• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Linux Foundation: Linux job market has grown 80 percent

The Linux Foundation says that the market for Linux-related jobs has grown 80 percent over the past five years. In response to this trend, the foundation is launching a Linux job board to help connect employers with potential candidates for Linux-related jobs.

Linux Foundation helps Linux job hunters

Linux.com Launches New Jobs Board

Geek Squad Finally Replaces My Linux-Infested Laptop

An anonymous Best Buy customer told us in December that the Geek Squad refused to honor his extended warranty on his laptop because he had installed (horrors!) Linux.

Linux on the repaired Laptop

I have been busy installing an operating system to the repaired Laptop.

Firstly I went with Ubuntu as I already had that installed to an external harddrive and could just boot it up but it needed about 2 days of upgrades added to it.
The 2 days were for the amount of downloads needed.
I upgraded and left it overnight only to find my installation was scuppered next morning.

[...]

I think you need to be prepared to look through forum posts to get the most from Linux as it is a learning curve but once you have your internet set up looking how you want, a few handy programmes, one or two small games and have personalised your desktop, it is very satisfying and ofcourse, free.

Becoming a Geek Super Hero by Evolving from “Thinking Green” to “Acting Green”

So now we have an older computer that, if formatted with a less process intensive operating system, can last 2-3 more years. We have access to Ubuntu Linux as a free download with installation guides. We have the comprehensive OpenOffice application that will let users perform office functions like a professional. What do we do now? Obviously, the standard computer user cannot install and configure an operating system they have never even heard of, much less used. This is where a geek becomes a super hero. The equation is an easy one:

Old Computer + Ubuntu Linux + OpenOffice + Geek Super-Hero = A Win for the Environment and the Less Fortunate

Some things in Linux are hard. Get over it!

To accomplish any task in Linux can be hard if you don’t know how to do it. Anything is hard to do the first time unless you are an absolute genius.

The Linux Link Tech Show Episode 336 [OGG]

Kernel Space

• The best Linux file system of all?

  The newest member of the Ext file system, Ext4, became an official part of Linux last year with the release of the Linux 2.6.28 kernel. Since then, it’s become the default file system in some popular Linux distributions such as Fedora, and it’s now available on all distributions.

  Ext4 enables faster disk performance and better drive space management than its predecessors. While it also includes journaling, you can turn that off for a modest speed boost. I’m sure Google was also interested in it because even without disabling journaling, Ext4 is a very fast file system, and it supports file systems of up to 1 EB (exabyte) and up to 16 TB (terabyte)-sized files.

• LM_Sensors Gets A New Configuration Utility

  There hasn’t been a whole lot to report on in regards to LM_Sensors, the main sensor monitoring package and its kernel drivers for thermal/fan/voltage polling on Linux. It was nearly a year ago that LM_Sensors 3.1 was released, but since then we have run into plenty of new hardware (such as the ASRock ION 330HT-BD and ASUS Eee PC 1201N) that is not yet supported by drivers for LM_Sensors. While this does not improve the hardware support, a new sensor configuration utility has been unveiled for LM_Sensors.

Applications

• Screencasting Under Linux–A brief Story

  As is often the case, one purchase often begets another. So, on to buy a decent, but relatively inexpensive condensor mike (after shelling out too many $$$ on the mixer). I end up purchasing an MXL 990 condenser microphone with a shock mount for $49.00US. Then a proLine desktop mic stand, model MS112 ($29.99US). Finally, I purchase assorted cables and adapters.

• Testing OpenShot Video Editor

  Currently, Ubuntu developers are planning to ship Ubuntu 10.04 with PiTiVi, a different editor. I wouldn’t bet any money on this decision changing before April, but I’ve read good things about OpenShot and thought it would be worth a try, even if won’t be included in Lucid by default.

  I should also make clear that I’m no video-editing professional. The extent of my work in this realm has mostly been limited to stringing clips together in Windows Movie Maker back when I was still using XP.

  [...]

  Overall, OpenShot is a highly usable and stable application for basic video editing. I’ve yet to try PiTiVi to see how it measures up, but hope to do so in the near future.

• Bangarang 1.0 “The Basics” released

  So, after a couple weeks break, it’ll be on to a new feature cycle! I already have some ideas for what new features to work on, but if you have more ideas feel free to pipe up. I won’t be able to commit to adding any and everything thrown my way, but who knows, something might pop up that wasn’t on my radar. I’ll put up a target feature list on the gitorious wiki when I’ve narrowed them down to something manageable. (There will be periodic 1.0.x releases containing bug fixes and translation updates till the next feature release.)

  Till then, I hope you like Bangarang 1.0!

• 5 powerful open source applications for businesses

  A significant part of the IT expense of most businesses comprises the cost of acquiring and running enterprise applications. Would it not be better to have the same applications your business relies on at a much reduced cost but with higher productivity? Read on to find out 5 powerful open source enterprise applications you could try in your business establishment today.

• Instructionals

  • Linux how to: Accessing documentation

  • Linux 101 Hacks eBook Goes Online – HTML Version

  • How to disable DVD and enable the Mandriva online repositories| Mandriva2010

  • Enable Tab/up/down functional key in new user’s terminal

  • Fedora 12: Configuring it like I like it.

  • How to Run Enlightenment (E17) On Ubuntu Karmic

  • A big thumbs up: Stone Soup

  • Restoring GRUB through PCLinuxOS LiveCD

  • Ubuntu Boxee and get_iplayer on the Acer Aspire Revo

  • Instruct your users or manage your classroom with iTALC

  • Manual or Docs – Does it matter?

  • How to receive files via Bluetooth using Blueman

  • Automatic sysLogs Report To Email

  • Multiple wallpapers in Compiz

  • Tech Tip: Dereference Variable Names Inside Bash Functions

Desktop Environments

• Flexible for a Fluxbox? – Lightweight X Window Manager for UNIX / Linux

  One of the many great things about using UNIX or a UNIX-like operating system is the ability to tailor your environment to your liking. If you want a full-fledged GUI with all the bells and whistles then Gnome, KDE, or LXDE are probably for you.

  But, if you want something less resource intensive that offers a greater degree of control then Fluxbox Window Manager is what you’re looking for.

• K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)

  • KDE team removes support for underscore, starts enforcing STD3 from RFC1122

    Interestingly, the latest build of KDE 4 (4.3.90 aka 4.4 RC1) no longer supports the underscore character in host names.

• GNOME Desktop

  • GNOME 3 Myths

    This page hopes to dispel myths about the upcoming GNOME 3 release, currently scheduled for September, 2010.

  • GNOME Shell tryout.

    I’ve been using the GNOME Shell preview available in Fedora 12 this week and I’m really enjoying it. I was testing out some candidates for updates to the free drivers for my ATI Radeon HD4850 (and the stuff that went with them) already, and decided to see what happened when I picked GNOME Shell. At F12 release time, my graphics card wasn’t quite ready for GNOME Shell use. But now I get the whole kit and kaboodle!

  • Is GNOME Going To Duplicate The Efforts From Canonical?

    Gnome Shell recently introduced a new notification system. Sadly it seems like GNOME Shell is going to duplicate a lot of the efforts from Canonical. Besides the notification system the application indicators also have similarities.

  • The ChoKolate Linux Desktop

    Reader naaamo2004’s Linux desktop sports a chocolate-coloured theme that is slick, polished and beautiful, with an impressive Firefox theme to match.

Distributions

• Parted Magic – a nice touch

  I’ve been using Parted Magic to work on my disks, and after recently replacing my old 1.x live Parted Magic CD with 4.6, I’m enjoying the little things that PM brings to the project.

  For instance, when you turn networking on with DHCP and the DHCP server to which you’re connecting doesn’t transmit nameserver info, Parted Magic uses OpenDNS to supply you with DNS lookup so you can actually use the Internet while in the live environment.

• New Releases

  • Number Crunching with Pelican HPC 2.0

    Pelican HPC, a Live distro for High Performance Computing (HPC), is now available in version 2.0 with updated software.

• Debian Family

  • Back Home, with Debian!

    By the end of 2004, I’d been running Debian ‘testing’ on my laptop since around early 2003. For almost two years, I’d lived with periodic instability — including a week in the spring of 2003 when I couldn’t even get X11 started — for the sake of using a distribution that maximally respected software freedom.

    [...]

    Twelve days in, I am very impressed. Really, all the things I liked about Ubuntu are now available upstream as well. This isn’t the distribution I left in 2004; it’s much better, all while being truly community-oriented and software-freedom-respecting. It’s good to be home. Thank you, Debian developers.

  • Five Essential Ubuntu Features

    But having been an Ubuntu user for several years, I don’t think I could ever go back to Windows and be happy. As for OS X, I’m too frightened away by Apple’s high prices and obsession with controlling users to consider that route.

  • Canonical releases Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2

    The Ubuntu developers have announced the availability of the second alpha release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, code named “Lucid Lynx”. The latest development milestone is the second of three planned alpha releases, which will be followed by two beta releases and then a release candidate.

  • Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 Has Plymouth

    A few minutes ago, the Ubuntu development team unleashed the second alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system, due for release in late April this year. As usual, we’ve downloaded a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS development.

  • Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 Removes HAL

    “HAL” unfortunately isn’t the heinous supercomputer from Kubrick’s film 2001, but Ubuntu’s Hardware Abstraction Layer between Ubuntu’s hardware and software. It has now disappeared entirely from the current Ubuntu 10.04 test version, it’s function being taken over among other things by DeviceKit. The advantage to this, according to the official announcement, is that Ubuntu has a faster boot and startup from hibernate time.

  • Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 Benchmarks With Early Fedora 13 Numbers

    Overall, there are both good and bad performance improvements for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 in relation to Ubuntu 9.10. Most of the negative regressions are attributed to the EXT4 file-system losing some of its performance charm. With using a pre-alpha snapshot of Fedora 13 and the benchmark results just being provided for reference purposes, we will hold off on looking into greater detail at this next Red Hat Linux update until it matures. You can run your own tests though if you wish using our open-source Phoronix Test Suite benchmarking platform.

  • Ubuntu primes music service

    Ubuntu Linux will likely include an iTunes-like music service in its next release.

    Although it is not yet official, Ubuntu’s next release looks likely to include a music store service similar to Apple’s iTunes.

  • New Leader for the Ubuntu Women Project

    Finally, appointment of a team leader is an unusual request for a team to make to the Community Council, but as a team we found ourselves in the unique position of being a four+ year old team that never had a formal leader and having largely been organically grown with no formal “membership ranks” or process for voting for a leader. A huge thanks to my fellow Community Council members for their consideration and support during this process.

  • Reviewed: Linux Mint 8

    Our verdict: One of the best examples of what can be done standing on the shoulders of giants. 9/10

Devices/Embedded

• OpenWrt Kamikaze 8.09.2 for network routers

  OpenWrt Kamikaze 8.09.2 is released. This is a Linux distribution for network routers, like the Linksys WRT54G, or the Asus WL-500g and a lot of other routers. This distribution adds a lot of new functionality to routers, like improved ipv6 functionality.

• Magnify the Motorola Droid

  This YouTube video chronicles some experiments I did using a low-cost Fresnel lens and a homemade cardboard container. My goal in this experiment was to find a way for people to comfortably and portably view the outstanding Inkscape screencasts by Richard Querin and HeathenX which they generously distribute for free. Inkscape is a free vector drawing program that is equivalent to Adobe Illustrator. It runs on all major platforms: Linux, Macintosh and Windows. Here is why I love Inkscape and why you’ll love this program, too. (Thanks, TogrutaJedi)

Jordan to Become the Open Source Hub of the Middle East

The Jordanian Government announced the first ever agreement between an international company and a government to promote open source adoption.

Jordan’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and Ingres Corporation have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to achieve the widespread use of information technology and communication, particularly open source technology from Ingres, throughout the local software infrastructure in the country.

A capitalist’s guide to open source licensing

Matt’s statement suggests, and he confirmed in a follow-up, that it is harder to build a community with a restrictive license. The obvious argument against that statement is the number of community projects based around GPL code: the Linux kernel, the GNU project, Samba, Drupal, Gnome, and KDE for example.

Clearly the GPL does not prevent vibrant community development projects. The important point about those projects is that they are the result of true development communities, however, rather than a vendor-initiated effort to create a community.

Questions to ask about open source projects

# Is it good code and is it well architected?
# Who are the founders, contributors, and users?
# What are the motivations and behavior of each?
# What is the form and governance of the community?

The 9 most important events in Open Source history

1983 – Richard Stallman starts the GNU Project

Started by Richard Stallman in 1983, the GNU Project is a mass collaboration project for open and free software that has flourished even to this day. Stallman followed up the GNU Project with the creation of the Free Software Foundation in 1985 to further support the free software community.

The GNU Project has resulted in a huge amount of open source software over time and gave birth to the GNU General Public License (GPL), arguably the most popular open source license model out there. And when the Linux kernel arrived, GNU software made it into a complete OS.

Bringing contestability back to the public sector desktop

For the last few months, the Open Source Society has been facilitating a project called the Public Sector Remix. This involves a number of public sector agencies investigating use of a free software stack on the desktop and understanding the barriers preventing its more widespread adoption. As the project has run out of money, my involvement is at an end, so it’s a good time to reflect on what the project has achieved so far.

Sun

• OpenOffice.org

  • OpenOffice.org Thumbnail plugin 1.0 released

    The new version 1.0 from OpenOffice.org Thumbnail plugin has been released. OpenOffice.org Thumbnail plugin is a plugin for KDE file managers (Dolphin and Konqueror) to preview OpenOffice.org files (Open Document Format) as Thumbnails. You do not need to install OpenOffice.org for it to work (it only uses KDE API).

  • Open Norway: Norwegian Broadcasting Moves to OpenOffice and ODF

    Norway’s national broadcasting and TV facility NRK is intent on using the Open Document Format as a standard and is therefore changing its clients over to OpenOffice.

    Norway appreciates free standards. After the government a year ago recommended Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and Ogg Theora next to their commercial alternatives MP3 and H.264 as standards for audio and video files, this year it focuses on ODF as the standard document format. According to the governmnent’s Reference Catalog for IT Standards, the recommendation should become binding in January of 2011.

• Solaris

  • Open Solaris 2009.06 – Slowly getting there

    Open Solaris is getting better and more refined by the release, there’s no doubt about that. Small problems are gradually yet persistently solved. This is extremely encouraging.

    On the other hand, compared to most Linux distros, Open Solaris is still about 2-3 years behind when it comes to usability and hardware support. More programs would be nice, as well as the ability to solve common desktop usage problems more easily. 64-bit architecture would also be great, considering the fact Sun pioneered the 64-bit usage.

Mozilla

• Make Firefox a Productivity Powerhouse

  Like most folks these days, I practically live in my Web browser. After completing the Week in the Life of a Browser Test Pilot project last week, I found that I spent more than 45 hours using Firefox actively in the span of seven days. And that includes the weekend, when I didn’t touch my primary workstation (where the test ran) at all.

  When spending that much time in a program, you want to use it as effectively as possible! Here’s how I make Firefox work for me.

• Firefox 3.7 dumped in favour of feature updates

  Mozilla has dumped Firefox 3.7 from the release schedule, replacing it with regular features updates for version 3.6 of the browser.

• Firefox 3.7 dropped from Schedule, next release is Firefox 4.0

  Firefox has made changes to the way it develops the world’s most popular browser. Instead of providing incremental updates after every few days, for a change the guys at Firefox have decided to release the next stable release of Firefox as a major release, not a minor one.

• Mozilla Drops Firefox 3.7, Switches to More Frequent Feature Updates

  If you’ve been following the development of Firefox, you know that Mozilla separates security updates, which usually happen every couple of weeks, from feature updates, which are usually separated by months.

Openness

• Obama Administration Considers More Public Access To Publicly Funded Research

  The good news is that it looks like the Obama administration is looking to go in the other direction. The EFF points us to the news that the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is looking at ways to have this requirement go beyond just NIH and require public access for all federally funded research, including from organizations like the National Science Foundation (NSF). OSTP is asking for comments and input on the idea — and it’s an idea that makes a ton of sense. It seems likely that journal publishers will protest, but hopefully common sense will prevail and federally funded research will become open, accessible and available to everyone.

Standards/Consortia

• Vote for HTML5 open video (WE DID IT!)

  WE DID IT! Thanks everyone!!!

  http://productideas.appspot.com/#8/e=3d60a

  Official response:

  We’ve heard a lot of feedback around supporting HTML5 and are working hard to meet your request, so stay tuned. We’ll be following up when we have more information. We’re answering this idea now because there are so many similar HTML5 ideas and we want to give other ideas a chance to be seen.

  [...]

  YouTube Team

  Party time!

• The opposite of “open” is “theirs”

  As part of FCC’s Open Internet tour, I got invited into one of the many group meetings the FCC has been holding, along with Nicholas Reville of Miro and Cara Lisa Powers of PressPassTV.org.

  Nicholas talked about how difficult it would be for Miro to attract video producers if they had to worry that carriers might block or slow their traffic. Why not instead go to one of the Big Brands that can afford to pay the tariff? Miro — an innovative, public-spirited non-profit — would be unable to compete.

Millions of doses of swine flu vaccine to be off-loaded

What do you do with vaccine that no-one needs?

That is the question currently puzzling the Department of Health. Back in May the government signed contracts with two suppliers – GSK and Baxter – to supply 90 million doses of H1N1 pandemic vaccine.

EA’s Miss

For anyone paying attention to the larger trends in the video game market, this could hardly have come as a surprise. A few days ago, Gamestop, a key packaged goods distributor for EA, announced a similar miss. While Activision was setting sales records with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, EA had no major hits — although, in fairness the COD:MW2 revenue was probably just filling in a sinkhole at Activision created by a music game business that has fallen off a cliff. EA is in the wrong business, with the wrong cost structure and the wrong team, but somehow they seem to think that it is going to be a smooth, two-year transition from packaged goods to digital. Think again.

Security

• Mass Gathering in defence of street photography

  I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! invite all Photographers to a mass photo gathering in defence of street photography.

• Couple Claims That Merely Talking About A Photo Is Copyright Infringement

• Secret Police

  Civil libertarians hoped that the Obama era would see a renewed commitment to privacy protections. But their dreams are being dashed. Congress seems likely to recess without adjusting aspects of the Patriot Act set to expire at the end of the year, which means that the existing law will be temporarily extended. Elements up for reconsideration include roving wiretaps in foreign intelligence investigations that are not targeted to a specific communication mode or person and “section 215” ability to seize business or other records in a presumptive terror investigation.

  Different bills to reform these and other powers have come out of the Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate. The House version is slightly better in terms of demands it makes on law enforcement and intelligence agencies to have defensible reasons for their searches and seizures. But the controversial provisions will survive, even if slightly circumscribed.

• Groups seek to challenge US gov’t on seized laptops

  The policy of random laptop searches and seizures by U.S. government agents at border crossings is under attack again, with a pair of civil rights groups seeking potential plaintiffs for a lawsuit that challenges the practice.

  [...]

  Last year, a document surfaced on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Web site that authorized U.S. agents to seize and retain laptops indefinitely. Government agents belonging to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is a part of DHS, were also authorized to seize electronic devices including portable media players and cell phones and inspect documents in them.

• TSA fails to detect gun at Montana airport – may be replaced by private firm

  Stories of poor TSA security screenings are not new – several days ago we wrote about a man who passed through a Milwaukee checkpoint with shotgun shells. In this “TSA screw-up of the day”, we head to Gallatin Field, serving Bozeman, Montana.

• Dutch inquiry says Iraq war had no mandate

  An inquiry into the Netherlands’ support for the invasion of Iraq says it was not justified by UN resolutions.

  The Dutch Committee of Inquiry on Iraq said UN Security Council resolutions did not “constitute a mandate for… intervention in 2003″.

• Alastair Campbell had Iraq dossier changed to fit US claims

  ‘WMD in a year’ allegation halved original timescale after compilers told to compare contents with Bush speech

• Chilcot inquiry casts new doubts on Iraq war

  Blair was determined to disarm Saddam, Campbell said. Blair’s message to the US in April 2002 was he would try to do it through UN resolutions. ­However, “if the only way is regime change through military action then the British government will support the American government”, Campbell said, describing Blair’s view.

Environment

• Green phone runs on sugar

  A CONCEPT PHONE being designed for Nokia has the battery replaced with an injection of sugar.

• Climate change puts ecosystems on the run

  Global warming is causing climate belts to shift toward the poles and to higher elevations. To keep pace with these changes, the average ecosystem will need to shift about a quarter mile each year, says a new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University and at the University of California, Berkeley.

  For some habitats, such as low-lying areas, climate belts are moving even faster, putting many species in jeopardy, especially where human development has blocked migration paths.

• Methane release ‘looks stronger’

  Scientists have uncovered what appears to be a further dramatic increase in the leakage of methane gas that is seeping from the Arctic seabed.

• Do Seed Companies Control GM Crop Research?

  Advances in agricultural technology—including, but not limited to, the genetic modification of food crops—have made fields more productive than ever. Farmers grow more crops and feed more people using less land. They are able to use fewer pesticides and to reduce the amount of tilling that leads to erosion. And within the next two years, agritech com­panies plan to introduce advanced crops that are designed to survive heat waves and droughts, resilient characteristics that will become increasingly important in a world marked by a changing climate.

  Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify that genetically modified crops perform as advertised. That is because agritech companies have given themselves veto power over the work of independent researchers.

• Irrational fears give nuclear power a bad name, says Oxford scientist

  The health dangers from nuclear radiation have been oversold, stopping governments from fully exploiting nuclear power as a weapon against climate change, argues a professor of physics at Oxford University.

• Civilization Collapsed After Cutting Key Trees

  The ancient Nazca people, who once flourished in the valleys of south coastal Peru, literally fell with the trees they chopped down, new research has concluded.

  The Nazca caused their own collapse when they cleared their forests in order to make way for agriculture, thus exposing the landscape to wind and flood erosion, according to a study published in the journal Latin American Antiquity.

Finance

• Iceland president vetoes collapsed Icesave Bank’s bill to UK

  Iceland was plunged back into crisis after its president refused to sign a bill promising to repay more than €3.8bn (£3.4bn) to Britain and the Netherlands after the collapse of the country’s Icesave bank in 2008.

• Dylan Ratigan (MSNBC) On FCIC Hearings and Comments on Goldman Sachs – Update 2

  Let’s sum it up. There was massive fraud and criminal activity for self enrichment led by the very people that are testified at the FCIC hearings. Leading the cartel and earnging the most amount of money over the past three years was Lloyd Blankfein.

• Goldman CEO Supports Fiduciary Standard

  Blankfein faced tough questioning during the hearing from former California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who heads the commission. Angelides, at one point, asked Blankfein whether a practice of betting against some of the subprime mortgage securities Goldman was selling to investors was a conflict of interest.

  He replied that Goldman didn’t have a legal obligation to disclose when it was betting against the securities it was selling.
  “We are not a fiduciary,” he said.

• The Great Bank Robbery Conspiracy Paulson Bernanke Geithner Goldman Sachs Bankers Steal Your Money Bank Hearings Video Summary

  A simple brief summary of the financial and banking crisis explained for the lay person:

  1. US Government encourages an unprecedented build up of private sector debt by promoting asset price bubbles in residential and commercial real estate thru artificially low interest rates and reduced Capital Requirements. US Government underwrites loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

  2. Banking Industry creates complicated security bond investments (CDO) to spread the risk of default on the loans to multiple parties. Essentially the US Government, thru the Wall Street Banks, provided the credit for the loans and then packaged the loans into Bonds to be sold to other institutions sold worldwide such as Hedge Funds, Pension Plans, Governments, and other large Financial Institutions.

  3. Banks then created Insurance to protect against a drop in value of these bonds called Credit Default Swaps (CDS). These unregulated Insurance Policies were bought by varies institutions that held the bonds to protect them in case the bonds dropped in value.

  4. SEC ignores risks building in system.

  5. Ben Bernanke is named Federal Reserve Chairman in October 2005.

  6. Hank Paulson resigns from Goldman Sachs and is named US Treasury Secretary in July 2006.

Healthcare

• Barack Obama attacked by Democrat rebel over US healthcare reforms

  Former presidential hopeful Howard Dean leads leftwing attack on Barack Obama’s ‘abandoned’ election pledges

• Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance

  Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year — one every 12 minutes — in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.

Censorship/Civil Rights

• Will this post get me disbarred?

  The Florida Bar has a new attorney advertising rule that aggressively regulates attorney speech on the Internet. Florida Bar Rule 4-7.6 Indeed, the new rule regulates attorney speech so aggressively that it might even apply to this blog post. Until recently, the Florida Bar considered all attorney websites and web communications as information provided upon the request of a prospective client and did not apply its attorney advertising rules to them. But now the Florida Bar has extended its substantive advertising rules except for its filing requirement to all “Computer-Accessed Communications” by Florida attorneys.

• Timeline: China and net censorship

  As Google considers withdrawing from China, the BBC looks at the highs and lows of internet access and freedom in the most populous country in the world.

Internet/Web Abuse/DRM

• Google, Verizon Team Up on Net Neutrality

  More comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) proposed net neutrality rules rolled in before the midnight deadline Thursday night, and while there were no major surprises from companies like Comcast and groups like the Open Internet Coalition, Google and Verizon once again joined forces to submit a filing that outlined the points on which they agree.

• Universities avoid Kindle over accessibility barriers

  Three US universities have agreed not to use Amazon’s e-book reader the Kindle until it is easily usable by blind people. A fourth settled a complaint from blind people’s advocacy groups by saying that it will strive to use accessible devices in future.

Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

• Skype tells the FCC to require net neutrality.

  VOICE OVER IP AND CHAT OUTFIT Skype has been pressing its case in favour of net neutrality to the US Federal Communications Commision (FCC).

  Skype, which is based on its own proprietary technology, depends on net neutrality to survive. If the telcos and some ISPs get their way, Skype punters will probably be identified as filesharers and get throttled to within an inch of their lives.

  Skype told the FCC that net neutrality was “about growing the broadband ecosystem and preserving a borderless, open Internet” and that it would “promote investment, jobs and innovation.”

• Secret copyright treaty debated in DC: must-see video

  Two recurring points that Metalitz raised were that the secrecy in the treaty was a requirement of foreign negotiating partners, and the US’s hands were tied; and that the treaty wouldn’t require any of the “advanced” nations to change their law (he repeated the oft-heard unfounded slur that Canada is a rogue nation when it comes to copyright law).

  Both of these points are simply wrong. The country demanding that ACTA be kept secret is the good old US of A, whose strategy for this is being driven by former entertainment industry lawyers who have found new homes as senior officials in the Obama government (the Democrats are terrible on copyright, sadly — we can thank Bill Clinton for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act). These lawyers are Metalitz’s old pals, his colleagues in the decades he’s spent winning special privileges and public subsidy for his rich clients.

• RIAA: Net neutrality shouldn’t inhibit antipiracy

  The lobbying group for the top four recording companies wants to make sure that when regulations on Net neutrality are adopted, they don’t impede antipiracy efforts.

  That’s why the Recording Industry Association of America on Thursday asked the Federal Communications Commission to “adopt flexible rules” that free Internet service providers to fight copyright theft.

• OiNK Admin: Not Guilty

  We were just explaining why it appeared that Alan Ellis, the admin for OiNK had not actually violated any UK laws, and it looks like the jury agreed. Ellis has been found not guilty. I have to admit that I’m really surprised by this, but it is certainly a good thing.

• Music file-sharer ‘Oink’ cleared of fraud

  A man who ran a music-sharing website with almost 200,000 members has been found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Teesside Crown Court.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

On Pi, Paper Penguins and FOSS’ Regal Potential

“M$ is already beginning to compete on price with the netbooks and XP,” he told LinuxInsider. “In another year or two they will be competing on price for any PC, and their prices and share of units sold will be drastically reduced.”

The share of GNU/Linux reached the tipping point in 2009, Pogson asserted.

“The avalanche has started to move slowly down the mountain, and it will pick up speed by the end of 2010 with thin clients and netbooks/smartbooks taking over the landscape,” he predicted. “M$ has made a billion dollars a quarter less than is their ‘natural right of a monopolist’ in the client lately. Let us watch that continue as GNU/Linux grows share.”

World’s Smallest Linux Computer and Linux Networking Server (pics)

Do u know which is the worlds smallest Linux computer? Its the picotux 100 !! As of yet,the picotux 100 is the world’s smallest Linux computer, only slightly larger (35mm×19mm×19mm) than an RJ45 connector.

Ubuntu Surprises at Lotusphere 2010?

The major Linux distribution providers — Red Hat, Novell and Canonical — are preparing to attend IBM’s Lotusphere 2010 conference (Orlando, January 17-21).

Canonical, IBM: Ubuntu Will Counter Windows 7 At Lotusphere

Once again, The VAR Guy’s sources were right. Canonical, as our resident blogger expected, is set to announce some Ubuntu news at IBM’s Lotusphere conference in Orlando the week of January 18. The effort — which includes channel partners — will involve Canonical countering Microsoft’s Windows 7 push.

Server

• Google Switching To EXT4 Filesystem

  An anonymous reader writes “Google is in the process of upgrading their existing EXT2 filesystem to the new and improved EXT4 filesystem. Google has benchmarked three different filesystems — XFS, EXT4 and JFS. In their benchmarking, EXT4 and XFS performed equally well. However, in view of the easier upgrade path from EXT2 to EXT4, Google has decided to go ahead with EXT4.”

• Sleepless Nights on Wall Street, Nightmares on Main Street

  In a day’s worth of testimony, no one took issue with this happy scenario presented by the grateful bankers until Julia Gordon, a housing expert from the Center for Responsive Lending, took the stand and dove straight in.

  “The bankers touched upon their sleepless nights at the height of the crisis. Today, 6.5 million American are suffering sleepless nights, every night, wondering if they will have a home tomorrow.” And it is not over: “our data shows that by the end of 2014, 13 million Americans will lose their homes,” she said. Gordon testified that the banks were failing to modify loans at any meaningful rate and that they pursued modification procedures in parallel with foreclosure procedures. The result is that hopeful homeowners are often surprised at the door by sheriff’s deputies ready to kick them to the curb.

Kernel Space

• Linux Kernel 2.6.32.3 Stable Release

  The 3rd upgrade of Linux kernel version 2.6.32 has been released.

Applications

• Three calculators for the Linux desktop

  To many, geek = math && nerd = math. To others school = math && math = calculator. During my stint as a computer science major, the very idea of differential had me running scared back to my calculator. It was a must, and for many a symbol of intellect and power.

• Instructionals

  • Banish mouse pointer on emacs

    In ratpoison and stumpwm, there’s a ‘banish’ command that exiles the mouse pointer to a corner of the screen. It’s quite useful when you don’t want the mouse to distract you or clobber the text you are writing.

  • Install GNOME-Shell on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

  • Print Beautiful Custom Calendars in Linux With Photo Calendar

• Games

  • SuperGamer, 8GB of Linux-Only Gameplay

    Thankfully, I’m not the guy in charge of things worldwide, because the folks over at www.supergamer.org have created a bootable, dual-layer DVD full of native-running Linux games. Yes, I said native. Check out the impressive list of preinstalled games you’ll get when you download the ISO:

    * Quake Wars
    * Doom 3
    * Prey
    * Unreal Tournament
    * Quake 4

    [...]

Distributions

• New Releases

  • Elive 1.9.56 development released

    The Elive Team is proud to announce the release of the development version 1.9.56

    * 3G Phones: More than 300 new operators added
    * Internet Module: If you connect with a 3G phone, the configuration will be saved and you can set it to automatically connect at the boot
    * Icedove: When installing icedove, it contains by default a very nice elive-style looking template
    * Flash updated to 10.0.42.34

  • Clonezilla Live 1.2.3-24

  • Scientific Linux Fermi 4.8 is released

    Scientific Linux 4.8 has been released for both i386 and x86_64 architecture.

  • Webconverger 6.0

  • Frenzy 1.2 reincarnation (community release)

  • PelicanHPC GNU Linux 2.0

    * PelicanHPC v2.0 is available. Features:

    o based on Debian testing (squeeze) instead of stable (lenny). This means that most packages have newer versions. In particular, the kernel is at 2.6.30 and Open MPI is at 1.3.3.
    o has new MPI bindings for GNU Octave, developed mostly by R. Corradini, building off MPITB. The new MPI bindings allow use of Octave 3.2.x instead of 3.0.x, which gives some important performance gains. The new bindings are less complete than MPITB, but they provide all MPI calls used in the examples for GNU Octave. The Monte Carlo and kernel examples have been adapted to use these new bindings, the other examples of MPI usage within Octave still need to be updated.
    o Open MPI is now the only MPI implementation installed.
    o the Ganglia monitoring system is installed and pre-configured for up to 4 hosts. It is easy to add entries for larger clusters. Visit http://localhost/ganglia after having set up the cluster (pelican_setup). The ksysguard monitor is still available, too.

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat, Inc.: Warming Up or Cooling Off?

  • Djigzo, an Open Source Email Encryption Provider, Today Announced That the Company’s Encryption Gateway Now Supports Red Hat Linux

    Djigzo, an open source email encryption provider, today announced that the company’s email encryption gateway now supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

  • This Stock Loves the Recession

    Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) has never looked like a no-brainer winner among tech stocks, but its business story is getting better by the day.

    The latest? The CIO of the state of California, Teri Takai, last week said in a policy letter that using open-source software has been sanctioned as “acceptable practice.” Shocking, right? Open-source is typically cheaper than licensed software, and the Golden State faces a multibillion-dollar fiscal crisis. I’ll be surprised if more states don’t follow California’s lead.

Devices/Embedded

• ZTE accelerates Android handset release plan

  ZTE, a Chinese handset manufacturer with global ambitions, has brought forward the release of its first Android smartphone.

Office Suites

• New: OpenOffice.org 3.2.0 Release Candidate 2 (build OOO320_m9) available

  OpenOffice.org 3.2.0 Release Candidate 2 is now available on the download website.

• A Pivotal Moment for Microsoft Office

  It’s one thing to try software for free, it’s another to shell out the dough and buy it. New pricing reported in the InfoWorld article suggests they have come down quite a bit from previous years, but why pay anything if you can get the functionality you need for free or a very reasonable fee?

• User Experience Face2Face in Hamburg

  Last week Christoph Noack from the User Experience (UX) community took time out of his busy schedule to visit Hamburg and the Sun office for face to face (f2f) discussions on UX topics. Be sure to see his blog post on “day one” to hear what went on. Be watching for “day two” as well.

Databases

• Big Blue rides Schooner to MySQL boost

  As countless crafty upstarts have learned time and again in the IT racket, it’s tough to get a server vendor who makes a living peddling boxes to get excited about server appliances that get rid of banks of servers. But IBM has inked a deal with upstart Schooner Information Technology to resell its web-caching and MySQL-boosting appliances starting in early March.

GNU

• International Workshop on e-Health in Emerging Economies

  The workshop promotes Free Software as one of the main pillars for a sustainable framework for providing e-health and education for the developing and least developed countries.

  There will not be parallel conferences. All delegates will be able to assist and participate in the workshops that they find of interest. Communication among delegates is key.

  IWEEE is a non-profit event organized by the GNU SOLIDARIO association

Openness

• CES 2010: Open Source 3-D Printer Turns Designs Into Objects

  Wired.com checks out MakerBot’s Cupcake CNC 3-D Printer. Using PLA, ABS, or HDPE plastic, this open source, $950 kit allows the user to fabricate small objects of virtually any shape.

• Strengthen the Commons

  … The… current, interrelated crises in finance, the economy, nutrition, energy, and in the fundamental ecological systems of life … are sharpening our awareness of the existence and importance of the commons. Natural commons are necessary for our survival, social commons ensure social cohesion, and cultural commons enable us to evolve as individuals. It is imperative that we focus our personal creativity, talents and enthusiasm to protect and increase our social wealth and natural commons. This will required an eye on the goal to change some basic structures of politics, economics, and society.

Programming

• Popular Languages of 2009

  The TIOBE index for 2009 says that Google’s new Go programming language experienced more growth in popularity than any other language in 2009. The growth is quite remarkable given that the language became available late in the year. Is it all just hype? The Google brand certainly carries a lot of power and marketing capability with it. Based on TIOBE’s system, Go and Objective-C had the biggest gains in 2009 with Java taking a slight hit, but remaining at the top. TIOBE calculates its index based on search engine hits.

  Go – Because of it’s remarkable growth, Go was named “TIOBE’s Programming Language of the Year.” Go has been compared syntactically to Pascal, Python, and C. Although Go is a new language with its own share of critics, many people are interested in its concurrency capabilities and fast compilation. Erlang is another concurrent programming language that grew this year from 29 to 24. One thing’s for sure, Google’s Go is getting a lot of attention.

Rob Glaser: Pioneer Of Badware Leaves Real Networks

I was glad to see Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York university publish on Twitter: “Rob Glaser steps down as head of Real Networks, and story after story fails to note he ran one of the most invasive malware companies ever.”

Supreme Court Blocks Video Streaming of Prop 8 Trial

This afternoon, the Supreme Court put the final kibosh on video streaming of the Prop 8 trial to five federal courthouses around the nation. The Court stayed U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s order permitting the broadcast. The stay will remain in force for the foreseeable future, putting an end to the controversy for practical purposes. The Court did not address the recording and dissemination of the trial on YouTube, viewing it unnecessary because Judge Alex Kozinski, the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit, had not approved Judge Walker’s decision to allow Internet dissemination when the petitioners sought a stay.

Britain lures talent: sci-tech entrepreneurs move in

It took only a few weeks of research for Romanian entrepreneur Emi Gal to decide where to base his digital media firm, and his choice confounds a fairly enduring set of stereotypes about Britain’s global appeal.

Security

• Security fears threaten smart meter plan

  The £8.1 billion rollout of smart meters in Britain could be knocked off course unless the Government and Ofgem, the energy regulator, act urgently to convince the public that the information provided by the meters will be held securely.

• POLICE TO EMPLOY ‘WEB-COP’

  The officer, to be employed in the West Midlands, will also search for criticism of the police and use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Bebo to promote the force.

• Orson Welles on police brutality

  With recent trends in police abuses being a topic of no small concern at BoingBoing as of late, I thought perhaps his little known broadcast should be remembered and shared, as it strikes a chord of similarity which is at once chilling and inspiring. Welles gives us a glimpse into a time and a setting in which a mere radio broadcaster spoke out in a fervor of disgust and revulsion against a terrible injustice, and was instrumental in bringing those responsible to bear for their crimes. If nothing else, it serves to remind us of what has come before, and what we can once more do and be again.

  With recent trends in police abuses being a topic of no small concern at BoingBoing as of late, I thought perhaps his little known broadcast should be remembered and shared, as it strikes a chord of similarity which is at once chilling and inspiring. Welles gives us a glimpse into a time and a setting in which a mere radio broadcaster spoke out in a fervor of disgust and revulsion against a terrible injustice, and was instrumental in bringing those responsible to bear for their crimes. If nothing else, it serves to remind us of what has come before, and what we can once more do and be again.

• Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List

  The Transportation Security Administration, under scrutiny after last month’s bombing attempt, has on its Web site a “mythbuster” that tries to reassure the public.

Finance

• Obama Joins the “Repo the Dough” Coalition

  Here at BanksterUSA we are thrilled that the Obama team has joined our “Repo the Dough” campaign and urge it to apply a financial transaction tax to destructive stock market speculation.

• Murder on the Orient Express?

  The independent Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission got underway this morning in Washington. The commission was authorized by Congress to get to the bottom of the causes of the financial crisis and produce an independent report, much like the 9-11 commission.

  The commission sent a strong message by first putting under oath the titans of Wall Street. They didn’t pick the subprime mortgage lenders or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. They didn’t pick the credit rating agencies. They didn’t even pick the big housing or investment firms that failed. Instead, they chose the largest firms that survived the crisis and now are profiting off of it due to the extraordinary interventions of the U.S. government.

PR/AstroTurf

• Obama staffer wants ‘cognitive infiltration’ of 9/11 conspiracy groups

  Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, co-wrote an academic article entitled “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,” in which he argued that the government should stealthily infiltrate groups that pose alternative theories on historical events via “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine” those groups.

• Where’s the Outrage Over Obama’s Health Care Propagandist, Jonathan Gruber?

  What a difference partisanship makes now that Obama is president. In the Gruber scandal prominent liberals including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman have attacked the messenger, Marcy Wheeler and Firedoglake, rather than criticizing the lack of disclosure and the money changing hands, and digging further into the relationship between Obama and his paid health care advocate Jonathan Gruber. Who else is receiving convenient Administration funding while flacking ‘independently’ for Obama policies? In a democracy, we need to know and we have a right to know, no matter which party controls the White House.

Censorship/Civil Rights

• Will Google stand up to France and Italy, too?

  Google’s stand against Chinese censorship and surveillance – triggered by suspicions that China had been trying to hack activists’ ­accounts – will be rightly lauded by defenders of human rights. But when it comes to upholding Google’s vow not to “do evil” by its ­users, China is by no means the company’s only headache. Before those of us in western democracies get too high on our horses about Google and China, we should remember that the Chinese are not the only ones putting pressure on Google in ways that are arguably harmful to freedom of expression, even when intentions are honorable. A growing number of governments – many democratically elected – share an attitude that internet companies should be expected to act as “net nannies” for their citizens.

• Google ‘scam’ suggestion condemned by high court

  A Paris court of appeal has ruled against Google in a defamation case lodged by the Centre National Privé de Formation a Distance (CNFDI) in a suit which claimed the search engine’s ‘Suggest’ feature linked the organisation to the word ‘scam’.

Internet/Web Abuse/DRM

• Tell the FCC: don’t put a copyright loophole into net neutrality

  Tim from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, “Last fall, the Federal Communications Commission proposed rules for “Net Neutrality” — a set of regulations intended to help innovation and free speech continue to thrive on the Internet. But is the FCC’s version of Net Neutrality the real deal? Or is it a fake? Buried in the FCC’s rules is a deeply problematic loophole. Open Internet principles, the FCC writes, ‘do not… apply to activities such as the unlawful distribution of copyrighted works.’ For years, the entertainment industry has used that innocent-sounding phrase – ‘unlawful distribution of copyrighted works’ — to pressure Internet service providers around the world to act as copyright cops — to surveil the Internet for supposed copyright violations, and then censor or punish the accused users. Please visit RealNetNeutrality.org to learn more and sign EFF’s open letter asking the FCC to remove the copyright loophole.”

Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

• 2nd Circuit Reinstates Antitrust Claim Against Online Music Providers

  An antitrust suit alleging price fixing by Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other producers, licensors and distributors of music on the Internet has been reinstated by a federal appeals court.

  The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday said the pleadings of music purchasers were sufficient for plaintiffs to pursue their Sherman Act claim against companies who control more than 80 percent of music sold as digital files.

• OiNK Admin Explains Why He Thought The System Was Legal

  Now that the trial is ongoing, Ellis is explaining that he didn’t believe that what he did in running OiNK directly was copyright infringement, even if users of OiNK may have infringed on copyright (he does admit to downloading works via OiNK, however — but that’s separate from his admin role, and he claims that he only used it to sample new musicians, and bought the albums of those he liked).

• This Is Why We Worry About Net Neutrality Regs: Loopholes For RIAA/MPAA

  This is what we worry about. It’s great that the EFF is catching this particular loophole, but as more lobbyists get their hands on net neutrality regulations, they’re going to slip in more and more loopholes like this that will turn what may have great intentions into something else entirely.

• Trademark infringement claim: “100 BOOK CHALLENGE”

  My initial feeling is that they actually have a case. They have a product (see http://www.americanreading.com/products/…) called “100 Book Challenge” and they sell it. They have a registered trademark for it. Groups on LibraryThing with the same name, and somewhat similar conceptual domains, could be a potential problem.