08.05.10

^{Gemini version available ♊︎}

Links 5/8/2010: Jolicloud Still in the News

Posted in News Roundup at 9:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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

GNU/Linux

Kernel Space
- Fixed: The Linux Desktop Responsiveness Problem?
  
  One of the problems commonly talked about in our forums and elsewhere is the poor responsiveness of the Linux desktop when dealing with significant disk activity on systems where there is insufficient RAM or the disks are slow. The GUI basically drops to its knees when there is too much disk activity, which is far from being ideal. For many the problem has just been present for a year or two, but those experiencing these horrible responsiveness problems where it may take many seconds for a menu to appear when clicking on it or a half-minute to do a VT switch, there soon may be a fix.
Applications
- Top like utility to monitor Network – sntop
- GCstar – An application for managing your movie/games collection
  
  GCstar is a free open source application for managing your collections. Detailed information on each item can be automatically retrieved from the internet and you can store additional data, such as the location or who you’ve lent it to. You may also search and filter your collection by many criteria.
- Instructionals
- Games
  - Regnum Online – Characters Are Now Transferable Between Servers !
    
    Regnum Online is a free MMORPG that concentrates on PvP (Players vs Player) and has a great graphics.
    This game was first started several years ago (the graphics has improved a lot since then) and at the time there was only the Spanish/English Ra server.
Distributions
- Red Hat Family
  - Unusual Trading Activity for Red Hat
  - Red Hat: 52-Week High Recently Eclipsed (RHT)
- Debian Family
  - Canonical/Ubuntu
    - Ubuntu: Eight Long-term Reality Checks
      
      In many ways, the Ubuntu community has evolved far differently than WorksWithU initially expected. Back in 2008, WorksWithU likely spent too much time wondering how Canonical would promote Ubuntu in traditional PC and server markets vs. Windows. Fast forward to 2010, and new opportunities (the cloud, hosting centers) and new challenges (Google Android, Applie iPad) have forced WorksWithU to rethink our Ubuntu coverage multiple times.
    - New cloud-init Features in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat
      
      Alongside the desktop and server editions of Ubuntu, Canonical has put considerable effort into Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud recently. This investment is poised to pay off with Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), which will introduce several enhancements to the cloud-init package when it debuts next October 2010. Here’s a preview of some of the changes that Ubuntu cloud users have to look forward to.
      
      cloud-init, the successor to ec2-init that expands the latter’s functionality beyond Amazon’s EC2, is a tool that makes it easy to customize generic Ubuntu cloud images. Rather than having to tweak a cloud-based system manually after it first boots, users can deploy cloud-init to automate tasks like adding repositories and importing ssh keys when an image is initalized.
Devices/Embedded
- Sub-notebooks
  - Give Your Netbook an OS Makeover with Jolicloud
    
    I know a handful of people who suffer from netbook-buyer’s remorse: they bought one of the inexpensive little machines, then stuck it in a closet when they discovered how sluggishly it ran Windows.
    
    If you’re in the same boat, you might be able to give that system a new lease on life. Jolicloud is a free, Linux-powered operating system designed specifically for netbooks. It’s fast (way faster than Windows), easy to use, and better optimized for cloud computing.

Free Software/Open Source

Open Source Community Paves Way for Developers to Improve Internet Access for the Aging, Disabled

Aiming to greatly ease the barriers that the aging or people with disabilities experience in participating in Internet activities, the OpenAjax Alliance (OAA) announced it has created new open source tooling technology to help software developers make it dramatically easier for them to access and use Web 2.0-enabled business, government and consumer web sites. The new tooling technology simplifies the way Web applications are tested for compliance with current accessibility standards and guidelines, helping to speed up delivery of new accessible Internet applications.
CMS
- Web Company Using Joomla to Improve People’s Lives in Western China
  
  “Our company, Global Nomad, was started originally in 2005 as a non-profit with the aim of providing free web development training for unemployed locals here on the Tibetan Plateau in western China where we are located, and then hiring them to do the back-end development work for clients’ websites.
  
  In 2008 we made the switch from non-profit status to that of a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, and since then are steadily growing as a web development company as our name spreads and our local employees’ skills expand. Because of the free (sometimes even paid) training that we have provided for our local employees, they now are implementing Joomla onto client websites, thereby earning an income and becoming financially independent… which is significant in light of the current situation in western China of high unemployment rates and “brain drain” to the bigger cities in the eastern half of the country.
  
  Most of our clients come from the West including the US, Europe, and Australia, and thanks to the high-speed internet available even way out here in remote western China and open-source software such as Joomla, locals who used to be jobless can now earn a decent living implementing Joomla and doing back-end coding work for our clients.
  
  When I saw your invitation to interview web development companies who are using Joomla to make a living and become independent, I thought “perfect”! That is precisely what is happening here within our company. Please visit our website for more information about us (www.itsglobalnomad.com) and I do look forward to hearing from you.”
BSD
- FreeBSD 8.1 release uses different open source philosophy
  
  FreeBSD may not receive the attention that Linux does, but its latest upgrade could provide some instruction to the makers of Ubuntu about how to do open source releases. The makers of Ubuntu and the popular Linux Mint usually add new features to every release of these Linux distributions, whether or not these are features that the average users will ever need.
Project Releases
- BlueDevil 1.0rc2 released
Licensing
- SFC wins default judgement against GPL violator
  
  The default judgement was made on the basis that the company had ceased to respond to discovery requests from the court or the SFC. The SFC was awarded $90,000 damages and $47,685 legal costs. Westinghouse Digital Electronics was also ordered to hand over equipment in its possession that contained GPL code and forbidden to distribute devices which contained the BusyBox software.

Leftovers

Security/Aggression
- Open letter to the media about the misuse of the term “hacker”
  
  Dear Sir/Madam,
  
  in the past weeks, especially in connection with the story about FBI’s action against a cybercrime which lead to the arrest of a suspect in Slovenia, the word “hacker” has been used several times in the media in the wrong context and the wrong way. Since this term is differently understood by the experts then by the lay public, we feel it appropriate to warn about it in this open letter[1].
  
  “Hacker” comes from the verb “to hack”, which is an expression that originated in the 50′s of the previous century on the MIT[2] and means solving a technical problem in an unique way. In the computer jargon it is still used to label inventive and original modifications of a programme or system, based on a deep understanding and in a way that was originally not intended.
Finance
- China fund raises finance to match Liverpool asking price
  
  The Chinese government fund represented by Kenny Huang has spent the past fortnight raising precisely the amount of cash required to finance a bid for Liverpool. Sources have confirmed to Digger that the China Investment Corporation, the sovereign wealth fund to the world’s most populous nation, is the organisation being fronted by Huang, who yesterday admitted interest in bidding for Liverpool.
- They First Make Mad: Summertime Tales of National Bankruptcy
  
  Both Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then New York Fed President Tim Geithner assured senators in April 2008 banking committee testimony that the assets assumed by the Fed in its bail-out of Bear Stearns were “investment grade.” In loading its own balance sheet with unprecedented credit risk, the Fed not only made the American people guarantors of toxic paper – and placed the value of the US dollar at greater risk – it materially misrepresented the quality of the securities involved. While credit quality and credit risk were at the heart of the unfolding banking crisis, the Fed itself was claiming that $30 billion in collateral it assumed consisted of only currently performing and investment grades assets. But the collateralized debt obligations and mortgage-backed bonds involved had already been downgraded at the time of the testimony.
- UBS AG Hires Away Executives from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)
  
  UBS AG announced on Sunday that it will hire executives from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) to build out its mortgage and lending business in the United States.
- Goldman mulls private equity spinoff: report
- Goldman Sachs Makes Plans To Spin Off Proprietary Trading: CNBC
- Goldman Sachs Team to Reunite in Hedge Fund Merger
  
  Former top traders with Goldman Sachs will be working together again as two hedge fund firms merge.
  
  London-based Montrica Investment Management, with $1.1 billion in assets under management, is merging with TPG-Axon, an $8 billion New York-based firm, according to an investor letter.
- Goldman Sachs holds its political tongue
  
  If you were running for office this year, would you want Goldman Sachs stumping for your election?
  
  Talk about radioactive. The firm epitomizes everything that Main Street hates about Wall Street these days — rescued by the feds from billions of dollars in losses in the collapse of 2008, it quickly rebounded to post billions of dollars in profits. In the meantime, a federal lawsuit showed how Goldman created at least one exotic mortgage-backed product that was designed to fail, soaking one set of clients for the benefit of another. Nice!
- Political Ads Off Limits, Goldman Promises
  
  The move was an unexpected sign of restraint after a major Supreme Court ruling this year that gave corporations the power to devote unlimited amounts to electing or defeating candidates for federal office.
- Goldman Sachs Was Just a Small Fish in the Big CDO Pond
  
  The Wall Street investment bank was hardly alone in creating CDOs designed to fall in value and was hardly alone in betting against the housing market. Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal article on Deutsche Bank makes that clear. The German bank wasn’t just creating and selling mortgage securities to some of its clients, it also was advising other clients to bet the other way, and sometimes doing so itself.
- Goldman Sachs runs afoul of residents over retail outlets
  
  The media is certainly hot and heavy for Goldman Sachs (GS) scoops. We noted recently the New York Times reported Goldman had Battery Park residents angry over the loud ferries it had been using. Now comes news from the Daily Telegraph that the gilded bank has also offended some people living near its fancy 200 West Street global HQ.
Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights
- Aussie opposition will scrap firewall
  
  Joe Hockey, shadow treasurer, has told Australian radio that the Liberal Party will oppose the Australian government’s planned compulsory net filter.
  
  Communications minister Stephen Conroy has staked his reputation on blocking content from the internet which would be censored if it were a film for cinema release. The government announced a review of the contentious plan last month.
Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM
- Is Google About to Sell the Internet Down the River?
  
  Indeed, this last factor is a crucial element of Net neutrality – not some minor, optional element that can be discarded. Consider a hypothetical situation when the Web was invented. Suppose we had the kind of pseudo-Net neutrality Schmidt seems to be advocating. According to this, it would have been perfectly permissible to allow the then-leading services like Gopher or WAIS traffic (anyone remember them?), say, to be delivered more quickly than Web traffic. So existing Gopher and WAIS incumbents (such as they were) could have conspired to throttle the Web. That is, if Schmidt’s proposed “bridge”had been around then, there probably wouldn’t be the Web as we know it – and certainly no companies based on searching it…
  
  The situation is exactly the same today, with the difference that we don’t know what new services will be developed and run across the Internet. But we do know that we need an absolutely level playing field if they are to stand a chance of challenging current leaders and maybe replace them. Sadly, if Google’s “compromise” goes through, we may see the situation where large companies with vested interests can discriminate against new entrants, with the result that online innovation is crimped.
- Google, Verizon Compromise On Net Neutrality
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - ACTA
    - Collateral Damage: The Impact of ACTA and the Enforcement Agenda on the World’s Poorest People
      
      Its unlikely to be the impact which the IP Enforcement Agenda is having on the poorest people in the world. Its unlikely because its apparent from both the latest leaked text of ACTA and the preceding leaked text that no consideration is being given to threat posed to the poorest people in the world by ACTA. The likely impact of the threat on the poorest people in the world is already indicated by the instantiation of an expansive “enforcement” agenda. I’ve pointed to some of the obvious consequences in a working paper hosted by the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property at Washington College of Law.