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Links 8/10/2015: Manjaro Linux Releases, Linksys WRT1900ACS, FOSS at NHS





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



  • Developer creates an open source glucose monitoring and tracking app he can trust
    According to Diabetes.org, in 2012 over 29.1 million Americans (that's 9.3% of the population) had diabetes. Chances are, you know someone who has diabetes and you can help them by supporting an open source project that they can trust. If you are a developer, contribute to improve the code; you can help with documentation, or language so it can be translated.

    That’s the only way any open source project succeeds – through collaboration and contribution; through people.


  • Open Source for Log Analytics – Let’s get serious
    “Making machine data accessible, usable, and valuable to everyone” was the main theme at the Splunk .conf2015 last month in Las Vegas. The thousands attending this event are a clear proof of the growing importance and interest in collecting, analyzing and gaining insights from machine data. This interest started years ago mostly with IT related logs but will spread to cover all types of machine generated data. The growing IoT space will make today's pile of machine data dwarf compared to what else is coming our way in the form of logs and other data generated by machines and sensors.


  • Fears Grow For Safety of Imprisoned Syrian Open Source Developer, Bassel Khartabil
    Bassel sent his letters from Adra prison, a civilian jail in the northeast outskirts of Damascus. Even representatives of the Assad government admit that conditions in Adra are overcrowded and inhumane. The prison was designed for 2,500 and now houses 9-11,000 prisoners. Single rooms hold fifty to a hundred cellmates. Food rations are minimal and prisoners must often pay bribes for sleeping materials. Nearby, according to reports, anti-regime forces attempted to seize the compound.


  • SYRIA: Disclose Whereabouts of Detained Freedom of Expression Advocate Bassel Khartabil


  • Syria: Disclose Whereabouts of Detained Freedom of Expression Advocate
    EFF has joined with organizations around the world in calling for Syria to reveal the whereabouts of detained technologist Bassel Khartabil. Khartabil's arbitrary detention and treatment by the Syrian authorities have been cause for concern since his initial arrest three and a half years ago. Fears have grown for his safety after he was taken from civil prison to an unknown destination on Saturday. He is one of the five current cases that EFF tracks in our Offline campaign to protect unjustly imprisoned technologists and bloggers.


  • Google AMP: "Instant Articles"-style mobile news plans unveiled - an open source standard for publishers' content to be immediately in search


  • Google (GOOG) Releases Faster Mobile Web Browsing In New Open-Source Initiative With Twitter And 38 News Organizations
    We're increasingly living in a mobile world, and Google wants to make it a better experience. The search giant on Wednesday announced an initiative called "Accelerated Mobile Pages" (AMP) that makes viewing news articles on a smartphone even faster, the company said at a New York City event.


  • VoiceNation Releases Revolutionary Open Source Live Answering Software. Georgia CALLS is an Early Adopter
    OpenAnswer is built on familiar open source technology like Asterisk, FreePBX, Apache, Linux, PF Sense, SIP and more.


  • Open Source Needs Enterprise Developers
    Open source projects have risen in prominence over the past few years and are becoming important assets to enterprises. A recent report indicates that some 78 percent of enterprises use open source, and two-thirds build software for their customers that is based on open source software.


  • Making B2B Open To Open Source
    The eCommerce software space is a crowded one, with vendors offering any number of ways to track product data. B2C may grab the spotlight with innovation and omnichannel initiatives, and B2B has some catching up to do. But as small businesses recognize the need to adapt quickly to satisfy both their customers and suppliers, flexible software can make all the difference, according to Yoav Kutner.


  • Events



  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla



      • Proposed Principles for Content Blocking
        Content is not inherently good or bad – with some notable exceptions, such as malware. So these principles aren’t about what content is OK to block and what isn’t. They speak to how and why content can be blocked, and how the user can be maintained at the center through that process.

        At Mozilla, our mission is to ensure a Web that is open and trusted and that puts our users in control. For content blocking, here is what we think that means.


      • Thunderbird 38.3.0 Lands in All Ubuntu OSes
        Details about a number of Thunderbird vulnerabilities in Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating systems have been revealed by Canonical in a short security notice.






  • SaaS/Big Data



  • Databases



    • Industry Outlook: Open-Source Databases and IoT
      This week, Industry Outlook talks with Pierre Fricke about open-source databases and their role in the Internet of Things (IoT). Pierre has a long history in open-source software. He spent 10 years as director of product marketing for JBoss Middleware. He had joined JBoss Inc. just over a year before its acquisition by Red Hat in 2006 and stayed on until he joined EDB. Pierre first became involved in open-source software in 1998 during his 17 years at IBM. He played a critical role in establishing IBM’s Linux and open-source strategy, being one of seven team leaders whose contributions are still used today. He also spent five years as an industry analyst with an emphasis on Java and Microsoft application development and integration software.

      [...]

      PF: No. “Open source” does not equate to “less secure.” Enterprise open-source solutions such as EDB Postgres boast the same level of security as traditional solutions, including enhanced auditing, row-level security, SQL-injection-attack guard and other capabilities. In addition, better-managed open-source solutions also have fewer vulnerabilities than commercial products owing to the strict reviews and testing process that these types of systems must undergo. Furthermore, the inherent nature of open source—in which the code kernel is available to a large community of developers—means more individuals are looking for potential bugs and problems (an open process that is often prohibited in propriety systems).




  • Healthcare



  • Business



  • BSD



    • NetBSD 7.0 Released With New ARM Board Support, Lua Kernel Scripting
      NetBSD 7.0 was quietly released at the end of September.

      NetBSD 7.0 is a big release for this BSD operating system and it features Lua kernel scripting support, GCC 4.8.4 is the default compiler, DRM/KMS graphics support, multi-core support for ARM, Raspberry Pi 2 with SMP support, NPF improvements, and a variety of other enhancements.




  • Project Releases



  • Openness/Sharing



  • Programming



  • Standards/Consortia

    • EU digital policy moves into public comment phase
      The normal procedural step that the Commission takes after the introduction of such a strategy is to seek specific input and feedback—via a public consultation process—for the general ideas and proposals that they are presenting. A public consultation, as the phrase implies, is an invitation to answer a long list of wide ranging questions on these issues. Although procedural, the information gleaned from the consultation will help shape any formal legislation or other actions and regulations that the Commission deems necessary to achieve the goals of the DSM.






Leftovers



  • Security



    • Malware Peddling Vigilantes behind Linux.Wifatch Speak Up
      The group also add that Linux.Wifatch was never intended to be secretive and added that to be “truly ethical, it needs to have a free license.” However, the developers did not go out of their way to make the Wifatch’s presence known in the wider community, to avoid detection by other malware authors.

      The group haven’t revealed their identity and contend that they are “nobody important,” while adding that although they can be trusted not to do “evil things” with users’ devices anybody could steal the key (speaking figuratively), no matter how well the group protects it.


    • Government Accountability Offices Finds Government Still Mostly Terrible When It Comes To Cybersecurity
      The government has done a spectacularly terrible job at protecting sensitive personal information over the past couple of years. Since 2013, the FDA, US Postal Service, Dept. of Veterans Affairs, the IRS and the Office of Personnel Management have all given up personal information. So, it's no surprise the Government Accountability Office's latest report on information security contains little in the way of properly-secured information.


    • This New 'Secure' App for Journalists May Not Be Secure At All
      When I started working as a journalist in Colombia in 2006, "What do I do if I get kidnapped?" was a common topic at parties. In fact in 2007, my brother (not a journalist) got kidnapped in a small town outside of Medellín. The Colombian anti-kidnapping squad (GAULA) rescued him.

      So let's just say I take an interest in journalist security tools. New apps have the potential to help journalists do their jobs, and stay safe while doing so.

      Unfortunately, Reporta, a new app from the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) billed as "the only comprehensive security app available worldwide created specifically for journalists," sounds like it may put journalists in danger.




  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression



    • NYT Plays Up Risks to Bomber Pilots, Downplays the Civilians They Kill
      Cooper does her best nevertheless to make the reader empathize with the risks faced by bomber pilots, despite a former flyer’s admission that “if you stay above 10,000 feet, you’re not going to be hit.” Though the mechanical difficulties faced by Yip Yip dominate the story, Cooper asserts that “engine troubles are not the only risk at 25,000 feet.” What else is there? Well, there’s acceleration: “The F/A-18s today require more G-forces than the planes of the Top Gun era, and pilots today pull nine Gs instead of four and five Gs”—so pilots have to make sure they are “not dehydrated or hungover from drinking and crooning the Righteous Brothers to Kelly McGillis at a bar the night before.”

      For comparison purposes, riders on the Shock Wave roller coaster at Six Flags Over Texas experience six Gs–placing the amusement park-goers somewhere between Maverick and Bones on the toughness scale.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



  • Privacy



    • What’s in a Boarding Pass Barcode? A Lot
      The next time you’re thinking of throwing away a used boarding pass with a barcode on it, consider tossing the boarding pass into a document shredder instead. Two-dimensional barcodes and QR codes can hold a great deal of information, and the codes printed on airline boarding passes may allow someone to discover more about you, your future travel plans, and your frequent flyer account.


    • US Secret Service Violated Privacy Policy to Embarrass Congressman
      The Secret Service thought we all needed a reminder that databases of personal information will be exploited for political gain. The chair of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, was leading the investigation into one of the recent cases of Secret Service misconduct. Agents within the service accessed records concerning Chaffetz' application to the Secret Service (which was not acted upon) and then disseminated that information within the agency and talked to the press about it.


    • Anti-Piracy Activities Get VPNs Banned at Torrent Sites
      This week users of popular torrent sites found that they could no longer access them using their VPN. Speaking with TorrentFreak the operator of one of the affected sites revealed that the IP ranges of a popular VPN provider had been banned after they were used for massive anti-piracy activities. Using a VPN for copyright enforcement is apparently quite common.


    • In China, Your Credit Score Is Now Affected By Your Political Opinions – And Your Friends’ Political Opinions
      China just introduced a universal credit score, where everybody is measured as a number between 350 and 950. But this credit score isn’t just affected by how well you manage credit – it also reflects how well your political opinions are in line with Chinese official opinions, and whether your friends’ are, too.


    • Rise of ad-blockers shows advertising does not understand mobile, say experts
      Apple has made ad-blocking mainstream, prompting fears in the $31.9bn mobile ad market. But those grappling with the problem say the user must come first




  • Civil Rights



    • Rupert Murdoch hints that Barack Obama isn't 'real black president'
      Murdoch was praising Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson and his wife on Twitter Wednesday evening when he wrote: "Ben and Candy Carson terrific. What about a real black President who can properly address the racial divide?"


    • Saudi husband is caught groping and forcing himself on his maid after his suspicious wife set up a hidden camera… but now SHE faces going to jail
      A Saudi woman may face going to jail after she caught her husband cheating with the family maid and posted it on social media.

      The woman used a hidden camera to catch her husband in the act, but despite his proven infidelity, she may be the one who ends up being punished.

      The video, which she uploaded to YouTube, shows the man forcing himself on one of the family's members of staff, while the maid appears to attempt to resist his advances.


    • Tacoma Police Sued Over Heavily-Redacted Stingray Non-Disclosure Agreement
      Despite there being multiple copies of nearly-identical FBI/Stingray non-disclosure agreements in the public domain at this point, the Tacoma (WA) Police Department still refuses to provide FOIA requesters with an unredacted version of its own NDA.

      In late 2014, the Tacoma Police Dept. handed Seattle's Phil Mocek a copy of its NDA, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, failed to disclose much about the non-disclosure agreement. The only things left unredacted were the two opening paragraphs of the agreement and the signatures at the end of it. In the middle was a solid wall of black ink.


    • Sweden is shifting to a 6-hour work day


      Despite research telling us it’s a really bad idea, many of us end up working 50-hour weeks or more because we think we’ll get more done and reap the benefits later. And according to a study published last month involving 600,000 people, those of us who clock up a 55-hour week will have a 33 percent greater risk of having a stroke than those who maintain a 35- to 40-hour week.

      With this in mind, Sweden is moving towards a standard 6-hour work day, with businesses across the country having already implemented the change, and a retirement home embarking on a year-long experiment to compare the costs and benefits of a shorter working day.




  • DRM



    • TPP Also Locks In Broken Anti-Circumvention Rules That Destroy Your Freedoms
      We already wrote about how New Zealand has released some of the details about the finalized TPP agreement before the official text is released. The one we discussed is forcing participants into a "life plus 70 years" copyright term, even as the US had been exploring going back towards a life plus 50 regime like much of the rest of the world. That won't be possible any more.


    • [Apple] What is the “rootless” feature in El Capitan, really?


      I have just learned about the "Rootless" feature in El Capitan, and I am hearing things like "There is no root user", "Nothing can modify /System" and "The world will end because we can't get root".

      What is the "Rootless" feature of El Capitan at a technical level? What does it actually mean for the user experience and the developer experience? Will sudo -s still work, and, if so, how will the experience of using a shell as root change?




  • Intellectual Monopolies





Recent Techrights' Posts

Like Microsoft and IBM, the 'Alicante Mafia'-Governed EPO Does PIPs Nowadays (at the EPO, It's "Professional Incompetence Procedure")
So "PIPs" are definitely in the EPO and we saw letters sent to staff
Time for Change, More New Articles, Less Curation
The oligarchy wants to gut the real press and replace media with slop and social control media (or social control media with slop in it, i.e. their own voices, mechanised)
Almost 1,600 EPO Employees Went on Strike Last Week
There is another strike coming 2.5 weeks from now
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
You Know Microsoft's "Value" is 100% Fictional When in One Single "Trading" Day in Wall Street It Loses THREE TIMES More in "Value" Than It Was 'Worth' in 2009
Microsoft does not behave like a company riding trillions but like a company that struggles with payroll
Better Outcomes When Facing the Discomfort of Conflict
Don't take the easy way out when the "hard way" is the right way and it can result in positive revelations
Leaving the United States 3 Years Ago Was the Best Decision We Made
A lot of stuff is being consolidated
 
Links 05/02/2026: Canadian Government Uses US LLMs to Override Expert Opinions, NVIDIA Troubles Due to Enablement of Mass Plagiarism ('Piracy') Misleadingly Obscured as "Hey Hi"
Links for the day
Explaining the Letter From JUDGE SYKES FRIXOU, Threatening Me Around the Time GNOME's Nat Friedman Lost His CEO Job at Microsoft GitHub and His Best Friend Got Arrested for Strangulation
this letter (with annotation) is critical
Linuxiac Not Rehabilitated, It's Still Full of LLM Slop (Part of a Trend)
The Web as a resource/source of information is perishing
"Sponsored by Azul" to Write Fake 'Article' About Azul, Quoting Azul Itself
The "journalism" industry [sic] became so utterly corrupt
JuristGate is for sale: three billion Swiss francs for a domain name
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 05/02/2026: Coercion, Antibiotics, and LVDT Project
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 04, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 04, 2026
Links 04/02/2026: Extreme Malice in Microsoft's Visual Studio Code on GNU/Linux, More Hey Hi (AI) Chaos
Links for the day
Sexism & GNOME: shaming men, hiding women, Sonny Piers update
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 04/02/2026: Humanity and Animality, systemd (Controlled by Amutable, a Proxy of Microsoft) Moves on to "Extinguish" Phase
Links for the day
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Used to be Widely Used in Geminispace, Now It's Down to Just 0.2% of the Whole
Let's Encrypt is not your friend
What IBM Does Is Clearly Illegal in the US: Tying Severance Packages to NDAs (Non-Disparagement Agreement/Clause)
The NDAs make things worse; they keep people isolated and silent
Microsoft's Giant Snowball of Layoffs and PIPs (in 2026)
They would delay until March or April if they wanted to, but then we can expect numbers exceeding 10,000 layoffs (Microsoft always low-balls the real figure/s)
Mozilla Turned Firefox Into Shovelware, Adding 'Kill Switch' for Slop Still Means Mozilla is Participating in a Pyramid Scheme, Plagiarism, Grifting
Mozilla is still a slop pusher
Links 04/02/2026: "Laws of Succession" and Microsoft's VS Code as Code-Stealing Malware
Links for the day
BillBC (BBC) Covered Up Pedophilia, Now It's Covering Up for Its Sponsor Bill Gates by Reprinting His Lies, Which His Own Wife Disputes
Is Bill Gates having orgies (group sex)?
Phoronix Swims With the Real Trolls, People Who Fancy Proprietary Software and Back Doors
If Larabel begins to actively participate in provocation with the "Microsoft GitHub fans club", what does this tell us about Phoronix?
They Know Microsoft Layoffs Are About to Hit Them Hard
The gaming division at Microsoft is a complete catastrophe, lots of money (debt) down the drain [...] Buying Activision was all about misleading shareholders or hiding the deep trouble/problems XBox was having
Red Hat is Not a Linux Company, It's IBM's Ponzi Scheme Enabler
Had we still been stuck in 2021, perhaps IBM would plaster "NFT" or "metaverse" all over RedHat.com
Keep Grinding
"Don't let the bastards grind you down"
Mobbing at the European Patent Office (EPO) - Part III - Who's Going to Pay for the EPO's Corruption? (Aside From European Citizens)
Some people inside the EPO reached out to us
"Investors Are Concerned About an AI Bubble" (That GAFAM and IBM Ride)
A few decades from now IBM will only be remembered in the same sense many so-called 'AI' companies will be remembered
EPO Staff Union: "Very High Strike Participation on Friday 30 January", Another Strike Starts 19 Days From Now
EPO management in a bit of a panic
Censorship/Free Speech and Social Control Media
It's important to have a grasp of how contemporary censorship works and how to tackle it
Google News as Slop Booster
this is what Google links to
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 03, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 03, 2026
Gemini Links 04/02/2026: "Raspberry Pi Relaxes the Rules for Its RP2040 Hacking Challenge" and "Long Web Society"
Links for the day
IBM Falls by Over 10%
a recipe for disasters like accounting fraud
Links 03/02/2026: Windows Copies GNU/Linux, Windows TCO Shown Again
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/02/2026: Alhena Turns One, Slop Rejected, and Max Roy Carrouges Recalled
Links for the day
How to Identify Demonisation or Dehumanisation Tactics Against Interesting Figures or Luminaries in Free Software
Rather than in general or generally in technology
We Should Learn From Bulgaria
Why can't European companies and government recognise and react to a threat (when they see one)?
Dr. Andy Farnell on Why and How European Authorities Can Adopt Free Software, Parenting in the Age of Digital Abundance
Will Europe use technology that Europe controls (not the hegemon), for a change?
Canonical: Ubuntu is GAFAM (US), We're Resellers of American Proprietary Software
They want people to pay for a licence
Seems Like IBM Trolls Use Chatbots to Vandalise Platform That Discusses IBM's Secret Layoffs, Forever Layoffs
Not for the first time either
You Know Your Company is Dead or Basically a Pyramid Scheme When Jim Cramer Keeps Promoting Its Stock
How much does IBM pay for "puff pieces" or "fluff" about QC?
Red Hat (Under IBM) Works for Microsoft (Proprietary Software) and Slop
Yesterday Red Hat's official site, redhat.com, published exactly 5 new blog posts
IBM is Dying (More Layoffs), Red Hat Will Continue to Suffer From the Acquisition
Financial engineering
Colombia Adopting GNU/Linux Even Faster (at Microsoft's and Apple's Expense)
Do politics play any role in this?
An Effort to Tackle Slavery in 'Open Source' Clothing
"a civil rights lawsuit to examine the concerns of censored developers in the free, open source software ecosystem"
$15 billion lawsuit: Ubuntu, Google & Debian crowdfunding campaign launch
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Delusion - Part II - Why We Need to Expose the SRA to More Daylight, Public Scrutiny
SRA is neither effective nor regulated
Links 03/02/2026: "Distraction is a Sin" and Fake "Encryption" (Surveillance With Good Marketing)
Links for the day
400-Page US Federal Court Against Abuses by Google, Microsoft and Front Groups That Abuse Volunteers for American Corporations
There are 386 pages in total (in the US claim)
Corporate Influence Never Impacted Us
There's no reason to assume we'll ever "sell out"
Growth of GNU/Linux in Cuba
Right now a lot of the world drafts or already implements a GAFAM exit plan
A Day After EPO Strikes an Escalation to Heads of Delegations to the Administrative Council
They rely on the European media playing along, helping them to hide major blunders, even crimes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 02, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, February 02, 2026
Gemini Links 03/02/2026: Stargazing, Development Boards, and Tcl/Tk Slop
Links for the day