Ronan from Eurogiciel.

• Phones

  • Android

    • 10 ways the iPhone 6 could give Android a run for its money

    • Stephen Colbert takes a dig at Apple Watch

    • You can now make phone calls from Hangouts on Android; bye bye Skype

      Ever since we got an iPad in the family, one thing that bothered me a lot was that Google Hangout app on the iPad allowed to make phone calls whereas the feature was missing from the Android app.

    • Fairphone – the Fair Trade Coffee of Android

      Back in May the people behind the Fairphone announced they were making a second batch of phones that you could pre-order, then in July they announced that they are now being delivered. Right now they have around 14,000 out of 35,000 left in stock. However the phone will only ship to Europe for the time being.

    • You can return your Android app and get full refund

    • Android L Release Date and Features Rumors, ART to Replace Dalvik

      The Android L is an upcoming release of the mobile operating system created by Google. The name “Android L” is still a working title but it is also known as Android 5.0. The OS was first shown June 25 earlier this year, with the beta released the day after for select Nexus devices.

    • Battle of the wearable behemoths: Android Wear versus the Apple Watch

    • KitKat now powering almost a quarter of all Android devices

      According to stats published by Google, the newest Android release, codenamed KitKat, is powering around one out of every four Android devices accessing the Google Play store.

• Sub-notebooks/Tablets

  • The most exciting Android tablet this year is coming from Dell

    You wouldn’t know it by the name, but the Dell Venue 8 7000 Series is shaping up to be a pretty special tablet. Measuring a measly 6mm in thickness, this Atom-powered Android slate surpasses even Sony’s Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact in the race to be the world’s thinnest tablet. But whereas the Sony device has sizeable bezels all around its display, the Venue 8 has almost none on three of its sides. There’s less than an inch of bezel on one side, which houses the speaker and front-facing camera while also serving as a handle for the user. It’s the same approach that Sharp took with the Aquos Crystal smartphone and the visual effect is just as striking.

Dell buys into the open-source network

Dell doesn’t wants to be just your data center server provider. In partnership with Cumulus Networks, they want to be your open-source network services provider as well.

Web Browsers

• Chrome

  • Google Chrome 37 Stable Release Finally Fixes Annoying Website Rendering Issues

    The Google Chrome Internet browser has just advanced to version 37.0.2062.120 and packs a few minor features, a Flash update, and some bug fixes.

• Mozilla

  • Mozilla Officially Releases Thunderbird 31.1.1

    The latest major Thunderbird release, 31.1, saw the introduction of a lot of features and fixes. These kind of changes were sorely missed and the devs managed to improve the application, even if it’s no longer actively worked on.

SaaS/Big Data

• Piston OpenStack Takes on AWS with Low-Cost Private Clouds

  OpenStack orchestration vendor Piston is shooting to make do-it-yourself private-cloud computing easier with the release this week of a new version of its Piston OpenStack platform, which it says offers all the benefits of the AWS public cloud without the costs or security vulnerabilities.

Databases

• FoundationDB Adds Open Source SQL Storage Tool

  FoundationDB, the company so far known mainly for its NoSQL data storage platform, expanded into the SQL world this week with the release of SQL Layer, a free and open source database engine that runs on top of the FoundationDB NoSQL platform.

Education

• Gibbon sees demand for open education grow

  Version 8 also saw a range of other new features, including a simple WordPress-style installer, which reduces the technical demands of getting Gibbon up and running. It is hoped that this new feature will enable more schools and companies to trial Gibbon as a solution to their information management and online learning needs. In addition, Linguist sees the introduction of improved visuals, system update alerts, personalised Markbook targets, better mass mailing, quicker staff finding, support for cutting edge code, improved Markbook interface and close to one hundred other tweaks, fixes and enhancements.

Funding

• Open source geospatial platform CartoDB raises $8m for building a cloud-based market

  CartoDB, the leading all-in-one web mapping and geospatial platform, is today announcing it has raised a $8 million Series A.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Creating Test Gear With Software-Defined Radios

  Two years ago, I wrote about using an inexpensive RTL2832-based DVB/DAB USB dongle as a spectrum analyzer and receiver. (See “Software-Defined Radios Help Explore RF Spectrum,” July 11, 2012). It is still part of my travel toolkit, but when I can, I make room for an Ettus Research USRP B200. As with the RTL2832 dongles, software is available to use it as a receiver or spectrum analyzer. Unlike the cheap dongles, it includes a transmitter that allows it to be used as a simple antenna or filter analyzer with the addition of a directional coupler.

Project Releases

• New Release: Elektra 0.8.8

  Great news! I am very happy to announce that we have reached a new milestone for Elektra and released a new version, 0.8.8! This release comes right on the tail of the 0.8.7 release and it might just be our biggest release yet! We already have a great article covering all the changes from the previous release on our News documentation on GitHub. I just wanted to focus on a few of those changes on this blog, especially the ones that pertain to my Google Summer of Code Project.

Openness/Sharing

• Open source: Blendhub offers ‘fingerprint’ library for nutrient blends

  Spanish supplier Blendhub is taking the rare step of offering customers access to its new library of near infra-red (NIR) spectroscopy analyses from more than 300 raw materials.

• Open Access/Content

  • Open source education materials need to replace textbooks

    There are few things more frustrating or dread-inspiring than staring at a brand new $100 textbook only to know that in a few months it will not only be useless, but almost worthless.

    With a never-ending demand for textbooks and no clear alternative established, textbook publishers have turned into modern day robber barons. As prices for textbooks and other school materials rise, students are left helpless only to accept the glutinous punishment doled out on them at the start of every new semester.

  • A global shift to open source at the university

    Historically, universities were not inclusive places. While you can find free traditional university education (Norway’s much-lauded education system comes to mind, as well as some other European countries), the vast majority of the world simply didn’t have access to higher education before the emergence of online technologies. This made higher education largely an exercise in class and gender role reinforcement. In more recent decades, universities have been aggressively monetizing, which theoretically eliminates class and gender as exclusionary factors but more realistically simply acts to reinforce the exclusivity and inaccessibility of further study.

• Open Hardware

  • Facebook’s Open Compute Servers Still Tough Sell for Corporate IT Shops

    Facebook’s Open Compute Project has been one of the most talked about developments in the world of data center hardware over the past couple of years, and interest in the first ever open source hardware design community and its output has only grown.

  • Can open hardware revive the lost art of tinkering?

    When’s the last time you tinkered with something? Maybe it was someone else’s code, maybe it was a project you found on a forum. Were you curious enough to dive in, or did you just toss the idea to the wayside?

Programming

• Why GitHub is not your resume

  We talk to a lot of great engineers and developers at Metacloud. Many seek us out as an amazing place to work, some we find and reach out to. There’s a growing trend to let your GitHub profile be the source of truth for your talents and experience, and I wanted to touch on why that’s a bad idea.

Michael Moore talks 25th anniversary of ‘Roger & Me’

The latest episode of the Free Press-produced “The Documentary Podcast” chats with filmmaker and rabble-rouser Michael Moore, whose “Roger & Me” is being celebrated this week at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Michael Moore Slams Obama, Says He Will Only Be Remembered As First Black President (WATCH)

Controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore slammed President Barack Obama during a discussion at The Hollywood Reporter’s video lounge at the Toronto Film Festival Wednesday, expressing a “huge disappointment” with the legislative accomplishments of the politician.

Security

• Security advisories for Wednesday

• What Is Multifactor Authentication And How Can It Keep You Safe?

  It’s a security step everyone should be taking, according to Richard Anstey, CTO EMEA Intralinks.

• Thursday’s security advisories

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• Russia challenges post-Cold War order

  Diverging views on global matters between the West and Russia in a new poll don’t signal the advent of a new Cold War, German Marshall Fund president Karen Donfried tells DW. But there is still cause for concern.

• The Mainstream Media Calls War Criminal Henry Kissinger “the Most Celebrated Foreign-Policy Strategist of our Time”

• And Now, a Word From Henry Kissinger…

  Kissinger is most closely associated with the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. Of the latter, he famously delivered this order: “A massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves.” Credible estimates of the number of people killed as a result of this order range as high as 800,000.

• To NYT, ‘Full Range of Views’ on War Is Pretty Narrow

  So what does a “full range of views” look like to the New York Times? Powerful people who worked for Republicans and Democrats.

• Our New War Will Be Different Because…

  It is not that hard to come up with examples of US attacks that were not designed to strike at leaders. The use of “signature strikes”–attacks launched based on movements or behaviors the United States thought looked like the sort of thing a militant might do–was well-documented in Pakistan until widespread criticism reportedly forced US officials to curtail that policy (AP, 7/25/13).

  Whether or not they meant to refer to current US drone attacks exclusively, it is misleading for the Times to talk about US war policies this way.

• Rand Paul Says Obama’s ISIS Plan Definitely Unconstitutional

  Republican Sen. Rand Paul expressed support for President Obama’s latest round of military action against terrorist state ISIS while insisting that the operation is nevertheless technically unconstitutional.

• They’re students, not recruits

  Keep the military’s base of operations out our education system

• Protesters Rally Against Militarized Drones in Des Moines

  The 132nd Fighter Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard is coming under an attack, of sorts, today with a rally from protesters opposed to the use of militarized drones. The mission of the fighter wing had always been manned aircraft, but those F-16 jets were a victim of budget cuts and the mission of the airmen was shifted to include a piloting-and-control center for weaponized drones.

  Ed Flaherty, director Iowa Chapter 161 with Veterans for Peace, says that could turn the “Field of Dreams” into the “Killing Fields.”

• Analysis: President who wanted end wars tries to justify a new one

  Nearly six years into a presidency devoted to ending U.S. wars in the Muslim world, President Barack Obama faced the nation Wednesday night to explain why he has decided to engage in a new one.

• Victorians, you are about to get slugged

  If we are going to condemn, and rightly so, actions we do not condone, then we need to do it with conviction and not selectively. Who used napalm and depleted uranium weapons in Iraq, killing many women and children? Is that not barbaric? Who uses drones, which kill the innocent along with the guilty? We all know that the posturing on the world stage calling for war, albeit without ”feet on the ground”, will not resolve the problems.

• ‘Good Kill’ Director Andrew Niccol Slams CIA’s Drone Policy, Explains Ethan Hawke Casting

  Ethan Hawke stars in the film as Major Thomas Egan, a fighter pilot turned drone pilot who “begins to question the U.S. policy on the use of drones after being ordered to hit civilians.”

• US bombing defended

  The United States’ controversial bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War killed fewer civilians than American drone attacks under President Barack Obama have done, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said on the weekend, a claim labelled as “disingenuous”, foolish and plain wrong by historians and experts.

  In a National Public Radio (NPR) interview aired Saturday, Kissinger also said decisions taken by the US during the war, including the massive aerial bombing of Cambodia and Laos, were correct and would be taken by anyone faced with the same circumstances today.

  Estimates for the number of civilian casualties of the US bombardment of Cambodia targeting North Vietnamese communists and later the Khmer Rouge – which saw some 2.75 million tonnes of ordnance dropped between 1965 and 1973 – vary greatly, however most scholars agree that they are at least in the tens of thousands.

• Beheaded or bombed, which is worse?

  I stand dumbfounded at our nation even considering putting US citizens back into Iraq — when we were lied to with grotesque fabrications of reality to persuade us to make war on them in the first place. Now, our leaders are “making the case” for making war on Syria while the distortions of reality continue.

• US Drone Campaign In Somalia Creates More Enemies

  Ahmed Abdi Godane, one of the State Department’s most wanted men was killed by US drone strikes outside Mogadishu last week. Godane, who was also known as Abu Zubeyr was the leader of al-Shabab, an Islamist militant group based in Somalia. He had a $7 million bounty placed on his head by the US government after he pledged formal allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012. Eleven other men were also killed in the traveling convoy which was attacked by up to 10 Hellfire missiles.

• Somalia: Amisom failures show that Godane’s death is no quick fix

  The death by drone of Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was “a delightful victory” for Somalia’s struggling transitional government, and a major boost for a new anti-Al Shabaab military offensive. But as African Union troops push further in south-central Somalia, Human Rights Watch has reported horrific sexual abuse and exploitation at the Amisom base in Mogadishu. So much for the moral high ground.

• 11 Afghan Civilians Killed in NATO Bombing Raid

  At least 11 civilians died and 13 others were injured in a raid by NATO warplanes in eastern Kunar province, an Afghan official confirmed to Efe on Wednesday.

  The strike took place Tuesday as the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force was targeting Taliban strongholds in cooperation with Afghan units, government spokesman Abdullah Gani said.

• The Department of Defense ‘respectfully declined’ to participate in new drone movie

  The folks behind “Good Kill,” a new movie about the U.S. military’s drone operations in the Middle East, hope the film becomes a cinematic flash point (think “Zero Dark Thirty”). And that’s probably why the Department of Defense RSVP’d no when invited to participate.

• Abbas Threatens to Break Deal with Hamas

  Tensions between the two rival Palestinian factions of Fatah, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and the Islamist Hamas movement were stepped up this weekend after Abbas said he will break off his partnership with Hamas if they don’t make some changes. Speaking on a visit to Egypt, where indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinains are expected to resume in the next few weeks. Abbas said that Hamas must accept a Palestinian state must have “one government, one law and one weapon”, meaning that Hamas must subordinate its military forces to those of Fatah. The two groups inaugurated a unity government in July, but it has yet to function. Over the weekend, Hamas officials claimed that Abbas’s security forces in the West Bank were arresting its men for no reason, and Hamas today called on its operatives in the West Bank not to cooperate with Palestinian Authority security investigations. Support for Hamas has increased dramatically since the end of the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Hamas is also demanding a “new unity government” meaning it wants to renegotiate the terms of it’s agreement with Fatah.

• A Nation Addicted To War & Other Big Takeaways From Obama’s ISIS Address

• Pentagon Funds New Data-Mining Tools to Track and Kill Activists

  One flagship project established at Arizona State University (ASU) since 2009 examines “radical” and “counter-radical” movements in Southeast Asia, West Africa and Western Europe. This month, I obtained exclusive access to some of the online research tools being used by the Pentagon-funded project, disclosing a list of 36 mostly Muslim organizations in the UK targeted for assessment as to their relationship to radicalism.

• DOJ memo reveals legal rationale for drone assassination of American citizen

• The death by drone memos (Part II)

• A Justice Department Memo Provides the CIA’s Legal Justification to Kill a US Citizen

  So begins a 22-page, heavily redacted, previously top-secret document titled “Legality of a Lethal Operation by the Central Intelligence Agency Against a US Citizen,” which provides the first detailed look at the legal rationale behind lethal operations conducted by the agency. The white paper [pdf below] was turned over to VICE News in response to a long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department.

• The politics of Islam cannot be bombed away

  Before the warmongers have a cow, keep in mind that Obama’s idea of managing a terrorism problem involves killing people, without warning, even in countries where we are not at war. Just this week he authorized an airstrike in Somalia in an attempt to kill the leader of al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda offshoot. Obama’s fondness for drones as instruments of surveillance and assassination is such that any terrorist leader is foolhardy if he ventures to take out the garbage.

• Shabaab’s new leader ‘devout, ruthless’

  The new leader of Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels is thought to be a devout and ruthless hardliner who was one of the most trusted lieutenants of the group’s late chief, according to experts and analysts.

• Al-Shabaab confirms leader’s death, names successor

• Somalia’s Al Shabab rebels appoint new leader, vow revenge

  Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab militants have announced the appointment of a successor to their former leader who was killed in a US air strike.

  The Islamist group named Ahmad Umar, also known as Abu Ubaidah, as its new head.

  Abu Ubaidah is thought to be a devout and ruthless hardliner who was one of the most trusted lieutenants of the group’s late chief Ahmed Abdi Godane, according to experts and analysts.

• Eugene Robinson: Our challenge with Islam

• Eugene Robinson: Challenge with Islam not as easy at it may seem

• US air attacks on ISIS are ineffective, illogical, immoral

• Dan Simpson: The U.S. keeps risking retribution

  We cannot forever attack people in other countries with impunity

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• Fracking Away the Climate Crisis

  It’s not that fracking or oil drilling aren’t controversial; the Times’ Nelson Schwartz notes that the “environmental consequences of the American energy boom…are being fiercely debated nationwide.” But Ohio isn’t like other parts of the country where opposition to fracking is intense, “because residents are so desperate for the kind of economic growth that fracking can bring, whatever the risks.”

• VIDEO: Fox’s Defense Overruled, BP To Blame For Gulf Oil Spill

  When BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in 2010, Fox News pundits rushed to the corporation’s defense with excuses ranging from pitiful to conspiratorial. But now the ruling is out, exposing the falsities of Fox’s defense: BP was to blame for the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Finance

• What is Syncora?

  Syncora has been Detroit’s most aggressive foe from the start of Detroit’s bankruptcy case, filed July 18, 2013.

  Last month, Syncora’s criticism of Detroit’s restructuring plan and its actions during the bankruptcy became so harsh that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes threatened the bond insurer with sanctions.

• WEALTH AND POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES

  “The…truth is that the rich are the great cause of poverty”

• Americans wishing to renounce their citizenship must pay FOUR times the existing amount as those wanting the service ‘to avoid paying taxes’ rapidly rises

• Renouncing U.S. citizenship is about to get a lot more expensive

  This may end up making it easier for Americans fighting for a terrorist group to be killed in a drone strike by their own government than to lose their U.S. citizenship against their will.

  In addition to committing what the State Department calls “potentially expatriating acts,” an individual must do so both “voluntarily and with the intention of relinquishing U.S. nationality.”

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• NRO Misinforms On Money In Politics And Proposed Citizens United Amendment

  On September 8, the Senate voted to debate the proposed constitutional amendment, which would re-establish campaign finance laws that the conservative justices of the Supreme Court struck down in Citizens United in 2010. That decision overturned part of the McCain-Feingold Act — much-needed bipartisan campaign finance reforms instituted to prevent corruption of the political process and level the playing field between small donors and the wealthy — and effectively eliminated limits for independent corporate spending in federal elections. Specifically, Citizens United radically rewrote First Amendment precedent and expanded the legal concept of “corporate personhood,” with the court ultimately deciding that the political spending by corporations was constitutionally equivalent to the free speech of actual human voters. The conservative justices chipped away at campaign finance limits even further this year in McCutcheon v. FEC, which abolished direct contribution limits that worked to control the corrupting influence of multimillion-dollar donations.

• New NPR Boss: ‘We’re Going to Be Talking About Brands That Matter a Little Bit More’

  Anyone who listens to NPR has heard plenty of corporate sponsorship announcements, and some listeners have raised substantive questions about whether those financial ties compromise NPR’s journalism (Extra!, 3/14). According to the new boss, nothing’s going to change–you’re just going to hear more about “brands that matter” because you’ll be “interested” in them. That is, as long as you’re part of the “not just affluent” audience that the supposedly noncommercial network is so proud of–for the “larger commitments” from sponsors they can command.

Censorship

• Google Changes Its Mind And Bans ‘Disconnect Mobile’ AGAIN

  Looks like Disconnect won a battle but lost the war to sell its app in Google’s Android app store.

  One day after lifting a ban on Disconnect Mobile and allowing the app back into the Play store, Google reinstated the ban and booted the app out again, CEO Casey Oppenheim told Business Insider.

Privacy

• Assistant Professor of Mathematics Djordje Milićević Receives NSA Grant

  Assistant Professor of Mathematics Djordje Milićević has received a Young Investigator Grant from the National Security Agency’s Mathematical Sciences Program. This award is available to promising investigators within ten years after receiving the Ph.D.

• Hezbollah fighter killed by Israeli spy device

  Hezbollah is constantly searching for such spy devices planted by the Israelis in strategic places in southern Lebanon and many have been found, sometimes with the help of the Lebanese Army, in places such as Barouk, Sanine, Sarifa Valley, Houla Valley and Zararieh Valley.

• No Place to Hide

  Greenwald was a constitutional and civil right lawyer, who became a blogger in 2005 alarmed at “the radical and extremist theories of power the US government had adopted in the wake of 9/11” and shocked at revelations about “warrantless eavesdropping” by the US National Security Agency on electronic communications of Americans. He then became a columnist for the Guardian and bestselling author. It was this background that prompted Snowden to choose Greenwald as his first contact person for revealing NSA wrong doing.

• Why Web Giants Are Struggling To Stop Snoops Spying On Thousands Of Websites

  Not long after Edward Snowden revealed just how the world’s spy agencies were trying to crack encryption protecting citizens’ private messages zipping around the internet, various organisations sought to enforce better standards across the web. Many programs were already in place, they just needed fresh impetus, which the NSA files duly provided.

• Tech Industry Tries Again on Surveillance Reform

• Tech groups press Congress to pass USA Freedom Act

• Guaranteed safety, Snowden to testify in Switzerland against the NSA

• The Beginners Guide to using TOR

• Tech coalition urges support for Senate bill banning bulk collection of phone, Internet data

• Tech associations renew push for USA Freedom Act

• Xbox One Getting Wireless Home Security Surveillance Device

• The NSA Gives Birth To Start-Ups

  Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has been sweating it out in the spotlight this summer for converting his spy cred into a lucrative security consulting business shortly after stepping down from the National Security Agency. The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf calls Alexander’s new IronNet Cybersecurity firm an “unethical get-rich quick plan” because it will charge hundreds of thousands of dollars a month for “ new” technologies the firm is patenting. “What could make [Alexander] so valuable, save the highly classified secrets in his head?” wrote Friedersdorf. But Alexander is far from the first to realize that the NSA’s area of expertise is in high demand in the commercial sector these days as more and more of our information is being digitized and concerns about security and privacy mount. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden may have immersed the agency in controversy but it hasn’t stopped it from becoming a fertile breeding ground for privacy and security entrepreneurs who are leaving the agency and quickly raking in millions from venture capitalists. Synack, Virtru, Area 1 Security and Morta Security are a few of the start-ups in recent years whose twenty- and thirty-something founders got their engineering training at the NSA.

• Senators Tasked With NSA Oversight Urge Appeals Court To End Call Records Collection

• Senators and Other Experts to Appeals Court: NSA’s Phone Records Program Is a Massive Invasion of Privacy

• Letter: Quit passing around my email, Demos

  It wasn’t that long ago that Democrats nationwide were angry over NSA privacy violations. But Democrats are violating citizens’ privacy, too.

• Concerns over civil liberties, security flip

  Fifty percent of people believe the government’s anti-terrorism policies have not gone far enough to protect the United States, according to a new poll, a 15-point shift since last year.

• Senator: We’re not any safer today than we were pre-9/11

  On the eve of the 13th anniversary of 9/11, American Senators and intelligence officials met today in public and private hearings to discuss cybersecurity and real world terrorist threats posed the United States domestically and abroad.

• From The Editor

  In this week’s issue, though, Yasha Levine explains why we don’t need the government to make us paranoid. It’s got nothing, Levine argues, on the for-profit surveillance being run by tech companies like Google. Oh, and if you thought technologies like Tor were keeping your data safe and anonymous, think again.

• Watch List

  Little wonder then that Google, and the rest of Surveillance Valley, is terrified that the conversation about surveillance could soon broaden to include not only government espionage, but for-profit spying as well.

• Germans drift away from US, finds transatlantic poll

• ​Germans want more independence from US

  The majority of German citizens, for the first time in history, insist on less dependence on the United States in terms of their national security and diplomacy, according to a major survey released by the German Marshall Fund think-tank.

  The study published on Wednesday shows that most Germans want their country to take a more independent position from the United States, especially on issues as vital as national security and sovereign diplomacy.

  A majority of 57 percent of German respondents opted for a more independent approach, according to the Transatlantic Trends survey, which is up from only 40 percent back in 2013. What is even more interesting is that just 19 percent of Germans say they want to have a closer relationship with the United States – compared to 34 percent of Americans who wanted their country to get cosier with Germany.

• Someone’s always watching, especially in a campaign

  At a recent Republican rally in Dawsonville, Tisdale was shooting video of speeches by statewide candidates. She taped Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens making this comment about Democratic Senate candidate Michelle Nunn: “I thought I was gonna absolutely puke, listening to her.”

  A few minutes after Tisdale recorded that humorous remark, she was suddenly told to stop taping by a Dawson County sheriff’s deputy. When she continued to shoot video, the deputy grabbed her, dragged her away from the meeting area, and had her arrested on charges of obstructing an officer.

• Op-Ed: How the U.S. government used 9/11 to attack freedom

  Just six weeks after 9/11, with virtually no debate and a bipartisan demand for more executive power, the Patriot Act was passed in October 2001. The country wanted revenge, safety, and action to prevent another act of terrorism. While their media propped up everything the Bush administration did, the freedoms Americans cherished slowly become a distant memory.

• Former NSA chief’s plan to patent anti-hacker technology raises questions of ethics

  A 5-month-old company in Washington has developed what it calls ground-breaking technology to thwart cyberattacks before they’ve been identified — a significant advancement over current systems, which react to known threats.

  Yet, the effort itself is under a more conventional attack. The founder of the company, Keith Alexander, had led the National Security Agency until March, and his plan to patent the technology is drawing criticism from people who say he’s profiting from work he did for the government.

• Ex-NSA Chief’s Anti-Hacker Patent Sparks Ethics Questions

• SEPT. 11 ANNIVERSARY: 13 years later, are we safe?

  A near majority of Americans feel less safe today than they did 13 years ago on 9/11.

• How to secure the Internet of Things

  The potential lifestyle and business benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT) are huge. How great would it be in this future IoT world where information flows freely around us, that a business could pull data on any process, any time, anywhere in real time?

• The BND and relations with Germany

  The problems with Germany are growing. During German President Joachim Gauck’s visit, we saw the tip of the iceberg. The image of Turkey in Germany was seriously undermined during the Gezi protests. The reactions were so out of control that an adviser argued that the protests had been provoked by Germany to prevent the construction of a third airport in İstanbul. He was given an annual award for paranoia in Germany.

• Lindsey Graham: Liberty Lovers Are “Crazy”

  To keep up with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham‘s logic, you’ve got to be able to run around in circles … really, really fast .

  Seriously … one week Graham wants to bomb one group, the next week he wants to bomb another. And it’s always in response to some totally ridiculous fearmongering.

• Restoring cloud confidence

  The iCloud naked photos leak, the AWS casualty Code Spaces, and the NSA PRISM Surveillance Programme… all have caused a crisis of confidence in the cloud. These highly publicised incidents have caused us to question the security of the model as a whole. But are these fears justified?

• 9/11 Vs. Snowden: My Students’ Surprising Debate About Privacy And Government

  “I don’t know why I would need that,” said one student. “I don’t have anything to hide.”

  When I hear something like that from a journalism student, I try very hard to slow down my reactions. If I jump into the discussion too soon, it has a chilling effect and nothing is learned except my own view of this subject.

• Michael Stipe Blasts Bush Administration and the Media in Essay About 9/11

  “Are we that afraid of others? Of ourselves? Of the possibility of genuine change?”

Civil Rights

• Ferguson Shooting Protest Continues And Rage Against The Machine Guitarist Tom Morello Debuts A New Song To Show His Support Against Inequality

  The Ferguson shooting protest continues to hunt the American government and the whole nation. Although the unrest has died down a bit, its psychological effects to lives of ordinary citizens have dented people’s trust to the police forces. The very first public meeting since the shooting in the Missouri city has been held and it was filled with anger, mostly from the camp of the 18-year old victim, Michael Brown.

• We’re Giving Police Body Cameras—but Who’s Controlling Their Footage?

  America is rushing to outfit cops with cameras, but even experts aren’t sure of the laws regulating the storage of the videos they capture—or determining who exactly has access.

• A Nation of Laws?

  If you watched this drama closely, you surely noticed how narrowly we conceptualize corruption in America. A government official is guilty of corruption only if he or she was given a gift, favor or cash in direct exchange for an official action that favored the business in question. In effect, general influence peddling and election purchasing, which we see more commonly, are legitimate.

• ‘Evidence’ Surfaces on How FBI Broke Law in Obtaining Silk Road Server Location

• Are the FBI and “weev” both hackers?

  If what “weev” did could be considered hacking, the FBI just might be a hacker, too, a former federal prosecutor says.

  The trial attorney for Andrew “weev” Auernheimer, Orin Kerr, says the actions the FBI took to find the servers of the online drug haven Silk Road could fall under the same hacking statute in which his high-profile client was charged.

• Law Enforcement Related Deaths in the US: “Justifiable Homicides” and the Impacts on Families

  According to newspaper accounts over 1,500 people die annually in the US in law enforcement related deaths. These are all deaths in the presence of law enforcement personnel both on the street and in local jails. Infamous cases such as Andy Lopez, Oscar Grant, and Michael Brown are only the tip of the iceberg. Many hundreds more are killed annually and these deaths by police are almost always ruled justifiable, even when victims are unarmed or shot in the back running away. We interviewed 14 families who lost loved ones in law enforcement related deaths in the SF Bay Area from 2000-2010. All the families believe their loved one should not have been killed and most felt that the police over-reacted and murdered their family member. All families reported abuse by police after the deaths. Most also reported that the corporate media was biased in favor of the police and failed to accurately report the real circumstances of the death.

• Transparently bad: U.S. whistleblowers feel blowback

  Federal employees who expose government waste, fraud and abuse are having a tough time in the “most transparent administration in history.”

  Robert MacLean, a former air marshal, told a House subcommittee Tuesday that managers at the Transportation Security Administration “thumb their nose” at whistleblower protection laws.

  MacLean, who complained that air marshals were improperly grounded by the TSA, is taking his termination to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing a series of lopsided proceedings at the agency. He said the TSA branded him “an organizational terrorist.”

• A Whistleblower’s Story

  I have been called the whistleblower who “conquered Countrywide” by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times. I have also been referred to as “Wall-Street’s Greatest Enemy: The Man Who Knows Too Much” in a revelatory article by David Dayen in Salon. However, I do not feel like a conqueror at all. I feel like a victim who has been repeatedly re-victimized by a system that allows legal loopholes, misrepresentations, and fraud on a trial and appellate court.

• US bans Europol from releasing its own documents to European officials

  The United States has instructed Europol, the European Union’s police agency, to withhold its own annual internal data-protection review from EU lawmakers because the report was written without the US Treasury Department’s permission.

• Op-ed: Reflections on the ramifications of 9/11

  In violation of the Army’s Code of Ethics, “enhanced interrogation” (torture) has been carried out; and a majority of the U.S. public has been convinced that these methods are both essential and acceptable. However, General Stanley Mcchrystal, who headed operations in Iraq, opposes the use of torture because, he has contended, “it corrodes the torturer more than the tortured.”

• Paradox of an American predicament

  In 2006, George Bush Jr was caught at a G8 dinner in St Petersburg on an open mic, laying out his plan to halt the strife in Lebanon: “See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s*** and it’s over,” he told Tony Blair. It was high time, Bush thought, for the then United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to get on the phone with the Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad, and “make something happen”.

• Is Guantánamo Navy base part of the USA? Well, that depends…

  U.S. troops blare The Star Spangled Banner across this 45-square-mile base each morning at 8 o’clock sharp. Fireworks crackle overhead on the Fourth of July.

  Marines control the fenceline opposite Cuba’s minefield and American sailors check visitors’ passports or Pentagon ID cards as they arrive by plane.

Internet/Net Neutrality

• Net Neutrality Dethrones Janet Jackson as FCC Comment Record Holder

• Canonical Joins Internet Slowdown Day Protest

  Canonical has decided to join the fight in support for net neutrality and it will be a part of the “Internet Slowdown day” event.

  If you’re not yet aware of this, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in the United States has to make a very important decision that could allow ISPs to provide paid prioritization to companies, which would hugely increase the monopoly of the corporations.

• Tell the FCC: Net Neutrality is (still) crucial to free software

  Net neutrality, the principle that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally, should be a basic right for Internet users. It’s also crucial for free software’s continued growth and success.

• From reddit to Pornhub, Websites Slow Down for Net Neutrality on September 10

  You know the net neutrality conversation is breaking new ground when even the porn sites are weighing in. And that’s just what we’re seeing: Major adult platforms Pornhub and Redtube are joining an online protest on September 10, calling for stronger protections for net neutrality. They’re teaming up with dozens of digital rights organizations, including EFF, Demand Progress, and Fight for the Future, as well as other Internet companies like Etsy, reddit and Mozilla, in a digital day of action designed to bring the net neutrality debate to hundreds of thousands of Internet users worldwide.

• What are Netflix, Tumblr, and others doing for today’s net neutrality protest?

• Google changes stance on net neutrality four years after Verizon deal

  Google, which helped kill net neutrality for wireless, has rejoined the debate.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Copyrights

  • Spotify: Aussie Music Piracy Down 20% The Year After Our Launch

    New research from Spotify shows that music piracy via BitTorrent dropped 20% in Australia during the first year the streaming platform was operational. The drop was mostly driven by casual file-sharers, and the number of hard-core pirates remains stable.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Top Linux Myths Dispelled

Over the years, we’ve heard from countless Microsoft Windows fans as to why they believe using Linux was nearly impossible. These folks would cite everything – from poor hardware compatibility to a lack of popular software. And I suppose at one time, some aspects of this were true.

But in 2014 when people still claim that using newbie friendly distributions like Ubuntu are too difficult, this nonsense needs to be put to rest once and for all. This article is but a small step in what I hope will be a wake up call for naysayers.

Server

• MesosCon Highlights: Apache Mesos 0.20 and Docker Support

  Apache Mesos had its first annual conference in collaboration with LinuxCon North America this year. I attended the conferences because its one of the major open source events of the year and also because I volunteered to be part of MesosCon program committee.

• India based start-up Flockport launches first Linux container-sharing website

  Mumbai based startup Flockport today announced the launch of Flockport.com, the first Linux container (LXC) sharing website that will offer users popular web applications in portable containers that can be deployed in seconds.

  Flockport containers give users cloud like flexibility of application instances that can be deployed on demand. Flockport.com will let users and developers download and share LXC containers.

Kernel Space

• Intel Core i7 5960X Haswell-E On Linux

  With the X99 burned-up motherboard problem of last week appearing to be behind us with no further issues when using a completely different X99 motherboard, here’s the first extensive look at the Core i7 5960X Haswell-E processor running on Ubuntu Linux.

• Intel Publishes Initial Skylake Linux Graphics Support

  While Intel’s Skylake isn’t arriving until the second half of 2015 as the successor to Broadwell, the Intel Open-Source Technology Center has already published their initial Linux enablement for Skylake with its HD Graphics “Gen 9″ display hardware.

Applications

• Springseed Cultivates Note-Taking Simplicity

  Springseed is a simple note-taking app for Linux that features full Markdown language support.

• Proprietary

  • Ephesoft Breaks New Ground with Launch of Industry-First Linux Smart Capture

  • Vallum Software Announces a new product offering, expanded support for Linux and UNIX for the Vallum GMI Agent

    Vallum Software today announced it has reached an agreement with the GMI Foundation to develop a series of Linux and UNIX based agent programs to extend its existing Windows management platform support. This new change will expand the support of GMI and the Vallum Halo Manager to allow in-depth management of Linux and UNIX platforms using the well-tested General Management Interface specification, currently available for all types of Windows platforms.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • How to create a cloud-based encrypted file system on Linux

  • Create a Time-Lapse Video in Linux (or Mac) using Kdenlive

  • How to harden Apache web server with mod_security and mod_evasive on CentOS

  • Beware of BD_STATUS Alarms by Cross-Connect Boards of OptiX OSN 3500

  • How to run your own Git server with GitlabHQ on Ubuntu 14.04

  • OpenSUSE 13.1 Installation guide with Screenshots

  • Install Ajenti Control Panel on a CentOS Server

  • Installation and configuration of ownCloud 7 on Debian 7 (Wheezy)

• Games

  • Humble Indie Bundle 12 Launches To Some Excitement

  • Steam Beta Update Makes Linux Streaming Use Pulse Audio

    A new Beta version of the Steam distribution platform has been released and it looks like the developers are working very hard to implement all sorts of new features and to fix some of the problems that appeared since the previous stable update.

  • Robocraft Free MMO Arrives on Steam for Linux

    Robocraft, a free-to-play robot vehicle shooter developed and published by Freejam on Steam, now also has a Linux version.

  • Puppy Games Aren’t Impressed With Linux Sales (UPDATED)

    It seems they are only counting Steam, so their original tweet seems a little baiting to get a reaction and more sales. Not a bad thing to try to get more sales, but maybe they should actively engage with the Linux community like some other developers do?

  • Chasm RPG Platformer Will Have A Same Day Linux Release

    Chasm is the excellent looking RPG Platformer from Discord Games that will be launching into early access soon, and luckily the Linux release will come too.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• Rumors Of An Imminent Enlightenment E19 Release

  The Enlightenment camp most recently released E19 RC3 as the latest development version of their lightweight but powerful window manager. E19 is a huge update in that it has its standalone Wayland compositor, better HiDPI support, and many other features. E19 is quite a feature-packed release.

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • Akademy Tuesday Wrapup

    Akademy is in full swing here in Brno in the Czech Republic. The days are now filled with BoF sessions to discuss given topics and make decisions in person much faster than would be possible online. Here is the wrapup session from Tuesday which covered the outcomes from sessions on Solid, Plasma Media Centre, Inqlude, UI design, Frameworks and more. (Apologies for the rotation, YouTube says it is working on fixing it.)

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Cinnamon Screensaver Now Features Custom Messages

    The Cinnamon desktop environment is actually made of numerous components, and the screensaver is only one small part. This package has just received a very interesting new feature that should arrive very soon.

  • New customization options coming to Cinnamon screensaver

    Linux Mint project lead Clement Lefebvre announced that support for custom date and time format has been added to the Cinnamon screensaver. This will let users add date and time formats of their choice or even leave it unused to have a clean screensaver with just the background wallpaper. They can even use any random string of their choice. The last option is not something very new as even now away message strings can be edited to show any random message but this adds to the customization options.

  • GNOME Software 3.14 Will Work On Arch Linux With PackageKit

    Those running GNOME on Arch Linux should be pleased that with the upcoming GNOME 3.14 release that the GNOME Software application should finally play well with PackageKit’s Pacman back-end.

  • GNOME Software 3.14 Will Work On Arch Linux With PackageKit

    Those running GNOME on Arch Linux should be pleased that with the upcoming GNOME 3.14 release that the GNOME Software application should finally play well with PackageKit’s Pacman back-end.

Distributions

• Screenshots

  • Q4OS 0.5.18

  • Sonar Gnome 2014.1 Screenshot Tour

• Red Hat Family

  • Former Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens Joins Google

    On August 28, Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens announced that he was leaving Red Hat after being at the company for the last 12 years. At the time, we didn’t know where he was headed.

    Now we do.

    Stevens is now working at Google as the Vice-President of Cloud Platforms.

    Could be a very interesting role for Stevens and one that certainly has great potential as Google’s cloud efforts compete against Amazon, Microsoft and the multiple OpenStack based players.

  • Red Hat’s Brian Stevens Now At Google

    Back on August 27 when Red Hat announced that CTO Brian Stevens had left the building and was no longer in their employ, rumors began flying as people began to wonder what happened. His resignation came without warning and Red Hat wasn’t forthcoming with anything, other than a terse message wishing him well, so it’s only natural that some people began to suspect that some kind of shakeup was in play. Indeed, I was pretty sure that he hadn’t left voluntarily but had been pushed through the door.

  • Red Hat Satellite 6 is now available

    Red Hat, the leading Open Source company with over a billion dollars in revenues every year, has announced the release of Red Hat Satellite 6.

    Satellite 6 is a comprehensive solution providing complete lifecycle management of Red Hat systems with provisioning software distribution, patch and configuration management, together with subscription management across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

  • Red Hat Satellite 6 Takes Orbit

  • Red Hat Satellite 6 Delivers Unified Cloud Systems Management across Datacenter and Cloud Environments

  • Fedora

    • Fedora Developer Announces New Partition Manager

      Fedora developer Vratislav Podzimek has announced a new partition tool built from storage and configuration management tools used in Fedora’s Anaconda installer. The new tool, known as blivet-gui, is based on the blivet Python library used in Anaconda. The new tool could eventually become a replacement for GParted and other open source partition tools.

    • FEDORA ACTIVITY DAY (FAD) PHNOM PENH 2014

      FAD Phnom Penh 2014 will take place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 15-16 November 2014 at Development Innovations. The idea of organizing the FAD Phnom Penh 2014 is to gather Fedora Ambassadors from ASIA-PACIFIC (APAC) Region together to work on activities.

• Debian Family

  • Debian and FSF to Help Users Find Hardware with No Proprietary Software Required

    The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Debian Project are partnering up to provide a database for hardware products that don’t need any proprietary drivers to work.

  • Q&A with Linus Torvalds at DebConf14 (Debian Developer Conference)

  • Linus On (desk)Top

  • The FSF and Debian team up to help users in getting ‘free’* hardware

  • Linux Top 3: Tails 1.1.1, RoboLinux 7.6.2 and Gentoo 20140826

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • CUPS Exploit Closed in Ubuntu Systems

        Canonical has announced in a security notice that a CUPS vulnerability has been found and fixed in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS operating systems.

      • QEMU Exploits Closed in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

        Canonical has released some details in a security notice about a number of QEMU vulnerabilities in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS operating systems.

      • Ubuntu 14.10 expectations

        New versions of Ubuntu family come out every six months, April and October each year. Every forth of them, released in April on even year, is a “long-term support” version. It means users get updates for their LTS systems longer than for non-LTS. The current version of Ubuntu 14.04 is LTS. It is so stable that many Ubuntu derivatives like Linux Mint and Zorin decided to remain on 14.04 base and not upgrade it until the next LTS version.

Devices/Embedded

• Raspberry Pi Used to Power In-Car Computer for a Ford Focus – Gallery

  Raspberry Pi is considered to be one of the most versatile mini PCs in existence, and proof of this is the recent integration of this device as an in-car computer for a Ford Focus.

  The number of things that you can do with a Raspberry Pi seems to be infinite. We’ve seen the system integrated in all sorts of projects, from simple household control to a management system for a microbrewery. It might sound strange that such a small device can do so many things, but it looks like it’s even a lot more versatile than we can imagine.

• Phones

  • Samsung Tizen based Gear Blink (Glass) to launch in March 2015?

    These are certainly exciting times for Samsung Electronics and Tizen fans, with release the Tizen based Gear S, amongst other devices like the Gear VR. We were hoping to see Gear Glass, samsung’s rival product to Google Glass, at IFA 2014 this year, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

  • Ballnux

    • Diesel Black Gold brings you a new Samsung Gear S fashion device

      The Tizen Samsung Gear S is a thing of beauty and has already been adorned with Swarovski crystals, but fashion doesn’t stop there. Samsung has teamed up with Diesel Black Gold on a bracelet that will be shown off at the Spring ’15 show later on today. The Diesel Black Gold’s interpretation is said to be decidedly more downtown with an up-to-date feel. The inspiration was by the creative director Andreas Melbostad and the material of choice was Leather.

  • Android

    • Moto 360 smartwatch powered by a four-year-old processor

      A teardown of Motorola’s new flagship Moto 360 smartwatch reveals it is powered by a four-year-old processor – the same silicon that powered the company’s first smartwatch released in 2011 – and a battery with 10 percent less capacity than the advertised specs.

    • Instagram, Grindr, and more popular Android apps put user privacy at risk, researcher says

      Instagram, Grindr, OkCupid and many other Android applications fail to take basic precautions to protect their users’ data, putting their privacy at risk, according to new study.

    • Breaking: Amazon Prime videos now available on Android

    • Amazon brings its video app to the Android platform

      Amazon has at long last released a version of its video player for Android devices, according to a report Tuesday from The Next Web. The app release negates some of the video advantage that used to be reserved for Amazon-branded Android products like the Kindle Fire, but it rounds out the list of platforms where Amazon can appear.

6 questions to accelerate open source in non-tech companies

Though Linux and now many other technology companies have amply demonstrated how communities of volunteers and users can add significant value to development and support efforts, the decision to embrace a comparable strategy by non-tech companies involves a bigger leap—and bold new leadership willing to wade into some unfamiliar territory. Whereas a “hacker culture” inclines tech oriented users to join with others to solve common problems, and leaders to embrace that approach for their companies, it’s not nearly so automatic for, say, executives who deal with making cement, selling coffee, or marketing the trading of stocks and bonds. In fact for many non-technical leaders today, “embracing the crowd” (or a community of volunteers, or networks of customers, etc.) is still a big unknown, often seeming to be fraught with unmanageable costs and risks.

Is open source really ‘open’ to women?

On a personal note, I am committed to the challenge of getting more girls on side, both at credativ and through backing members of the Open Source Consortium. I entered this arena with a Cultural Studies degree, which gave me a good grounding in philosophising, but only limited commercial insight. Contrary to any initial fears I might have had about being ostracised as a woman without any specialised technical knowledge in a male dominated environment, I’ve found it to be accepting and rewarding. From a fairly nonchalant initial association – attending Open Source Consortium meetings; helping organise annual Software Freedom Day events; interacting with Linux User Groups and online forums – I’ve become passionate about challenging the widely-held misconceptions about this world.

Here’s what Girl Develop It’s open source fellows built this summer

“I didn’t think there was a place for me at Code for Philly,” she said late last month to the crowd at the showcase for Girl Develop It’s Summer of Open Source Fellowship. “I thought it was going to be a lot of intense tech guys working in Rails.”

The Disaggregation Of Networking, The Open Source Upstarts And Legacy Vendors’ Business

Cisco has a point here. With the aggregated model of networking, customers have “one throat to choke”. One vendor delivers both hardware and software and thus there is no doubt who is to blame when something goes wrong. But it’s hard to argue this point as a continuing factor as enterprise IT rapidly moves towards a distributed, disaggregated and composible paradigm across the board. Enterprise IT is becoming, by definition, a more distributed operation.

The Defunct Bitcoin SourceForge Project Was Hacked

The original SourceForge project site for Bitcoin has been compromised along with an original email address of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious founder(s) of the project.

A visual history of open source

The open source movement has brought good things to the lives of countless people around the world. But have you ever wondered how it all got started? Check out this infographic that walks you through the birth of open source in the 1950s to today’s thriving open source world.

Web Browsers

• Mozilla

  • Mozilla Releases a New Firefox

    New public key pinning feature will help prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.

SaaS/Big Data

• Citrix Cloud Leadership Changes May Be a Reaction to OpenStack’s Momentum

  To be clear, the open source CloudStack platform that Apache now oversees is a different branch from the commercial one that Citrix oversees. The open source version from Apache is moving forward, but it’s unclear what Citrix may be making of the momentum that OpenStack has.

• Free courses for getting started in the open source cloud

  The cloud is a big place. There’s no one technology, no one source of information, and no one topic that can cover everything. But to me, that’s what is exciting about it. It’s a place where having a multidisciplinary background is not only helpful, it’s essential.

• OpenStack Educational Resources Are Spreading Out

• HAMR time for Google’s MapReduce, says not-so-startup

  Like the idea of chewing on terabytes data using Google’s MapReduce but think it’s too slow, too hardware-hungry and too complicated?

  A fledgling big-data analytics venture reckons it’s got the answer – a Hadoop programming framework built using Java it claims is 20 times faster than using ordinary Hadoop and that it claims uses less data-centre hardware. It’s easier to program, too, they claim.

Databases

• NHS grows a NoSQL backbone and rips out its Oracle Spine

  The NHS has ripped the Oracle backbone from a national patient database system and inserted NoSQL running on an open-source stack.

  Spine2 has gone live following successful redevelopment including redeployment on new, x86 hardware. The project to replace Spine1 had been running for three years with Spine2 now undergoing a 45-day monitoring period.

• FoundationDB SQL Layer: Storing SQL Data in a NoSQL Database

  FoundationDB has announced the general availability of SQL Layer, and ANSI SQL engine that runs on top of their key-value store. The result is a relational database backed up by a scalable, fault-tolerant, shared-nothing, distributed NoSQL store with support for multi-key ACID transactions.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• Five free office suites for Linux

  Office suites are important productivity tools that many of us depend on day in and day out. Fortunately, we have a range of office options to choose from in Linux. Some are open source and some are not, but all are useful in their own right. Linux Links has a useful roundup of five free office suites.

CMS

• 3 Drupal education distros reviewed

  Drupal is a powerful and flexible open source content management system that powers a large number of sites on the Internet. Drupal’s flexibility means that sites built with Drupal can vary widely in form and function. In most cases, this flexibility is a benefit, but it can sometimes also be overwhelming. Growing a Drupal powered website from Drupal Core to a finished, customized site, by selecting from a wide variety of modules and themes, can be a complicated and time consuming process.

Healthcare

• Why open source is positive for healthcare

  As a clinical consultant representing a proprietary software supplier in healthcare, you may be surprised to hear that I believe the attention that open source software is receiving is positive.

  This is not because open source can solve all of the current IT challenges within the healthcare service, but because it has the potential to drive a new level of innovation throughout the industry.

• PwC-led team to offer ‘open source’ EHR to DoD

  PwC has joined forces with Medsphere, DSS, Inc. and General Dynamics Information Technology to vie for the coveted U.S. Department of Defense Healthcare Management Systems Modernization (DHMSM) electronic health record contract, and plans to merge “open source” software with commercial applications in its proposal, PwC has announced.

• PwC to Proposes Open Source EHR for DoD EHR Modernization Project

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• GNU Health patchset 2.6.3 released

• Deb Nicholson receives O’Reilly Open Source Award

  Those of you who follow MediaGoblin closely likely know of Deb Nicholson, our community manager. This post is a bit late, but nonetheless, I wanted to share something exciting that happened…

• FSF Issues Their Rebuttal To Apple’s New iPhone, Watch & Apple Pay

  John Sullivan, the Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, has commented on Apple’s much anticipated launch of the iPhone 6, Apple Pay, and the brand new product line: the Apple Watch.

• GCC 5 Will Have Full Support For Intel’s Cilk Plus

  While GCC has had Cilk Plus multi-threading support since last year that made it into GCC 4.9, with the upcoming GCC 5 release will be full support for Intel’s Cilk Plus specification.

  GCC’s C and C++ front-ends will have full Cilk Plus support for task and data parallelism. Cilk Plus is similar in concept to OpenMP with being a C/C++ programming language extension that adds multi-threaded parallel computing support. Cilk Plus provides the cilk_for, cilk_spawn, and cilk_sync programming keywords for simple yet effective parallel programming.

Openness/Sharing

• Out in the Open: A Free Platform for Building Gear on the Internet of Things

  New devices like the Nest thermostat, the Dropcam camera, and various wearables do a pretty good job of talking to the internet, letting you easily monitor and use them through online dashboards. But such tools would be so much more useful if they also traded information on their own. It’s nice if you car tires let you know when they’re low via a web dashboard. But it’s even nicer if they can tell an air compressor exactly how much air they need and whose bank account to bill for it.

• Open Data

  • Open data in education starts to show real traction

    At the Open Education Working Group we are interested in all aspects of open education, from Open Education Resources (OERs) and new learning and teaching practices, to open source tools and open licenses.

Programming

• Apache Hadoop Transitions to Git

  The Apache Infrastructure team has gotten Git migrations down pat. Just ask the Apache Hadoop project, which moved from Subversion to Git in less than 10 days.

Apple stock (AAPL) struggles after iPhone 6, Watch release (+video)

Enter The iFlop, What Will Be Seen as First Apple Failure After Steve Jobs – But the first edition Apple Watch will of course sell massively to iSheep

Today we finally had the launch of new iProducts, the two new iPhone models and the Apple Watch (aka iWatch). This blog talks about the more relevant Apple move. Not the significant upgrade to its popular iPhone line (I will discuss those in a later blog posting). This is about the other new iThing, the Apple Watch. What will eventually be known rather as the iFlop.

iPhone Payment Security

Basically, there are two kinds of credit card transactions: card-present, and card-not-present. The former is cheaper because there’s less risk of fraud. The article says that Apple has negotiated the card-present rate for its iPhone payment system, even though the card is not present. Presumably, this is because of some other security features that reduce the risk of fraud.

Will Android users switch to the iPhone 6?

Free Software Foundation statement on the new iPhone, Apple Pay, and Apple Watch

The Free Software Foundation encourages users to avoid all Apple products, in the interest of their own freedom and the freedom of those around them.

Security

• Tuesday’s security advisories

• OpenSSL Publishes its Security Policy

  OpenSSL has been having a rough go of it for some time thanks to Heartbleed and a handful of other critical vulnerabilities. Not only did those bugs put commerce and communication at risk, but they opened many people’s eyes as to how omnipresent the open source crypto implementation is.

• Poisoning Rats, Understanding Debian, and New OpenSSL Policy

Finance

• Standard Life Far Right Board

  Keith Skeoch, Executive Director of Standard Life, is on the Board of Reform Scotland, the neo-conservative lobby group which wants to abolish the minimum wage, privatize the NHS and pensions, and still further restrict trade unions.

• Royal babies, Mojang to be bought & when the best is not the always “the best”

  The UK as a rule is very quick to jump on a “welfare state” bandwagon when the public feels someone is getting an easy ride. Thankfully I’ve never needed welfare/benefits at any point in my life, but I fully support the facility to be there for those in need. The press make a very good job of demonizing those on benefits and whilst there are a minority of cases where there has been abuse/fraud of the system, the vast majority of people don’t get the “easy life” that is promoted in the press and certainly are not in that position by choice. Talking of the easy life though, there’s one family who every tax payer in the UK already pay a lot of money for. There’s one family who not only get the best in life – an almost private health care service from the NHS, get driven around, have their own security and will never want for anything in their lives. Who? The Royal Family of course.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Fact Checking Is Dead: Mainstream Media Goes Nuts Repeating Debunked Claims By The Fake ‘Inventor Of Email’

  I had honestly hoped that yesterday’s story about the Huffington Post finally retracting its series of totally bogus articles (mostly written by Shiva Ayyadurai or his colleagues and friends, but a few by its actual “journalists”), pretending to argue that V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai had “invented email,” would be the end of this story. Ayyadurai has built up quite a reputation around this false claim, even though it’s been debunked over and over and over again.

Privacy

• Targeted TV ads sell different people different stuff

  NEXT time you settle in for a night of television, pay attention to the adverts. Do they seem a little more personal than usual? If so, you are not alone – TV networks are increasingly using techniques borrowed from online advertising to show different ads to different people in the hope of better targeting customers.

  It used to be that everyone watching a channel saw the same ad at the same time, with perhaps some variation depending on your location. Now your neighbour with children could see a toy ad, while you get one for luxury cars. This week it was revealed that some US networks have started targeting people based on their voting record as political parties attempt to scoop up swing voters.

Internet/Net Neutrality

• Tech Companies Unite for Net Neutrality Activism Today

  A consortium of technology companies, many of which depend on speedy and dependable access to their websites, are launching a very public protest today against controversial proposed changes to net neutrality regulations. The Internet Association and companies ranging from Reddit to Mozilla to Automattic will use rotating “still loading” icons on protest banners to conjure up images of the slow Internet speeds they envision if the FCC does away with existing net neutrality regulations. Clicking on the banners will take users to information about net neutrality.

• Twitter, Netflix and Reddit hold net neutrality protest

  Twitter, Netflix and Reddit will take part in an “internet slowdown” protest in favour of net neutrality on Wednesday.

  They are among dozens of firms worried that proposed new regulations will mean extra charges for fast internet access.

• Internet slowdown campaign begins in less than 24 hours

  The Internet Slowdown is a SOPA-like protest to raise awareness about net neutrality in the US. The movement’s aim is for you to ring up your lawmakers to to support net neutrality in future bills that they vote on regarding net neutrality.

• The Web May Look Slow Today…

  To illustrate the point of the “fast lane/slow lane” approach proposed by the Federal Communications Commission, some of the biggest tech players today are leading a symbolic “Internet Slowdown” on their websites in what could be the largest virtual political protest since the 2012 blackouts in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

• Companies that sell network equipment to ISPs don’t want net neutrality

  IBM, Cisco, Intel, and Sandvine ask US not to regulate broadband as a utility.

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Net Neutrality (HBO)

Intellectual Monopolies

• Copyrights

  • U.S. Internet Provider Refuses to Expose Alleged Pirates

    Rightscorp, a prominent piracy monitoring firm that works with Warner Bros. and other copyright holders, wants Grande Communications to reveal the identities alleged pirates linked to 30,000 IP-addresses/timestamp combinations. Unlike other providers the Texas ISP refused to give in easily, instead deciding to fight the request in court.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

What do you hate about Linux?

Wow…just…wow. I was going to write a rebuttal to what the article had to say about Linux, but then I realized that sometimes you just have to stand back in awe…in complete awe!…at that kind of a train wreck of an article.

5 Reasons Why I Hate GNU/Linux – Do You Hate (Love) Linux?

I was recently being Interviewed by a company based in Mumbai (India). The person interviewing, asked me several questions and technologies, I have worked with. As per their requirements, I have worked with nearly half of the technologies they were looking for. A few of last conversation as mentioned below.

The personality of a Linux-loving teen

A few years ago a middle school student walked up to me and offered to help me refurbish computers with Linux to deliver to students who don’t have a computer to use at home. (I’ve been doing that kind of digital divide work for a while.) When I saw how much he already knew, I asked him, “Did one of your parents or relatives introduce you to Linux?” He replied, “No, I taught myself a lot of open source things from the web. It’s something I’m interested in.”

Achieving a technological state of independence is harder than you think

Jon ‘maddog’ Hall, President of Project Cauã and Executive Director of Linux International has called for countries to maintain technological independence by taking ownership of network construction and maintenance.

Desktop

• Kinivo releases a pair of inexpensive Linux-friendly USB wireless adapters

  Nowadays, if you buy a laptop, it will have a built-in wireless card (desktops; not always). For the most part, these integrated cards work well — on Windows. You see, most manufacturers build their machines with only Windows in mind. If you only use Microsoft’s operating system, you should be golden. However, for nerds that like Linux (including myself), nonexistent or problematic wireless drivers can be an absolute nightmare.

Server

• Why Did Docker Catch on Quickly and Why is it so Interesting?

  One reason Docker is interesting is that all four answers are each individually useful, but can be used in combination. This causes cross-pollination of ideas and patterns. For example, someone might start using Docker because they like the speed and portability, but find that they end up adopting the configuration and Docker hub patterns as well.

• How Amazon Web Services Uses Linux and Open Source

  Amazon Web Services first launched in 2006 with one instance and one operating system: Amazon Linux. The cloud computing giant has since expanded to offer customers the option of running on more than 30 instance types and more than 10 operating systems, but Linux, Xen and other open source projects remain the core technologies behind AWS.

Kernel Space

• Linux 3.18-rc4 is ‘pretty calm and small’

• Linus Torvalds Says Linux Binary Packages Are Terrible, Valve Might Save the Desktop

  One of the main problems with Linux platform fragmentation is that there are a number of concurrent binaries available for various platforms and they are not compatible with each other. Linus Torvalds explains why he thinks that the binary concept on Linux is broken and why he doesn’t use them for his projects..

• KEMP, Infinera Join OpenDaylight Open Source SDN Project

  The Linux Foundation’s OpenDaylight project for advancing open source software-defined networking (SDN) continues to grow. Infinera and KEMP Technologies are the latest additions to the initiative, which now also counts more than 220 developers.

• Intel’s Core i7 5960X Is Fast & Wonderful Under Linux

  After my first X99 motherboard burned up in a strange situation, since yesterday my Core i7 5960X Haswell-E system started working wonderfully with Linux after using a different motherboard. I’ve been hammering the system hard for the past day and no X99/i7-5960X issues have come about (albeit I’ve refrained from doing any overclocking or DDR4 tweaking yet) and this high-end $1000+ (USD) CPU is running great under Linux.

• Graphics Stack

  • Intel’s 3.0 X.Org Driver Takes Another Step Closer To Release

  • There’s One Month Until XDC2014 In Bordeaux

    Coming up in just one month is the annual developer’s conference for X.Org, which also entails Mesa, Wayland, and other Linux graphics/input related projects.

Applications

• SelekTOR: Tor GUI With Country Exit Node Selection, Useful To Bypass Country Restrictions For Various Websites

  The option to select the Tor exit nodes by country can be used to access websites which aren’t available in your country, such as Netflix, Hulu, CBS, ABC, Pandora, British TV, HBO Go and so on (these depend on your country, obviously).

• Legendary Midnight Commander Gets Major Update

  Midnight Commander is a visual file manager and a full-screen text mode application that has been around for longer than some of the readers of this material have been alive. It owes its resilience to the immense popularity it once had, and it looks like it’s making a comeback.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • How to Record System Sound with Pulse Audio and Audacity in Linux

  • Set Static IP for wifi network in Ubuntu Touch, ignore IPV6

  • Configure, Manage and Monitor “Apache Web Server” from Web Browser Using “Apache GUI” Tool

• Wine or Emulation

  • Wine 1.7.26 Brings Support for More Windows Apps and Games

    Alexandre Julliard has announced that a new development version of Wine, 1.7.26, is now available for download and testing, and it brings lots of fixes and improvements for various games and applications.

• Games

  • J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars Adventure Game to Arrive on Steam for Linux Soon – Gallery

    J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars, an adventure game developed and published by CBE Software, has been announced and will be released on Steam for Linux in a few days.

  • The Masterplan Bringing The Biggest Heist to PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam Early Access on September 15th

  • Icculus on Gaming, Splitting Linux, and Terminal Colors

    Today in Linux news, Fedora gets a new partition manager. Tom Henderson has 10 things you should know about Mint 17. Paul Venezia says it’s time to split distros into two. OpenSource.com asks, “What color is your terminal background?” Debian and FSF join forces to expand the h-node hardware database. And finally today, Michael Harrison covers recently gaming developments including an interview with Icculus.

  • Borderlands 2 for Linux in the works

    Borderlands 2 port team Aspyr Media confirmed with Gaming On Linux that the studio is developing a version for the budding PC platform. The company brought the game to Mac in November 2013.

  • Chivalry: Medieval Warfare Coming To Linux Soon

    The folks at Torn Banner Studios have posted this tantalising picture on their Facebook page…

Desktop Environments/WMs

• The Linux desktop-a-week review: ratpoison

  Normally, I would feel a little bad giving such a scathing review of a piece of software that someone, clearly, poured a great deal of time and dedication into, especially when that software is completely free and Open Source. But not for ratpoison. If it is possible for a small piece of software to be one man’s nemesis…I have found mine.

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • Akademy Award Winners 2014

    The talks weekend at Akademy finished with the traditional announcing of the Akademy Awards, our recognition of the stars of KDE. The winners are selected by those who received the award the previous year.

  • Qt 5.4 Alpha Available

    Qt 5.4 release process is ongoing and we now have the Qt 5.4 Alpha release available. As always, the Alpha is in source code only. Binary installers will be available in a few weeks with the Beta release. Features of Qt 5.4 are now frozen and in the next months the focus is in finalising and polishing functionality. To give an overview what is coming with Qt 5.4, I’ll summarise the highlights of the Qt 5.4 Alpha release.

  • Qt 5.4 Alpha Shows Off Graphics Improvements, New Qt WebEngine

    The Qt 5.4 Alpha is out today as the first development milestone in the Qt 5.4 series. Qt 5.4 Alpha features full support for Qt for WinRT, graphics improcements, Android style for Qt Quick Controls, Qt Bluetooth now supports BlueZ 5, the new Qt WebEngine is integrated and based off Chromium 37, and there’s also a new Qt WebChannel module. Other new Qt 5.4 features are covered in this earlier article.

  • Akademy 2014 Day 2 Talks

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • Drawing Web content with OpenGL (ES 3.0) instanced rendering

    There is one important conclusion coming out from these experiments: The fact that a rasterizer is normally stateless makes it very inefficient to modify a single element in a scene.

  • GNOME APPS IN THREE DIMENSIONAL SPACE

    The release of GNOME 3.14 is getting closer and closer and I’m trying my best to have the a video ready for release. The manuscript is still open for revision but is at its final stages. Voice-over should finish around next week or so. And in the meantime I am testing a new workflow in Blender.

Distributions

• It’s time to split Linux distros in two

  For decades, Microsoft has released completely separate operating systems for desktops and servers. They certainly share plenty of code, but you cannot turn a Windows 7 system into a Windows Server 2008 RC2 system simply installing a few packages and uninstalling others. The desktop and the server are completely different, and they are treated as such across the board.

• Void Linux Drops Systemd & Switches To LibreSSL

  Back in June of 2013 we covered Void Linux as a new rolling-release Linux distribution built from scratch but since then we haven’t come across much Void Linux news until a few days ago when a Phoronix reader wrote in about the latest progress with this interesting Linux distribution.

• New Releases

  • Manjaro 0.8.10 Gets Update Pack, Users Now Have the Beautiful and Light Budgie Desktop

    sManjaro 0.8.10 was released on June 9, so it’s not really an old operating system. In fact, for most people, this is quite a recent version, but the developers always make sure that they have the latest and most interesting applications installed.

  • OpenELEC 4.2 Beta 6 Is a Bleeding Edge Distro That Runs on Almost Anything

    OpenELEC, an embedded operating system built specifically to run XBMC, the open source entertainment media hub, has been upgraded to version 4.2 Beta 6.

    The OpenELEC developers are not staying idly by and now they’ve released a new version of their system, although it looks like they are no longer closely following the XBMC launches. Until now, the two seemed to be linked, at least in terms of releases, but XBMC already has a stable version out and OpenELEC is not following.

    On the other hand, XBMC is actually just a media hub and OpenELEC is an operating system, which is much more complex. It needs a lot more adjusting and there are numerous packages that need to be upgraded, fixed, and added.

• Gentoo Family

  • Gentoo Linux 20140826 Iron Penguin Edition — open source fans, download now!

    There are so many Linux distributions to choose from. Depending on your perspective, this can be a good or bad thing. You see, for many, using Linux is about choice — you get to choose the distro, packages and environment. There is truth to this; however, many others, including myself, often wonder if the community’s efforts are too fragmented. In other words, when talent is spread thin, progress may be slowed.

• Red Hat Family

  • Former Red Hat executive Brian Stevens lands at Google

  • In the OpenStack Race, Red Hat’s Advantage Remains Support

    Red Hat is on track to be the big winner in the OpenStack cloud computing race, at least it is according to a report from Steve Ashley of Baird Equity Research. Its abiity to cater to datacenters and its long experience dealing with the open source community are primary reasons why, according to Ashley. Ashley sees the data center market as waiting on OpenStack to mature, after which deployments will pick up in a big way.

  • How Red Hat and the open-source community are fortifying Docker

    As Docker has exploded in popularity, so too has the open-source community around it. Now, as more and more large enterprise software companies jump on the Docker bandwagon, the community is tackling some of the larger issues behind the emerging technology, namely container security.

  • Xen & Docker: Made for Each Other

    Containers and hypervisors are often seen as competing technologies – enemies even. But in reality the two technologies are complementary and increasingly used together by developers and admins. This recent Linux.com article talked about this supposed battle, noting however that developers are using Docker in traditional VMs to bolster security. Containers allow users to develop and deploy a variety of applications with incredible efficiency, while virtualization eliminates any constraints and/or exposure to outside attacks.

  • Analyst: Why Red Hat will win OpenStack

    While broad adoption is still two or three years off, Raleigh-based Red Hat is poised to be the big winner in OpenStack.

    That’s according to a new report issued today by Steve Ashley of Baird Equity Research, detailing why the cloud computing software platform is a big deal for the open source software company – even though it’s not winning the bulk of early projects.

  • Fedora

    • Where do we stand at 45 days before FUDCon Managua 2014

      Last week we had a meeting with the Universidad de Ciencias Comerciales to check logistics. We confirmed most of what was agreed at the first time.

    • Flock 2014 survey results and responses

      OpenELEC, an embedded operating system built specifically to run XBMC, the open source entertainment media hub, has been upgraded to version 4.2 Beta 6.

      The OpenELEC developers are not staying idly by and now they’ve released a new version of their system, although it looks like they are no longer closely following the XBMC launches. Until now, the two seemed to be linked, at least in terms of releases, but XBMC already has a stable version out and OpenELEC is not following.

• Debian Family

  • FSF and Debian join forces to help free software users find the hardware they need

    The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Debian project today announced cooperation to expand and enhance h-node [1], a database to help users learn and share information about computers that work with free software operating systems.

  • FSF and Debian join forces to help free software users find the hardware they need

    The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Debian Project today announced cooperation to expand and enhance h-node, a database to help users learn and share information about computers that work with free software operating systems.

  • Debian & The FSF Launch A Linux Hardware Database

    The Free Software Foundation and Debian have hooked up to help free software users in the search for finding Linux compatible hardware… In a different approach from the other Linux compatibility lists and hardware databases, they are only promoting hardware that doesn’t require any proprietary software or firmware.

  • Understanding The Complicated Debian

    Phoronix reader Claudio Ferreira wrote in to share a very large infographic he’s made about Debian. The infographic is the result of his lecture on the Debian project and it tries to address the public difficulty in fully understanding all of the work. Covered in the “Understanding Debian” infographic is everything from its various repositories to looking at the developer count to getting involved and the yearly Debian conferences and releases.

  • Infographic of Debian

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • How the Terminal makes Ubuntu Touch worth using

        Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference. Even something that seems completely inconsequential can take a project from “meh” to “awesome” with astonishing speed.

        Take Ubuntu Touch, for example.

        There is much about that system that I love. It’s mostly Open Source (with very few exceptions) and allows me to have a Debian-based Linux distro right in the palm of my hands. Being able to “sudo apt-get install” on the go is just so incredibly handy. Damn near brings a tear to my eye.

      • Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) to Get Much Better 3G Mobile Modem Support

        One of the problems with Ubuntu that seems to be mentioned quite a lot is the proper lack of support for mobile modems. This might not look like a big problem, but the mobile modems are being used on a much larger scale than 2 or 3 years ago and the rate of adoption for this kind of devices is not slowing down.

      • Ubuntu Devs Close procmail Vulnerability in All Supported Ubuntu OSes

        Canonical has released details in a security notice about a procmail vulnerability in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS operating systems that has been found and fixed.

      • Operating System U: A new Linux based OS with a firm focus on you the user and functionality over UI overhauls, hits KickStarter

        There’s isn’t probably a piece of software that is as hated as Windows 8′s Metro UI. Some seasoned Windows enthusiasts like it, but most of the normal day-to-day user had a hard time getting used to it. Operating System U is being readied with the regular user in mind, and is based on Manjaro Linux. A quick overview of the project.

      • Flavours and Variants

        • 10 things you need to know about Linux Mint 17

          Linux Mint 17 continues in a line of Linux desktop-focused releases, and in testing we found it’s become more mature than prior versions. There’s something here to please everyone. Civilians won’t hurt themselves deploying Cinnamon over Linux Mint 17. Developers will enjoy any of the versions, and the hard core will find lots to love with the LMDE versions.

        • For a sweet desktop, try Mint with Cinnamon

        • Linux Mint to Receive Folder Emblems and a Better Nemo Toolbar

          Linux Mint developers are making a real effort to improve the look of their operating system and they are integrating all sorts of new features that will make their distribution more interesting and much more attractive to new users as well.

Devices/Embedded

• Raspberry Pi-powered in-car computer project shifts up a gear

  After watching classic TV shows such as Knight Rider and Street Hawk in his youth, IT professional and Raspberry Pi enthusiast Derek Knaggs was inspired to create a low-cost in-car computer using a Raspberry Pi.

• Linux-ready modules support range of Xilinx FPGAs

• Phones

  • Tizen SDK Updated for the Gear S

    By now, you’ve probably seen the news about the Tizen-based Gear S smartwatch that was unveiled at IFA. Aside from having a massive curved screen (for a watch, at least), it also has GSM connectivity, meaning it can truly function as a standalone device.

    If you’re an app developer and that didn’t get you excited, you should probably get someone to check your pulse (or I suppose you can have the Gear do it for you). We’ve talked in the tech industry about convergence devices for years, and this is exactly the sort of device we mean. And yes, various things have been getting cellular connectivity for years, but aside from phones, it’s really only a recent trend that companies are legitimately working to build third party app ecosystems around these devices.

  • Tizen Samsung Gear S to launch with some impressive Apps

    The Smartwatch market is certainly going to be a lucrative space for the companies that can be first to release their products, go through the lessons learnt cycle, and also be able to build a viable application ecosystem on top of it, which shouldn’t be confused with standard smartphone apps, as not all apps translate well to your wrist, and therefore you don’t need as many. No one is going to want to edit a picture on their wrist on the move, even if they can !!!

  • Ballnux

    • Diesel Black Gold brings you a new Samsung Gear S fashion device

      The Tizen Samsung Gear S is a thing of beauty and has already been adorned with Swarovski crystals, but fashion doesn’t stop there. Samsung has teamed up with Diesel Black Gold on a bracelet that will be shown off at the Spring ’15 show later on today. The Diesel Black Gold’s interpretation is said to be decidedly more downtown with an up-to-date feel. The inspiration was by the creative director Andreas Melbostad and the material of choice was Leather.

  • Android

    • Nexus 5 2014 with Android Lion leaked in benchmark test

      Is Android L going to be called Lion? We’ve no certainty of that and the following information should be taken with a grain of salt, but supposedly, Google might choose Lion as the identifier for the new Android OS. Lemon Meringue Pie and Lollipop might also be among the names Google is pondering upon, but we don’t know which is the one that will stick.

    • Introducing dspec

      With all the recent focus on baseline grids, keylines, and spacing markers from Android’s material design, I found myself wondering how I could make it easier to check the correctness of my Android UI implementation against the intended spec.

    • Best Android Apps for Recording and Editing Music on the Go

      Whether you are a celebrated film composer or a perpetual dabbler into the aural arts, creating good music brings joy that can rarely be described in words. Over the years, the process of creating music has undergone a major transformation. Where old singers used to meticulously scribble musical notes on crumpled sheets of paper, we now find musicians with iPads and earphones. In fact, technology has taken over music editing so much that you can even create a complete symphony just by using a computer.

    • Android hardhat augments reality for industrial workers

      Eyewear computers like Google Glass may be the wave of the future, but in the meantime, their most compelling role is for applications where having free hands is a necessity more than a convenience. This goes for motorcycle riders, as in the Skully P1 helmet, as well as many industrial workers.

    • Are Android apps putting your privacy at risk?

    • Google Re-Connects Disconnect App In Google Playstore

    • Google Backtracks, Puts Banned App ‘Discconnect Mobile’ Back Into The Play Store

    • VR headset mixes Oculus firmware and Android phablet

      Samsung and Oculus have joined forces on a 3DOF “Gear VR” virtual reality headset with 96° FOV that uses a 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4 as a computer and display.

    • Amazon brings Prime Instant Video to all Android phones

      Amazon is finally giving Android users a way to watch movies and TV shows from Prime Instant Video on their phone. That should be pretty good news for Amazon Prime subscribers, as they’ve long been able to stream onto most other major platforms — the iPhone included — while Android has remained left out.

SECURE EMAIL PROVIDER TUTANOTA GOES OPEN SOURCE

A number of “NSA proof” e-mail services are currently in later stages of development or private beta, but there’s one that seems to be ahead of the game: Germany-based Tutanota. The end-to-end encrypted e-mail provider announced Tuesday that they had released their source code on GitHub, claiming to be the first operational, secure e-mail application to go open source.

Why open source and collaboration are the future of security

In this podcast recorded at Black Hat USA 2014, Greg Martin, CTO at ThreatStream, talks about why open source and collaboration are the key drivers of information security innovation. He raises an important question – what will happen if we don’t start actively sharing information?

Free and Open Source Cloud Tools Proliferate

It has been a good week for open source cloud tools. Predictive analytics leader RapidMiner announced the introductory release of RapidMiner Cloud to make analytics more convenient as it allows users to store, manage, and deploy analytics in the cloud, with the ease of a single button. Then cloud API integration and aggregation service, Cloud Elements announced the launch of Filebrowser.io, a free, open source, cloud file browser.

Web Browsers

• Chrome

  • Chrome Team Experiments with Updated Password Manager

    Despite all the headlines generated by security breaches where hackers gain access to personal and business information and data, the biggest problem on the security front remains people. Among many careless practices that lots of people have, they often don’t set strong passwords or vary their passwords.

• Mozilla

  • Mozilla certification revocation: 107,000 websites sunk by untrusted torpedo

    Over 107,000 websites have been consigned to the depths of the untrusted internet after Mozilla’s move last week to allow its 1024-bit certificates to expire.

  • Firefox Beta Gets Built-In WebRTC Video Calls On Desktop, Chromecast And Roku Video Casting On Android

    On Android, the main addition is Chromecast and Roku video casting support. When you play a video on a site like CNN that serves up (mobile) videos through an HTML5 player and doesn’t use Flash (and your Roku or Chromecast are up and running), you can now stream your mobile video right to your TV in the living room. For Chromecast users, that should work without any major setup. Roku users will have to install the Firefox channel on their device, though.

  • Firefox 33 Beta Has Improved Session Restore, Better Search, and More Tiles – Gallery

SaaS/Big Data

• OwnCloud: Fiddly but secure host-from-home sync ‘n’ share

  Phones in our pockets, tablets down our sofas, and laptops in our bags. Never have we had so many devices in our possession. It makes sense to start syncing and sharing folders and data between them – not just for the sake of convenience, but for our sanity.

  Many companies are offering to bridge the connection gap – from Apple, Google and Dropbox to dozens of smaller companies. The common theme between them all is that they host your data.

  With so many options, which one should you choose?

  Most offer roughly the same features: typically a device-side client that automatically syncs your files to the server, some means of sharing those files and integration with third-party apps. The latter is less important than it used to be now most mobile operating systems have a means to pass files between applications.

Education

• Students power this open source high school

  Side alleys can certainly look dark and intimidating at first. As we prepared for our open source high school 1:1 student laptop program and a supporting student peer help desk, my team and I knew we were off the main road, without GPS. Student tech support teams are somewhat uncommon in United States high schools. On top of that, Linux and open source software rarely makes an appearance in classroom desktops, let alone on 1700 laptops that would travel with our students in school and to their homes. What wasn’t surprising is that when students are unchained from scripted curriculum and given the freedom to learn based on personal interests and passions, our kids rise to the occasion in unique and powerful ways.

Business

• A newbie’s understanding of enterprise open source

  Coming from a pure belief and understanding in proprietary solutions to the open source industry, I was asking the question: why pay for something that I can get for free? I’m sure I am not the only one asking the question, says Mercia Oosthuizen, product manager at Linux Warehouse.

  After some reading, exploring and ample questioning, I came to a conclusion…

  I am going to start my explanation and understanding of enterprise open source with a personal experience. It’s non-technology-related, but that made sense to my non-technical mind.

• Semi-Open Source

  • Chef 12 blends open-source, commercial versions

  • Chef 12 goes freemium with single open source codebase and premium enterprise features

    Chef, the company behind the powerful IT automation software for DevOps with the same name, has announced a new freemium business model that merges the software’s existing open source codebase with premium services built for enterprise clients. This change comes in conjunction with the release of Chef 12, which delivers a constellation of new features including further support for Windows PowerShell, VMware vSphere and vCloud, and Docker integration.

BSD

• Intel Releases Updated Cilk Plus LLVM Compiler

  Intel has shipped an updated version of their Cilk Plus code compiler that’s built atop LLVM.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Compiler wars: LLVM and GCC compete on speed, security

  LLVM has also recently inspired a project named Vellvm, where the design of the program and its output are both formally verified. The compiler’s input and production can then be independently proven as consistent to defend against introduced bugs. The CompCert compiler already does this, but only for C; a formally verified version of LLVM could in theory do this for any language.

• Glibc 2.20 Has Performance Improvements, File Description Locks

  Glibc 2.20 has various s390/s390x changes, support for file description locks, various performance improvements (particularly for ARMv7 and AArch64), the removal of the AM33 port, and numerous bug and security fixes.

• The GNU C Library version 2.20 is now available

• Interview with GNU remotecontrol

  GNU remotecontrol is a web application serving as a management tool for reading from and writing to multiple IP enabled heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) thermostats, and other building automation devices. While various IP thermostat manufacturers have offered web portals exclusively for their users to remotely access and adjust the settings of individual thermostats, they do not provide a unified management tool for multiple thermostats. The goal of GNU remotecontrol is to provide this management tool for individuals and companies alike.

Openness/Sharing

• Deconstructing the open cloud, the OpenStack Trove roadmap, and more

• Architecture student’s open source experience makes her more open minded

• Open Access/Content

  • Open-Source Texts Take Root At Md. Colleges

    An experiment with open-source online textbooks at several Maryland universities last semester yielded promising results, and officials are preparing to expand the program this fall.

    The University System of Maryland designed the Maryland Open-Source Textbook (MOST) Initiative to evaluate the feasibility of using online materials instead of printed books to ease the cost of purchasing multiple textbooks each year.

• Open Hardware

  • Students build smart devices and scientific instruments with Arduino

    Arduino is an open source microcontroller for prototyping electronic devices. It can be connected to a wide array of inexpensive sensors to collect data. These data can be saved to an SD card, passed back to a PC, or uploaded to the cloud for further processing. An Arduino can actuate motors, creating scientific instruments that move as well as sense. As Massimo Banzi, co-inventor of Arduino, showed in his TED talk, middle and high school students can capably create scientific instruments with Arduino. He gives examples of students who have created earthquake sensors, pH meters, and a wide variety of robots.

Programming

• College Degree vs. Coding Experience: Which Matters More?

  Simple coding is one thing, but “it is well-known in computer science that calculus and logical thinking are necessary for complex coding solutions,” Saenz pointed out, and those are part of the major as well.

‘Pastafarian’ allowed to wear spaghetti strainer on her head in driving licence photo because it is classed as ‘religious headgear’

A female driver in Oklahoma was allowed to pose for her driver’s license wearing a spaghetti strainer on her head because it falls under the state’s rules for religious headwear.

Security

• Security advisories for Monday

• Mobile devices: A remote control to the Insecurity of Things

  A toilet that can track your digestive health. Home-care digital companions. Robotic furniture that helps you up and down. According to myriad predictions, the future is looking, well, futuristic for the elderly. Another estimate examines the potential of smart grids for distributing electricity, smart cities that optimize everything from utility usage to parking and traffic flow, and smart refrigerators that tell you what to buy at the grocery store and smart washers and dryers that tell customer service agents when they need repairs.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• Ex-CIA chief says targeted killings key to stopping Islamic State

  A former Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is convinced that targeted killings, already employed by U.S. military forces in parts of the Middle East, are key to any U.S. strategy for confronting Islamic State militants.

• You Can’t Stop ISIS Simply by Killing Its Leader

  The New Republic’s Graeme Wood recently made a boldly obvious declaration: the U.S. should try really, really hard to hunt down and kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State, lest his power grows into something unstoppable. Bravo to Mr. Wood for that clear statement of purpose, but does he really believe the United States isn’t already trying to do this?

• NSA helped track Kurds for massacre in Turkey

  We now know that a massacre of 40 Kurdish workers on December 28, 2011 was accomplished with aid from the US. Tracking courtesy of NSA was revealed by Edward Snowden, and published by Der Spiegel on Sunday. PM Erdogen understands how to declare his political opponents as “terrorist’ and have them vanquished by the US.

• Former CIA Representative: Militia in Ukraine Not Pro-Russian, but Anti-Coup

  Independence supporters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR) People’s Republics are not pro-Russian separatists, but anti-coup protesters, Former CIA representative David Speedie told RIA Novosti on Monday.

  “I don’t think those folks that speak Russian, have Russian roots in east Ukraine want to separate themselves from Ukraine, I don’t think Russia wants them. They are not pro-Russia separatists, they are anti-coup, and that’s what we should call them,” Director at the US Global Engagement Program, Carnegie Council for Ethics, David Speedie said.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• What Federal Ruling Against BP Means for Oil Drilling’s Future

  More than four years after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew, killing 11 workers and causing the devastating Gulf oil spill—the worst in U.S. history—a federal judge has placed the blame squarely on BP.

  On Thursday, a judge for the U.S. District Court of Eastern Louisiana issued a ruling that BP exhibited “gross negligence” and “willful misconduct” in the lead-up to the April 2010 explosion and spill.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• CMD Reporting on Walker Dark Money Criminal Probe

Censorship

• Inside Europe’s censorship machinery

  Three months ago, I tried hacking Google’s implementation of Europe’s “right to be forgotten.” For those of you who haven’t followed recent developments in censorship, the right to be forgotten is a European requirement that “irrelevant or outdated” information be excluded from searches about individuals. The doctrine extends even to true information that remains on the internet. And it is enforced by the search engines themselves, operating under a threat of heavy liability. That makes the rules particularly hard to determine, since they’re buried in private companies’ decisionmaking processes. So to find out how this censorship regime works in practice, I sent several takedown requests to Google’s British search engine, google.co.uk. (Europe has not yet demanded compliance from US search engines, like Google.com, but there are persistent signs that it wants to.)

Privacy

• Silicon Valley’s Washington problem

• your data

  A few thoughts reflecting on Sen. Wyden’s not quite proposal. As noted on HN there’s some question of exactly what your data is. Is it information you created (or otherwise control) or is it information about you? Is it an email you composed by typing on a keyboard or is it a log entry created by an autonomous system of whose existence you are unaware? The thornier issues of what the government can or cannot do are best deferred until this basic question is answered.

  A complete your data test would likely involve several factors, much like the fair use test does, and be decided on a case by case basis. For starters, though, we can begin by asking one question. To what extent can you describe the data? The owner of some data is likely to be the party that can describe the data (and importantly, its format) most accurately and completely. This is the tried and true Lost and Found test. “Hey, I lost my iPod.” “Can you describe it?” If the hotel concierge has a green iPod, but I tell them I lost a black iPod, it’s probably not mine.

• Snowden will be safe in Switzerland if he testifies against NSA surveillance

  According to Swiss media, a document titled “What rules are to be followed if Edward Snowden is brought to Switzerland and then the United States makes an extradition request” exists and that in it the Swiss Attorney General stated that Snowden could be guaranteed safety if he arrives in the country to testify.

• Tech Industry Tries Again on Surveillance Reform

  With Congress back to work in Washington this week, the technology industry is pushing senators to pass legislation that would rein in National Security Agency surveillance and make its work more transparent.

  Groups that represent Apple Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other major tech companies on Monday urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to support an updated version of the USA Freedom Act to reform the NSA. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., released the modified bill during the last week of July, before lawmakers headed home for a five-week recess.

• Tech industry groups ask Senate to ‘swiftly pass’ NSA curbs

  The coalition of tech industry groups say the NSA’s surveillance practices have led to an erosion of trust that was affecting their business abroad

• Tech industry wants NSA muzzled

  The tech industry has penned a stiffly worded letter to leaders in the US Senate, to ask them to pass the USA Freedom Act which will bring to an end the collection of bulk domestic phone data by the National Security Agency. The letter is signed by the anti-software piracy group BSA, Computer and Communications Industry Association, Information Technology Industry Council, Reform Government Surveillance and the Software and Information Industry Association. It was sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Republican Leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell.

• US tech industry steps up push on surveillance reforms

• Google a target of Europe’s criticism of US tech dominance

  Anger over mass data collection by the US government has only amplified the concerns. Jeremie Zimmerman, a co-founder of the French Internet activist group La Quadrature du Net, said that when people told him now that they worked for Google, he says, “How do you like working for the NSA,” referring to the National Security Agency.

• Privacy group takes Five Eyes spy pact case to Europe’s top court

  British spy agency GCHQ has rejected freedom of information requests from Privacy International regarding documents that describe the Anglophone pact, so now the activists are taking the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.

• ‘Five Eyes’ surveillance pact should be published, Strasbourg court told

  The secret “Five Eyes” treaty that authorises intelligence sharing between the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand should be published, according to an appeal lodged on Tuesday at the European court of human rights.

• US intelligence agencies could spy on behalf of corporations: Edward Snowden leak

• US espionage helps American corporations

  A secret 2009 report issued by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s office has indicated that U.S. spying on economic activity is done to benefit American corporations.

• NSA Reform Will Likely Have to Wait Until After the Election

• Bill to Curtail NSA Surveillance Likely on Hold Until After the Election

• Congress won’t touch NSA reform until after midterms, may wait until 2015 – report

• Report: Congress won’t shut down NSA database this year

  Despite widespread support, a bill that would put limits on widespread surveillance is unlikely to get a vote before the elections—or even after them.

  According to National Journal, the USA Freedom Act, which would essentially stop the government’s bulk collection of telephone call data, is flailing. The bill is struggling despite the fact that it won a stunning new supporter last week: Director of Intelligence James Clapper, one of the top defenders of the surveillance programs.

• NSA Reform Will Likely Wait Until After the Election

• NSA reform bill is on hold. Should it include retroactive immunity for Snowden?

• States Enable Federal Collection of Biometric Data: We Can Stop It

  Fifteen states are giving drivers’ license images and data to the federal government, according to a new document released by The Intercept, providing another indication of how intertwined states governments have become with the federal surveillance state.

  According to a PrivacySOS blog post, “Documents posted by The Intercept show that 22 percent of contributions to the [Directorate of Terrorist Identities] biometric database come from domestic law enforcement agencies in the United States: 13 percent from DHS, and 9 percent from the FBI.”

• GOP Senate challenger calls for spy court reform

  Virginia’s Republican Senate candidate Ed Gillespie wants to change the secretive spy court that approves operations at the National Security Agency.

• A Case for Edward Snowden’s Immunity

• Clouding the issue

  The raid and dissemination of personal images of actress Jennifer Lawrence from her iCloud account, among others, is appalling. To say people should not upload their most personal pictures to cloud storage (or anywhere else) in case it gets hacked could be said to be victim-blaming.

• Snowden Could Testify in Switzerland

• Fake cellphone towers may intercept phone calls and text messages

  Seventeen “fake” cellphone towers dotted across the U.S. were discovered just in the last few weeks, including two in Florida, and more are being found, according to Popular Science.

• NSA scandal tarnishes UK cloud industry

  One in 10 UK businesses has switched cloud provider since the NSA scandal last summer, according to new research, which claims the revelations have prompted almost half of organisations to change the way they use cloud.

  The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) questioned 250 senior business and IT decision makers as part of its research, which found security is the number-one reason holding companies back from moving certain applications to the cloud.

  Data privacy and data sovereignty were the second and third-most-important issues on the minds of those surveyed, but the CIF claimed not all their worries were necessary.

• Bush-Era Dragnet Memos Show ‘Virtually Unlimited’ Presidential Power

  The Justice Department on Friday released two legal memos written during the Bush administration justifying the National Security Agency surveillance program that spied on American citizens’ phone calls and emails shortly after the terrorist attacks in 2001, the Washington Post reports.

• Edward Snowden Could Ditch Russia For Another Country

• Snowden Could Testify Against NSA in Switzerland

• Switzerland will host Edward Snowden, if he testifies against the NSA

• Switzerland ‘could grant Edward Snowden asylum if he testifies against NSA’

• Switzerland ‘unlikely to extradite Snowden’, if he appears for NSA testimony

  In the document, titled “What rules are to be followed if Edward Snowden is brought to Switzerland and then the United States makes an extradition request,” Switzerland’s Attorney General stated that Snowden could be guaranteed safety if he arrives in the country to testify, Sonntags Zeitung reported.

• Snowden shouldn’t be extradited to US if he testifies about NSA spying, says Swiss gov

• Norway MP Michael Tetzschner: ‘If Edward Snowden Wins Nobel Peace Prize, We Must Arrest Him’

  A Norwegian politician has said that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden must be arrested if he goes to Norway in the event that he wins the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.

  Snowden has been nominated for the Peace Prize as support grows for him to win the award following his release of documents which exposed the controversial US government survelliance program.

  Michael Tatzschner, MP of the Right Wing Party, told Norway’s second biggest publication Dagbladet that winning the prize would not mean that he would be exempt from arrest.

• US espionage helps American corporations

• US planned industrial espionage against China, Russia: report

  Though the United States claims that it does not engage in economic and industrial espionage to benefit American corporations, a secret document issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed that Washington had plans to steal information from corporations in China, Russia, India and Iran, says the Intercept, a news platform established to report on the documents released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

• Five Eyes spy pact: Transparency challenge lodged at European rights court

  The cross-border ‘Five Eyes’ agreement that authorizes the sharing of intelligence between Britain, America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand should be made transparent, according to an appeal launched at the European Court of Human Rights.

  The secret Five Eyes spy pact allegedly outlines UK security services’ collaboration with the National Security Agency (NSA) and other foreign intelligence agencies. In an effort to shed light on the agreement, Privacy International (PI) issued a legal challenge against the British government in the Strasbourg-based court. The application was filed by UK law firm Leigh Day & Co Solicitors.

• MP urges ‘nationalization’ of Google over security fears

  A ruling party lawmaker has said he will press for Google to register a subsidiary in Russia and comply with all Russian laws after uncovering the software giant’s alleged cooperation with foreign security services.

• Committee to Protect Journalists Launches US Anti-Surveillance Campaign

  The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling on the White House to support journalists’ right to gather and report the news in the digital age through a campaign published on their official website on Tuesday.

  “If journalists cannot communicate in confidence with sources, they cannot do their jobs,” the campaign said.

• Is The U.S Government And NSA Engaging In Economic Espionage?

  One would normally associate espionage activities with Jason Bourne. However the U.S are trying hard to blur the lines between fantasy and reality. The U.S Government have repeatedly tried to distance itself from the media, public and conspiracy theorists that they engage in economic and industrial espionage. They have distanced themselves in an effort to distinguish its own spying from China’s infiltrations of Google, Nortel, and other corporate targets.

• Freshly released GISWatch reports address surveillance

  The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos) last Thursday released the annual Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) report covering the state of digital surveillance around the globe. The 2014 collection uses the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance (“the Principles”) to frame the surveillance conversation, with a number of thematic reports reports along with reports on 59 countries.

  Thematic topics include the relevance of communications surveillance to cybersecurity and how liability for intermediaries, including search engines and social media, enables government surveillance. The compilation of reports aims to show the pervasiveness of digital surveillance and provide recommendations for addressing human rights violations.

• The Government-Academia Complex and Big Data Religion

  This was the summer of our discontent with big data. First came the news of the Facebook experiment manipulating the emotions of almost 700,000 of its users in the name of big data “science.” Then the Guardian told us about similar studies paid for by DARPA, the advanced research arm of the Department of Defense (DoD), in which researchers communicated with “unwitting participants in order to track and study how they responded.” And new NSA-related revelations continued to pop up throughout the summer, including a Washington Post investigation revealing that ordinary Internet users far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the NSA from U.S. digital networks and Snowden telling Wired about MonsterMind, an NSA cyberwarfare program accessing virtually all private communications coming in from overseas to people in the U.S.

• After US Cyber Revelations, China Looks Inwards – Analysis

  China polices its internet through a variety of means. It blocks western websites like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and now even Google. It keeps a sharp watch and censors what appears on its Internet. The “great firewall” of China employs a variety of tactics to censor the Internet and block access to foreign content. The technique is not to block individual websites, but to scan URLs and web page content and blacklist keywords that are deemed inconvenient.

• The camera never blinks

  Thanks to the NSA wiretapping of the Bush and Obama administrations, some version of Big Brother is indeed monitoring Americans just about any time they talk on the phone or send an email.

• ‘Trusted Third Parties’ Add One More Link In The Supply Chain Between Your Data And Government Requests

  Just how many entities have their hands on your data when the NSA makes requests? Well, it’s not just the service providers and any number of analysts at the NSA. There’s a whole industry subset of third parties that actually handle requests, implement wiretaps, direct searches for communications/data and deliver this information to the intelligence agency.

Civil Rights

• Bank clients of Middle Eastern descent want answers on closed accounts

  From Washington state to Florida, surprising letters from banks have turned up in the mailboxes of at least a dozen people.

  The message in each case: Your bank account is being closed. What frustrates the recipients is not only that they are all of Middle Eastern descent — leading them to suspect discrimination — but that the banks refused to provide the reason for kicking them out.

• Police intelligence targets cash

  Reports on drivers, training by firm fueled law enforcement aggressiveness

• Government Agencies Can Come After Your Paycheck If You Don’t Pay Your FOIA Fees

  The struggle to force the government to behave in a transparent fashion often runs through the FOIA process. When the government responds, it often takes out meaningful information by abusing FOIA exemptions. When the government doesn’t respond, the “free” request becomes a rather expensive trip through the nation’s courts.

• Silk Road Discovery Not Result Of NSA Spying, Feds Say

• FBI Lied About How it Obtained Silk Road Server Location Says Security Expert

  A security expert claims the FBI is lying about how it located the Icelandic server hosting the Silk Road underground drugs bazaar.

• FBI reveals how it discovered the geographic location of Silk Road web servers

• The FBI revealed how it found the Silk Road servers. Was the search legal?

  The downfall of the multibillion-dollar online drug market known as Silk Road was due to a simple programming error that allowed the FBI to glean the whereabouts of its servers. That’s according to a document filed last week by the FBI in the case against Ross Ulbricht, the suspected creator of the multibillion-dollar online drug market. Ulbricht was arrested in October in a San Francisco public library, accused of being the man behind the online nom de guerre Dread Pirate Roberts, Silk Road’s founder and operator.

• EU-Azerbaijan: Reaffirm Commitment To Promote Democracy And Human Rights

  European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle met with the representatives of the Civil Society in Azerbaijan on Monday in Baku to stress the importance the EU attaches to the Civil Society as a partner for the authorities in the country, as a partner for the EU as well as in the framework of the Eastern Partnership.

• Police Muscle Up at “Urban Shield” Convention in Oakland

  Most of America first learned about the militarization of U.S. police forces when officers showed up at Ferguson, Missouri, civil rights rallies in body armor, carrying assault rifles and shields, accompanied by armored vehicles with heavy weapons.

  Although the Pentagon has doled out $4.3 billion worth of military weapons and gear to local cops over the past 15 years or so, it hadn’t quite registered with folks that the peace officers serving their communities were becoming increasingly inclined to treat them as enemies on a battlefield.

• CIA Employed “Medieval” Torture that Brought Prisoners “to the Point of Death”

  The CIA engaged in brutal torture that brought prisoners to the brink of death, according to a report published over the weekend in the British newspaper, the Telegraph. The methods used far exceed what has been previously acknowledged by the CIA and the Bush and Obama administrations.

• Feinstein: CIA torture report will be delayed as Democrats decide redactions

  The public release of a long-awaited US Senate report detailing the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation techniques could be held up for weeks as the Senate Intelligence Committee and Obama administration negotiate what material can be included in the document, the committee’s chairwoman said on Monday.

  The committee had hoped to release its 600-page summary of the report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of tactics many label as “torture” before Congress left for its August recess, a target that was pushed to September as discussions continued.

• Petition calls on Obama stop intimidation of journalists and whistleblowers

  The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the New York-based press freedom body, has launched a petition today calling on President Obama’s administration to respect journalists’ right to gather and report news.

  The petition, “Right to report in the digital age”, makes three key demands of the US government:

  It should prohibit the hacking and surveillance of journalists and media organisations; it must limit prosecutions that ensnare journalists and intimidate whistleblowers; and it must halt the harassment of journalists at the US border.

• THE CALL: JOURNALISM UNDER FIRE

  The digital age has provided an abundance of new channels for journalists to access and distribute information. Yet the revelation that some journalists have been under surveillance has placed a heavy burden on the freedom of the press. This along with the distressing fact that 34 journalists, four in the last month including ISIS hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff, have been killed this year alone, as reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has exposed a current plight of the press.

• Napolitano: It feels like 1984

  Public officials — who are supposed to be our public servants — routinely behave as if they are our masters. They reject the confines of the Constitution, they don’t believe that our rights are inalienable, and they fail to see the dangerous path down which they are leading us.

Internet/Net Neutrality

• Wi-Fi Should Scare the Hell out of Verizon and AT&T

  A major threat looms over wireless carriers that have invested billions in lightning-fast cellular networks: the humble Wi-Fi router.

Intellectual Monopolies

• TTIP Update XXXVII

  In my last TTIP column, I discussed the CETA negotiations with Canada, which started before those of TTIP, but have continued in parallel with them. That’s because what happens with CETA has a massive effect on TTIP, in part because it acts as a template for the TTIP, but also because Canada’s economy is tightly integrated with that of the US in many ways, and so CETA is already a kind of shadow agreement with the US. Once again, the area where that probably matters the most is for the investor-state dispute settlement chapter included in CETA.

• Copyrights

  • Police Ordered to Return Clones of Dotcom’s Seized Data

    The New Zealand Court of Appeal has ruled that local police must return clones of the devices that were seized from Kim Dotcom during the 2012 raid. The Court argues that Dotcom and his colleagues should be able to have access to the information in preparation for the extradition hearings.

  • BBC: ISPs Should Assume Heavy VPN Users are Pirates

    In a submission to the Australian Government on the issue of online piracy, the BBC indicates that ISPs should be obliged to monitor their customers’ activities. Service providers should become suspicious that customers could be pirating if they use VPN-style services and consume a lot of bandwidth, the BBC says.

  • Denmark’s icon… that we can’t show you

    The Little Mermaid is perhaps the most photographed attraction in the entire country, but Danish media outlets are extremely hesitant to publish a photo of the sculpture.

  • Gottfrid Svartholm Trial Starts & Ends Week in Controversy

    The hacking trial of Gottfrid Svartholm has ended its first week, but not without controversy. Today TF catches up with Kristina Svartholm on the past few days’ developments and we also reveal criticism of Danish police after information provided by a man “with a grudge” against Gottfrid was used in court.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Linux workshop in Udupi

The student chapter of Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) of SMV Institute of Technology and Management conducted a two-day workshop on Linux operating system for final year Electronics and Communications students at Bantakal in Udupi district on August 22 and 23.

Edwin, a former professor of Electronics Engineering at Spring Garden College, Philadelphia, U.S., was the resource person.

Prof. Edwin said that Linux, which was a free operating system and free from viruses, had been adapted by more computer hardware platforms than any other operating system.

Munich Library Now Offers Free Ubuntu 12.04 CDs for People with Windows Systems

The city of Munich is now providing free Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) CDs for the citizen of the city, in an effort to increase the adoption of open source software.

CBI demands high-end gadgets

Use of LINUX technology at its forensic lab is also the top priority of the agency.

Server

• Cloud Host Linode Adds Professional Services Support Option

  The move follows Linode’s announcement earlier this summer that it would slash cloud-hosting prices and introduce high-end hardware to its storage and computing infrastructure, which transformed the company from a cloud host focused on providing Linux-based infrastructure that would appeal to a technically savvy crowd committed to open source hardware, to one that now offers broader hosting options and is seeking to stand out from the crowd through high-end infrastructure and sophisticated support solutions.

Kernel Space

• The release of 3.16 Linux Kernel – the kernel column

  As we were going to press, Linus Torvalds announced the 3.16 Linux kernel, saying “So nothing particularly exciting happened this week [since the final 3.16 Release Candidate 7 from a week prior], and 3.16 is out there.” In his announcement email, Linus noted that the timing of 3.16 was, perhaps, a little unfortunate for the impact upon the merge widow for 3.17. The “merge window” is the period of time early in a (roughly) two month kernel development cycle during which disruptive kernel changes are allowed to take place. Typically, the merge window is capped at a couple of weeks, and it immediately follows a final release (from the previous kernel development cycle). Therefore, the merge for 3.17 is open just as Linus (and others) are preparing to head to Chicago for the 2014 Kernel Summit (and LinuxCon conference). Linus says, “So we’ll see how the next merge window goes, but I’m not going to worry about it overmuch. If I end up not having time to do all the merges, I might delay things into the week of the Kernel Summit, but I’ll hope to get most of the big merging done this upcoming week before any travel takes place.”

• 9-Way File-System Comparison With A SSD On The Linux 3.17 Kernel

  Each file-system was tested with its stock mount options on the Linux 3.17 Git kernel. No kernel modifications were made to this system under test. The new AMD FX-8370 system was used for the Linux benchmarking system in this article. All of our disk / file-system tests are facilitated by the Phoronix Test Suite.

• Colourful ! systemd vs sysVinit Linux Cheatsheet

  There are a lot of new systemd commands available on rhel / centos 7.0 version that would replace sysvinit commands.

• Linux 3.17-rc4 Is A Pretty Calm Release

• Linus 3.17-rc4

  For a short while there, this week was really nice and calm, but that
  was mostly because the “linux-foundation.org” entry fell off the DNS
  universe, and my mailbox got very quiet for a few hours. The rest of
  the week looked pretty normal.

  “Pretty normal” isn’t bad, though, and I’m not complaining. There is
  nothing particularly big or scary going on – we had a quick scare
  about a stupid compat layer bug, but it seems to have been just a
  false positive and resulted in some added commentary rather than any
  real code changes.

  The diffstat is pretty reasonable, and it’s fairly spread out. We have
  the usual arch and driver updates, but there’s actually more changes
  under fs/ than under either of those. That’s largely due to just a
  late f2fs update, which I decided I couldn’t be bothered to get too
  upset about, most of it being pretty clear-cut fixes, with just a few
  cleanups mixed in.

  And really, if the f2fs changes look biggish, it’s mostly because the
  rest is pretty small.

  Let’s hope it all stays calm. I do note that neither Greg nor Davem
  ended up sending me anything for rc4, which is probably the _real_
  reason why it’s pretty calm and small.

  Linus

• Intel’s UXA Acceleration Now Supports DisplayPort MST

  David Airlie on Sunday added support for DisplayPort Multi-Stream Transport (DP MST) to Intel’s X.Org driver for the UXA-accelerated code-paths.

• Graphics Stack

  • Mesa’s Top Contributors This Summer

    With a fresh run of GitStats over the Mesa mainline Git code-base as of this morning, the Mesa source tree is up to 1,439,880 lines of code spread across 4,298 files. There’s been 65,193 commits to Mesa, which averages out to 14 commits per active day. A total of 648 contributors have been detected within the Mesa code-base.

Applications

• googlecl: Cutting corners with everything Google

• gplayer: Get loud with the cloud

• irmp3 and irmp3-curses: All for naught

• Bonus: fbff, fbpad … and fbpdf too

• Instructionals/Technical

  • How to install Sublime Text in openSUSE

  • Setting up a PXE BOOT server in Fedora/CentOS:

  • VNC-Server installation on CentOS 7

  • How to change hostname on CentOS or RHEL 7

  • How-to: Automate image editing with GIMP

  • The Linux Rain Automatic Writing Contest

  • How to Install Drupal 7 on CentOS 7 with Nginx, MariaDB and PHP-FPM

  • How to install Flyspray The Bug Killer on a CentOS 7 VPS

  • How To Install Cantata 1.4.1 Music Player Daemon On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivatives

  • How To Install Calibre 2.2.0 On Ubuntu, Debian And Derivatives

  • How To Install HotShots 2.2.0 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

  • How To Install Kernel 3.16.2 On Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr And Derivatives

  • How To Install Kernel 3.14.18 On Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr And Derivative Systems

  • How To Install SchoolTool 2.8.1 On Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

  • Dot Reminders

  • How to monitor server memory usage with Nagios Remote Plugin Executor (NRPE)

• Games

  • Why we game on Linux, a chat with Icculus, and more

  • Steam On Linux Competes To Stay Above 1%

    The August numbers for Valve’s Steam Hardware/Software Survey indicate a possible drop in Steam Linux usage as the overall percentage of Linux gamers using this digital distribution platform hovers just around 1.0%.

    The August 2014 numbers for Steam’s Hardware Survey tally up the Linux usage to 1.06% compared to 1.11% the month prior and 1.2% before that. Since the Steam on Linux debut the percentage of reported Linux gamers via this survey generally bounces between 1.0% and 1.5%.

  • Borderlands 2 to scavenge for loot and experience on Linux

    Borderlands 2 opened fire on psychos and wildlife almost two years ago, but Gearbox Software’s cooperative shoot-n-loot is keen on hunting game in as many regions as possible. Borderlands 2 is now poised to cross another target off its list, as Gaming On Linux has confirmed it will launch on Linux courtesy of Aspyr Media. The port-savvy studio is seasoned with bringing shooters to Mac (and was in talks with Respawn about Titanfall on Mac months ago), but since it already did as much with Borderlands 2 last November, the studio now has Linux in its sights.

  • Unvanquished Alpha 31 Piles On More Changes

    With the passing of another first Sunday of the month comes the latest alpha game release for the open-source Unvanquished first person shooter.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • KDE PIM Newcomers

    With Akademy in full swing, we thought we’d treat you all on a conversation with a handful of newcomers to the KDE PIM team. The conversation took place both online over the last months and offline at Akademy yesterday. Let’s start with introductions, in order of their replies.

  • The Luminosity Of Free Software, Episode 20

    The time has arrived for the new series of Luminosity to start! The next episode will be this Thursday, September 11th at 18:00 UTC. As in the past, it will be recorded live on Google+ Hangouts and carried on my Youtube channel both live and for viewing later. You can also join the discussion live on #luminosity on irc.freenode.net.

  • KDE Arrives in Brno for Akademy

    Yesterday KDE contributors from around the world arrived in Brno for Akademy, our annual meeting. Over the next week, we will share ideas, discover common problems and their solutions, and rekindle offline friendships for another year. We have traveled from around the world to work on free software in the spirit of community and cooperation. This year we can celebrate the success of the last 12 months when we released major new versions of our platform—KDE Frameworks—and our desktop—Plasma 5. This work has been well received by the press and our community of users, but we know there is much more to do to keep KDE Software relevant for the years to come in a world where desktops are only one way of using computer software. We’ll be discussing and planning how to make the best desktop software for Linux and how to expand to new platforms.

  • Akademy 2014 Day 1

    Today, Akademy 2014 kicked off hard. As always, there is a lot of excitement. The first Akademy day is always overwhelming. Meeting old friends, making new ones, learning new things and sharing what you know. To keep things a simpler, we started this year with a single track in the morning, with two tracks in the afternoon. With all attendees in one room listening to 10 minute fast track presentations, there are plenty of topics to talk about during the breaks.

  • Akademy Day 0 Photo Blog

  • Akademy Day 1 Photo Blog

  • Blip.tv screencasts moved

    Blip.tv has decided to narrow its focus, and isn’t interested in hosting my screencasts any more.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • A Life Worth Living

    So here enters your protagonist. I’ve left a good job simply for the satisfaction in doing what I think is important.

    Let’s be honest. I’m terrified. This is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done. I guess that is what is so attractive to me, adrenaline junkie and all. Will I make it a year? Will I finish what I’m setting out to? Will I let everyone down? Will people hate me because they don’t agree with what I think is important? All of these questions, playing like tapes in the back of my consciousness.

    The GNOME community has always felt like home to me. Some people leave their jobs and do the start-up thing. That’s fun and all, but I’d rather just write software for my friends. Nothing brings me more satisfaction than contributing to this group of people. And like Luis said so many years ago, GNOME is about people.

  • SYSTEMD IN GNOME 3.14 AND BEYOND

    Before the start of the GNOME 3.14 cycle, Ryan Lorty announced his intention to make most GNOME modules depend on a logind-like API. The API would just implement the bits that are actually used. According to Ryan, most GNOME modules only use a selection of the logind functionality. He wanted to document exactly what we depend on and provide a minimal API. Then we could write a minimal stub implementation for e.g. FreeBSD as we’d know exactly what parts of the API we actually need. The stub would still be minimal; allow GNOME to run, but that’s it.

  • GNOME 3.14 Still Depends On ConsoleKit, More Systemd Still Planned

    Some plans for the GNOME 3.14 cycle didn’t materialize but they’re still being developed for future GNOME updates.

    For the GNOME 3.14 development cycle was a plan to make most GNOME modules depend on a systemd logind-like API that would only implement the API bits actually used by the respective pieces of GNOME software. The goal was to make this minimal API a shim between the GNOME code and logind for allowing other non-Linux platforms to write an alternative implementation against the API. The purpose of this would be for the BSDs also using GNOME to only have to write a portable implementation of the logind-derived API calls actually being used by GNOME rather than a full, drop-in replacement.

Distributions

• New Releases

  • 4MLinux 10.0 Rescue Edition BETA released.

    The main features in this release are antivirus protection (Clam AntiVirus 0.98.4 with ClamWin), system backup (4MLinux Backup Scripts 10.0), data recovery (GNU ddrescue 1.18.1, TestDisk 6.14 with QPhotoRec), data wiping (shred 8.2.3, nwipe 0.16), disk partitioning (cfdisk 2.25, cgdisk 0.8.10, GNU Parted 3.2), and partition imaging (Partimage 0.6.9, Partclone 0.2.69). Many archive formats can be managed via 7-Zip 9.22, FreeArc 0.67, and PeaZip 5.4.1. File managers (Midnight Commander 4.8.12, X File Explorer 1.37, muCommander 0.9.0), CD/DVD burners (cdw 0.7.1, InfraRecorder 0.53), and UNetbootin 608 are also included.

  • Yet Another Linux Distro Trying To Cater Towards Gamers

    While there’s already a handful of Linux distributions trying to cater towards the increasing number of gamers with no real competitive edge over any of the other long-standing, general-purpose Linux distributions (sans SteamOS), there’s yet another new one to report on this weekend.

  • Canaima Popular 4.1 (04/09/2014)

  • SparkyLinux 3.5 LXDE, Razor-Qt, CLI, E18 & E19-dev is out

    SparkyLinux 3.5 “Annagerman” LXDE, Razor-Qt, CLI, Enlightenment 18 & 19-dev is out.

    New Live/Install iso images provide up to date packages and a few changes.
    All packages have been synchronized with Debian “testing” repositories as of 02/09/2014.
    The system runs on Linux kernel 3.14.2 (3.14.15-2).

  • Calculate Linux 14 Released

  • Calculate Linux Is an Interesting Distro Based on Gentoo with KDE, GNOME, and XFCE Desktops

    Calculate Linux, an optimized distribution designed for rapid deployment in corporate environments that’s based on the Gentoo project and includes numerous pre-configured functions, is now at version 14.

• Screenshots

  • Robolinux 7.6.2 Xfce Screenshot Tour

• Gentoo Family

  • Gentoo Linux LiveDVD Updated With X.Org Server 1.16, Linux 3.15 Kernel

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat Extends Cisco Server Partnership

  • VMware Can Co-Exist with Linux ‘Containers,’ Says Cowen

    Moskowitz’s main conclusions are that the technology could “meaningfully influence the future of server computing,” that Red Hat (RHT) is a “clear beneficiary of it,” and that VMware faces challenges but they are “very manageable” for the company.

  • Virt Manager 1.1 On Finals For Release

    The virt-manager 1.1 release is prepared for an imminent release that brings many features to the popular Red Hat developed software for Linux virtualization management.

  • Fedora

    • F21 Alpha & schedule, Test Days, Fedora Workstation, DNF updates, and FPL in the news

    • Fedora to get a new partition manager

      Developer Vratislav Podzimek announced the next-gen partition manager for Fedora, blivet-gui. It is eventually going to replace GParted, the most popular GUI based partition manager found in all major distros. The new tool is named blivet-gui as it is based on the blivet python library (originally Anaconda’s storage management and configuration tool).

    • Fedora gets new partition manager

      Fedora developer Vratislav Podzimek wants partition managers to catch up with modern storage technologies, and has launched his offering, blivet-gui, on the waiting world.

      The tool is designed to act as a front-end for Fedora’s Anaconda.

• Debian Family

  • Debconf 14 – Days 1 and 2

  • DGPLUG 10 Years Meet

Devices/Embedded

• Phones

  • Ballnux

    • openSUSE Factory has overtaken Tumbleweed

      openSUSE sent a wave of excitement amount users in July when the project announced that Factory had become an independent distribution using the ‘rolling release’ development model similar to that of Arch Linux.

  • Android

    • Is the new Moto X an iPhone 6 killer?

    • Moto 360 Smartwatch Review: One Size Doesn’t Fit All

      Finally a smartwatch that looks like an actual watch. Personal Tech Columnist Joanna Stern reviews Motorola’s Android Wear smartwatch.

      Every watch I’ve ever owned has done just two things: quickly given me the time, and looked nice on my wrist.

    • Android: 33% more device shipments, 60% more fragmentation than last year [Ed: Mac Asay throws around Apple talking points by calling different versions of the same software "fragmentation"]

    • Getting VR to Run on Android Is “Hell,” Oculus’ Carmack Says [No, yet again taken out of context]

    • Blackphone Sales Are Strong So Far

      The privacy focused Blackphone is off to a good start on the sales front, says Toby Weir-Jones, the head of SGP Technologies, who manufacture the secure phone.

Git Bounty Wants To Help Open-Source Programmers Get Paid For Bug Fixes

If you’re using open-source software, you’ve probably come across a bug that you want to fix but don’t have the expertise to do it yourself — and the original author isn’t all that interested in fixing it. With Git Bounty, which was dreamed up by a team of French Canadians (and one Frenchman) from Montreal at our Disrupt SF hackathon this weekend, you can incentivize open-source programmers to fix those bugs for you. Git Bounty lets you pick a bug you need fixed, set a reward and then publicize it.

Web Browsers

• Chrome

  • Google Works To Sunset SHA-1 In Chrome

    Google will begin warning users when accessing HTTPS sites whose certificate chains are using SHA-1, due to this cryptographic hash algorithm being weak.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• LibreOffice For Android Should Be Ready For Usage Starting With February 2015

  For now, there are only a few Office suite available for the Android platform (WPS Office, Office Suite Pro, Google Docs and AndrOpen), but only AndrOpen has support for odt and ods files, and it has an ugly interface, making the software unusable.

  The LibreOffice developers have released a new daily build version, allowing the users to test the app.

• Free Office Suites that Cut The Mustard

  Microsoft Office still dominates market share of office suites. Businesses have often rejected free Office alternatives. However, whether this will continue is uncertain. With the cost of a price plan for Microsoft Office, the average home user or small business will welcome a free alternative. Fortunately, there are some truly excellent free alternatives available for Linux (and other operating systems). Not all of the office suites featured here are released under an open source license, but they are all free to download and use without charge.

CMS

• WordPress 4.0 Designed for Improved Security, Usability, Stability

• Top 5 articles of the week: WordPress 4.0, FarmBot, and Docker security

BSD

• OpenBSD Made Progress On Their Systemd-Compatible Replacement

  This summer a student developer began work on DBus daemons that accept systemd calls and emulated their behavior with their own native calls, in order to make drop-in replacements for BSD platforms where systemd is not supported and the upstream systemd developers have no plans of supporting.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Bring the FSF to your campus!

  Software freedom and learning go hand in hand. Textbooks should be DRM-free, readily shareable, and easy to check out from the library for as long as you need them. You should be able to use whatever free operating system you choose, not forced into a contract with Microsoft (as is the case at schools like Virginia Tech). Everyone studying computer science at the college level should be able to see and learn from the code that makes their software tick. Learning is a cooperative endeavor; the tools you use to learn should promote cooperation, not proprietize human knowledge.

• Direvent 5.0 available for download

• GCL 2.6.11 has been released

  Greetings! The GCL team is happy to announce the release of version 2.6.11, the latest achievement in the ‘stable’ (as opposed to ‘development’) series.

• Direvent Does Its First Release As A GNU Project

  GNU Direvent is formerly known as dircond and is a system-independent daemon that tracks file system directory changes with new additions, deletions, or modifications of files. When a file system event is detected in a pre-configured directory, the respective user-specified external program associated with that directory is signaled. This GNU Direvent daemon works on Linux along with a variety of BSD systems.

Openness/Sharing

• Open Access/Content

  • Open-source texts take root at Md. colleges

    An experiment with open-source online textbooks at several Maryland universities last semester yielded promising results, and officials are preparing to expand the program this fall.

    The University System of Maryland designed the Maryland Open-Source Textbook (MOST) Initiative to evaluate the feasibility of using online materials instead of printed books to ease the cost of purchasing multiple textbooks each year.

Standards/Consortia

• Sharing work is easier with an Open Document Format

  Many individuals have been using ODF for years, but the open format is also being adopted by organisations, including companies and governments.

  We often wish to share electronic documents with friends, colleagues, business or government, and the software application we use to prepare these documents will save them in a particular format.

  Any application that later loads the document will also need to be able to understand this format. If an organisation can control the format, and convince people to use it, then they can use this as a very powerful tool to create a monopoly in the market.

Science

• Why the Computer Experience is Often Poor

  The final issue is software creep. By this I mean the continual replacement of older
  software with newer software. It seems unavoidable but it’s usually unnecessary.
  How often does one need to update their word processor? I’m using abiword on
  Linux and it seems adequate for my purposes. KDE versions after 3.5.10 do not intererest
  me. In fact I’ve switched to the lighter IceWM and I’m quite happy with it.

• Iran arrests suspected nuclear plant saboteur

  In 2010, the so-called Stuxnet virus temporarily disrupted the operation of thousands of centrifuges, key components in nuclear fuel production, at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Iran says it and other computer virus attacks are part of a concerted effort by Israel, the U.S. and their allies to undermine its nuclear program through covert operations.

  The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran is covertly seeking the ability to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies such allegations, insisting its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and aimed at generating electricity and producing medical isotopes.

Security

• Doubts cast over FBI ‘leaky CAPTCHA’ Silk Road rapture

  Rather than a conspiracy involving NSA wiretaps, the FBI claims the downfall of Silk Road begun with a leaky CAPTCHA.

  Responding to a request for information from former kingpin Ross Ulbricht’s defence lawyers, the Feds says the CAPTCHA left a trail from the TOR-protected Silk Road servers to the public Internet. That revealed the location of the drug marketplace, which would otherwise have remained hidden behind TOR, according to an FBI affidavit.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• The Atlantic Alliance’s “Holy War” against the Islamic State (ISIS): NATO’s Role in the Recruitment of Islamic Terrorists

  “They are Our Terrorists“. Without the terrorists, the “Global War on Terrorism” would fall flat.

• Syria rebels, once hopeful of U.S. weapons, lament lack of firepower

  As the Syrian government warplane flew overhead, Malik Abu Iskandaroon ran to a storage room and grabbed a Russian-made surface-to-air missile.

  Moments later, on the roof of the three-story villa, which serves as air force headquarters for the Harakat Hazm rebel group, he squinted at the threat in the sky.

• Tense relations between U.S. and anti-Assad Syrian rebels

  North of Aleppo, the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army is battling the Islamic State terror group over a vital supply route.

  In Washington, the Obama administration is groping for a strategy to deal with a force that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says is “beyond anything we have ever seen.”

• CIA Drone Strikes and the Public-Authority Justification

  CIA Drone Strikes Don’t Qualify as TMA: As an initial matter, I think one part of his argument depends on a mistaken assumption regarding the meaning of TMA, and that drone strikes do indeed constitute covert action within the meaning of Title 50. The TMA exception to covert action has a complicated and often-misunderstood history, which I recount in detail in this paper (pp.592-601 especially). The concept was the subject of extensive negotiations between the White House and Congress, ultimately resulting in the following agreement. An activity that otherwise would qualify as covert action would instead count as TMA, thus avoiding the requirement of a written presidential finding and reporting to SSCI and HPSCI, if the following conditions were met.

• Predator Drone Reportedly Spotted Over ISIS Hotbed in Syria; Airstrikes Hit ISIS Targets

  A predator drone was reportedly seen by both sides of the Syrian conflict hovering over Raqqa, Sryria, close to where U.S. special operations forces tried to rescue ISIS hostages last July.

• Isis will not be beaten by a kneejerk reaction from the west

  Military responses as a quick fix won’t defeat the terrorists. Their ideology and influence need to be undermined

• McGill researchers allegedly committed ethical breach in psychology study

  Researchers from the psychology departments at McGill and Carleton University allegedly breached research ethics in a study conducted in 2012 and funded by the Canadian military, according to findings released on August 28 by campus group Demilitarize McGill. The researchers, which included McGill psychology professor Donald M. Taylor and then-PhD student Michael King, failed to inform the research subjects of the funder and intended counterinsurgency applications of the research.

• Did Israel Execute Jihadists in Gaza?

  While official investigations are stalled, The Daily Beast reveals important new details about the apparent summary execution of Palestinian combatants.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• When the push polling has to stop

  YouGov stood to have its reputation shattered if it continued to put out polls showing ten point leads for No, when Yes is very obviously headed for a majority.

• Steve Hayes Doesn’t Remember When He Beat The Drums Of War With Syria

  Fox’s Juan Williams pointed out the increased calls for war during the September 7 edition of Fox’s Media Buzz, suggesting that media seem to consistently favor war over peace, perhaps for a ratings boost that international conflicts could bring television news. Williams noted that today’s calls seem to parallel media’s eagerness for military intervention in Syria back in 2013, over human rights abuses from the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Censorship

• Turkey should prioritize freedom of speech: EU official

  Turkey should prioritize the right to freedom of speech to achieve improvement in its bid to join the European Union, according to Neelie Kroes, the vice president of the EU Commission.

  “We should take into account for membership to the European family, it is absolutely a must that freedom of speech and media are guaranteed,” she said after the three-day Internet Governance Forum (IGF) last week, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

• INTERNET ISSUES DISCUSSED IN INTERNET UNGOVERNANCE FORUM

  The ‘Internet Ungovernance Forum’ seeking to provide a sphere for journalists and internet experts for a discussion over internet issues across the world as well as Turkey was held between Sept. 3 and Sept 4 at the main Campus of İstanbul Bilgi University.

Privacy

• Fake Cellphone Towers–Sales Scam Or Real Hack?

  Whoever is running the program (detected during a CryptoPhone 500 customer’s drive between Florida and the Carolinas) remains unknown but—for once—has nothing to do with the NSA, whose digital arsenal has no need of off-the-shelf tech such as the VME Dominator. Personally, I (mostly) concur with author William Gibson’s Twittered take: “That fake cell tower story looks pretty dodgy, really.” Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean…you know.

• Chick Wit: Don’t want your nude selfies hacked? Don’t take any!

  Everyone is buzzing with the news that there are hundreds of leaked celebrity nude selfies being posted on the Internet.

• Meet the spooky tech companies getting rich by making NSA surveillance possible

  Wildly profitable companies like Neustar, Subsentio, and Yaana do the feds’ dirty work for them, slurping huge amounts of unconstitutionally requisitioned data out of telcos’ and ISPs’ data-centers in response to secret, sealed FISA warrants — some of them publicly traded, too, making them a perfect addition to the Gulag Wealth Fund.

• The Gulag Wealth Fund and Toll Booths in Outer Space

  Although some ISPs have wanted to fight tooth and nail, they have not had the money to hire a top-secret cleared attorney to argue their case. Instead, they have invoked their interpretation of the First Amendment — the right to free speech — to disclose that they have received a FISA warrant, despite the secrecy and gagging clauses that come with them.

  Others, like Cbeyond, “haven’t examined simply saying ‘no’ and challenging them,” said the person with direct knowledge of the warrants served on the ISP.

• Legal memos released on Bush-era reasons for warrantless wiretapping

  The Justice Department released two decade-old memos Friday night, offering the fullest public airing to date of the Bush administration’s legal justification for the warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ phone calls and emails – a program that began in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

• 2004 memos released on warrantless wiretaps

  The Justice Department released two decade-old memos Friday night, offering the fullest public airing to date of the Bush administration’s legal justification for the warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ phone calls and e-mails – a program that began in secret after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
  Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20140907_2004_memos_released_on_warrantless_wiretaps.html#Ts3GzSa4CcgmpVXV.99

• Just-Released Bush Memos Show the White House Barely Able to Justify Spying on Us

• Obama Administration Still Keeping Much Secret About Bush’s Warrantless Wiretapping Program

• Bush-era memos justify NSA wiretaps

• Redactions in U.S. Memo Leave Doubts on Data Surveillance Program

• Meet Zelda, the unlikely ‘Dear Abby’ of NSA

• Feds say NSA “bogeyman” did not find Silk Road’s servers

  The FBI easily found the main server of the now-defunct Silk Road online drug-selling site, and didn’t need the National Security’s help, federal prosecutors said in a Friday court filing.

• Spying on friends: strange bedfellows

  Even the smallest bit of information that is seemingly unrelated to the business at hand could one day give us a competitive advantage against our competitors. This is true for business as well as the affairs of government. Experts in the field define information gathering as nothing but a mind game: collect every possible piece of information about everything concerning your national interest. The range of information gathering covers every aspect of the concerned “target” and the target can be any individual or organization, including private citizens, heads of state, a niche technology company or a foreign government. When engaging in information gathering activities, there is only one unbreakable rule which explains the spying game: Use your wits and do not get caught, no matter what. This rule especially applies among friends.

• Fake cell towers allow the NSA and police to keep track of you

  The Internet is abuzz with reports of mysterious devices sprinkled across America, many of them on military bases, that connect to your phone by mimicking cell phone towers and sucking up your data. There is little public information about these devices, but they are the new favorite toy of government agencies of all stripes; everyone from the National Security Agency to local police forces are using them.

• Leaked documents shed light on US, British spying in Turkey

  America’s National Security Agency (NSA) and the British intelligence and security agency GCHQ both spied on Turkey, while helping Ankara fight Kurdish separatists, according to the secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden – the former US government contractor behind the biggest security leak in United States

• NSA Reform Will Likely Have to Wait Until After the Election

  Legislation to reform the government’s surveillance programs looks destined for a lame-duck session of Congress—and might not get touched at all until next year.

• Nude leaks expose need for caution

  The discussion should not revolve around preventative measures, rather, we must focus on the creepiness factor — the questions that arise regarding privacy and security. For better or for worse, the cloud is omnipresent and hoards more photos and videos than we’d like to believe. Unbeknownst to many, most cellphones store user data on cloud by default, and deleting a photo from a phone doesn’t necessarily delete it from a cloud. Especially in light of last year’s NSA scandal, the lack of public education about the cloud’s capabilities is concerning. We wonder: Who is watching? What are they looking at? Feeling the constant gaze of this anonymous eye may also have societal implications, creating an uncomfortable hyperawareness surrounding every decision made.

• No pity for nude selfies [Letter]

  Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and the “dozens of other beautiful celebrities” who posted nude photos of themselves in digital airspace should read “No Place to Hide” by Glenn Greenwald. The book outlines how little privacy there is online and explains in detail what Edward Snowden revealed about the NSA.

• HOW YOUR INNOCENT SMARTPHONE PASSES ON ALMOST YOUR ENTIRE LIFE TO THE SECRET SERVICE

Civil Rights

• IRS says five more staffers lost emails

  The agency has told lawmakers that it found around 24,000 of Lerner’s missing emails through a similar process. Lerner, who once headed an IRS division overseeing tax-exempt groups, became the first agency official to acknowledge the IRS’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups in May 2013. She has since been held in contempt of Congress and has been referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.

• Exclusive: Dr. Cornel West Talks Protest, War Crimes, NDAA & Snowden [Video]

  In a wide-ranging conversation, West professed support for Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, prophesying that the NSA whistleblower will one day be vindicated and slamming the government for prosecuting the very people, like Manning, who reveal what he said are war crimes and then fail to hold the perpetrators accountable; expressed concern over the ever-growing national security state; decried drone strikes as war crimes; and conveyed his concern about the disintegration of Americans’ civil liberties under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which some have argued gives the president carte blanche to detain US citizens, sans a trial or judicial review.

• The European Court Confirms : The CIA’s ‘Black Sites’ Operated in Poland

  The secret is officially out: CIA’s black sites operated in Poland. Earlier this summer, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a ruling confirming the existence of such prisons on Polish territory. While international human rights organizations have praised the ruling, some Polish officials and journalists are calling it unfair towards Poland. Others say the formal revelation might be an opportunity for Poland to resolve some of its current governance issues.

• Kill the Messenger: A Crack Thriller

  Dedicated to the upcoming Gary Webb biopic, dir. by Michael Cuesta and starring Jeremy Renner. KILL THE MESSENGER comes by way of Webb’s own first-person report in his book, DARK ALLIANCE.

  Evocative of policiers such as the 1982 film starring Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemon, MISSING, and the iconic ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, KILL THE MESSENGER announces its aim right from the gate, which is perhaps its only misstep. Kill the messenger tells us too much, too soon, since we are all familiar with the Greek-tradition from which that phrase hails. Famously scripted by Shakespeare in Henry IV (1598) and later in Antony and Cleopatra (1607). Prior to that, a similar sentiment was heard in Sophocles’ Antigone: “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.”Messengers with bad tidings from the war front breach the invisible code of conduct, where commanding officers were expected to accept and return emissaries or diplomatic envoys sent by the enemy unharmed. UnKumbaya warrior leaders, of course, never got the memo. Ancient messenger job definitions often failed to add that the job description had unexpected short-range expiry dates.

  [...]

  Most Americans wondered why all of a sudden a crack epidemic burst all over the news; now we know. It was engineered and massaged by lawless Big Feet who needed lots of do-re-mi to fund their pet contras. In the event, millions of young men and women died. Millions of minority kids spent their youths out-smoking their educations and incomes and career aspirations.

• CIA emails expose access journalist at work

  I have mentioned before that more than 90 per cent of reporters are in some sense “access journalists” – that is, they rely on the active help of the key figures on their “beat”. Usually the people they regularly need to access are in power: crime correspondents need help from the police, much less so than criminals; diplomatic correspondents need the help of diplomats more than they need the help of drone strike victims, and so on.

• Support Robert MacLean, Patriot Whistleblower

  Jim Murtagh, the President of the International Association of Whistleblowers (IAW), called today for increased vigilance against terrorist attacks on the thirteenth anniversary of the worst disaster in U.S. history. “The 9-11 warnings of federal air marshal Robert J. MacLean have come true. The reduction of air marshals on commercial airliners has led to increased risks to the American public from ISIS and Al Qaeda today,” Murtagh said.

• U.S. security team from secret CIA annex: We were told to stand down in Benghazi

  In an interview ahead of the release of a new book “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi,” security contractors Kris Paronto, Mark Geist, and John Tiegen spoke publicly about the attack with Fox News. Four diplomats were killed that night, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stephens.

• US commandos claim CIA station chief delayed Benghazi rescue [everything to distract from the real scandal]

• Switzerland ‘won’t extradite Snowden’ in return for NSA testimony

  Switzerland has reportedly decided it will not extradite National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden to the US if he comes to testify against the NSA’s spying activities, Swiss media said.

• Snowden to receive Swiss asylum if testifies against NSA

  US whistleblower Edward Snowden will not be deported to the United States if he travels to Switzerland to testify against his country’s National Security Agency (NSA), the SonntagsZeitung newspaper reported Monday.

• No eternal allies or enemies, just interests

  The first step towards transparency in international relations came from Julian Assange, when he published leaked military and diplomatic secret documents from the United States on his WikiLeaks website in 2010. But the more significant step in this direction came when Edward Snowden, a contractor for the US’s National Security Agency (NSA), handed over intelligence documents to the Guardian newspaper for publication in June 2013.

• Swiss will grant asylum if Snowden testifies on U.S. espionage

  Swiss media reports indicate Switzerland would grant asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden if he agrees to testify about foreign espionage activities within Switzerland.

• Dianne Feinstein denounced treachery, torture and spying on Congress

  Sen. Dianne Feinstein is one of the most stalwart supporters in Congress of the National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance activity. She’s also leading an epic constitutional showdown with the CIA over torture.

  Those closest to the California Democrat don’t see a disconnect. The longtime defense hawk takes her job of overseeing the intelligence community seriously and says the CIA shouldn’t get away with hiding its darkest secrets behind a national security shield.

Internet/Net Neutrality

• Reasons why you should be using Gandi

• Big tech companies plan “Internet Slowdown” to fight for net neutrality

  Next week, some of the biggest tech companies will lead a symbolic “Internet Slowdown” to protest the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality proposal.

  “Several top websites—including Etsy, Kickstarter, Foursquare, WordPress, Vimeo, reddit, Mozilla, Imgur, Meetup, Cheezburger, Namecheap, Bittorrent, Gandi.net, StartPage, BoingBoing, and Dwolla—announced that they will be joining more than 35 advocacy organizations and hundreds of thousands of activists in a day of action that will give a glimpse into what the Internet might look like if the FCC’s proposed rules go into effect,” a blog post today from the advocacy group “Fight for the Future” said.

DRM

• Google, Browsers & DRM

  A recent brouhaha concerning Google comes from an item that made the rounds in the last week or so regarding older browsers and Google search. It seems that some users of older browsers have been receiving an outdated version of Google’s homepage when attempting to make a search. Evidently, Google searches made using these browsers returned results just fine, using Google’s current results page, but users needed to return to the search engine’s homepage to conduct another search. The browsers affected are primarily older versions of Opera and Safari.

Intellectual Monopolies

• It Appears Mickey Mouse May Have Picked An Intellectual Property Fight With The Wrong Mau5

  I actually don’t think that Disney’s trademark opposition to Deadmau5′s attempt to trademark his mouse-shaped helmet thing is that crazy. Disney hasn’t gone after Deadmau5/Joel Zimmerman all these years for using it. They’re just saying “hey, maybe he shouldn’t have a registered trademark on that.” And they may have a point. Yes, the designs are different, and no, there isn’t likely to be much confusion between Deadmau5 and Mickey, but why is Deadmau5 seeking to get a registered trademark on this in the first place?

• Trademarks

  • Disappointing That Twitter Threatened Twitpic, But Story Doesn’t Add Up

    A few days ago, Twitpic, which was the original third party service for hosting images for your tweets, announced that it was shutting down “unexpectedly” because Twitter was threatening to pull its API access if the company didn’t drop its trademark application for Twitpic — an application that had been pending since 2009. Considering that Twitpic was one of the earliest of many third party services built on top of Twitter that helped make Twitter so valuable in the early days, it’s certainly disappointing to see it go. It’s also something of a legacy reminder that Twitter has been slowly, but surely, destroying all such third party services that helped make it so popular. That’s disappointing, if not all that surprising. Platforms all too frequently end up swallowing those who rely too strongly upon them — and, these days, to be honest, there’s little reason to use Twitpic instead of Twitter’s own image hosting (or some other options as well).

• Copyrights

  • ‘Hacktivist’: Prosecution on a ‘smear’ campaign

    In his first remarks in court, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg gives up the nicknames of those he blames for remotely using his computer to hack into public database.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Running Your Business on Linux (No, You Don’t Need Windows)

Believe it or not, my dear Linux friends, a lot of IT pros still believe they need Windows servers. They have this goofy idea that Active Directory, SharePoint, Exchange, Windows Server, SQL Server, and all the other members of the lardy malware vector family are the only proper business backends. They have this funny notion that Microsoft servers are easier to run. I must refute this odd notion with reality: they are not. They are expensive, troublesome, less-capable, and pointy-clicky does not equal easier to use, nor does it negate having to possess actual skills and knowledge.

Desktop

• HP announces two new ultra-thin Chrombooks

  HP has announced two new ultra-thin Chromebooks – the 11-inch HP Chromebook and full-size 14-inch HP Chromebook.

Server

• Digital Ocean Offers Docker-centric CoreOS Hosting

  Providing more evidence of the momentum that Docker has right now, cloud hosting company DigitalOcean is using CoreOS Linux to deliver Docker-powered virtual servers to its customers. The company has put a post up announcing that developers can begin using CoreOS on its cloud platform.

• CoreOS Brings Docker Container Tech to DigitalOcean

  Docker has emerged in the last year to become one of the most talked about virtualization technologies, but getting it up and running can take some effort. Today, CoreOS announced that its Docker-focused Linux distribution is freely available as an image that can be deployed on the popular DigitalOcean cloud service, lowering the barrier to entry and the cost, for getting up and running.

• DigitalOcean Partners With CoreOS To Bring Large-Scale Cluster Deployments To Its Platform

  Since its launch just a few years ago, DigitalOcean quickly made a name for itself as a hosting platform for affordable virtual servers. The company’s ambition goes far beyond hosting your WordPress blog or test server on a $5/month machine however and today it is taking a next step in this direction by announcing its support for CoreOS, the highly popular container-centric Linux distribution for massive-scale deployments.

• DigitalOcean starts offering Core OS

• Cumulus Networks Partners for Open Source Networking OS

  Does the channel need an open source operating system designed to power the next-generation networking hardware that powers the cloud? The company behind Cumulus Linux thinks so, and so too, apparently, do Dell, VMware (VMW) and other partners who have endorsed Cumulus Linux through major reseller and distribution agreements recently.

Kernel Space

• Matthew Garrett’s Advice on Hardware, Linux Kernel Careers, and Fruit Flies

  The most popular questions posed to Linux kernel developer Matthew Garrett during his Reddit AMA this week related to kernel hacking and hardware issues. But Garrett, a senior security engineer at Nebula, answered frankly on a variety of subjects that ranged from technical issues in the kernel, to his workstation setup, to how to kill fruit flies and why he likes the movie Hackers. Here is a digest of some of the more kernel-related questions and answers (plus a fruit fly question, for more flavor.)

• Video: Q & A with Linus Torvalds at DebConf Portland 2014

• Systemd rampages through the Linux community like Godzilla through Tokyo

  Systemd has turned into the Godzilla of Linux controversies. Everywhere you look it’s stomping through blogs, rampaging through online discussion threads, and causing white-hot flames that resemble Godzilla’s own breath of death. TechNewsWorld has a roundup of the systemd hostilities in case you missed any of it and want to savor some of the drama.

• Stable kernels 3.16.2, 3.14.18, and 3.10.54

• The Story Behind ‘init’ and ‘systemd’: Why ‘init’ Needed to be Replaced with ‘systemd’ in Linux

  A init process starts serially i.e., one task starts only after the last task startup was successful and it was loaded in the memory. This often resulted into delayed and long booting time. However, systemd was not designed for speed but for getting the things done neatly which in turns avoid all the UN-necessary delay.

• Systemd Cheatsheet, This Week’s Fedora Delay, Ubuntu Disparaged

• Graphics Stack

  • Woman force in Open Source: Xorg joins the Outreach Program for Women

    The CTO of the United States of America is a woman, CEO of HP, Yahoo! and many tech giants are women – leading these companies towards future.

Applications

• Bonus: A dozen more remainders

• cpubars: More processors equals more fun

• curseofwar: To the delight of text-based RTS fans

• Instructionals/Technical

  • How the size of authorized_keys affects speed of ssh authorization

  • 5 Beginner Linux Setup Ideas For Cron Jobs & Shell Scripts

  • [QUICK TIP] How To Enable Hardware Acceleration In Chromium / Chrome Browser

  • How to Share a Terminal Session with Friends

  • Think before you just blindly audit2allow -M mydomain

  • Download And Convert YouTube Videos With ClipGrab

• Wine or Emulation

  • Wine Announcement

    The Wine development release 1.7.26 is now available.

  • Wine 1.7.26 Implements More Of DirectWrite, C Runtime Improvements

  • How To Install Wine 1.7.26 On Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivative Systems

  • How To Install Wine 1.7.26 On Fedora 20, Fedora 19, CentOS 7, CentOS 6, OpenSUSE 13.1 And OpenSUSE 12.3

    The latest version available is Wine 1.7.26, which has been released a while ago, coming with new DirectWrite functions, improvements to the common File Dialog, a number of C runtime enhancements and a bunch of bug-fixes.

• Games

  • Beautiful Firewatch Adventure Game to Arrive on Linux in 2015

    Firewatch, an FPS adventure game set in the Wyoming wilderness, will be arriving on Linux sometime in 2015.

    The game is being developed by a new studio called Campo Santo, which is formed by a number of veteran developers from other studios, like Telltale Games, Klei Interactive, 2K Marin, and even Double Fine.

  • Borderlands 2 is coming to Linux, more info about Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel released

    Borderlands 2 is confirmed coming to Linux. Earlier this week a listing for the game was shown in the Steam Database showing that the game was compatible with the Linux operating system. This was news to fans, because in April, the president of Gearbox (the company who develops the Borderlands series) said that porting the game to Linux would cost too much and is not feasible. Additionally, the next Borderlands game due out, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, is also confirmed to be releasing on Linux in addition to PC, Mac. One of the interesting things about Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is that it’s currently not scheduled to be released on the newest consoles, the PS4 and Xbox One. Gearbox says that if there’s enough interest they’ll consider porting the game to the newer consoles.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• More Wayland Improvements Hit Enlightenment E19

  One week after Enlightenment’s E19 RC3 release, there’s more improvements that have landed that will warrant another new release in the very near future.

  Posted to the E19 release manager blog is The Septembering — going over the latest changes so far this September. There’s Covery-detected issues fixed, system tray improvements, and more Wayland improvements. The latest Wayland work includes pointer fixes and improved resolution detection.

  E19 features the rewritten Wayland compositor that’s working out great natively on Wayland without depending upon X11 or Weston for that matter. The E19 release is due out soon with a ton of notable changes.

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • Creativity and KDE

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • GNOME Shell 3.14 Beta 2 Arrives with Better Animations

    GNOME Shell, a user interface that provides functions for the GNOME desktop environment, has just received its second Beta for the 3.14 development branch.

Distributions

• New Releases

  • Calculate Linux 14 released

    We are happy to announce the release of Calculate Linux 14.

• Screenshots

  • Neptune 4.1 Screenshot Tour

• Gentoo Family

  • Gentoo Linux 20140826 LiveDVD – Iron Penguin Edition Released

    Gentoo is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme configurability, performance and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience.

    On August 26, 2014 Gentoo announced the release of a new LiveDVD, It comes with recent kernel, latest versions of the KDE and Gnome environments and software like Gimp, Chromium and others.

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat Developers Introduce New Tool For Linux Storage Management

    The lid has been lifted on blivet-gui, a new open-source storage tool designed by Red Hat for configuring disks and file-systems.

  • Fedora

    • Fedora 21 Delayed Again to No One’s Surprise

      Fedora 21, the upcoming version of the famous Linux distribution built by Red Hat, has been delayed another week, to the surprise of no one.

      Most of the Fedora releases register all kinds of delays and Fedora 21 is not making an exception from this rule. It’s become somewhat of regular occurrence, so no one is really surprised that the release date has slipped by another week.

• Debian Family

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities Found and Closed in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

        A number of Linux kernel vulnerabilities discovered in the Linux kernel affecting the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system have been fixed by Canonical.

      • Ubuntu Touch Probably Now Has the Best Notification System – Video

        The Ubuntu Touch platform has been receiving incremental improvements and now it looks better than ever. One of the latest additions is a fresh swipe-to-dismiss system for the notifications.

      • Now you can control A R Drone with Ubuntu Touch

Devices/Embedded

• Instant DIY controller project plans Linux add-on

  E3 Embedded Systems built its “Processor Independent Embedded Platform” (aka PIEP) kit to showcase its various microcontroller unit (MCU) and peripheral boards. The modular development kit not only offers a choice of MCU boards, but let’s you choose among 21 peripheral boards, with more on the way. The stackable design enables up to 36 peripherals modules to fit on one motherboard.

• MIPS aims new 64-bit Warrior cores at mobile devices

  Imagination announced a 64-bit Warrior processor with a MIPS I6400 core that features hardware virtualization, multi-threading, and multi-clustering.

• Phones

  • Ballnux

    • Nvidia sues Samsung and Qualcomm, seeks to block Galaxy S5, Note 4

  • Android/Google

    • From sketch to wrist: the evolution of Android Wear

      The Android Wear that’s shipping on the Motorola Moto 360, LG G Watch, and Samsung Gear Live is a far cry from where Google started when designers sat down to start sketching it out. “It was a long process of really trying to understand what people wanted from these kinds of devices,” says Dave Singleton, Wear’s director of engineering.

    • Motorola release Moto 360 Smartwatch, Moto X and Moto G upgrades announced

      Motorola’s hotly anticipated Moto 360 smartwatch has finally gone on sale. Taking on a circular approach to Android Wear, the watch comes with either a black or limited edition gray leather strap, or two metal straps. The metal editions do not go on sale until later in the year and will be priced at $299.99 where as the leather strap editions which are now selling, sell for $249.99 and customers have the option of buying the metal band seperately for $79.99 or buying the leather band seperately for $29.99. The Moto X and Moto G have also been announced, one for the high end and another for the low end. Both devices will please many Android users (but mainly TouchWiz users) as they come with a pure Android UI.

    • Dell targets businesses with new Chromeboxes

      Chrome OS is gaining momentum not only in the consumer space, these devices are also becoming popular among businesses. Dell will start selling two Chromeboxes for businesses and individuals later this month.

    • September’s best Android tablets

      Amazon has a list of Android tablets, and also a list of the overall best selling tablets on its site. I highly recommend that you check Amazon’s user reviews before making a final decision on a purchase. I’ve often found important and useful tidbits posted by owners of the product I’m interesting in buying, and it can sometimes help you avoid getting stuck with a lemon.

    • Because It Is Open, Android Wear is the Smartwatch Platform to Bet On

      Like many mobile devices in their early stages, some people are scoffing at smartwatches, but how many years did it take before we took smartphones and tablets seriously? Smartwatches will get done right, and based on what we’ve seen with Android itself, Android Wear is probably the platform to bet on.

    • New ultra secure cell phone, Blackphone, is reportedly flying off the shelves

      There is, apparently, a big demand for commercially available encrypted smartphones perhaps impervious to the data demands of spy agencies and cyber criminals worldwide.

      Indeed, Toby Weir-Jones says sales of his new ultra-encrypted smartphone, called the Blackphone, are flying off the shelves since it began officially shipping in June.

Open-source player-tracking project kicks off

“Coming from a scientific background, where transparency is a key part of doing repeatable research, makes me very skeptical of anything proprietary,” he said. “How can you trust the analysis if you can’t see the raw data?”

Open Xchange Launches Simple Email Encryption

German developer of open source productivity software, Open Xchange, has launched an email encryption product that can secure messages with a single click.

Called OX Guard, the new tool is an integral part of the OX App Suite – a carrier-grade cloud platform that includes OX Text, OX Spreadsheet and OX Drive, as well as email server, calendar and social network feeds.

Open Xchange CEO Rafael Laguna told TechWeek that one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of wider adoption of encryption is complexity, so OX Guard was designed to be as simple to use as possible – users just need to click the padlock icon, set the password and their messages will be protected by AES encryption.

Events

• Call for organizers: 2015 Linux Plumbers Conference

  Each year, the Linux Foundation’s Technical Advisory Board seeks an organizing committee for the annual Linux Plumbers Conference. That process has now begun for the 2015 event, which will be held during the week of August 17-21 in Seattle, Washington, alongside the LinuxCon North America event. This is your chance to put your stamp on one of our community’s most important gatherings.

Web Browsers

• Mozilla

  • Firefox 32 Officially Lands in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

    Canonical has published details about quite a few Firefox vulnerabilities in its Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating systems and the company has pushed a version of the software into the repositories.

  • Mozilla 1024-Bit Cert Deprecation Leaves 107,000 Sites Untrusted

    When Firefox 32 shipped this week, Mozilla also officially ended its support of 1024-bit certificate authority certificates in its trusted store.

SaaS/Big Data

• HP offers OpenStack services offerings

  So, you think OpenStack is perfect for your company’s cloud-needs, but you just discovered that finding OpenStack-savvy architects, designers, or even just administrators is like looking for the perfect New York style pizza… in San Diego.

CMS

• What’s New in September for Open Source CMS

  There are plenty of free and open source content management systems (CMS). But no platform is as big or as common as WordPress. WordPress powers more than 12.7 million websites — an astounding 47.38 percent of the World Wide Web, according to BuiltWith, which monitors such things.

BSD

• LLVM 3.5 released

Suburban Express Wants Round 4: Re-Files Lawsuits It Had Previously Dropped

Jeremy Leval, the Redditor who got this whole saga started after being sued and harrassed by Toeppen simply for sticking up for a foreign exchange student who a bus driver was mocking, is of course among those Toeppen is re-re-filing against. One begins to get the impression that Toeppen and Suburban Express are masochistic, getting some kind of perverse joy out of getting blasted in the media and online. I’m at a loss as to what other forces could be at work here. Though, judging by some of the other customers’ stories from those being attacked legally by Suburban Express, the simple answer may be that Toeppen is simply a jerk.

Security

• Friday’s security updates

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• Three more to be charged for Victor Jara’s murder

  MARTYRED Chilean communist folk singer Victor Jara’s widow Joan Jara welcomed the announcement yesterday that three more people have been charged over his murder during the country’s 1973 CIA-backed military coup.

• The Other 9/11

  Ten days after the Salvador Allende government was overthrown in a Sept. 11, 1973, coup in Chile, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jack Kubisch told the House Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs: “Gentlemen, I wish to state as flatly and as categorically as I possibly can that we did not have advance knowledge of the coup.”

  [...]

  “Make the economy scream…”

  When the 1970 Chilean presidential election rolled around, Salvador Allende was still a major player and, despite another wave of U.S.-funded propaganda, he was elected president of South America’s longest functioning democracy on Sept. 4, 1970.

  However, he had a new and powerful enemy: Dr. Henry Kissinger.

  The 40 Committee was formed with Kissinger as chair. The goal was not only to save Chile from its irresponsible populace but to yet again stave off the Red Tide™.

  “Chile is a fairly big place, with a lot of natural resources,” explains Noam Chomsky, “but the United States wasn’t going to collapse if Chile became independent. Why were we so concerned about it? According to Kissinger, Chile was a ‘virus’ that would ‘infect’ the region.”

  At a Sept. 15, 1970, meeting called to halt the spread of infection, Kissinger and President Nixon told CIA Director Richard Helms it would be necessary to “make the [Chilean] economy scream.” While allocating at least $10 million to assist in sabotaging Allende’s presidency, outright assassination was also considered a serious and welcome option.

  The respect held by the Chilean military for the democratic process led Kissinger to pick as his first assassination target not Allende himself, but General Rene Schneider, head of the Chilean Armed Forces. Schneider, it seems, had long believed that politics and the military should remain discrete. Despite warnings from Helms that a coup might not be possible in such a stable democracy, Kissinger urged the plan to proceed.

  When the killing of Schneider only served to solidify Allende’s support, a CIA-sponsored media blitz similar to that of 1964 commenced. Citizens were faced with daily “reports” of Marxist atrocities and Soviet bases supposedly being built in Chile. U.S. threats to sever economic and military aid were also used to help cultivate a “coup climate” among those in the military. These two approaches represented the hard and soft lines outlined by Nixon and Kissinger.

• Ethan Hawke’s ‘Good Kill’: A Searing Indictment of America’s Drone Warfare Obsession

  In Andrew Niccol’s devastating character study, Hawke plays a drone pilot who’s ordered by the CIA to off terrorists—as well as civilians—in a series of targeted strikes.

• Irresponsibly Blaming Russia for US-Led Western Crimes

  Washington is public enemy No. 1. It’s the real evil empire. It’s a longstanding serial aggressor. Rogue Western partners share blame.

  On September 2, Wall Street Journal editors echoed the same narrative. They headlined “Deterring a European War.”

  They called this week’s NATO summit meeting “one of the most important in its 65-year

  Southeastern Ukraine’s conflict is Obama’s war. Behind the scenes US manipulation controls things. Kiev is infested with CIA and FBI operatives. Blackwater USA (now Academi) type mercenaries operate in Southeastern Ukraine. Perhaps alongside covert US special forces.

  Since conflict erupted in April, Russia went all-out for diplomatic resolution. It has no ongoing military campaign.

  It didn’t invade Ukraine. It’s not shelling cross-border. Or from inside Ukrainian territory.

  Its troops aren’t involved in fighting. It’s not out to seize Ukrainian territory. Western sources lie claiming otherwise.

• CIA-linked Libyan General Haftar’s helicopters bomb Benghazi

  Several mysterious night bombings attacks were launched on Islamist positions in Libya while they were in the process of defeating Haftar allies there and driving them out of the city.

  Haftar claimed these attacks were joint operations with the international community.

• Fox Changes Meaning Of “Stand Down” Order To Keep The Benghazi Hoax Alive

  After multiple investigations concluded that no “stand down” order was given to security personnel responding to the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Fox News alleged that the delay security personnel took to enlist support amounted to a “stand down” order.

  On the September 5 edition of Special Report, host Bret Baier once again hyped the asked-and-answered question from his Fox News special, “13 Hours at Benghazi,” based on the accounts of three CIA security personnel who alleged they were delayed in responding to the diplomatic facility under attack in Benghazi, Libya. Baier criticized the “semantics” used by deputy State Department spokesperson Marie Harf, who during a press briefing explained that “there was no stand-down order” but there was a short delay “for very good security reasons to get additional backup and additional weapons” for the security personnel before responding to the attack.

• Fox’s Latest Benghazi Hoax Used As Justification For Wasteful Select Committee

• Selling Fear and Lies to Control the Public

  The media is selling fear of beheadings to the public.

• The Imperial Rot of Armchair Warriors

  An occasional misconception of history is the contention that geo-political outcomes are the result of rational calculation. Or put differently, local rationalities don’t always, or even most of the time, aggregate to global rationalities. The Obama administration used the CIA to organize a neo-nazi putsch in Ukraine after NATO spent the last twenty years squeezing (heavily) nuclear-armed Russia and immediately involved the IMF and Western oil company executives in Ukrainian ‘government’ affairs? At about the same time part of the Syrian ‘opposition’ that the U.S. had armed and financed morphed into IS (Islamic State) and promptly marched into Iraq to confiscate and use the weapons the U.S. had supplied leading Mr. Obama to once again bomb the country while re-committing combat troops. Given that there is no conceivable ‘good’ outcome to any of this, just what local ‘rationalities’ could be driving the serial disasters of U.S. foreign policy?

• ISIS Atrocities and US Imperialism

  The murder, following that of James Foley last month, is a further demonstration of both the reactionary character of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the terrible consequences of a half-century of intervention in the Middle East by US imperialism.

• How to Decode the New York Times

  So what, then, is the “more nuanced picture”? Kershner writes that the legal documents “depict the plot as more of a family affair, a local initiative organized and carried out by members of a clan in Hebron.” That was what many analysts had been saying all along, offering a very different interpretation than the one being put forth by Israel–though it was the Israeli line, not the one offered by independent analysts, that made its way into US media (FAIR Blog, 7/2/14, 7/28/14). Kershner speaks to one Israeli source who, she reports, still thinks it “was fair to blame Hamas, as an organization, for the kidnappings.” The source added that “it is still possible that we will find evidence of a direct connection.”

• When Fox News Didn’t Blame The (GOP) President For Beheadings

  After terrorists kidnapped and beheaded two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, while releasing gruesome videos of the act, Fox News focused much of its ire on President Obama, portraying him as a source of troubling weakness.

• Have You Watched This Airstrike in Iraq?

  CENTCOM has been helpfully posting declassified footage to YouTube for the past three weeks.

• NZ director’s attack of the drones at Venice

  Don’t be fooled. Unmanned aerial vehicles have changed the way wars are fought, turning some forms of combat into a computer game with flesh-and-blood victims.

• Legal basis for Iraq troop deployment called into question as days wear on

  The legal basis for the recent introduction of more than 1,000 US ground troops in Iraq was called into question on Friday, after the White House confirmed that it does not consider itself bound by time limits that usually constrain such deployments.

• First Controversial Drone Movie Strikes, Questions U.S. Policy

  The first movie examining the morality of drone warfare has arrived and it’s sure to add fuel to the debate over the growing use of the controversial technology by the Obama administration and the concern that too many innocent civilians are being killed.

  Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill, starring Ethan Hawke as a troubled U.S. Air Force pilot grappling with the ethical consequences of attacking from afar, makes its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival Sept. 5 before playing at the Toronto Film Festival Sept. 9.

• Epiphanies From Teju Cole

  The Nigerian-American novelist discusses the pitfalls of hashtag activism, the destructiveness of U.S. foreign policy, and that time he dreamed about meeting Obama at a Brooklyn house party.

• The warrior and moral injury

  -One effect of the rise of remote-controlled warfare will be that moral injury will assume an increased share of war’s psychological injuries. Remote-control warriors do not suffer life-threatening duress in combat, and they don’t vicariously experience extreme stress via the experiences of individuals they know and love (such as their witnessing a fellow platoon member being shot and killed). This means they’re immune from most forms of PTSD, as this condition is currently defined. They’re also immune from Traumatic Brain Injury (unless they spill their coffee and slip on it). They’re not immune, however, from moral injury. The potential for moral injury in combat veterans will only grow as sensors on “drones” and other remote-controlled machines improve. Soon, there will be little subjective difference between a WWI infantryman bayoneting an enemy soldier and what a drone pilot/sensor operator experiences when they kill someone.

• The Fatal Flaw in American Foreign Policy

  The American definition of “murder” in the midst of war now seems to depend upon the technical methodology for the homicide, not the deliberate intentions of the killers. Beheading is barbaric. High-tech bombing picking off individual “bad guys” is okay. In fact, US leaders claim to be conscientiously selective, though the innocent bystanders killed by drones are dismissed as “collateral damage.”

• All God’s Children Got Drones

  The Convention’s other goal is nonproliferation. The danger here is that a “Geneva Convention” for drones may turn drone proliferation into a distraction. Yes, drone proliferation is real. We’ve already remarked that some 80 countries now have drones. And according to Medea Benjamin of CODE PINK, 10 to 15 countries are working to produce drones that can kill. Naturally, we should be concerned about this. But shouldn’t our first concern be states which already possess killer drones? Medea Benjamin writes that there have been 350 lethal drone strikes on Pakistan since 2004 which have killed from 2,500 to 3,500 people. Those strikes weren’t launched by Burundi.

• ‘Good Kill’ meant to start debate, director says

  Ethan Hawke stars as a drone pilot near Las Vegas who has a mental breakdown while killing targets 7,000 miles away (11,000 km) in “Good Kill,” a Venice Film Festival entry shown yesterday and meant to spark debate.

• Open thread for night owls: Los Angeles Times reporter cleared stories about CIA with the CIA

• Emails: L.A. Times Reporter Cleared Stories with CIA, Promised Positive Coverage

• CIA Emails Expose Access Journalist at Work

• LA Times reporter Ken Dilanian worked with CIA to cover up drone program casualties

  A prominent national security reporter for the Los Angeles Times routinely submitted drafts and detailed summaries of his stories to CIA press handlers prior to publication, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.

  The reporter, Ken Dilanian, appears to compromise any honest representation in the stories, even submitting revised drafts to appease the CIA.

• Ken Dilanian sent CIA drafts of stories

• National security reporter shared drafts with CIA press office, emails reveal

• LA Times Says It’s ‘Disappointed’ In Former Reporter Who Shared Stories With CIA

• L.A. Times Disowns Reporter Outed as a CIA Collaborator

  Recently released emails indicate that prominent national security reporter Ken Dilanian — formerly with the Los Angeles Times, currently with the Associated Press (and from 1997-2007 the Philadelphia Inquirer) — shared stories prior to publication with CIA press office seeking their approval, according to a story up on The Intercept. Now, it is not uncommon for national security reporters to vet facts with government functionaries, but the emails indicate Dilanian went much further than that, not only sharing stories prior to publication (a big no-no in almost every newsroom) but he also entered into discussions about how the CIA could bend public opinion of drone strikes their way.

• Ex-Tribune reporter said to have ‘collaborative’ relationship with CIA

  A website cofounded by journalist Glenn Greenwald has published emails suggesting that a former Tribune Washington bureau national security reporter submitted some of his work to CIA officials prior to publication, a practice banned by many media outlets, including Tribune.

• Former LA Times Reporter Submitted Drafts For Approval By CIA

• NatSec Reporter Allegedly Had ‘Closely Collaborative Relationship’ with CIA

• The CIA’s Mop-Up Man: L.A. Times Reporter Cleared Stories With Agency Before Publication

  Email exchanges between CIA public affairs officers and Ken Dilanian, now an Associated Press intelligence reporter who previously covered the CIA for the Times, show that Dilanian enjoyed a closely collaborative relationship with the agency, explicitly promising positive news coverage and sometimes sending the press office entire story drafts for review prior to publication. In at least one instance, the CIA’s reaction appears to have led to significant changes in the story that was eventually published in the Times.

• Roboski Villagers Condemn US Hand, but Still Hold Turkey Responsible

  For the people of Roboski it does not matter that the deadly 2011 Turkish air attack may have been due to bad US intelligence. It still does not absolve the Turkish government, whose planes killed the 34 Kurdish villagers, they said.

  “The United States shares responsibility in the massacre, but we also hold Turkey responsible because in the end it was they who bombed us,” said Ferhat Encu, who lost his 15-year-old brother in the attack.

• Rand Paul’s Strategic Slipperiness on Foreign Policy

  As Senior Editor Jacob Sullum notes below, there has been a lot of chatter this week about the apparent flip-floppery, or at least slipperiness, of Sen. Rand Paul’s ideas about what the United States should do to the Islamic State. (In addition to Sullum’s strong critique, see Leon H. Wolf, Steve Benen, and the indefatigable Jennifer Rubin, as well as the senator himself.)

• Anti-Interventionism and Its Discontents

  Polls showing Rand Paul as the frontrunner in the GOP presidential sweepstakes have the neocons in a lather, with their online media phalanx frantically attacking him at every opportunity. It’s kind of funny to watch: the first fusillades were aimed at labeling him an “isolationist,” while more recently they’ve pointed out how he deviates from his father’s more angular policy positions. If you can’t smear and marginalize, then there’s always the strategy of cutting him off from his base.

• Hamas Emerges Buoyant Despite Bloodshed and Devastation in Gaza

  Ismail Haniya, the top Hamas leader in Gaza, worked the crowd in what used to be the Boura neighborhood of this battered northern border town, kissing the cheeks of elders and the foreheads of masked fighters. He waved at the women standing in front of makeshift huts next to the homes flattened in Israeli attacks, as children watched from atop concrete piles where green Hamas flags were planted as though on conquered lands.

• Ukraine Retracts Ceasefire Claim; U.N. Says Displaced Top 1 Million

  Ukraine has retracted an earlier claim to have reached a ceasefire with Russia. The office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko initially said he agreed with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on steps toward a ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. But the Kremlin then denied a ceasefire agreement, saying it is not in a position to make a deal because it’s not a party to the fighting. Ukraine has accused Russia of direct involvement in the violence amidst a recent escalation. The confusion comes as President Obama visits the former Soviet Republic of Estonia ahead of a major NATO summit in Wales. More than 2,600 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since April, the majority by Ukrainian forces. The United Nations says more than one million people have been displaced, over a quarter of them internally.

• Inside Jobs and Israeli Stooges: Why Is the Muslim World in Thrall to Conspiracy Theories?

  Did you know that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis, was trained by Mossad and the CIA? Were you aware that his real name isn’t Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai but Simon Elliot? Or that he’s a Jewish actor who was recruited by the Israelis to play the part of the world’s most wanted terrorist?

  If the messages in my email in-box and my Twitter timeline and on my Facebook page are anything to go by, plenty of Muslims are not only willing to believe this nonsensical drivel but are super-keen to share it with their friends. The bizarre claim that NSA documents released by Edward Snowden “prove” the US and Israel are behind al-Baghdadi’s actions has gone viral.

  There’s only one problem. “It’s utter BS,” Glenn Greenwald, the investigative journalist who helped break the NSA story, told me. “Snowden never said anything like that and no [NSA] documents suggest it.” Snowden’s lawyer, Ben Wizner, has called the story a hoax.

• US Boots in Iraq and Baltics, Authorization to Attack Syria…and US Troops in Ukraine!

  The peace president is clearly on war footing. US bombs are also going off in Africa and Pakistan. No one at home is talking about NSA spying anymore. NATO has a new mission.

Finance

• How to screw tech workers and get away with it

  It wasn’t only eBay that got off scandalously light for such anticompetitive collusion. In a separate class-action suit against Adobe, Apple, Google, and Intel, the four companies agreed to a collective settlement of $324 million.

  That might sound like a reasonable numbers until you do a little math. The class-action suit represented 64,000 workers, which means each would receive the munificent sum of $5,062; subtracting lawyers’ fees shrinks that amount further. Plaintiffs had sought $3 billion in damages in lost wages, which under antitrust laws could have tripled to a $9 billion reward had they won in court — $140,625 each, or about $102,780 after the lawyers’ cut.

• Koch Operative: Raise the Wage, Totalitarianism and Terrorism Follow?

  Leaked audio from the latest Koch summit shows Charles Koch’s “intellectual sounding board,” Richard Fink, drawing a direct line between increasing the minimum wage and the rise of fascism, totalitarianism, and terrorist suicide bombers.

• One in Four Americans With College Degrees Shouldn’t Have Bothered

  Roughly 25% of those with bachelor’s degrees in the US derive no economic benefit from their diplomas.

• Fast food workers stage national sit-ins and walk-outs

  Fast food workers across the U.S. went on strike Thursday, staging sit-ins and walk-outs to bring attention to a years-long campaign to raise industry wages to $15 an hour and allow workers to join unions. The demonstrations spurred several arrests and the disruption of business at fast food restaurants in many major cities. Ashley Westerman reports from Washington, D.C.

• Over 400 Arrested in National Fast-Food Workers’ Strike for Living Wage, Unionization

  More than 400 fast-food workers and their supporters have been arrested in a national day of action for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Workers staged a one-day strike in 150 cities across the country Thursday, from Las Vegas to Chicago and Detroit, to Little Rock, Arkansas, and here in New York City.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Huffington Post And The View From Bogustan: Standing Behind Blatantly False Claims Isn’t Journalism

  Ayyadurai has waged an incredibly bizarre public relations campaign, and the more you look at it, the more bizarre it becomes. However, anyone who looks over any of the primary documentation (much of which we’ve linked to in our previous posts) can only conclude that while Ayyadurai may have independently come up with some ideas, he most certainly did not invent email. It was widely in use. The key arguments in his claim are obviously false, and prey on (1) a misunderstanding or misrepresetation of copyright law and (2) an almost fraudulent misquoting of Dave Crocker, a guy who really was heavily involved in early email efforts. Again, all of that is discussed in the earlier posts.

  What I still cannot fathom is how the Huffington Post can stand behind this “reporting.” I’ve now heard from three different HuffPost reporters on the news side who all say that they’re horrified that no one at the company has done anything about this. The only official response I got stood by the stories, but actual reporters at the company recognize that their own credibility has been absolutely destroyed by this. It’s been pointed out that the five part series is on HuffPo’s “blogging” side — which gives a platform to PR folks with no editorial oversight.

• Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked ‘History Of Email’ Series

Censorship

• Harrop: Stopping the ‘spiral of silence’

  The “spiral of silence” is a theory that people hesitate to say things they believe others in their group won’t agree with. It predates the Internet age.

  Let me add that the “spiral of silence” disproportionately affects the shy, the thoughtful and the female.

  Social media were supposed to free these cooped-up opinions by offering new venues for speaking one’s piece. But this high-minded promise of a vast online town hall for pensive argument has fallen flat, according to a new report by Pew Research Center and Rutgers University.

• Automattic Rejects Series Of Bogus Janet Jackson Takedown Attempts By Using Janet Jackson Song Titles

  As you can clearly see that’s using a photo of Jackson’s famous “wardrobe malfunction” from the Superbowl many years ago, and applying the Things Tim Howard Could Save meme to it. Marginally funny. But not copyright infringement. Not only does Jackson not hold the copyright on that image, it’s obvious fair use for whoever does hold the copyright.

• UN holds Internet Governance Forum in a country known for digital censorship

• ‘Hypocrite’ Turkey Holds Internet Governance Forum While Twitter Users Face Trial

• Internet Governance Forum: A missed opportunity for human rights

• Protecting the open internet: the Internet Governance Forum in Turkey

  Let me be clear, while Turkey has made good progress in some areas of digital development and education, and done more in recent years to integrate the Kurdish community and language into the Turkish nation, there are still too many worrying steps with regard to freedom of speech. That freedom must exist equally online and offline. Not only are around 51,000 websites blocked at the moment, but dozens of journalists are in jail or on trial: one female journalist I met, Fusun Erdogan, was sentenced to 789 years in jail!

• Forbes Praises YouTube Censoring Steven Sotloff Beheading Video

  Following the horrific actions of ISIS/ISIL, in which the group beheaded American journalist James Foley and plastered the video in online forums like Twitter and YouTube, I argued that it is important that the American Public be given the chance to repudiate the aim of the video: paralyzing us with fear. Adding to that thought, Glenn Greenwald argued that the reason one must fight against censorship in the most egregious of speech cases is that such cases are often where the limitation of speech is legitimized. While this may not be a First Amendment consideration, since those sites are not affiliated with the government, it would be a mistake to suggest that free speech is limited as a concept to that narrow legal definition. Free and open speech is an ideal, one that is codified into law in some places, and one which enjoys a more relaxed but important status within societal norms.

• Austrian ISPs Sued For Actually Wanting A Court Order Rather Than Just Blocking Websites Based On Entertainment Industry’s Requests

  Furthermore, the industry seems to believe that everyone else has a legal responsibility to carry out its wishes once it declares a site as bad. It thinks hosts should take down sites, search engines should stop linking to them, advertisers should block ads, registrars should pull domain names and ISPs should block access. You’d think that maybe actually adapting to new technologies and giving people more of what they want might be a more compelling strategy, but the legacy entertainment industry prefers demanding that everyone else go out of their way to protect the legacy industry’s obsolete business model, without the industry itself doing anything more than pointing at sites (often incorrectly).

• Record Labels Issue Takedown To Take Kim Dotcom’s Album Down From His Own Site

  We’ve heard some folks claim that all these bogus takedown notices we write about are just “anomalies” rather than a pattern of abuse of the law for the purpose of censorship. And yet, there are more and more examples every day. The latest one is particularly bizarre. IFPI (the international version of the RIAA) has apparently been issuing a series of bogus takedown notices to get Kim Dotcom’s album “Good Times” taken down off of his own site, Mega. That’s… quite incredible. This does not appear to be a strange attempt to hide Dotcom’s music, but it looks to just be pure sloppiness on the part of the IFPI issuing misguided takedowns. That is, the IFPI takedown notice lists a totally different song (and it turns out this is the second time this has happened to Dotcom’s album in the past month). As short-sighted as the IFPI is, it would take an other wordly level of stupidity to directly target Dotcom’s music with a bogus takedown. Even the IFPI must know that that would backfire badly. The story that it’s an “accident” makes much more sense.

Privacy

• When Can the FBI Use National Security Letters to Go After Journalists? That’s Classified

  Two weeks ago, the DOJ Inspector General released a report on the FBI’s use of National Security Letters (NSLs)—the controversial (and unconstitutional) surveillance instruments used to gather personal information of Americans without any prior oversight from a judge. In a little-noticed passage buried in the report, the IG describes how NSLs have been used on journalists in the past, and indicates that the FBI can currently circumvent the Justice Department’s media guidelines to do so in the future.

• Met refuses to disclose number of times it obtained journalist phone records

  Scotland Yard investigating police mole in Plebgate saga seized records of Sun political editor without consent

• Metropolitan Police Says They’re ‘Not Prepared’ To Reveal How Often They Abuse Anti-Terror Law To Spy On Journalists

  The line between “not prepared” and “oh fuck, we don’t have to reveal that, do we?” appears to be fairly blurry.

• US Intelligence “Hedges Bets” Against Competitors

  It is the most recent of Edward Snowden’s released documents published by The Intercept, where Glenn Greenwald criticizes the report’s clear and descriptive plans for international corporate espionage. The QICR Final Report details multiple “safe bets” and “strategic hedges” against perceived threats to US sovereignty in not only political but also commercial environments.

• Document from Snowden Contains Blueprint for How US Spying Can Advance Corporate Interests

• The U.S. Government’s Secret Plans to Spy for American Corporations

  Throughout the last year, the U.S. government has repeatedly insisted that it does not engage in economic and industrial espionage, in an effort to distinguish its own spying from China’s infiltrations of Google, Nortel, and other corporate targets. So critical is this denial to the U.S. government that last August, an NSA spokesperson emailed The Washington Post to say (emphasis in original): “The department does ***not*** engage in economic espionage in any domain, including cyber.”

  After that categorical statement to the Post, the NSA was caught spying on plainly financial targets such as the Brazilian oil giant Petrobras; economic summits; international credit card and banking systems; the EU antitrust commissioner investigating Google, Microsoft, and Intel; and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. In response, the U.S. modified its denial to acknowledge that it does engage in economic spying, but unlike China, the spying is never done to benefit American corporations.

  Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, for instance, responded to the Petrobras revelations by claiming: “It is not a secret that the Intelligence Community collects information about economic and financial matters…. What we do not do, as we have said many times, is use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of—or give intelligence we collect to—U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”

  But a secret 2009 report issued by Clapper’s own office explicitly contemplates doing exactly that. The document, the 2009 Quadrennial Intelligence Community Review—provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—is a fascinating window into the mindset of America’s spies as they identify future threats to the U.S. and lay out the actions the U.S. intelligence community should take in response. It anticipates a series of potential scenarios the U.S. may face in 2025, from a “China/Russia/India/Iran centered bloc [that] challenges U.S. supremacy” to a world in which “identity-based groups supplant nation-states,” and games out how the U.S. intelligence community should operate in those alternative futures—the idea being to assess “the most challenging issues [the U.S.] could face beyond the standard planning cycle.”

• New Intercept Leak Shows That Intelligence Agencies Are Ready And Willing To Perform Economic Espionage If US Tech Edge ‘Slips’

• Politico Columnist Pretty Sure Glenn Greenwald Has ‘Peaked’

• 7 problems with Politico Magazine’s hit piece on Glenn Greenwald

  Politico Magazine’s Michael Hirsh has written a hit piece on Glenn Greenwald. It is terrible, in precisely seven ways.

• Is Glenn Greenwald Still “Red-Hot”? The Politico Investigates

  Politico Magazine is a magazine edition of The Politico—America’s worst publication—whose mission is “to pull back from the flood to understand what it’s all about.” The flood, in that metaphor, is supposed to be the tremendous churning hourly volume of vacuous meta- and meta-meta-political Narrative and Controversy that sustains The Politico and is sustained by The Politico.

• Politico’s Passive Aggressive Attack On Glenn Greenwald: ‘History. Or Journalism. Or Treason. Or Something’

  Politico is known as the snarky DC-based publication that seems to thrive on considering itself part of the infamous “church of the savvy,” where reporting on the play-by-play of the horse race of politics is more important than exposing the truth. However, it apparently has a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to Glenn Greenwald. A bizarre “profile” of Greenwald by Michael Hirsh tries to make the argument that Greenwald has “peaked” mainly because Politico appears to really, really, really want that to be true. Of course, as Jay Rosen pointed out, this is hardly the first time that Politico has asserted that Glenn Greenwald was over as a story. The site did so back in July of 2013, just a month after the first Snowden revelations, claiming “the new cycle has moved on” and “Greenwald doesn’t seem to have any more big revelations up his sleeve.”

• Imagine an NSA life, on camera all the time — Column

  After our collective freakout over Google Glass, society shifted its focus to the police.

• Tor Asks For Help In Keeping Net Anonymity As An Option For Anyone, At Any Site

  It’s good to see such a key project both identifying problems and coming up with possible ways to tackle them. The post contains further details of future plans, the people and organizations involved — and even an offer of funding for those who want to help ensure that The Onion Router’s stink continues to make the people at the NSA and GCHQ cry.

• A call to arms: Helping Internet services accept anonymous users

• NSA Spying Reform Bill Doesn’t Need Additions, Senate Told

• Anna Smith Tells the Ninth Circuit: “NSA Spying is Unconstitutional.” Appeals Court to Consider Mass Telephone Records Collection

• Privacy groups pressure Senate on NSA

• NSA surveillance moves one step closer to the Supreme Court

• Three-quarters of Americans want cameras in the Supreme Court as one federal Judge demonstrates why some of his colleagues don’t

• NSA Surveillance: Supreme Court Could Debate Data Collection Program After ACLU Lawsuit

• Mass NSA Phone Metadata Collection in Federal Appeals Court Crosshairs

  A trio of judges Tuesday heard the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge that the federal government’s mass collection of telephone metadata is unconstitutional.

• ACLU’s suit against NSA for phone data collection before appeals court

• First US appeals court hears argument to shut down NSA database

• Pointed Questions on NSA Snooping

  Second Circuit one of three appellate courts judging phone surveillance program.

• NY Court Weighs Legality of NSA Phone Data Collection

• Wyden: Government Hacking May Cost High Tech Industry Billions

  Oregon Senator Ron Wyden says he’ll hold a hearing on the financial impact of recent hacking activity by the U.S. government.

  Earlier this summer, the CIA admitted it had conducted an unauthorized search of computers used by the Senate Intelligence Committee. This was after director John Brennan said, “We wouldn’t do that.”

• When NSA and FBI call for surveillance takeout, these companies deliver

  Not every Internet provider can handle the demands of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant or law enforcement subpoena for data. For those companies, Zack Whittaker reports on ZDNet, the answer is to turn to a shadowy class of companies known as “trusted third parties” to do the black bag work of complying with the demands of the feds.

  Under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), phone companies and Internet providers can charge back the government for their efforts in responding to warrants. AT&T charges the CIA more than $10 million per year for access to its phone call metadata. But smaller ISPs who aren’t frequently hit with warrants can’t afford to keep the infrastructure or manpower on-hand to respond to requests—so they sign up with a “trusted third party” capable of doing the work as an insurance policy against such requests.

• Fake Cellphone Towers Installed Across The US Could Be Spying On You

• Some Cell Phone Towers Don’t Just Relay Your Call, They Listen In

• Forget the NSA, fake cell towers are intercepting your calls

• 19 Fake Mobile Base Stations Found Across US – Are They For Spying or Crime?

  The US manufacturer of a super secure mobile phone recently discovered 19 fake mobile base stations set up across the US that are quietly intercepting calls, SMS text messages and data from users’ phones.

• Another Day, Another Two Malicious Fake Cell Towers

• Fake Cell Phone Towers Discovered Grabbing Signals

• Fake Cell Towers Allow the NSA and Police to Keep Track of You

• Secrecy surrounds government surveillance programs

  As reported last month in BiometricUpdate.com, Boston surreptitiously spied and used facial recognition on concertgoers last year. According to Dig Boston, a local alternative news daily, a new and sophisticated event monitoring platform supplied by IBM was tested at the Boston Calling Music Festival in 2013. The system gave authorities “a live and detailed birdseye view of concertgoers, pedestrians and vehicles in the vicinity” of the event.

• DOJ AND ODNI Support Leahy NSA Reform Bill

• Holder, Clapper Back Bill Curbing NSA Surveillance

• EFF to PCLOB: Inform the Public About the President’s Executive Order 12333 Spying

  EFF, joined by Access, filed public comments last week urging the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) to tackle the unknown spying activities occurring under Executive Order 12333 (EO 12333). The Executive Order is supposed to protect Americans from presidentially-directed spying; however, despite the protections, EO 12333 is being used for mass spying that collects Americans’ communications, address books, and other information.

• FBI & CIA use the same software as hackers to access iCloud accounts

  The software reportedly responsible for this week’s iCloud attacks on famous female celebrities is meant for government institutions, this according to the CEO of the company behind the software, Vladimir Katalov.

• Google Accused of Being Anti-Russian and Spying Tool for Ukraine

  A Russian federal lawmaker says Google is anti-Russian and possibly spying for Ukraine, and he wants local authorities to investigate, Izvestia reported Thursday.

• The CIA spies on the U.S. Senate: Is there nobody safe from spying?

• German Companies Are Selling Unlicensed Surveillance Technologies to Human Rights Violators – and Making Millions

  By cross-referencing information from a massive data leak in mid-August with the results of a recent parliamentary inquiry in Germany, we’ve come to suspect that the majority of surveillance technologies produced by German companies have been bought and sold under the table – in other words, without a license. The German government requires licenses for the sale of technologies that are considered to be “dual use” – products that can be used for both good and ill.

• The Holes in NATO’s Cyber Defense Pledge

• UK, US and Israel spy on Middle-East from Cyprus

  Senior Turkish Cypriot lawyer Baris Mamali warned that American, British and Israeli surveillance operations in Cyprus puts the island under the threat of attacks by external forces.

• An Unhappy Summer for Liberty

  At the root of the chaos in the Middle East and here at home are governments that respect no limits on their exercise of power. Public officials—who are supposed to be our public servants—routinely behave as if they are our masters. They reject the confines of the Constitution, they don’t believe that our rights are inalienable, and they fail to see the dangerous path down which they are leading us.

• Facebook Messenger’s Privacy Concerns Have Users Outraged

  The Facebook Messenger for mobile devices has caused outrage among users regarding concern for their privacy settings. In their defense, the social network claims it will give the user increased control over the settings. Now anyone who attempts to access the “Chat with Friends” feature on their cellular device is greeted with the message “We’ve moved over to Messenger.”

• NSA defends dragnet collection of Americans’ phone records in appeals court

• Nude Celebs and the NSA

  From time to time we hear these kinds of arguments, which convey the message, “when it comes to privacy invasion, companies are far scarier than the government, so all this fuss about the government invading privacy is overblown and it’s the companies we should be paying attention to.” (Occasionally we hear the reverse as well.)

• MSM In A Tizzy Over XXX Celebrity Picture Leak, Fail To Correlate To Larger NSA/Privacy Debate

  In some leaked documents the NSA/5-Eyes have talked of being ‘greatly interested’ in expanding these capabilities to the cameras of gaming systems like the Playstation 4 and XBOX 360, which for me at least, brings about the question of what kind of terrorist prevention is involved in watching my child play Lego Marvel Heroes?

• Global agreeement on surveillance needed, says Hillary Clinton

• This is how creepily Big Brother is watching you in India

  In India too, the State seems to be using similar tactics in the name of security. A report by the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC) revealed that Indian authorities have installed a number of surveillance systems in the communication networks used by private citizens. Over 100,000 telephone interception orders are issued by the central government every year, besides the staggering number of surveillance orders issued by the State governments, the report said.

• Newly Revealed NSA Program ICREACH Extends the NSA’s Reach Even Further

• OffNow vs NSA on RT America: “The NSA Can be Nullified”

  Camp and O’Donnell ridicule NSA surveillance while accurately describing the OffNow campaign to thwart unwarranted surveillance through state action.

Civil Rights

• Ferguson Police Department tactics will be focus of federal investigation

  The U.S. Justice Department is getting ready to launch an investigation into the practices and training of the Ferguson, Missouri, police department, a Missouri official and a federal official told CNN.

• Meeting at University of Michigan connects police violence to imperialist war

  Dozens of students, workers, and youth attended a meeting at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor Thursday night to discuss the significance of the August 9 police killing and subsequent repression of protests in Ferguson, Missouri.

  Titled “Military-police violence in Ferguson, Missouri: The war comes home” and hosted by the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), the meeting took up the interconnections between increasing police brutality and attacks on living conditions and democratic rights in the US and the escalating geopolitical tensions and military predations of American imperialism internationally.

• The Miraculous Works Of The Criminal Justice System

  So, apparently White, with his hands cuffed behind him, shot himself in the chest.

• Authorities claim handcuffed man shot himself in the chest, ruled ‘suicide’

  Authorities claim that a man committed suicide via gunshot while handcuffed and unattended in the back of a police cruiser. However, an autopsy report states that the man — who had his handcuffed behind his back, and was already searched for weapons — was shot in the chest.

• Ferguson Police Chief Lied About Why He Released Alleged Michael Brown Robbery Tape: Report

  Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson lied when he said he had received “many” specific requests for the videotape that allegedly shows Michael Brown robbing a convenience store, according to a new report.

  “All I did — what I did was — was release the videotape to you, because I had to,” Jackson told reporters on Aug. 15 when asked why he released the robbery footage. “I’d been sitting on it, but I — too many people put in a [Freedom of Information Act] request for that thing, and I had to release that tape to you.”

  Writing for The Blot, Matthew Keys reports that the police department did not receive any specific requests for the videotape.

  “A review of open records requests sent to the Ferguson Police Department found that no news organization, reporter or individual specifically sought the release of the surveillance tape before police distributed it on Aug. 15,” Keys writes.

• Guy Blouin ID’d as cyclist run over by Quebec City police car

  Witness says he saw cruiser run over man twice; bicycle and police car moved from scene by officers

• This Week in Transparency: Shenanigans at the CIA, open-source FOIA reform, and more

• CIA Redacted ‘Off The Record, No Comment’ From Released Documents

  Over at The Intercept, there’s an article claiming that the AP’s national security reporter Ken Dilanian had a too cozy relationship with the CIA while he was at the Tribune Company. It’s an interesting read, based on pages upon pages of emails between reporters and the CIA that were released under a FOIA request. However, what caught my attention, more than the full story, was something in all of those emails, spotted by Katherine Hawkins. And it’s that, on page 363, it seems clear that the CIA, when releasing these emails, redacted the line “Off the record, no comment.” It’s rather obvious, because Dilanian immediately repeats that line right back, somewhat angrily at the ridiculousness of it.

• Militarization, Surveillance, and Profit: How Grassroots Groups are Fighting Urban Shield

  In the San Francisco Bay Area, the answer is yes. A coalition of community groups has come together to call attention to Urban Shield, a four-day long “preparedness” exercise for law enforcement and other agencies that will take place from September 4-8. They’ve organized a week of education, including a march and demonstration outside of the event on Friday, September 5. To these community groups, Urban Shield represents state violence and political repression, not public safety.

• You Can’t Say Something Like That And Not Do Something About It

  Amnesty International also calls attention to how wrong Obama was to characterize torture as an understandable error of judgment in the immediate wake of 9/11, by people who meant well. (“He even called us patriots!” John Rizzo, former CIA acting general counsel, kvelled afterwards.)

  By contrast, the extensive paper trail that has emerged over the years is clear: The Bush/Cheney torture regime was “a chillingly detailed, planned and resourced operation incorporating systematic unlawful and criminal conduct stretching over years.”

  If Obama really wants to prevent this from happening again some other time, Amnesty says, he needs to start by releasing the full Senate intelligence committee report on torture — not just the executive summary, but the whole thing, and without the redactions the White House proposed in early August.

  As I wrote on Wednesday, Senate intelligence committee chair Dianne Feinstein expects that she will be able to release the approximately 500-page executive summary of the 6,000-plus page report within two to four weeks — redacted, but not so redacted it isn’t “readable and understandable.”

• New York’s Shield Law Protects Reporter From Subpoena

  Risen fought the subpoena all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices declined to review a lower court’s ruling affirming the subpoena’s legality. Having exhausted his options, Risen’s day of judgment may be coming soon, forcing him either to be jailed for his convictions or to tell the government what it wants to hear.

• Holder: No Jail for NYT Reporter

  During a press conference to announce a broadened probe of the Ferguson, Mo. police department, Holder was asked whether he stood by statements he has reportedly made in private meetings insisting that Risen is not at risk of being jailed for contempt despite prosecutors’ success in defeating his legal effort to avoid testifying against his alleged source, Jeffrey Sterling.

• Up to 2,100 Photos of US Soldiers Abusing Prisoners May Soon Be Released

  Would the release of 10-year-old detainee abuse photographs, such as one depicting US soldiers pointing a broom handle at a hooded detainee’s rectum, incite terrorist organizations and threaten national security?

  That’s a question government attorneys will have to answer next week when they explain to a federal court judge why as many as 2,100 unclassified photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqi and Afghan captives should continue to be concealed from the public.

• UK records undermine Government’s claims over damaged CIA rendition documents

  Last month, FCO Minister Mark Simmonds told MPs that records of flights passing through Diego Garcia had suffered “water damage” as a result of “extremely heavy weather in June 2014.”

  However, weather records for Diego Garcia obtained from the FCO under Freedom of Information have cast doubt on this explanation: official logs for the island show that the total rainfall for June 2014 was just 3.25 inches (83mm). This is a low figure, considering the average annual rainfall is 102 inches (2591mm) – or 8.5 inches (216mm) per month.

  Ministers have previously admitted that Diego Garcia, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), was used by CIA planes carrying detainees as part of the ‘extraordinary rendition’ programme, which saw prisoners flown to countries where they could be subjected to torture. However, the UK Government has so far refused to make documents relating to such flights public.

• Diego Garcia: Heavy Rain That ‘Destroyed’ Flight Logs in CIA Rendition Row Wasn’t So Heavy

• Compare North Korea’s Judicial System to Gitmo

  The inmates at Guantanamo are treated no differently from the way suspects are treated in North Korea. As most everyone knows, some of the prisoners at Gitmo have been there for 12 years, without charges, trials, or even the semblance of due process of law. If they were ever to be given trials, the proceedings would be kangaroo in nature, in that the outcomes of the trials would be preordained by the president and Pentagon officials. Much of the trials would be in secret and evidence acquired by torture and hearsay evidence could be used to buttress the preordained verdict, just like in North Korea. Meanwhile, prisoners at Gitmo have been brutally tortured and have no hope of ever securing justice. It’s not surprising that many of them have gone on hunger strikes in the hopes of killing themselves.

• What the CIA is attempting to keep under wraps

Internet/Net Neutrality

• FCC’s Tom Wheeler Admits There Isn’t Really Broadband Competition

  The big broadband providers have all been spinning a yarn for a while now pretending that there’s widespread competition. A key partner in this has been the FCC, which for years has helped spread this myth by pushing out totally bogus broadband data. If you want a good laugh, go over to BroadbandMap.gov and type in your address — and discover a bunch of bogus claims about broadband which you really don’t have. The speeds are inflated. The services are inflated. It includes mobile data broadband, despite it being priced much, much higher and with very low caps and limits — and speeds that no one truly considers to be broadband but, that doesn’t stop the big broadband players from using that bogus data to claim there’s tons of competition.

• The Neutered Net: Why the FCC Can’t Save the Internet

  There’s no question that Net Neutrality has been this year’s most hotly debated and passionately defended political issue regarding the internet. It has often been painted as the next no-brainer that every internet user should hop on the bandwagon in support of—the next SOPA, PIPA, or NSA scandal. Opposition to shocking revelations such to these controversies sent a shockwave through the status quo of corporate government power. It was a signpost that the millennial generation can and will rise up to resist the oppression of personal liberties—at least when the fabric of their daily lives are at risk.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Corporate Sovereignty Debate Heats Up In Australia

  As Techdirt has reported, so far corporate sovereignty has emerged as the most contentious issue in the TTIP/TAFTA negotiations. In response to the growing public concern in Europe, the European Commission held a consultation on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), although that proved largely a sham, with the desired outcome clearly signalled by the choice of questions and how they were framed. Indeed, Karel De Gucht, the EU Commissioner with overall responsibility for TTIP, even went so far as to call the unprecedented 150,000 public responses an “outright attack” — which is an interesting way to characterize democracy in action.

• Copyrights

  • How Canada Shaped the Copyright Rules in the EU Trade Deal

    In late December 2009, Wikileaks, the website that publishes secret government information, posted a copy of the draft intellectual property chapter of the Canada – European Trade Agreement (CETA). The CETA deal was still years from completion, but the leaked document revealed that the European Union envisioned using the agreement to mandate a massive overhaul of Canadian law.

  • Leak Of Complete CETA Text Shows Canada Fought Off EU Demands For More Extreme Copyright Rules

    As we wrote back in July, it seems that the trade agreement between Canada and the EU, generally known as CETA, is finally nearing completion, after premature claims to that effect. One reason why we might believe so is that thanks to some public-spirited whistleblower(s), we now have both CETA’s main text (pdf) and the annexes (zip). This has permitted Michael Geist to perform an analysis of how the copyright provisions in CETA have evolved since the first leak of the chapter covering intellectual monopolies, posted by Wikileaks back in 2009.

  • U.S. Government Wants Kim Dotcom’s Cash and Cars

    The U.S. Government is going after Kim Dotcom’s bank accounts, cars, art and other property. In a complaint filed at a Virginia federal court the Department of Justice argues that the property of the Megaupload and its founder should be forfeited as it was obtained through criminal means.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Switch to Linux part 2 – install Linux

Once you’ve got your Linux Mint image downloaded (or other distro if you fancy using a different one), you’ll need to burn it to a spare DVD or temporarily create a bootable USB stick with it. We recommend doing the latter by using the UNetbootin software and a spare USB stick that’s at least 2GB in size. Be sure to back up any files on the USB stick before using the software though, as it will delete them otherwise.

How a Linux system administrator evolves from beginner to advanced professional

Evolution of a SysAdmin

There is an ever-growing demand for Linux professionals, and becoming a sysadmin can be a challenging, interesting and rewarding career path. We have curated a few resources that can help you take your Linux career to the next level – regardless of your current experience level.

Tux Machines Ten Months Later

It wasn’t a big surprise when Linton announced her intention to sell the site. For a while it had been obvious she wasn’t putting the time into it she once had. Since the site had started in 2004, it had been constantly maintained, with links to other sites being posted daily, if not more often. Recently, it had lost that dependability. Days, sometimes weeks, would go by without the site being updated.

The Wrong Way To Install GNU/Linux

Now, the newbie does not need to create a shopping list with thousands of entries. Many of the Debian packages are libraries shared by multiple applications so start with the major applications the newbie needs: a web browser or two, an office suite or two, some graphics applications for producing drawings or editing images, some multimedia software, various utilities like file-manager, search engine (yes you can have powerful tools on your desktop), database, etc. Make a short list of a few dozen or less packages that give the newbie what he/she wants. Then consider the desktop itself. The newbie can have none at all (strange but true), simple iconified desktops, brave new world shortcut-driven searchable-everything desktops and even some combinations like several different desktops running in virtual machines… Here the possibilities are numerous but there should be some combination that suites the user. If the user like most runs a few applications routinely and has a small total number of applications ever used, a rather finite desktop like XFCE should work. It’s a lot like XP with a task bar (or not), actual menus and such. If the user is some kind of genius with a huge number of applications, too many to hide behind icons, a search-engine base might be the way to go. You just start typing the name/description of an application and you find it just like URI’s autocompletion in your browser. Then choose KDE or GNOME.

Fedora in local medicine shop

They are really happy with the OS as almost no downtime for them.

NBC, Today Show Use Ubuntu to Illustrate Celebrity Hacking Story

Spotting Ubuntu in the wild should be promoted to a sport and records must be set for the most interesting places where the distro has been seen. It looks like NBC and the Today Show have used Ubuntu to illustrate the nefarious practices of the hacker that release some nude pictures of various celebrities.

Desktop

• Chromebooks will make the year of Linux possible: Linus Torvalds

  Chromebooks are becoming quite popular among the techie as well as non-techie crowd. Even Microsoft has started to get worried about Chromebooks and is pushing hardware partners to do a Netbook 2.0 to combat Chromebooks.

  Linus likes Chromebooks quite a lot – this is one device which may realise the dream of ‘Linux on desktop’. When asked about what can be done to move closer toward the ‘year of desktop Linux’ at DebConf, he said, “Technical people don’t tend to use Chromebooks but I think Chromebooks are kind of things that will make the year of the desktop more possible.”

• Toshiba introduces a Chromebook you would crave to buy

  Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, said a few day ago that Chromebook may realise the ‘year of Linux desktop’ dream. There is no doubt that Chromebooks are fast becoming preferred choice of users; the are the best selling devices on Amazon.com.

  Now Toshiba has introduced two Chromebooks which not only look great, but also pack some good hardware. The company has announced two Chromebooks, where one is an entry-level $249 Chromebook with standard HD display the other one is kind of high end with Full HD (1920 x 1080) 13.3 incg display with IPS technology.

• Can this free software company secure the future of Linux for the city of Munich?

  There are many solved problems in open source. Groupware is not one of them.

  How else would you explain the number of migrations that fail on average in groupware? The Swiss canton of Solothurn is just one example among many as a result of groupware vendors who have given up and transitioned to Outlook or the web to meet their needs. Kolab does things differently. For one, Outlook will never be the client for the Linux desktop. And, the web is a good answer for a lot of things, but not all.

  The city of Munich is another good case to look at; they successfully completed a Linux migration that has saved them millions of Euros. But now, the newly elected mayor and his deputy have made the news by publicly considering a migration back to Windows. To explore this further, let’s first ignore for a moment that the City Council would need to approve any change in strategy and has renewed its dedication to LiMux. Let’s also ignore the fact that the City employees do not consider it a good idea to go back to Windows.

  So, what was it that prompted LiMux to be put into question in the news?

  If you guessed that Office interoperatbility may have something to do with it, you would be right. As long as there are competing standards there will be incompatibility between the dominant vendor and the rest of the market. Document exchange remains a constant issue that is ultimately only solved at the political level. This particular problem is not technical and the UK has recently demonstrated that they will choose open documents as the standard format to deal with it.

• Acer Chromebook 13 review

  The best Chromebooks all have one thing in common: they’re small. The most popular Chromebooks have small, low-resolution 11.6-inch displays. They may offer a low price, stellar battery life, and fast performance — but sometimes you just want a bigger computer.

Server

• Cumulus Linux Partners for Open Source Networking OS

  Does the channel need an open source operating system designed to power the next-generation networking hardware that powers the cloud? The company behind Cumulus Linux thinks so, and so too, apparently, do Dell, VMware (VMW) and other partners who have endorsed Cumulus Linux through major reseller and distribution agreements recently.

• Parallels wants to help automate, manage and secure Linux containers

  Virtualization firm Parallels Inc. is hoping to break into the world of containers with its automation, security and management software.

  Parallels told The Register that its automation and management software Virtuozzo could be useful in making containers better behave.

• Total chooses Linux for its supercomputer

  French oil firm Total has revealed that its supercomputer is now running on a Linux Enterprise Server operating system.

  The oil giant chose the Linux Enterprise Server – provided by software company SUSE – as it was the best value for money, according to the Total’s high power computer (HPC) engineer, Diego Klahr.

  The IT deployment comes as Total looks to bolster its oil production process. In 2013, with oil and gas reserves diminishing, the Exploration and Production (Total E&P) department needed to improve how it located new oil and gas reserves.

• Does Docker Need an Open Source Foundation?

  The open source Docker container virtualization project got started in March of 2013 and has since grown to become one of the most talked about virtualization technologies in the industry.

  Docker was started by Solomon Hykes, while Hykes was running a PaaS company known at the time as dotCloud. The dotCloud business has since been sold and Hykes is the CTO of Docker, Inc. which is the lead commercial sponsor behind Docker.

  In some cases with open source software, there is a push from the broader community for a vendor neutral foundation to help run the project. That’s not likely to be the case for Docker.

Kernel Space

• Random Thoughts, Cheap Shots, Bon Mots…

  Of course, as you might expect, Linus left a wide range of debate and discussion in his verbal wake. Among the things that raised both cheers and jeers were items like packaging programs is difficult and time consuming, systemd, GPLv3, and a complaint about the way distros go about doing what they do. That and, of course, saying the Free Software Foundation is full of fanatics (of course, he backtracked and said that there are many good FSFers, but some were extreme).

• Boycott Systemd, Messy Makulu, and Top Ten

  Systemd continues to grab headlines and today there are calls to boycott it. The Document Foundation are holding membership committee elections. Matthew Miller and Jim Whitehurst talk Fedora and Red Hat. New high-risk threats have been reported to infect Linux systems. Christine Hall says Distrowatch’s Top Ten actually contains only five distros and Softpedia.com says an old Ubuntu installer bug can still wipe your hard drive.

• systemd, a brave new world

  After spending a while fighting with upstart, at work, I decided that systemd couldn’t be any worse and yesterday morning upgraded one of my servers to run it.

• btrfs rebalancing

• Graphics Stack

  • More Nouveau Re-Clocking Patches Published

    A few weeks back Roy posted improved re-clocking code for NVA3 GPUs. Today his latest set of patches work on memory re-clocking improvements for DDR2/DDR3 hardware. The patches also implement wait-for-vblank to remove flickering during memory re-clocking, improvements for reducing the downtime of PFIFO pauses, etc. These patches are prep work for the actual memory re-clocking code that he says will follow later.

  • X.Org Is Looking For Some Female Help

    The X.Org Foundation is looking for one female to fund in the months ahead to do some sort of work for the open-source project.

  • Wayland/Weston 1.6 Release Candidate 1 Is Out

    Wayland 1.6 is finally close to materializing and should be officially released later this month.

    Pekka Paalanen of Collabora has been handling Wayland 1.6 release management in the absence of Wayland founder Kristian Høgsberg. There was a Wayland 1.6 Alpha in late August while out today is Wayland 1.6 RC1 along with a release candidate to the Weston compositor.

  • Wayland and Weston 1.6 RC1 snapshot (1.5.92)

• Benchmarks

  • More Linux Benchmarks Of The AMD FX-8370E / FX-8370 / FX-9590

    In adding some extra tests besides what was shared in our large Linux review of the new AMD FX CPUs from earlier in the week, that included a fairly big comparison of Intel and AMD CPUs, here’s some more Linux test results for just the FX-8370E, FX-8370, and FX-9590 processors.

Applications

• mps-youtube: All-in-one search, download and play

• forkstat: Catching the small and the quick

• UNOFFICIAL MEGASYNC NEMO EXTENSION AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

  The MEGAsync Nemo file manager extension lets you see the sync status of your MEGA folder (using emblems) and also, it can be used to copy a file share link or upload a file outside your MEGA folder to MEGA.co.nz.

• Tribler BitTorrent Client To Become Anonymous, Version 6.3.1 Released

  A year after the previous release, a new Tribler version was released recently and it includes new features, bug fixes as well as work towards anonymous streaming (using a built-in Tor-like network).

• LFTP 4.5.5 Is a Powerful and Free File Transfer Software for the Terminal

  LFTP 4.5.5, a sophisticated file transfer program with a command-line interface that supports FTP, HTTP, FISH, SFTP, HTTPS, and FTPS protocols, is ready for download.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Linux TCP/IP networking: net-tools vs. iproute2

  • Secure File Encryption

  • Unix: Better network connection insights with mtr

  • How to get real DNS resolving in ‘make test’?

  • How To Install XnConvert 1.6.5 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Debian 8, Debian 7 And Derivatives

  • How to download GOG games from the command line on Linux

  • How To Install Monitorix 3.6.0 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Debian 8, Debian 7 And Derivatives

  • How To Install The AMD Catalyst 14.30 Drivers Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

  • How To Install Doomsday Engine 1.14.5 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivatives

  • How To Install Duplicati 1.3.4 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Debian 8, Debian 7 And Derivatives

  • How To Install Duplicati 1.3.4 On Fedora 20, Fedora 19, CentOS 7, CentOS 7, OpenSUSE 13.1, OpenSUSE 12.3, Mageia 4 And OpenMandriva 2014

• Games

  • Steam Beta Update Adds Streaming From Linux Hosts

  • Steam Beta Update Adds AMD And Linux In-Home Streaming Support

  • Valve Finally Enables In-Home Streaming from Linux Hosts on Steam

    Valve released a new Beta version of the Steam distribution platform and the developers have implemented quite a few changes, including a very interesting one related to the In-Home streaming feature.

  • Borderlands 2 Heading To Linux

    Borderlands 2, the sequel to the Gearbox-developed four-player role-playing shooter, is in development for Linux, Aspyr Media confirmed with Gaming On Linux.

  • Borderlands 2 Heading To Linux

  • Tropico 5 coming to Mac/Linux on September 19th

  • Tropico 5 Linux Release Date Announced, It’s Very Close

  • Tropico 5 release date announced for Mac and Linux

    The dictator simulation game will launch both versions later this month on September 19 via Steam and the Mac App Store.

  • Tropico 5 Mac/Linux Release Date Announced for 19th September

  • Tropico 5 City Building Game Gets Linux Release Date

  • Tropico 5 Mac, Linux Release Confirmed for September 19

  • Altitude Is Now Free on Steam for Linux

    Altitude, a 2D aerial combat game with planes developed and published by Nimbly Games on Steam for Linux, is now completely free.

  • Tropico 5 for Mac/Linux Dated

  • ROBOCRAFT RELEASED FOR MAC AND LINUX OPERATING SYSTEMS!!

  • Feral Interactive Wish To Know Why You Game On Linux

    Feral Interactive one of our new favourite porting houses has asked the big question. Why do we game on Linux?

  • Humble Weekly Bundle Brings Five Linux Games

    It’s been a while since the last Humble Bundle collection that also had a hefty portion of Linux title, but now The Humble Weekly Bundle: Presented by Rock, Paper, Shotgun has arrived and it’s pretty interesting.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• Intermediate results of the icon tests: Elementary

  The introduction of the new Breeze icon set in KDE let us again wonder, what aspects of an icon set actually takes what impact on the usability of it. We investigated Oxygen and Tango Icons for the LibreOffice project before, but our focus then was on checking all icons of the standard tool bar. This time we focus on different icon sets and will use 13 common actions to compare them.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • GNOME 3.14 Beta 2 Has Been Released!

    Frederic Peters has announced the release of GNOME 3.13.91, the second beta release which is a new step towards 3.14.0, scheduled to be released September 24th. This beta release updates many core applications such as: adwaita-icon-theme, Baobab, Caribou, Clutter, Clutter-gtk, Epiphany, Evince, GNOME Display Manager, glibmm, Gnome Contacts, GNOME Control Center, GNOME Desktop, GNOME Screenshot, GNOME Shell, GNOME System Monitor, grilo, GTK+, LibGWeather, Mutter, Nautilus (Files), Pango, Totem (Videos), Vala, and more.

  • GNOME 3.14 Beta 2 Released

    The second beta release to the GNOME 3.14 desktop stack due out later this month is now available.

Distributions

• Linux Desktop Fragmentation Is a Feature, Not a Bug

  One of the most common expressions that you will hear in the Linux community is platform fragmentation, and it’s also one of the contra arguments that people spout when citing reasons not to get a Linux OS. I’m here to tell you why platform fragmentation is actually a good thing.

• Netrunner – The Best Distro You’ve Barely Heard Of

  My overall conclusion with Netrunner Rolling is that there is no better Arch platformed Linux distro with KDE as the default environment out there. It just works. It gets out of the way and it gives the end user a clean, crisp and efficient desktop right out of the gate. You don’t have to know binary to get it installed, updated, and running. You don’t have to sacrifice a goat to Cthulhu (I’ve heard that comes later?) to have a pleasing KDE experience for your desktop. I keep saying this, but it just works.

• New Releases

  • Backtrack 5 R3 Hits One Million Downloads on Softpedia

    Backtrack was a Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing and it’s no longer maintained. In fact, this OS was so successful that it’s still being downloaded and used even today, despite the fact that it’s no longer maintained.

    Backtrack was not the only security-oriented distribution, but the wealth of applicationS provided by the developers ensured its supremacy. It remained one of the most downloaded Linux distributions for a long time, even after it wasn’t maintained anymore.

• Screenshots

  • Emmabuntus 3-1.00

  • Wallstone Creativity Desktop 0.95.3

• Gentoo Family

  • Gentoo Linux 20140826 Iron Penguin Edition — open source fans, download now!

    There are so many Linux distributions to choose from. Depending on your perspective, this can be a good or bad thing. You see, for many, using Linux is about choice — you get to choose the distro, packages and environment. There is truth to this; however, many others, including myself, often wonder if the community’s efforts are too fragmented. In other words, when talent is spread thin, progress may be slowed.

    One distro which should not be discussed in this debate is Gentoo; it has been around for 12 years and is not some recently launched project. Hell, Google chose this distro as the base for Chrome OS, so it must be good; seriously, the search-giant’s operating system is pretty darn stable. Gentoo Linux has reached version 20140826 and it looks like a winner.

  • New Gentoo, Just Peachy, and Tuxmachines Now

    gentooA new Gentoo liveDVD was released last week featuring Linux 3.15 and KDE 4.13. Jack Wallen follows Jack Germain in tests of a new “fresh and juicy” Linux. The Reg test drives Ubuntu 14.10. And finally today, Christine Hall takes a look at my old Website, Tuxmachines.org, under its new management.

  • Gentoo Linux releases the 20140826 LiveDVD – Iron Penguin Edition

• Red Hat Family

  • Cisco, Red Hat broaden partnership, eye integrated OpenStack systems

    Cisco and Red Hat on Thursday announced integrated systems designed for OpenStack cloud deployments.

    The companies also said they would collaborate more on OpenStack as well as Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure and Intercloud efforts.

  • OpenStack 101: Getting started with Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform

    Cloud computing is enjoying a growing presence in businesses today, and according to forecasts from experts such as Gartner, uptake is only set to rise in the future.

    As organizations that haven’t already latched onto the trend look to do so, investing in the right infrastructure, technology and tools is essential. OpenStack, as a community project, is not yet ready for the enterprise ‘as-is’. However, like other popular open source community projects including Linux, there are companies, including Red Hat, that are making the community project into an enterprise Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering, enabling organizations to attain greater agility and scalability with the cloud, with the support lifecycle, vast partner ecosystem, and certified solutions portfolio that enterprise customers require.

  • Fedora

    • Matthew Miller: The Remaking of Fedora 1, 2, 3

      “If you look at Fedora over the past decade, you see sort of a decision to make it one-size-fits-all. But we are now looking at Fedora and asking, ‘what is Fedora?’ and ‘what can we make better?’ When you look at Fedora now, you can see that there was a decision to make it a desktop-only distro — so that was the focus for a while. … Over the last few years, the focus has changed.”

    • Fedora 21 Alpha to slip by one week

    • Fedora 21 Alpha Slips By Another Week

      Jaroslav Reznik of Red Hat announced today that Fedora 21 has slipped by yet another week.

      The Fedora 21 release was delayed by yet another week due to unresolved blocker bugs. In particular, there’s 8 blocker bugs right now ranging from Anaconda installer issues to theming issues. As a result, Fedora 21 Alpha will hopefully come around the 16th of September if no further delays take place. All further milestones are pushed back by an additional week.

• Debian Family

  • The Linux Setup – Stefano Zacchiroli, Former Debian Project Leader

    Stefano is my great white whale. I’ve been trying to interview him for years, so I was very excited when he was able to make some time for this. He’s a Debian user, as you might expect from a former Debian Project Leader. Stefano also has a lot of nice things to say about GNOME Shell. And mutt users will want to check out his software list, as there’s a lot of nice Emacs integrations in there.

  • Debian PPA Utility

    Since its introduction, PPA’s are exclusively connected to Ubuntu and its derivatives (Mint, Elementary, etc …). But over time, a number of interesting projects appeared whose whole development is happening inside of PPA’s. To name few, I’m talking about TLP, Geary, Oracle Java Installer, Elementary OS and etc … Some of these projects are in WNPP without much happening for a long time, i.e: TLP

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • YES, I have ridden the UNICORN: The Ubuntu Utopic unicorn

        Ubuntu 14.10, nicknamed Utopic Unicorn, is coming in just a few months. Alpha releases have been available for some time but beta testing started last week, meaning code is generally stable enough for virtual machines and other testing scenarios.

        Ubuntu’s current release cycle means that the main Ubuntu line usually sits out the first beta and 14.10 is no exception. There is no beta 1 for Ubuntu 14.10; instead this beta consists of a number of participating “flavors,” whose betas are also now available.

      • Ubuntu Touch Can Now Be Used to Control AR Drones

        The Ubuntu Touch platform is getting closer to a release on the market and some very interesting applications are making their way into the Ubuntu Store, like this drone control app.

      • Canonical Releases Mir 0.7.0 Display Server

      • The DowNow 0.3 (Torrent Client) Is Now Available Via The Ubuntu Touch App Store

        For now, the app is still under massive development, the DowNow 0.3 click package being downloadable via either Launchpad or Ubuntu Software Center.

        There aren’t a lot of applications for Ubuntu Touch available yet,but Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth hopes that by the time the first Ubuntu Touch powered phones hit the market, the top 50 Android/iOS apps will be available for Ubuntu Touch.

      • Canonical Has Joined The Khronos Group To Contribute To The Creation Of Mir/Wayland Drivers

        For now, both Mir and Wayland are under massive development, none of them being used on desktop yet. While Mir is testable via the Ubuntu Touch Next Image, Wayland will be added to the default repositories of Fedora, but will not be used as default.

        At first, Canonical intended to use Red Hat’s Wayland on their Ubuntu Touch, but it was difficult for them to submit patches and customizations for the mobile device and so, they decided to do the work themselves and created Mir.

        Recently, Canonical has joined the Khronos Group to contribute to the creation of Mir/Wayland drivers.

      • Ubuntu Attracts Developers

        Have you ever wondered why you use the operating system you do to create programs, perhaps for other completely different operating systems? Canonical is making efforts to try to attract you to Ubuntu, even if you are targeting Android.

Devices/Embedded

• 5 things you need to know about the Raspberry Pi’s Epiphany web browser

• RasPi issue 2 out now!

  Build a Raspberry Pi robot and create a game in Scratch with the latest issue of the digital RasPi magazine

• 5 things you need to know about the Raspberry Pi’s Epiphany web browser

  Epiphany is a new web browser for the Raspberry Pi. It’s been modified to be faster, smoother and more powerful than the previous web browser, Midori, meaning it possible to watch 720p YouTube videos and browse more Javascript-heavy websites like RaspberryPi.org and RasPi.Today.

• Phones

  • Ballnux

    • Samsung’s Tizen-Based Gear S Throws a Curve at Smartwatch Market

      Prior to this week’s IFA show in Berlin, Samsung showed off its third Tizen Linux-based smartwatch. The Gear S offers several innovations compared to the Tizen-based Gear 2 and Gear Neo smartwatches, including autonomous operation and a curved screen. The Gear S will ship in Korea in October, followed by a global launch. According to this mostly favorable CNET Gear S hands-on, there are no current plans for a U.S. launch.

    • Samsung announces Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Edge – continues to innovate in hardware

      Samsung is all set to further eat into Apple market with the introduction of Galaxy Note 4, the evolution of its Galaxy Note phatblet. It’s an evolution in a true sense as it continues to chisel out rough edges of Galaxy Note 3 while retaining the form factor and everything that’s neat about it.

      Another major announcement by Samsung was Galaxy Note Edge, which kinds of takes smartphones and tablets to the next level – bringing in the much needed innovation that’s lacking in the otherwise somehow stagnated Apple hardware.

    • Several Thousand People Use The New Rolling-Release OpenSUSE

      OpenSUSE Factory only had around 2,000 users at the end of June but by the end of August was at nearly 6,000. Meanwhile, there’s also just under 6,000 users of openSUSE Tumbleweed. The openSUSE community appears happy with these numbers and they’re still working on making openSUSE Factory a better platform for users and developers.

    • Factory: Over 6000 installations and growing!

  • Android

    • Material design comes to Chrome for Android

      Google introduced a new visual language for its products which they called ‘Material Design‘. The upcoming release of Android – Android 5.x – will be using this new visual language. According to reports Chrome OS will also be moving to ‘Material Design’. If you are not willing to take a dive and try Android L, you can now enjoy the visual design on Android with Chrome.

    • Android Continues To Gain Market Share Over Apple’s iOS In Australia

      Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, one of the most authoritative data providers on global smartphone market share, has released its latest survey findings for the three months to July.

    • Android Wear and Tizen smartwatches light up IFA

      Asus, LG, and Sony unveiled Android Wear watches, but the star of the show may be Samsung’s Tizen-based Gear S, which has 3G, WiFi, and a curved screen.

      Google’s Android-based Android Wear platform was well represented at this week’s IFA show in Berlin. New entries include LG’s round-faced G Watch R, the stylish, curved Asus ZenWatch, and a Sony SmartWatch 3, notable for running on a quad-core processor. These models join an early wave of Android Wear smartwatches including Samsung’s Gear Live, LG’s original G Watch, and Motorola/Lenovo’s round-faced Moto 360. Alcatel, meanwhile, tipped an unnamed round-faced watch with an unstated OS that is not running Android Wear.

    • Citrix ShareConnect Puts Desktop Applications on Android Tablets

      “Today’s workforce is more mobile than ever and they face two major challenges; not all data is stored in the cloud and many desktop apps are not fully functional through mobile apps,” said Jesse Lipson, vice president, Citrix, in a statement. “With ShareConnect, users can access and edit files, use industry-specific desktop apps critical to getting their work done and even use their business networks – all through a simple interface, optimized pixel by pixel for tablets.”

    • Best Android tablets (September 2014 edition)

      All of the tablets features here are very capable, powerful workhorses, and are ideal not only for home users, but also for enterprise users or those looking for a BYOD tablet. Any one of these will give you an excellent Android experience, and when combined with the right apps, will allow you to get a lot of work done when you’re away from your desk.

    • Android-x86 4.4 review – technically a distro?

      We’ve been keeping an eye on the development of Android-x86 for a little while now, with the release of 4.4 seemingly imminent for some months now. In the past we’ve managed to use dodgy hacks of Android on proper computers or an emulated version via the ADK, but this promises to be one of the first complete ports of the mobile operating system to x86.

    • Firewall detects rogue cell towers that try to intercept your calls

      Most people know to turn off GPS on their mobiles if they are bothered about being tracked however fewer people know not to leave on Wi-Fi & call service as these also can be used to track you.

    • Android Candy: Quit Thumbing Your Passwords!

    • The new Moto X could be the best Android phone ever made

      Today, Motorola announced its second-generation Moto X, the successor to the company’s rebooted flagship smartphone that was unveiled just over a year ago. Yes, the phone will simply be called Moto X again — not X+1, as some rumors had suggested — and it’ll be available for the same $499 unlocked as the original when it launches later in September (that’s for 16GB; the 32GB version runs at a $50 premium). AT&T, among others, will be offering it starting at $99 on contract.

    • How to Make the Most Out Of Pushbullet For Android and Chrome

      Since its release, Pushbullet has quickly become a favorite amongst many Android users. This free application lets you “push” any link or image to your mobile phone right from your desktop or browser. This means that you don’t have to get up and type in a link that you see on your desktop on to your smartphone.

• Sub-notebooks/Tablets

  • Microsoft’s cheap assault on Android tablets is about to begin

    Microsoft is copying competitor’s models so vigorously that they should move their head quarters to China. After pushing ‘cheap’ (in terms of price and performance) Netbooks to combat Chromebooks, Microsoft is now about to flood the market with ‘cheap’ Windows tablets.

    Toshiba is going to be the first company to launch cheap 7-inch Windows tablet. The tablet will be launched at IFA tradeshow in Berlin.

Earning a living from open source software

Nitish began sharing his stories with us on open source in May this year. Then, he wrote another one in June and July. In his first article, he explained how to write secure code using Open Web Application Security Project guidelines. Next, Nitish compared three giants in open source content management—Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress—based on these criteria: installation time and complexity, plugin and theme availability, ease of use, and customization and upgrades. Lastly (for now), Nitish shares his thoughts on Andriod’s rise to popularity in the hearts of million through open source.

10 Reasons To Use Open Source Software Defined Networking [Slideshare]

Open source software (OSS) now has a permanent role in the enterprise IT world. Gartner forecasts that open-source technology will be included in 85% of all commercial software packages by 2015 and 95% of mainstream IT organizations will leverage some element of OSS. One of the fastest growing segments within open software is Software Defined Networking (SDN), which simplifies IT network configuration and management by decoupling control from the physical network infrastructure. The SDN market is projected to surge from $360M to $3.52B in 2018.

Open-Xchange launches open-source OX Guard encryption tool for its mail and storage apps

Germany’s Open-Xchange, a provider of web apps for renaming by service providers and deployment in the enterprise, has released an encryption tool called OX Guard. As around 110 million people use Open-Xchange’s apps (though they probably don’t know it), this is a reasonably big deal.

OX Guard is designed to provide a layer of security over Open-Xchange’s email and cloud storage products, whether they’re consumed through a service provider or installed on the customer’s own servers (the software is free for non-commercial use).

Consumer risks of having a reseller that doesn’t offer enterprise open source products

This message is not intended to sell you anything but more to be an “exclamation mark” in the strategy decisions being made in the consumer’s IT environment. By Russell Gill, general manager at Linux Warehouse.

If you speak to IT professionals, Gartner etc, the majority agree that open source products are playing a larger part in the consumer’s IT environment. But here’s the conundrum: it’s more profitable for the average reseller out there to sell the proprietary product than to have their customers subscribe to enterprise open source software. Coupled with this, the resellers have to ensure that their staff are up to date with ever-changing trends and that they are able to support the IT environment.

New open-source file browser promises to locate docs scattered across clouds

The browser incorporates Apache Lucene and Elasticsearch to furnish the search goodies here, said Mark Geene, Cloud Elements CEO and co-founder.

Open Source Developer Enhances Blue Button Integration Technology

Open source software developer Amida, based in Washington, D.C., has released the second version of its Data Reconciliation Engine (DRE), a Blue Button-branded software component that supports the aims of the Blue Button Initiative.

Coreboot Lands Support For AMD’s Olive Hill+ Board

Just days after support for AMD’s Steppe Eagle SoC landed in Coreboot, the first motherboard for this embedded G-Series SoC is now supported by mainline Coreboot.

Events

• A Linux Accessibility Advocate’s Top 3 LinuxCon Takeaways

  Chicago has many outstanding qualities, and provided an excellent backdrop to this year’s LinuxCon. Three things stuck out this year that were significant to my own experience…

Web Browsers

• Chrome

  • Google Chrome 38 Beta Update Improved KDE Wallet Compatibility

    The Beta branch of the Google Chrome browser, the Internet browser developed by Google, has been updated yet again and the developers have made a series of changes and improvements.

• Mozilla

  • One Year of Release Management

    This month marks my one year anniversary contributing to the Release Management Team as a Early Feedback Community Release Manager and I was not sure how the experience would turn out at first. I have really enjoyed the last 12 months working on our Firefox Nightly release.

    At our last work week in Portland, one of the things I asked for was more responsibility surrounding our release and going hands on with more tasks and this month I will start working on our Extended Support Release (ESR) with Lukas. Additionally, One of my Q3 goals is to firm up some documentation and ideas around pathways and on boarding new contributors.

  • Mozilla Firefox 32 Has Been Released!

  • Benjamin Kerensa on Firefox OS & Internet Freedom

    According to the Mozilla Developer Network, Firefox OS is an open source mobile operating system based on Linux, open web standards and Mozilla’s Gecko technology.

    But there’s more to it that that: Firefox OS is about reinventing what mobile platforms can be, about pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the Web on mobile and about enabling entirely new segments of users to come online with their smartphone at various levels of participation, from users to developers.

  • Firefox 32 And Thunderbird 31.1 Have Been Added To The Default Repositories Of Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

    Among others, Firefox 32 comes with an improved generational garbage collection, HTTP caching v2 has been enabled by default, the login metadata viewable is now viewable in the password manager, public key pinning support has been added, the number of found items in the find toolbar is now displayed, just like in Chrome, Scratchpad has received code completion and inline documentation, support for connectiong to the HTTP proxy over HTTPS has been implemented and both the Password Manager and Add-on manager have received improvements and a big number of security and bug-fixes have been implemented.

  • Your Facebook page as a Firefox OS mobile app

    Whether you are a business or community page owner, what would be better than increasing your page reachability by offering your standalone mobile app?

    Apptuter is an open source framework to help you achieve that, with minimum coding knowledge and easy to follow steps you would be able to produce your own app. The framework currently supports Facebook pages as a content source and is capable of producing apps for Firefox OS, Android, and IOS platforms.

SaaS/Big Data

• Mirantis Says it Rules the Roost Facilitating OpenStack for Telcos

  OpenStack has been on a tear recently, and is unquestionably the cloud computing platform that grabs the most headlines. However, not everyone realizes that there is heated competition on the OpenStack scene to win over telecommunications companies. Back in May, I covered the news that huge telecom player Telefonica announced that it will work with Red Hat and Intel to create a virtual infrastructure management (VIM) platform based on open source software running on Intel-based servers. Telefonica’s Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Reference Lab will be targeted to help partners and developers build telecom-grade infrastructure, and will leverage OpenStack.

• Mirantis Counters VMware OpenStack’s Openness

  How open is the OpenStack cloud computing distribution that VMware (VMW) recently launched? Not very, according to OpenStack vendor Mirantis, which is loudly touting its own ability to integrate its “pure-play” OpenStack distribution with VMware infrastructure while keeping the cloud open.

• After Strong Growth in the First Half of 2014, Mirantis Emerges as the Largest OpenStack Provider for Companies in the $1.6 Trillion* Telecommunications Industry

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• Tender For Base Framework For An Android Version Of LibreOffice With Basic Editing Capabilities

  TDF currently plans to invest into getting LibreOffice, its free office suite, to mobile Android devices like tablets and smartphones, extending the existing desktop version of the software.

• Microsoft is part of the problem, not the solution for Munich

  The new mayor of Munich is a self-proclaimed Microsoft fan and he wants to waste all the money that was invested in moving away from Microsoft’s vendor lock and incompatible technologies. His deputy is also a Microsoft fans so it’s not surprising that the new office of the mayor wants to bring back Microsoft technologies.

  But that will be a very dangerous move for Munich.

  Josef Schmid, teh deputy, points out two issues with LiMux – one is incompatibility with Microsoft technologies and other was increased support calls.

  Incompatibility with Microsoft products is a huge problem and it’s a problem for everyone who is using Microsoft technologies. Linux or Open Source are not the cause of the problem as Schmid says, they are victims.

  Then what is the cause?

  In a recent interview one of the directors of The Document Foundation disclosed how Microsoft users various tricks to break compatibility and that leads to people like Schmid to blame open source technologies without fully understanding where the problem lies.

CMS

• WordPress 4.0 released, time to upgrade is now

  Matt Mullenweg, the founder and creator of WordPress has announced the release of version 4.0, code-named Benny. Matt says, “While 4.0 is just another number for us after 3.9 and before 4.1, we feel we’ve put a little extra polish into it. This release brings you a smoother writing and management experience we think you’ll enjoy.”

• WordPress 4.0 “Benny”

  Version 4.0 of WordPress, named “Benny” in honor of jazz clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. While 4.0 is just another number for us after 3.9 and before 4.1, we feel we’ve put a little extra polish into it. This release brings you a smoother writing and management experience we think you’ll enjoy.

• Trying out WordPress 4.0 on OpenStack

  While a good portion of my focus on Opensource.com is on OpenStack and related cloud technologies, my most recent background prior to joining the team here was in doing web design and development work for small businesses, nonprofits, and others who needed sites created for them quickly and easily. So while I’m a Drupal fan for a lot of things I do, the ease and simplicity of WordPress led me to use it for a number of projects.

• WordPress 4.0 for Debian

  Yesterday WordPress released version 4.0 or “Benny” of WordPress. I have now downloaded it and packed up for Debian users.

Business

• Teradata throws itself further into Hadoop with Think Big buy

  Teradata, a company that sells data-warehousing hardware and software for storing and serving corporate information, has pulled out its wallet for another big data business. Instead of buying software, as it did last month, today Teradata reached for a big data consulting company called Think Big Analytics.

BSD

• HardenedBSD: The Latest BSD Project That Aims To Boost Security

  HardenedBSD is the latest BSD distribution writing into Phoronix to share its work.

• PlayOnLinux Has Experimental BSD Support

  The PlayOnLinux open-source project that’s a graphical front-end to Wine to ease the installation of Windows games on Linux and other applications, is continuing to push ahead as it gains more features against CodeWeavers’ CrossOver software.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Emacs as a general-purpose package manager

  GNU Guix, the package manager written for the GNU system, now has a neat Emacs user interface! It offers a visual, user-friendly alternative to the guix package command-line interface.

• Free Software Foundation adds libreCMC to its list of endorsed distributions

  The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced the addition of libreCMC, an embedded GNU/Linux project, to its list of recommended distributions.

• Relive The GNU Tools Cauldron 2014 With The Just-Posted Videos

  For those interested in GCC and other components of the GNU stack, the videos of the GNU Tools Cauldron 2014 event from earlier this summer have finally been published.

Public Services/Government

• Avoiding lock-in when building open ICT systems: How to make better use of standards in public procurement?

  Professor Björn Lundell from University of Skövde – Sweden, has been researching the Open Standards phenomenon -particularly in public procurement-, for a number of years. He is one of the few academics in Europe that have tackled the analysis of benefits of using standards in public procurement of ICT.

• New open source platform to improve patient experience

  Alfresco is proud to announce that it has become the latest company to integrate with Unity, the world’s first universal health viewer, from Fortrus. This unique combination enables Alfresco to deliver to its customers an agile and innovative open source platform with a clinical viewer dedicated to the user experience.

Licensing

• Open Source Software Licenses: Which Should You Use?

  Slowly but surely, open source software is taking over. If you don’t believe it, just look at some of the most popular tools that we all use: Firefox, WordPress, 7-Zip, MediaWiki, BitTorrent, Android, plus all of the free alternatives to paid software. But did you know that not all open source licenses are the same?

Openness/Sharing

• Vote On The Open Source Local Motors Sports Car

  Last month, open source DIY automaker Local Motors launched its next big design contest, and this one has production ambitions. The goal? Create a high-performance, low-cost track racer for performance purists.

• Three key takeaways from the 2014 Open Knowledge Festival

  I was lucky to be in Berlin Open Access Schism: Recapitulating Open So with some colleagues earlier this month for the 2014 Open Knowledge Festival and associated fringe events.

  There’s really too much to distill into a short post—from Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, making the case for “Embracing the open opportunity,” to Patrick Alley’s breathtaking accounts of how Global Witness uses information, to expose crime and corruption in countries around the world.

• Linux certification, governments on open design principles, and more

• Open Access/Content

  • The Open Access Schism: Recapitulating Open Source?

    As well as in free software itself, this column is interested in the ways that the ideas underlying open source are spreading far and wide. One of the earliest manifestations was in the field of academic publishing, where open access has been gaining ground steadily. It seems that the open access world has just entered the schism phase that mirrors the similar split between those espousing “free software”, and those who resolutely call it “open source.”

    This most recent development is captured in yet another brilliant contribution from the unofficial chronicler of the open access world, Richard Poynder. His blog, called “Open and Shut?”, is simply the best resource there is to find out about open access, its issues and key individuals. You could spend many days reading through the resources there, and it would be time well spent.

  • OPINION: Why Can’t OER Enjoy the Same Success as Open Source Software?

    Open Educational Resources (OER) have the capacity to extend this framework to education, provided that their proponents likewise view them as more than simply a means of lowering content costs. At the same time, one must also recognize the distinctions between the actors (hackers vs. instructors) and their products (software vs. educational materials). The achievable goal for OER by doing this is that it reshapes pedagogy as profoundly as OSS has reshaped software.

  • How being online changes how we think about the traditional research paper

    The academic paper is old—older than the steam engine, the pocket watch, the piano, and the light bulb. The first journal, Philosophical Transactions, was published on March 6, 1665. Now that doesn’t mean that the journal article format is obsolete—many inventions much older are still in wide use today. But after a third of a millennium, it’s only natural that the format needs some serious updating.

Programming

• LLVM 3.5 Is Finally Available For Download

  LLVM 3.5 is now available for fans just not looking for a more liberally licensed compiler but for those dependent upon AMD’s GPU LLVM compiler back-end and the other innovative use-cases provided by the LLVM stack.

Standards/Consortia

• Community revolts against ISO software testing standards

  Known as ISO 29119, the standard aims to join (and in some cases replace) existing ISO software testing mandates for concepts and definitions, test processes, test documentation, test techniques and one for keyword driven testing.

  The elegantly named 29119 Software Testing standard has been created in association with the IEEE and the IEC — it is said to be an internationally agreed set of standards for software testing that can be used within any software development life cycle or organisation.

Security

• Akamai warns of Linux malware

  Akamai’s Prolexic security operation says Linux malware has been implicated in DDoS attacks.

• Hackers Use Enterprise Linux Systems in Botnet DDoS Attacks: Prolexic Research

• Thursday’s security advisories

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• ‘Debating’ War, Corporate Media Style

  As the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has expanded control over territory in Iraq and Syria, a growing chorus of politicians and pundits are demanding the Obama administration take more forceful military action. ISIS’s gruesome beheadings of two American journalists have only increased those calls, leading some to compare the media frenzy to the run-up to the Iraq War.

• NATO – An Idea Whose Time Has Gone

  Whatever modern NATO has become, a defensive alliance it is not…

Finance

• Congressional Progressive Caucus Denounces Erick Erickson’s “Degrading Remarks” About Minimum Wage Workers

  The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) responded to guest radio host Erick Erickson’s recent remarks that people who work in fast food have “failed at life,” calling the statement “degrading” and “out of touch” with hard working Americans.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Huffington Post Doubles Down, Has MIT Professor Spread Blatant Falsehoods About Creation Of Email

  We already covered the bizarre situation in which one of the biggest names in PR has “teamed up” with the Huffington Post to write an entirely bogus “series” of stories on the “history of email” that is nothing more than a PR campaign for a liar. V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai claims to have invented email. He did not. We went into great detail on this on Tuesday, so you can check out the history there.

  Despite my requests to both Huffington Post and Larry Weber (the PR guy who kicked off the “series”), neither has responded and explained if any money is changing hands here. That means either it is, and Huffington Post is violating FTC rules concerning “paid” posts, or Huffington Post just made it clear that it is willing to post pure bullshit without the slightest bit of fact checking. I’m still not sure which is worse.

• CNN Tech Analyst Thinks 4Chan Is A Person: ‘He May Have Been A Systems Administrator’

• David Gregory–and Other Famous Left-Wingers

  As for Gregory–”famously left-leaning” to whom? The Post doesn’t offer any specifics on that score, but that’s typical right-wing media criticism: The corporate media are full of left-wingers because we’ve said so for a long time.

Censorship

• Australian Journalists Union Supports, Then Withdraws Support For, Internet Censorship

• Australian journalists’ union endorses internet filtering

  The union representing media, artists, and journalists has backed an Australian government proposal to block websites containing copyright-infringing material.

• Texas pastor demands public library ‘purge’ vampire books: I think it’s dangerous for kids

  A Texas pastor is leading a campaign to have books about vampires pulled from Cleveland’s public library.

  Phillip Missick and other religious leaders have called on the Austin Memorial Library to remove books about vampires, demons and other magical beings from the teen section.

• Texas Religious Leaders Try To Get Public Libraries To Ban Vampire Books For Them

• Timeshare Company Sundance Vacations Accused Of Forging Court Order To Delete Discussion Of Its Practices

  We’ve seen all sorts of bizarre and questionable attempts by companies to silence criticism or content they just don’t like. Bogus copyright, trademark and defamation claims are pretty standard these days. There’s also just general “begging” or the random “tortious interference” arguments. But according to Metafilter’s Matt Haughey, timeshare company Sundance Vacations may have taken things to insane new levels: forging a bogus court order to try to get Metafilter to remove a years-old thread.

• Sundance Vacations goes from bad to worse

  The email furnished me with a court order against a person running a Sundance Vacations protest site, who was no longer allowed to speak negatively about the company online. Sundance then asked that I remove the thread. I did a bit of research and quickly figured out the person named in the court order could not possibly be the person that posted the thread (different names, from different parts of the US, etc). I notified the company and they thanked me for my time.

  This past Sunday, I was contacted again by Sundance Vacations, again about a court order obtained against someone running a “Boycott Sundance Vacations” Facebook group, asking me to remove that same old Ask MetaFilter thread which was now listed in court documents. (Here is the PDF, screenshots of the PDF below)…

• Premier League Uses Copyright To Pull Down YouTube Video Of Professor Advocating For Stronger Copyright For Premier League

  Via Bas Grasmayer we learn that the English Premier League and its insane take on copyrights has struck again. We’ve written many times before about the Premier League and its wacky belief that every possible use of its content must be licensed. Just a few weeks ago, it said that it would start taking down animated gifs and 6-second Vine videos of goals, even though it knew this would piss off fans. Still, the Premier League said it had to do this because “copyright.”

• Premier League claims copyright on football matches shown in copyright debate

  While preparing a post for this blog about the wonderful panel ‘Who owns the World Cup: The case for and against property rights in sports events’, that concluded IViR’s 25th anniversary conference, something unusual stopped me.

• Don’t pack George Orwell, visitors to Thailand told

  Travellers heading to Thailand have been urged not to carry a copy of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984

• Culture Secretary threatens search engines with anti-piracy legislation

  UK Culture Secretary Sajid Javid has made some worrying declarations, threatening search engines with legislation unless they stop “sending people to illegal sites”.

Privacy

• Tom Newton Dunn is one in half a million

  It was revealed this week that the Met police used a RIPA request to access the telephone records of The Sun’s Political Editor, Tom Newton Dunn.

• Nude photos, phone records, NSA data offer essential lessons for admins

  As to that NSA data, a great deal of confusion about “surveillance” seems to be floating around. In the United Kingdom, questions are being asked about all the data-gathering by the British equivalent of the NSA, GCHQ. In response, Secretary of State Theresa May has responded that “there is no programme of mass surveillance and there is no surveillance state” and labels claims that GCHQ engages in unlawful hacking as “nonsense.” Yet clearly, a lot of data is being gathered.

  GCHQ, the NSA, and probably every other intelligence agency worth the name is actively gathering data from the Internet. Everything on the Internet is transient, with different decay periods, so gathering information is a constant process. They believe everything that can be gathered without illegal action is fair game, so they gather anything and everything they can, storing it just in case.

  They are without doubt capturing and recording all and any email, instant messages, Web pages, social media traffic, and so on. Recent disclosures reveal that the NSA collects “nearly everything a user does on the Internet,” then offers analysts tools to search that data. The NSA has a variety of explanations why it’s all legally gathered.

Civil Rights

• UK Police Abused Anti-Terror Law To Snoop On Journalist’s Phone Records Concerning Minor Political Spat

  Plebgate is one of those silly minor political spats in the UK involving a top UK politician who apparently got angry that police wouldn’t let him ride his bike out of the main gate at 10 Downing Street. The details really don’t matter. It’s just one of those political type stories that the press loves. But, now it’s come out that in investigating this incident, the Metropolitan Police appear to have abused an anti-terror law to obtain the phone records of journalists who reported on the story.

• Plebgate: Met obtained phone records of Sun political editor without consent

  Police investigating the Plebgate saga obtained the telephone records of the political editor of the Sun without his consent, despite laws which entitle journalists to keep their sources confidential.

• “Plebgate” report shows why the UK’s data retention laws are such a terrible idea

• Militarization, Surveillance, and Profit: How Grassroots Groups are Fighting Urban Shield

  While all eyes are on the disturbing evidence of police militarization in Ferguson, are you paying attention to what’s happening with law enforcement in your own back yard?

  In the San Francisco Bay Area, the answer is yes. A coalition of community groups has come together to call attention to Urban Shield, a four-day long “preparedness” exercise for law enforcement and other agencies that will take place from September 4-8. They’ve organized a week of education, including a march and demonstration outside of the event on Friday, September 5. To these community groups, Urban Shield represents state violence and political repression, not public safety.

• Judge Says Los Angeles Law Enforcement Doesn’t Need To Turn Over License Plate Reader Data

  Los Angeles law enforcement has been battling privacy activists seeking access to license plate data for over a year now. The plate and location data scooped up by the city’s many automatic license plate readers is considered fair game by law enforcement because visible license plates obviously don’t carry any sort of expectation of privacy.

• NYPD sends top cops to Twitter school

  NYPD precinct commanders are going back to school to study a subject that’s second nature to any teen — using social media.

• NYPD Sending Their Best Cops To Twitter School To Learn All About Common Sense

  I’d say it’s been pretty well established at this point that the NYPD sucks at Twitter. Occasionally they get it right and engage with the public in a meaningful way, but too often NYPD officers put things on Twitter that can only serve to cause the public to question their judgement. Insensitivity, racism, and otherwise crass behavior doesn’t make the NYPD look all that good, of course, so the top brass has a solution. They’re going to review their hiring practices to make sure they’re hiring good, level-headed men and women to put on the uniform and protect the public. Hahahahaha, just kidding, they’ve decided to send some of their officers to “Twitter school” instead.

Internet/Net Neutrality

• AT&T: Cities should never offer Internet service where ISPs already do or might later

  AT&T wants tax incentives and state laws that protect it from competition.

• FCC Issues Largest Ever Fine To Verizon For Hiding Ability To ‘Opt-Out’ Of Selling Customer Info To Marketers

  The big telcos don’t exactly have particularly good records protecting your privacy. And now the FCC has reached an agreement with Verizon to pay the largest ever fine to the FCC to settle a long-term practice of hiding the fact that customers could opt-out of having their private info shared with marketers. Even as the “largest” ever such fine, it’s still pennies for Verizon at $7.4 million.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Trademarks

  • Disney tries to block Deadmau5 trademark

    The logo appears on Deadmau5′s record artwork and is the basis of the large helmet he wears during every performance. Disney began investigating the matter back in April, and it’s easy to see why — there is an obvious resemblance with the Mickey Mouse logo, and since the registration would cover classes of products from toys to BMX bikes, the entertainment giant no doubt feels the need to protect its trademark. Deadmau5 seems up for the fight, though, going by his Twitter feed.

  • Disney Officially Seeks To Block Deadmau5′s Trademark Claim

    Apparently it’s a big deadmau5 day on Techdirt. Not only do we have the story of Ferrari looking into blocking the sale of his Purrari, Disney is officially opposing his attempt to trademark his logo mousehead, which he famously wears in concert.

• Copyrights

  • Australian Movie Studio Says Piracy Is Equivalent Of Pedophilia & Terrorism

    We’ve already mentioned how a number of comments have been submitted concerning Australian Attorney General George Brandis’ Hollywood wishlist proposal for copyright reform in Australia. There are a number of interesting comments worth reading. I was pleasantly surprised to see the normally copyright-maximalist BSA come out against the proposal, saying that it will create a real risk of “over-enforcement, punishment of lawful conduct and blocking of lawful content including critically important free speech rights.” Dr. Rebecca Giblin, who has studied these issues and other attempts to put in place similar filters (and how they’ve failed), has also put forth a very interesting comment.

  • 4chan adopts DMCA policy after nude celebrity photo postings

    In the wake of the release of stolen, intimate photos from a number of celebrities’ cell phones this past weekend on 4chan’s /b/ Web forum, the site has added something to its rules and policies—a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown policy. While 4chan previously relied on its rapid expiration of content to keep 4chan LLC and site founder Chris “moot” Poole out of trouble, the heavy scrutiny that came from the latest round of celebrity exposure has pushed the site to adopt more formal measures to avoid litigation. (Victims of photo theft could use copyright claims to seek damages from publications and websites that publish them.)

  • Record Labels Take Down Kim Dotcom’s Official Album… From Mega

    In what could be one of the most ironic anti-piracy mistakes this year, music industry group IFPI has asked Mega to take down Kim Dotcom’s very own music album Good Times. Mega was asked to remove its founder’s music twice, casting doubt over the accuracy of the record labels’ takedown efforts.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

China Plans To Oust Windows

However, there are also good commercial reasons. Most of China’s mobile phone manufacturers make use of Android and, even if the OS is nominally free and open source, we all know that it is still very much Google’s. An OS controlled by Chinese manufacturers makes sense. What is surprising is that there have already been a number of attempts at creating a Chinese operating system – Red Flag in 2000 eventually ran out of funds and COS China Operating System was launched as an Android replacement.

10 Answers To The Most Frequently Asked Linux Questions On Google

Go to Google and type in a query. As you type you will notice that Google suggests some questions and topics for you.

The suggestions that appear are based on the most searched for topics based on the keywords provided. There is a caviat and that is each person may receive a slightly different list based on things they have naturally searched for in the past.

The concept of todays article is to provide answers to the most commonly asked questions using terms such as Why is Linux, What does Linux, Can Linux and Which Linux.

Server

• Parallels to line up with Linux containers

  Parallels is working to bring its automation, security and management wares to the burgeoning world of Linux containerisation.

  The junior virtualiser finds itself in an interesting position vis a vis Linux containers and Docker, because it has long described its own Virtuozzo product as offering containers. But Virtuozzo is closer to conventional virtualisation than containerisation, because it wraps an operating system rather than just an application.

• Bringing new security features to Docker

  In the first of this series on Docker security, I wrote “containers do not contain.” In this second article, I’ll cover why and what we’re doing about it.

  Docker, Red Hat, and the open source community are working together to make Docker more secure. When I look at security containers, I am looking to protect the host from the processes within the container, and I’m also looking to protect containers from each other. With Docker we are using the layered security approach, which is “the practice of combining multiple mitigating security controls to protect resources and data.”

  Basically, we want to put in as many security barriers as possible to prevent a break out. If a privileged process can break out of one containment mechanism, we want to block them with the next. With Docker, we want to take advantage of as many security mechanisms of Linux as possible.

  Luckily, with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, we get a plethora of security features.

• Clusterbit Developed the World’s Smallest Datacenter

  The project began in March 2014 with both co-geeks Raffi Manoian and Zohrab Tavitian who founded Clusterbit. They decided to cram 8 credit card size servers into a little box and develop an open source platform where home enthusiasts, IT professionals, Linux technicians as well as high-end users can explore new possibilities.

• Edge-Core Networks Accelerates Open Networking with Integrated Cumulus Linux Worldwide

Kernel Space

• Linux kernel developer arrested in Russia

  Dmitry Monakhov apparently jailed for public protest against Ukraine conflict.

• Kernel Developer Arrested in Russia for Protesting Against the Invasion of Ukraine – Gallery

  It’s not a secret that Russia doesn’t like democratic protesters and this was amply demonstrated in the last few years. Now, it looks like one of the kernel developers has been arrested in Russia while he was protesting against Ukraine’s invasion.

• Sony backs AllSeen Alliance in Internet of Stuff standards slap-fight

  Sony has cast its lot with the AllSeen Alliance in the ongoing standards squabble over the pervasive-computing future tech known as the Internet of Things (IoT).

• Sony Joins AllSeen Internet of Things Alliance

• Systemd Controversy Not Going Away Quietly

  If you thought the systemd argument was settled, I’m not sure you’d be correct. Paul Venezia is back on the case today saying folks are continuing to blog, thread, mailing list, and forum about their problems with systemd. Katherine Noyes noted the trend in her Blog Safari today as well. Her first example says Linux is being turned into “OS X or even Windows.”

• New Group Calls For Boycotting Systemd

  A new project has been established that’s trying to boycott systemd and the Linux distributions utilizing systemd.

• Fanning the Flames of the Systemd Inferno

  They say art imitates life, but it’s surprising how often the same can be said of the Linux blogs.

  Case in point: Just as the world at large is filled today with fiery strife — Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, Ferguson — so, too, is the Linux blogosphere. Of course, it’s not political, social or racial struggles tearing the FOSS community apart. Rather, the dividing issue here is none other than Systemd.

  Systemd is a topic that’s been discussed in heated terms many times before, of course — including a lively debate here in the Linux Blog Safari back in May.

• Is systemd as bad as boycott systemd is trying to make it?

  From just a purely end-user perspective, systemd is an application that I’ve come to like a lot. And I think that its adoption by all Linux distributions will make it easier to manage Linux systems.

  But it has come under heavy criticism from some quarters – for trying to be a Swiss-army-knife-type application. One that does practically anything and everything, which the critics claim is against the UNIX/Linux philosophy of coding an application to do one thing and do it well.

• Intel Lands More Graphics Changes For Linux 3.18

  For the Linux 3.18 kernel Intel has ready some more DRM graphics driver changes beyond the exciting work already sent into drm-next.

• Linus Torvalds: Respect should be earned [part1 from DebConf 14]

  Linux is also one of the oldest technologies which is growing strong day by day; Linux has been around for more than two decades (23 years to be precise) and it dominates virtually every space. It’s also one of those few open source technologies which are still being lead by their creators.

• Graphics Stack

  • Trying Intel OpenCL On Linux For Video Encoding

    Following my testing and reporting last weekend about Intel Beignet starting to provide very usable open-source OpenCL support on Linux, one of the most common requests was to next see if this Intel OpenCL Linux supprot benefits x264 encoding at all.

  • GSoC 2014 Yielded Some Improvements For Mesa/X.Org This Year

    Google’s annual Summer of Code project ended last month and I’ve been meaning to write a brief update about the work done by the student open-source developers on their X.Org-related work.

  • AMD Releases Updated Catalyst Linux Graphics Driver (v14.30)

    Those dependent upon AMD’s proprietary Linux graphics driver have a new Catalyst update to play with today.

    Launched yesterday by AMD was the Radeon R9 285 “Tonga” graphics card, a GPU that’s derived from their Tahiti GPU core. The Radeon R9 285 has a $249 price point and comes in 2GB and 4GB GDDR5 versions. Unfortunately we weren’t seeded with any Radeon R9 285 so don’t know how well this new Rx 200 series graphics card works under Linux, but they released a Catalyst update that appears to support the new hardware for Linux users.

• Benchmarks

  • littler is faster at doing nothing!

    With yesterday’s announcement of littler 0.2.0, I kept thinking about a few not-so-frequently-asked but recurring questions about littler. And an obvious one if of course the relationship to Rscript.

    As we have pointed out before, littler preceded Rscript. Now, with Rscript being present in every R installation, it is of course by now more widely known.

  • Running Gallium3D’s LLVMpipe On The Eight-Core 5GHz CPU

    Having an eight-core CPU that can clock up to 5.0GHz (albeit having a 220 Watt TDP), curiosity got the best of me to run some quick (or slow) Gallium3D LLVMpipe tests just to see how this software fall-back driver performs.

  • GCC 5.0 Outruns LLVM 3.5 Compiler By A Bit On Core-AVX2

    In anticipation of the LLVM 3.5 release that brings a number of new compiler features — including possible performance improvements from our benchmarking done earlier today — here’s some benchmarks comparing LLVM Clang 3.5 RC3 to a recent SVN snapshot of the GCC 5.0 compiler that’s presently under development.

Applications

• imgcurses: Best of most worlds

• fluxcapacitor: Now you have time for everything

• Announce: gerrymander 1.4 “On no account mention the word Macbeth” – a client API and command line tool for gerrit

• soundcloud2000: A quick listen

• ncurses-examples: Hidden gems

• Let VLC be your Media Manager on Ubuntu based systems

  VLC is a must-have media player if you are using Linux for your entertainment needs. When it comes to PC entertainment, it’s good to have a program that handles most of your needs. VLC has multiple tools for a good video playback experience. There is something new to learn the more you use it. More importantly, it gives its all when reading removable media.

  VLC is a must-have media player if you are using Linux for your entertainment needs. When it comes to PC entertainment, it’s good to have a program that handles most of your needs. VLC has multiple tools for a good video playback experience. There is something new to learn the more you use it. More importantly, it gives its all when reading removable media.

• FxMovieManager 6.6 Officially Released

  FxMovieManager, an application written to help users manage movie files and video clips, has been upgraded to version 6.6 and is now available for download.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Magento 1.9.0.1 Released – Installing and Configuring on Debian/Ubuntu

  • How To Properly Install UberWriter 12.07.9 On Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivative Systems

  • How To Install Cairo Dock 3.3.99 Beta 1 On Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivative Systems

  • How To Install FFmpeg 2.3.3 On Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17, Elementary OS 0.3, Deepin 2014 And Other Ubuntu 14.04 Derivatives

  • How To Install MythTV 0.27.3 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

  • How To Install The California Calendar 0.1.4 On Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Fedora 20, Fedora 21 And Derivatives

  • How To Install Fotoxx 14.09 On Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr And Derivative Systems

  • How To Install Exaile 3.4.0 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivative Systems

  • Get The “Ubuntu Mate Remix” Look And Feel On Your Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr

  • How To Install Grub Customizer 4.0.6 On Fedora 20, Fedora 19, OpenSUSE 13.1 And OpenSUSE 12.3

  • How To Install OpenOffice 4.1.1 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Debian 8, Debian 7 And Derivatives

  • How To Install OpenOffice 4.1.1 On OpenSUSE, Fedora, CentOS, Mageia And OpenMandriva Systems

  • How To Install Haguichi 1.0.25 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

  • How To Install Haguichi 1.0.25 On Fedora 20, Fedora 19, OpenSUSE 13.1 And OpenSUSE 12.3

  • Using strace to find configuration file locations

  • Joining Tables on the Command-Line

  • Mount Google drive in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

  • The best 5 OpenStack guides you might have missed

  • How to limit CPU usage with CPULimit on Ubuntu Linux

  • Setting up a Caching DNS Server in Ubuntu Server 14.04

  • Two Ways To Upgrade To Kubuntu 14.10 Beta

    Kubuntu 14.10 will be an interesting release, because it brings the new KDE Plasma 5, the next generation KDE desktop.

    Among others, Kubuntu 14.10 and KDE Plasma 5 comes with a bunch of important applications ported to Qt5, a new Kicker Menu, support for hardware acceleration via OpenGL and OpenGL ES, KDM – a new KDE display manager and an enhanced lockscreen.

• Games

  • New FreeDink game data release

  • Borderlands 2 Is Coming To Linux

    Borderlands 2, an action role-playing game mixed with first-person shooter elements is coming to Linux. Borderlands 2 has been out for Windows gamers for nearly two years while now it’s finally getting ready to meet Linux and SteamOS gamers.

  • Borderlands 2 Game Is Coming To Linux / Steam OS

  • The Witcher 2 Ups The Performance More & Works Around Catalyst Bug

    Just over three months after the release of the troubled Witcher 2 Linux port, it seems The Witcher 2′s performance is finally getting into decent shape after numerous optimizations and bug-fixes.

    Since July there’s been a Witcher 2 beta offering up many improvements to better the performance and playability of the game on most Linux hardware. The last beta update to talk about was in mid-August when the game’s performance continued to rise. Another beta update made it out today and again the focus is on increased performance.

  • A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 Released For Linux

    A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 from Arcen Games are now available on Linux, and that folks is their entire back catalogue ported to Linux. I hope other developers are taking note of how amazing Arcen Games are. We quite often see people say that developers would rather bring out newer games to Linux, but not in this case!

    They were both released for Linux in July, but we got swamped and decided to delay posting about them for a bit.

  • The Witcher 2 Improves With A New Round Of Beta

  • Borderlands 2 Linux Version Confirmed by Aspyr Media

    It looks like that the wait for Borderlands 2 will finally be over for Linux users as SteamDB noted earlier today that the famous title will be making its way to the Linux operating system.

  • Steam Hardware Survey Shows New Drop in Linux Users, Ubuntu 14.04.1 Now No. 1 Distro

    A new Steam Hardware survey has been published for the month of August and things don’t look too bright for the Linux platform, although this might be just a statistical issue.

  • Train Fever Raildroad Simulator to Arrive on Linux in September

    Train Fever, a train business simulator developed by Urban Games and published by Gambitious, will be released in September for the Linux platform.

  • Borderlands 2 Game Is Coming To Linux / Steam OS

    It looks like Borderlands 2 , a popular video game released in 2012, is coming to Linux / Steam OS.

  • Borderlands 2 to Be Released on Steam for Linux

    Borderlands 2, the insanely fun and exciting collaborative FPS developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games will be getting a Linux release.

  • Borderlands 2 Also Looks Like It’s Coming To Linux, UPDATE: Confirmed

    Remember when Randy Pitchford of Gearbox told us not to get our hopes up? Then Borderlands: The Pre-sequel was confirmed for Linux? Well he’s a funny guy as Borderlands 2 is now showing signs of coming over to Linux anyway.

Desktop Environments/WMs

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

  • INTERMEDIATE RESULTS OF THE ICON TESTS: BREEZE

    The introduction of the new Breeze icon set in KDE let us again wonder, what aspects of an icon set actually takes what impact on the usability of it. We investigated Oxygen and Tango Icons for the LibreOffice project before, but our focus then was on checking all icons of the standard tool bar. This time we focus on different icon sets and will use 13 common actions to compare them.

• GNOME Desktop/GTK

  • The GNOME Foundation’s 2013 annual report

    The GNOME Foundation has put out its annual report for 2013 as a 24-page PDF file. “As you will see when you read this annual report, there have been a lot of great things that have happened for the GNOME Foundation during this period. Two new companies joined our advisory board, the Linux Foundation and Private Internet Access. The work funded by our accessibility campaign was completed and we ran a successful campaign for privacy. During this period, there was a fantastic Board of Directors, a dedicated Engagement team (who worked so hard to put this report together), and the conference teams (GNOME.Asia, GUADEC and the Montreal Summit) knocked it out of the park. Most importantly, we’ve had an influx of contributors, more so than I’ve seen in some time.”

  • gedit 3.14 for OS X (preview)

    If you’re reading this through planet GNOME, you’ll probably remember Ignacio talking about gedit 3 for windows. The windows port has always been difficult to maintain, especially due to gedit and its dependencies being a fast moving target, as well as the harsh build environment. Having seen his awesome work on such a difficult platform, I felt pretty bad about the general state of the OS X port of gedit.

  • Raspberry Pi gets a brand new browser

  • Epiphany Browser For Raspberry Pi (Raspbian) Got Improved HTML5 Support

    As you may know, Raspberry Pi is an ARM single-board computer with the size of a credit card, being available in three variants: model A, model B and model B+.

  • Raspberry Pi Now Has a Much Faster Web Browser

    Raspberry Pi is powered by a wealth of operating systems, but there is also an official one called Raspbian, which is based on Debian, as the name implies. The developers have now released a new web browser that should be much faster.

Distributions

• Simplicity Linux 14.10 Alpha Is an OS Based on Slacko 5.9.3 and Linux kernel 3.15.4

  The developers of Simplicity Linux have based their system on Slacko 5.9.3 and they are using the 3.15.4 Linux kernel. This kernel is one of the newest available and should provide adequate hardware support for the latest devices. Also, unlike previous releases in the series, the new version covers only two flavors, Netbook and Desktop.

• How Many Linux Distros Are On the Top Ten?

  This means, in a way, that we can say that DistroWatch’s top ten distro list only contains five unique distros.

• New Releases

  • Tails OS 1.1.1 update fixes some major bugs

    Today, the Tails OS was updated to version 1.1.1, bringing with it some critical security patches. In this release we see Tor updated to 0.2.4.23 which tries to protect users from entities who control your first and last node and can then see who you are and where you’re going, this patch changes the rotation rates to help protect from this sort of attack.

  • Tails 1.1.1 Screenshot Tour

• PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

  • September 2014 Issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine Released

    The PCLinuxOS Magazine is a product of the PCLinuxOS community, published
    by volunteers from the community. The magazine is lead by Paul Arnote, Chief Editor,
    and Assistant Editor Meemaw. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is released under the
    Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license,
    and some rights are reserved.

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat to Webcast Results for Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2015

  • Red Hat Named As One of World’s Most Innovative Companies

    Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that the company has been named one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies” by Forbes magazine. Forbes named Red Hat the 12th most innovative company on its global list, and the eighth most innovative company in North America. Red Hat was one of only two enterprise IT systems software companies recognized by Forbes.

  • Open source not just software at Red Hat

    My internship at Red Hat has not only advanced my knowledge and skills of Linux but also about the concept of open source. When I first started experimenting with Linux, I downloaded a copy of a Debian ISO to share a partition on my Windows machine. While researching Linux, the phrase “open source” would often appear on blogs, articles, and on quick “how-to” YouTube tutorials. I would soon come to realize what that term really meant.

  • Red Hat: Open source “more secure” than proprietary

    Open source technologies are “more secure” than software that is developed in a proprietary way, Red Hat’s JBoss middleware business unit general manager, Mike Piech, said in a meeting with journalists.

    On the one hand, open source software code is freely available, which means that hackers will see how to hack it. But, on the other, there is also a vast community of people working to maintain open source software security.

  • DISA awards open-source BPA to DLT

    Herndon, Virginia-based DLT solutions on Sept. 3 announced the award of a five-year blanket purchase agreement through the Defense Information Systems Agency for Red Hat enterprise software and services.

    The award comes under the Defense Department’s broader enterprise software initiative, a Pentagon plan to cut costs associated with common-use, commercial off-the-shelf software.

    The agreement, worth up to $40 million through June 2019, covers the procurement of Red Hat open-source software and services for use by DoD and intelligence agencies. DLT is a reseller of government IT software and services. The award includes Red Hat offerings for Linux, virtualization, storage and certain cloud capabilities, according to a release from DLT.

  • Fedora

    • [GNU IceCat] browser is (finally) on Fedora

      GNU Icecat will be available on Fedora updates-testing repositories for some days. That’s right time to test harshly this new web browser (really it’s not so new considering it’s a fork of Firefox) and leave a positive/negative karma or open a bug.

    • Fedora’s New Project Leader Plots What’s Next

      On June 3, Matthew Miller was named as the new Fedora Project Leader, succeeding the outgoing Robyn Bergeron. Over the last several months, Miller has settled into his role of running Red Hat’s community project and is overseeing one of the biggest changes in the project’s history.

• Debian Family

  • Debian GNU/Linux, The Distro I Love

    Debian is more than software. It’s 1K+ developers doing stuff I don’t have to do, bringing together thousands of software packages and providing an installer and package-manager to provide a pleasant installation, management and usage experience. Debian is also democratic and open. I can see their rules, their known bugs and what they’re doing about them, just like a modern political democracy, thriving and true.

  • Why Linus Torvalds doesn’t use Ubuntu or Debian [Part 2 DebConf]

    It’s well known that Linus once tried Debian, way back in 2007, and found it hard to install. One of the attendees during the Q&A session of DebConf 2014 asked if he tried it lately. The creator of Linux replied that while he didn’t give Debian a try lately he was sure that it has become much easier to install Debian.

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Canonical Releases Ubuntu Developer Tools Center, Makes It Easy To Install Android Studio And Android SDK In Ubuntu

        Canonical wants to make developers who create applications for platforms other than Ubuntu feel at home. In a recent article posted on his blog, +Didier Roche, Software Engineer at Canonical, writes: “Ubuntu loves developers and we are going to showcase it by making Ubuntu the best available developer platform!”.

      • Unity 8 and Mir Updates Show Great Progress

        Unity 8 and Mir are the technologies that are going to be the forefront of the upcoming Ubuntu releases and they are updated constantly. They are still pretty far off from a desktop implementation, but the progress made by the developers is visible.

        Canonical is now focusing all their efforts to develop a stable and shippable Ubuntu Touch image for the phones that will arrive in just a few months. This means that developers are working around the clock to fix the problems and other various bugs that plague the Ubuntu for phones operating system.

      • Ubuntu Touch: Canonical Is Focusing On The RTM Branch. The Scope Management Experience Has Been Improved

        While new features and changes are first tested on the devel branch and get moved to the stable one when they are stable enough, the RTM branch does not get new features, only security and stability fixes.

        While there is no official release date for the Ubuntu Touch powered phones, they should be released this Autumn, if everything goes as scheduled.

      • With its powerful octa-core chip and unusual display, Meizu MX4 is great – but can it “handle” Ubuntu Touch?

        Yesterday Meizu announced its latest flagship device, the MX4, and we love it. This bad boy comes with a 5.36-inch IPS display with unusual resolution of 1920 x 1152 pixels; that’s 418 PPI for those who count these sort of things.

        MediaTek’s brand-new MT6595 octa-core chip is providing the processing power needed to run things smoothly. Said SoC rocks four high-performance Cortex-A17 and four energy-efficient Cortex-A7 cores. This combo can apparently score as high as 47,000 points at the popular benchmark website AnTuTu; so yes, future owners of the MX4 will get one fast phone.

      • Ubuntu Wants to Be the Best Development Platform for Android Apps

        Canonical is looking to befriend the Android developers by becoming the development platform of choice. In this regard, the Ubuntu developers have implemented a simple way of getting the latest Android Studio (beta) and Android SDK, with all the required dependencies.

      • Canonical is Testing a Big New OpenStack Cloud Play: BootStack

        Canonical has a new spin on its OpenStack plans. The company is rolling out BootStack, which is a managed service offering currently in private beta testing. Through BootStack, Canonical wants to help customers build, support and manage OpenStack-centric clouds for a fee of $15 per server per day.

      • Canonical Releases Mir 0.7 Display Server

        While Ubuntu 14.10 is still sticking to the X.Org Server by default on the desktop, an updated version of Mir is now available for early adopters and those running the Ubuntu mobile stack.

      • Canonical BootStack Will Build & Manage Your OpenStack Cloud

        Mark Shuttleworth announced earlier this year “Your Cloud” as a paid service by Canonical to build and manage OpenStack cloud deployments. Your Cloud has turned into BootStack and is rolling forward for those that wish to have Canonical build out and manage their cloud computing environment.

        BootStack aims to “take away the pain of cloud management” by building, supporting, and managing clouds. Canonical will build a cloud for you either within your data center / premises or hosted by IBM’s Softlayer. The cloud will be built to your needs and on the hardware of your choosing.

      • BootStack – taking away the pain of cloud management

        BootStack (short for: build, operate, and optionally transfer) is the new offer from Canonical to round up its cloud offering. Utilising their experience in working with some of the world’s leading telcos and enterprises to build OpenStack clouds, Canonical experts will design and build your OpenStack cloud in predictable time and on budget. Canonical will manage the cloud for you for a fixed price, relieving you from the pain of recruiting and training OpenStack staff. When your team is ready to take over your cloud operations, Canonical will transfer it to your care. It’s the best way to get up and running quickly on OpenStack.

      • Ubuntu Touch Now Has a Torrent Client in the Ubuntu Store

Devices/Embedded

• Android mini-PC jumps on Cortex-A17 trend

  Tronsmart has launched an $80-and-up “Orion R28″ mini-PC that runs Android 4.4 on a quad-core, Cortex-A17 Rockchip RK3188 SoC clocked at 1.8GHz.

• Phones

  • Android

    • Sony joins the Android Wear ranks with underwhelming SmartWatch 3

      In March, Sony said it’d stick to its own smartwatch software in lieu of joining the Android Wear party with the likes of LG, Motorola, and Samsung. Today, Sony’s completely reversing that stance with the introduction of SmartWatch 3, its fifth-generation smartwatch, which has completely embraced Google’s Android Wear platform. Sony intends to add a Walkman app for music playback via a Bluetooth headset along with a remote control app for stuff you’re playing on another device. Don’t look for much more to distinguish this device on the software front.

    • Five must-have apps for Android Wear

      Android Wear devices are getting lots of attention in the media these days, and that’s definitely a good thing. But what about the software for Google’s newest mobile platform? Which apps do you need to get started using your Android Wear device? Android Police takes a look at five essential apps for Android Wear.

    • Top 5 Essential Android Wear Apps

      So you’ve just picked up an Android Wear device, but what the heck can you do with this tiny wrist computer? Sure, it pulls in notification from your phone and shows you Google Now cards, but you need some apps too. It can be a challenge to navigate the Play Store in search of the best watch apps, but we’ve been keeping a close eye on things. Here are the five apps every Android Wear device needs to have installed.

    • Android Wear will get smarter says Google

      It is hard to argue against 2014 being the year of the ‘wearables’. So far we have seen smartwatches launched by Samsung and LG which first highlighted what we can expect from the new technology.

      ASUS is also entering the smartwatch landscape with their Xen Watch which they claim to be the most good looking sub $200 watch.

    • HTC’s Nexus tablet to come with folio style case

      Over the last few months there has been massive speculation in regard to the future of the Nexus range. Some rumours highly suggest Motorola will be making the Nexus 6 (codename Shamu) while other rumours highly anticipate the Nexus 8 will be manufactured by HTC (codenames Flounder/Volantis). Of the two rumours it would seem that HTC and the Nexus 8 are a likely pairing and this was further suggested by the leaked information of the accessories to come with the Nexus 8.

    • Asus ZenWatch flaunts its stylish metal body and curved screen (pictures)

      The Asus ZenWatch is the first smartwatch using Android Wear — Google’s operating system designed specifically for watches.

    • Asus adds Zen to the Android Wear smartwatch

    • This Amazingly secure Android phone was able to discover fake cell phone towers

      We’ve always been suspicious of folks being able to snoop in on phone conversations or intercept data, but there isn’t much we can do to prove that happening or to prevent the foul act. One secure phone seems to have changed that, however.

    • Why Do Android Apps Want So Much Access to My Data?

      This week, reader Maureen noted that these apps seemed to be overreaching just a tad. Why, for example, would The Weather Channel app need access to your Device and Call information? Why would it need to know if WiFi is enabled and the names of all nearby WiFi devices?

    • With Galaxy Note 4 launch, Samsung aims to pre-empt Apple, claim innovation mantle

      Samsung on Wednesday launched its Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note Edge, a curved screen phablet, and Gear VR, a virtual reality headset, but the larger mission for the electronics giant was to claim ownership of large screen mobile devices and to position itself as an innovation leader.

      The timing of the launch event, held at the IFA conference in Berlin and New York, was hard to ignore with Apple’s iPhone 6 debut next week. Samsung was clearly trying to claim the innovation mantle as Apple finally gets around to offering a larger screen iPhone.

• Sub-notebooks/Tablets

  • webOS rises from the ashes (again) as LuneOS: open source operating system for phones and tablets

    The operating system that once powered devices like the Palm Pre and the HP TouchPad is getting another crack at life. A group of developers have taken the source code HP released a few years ago and turned it into something new(ish) called LuneOS.

    While the software is still very much a work in progress, you can now download and install the operating system on a handful of devices including the HP TouchPad tablet and Google Nexus 4 smartphone.

  • webOS Lives On As LuneOS With New Release

    Formerly known as webOS Ports, LuneOS was officially released today for letting the HP TouchPad and select Google Nexus devices re-live what’s best about webOS.

  • Open WebOS reborn in new LuneOS release

    The Open WebOS mobile Linux operating system has been renamed “LuneOS,” and is available in an “Affogato” release supporting HP’s TouchPad and LG’s Nexus 4.

    WebOS is back — yet again — in an open source “LuneOS” respin of the Open WebOS project, itself a spinoff of the proprietary WebOS. The WebOS Ports backed project, which was officially called “WebOS Ports Open WebOS,” released an Alpha 2 version in June 2013, and a year later announced its new project name based on the platform’s LunaSysMgr UI. The goal of LuneOS is “not to reach feature comparison with Android or iOS but rather building a system to satisfy basic needs in the mobile environment,” says the project.

Keep (developers) calm and carry on: How Puppet maintains open source civility

Above all the company also has a “3 Strikes” rule for any bad actors and states that certain violations like “threatening, abusive, destructive or illegal nature will be addressed immediately and are not subject to 3 strikes.”

Meet The Open-Source Startup That Wants To Automate Your Next App

This places Hashicorp right at the nexus of so-called DevOps, in which developers take on more responsibility for managing the infrastructure that hosts their applications and puts them in the hands of users. Some people view DevOps as heralding the eventual extinction of IT operations as a specialized function; Hashimoto isn’t one of them, although he does think IT suffers from a fatal lack of automation. And that’s a problem he’s trying to fix.

Tox aims to be an open source and secure alternative to Skype

A group of developers have been working to make an app like Skype that isn’t owned by a large corporation and can avoid surveillance from organizations like the NSA. It’s called Tox, and while it’s still in development– its security is far from guaranteed at the moment– you can already download and try the app for Windows, OS X and Linux.

Tox: Open-source, P2P Skype alternative

If you like the convenience of Skype, but you are worried about government surveillance and don’t trust Microsoft to keep you safe against it, Tox might be just the thing for you.

What Is Tox? Hackers Develop Secure, Private Skype Alternative

Since Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs last summer, developers and tech companies like Google have been rushing to create tools that restore some semblance of security and privacy for Internet users. Tox, a Skype alternative that features instant messaging, call and video features, is the latest entry in that field.

The Open Source Tool That Lets You Send Encrypted Emails to Anyone

In the wake of the mass NSA surveillance scandal sparked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, all sorts of hackers, academics, startups, and major corporations are working to build tools that let us more easily secure our email messages and other online communications.

Out in the Open: Take Back Your Privacy With This Open Source WhatsApp

Private messaging apps like SnapChat and WhatsApp aren’t as private as you might think.

Application Awareness goes open source: Snort OpenAppID

Cisco Sourcefire recently announced that their Snort open source IDS/IPS 2.9.7 will now support free application visibility and control, called OpenAppID. It will be fully integrated into the current Snort framework and offers a new application preprocessor and keyword ‘appid’ that can be used in any Snort rule. OpenAppID will launch with detection for over 1400+ applications, providing Snort admins with much needed awareness of the applications on their networks. The Snort application information can also be sent to 3rd party analytics or SIEM tools.

Events

• Celebrate Software Freedom Day on September 20

  I am very glad to share with you that registration of the eleventh edition of Software Freedom Day has been opened since early August and you can see from our SFD event map, we already have 129 events from more than 50 countries shown in our map. As usual registration happens after you have created your event page on the wiki. We have a detail guide here for newcomers and for the others who need help, the SFD-Discuss mailing would be the best place to get prompt support.

• Wikimania 2014 Notes – very miscellaneous

• Learn more about open source at Software Freedom Day 2014

  The days of open source software being something that only pasty white guys living in their moms’ basements cared about are long gone. Today, the open source movement is absolutely huge, with even big companies buying into the concept thanks to the cost savings and beneficial functionality offered by increasingly competitive and polished open source options.

• Nine Reasons to Attend Xen Project User Summit

  Some claim that the age of virtualization is now past. However, nothing could be farther from the truth. And this year’s Xen Project User Summit will highlight many of the newest advances in virtualization. If you use the Xen Project Hypervisor — or if you are simply evaluating your virtualization alternatives — join us in New York on September 15!

Web Browsers

• Mozilla

  • Firefox 32 Debuts With Improved SSL Security

    The new open-source Mozilla browser release supports public-key pinning and fixes half a dozen vulnerabilities.

    Mozilla is out today with its Firefox 32 release, providing users of the open-source Web browser with new security fixes and features. Firefox 32 now provides support for public-key pinning, which enables enhanced security for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate authenticity.

  • Firefox 32 With New HTTP Cache Released for Android, Linux, Mac, Windows

    Mozilla has rolled out an update for its Firefox browser’s desktop and mobile platforms. The Firefox 32 for Android, Linux, Mac and Windows brings a number of additions, while fixing some major bugs and updating other features.

    As a part of the Firefox update, Mozilla introduced a new HTTP cache for both platforms. According to the company, the new cache system will deliver improved performance and easy recovery when facing crash issues.

  • Firefox 32 gets a facelift, speedboost and more security

    Firefox 32 was released the past few days and it comes with some new perspectives from a user interface standpoint, it does more caching to speed up your browsing experience(if you switch from another browser to try this release let the cache build to see improvements) and improved security regards certificates.

  • Firefox 32 Delivers Ramped-Up Security, New HTTP Cache

    Mozilla has built a notable security system into the new Firefox version 32 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The new security scheme is targeted to keep hackers from intercepting data, including data aimed at online services. The browser incorporates public key pinning, which can ensure that users are connecting to the sites they mean to connect with. Pinning allows greater control over which site certificates are deemed valid.

SaaS/Big Data

• Mirantis Counters VMware OpenStack’s Openness

  How open is the OpenStack cloud computing distribution that VMware (VMW) recently launched? Not very, according to OpenStack vendor Mirantis, which is loudly touting its own ability to integrate its “pure-play” OpenStack distribution with VMware infrastructure while keeping the cloud open.

• How Elizabeth Joseph Became a SysAdmin on HP’s OpenStack Infrastructure Team

  Before Elizabeth Joseph began her career as a system administrator, she was a hobbyist who attended a lot of Linux Users Group meetings in her hometown near Philadelphia. Now she’s an automation and tools engineer at HP, working on the OpenStack infrastructure team and recently co-authored the latest revision of The Official Ubuntu Book.

Databases

• Oracle’s MySQL buy a ‘fiasco’ says Dovecot man Mikko Linnanmäki

  A co-founder of the widely-used IMAP server Dovecot has outlined his three rules for open source success, in terms Larry Ellison may not enjoy.

  “The first rule is don’t sell your company to Oracle if you want to keep your product alive,” he told World Hosting Day in Singapore yesterday.

  “The second rule is also don’t sell sell your company to Oracle.”

  Linnanmäki’s remarks were, of course, made in reference to Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL, a transaction he feels was a “fiasco” but has turned out “not that bad because the only one suffering is Oracle.”

Education

• Open-source programming: Project initiated to help IT students

  Open source software development is a very well-coordinated and properly engineered practice on a larger scale as typically, an individual or a small group of people start work on a project. After reaching a certain maturity level, the project is floated as open-source and volunteers are invited to participate in the development effort.

Business

• Teradata Buys Hadoop Consulting Firm Think Big Analytics

  Data warehouse software and hardware provider Teradata is on a big data Relevant Products/Services acquisitions roll. The company just grabbed Think Big Analytics to help customers get the most from their data.

BSD

• The Features To Find With The Imminent Release Of LLVM/Clang 3.5

  LLVM 3.5 is tentatively scheduled to be released tomorrow as the latest bi-annual update to the open-source compiler infrastructure along with its sub-projects like the Clang C/C++ front-end. If you haven’t been following its development closely or trying out the pre-releases, here’s a recap of some of the changes you can find with this newest release.

• LLVM Clang 3.5 Brings Some Compiler Performance Improvements

  If all goes well, LLVM 3.5 will be released today. While we have already delivered some LLVM/Clang benchmarks of the 3.5 SVN code, over the days ahead we will be delivering more benchmarks of the updated compiler stack — including looking at its performance against the in-development GCC 5.0. For getting this latest series of compiler benchmarking at Phoronix started, here’s some fresh numbers of LLVM Clang 3.4 compared to a recent release candidate of LLVM Clang 3.5.

• GCC 5.0 Adds DragonFlyBSD Support

  The latest addition to GCC 5′s growing list of features is official support for DragonFlyBSD on i386 and x86_64 architectures.

  Up to now a DragonFlyBSD developer had been maintaining his own out-of-tree patches that add support for the DragonFlyBSD target and complete ADA front-end support to all four major BSDs. A few months ago John Marino, the developer maintaining the patches, began working to mainline them to provide out-of-the-box support for C, C++, Objective-C, and Fortran.

Openness/Sharing

• California, Texas serve as testing grounds for open-source voting technology

  “We spend $1.8 million annually on maintenance for our systems, and we can’t find another firm to do the work that’s cheaper,” he said. Los Angeles County is hoping to release an RFP for its open-source system in the next few months.

• Open source as a philosophy for life

  Washington DC based educator and FOSS evangelist Phil Shapiro thinks that open source could be a route to a more balanced mind if mental energies are attuned correctly.

  Open source is as much a philosophy of living as it is a method of creating software argues Shapiro.

Programming

• POCL Is Maturing Well For Running OpenCL On The CPU

  POCL, the Portable Computing Language, continues making headway for executing OpenCL kernels on CPUs. POCL now supports much of OpenCL 1.x and continues being refined for better support.

KlearGear Apparently Healthier Than Ever, Announces Plans To Start F**cking Customers Through Amazon Fulfillment

A new phone number appears at the bottom of the press release [(646) 810-9268] which traces back to New York City, but it’s as useless as any other phone number the company has provided. Callers are greeted with an opening spiel in French before being spoken to in English. Callers inquiring about Descoteaux’s retail holdings (Gift World, KlearGear) are asked to press “1.” Doing so results in the message “Invalid selection. Please try again.”

AnandTech founder Anand Shimpi retires from journalism to work at Apple

In case you missed it over the long weekend, Anand Shimpi, founder and editor-in-chief of hardware site AnandTech, retired from his position on Saturday evening. His farewell post doesn’t mention what his next project will be, but Re/code later reported that he had been hired by Apple, a fact that Apple confirmed without divulging more specifics.

Orange March IS Illegal

What is at question here is not whether it ought to be illegal to march in uniform for political objects. The fact is that plainly it is illegal. The law is not moribund – it was applied for example against Irish republicans in London in the 1980s.

Health/Nutrition

• Guatemala Resists ‘Monsanto Law’ Required As Part Of Trade Agreement With US

  One of the less well-known projects of the West is to convince developing countries that they need to convert traditional approaches to agriculture, which have functioned well for hundreds of years, into a system of intellectual monopolies for seeds — the implicit and patronizing message being that this is the “modern” way to do things. Last year we wrote about how this was happening in Africa, and an article on bilaterals.org reports on similar moves in Guatemala…

• Guatemala: People reject “Monsanto Law” for threatening food security

  The controversial “Law for the Protection of New Plant Varieties,” also known as the “Monsanto Law”, has been widely rejected by Guatemalan civil society. Groups say the rules will jeopardise food security and affect the farm economy.

  On 10 June, the Congress of Guatemala approved Decree 19-2014 or the “Law for the Protection of New Plant Varieties” which led to an outpouring of criticism from various sectors of civil society.

Security

• Security advisories for Wednesday

• Tuesday’s security updates

• Open source software security: Who can you trust?

  Fears of backdoors and heightened concerns about encryption software are running rampant.

• Open source needs more than the Open Crypto Audit Project

  But open source tends to be something of an agglomeration of programmers — some brilliant, some boneheaded — around a core developer or two. I think it just might be possible to influence the small group of programmers at the core of each open source project to create a culture that develops secure code. In fact, in some ways it might even be easier to do with open source projects because they, for the most part, don’t face the arbitrary deadlines of the commercial world.

• Take inventory of your open source software security

  Developers love reusing code, whether it’s an open source library or a code snippet copied from the Internet. This expert tip looks at the best ways to secure and monitor component-driven software.

• Akamai Warns of IptabLes and IptabLex Infection on Linux, DDoS attacks

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• Does the Public Want More War?

  The paper’s August 29 edition boasted the front-page headline “More Want US to Flex Muscle.” As if that militaristic tone wasn’t obvious enough, right next to it is a graphic labeled “Is Obama Tough Enough?”

• After Project Fear, Expect Project Terror

  But I also have no doubt the establishment are not going to accept this lightly. They are not simply going to let Scotland’s people walk away with Scotland’s resources. They have yet to make serious use of their most frequent instrument of population control – the “War on Terror”.

  The scene has already been set. Cameron has already told parliament that ISIS, or the Caliphate as it calls itself (I always think it is better to call people what they call themselves, rather than some made-up name) poses a major and imminent threat to the UK. Jack Straw is back on Radio 4 saying that Britain must bomb Iraq, as though the very cause of the Caliphate was not the last time he invaded Iraq. Saudi Arabia, which funded and still funds the Caliphate, is giving warnings to the security services of planned attacks in the UK.

  The truth is that everybody who has ever carried out an actual Islamic terror attack in the UK (of which there have been very few indeed) has stated that they did so because of British bombings and invasions of Muslim countries – a fact which is very plainly true. The notion that the way to stop this is to bomb or invade Muslim countries is quite incredible.

• The Pentagon’s Strategy for World Domination: Full Spectrum Dominance, from Asia to Africa

  In May 2000 the Washington Post published an article called “For Pentagon, Asia Moving to Forefront.” The article stated that, “The Pentagon is looking at Asia as the most likely arena for future military conflict, or at least competition.” The article said the US would double its military presence in the region and essentially attempt to manage China.

  The Pentagon has become the primary resource extraction service for corporate capital. Whether it is Caspian Sea oil and natural gas, rare earth minerals found in Africa, Libya’s oil deposits, or Venezuelan oil, the US’s increasingly high-tech military is on the case.

• The Case for Kill Switches in Military Weaponry

  This summer the insurgent group ISIS captured the Iraqi city of Mosul—and along with it, three army divisions’ worth of U.S.-supplied equipment from the Iraqi army, including Humvees, helicopters, antiaircraft cannons and M1 Abrams tanks. ISIS staged a parade with its new weapons and then deployed them to capture the strategic Mosul Dam from outgunned Kurdish defenders. The U.S. began conducting air strikes and rearming the Kurds to even the score against its own weaponry. As a result, even more weapons have been added to the conflict, and local arms bazaars have reportedly seen an influx of supply.

• Midday Roundup: Deconstructing Putin’s scary statement on Kiev

  Look out, Kiev. Russian President Vladimir Putin is so misunderstood. A Kremlin spokesman said today that EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso took Putin’s recent comments about the fighting in Ukraine out of context. According to Barroso, as quoted in an Italian newspaper, Putin told him, “If I want to, I can take Kiev in two weeks.” The Kremlin says those comments had a completely different meaning when Putin said them. Russian officials also accuse Barroso of a breach of confidentiality for sharing the contents of a private conversation. Did Putin really expect him to stay quiet about the possible expansion of the Russian “incursion” into Ukraine? Despite what appears to be a direct threat, European leaders remain flummoxed about what to do with Putin. They can’t live with him, but they just can’t live without his natural gas.

• US hopes to reduce EU gas dependence on Russia

  The U.S. hopes, by including energy in a trade agreement, to reduce European dependence on Russian gas just as relations between Russia and the West are more fraught than since the days of the Cold War, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

• Russia and NATO square off over Ukraine

  Moscow’s surprise declaration of a shift in its military doctrine over Ukraine has come just ahead of a NATO summit in Wales.

• Obama’s Paralyzed Presidency

  The U.S. super rich are outraged by Obama’s hesitancy to wage war overseas.

• Saudi arrests 88 in ‘anti-terrorism’ drive

  Saudi Arabia said yesterday it had arrested 88 men suspected of being parts of an Al Qaeda cell that was plotting attacks inside and outside the kingdom.

  The interior ministry did not give any details about the alleged plots, but said 59 of the men arrested had previously served prison sentences for similar offences.

• Israel shows evidence Hamas used Gaza schools for rocket fire

  The Israeli military has provided its most detailed assessment yet of the conduct and impact of the Gaza war, including photographs indicating that militants stored and fired rockets from schools and a breakdown of the toll inflicted on Hamas.

  In a briefing at its headquarters in Tel Aviv, the Israel Defense Forces presented a minute picture of the structure and capability of Hamas and other militant groups operating in Gaza, an effort to explain the severity of the threat Israel faced and justify Israel’s heavy tank shelling and air strikes during the 50-day conflict — tactics that drew international criticism.

• US drones strike 390 times since ’04

  The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported that with only one CIA drone attack in Pakistan in August 2014 the drone strike casualty rate for August was less than half that of July’s casualty rate.

• First US drone strike in seven months hits Somalia

  A US drone strike hit Somalia, the first in seven months, in an attack aimed at killing al Shabaab leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane (below).

  The attack killed “six al Shabaab officers” but it is not clear if Godane was among them, said Abdullahi Abukar, executive director of the Somali Human Rights Association (SOHRA).

• The arrogance of warmongers: Pacifism for the 21st century

  Much of what we today see as reasons to wage wars is in fact caused by wars. The atrocities of the Islamic State, a phenomenon that would not be possible without the Syrian Civil War and the American invasion of Iraq, is of course the prime contemporary example of this. A good runner-up is the reasons given for assassinating people with drones. Generating a worse situation than the status quo by engaging in an activity that is bad in itself is the risk. Improving the status quo is the potential gain. If we assume that the sizes of how much worse the situation can get and of how much better they can get are the same, the probability that we will see the gains must be commensurate with the evils of the war. In all other cases, waging a war cannot be justified on consequentialist grounds.

• Ahmed Godane Survives Drone Attack-source

  Mareeg.com-According to media reports, the overall leader of Alshabaab Ahmed Godane survived the drone attack of last night.

• US Kills Several in Strike on Somalia: Unknown if Target Was Hit

  The Pentagon confirmed an attack on Somalia yesterday, but offered no details until this morning, confirming it was a drone attack with several Hellfire missiles fired along the southern Somali coast. Perhaps even more interesting, President Obama is said not to have given specific authorization for the attack.

• Somalia: Shabaab leader’s fate remains unclear

  US forces have carried out air strikes against senior members of Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab rebels, with casualties reported but uncertainty hanging over the fate of the group’s leader, officials said on Tuesday.

  Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby confirmed that the attack was aimed at the group’s leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, also referred to as Abu-Zubayr, and that the bombs definitely hit the meeting of Shabaab chiefs.

• Al Shabaab denies leader killed in US drone strike

  Al Shabaab militant group has denied that its leader Abu Zubeyr, whose real name is Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in the convoy hit by US drone strike on Tuesday but confirmed that their convoy come under attack.

• U.S. ‘80% sure’ it killed Al Shabab’s top leader in an air strike

• US Bombs Somalia In Drone Attack

  Pentagon admits US airstrikes took place, but says details on operations will only be released to public “as and when appropriate”.

• AFRICOM Conducts Operation In Somalia

• Details scarce on US operation in Somalia

  A member of al-Shabaab said its leader was traveling in one of two vehicles hit by the strike but would not say if the leader was among those who were killed.

• US set to open 2nd drone base in Niger, expand operations in Africa

  The Pentagon is preparing to open a drone base in one of the remotest places on Earth: an ancient caravan crossroads in the middle of the Sahara.

  After months of negotiations, the government of Niger, a landlocked West African nation, has authorized the U.S. military to fly unarmed drones from the mud-walled desert city of Agadez, according to Nigerien and U.S. officials.

• Drone stricken families hit by PTSD

  There is no end in sight for the drone strikes carried out in Marib, Abyan, Shabwa, Al-Bayda, Hadramout, and Dhamar governorates. In fact, it is said that the number of civilian casualties is still on the rise. In most cases the repercussions to families affected by the unmanned planes go beyond the loss of lives, often leaving them clueless, traumatized, and desperate for answers.

  Meqdad Toiaman’s father was killed in a drone strike in Marib governorate in 2011. His death was a big blow to the family, both emotionally and economically. Toiaman, 18, found himself in a peculiar situation, suddenly having to bear the burden of financial responsibilities.

  Although the attack took place three years ago, the psychological damage it fraught on Toiaman and his family exceeds their personal loss.

• The Zero-Sum Game of Perpetual War

  Readers with a morbid sense of curiosity can visit a web site called NukeMap that allows visitors to witness the devastation caused by nuclear weapons of varying yields on a city of their choosing[i]. Herman Kahn, who was an armchair theorist from RAND during the Cold War, insisted that nuclear war was winnable[ii]. But a few hours with NukeMap will disprove Kahn’s folly and the baleful smiley face that he tried to slap over human extinction.

  [...]

  Such men often go unnoticed because they tend to exercise power discreetly, standing behind a veil of propaganda[ix]. For instance Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Steve Coll has called ExxonMobil an “invisible company” thanks to a disciplined and well-funded public relations division[x]. This underscores the fact that the narratives put forth by the press are under the influence of an extensive subversion apparatus that CIA officer Frank Wisner referred to as the Mighty Wurlitzer[xi]. Powerful groups build consensus behind closed doors and then, as Chomsky and Herman explain, coax the rest of society along by manufacturing consent[xii]. Thus enabling what’s known as democratic elitism.

• HRW: ISIL Using Cluster Bombs

  The New York-based group, citing reports from local Kurdish officials and photographic evidence, said ISIL fighters had used cluster bombs on July 12 and August 14, AFP reported.

  They were deployed in fighting around the town of Ayn al-Arab in Aleppo province, near the border with Turkey, in clashes between the Takfiri group and local Kurdish fighters.

• ISIS is America’s New Terror Brand

  Endless Propaganda Fuels “War on Terror”

• Obama pledges to send more aircraft and military to Estonia

  After Estonia’s request, Barack Obama said the US would send more air force units and aircraft to the country, as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization continues to amass on Russia’s border.

  The American leader, in a one-day visit to Estonia, emphasized NATO’s commitment to a rapid-response force, as well as enlarging the military bloc’s footprint at Estonia’s Amari Air Base.

• NATO now versus then

  In the mid-1980s, Western Europe had good reason to fear the military might of the Soviet Union and its allies in the Warsaw Pact.

• The Invasions That Dare Not Speak Their Name

  Last week, I wrote about the rhetorical contortions the Russian government and its rebel allies have employed to discuss the increasingly obvious and blatant presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. While the Ukrainian government is describing Russia’s actions as “undisguised aggression,” the Kremlin still hasn’t publicly acknowledged any Russian military presence across the border. President Vladimir Putin, though, may be a bit more brazen in private. According to a leaked report today, he told the president of the European commission that his forces could easily conquer Kiev if he wanted them to.

• Warning to the World: Washington and its NATO & EU Vassals are Insane — Paul Craig Roberts

  Herbert E. Meyer, a nutcase who was a special assistant to the CIA director for a period during the Reagan administration, has penned an article calling for Russian President Putin’s assassination. If we have “ to get him out of the Kremlin feet-first with a bullet hole in the back of his head, that would be okay with us.” http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/08/how_to_solve_the_putin_problem.html

  As the crazed Meyer illiustrates, the insanity that Washington has released upon the world knows no restraint. Jose Manual Barroso, installed as Washington’s puppet as European Commission President, misrepresented his recent confidential telephone conversation with Russia’s President Putin by telling the media that Putin issued a threat: “If I want to, I can take Kiev in two weeks.”

  Clearly, Putin did not issue a threat. A threat would be inconsistent with Putin’s entire unprovocative approach to the strategic threat that Washington and its NATO puppets have brought to Russia in Ukraine. Russia’s permanent representative to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said that if Barroso’s lie stands, Russia will make public the full recording of the conversation

• U.S. troops are (probably) already in Iraq fighting ISIS

  I don’t care for the phrase. Never did. Wearing boots is what combat forces do in certain circumstances. Using it as synecdoche for “troops in harm’s way” warps the scope of what the U.S. military does. It may also give the Pentagon an easy out, because certain forces wear sneakers, not boots.

• 11 Tripoli Planes Still Missing, Sparks 9/11 Concerns

  Over the last month, Libya has been spiraling out of control, as terrorist gains and attacks have intensified. As of August, the US embassy in Tripoli was overrun. The Inquisitr reported that a local militia group stormed the compound and took control.

• Bring back the draft to make clear the cost of war

  When the draft was ended in 1973, it became all too easy for American presidents to intervene militarily anywhere without the kind of public scrutiny and opposition that developed after the Vietnam War destroyed thousands of young lives in an endless, unwinnable conflict.

• North Korea threatens Britain over ‘mud-slinging’ Channel 4 thriller focusing on Kim Jong-un’s nuclear weapons programme

  North Korea has threatened to cut diplomatic ties if a forthcoming Channel 4 drama focusing on their nuclear weapons programme is allowed to air.

  The country has branded political thriller Opposite Number a “slanderous, conspiratorial charade based on a sheer lie” and insisted through its state media that the British government ensure it is “dumped without delay”.

  London’s Foreign and Commonwealth office remains unbothered by the demand, explaining that Channel 4 is responsible for its own programming schedule.

• North Korean military warns UK over Channel 4 drama

• North Korea Drama a “Slanderous Farce” Says… North Korea

  A forthcoming drama about North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme has been criticised by the regime before it’s even been broadcast, with an NK spokesman saying that “hooligans and rogues under the guise of artistes” are disrespecting the country.

• North Korea Slams New UK TV Series About Nuclear Program

• N. Korea slams UK TV show on its nukes as ‘hideous farce’

• “At this point, no plan for war is a good plan for America.”

  One man thinks Americans should have had enough by now of hawks and chicken hawks drum beating for President Obama to get America into yet another war, this time against Isis or the Russians in the Ukraine or perhaps invading Syria.

• America’s War Hawks Back in Flight

  With America’s government-and-media war hawks back in full flight – preparing to swoop down on Syria as well as Iraq – wiser heads might reflect on the chaos that previous adventures have caused, as Danny Schechter recalls.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• The Annual Slaughter Begins in Taiji, but the Japanese Are Shunning Dolphin Meat

  The annual dolphin hunt at the cove in Taiji, Japan, began on Monday. For the next six months, hundreds of dolphins will be rounded up and killed, their meat sold in stores and restaurants in Japan and other countries. But butchered dolphins are becoming scarcer on the Japanese market, which is good not only for the dolphins but for public health.

Finance

• Participation: Of Whom, By Whom, For Whom?

  2.1 Spooky Business: Corporate Espionage against Nonprofit Organizations, a report by Washington DC-based Center for Corporate Policy (CCP), reveals the “amazing” world of corporate espionage on a global-scale: Giant corporations engaging private spy agencies to smash activism. Like a public-private partnership (P-P-P), the catchword in vogue, government intelligence agencies are collaborating in the surveillance-espionage “enterprise” that targets activists and organizations active in the areas of social justice, public interests, safe food, environment, consumer rights, animal rights, insecticide-pesticide reform, opposition to war, nursing home reform, gun and arms control. With extensive evidence collected from sources that include government documents the report exposes a “mine” of chilling facts:

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Why Is Huffington Post Running A Multi-Part Series To Promote The Lies Of A Guy Who Pretended To Invent Email?

  I thought this story had ended a few years ago. Back in 2012, we wrote about how The Washington Post and some other big name media outlets were claiming that a guy named V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai had “invented email” in 1978. The problem was that it wasn’t even close to true and relied on a number of total misconceptions about email, software and copyright law. Ayyadurai and some of his friends have continued to play up the claim that he “invented” email, but it simply was never true, and it’s reaching a level that seems truly bizarre. Ayyadurai may have done some interesting things, but his continued false insistence that he invented email is reaching really questionable levels. And, now it’s gone absolutely nutty, with the Huffington Post running a multi-part series (up to five separate articles so far — all done in the past 10 days) all playing up misleading claims saying that Ayyadurai invented email, even though even a basic understanding of the history shows he did not.

• The Wash. Post’s Resident Scott Walker Cheerleader

  Former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen, who has a financial relationship with Gov. Scott Walker, is using his Washington Post column to lavish praise on the Wisconsin Republican and help position him for a 2016 presidential run.

• Leaked Audio Suggests Koch’s AFP Violated Law During Walker Recall

  Leaked audio from an invite-only Koch donor summit highlighted the role of the billionaire brothers in boosting Scott Walker in Wisconsin — and suggests that David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity Foundation may have violated its charitable status during the state’s 2012 recall elections.

• Chuck Todd’s Theory of Politics

  The upshot was that being in the middle is what wins, and that Obama has had trouble when he’s leaned too far to the left. So that’s good politics, then–when Democrats move further to the right to meet Republicans in some mythical, pundit-approved “center.” But there’s a real chance that some people aren’t confused–they actually don’t like politics, or at least they don’t care much for politicians. And some critics of political journalism actually think that it should hold powerful people to account. That is very much at odds with viewing politics as a sport where the athletes just aren’t performing particularly well. That’s where Chuck Todd is coming from.

Censorship

• Netizens call out Turkey for prosecuting Twitter users while hosting UN net forum

  Twitter users are questioning Turkey’s hosting of this year’s Internet Governance Forum (link is external) despite its controversial internet policies.

  Amnesty International highlighted the country’s prosecution (link is external) of more than 20 Turkish citizens for social media posts. They’re standing trial for allegedly “inciting riots” (link is external) by retweeting information about the 2013 Gezi protests. “It’s astounding to see Turkish authorities plough on with the prosecution of Twitter critics, even as they host a discussion on internet governance where human rights are a key theme,” said (link is external) Amnesty’s Deputy Director of Global Issues.

• Ares Rights Wants Ecuador Journalists To Stop Talking About Ares Rights’ Censorious Abuse of Copyright

  The Ares Rights saga is… bizarre. So, they’ve summoned Barbra Streisand to sing their song. After substantial attention to the firm’s abuse of copyright law to censor political dissidents (and, er, international oil conglomerates), Ares Rights has deployed a DMCA (copyright) takedown notice against an Ecuadorian news outlet targeting their coverage of Ares Rights’ censorious abuse of copyright.

• Ares Rights, Notorious DMCA Abusers For The Ecuadorian Gov’t, Now Sending DMCA Notices On Stories About Ares Rights

  We still hear from copyright system supporters who insist that copyright is never used as a censorship tool. And yet… we’ve written a few times about a Spanish firm named Ares Rights that works with the Ecuadorian government and others to seek to censor critical content by totally abusing the DMCA process. However, it appears to have stepped things up a notch in the ridiculous category, now seeking to abuse the DMCA even further to censor stories about its own censorship-by-DMCA. It gets a bit recursive.

• UK Culture Secretary: Search Engines Must Magically Stop Piracy Or Else!

  You’d think that after years and years of pointless banter along these lines that people in power would understand just how ridiculous they sound when they try to blame search engines for infringement. TorrentFreak points out that the UK’s Culture Secretary Sajid Javid gave a barn raising speech to folks from the British recording industry. It starts out with the usual political fluff about just how important the recording industry is and how much money the government is forking over to the industry in questionable subsidies. And, apparently Javid has no qualms directly admitting to accepting favors (bribes?) from the industry. Specifically he tells a “joke” about now his kids thing he’s cool, because he can get hot concert tickets (“my new-found ability to get tickets for the Capital FM Summertime Ball, or Sam Smith at Somerset House!”), whereas in his previous job no one was rushing to give him such favors. It’s a joke, but it’s pretty telling.

• UK Govt. Warns Google, Microsoft & Yahoo Over Piracy

  UK Culture Secretary Sajid Javid says that the government has warned Google, Microsoft and Yahoo over the issue of online piracy. In an address to the BPI’s AGM in London yesterday, Javid said that if the search engines don’t stop referring people to pirate sites, the government will take a legislative approach.

• Iranian Grand Ayatollah Issues Fatwa Against ‘Immoral’ High-Speed Internet Connections

  Iran continues to battle the Internet, recognizing the fact that an unfiltered exchange of ideas (some of them admittedly often horrifically bad) tends to undermine repressive regimes. While the President and the Minister of Communications have stressed that higher-speed connections (and less censorship) are useful to Iran’s citizens, many others in the government feel that increasing speeds means giving up lots and lots of control.

• Grand Ayatollah Issues Fatwa Stating High Speed Internet is against Sharia

  A Grand Ayatollah in Iran has determined that access to high-speed and 3G Internet is “against Sharia” and “against moral standards.” In answer to a question published on his website, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, one of the country’s highest clerical authorities, issued a fatwa, stating “All third generation [3G] and high-speed internet services, prior to realization of the required conditions for the National Information Network [Iran’s government-controlled and censored Internet which is under development], is against Sharia [and] against moral and human standards.”

• Google just banned our new Android app before it even launched

  This post is about more than our new app, Disconnect Mobile, being arbitrarily removed by Google from the Play Store Tuesday, five days after it went live and prior to doing any PR announcement. This post is really about Google’s disregard for user privacy and security, their ability to arbitrarily and unilaterally ban any app from the world’s dominant mobile operating system (78% of total smartphones run Android), and the importance of alternative Android distribution platforms that support privacy and security.

• Google Bans Disconnect.me App From Play Store Based On Vague Guidelines

  So it’s quite disappointing that Google has chosen to pull Disconnect.me’s new app from the Android store based only on a very vague and broad “prohibition” in its terms of service, saying that you can’t offer an app that “interferes with” other services. The email Google sent doesn’t provide many details, other than saying that the Disconnect.me app “interferes with or accesses another service or product in an unauthorized manner.”

• In The Fappening’s Wake, 4chan Intros DMCA Policy

  After doing without an element needed for safe harbor protection, 4chan has just introduced an official DMCA policy. The decision comes in the wake of the celebrity photo leak known as The Fappening and 4chan users’ connections to it. In the meantime, the leaked image library has clocked a million torrent downloads.

Privacy

• Apple Is Totally Screwed

  But a much larger crisis looms – everyone, and I mean everyone, now knows that everything private they’ve done with their iPhone, if they use iCloud, is not only vulnerable, but extremely vulnerable.

  The Next Web says that a tool that allows brute force attacks against the Find My iPhone service gives hackers a way in to iCloud.

  That may or may not be what’s actually going on. Hacker Nik Cubrilovic, for example, says it isn’t slowing people down from accessing new accounts…

• You Can’t Be Fired For ‘Liking’ A Colleague Calling Your Bosses ‘Assholes’ On Facebook

  A couple of years ago, we wrote about a rather troubling legal ruling in which a court declared that Facebook “likes” aren’t a First Amendment protected expression. The ruling made little sense. It involved some employees of a local sheriff getting fired after “liking” the Facebook profile of the sheriff’s opponent in the next election. Thankfully, that key part was overturned on appeal, with the 4th Circuit appeals court ruling that Facebook likes absolutely could be protected speech. Now, facing a somewhat similar issue, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has similarly concluded that a Facebook like can be a form of “concerted protected activity” for which you cannot be fired.

• Protecting And Sharing Linked Data With Virtuoso

  Last time we saw how to share files and folders stored in the Virtuoso DAV system. Today we will protect and share data stored in Virtuoso’s Triple Store – we will share RDF data.

• Download MEGAsync For Linux Desktops (MEGA.co.nz Linux Sync Client)

• Law Enforcement Agencies Scramble For Pricey Cell Tower Spoofer Upgrades As Older Networks Are Shut Down

• How Hackable Are Your Security Questions?

  All kinds of ways? I was intrigued. So I clicked on the Gizmodo link and found….two suggestions. The first is two-step authentication, which is a fine idea for anyone with a cell phone. The second is encrypting all your data. But like it or not, this is much too hard for most people to implement. There’s just no way it’s going to become widespread anytime in the near future.

• Decrypting Google’s HTTPS Security Carrot

  In the meantime, SEOs are left to ponder the consequences of Google’s adding HTTPS encryption to its approximately 200 search ranking signals. It’s eerily reminiscent of the company’s move a while back to add the speed at which web pages load to its algorithmic bag of tricks. After all, how do security and speed relate to content authority and relevance.

• NSA Surveillance: Supreme Court Could Debate Data Collection Program After ACLU Lawsuit

  The U.S. Supreme Court could soon be asked to decide the constitutionality of the federal government’s massive data collection of phone records after two lawsuits challenging the National Security Agency’s controversial surveillance program have begun to inch forward in federal circuit court for the first time. The American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy rights groups have denounced the NSA’s data collection program, first revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden last summer.

• NSA Spying News: Federal Court To Rule For First Time On NSA Surveillance Program In ACLU Lawsuit

• Appeals Court Hears Arguments on NSA Tracking Program

• Federal appeals court questions NSA surveillance efforts

• Debate on NSA’s Collection of Americans’ Phone Records

  In July 2013, the program was publicized after NSA’s contractor Edward Snowden leaked the NSA documents. As soon as the program was revealed, the ACLU challenged its legality and constitutionality.

• Who is putting up ‘interceptor’ cell towers? The mystery deepens

  Mysterious “interceptor” cell towers in the USA are grabbing phone calls — but they’re not part of the phone networks. And, two experts told VentureBeat today, the towers don’t appear to be projects of the National Security Agency (NSA).

• Mystery fake cellphone towers discovered across America

  Fake mobile phone ‘towers’ dotted across the US could be listening in on unsuspecting smartphone users according to recent reports. And — tin foil hats on, everyone — nobody knows who’s behind them.

• Mystery of fake US mobile phone towers capable of tapping smartphones

• The American Delusion: Distracted, Diverted and Insulated from the Grim Reality of the Police State

  Caught up in the uproar over this year’s latest hullabaloo—militarized police in Ferguson, tanks on Main Street and ISIS—Americans have not only largely forgotten last year’s hullabaloo over the NSA and government surveillance but are generally foggy about everything that has happened in between.

• Truland trustee seeks to relinquish claim to massive NSA data center project

  The trustee overseeing Reston-based Truland Group Inc.’s bankruptcy wants to abandon its claim to millions of dollars it might be owed for building a massive data center in Utah, a mostly unpaid project that appears to have led in large measure to the firm’s abrupt shutdown and subsequent Chapter 7 filing in July.

• Can You Trust the Car of the Future?

  Big Brother is watching just about everywhere you go and soon you won’t be able to drive away from the electronic surveillance. GM says it’s about to launch cars that detect distracted driving.

  KTRH Car Pro Show host Jerry Reynolds agrees it’s the next step toward the driverless car of the future.

  “As long as they don’t store the information somewhere like currently they do with the black boxes it’s probably okay.”

  We can trust the NSA, right? Reynolds says it’s great technology, but he doesn’t need it.

• NO ALLY SPY AGENCY, BRITISH EXPERTS SAY

  Richard Aldrich, an academic at Warwick University’s Politics and International Relations Department, echoed an official’s remark from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that there is no allied intelligence, only intelligence on allied countries.Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) regarding the latest allegations that the U.S. intelligence service NSA and the U.K. intelligence agency GCHQ are keeping tabs on Turkey, Alrich said, “Your closest ally may not share your political and economic interests.

• Gerhard Schindler: Germany’s Spymaster

  Schindler wants an agency befitting Germany’s position.

• No regrets from Germany for spying claims

  Germany shows no sign of regret over the electronic spying claims, with a senior German official saying it would not be surprising if they learn that Germany is also being spied on by the Turkish government in a similar way.

• Spying Among Allies Now Normal, German Experts Say

  The recent revelations of US, British and German surveillance of NATO ally Turkey sparks debate about relations among friendly nations.

• EDITORIAL: When a fed trolls for trouble online

  A court convicts a cybersecurity director for child pornography

• Google’s upcoming trans-Pacific cable ripe for NSA intercepts

  The National Security Agency is no doubt licking their lips over the potential intelligence trove of Google’s proposed fiber optic cable, which will span the Pacific Ocean from the U.S. to Japan.

  As a former NSA official told VentureBeat, “Easy to tap for sure. If its US to JP, then no need to tap in the middle obviously, just look behind the big red door :)… if its a win would depend on what its replacing, if anything.”

• Brandis warns against future Snowdens and Mannings

  Australian government agencies will be required to implement stringent new security policies, to monitor public servants in order to protect the government against the ‘insidious enemy’ of the ‘trusted insiders’ leaking sensitive information to the public.

• Two Privacy Bills Move as Congress Returns From Vacation

  After all its hard work this year Congress is almost done with its summer recess. Lawmakers are due back Sept. 8 and have much to tackle. Two bills are of paramount importance to EFF: one—the USA FREEDOM Act—must be passed by Congress, while the other—the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA)—must be killed.

• Well, was it the US intercepting the official crypto phones?

  I think the interception of these crypto phones is the biggest security scandal of the republic; but we are blatantly forgetting and are being forced to forget about it.

• Stuff That Matters

  We do have some degree of privacy on our computers and hard drives when they are disconnected from the Net and through public key cryptography when we communicate with each other through the Net. But both are primitive stuff—the cyber equivalents of cave dwellings and sneaking about at night wearing bear skins.

• US Cold War Covert Civilian Agent Program Targeting Soviet Union Exposed

  During the Cold War, the United States recruited and trained civilian Alaskans as part of a covert network designed to collect intelligence in preparation for a Russian invasion, the AP reported.

  “The military believes that it would be an airborne invasion involving bombing and the dropping of paratroopers,” one FBI memo said of the expected Russian attack, according to the AP. Expected targets were the cities of Nome, Fairbanks, Anchorage and Seward.

• Despite billions spent on intelligence, we know very little

  The U.S. spends billions on intelligence, yet we always seem to be surprised by events in the world. George W. Bush told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and CIA Director George Tenet backed up this assessment. In fact, Iraq had no such weapons.

• Short-term pragmatism in Bali

  Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop have signed a long awaited document entitled, “Code of Conduct on Espionage”.

• Resisting the Surveillance State in Germany

  On Saturday, August 30, more than 6000 people took to the streets of Berlin, Germany to protest against intelligence agencies’ mass surveillance produced by Weltnetz.tv

• Secret surveillance weapons don’t belong in police arsenals

  Law enforcement ought to be using state-of-the-art digital and communications tools: The more traps for catching crooks, the better. But it shouldn’t shroud its weapons in multiple layers of secrecy.

  The Tacoma Police Department has been far too secretive in deploying Stingray, a powerful electronic surveillance and tracking device frequently used in federal investigations.

  The technology – broadly known as cell site simulators – could be described as a microcosm of the National Security Agency’s continental-scale data-mining. It tracks cell phones, which normally exchange signals with commercial towers. Stingray diverts those transmissions into the device, allowing police to capture and analyze them.

• Are Phony Cell Towers Intercepting Your Calls? (Video)

  Les Goldsmith, the CEO of ESD America, recently claimed that his CryptoPhone 500 found 17 different fake cell towers known as “interceptors” in the U.S. during July.

  According to Popular Science, these “interceptors” can trick cell phones into connecting and then eavesdrop on calls or texts, and add spyware to phones.

  “Interceptor use in the U.S. is much higher than people had anticipated,” Goldsmith told Popular Science. “One of our customers took a road trip from Florida to North Carolina and he found 8 different interceptors on that trip. We even found one at South Point Casino in Las Vegas.”

• Don’t excuse NSA’s wrongdoing [Letter]

  Gary Sullivan’s commentary defending the actions of the National Security Agency is full of faulty arguments (“Too much of a good thing,” Aug. 27). First of all, the Fourth Amendment is the law and was established at the time of this country’s founding. No one needs to “get out and vote” in order to be protected by it from government spying.

• NSA Docs Reveal US Hand In Tracking And Killing Kurdish Separatists

  Turkish government is ‘both partner and target’ for US spying, Der Spiegel and Intercept jointly report.

• NSA Provided Turkey With Intelligence To Kill Kurdish Rebels

• Remember Iraq? Former US intel officers warn Merkel against NATO images of Ukraine

• Has the U.S. Targeted Nuclear-Armed Russia with Regime Change?

  In 1957, the U.S. and British governments planned regime change in Syria … because it was drifting too close to the Soviet Union.

  20 years ago, influential U.S. government officials decided to effect regime change throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The countries targeted were “old Soviet regimes”.

• Ex US Intel Warn Merkel: Careful with Kiev & NATO’s Dubious ‘Evidence’ on Russia

  Alarmed at the anti-Russian hysteria sweeping Washington, and the specter of a new Cold War, U.S. intelligence veterans one of whom is none other than William Binney, the former senior NSA crypto-mathematician who back in March 2012 blew the whistle on the NSA’s spying programs more than a year before Edward Snowden, took the unusual step of sending the following memo dated August 30 to German Chancellor Merkel challenging the reliability of Ukrainian and U.S. media claims about a Russian “invasion.”

• Group of Former US Intel Officials Urge Merkel to Reject Politicized Intelligence

  A group of former U.S. Intelligence officials including William Binny, the first whistleblower to report on the NSA’s mass surveillance, has sent an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, warning her of the risks of Ukrainian NATO membership and of the dangers of faulty intelligence resulting in an escalation of the conflict, as published on the website Antiwar.org

• EU Taking Harder Look At $19B Facebook-WhatsApp Deal

  There’s also the more general underlying concern about US tech companies’ dominance of European consumer services, against the backdrop of the NSA spying scandal. All these things could mean mean a rocky road ahead for the $19 billion deal. The US Federal Trade Commission approved the acquisition earlier this year with some privacy caveats and warnings.

• US refuses to comment on alleged spying on Turkey

  The United States government has refused to respond to claims that it spied on Turkey made based on documents from the archive of US whistleblower Edward Snowden seen by German magazine Der Spiegel.

• Why We Should Encrypt Everyone’s Email

  Ladar Levison is the owner of the encrypted email startup Lavabit. After Edward Snowden’s NSA document leaks last summer, Levison rebuffed government demands to hand over the email service’s private encryption keys—opting to shut it down instead. He spoke with Popular Mechanics about his new project Dark Mail, online privacy, and how encrypting our email helps disassemble today’s unconstitutional surveillance networks.

Civil Rights

• Government vs. Constitution

  The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups recently filed a lawsuit accusing the federal government of, among other lapses, denying due process to mothers with children detained at the border and interfering with their efforts to get legal advice to guide them in appearances before immigration judges.

• Saudi Arabia beheads 3 Syrian drug traffickers

  Three Syrians convicted of drug trafficking were executed by the sword in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the interior ministry announced.

• A Shared Culture of Conflict of Interest

  Elite media don’t see Human Rights Watch’s closeness to power as a problem

  [...]

  Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth arrived at the function, which also hosted the leaders of Microsoft, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, JP-Morgan Chase and Disney. (The administration also aimed to “press China to open its markets to goods made by American companies,” reported the Times.)

• Ferguson Debacle Results In Armored Vehicles Being Removed From Two California Police Departments

  Today’s militarized policeman often feels naked without the protection of mine-resistant vehicles, despite very little evidence that such vehicles are necessary to handle the deadly (or is it?) rigors of police work. Citizens, however, aren’t so sure they like seeing their law enforcement officers rolling out like they’re keeping the peace in the middle of Baghdad.

• Citing unsettling Ferguson images, Davis to return armored vehicle

  Davis, Calif., city officials have directed the police department to return a surplus U.S. military armored vehicle to the federal government after residents, citing images seen during protests in Ferguson, Mo., expressed fears of militarization.

• Digby on Tasers, Guns and the Next Wave of Police Militarization

  Ten days after a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, killed Michael Brown another young African-American man was shot dead a few miles away in St. Louis.

  The circumstances around the death of Kajieme Powell were markedly different from those in Ferguson. Powell, who may have suffered from mental health issues, had a knife, and shouted, “Shoot me now… kill me now,” at responding officers.

• House Democrats To Obama: ‘Secret Law Is A Threat To Democracy’

  Joining forces with a group of privacy organizations and former White House officials, four House Democrats sent a letter to President Barack Obama over the weekend urging him to declassify all legal opinions and interpretations involving a controversial executive order used to justify government surveillance.

• Obama Faces Calls to Reform Reagan-Era Mass Surveillance Order

• ‘Secret law is a threat to democracy,’ Dems warn in letter to Obama

• Why the Deep State always Wins

  Against this backdrop it’s no wonder that recent developments in the Ukraine have been known to cause night terrors. Your author can vouch for this. Last week there was an earthquake in the Bay Area and at the outset I woke up mistaking it for a shock wave from sub-megaton warhead hitting Silicon Valley.

  One could posit that what’s happening in Eastern Europe offers a look-see into the nature of the groups that are calling the shots in the United States. Do they care that their destabilization program in Ukraine provokes a nuclear-armed country or enables neo-Nazis to assume vital positions in government?3 So far almost 2,600 civilians have been killed in the ongoing humanitarian crisis.4 While the corporate press does its best to create the impression of a “shining city upon a hill” which aims to “spread democracy” and conduct “humanitarian intervention,”5 a different sort of world power is clearly visible to those who look carefully.

• Senate Torture Report Will Be Public in 2 to 4 Weeks, Says Feinstein

  Senate intelligence committee chair Dianne Feinstein expects the executive summary of her staff’s long-awaited report on the torture of American detainees to be ready for public release before the end of September, she said in an unaired segment of her “Meet the Press” interview this weekend (starts at 10:25 of the video).

  The torture report, which was five years in the making, was sent to the White House for declassification in April. But the exhaustive redactions that Obama administration officials sent back in early August included such things as the elimination of pseudonyms, apparently to make the report too confusing to follow, and the blacking out of copious supporting evidence, such as proof that information derived from torture actually came from other intelligence sources.

• Nerves fray over timing of CIA interrogation report’s release

• US military lawyer resigns from Army over Guantanamo show trial

  On August 26, Wright, a US military lawyer also resigned from the Army in protest at what he called the “show trial” of Mohammed being held by the US at Guantanamo Bay. Wright also accused the US of not providing due process and of “abhorrent leadership” on human rights at the Guantanamo facility.

  Wright has been in the US army since 2005 and served over a year in Iraq. He has been on Mohammed’s defense team for three years. Wright resigned after he was given a choice between leaving the army and leaving the defense team in order to complete a graduate course so he would qualify for promotion from Captain to Major. Wright claims it would be unethical to follow the order.

• Army Lawyer for Alleged 9/11 Mastermind Resigns

  An Army lawyer assigned to defend Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at Guantanamo Bay has resigned his commission after being told he was being pulled from the case to attend a graduate program required for promotion.

  Maj. Jason Wright, one of a team of lawyers defending Mohammed, resigned Aug. 26 from the Army, National Public Radio and others have reported.

  Wright joined the Army in 2005, and for almost three years, he served on Mohammed’s defense team.

  The Army had instructed him to leave the team in order to complete the course. He refused, saying it would have been unethical for him to leave the team.

• There is no free pass for a free press

  New York Times reporter James Risen may soon have to decide whether to testify in a criminal trial or go to jail for contempt of court.

• Saudi Arabia faces big challenges

  The kingdom’s many critics argue that Saudi Arabia itself helped spread the toxic virus by bankrolling Islamist rebels and their extremist Salafist Muslim ideology.

• Angolan Solidarity Association Denounces Anti-Cuba Subversion

  The Angola-Cuba Friendship Association (ASAC) today denounced the U.S. government”s plans to promote subversion and destabilize the revolutionary process in Cuba.

• Did Brennan dodge a bullet?

  CIA Director John Brennan might have dodged a bullet over his agency’s potentially unconstitutional snooping on the Senate, but critics insist his reprieve is only temporary.

  Calls for the spy leader to resign after the CIA admitted that officials spied on the Senate have lost steam in recent weeks, since lawmakers left town for a five-week summer recess.

  November’s midterm elections and crises from Syria to Ukraine could distract Congress from forcing the director to offer a public mea culpa in the short term.

• Need to rein in CIA

  Dysfunction in Congress can damage the country in many ways, but none may be as serious as a failure to fill its role in the system of checks and balances set up by the U.S. Constitution. When Congress heads back to Washington after the August recess, members of the Senate face a serious test on whether they can assert control over the U.S. intelligence agencies.

• United States’ shameful behavior: Suppresses release of torture photographs

  Under the Protected National Security Document Act, enacted by the Obama administration in 2009 to cover the period September 2001 through January 2009, the United States Government has prohibited the release of photographs depicting ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ – Torture – administered on enemy combatants taken into custody abroad by the U.S. military and/or its allied forces.

• The CIA Spies on the U.S. Senate – is no one safe from spying?

  The CIA’s admission that they lied for several months when accused of doing what they did, as well as their apology to the senators to whom they had spied on, does not make their actions acceptable.

• David Sarasohn: Senate has had enough of CIA snooping

  Unlike his close ally in pursuing intelligence abuses, Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, Ron Wyden has not yet called for CIA Director John Brennan to quit or be fired. But speaking about the agency in Oregon this month, the senior senator from Oregon used the D.C. magic words: