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Links 24/1/2010: KDE Looks at Server Side, Parrot 2.0.0 Released



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • A question asked - why I use Linux
    This is a long and drawn out answer. It isn't a simple question.

    I've been using computer systems for more than twenty years, from micros to mainframes, so I'm no beginner. I was in on Microsoft operating systems from DOS 3.2 and I dabbled with Linux for a number of years. It was only recently that I made the full switch.

    The drive towards Linux has been partly because of what Linux offers, but more because of what Microsoft doesn't, or rather how their company works. Apple are the same.


  • GNU/Linux: Replacing a Dead Router with a Linux System
    Enter an old Dell Dimension XPS R400 PC that has been gathering dust in the closet. It has an 80GB Western Digital IDE drive, a Startech 10/100 NIC and 192MB of RAM in it. I received this old PC from a client that bought a new, custom built system from my company in October 2007. He no longer needed the Dell and was just going to trash it. Instead I convinced him to let me wipe the drive, install Mandriva 2008 on it and try to sell it on eBay. It did not sell when I listed it. The client did not want it back, so I just stuck it in the IT junk closet with several other old systems and flaky monitors. I decided to make this old Dell PC into my “new” router. Since it already has Mandriva 2008 on it I figured I could use that to get routing going and then upgrade the Mandriva later.


  • The Web, the Desktop, and the Google between
    Amarok has plugins that directly consume content from popular web sites and displays them to you as you play music. For example it can look in Flickr for photos of your currently playing track’s artist and display them in a nice slide show to enhance the mood, or display a Wikipedia page about the artists, or look up the lyrics of the song, or even look up similar Youtube videos and offer to play them – inside Amarok. Think you need a web browser to browse Youtube? Amarok has changed that! And this is what it is about – enhancing the power of desktop applications by giving them the ability to consume from similar web services. The possibilities are endless. Fact is that we have come to rely on the browser for too many things, and if you really stopped to think about it it’s really rather senseless. When I’m listening to music, why do I need to open an extra browser window just to find lyrics or look up artist/album information? When I’m writing a document, why should I have an extra browser window to look for material? When I’m writing a program, why should I have an extra browser window open just to look up API references? The browser is today trying to do too much! This awkward work flow needs to change – we need to make our desktop programs more ‘web-sensitive’ and independent of the browser. (Remember the documentation widget I built into PlasMate?). At KDE we have already identified this as a critical path in the evolution of the desktop, and are already setting plans in motion to this end. We even have a cool codename for the movement – Project Silk.


  • BETT 2010 Review
    The stand received financial sponsorship from Red Hat, Linux IT, University of London Computing Centre and The Learning Machine (Ingots) for which everyone is very grateful. Canonical, the commercial entity behind Ubuntu very kindly provided us with 600 Ubuntu 9.10 CDs (500 Desktop and 100 Server) to give away (thanks Larry) and there were a similar number of CDs containing a great collection of Education-centric Open Source desktop applications for Windows from Free Software for Students that was compiled and produced by Peter Kemp and David Wilmut. That’s around 1200 CDs in total full of completely Free goodness and fun. We encouraged all the recipients to copy, share and pass them on too! At the end of the show we had only a few (quite literally) of each remaining.


  • LCA

    • Photo Essay: Geekdom descends on Wellington
      Wellington's Convention Center this week hosted 700 open source software engineers - i.e. geeks - for a festival of discussion of all things linux at Linux.Conf.Au the annual Australasian Linux conference. Carl Suurmond was dispatched to catch the atmosphere with his camera on the final day. Tomorrow the conference will open its doors to the public for an Open Day for all things linux from 11am to 2pm.


    • Open-source alive and thriving
      New York University anthropologist Gabriella Coleman says the open-source software movement has emerged relatively unscathed from the economic downturn.

      Ms Coleman was the opening keynote speaker at Linux.Conf.Au, a trans-Tasman conference held in Wellington last week that attracted more than 600 open-source software developers and enthusiasts.

      She took the plunge and immersed herself in the world of open source in 2001, perceiving it was a culture worthy of academic study.








  • Desktop

    • Simmtronics Ships SimmBook with IBM Client
      Simmtronics Semiconductors Ltd. has entered into a global agreement with IBM Corp. As per the agreement, IBM has authorized Simmtronics to preload its IBM Client for Smart Work software solution in the Simmbook on Ubuntu operating system. This includes Lotus Symphony office productivity software which is made available at no charge to Simmbook customers.


    • How Linux Differs from Windows
      Since churches and ministries are always looking for ways to save money, learning as much as you can about free computer software alternatives is a good idea. Operating systems like Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux do pretty much the same things, but in different ways.

      Cost and licensing

      Linux operating systems are published under open source licenses that make the source code available to everyone. Microsoft products, including Windows Vista and XP, are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. As for cost, most Linux distributions are free and can be used on an unlimited number of computers. Windows operating systems are expensive, and legally each license can only be used on one computer.


    • FF3.6 on ubuntu is not a reason why GNU/Linux is not ready for the mass-market
      Second: Remember that the way software is installed/maintained in the GNU/Linux world is completely different from Windows'. In Windows, as the writer said, you grab the software from internet (hopefully form a reliable location.... but we know that's not always the case, is it?), click on it, maybe will have to restart your computer.... a couple times (why the hell installing Adobe Reader requires you to reboot Windows? Is Adobe Reader the equivalent for Windows of glibc or something?) and then finally you are done with the software. In GNU/Linux, at least in Ubuntu (and every other distro that prides itself of being such), you have to wait for the maintainers of Ubuntu to review software to make it available. That's right.... they do that job for you, the user. And it's not just firefox that they maintain... they take care of thousands (literally) pieces of software to make them fit together and not mess with each other when you installed them on your beloved Ubuntu-powered box. And that not only sounds like a dauntin task... it really is. And what would be the equivalent of that in the Windows world? It would be like waiting for Microsoft to review the software when it's made available by its developers (have you seen how long it takes Microsoft to work on their own bugs? How long would it take them if they had to review other people's software as well?) and make it available to you through the centralized software they provided Windows with so that their beloved customers don't have to go leaping from site to site to grab the latest piece of malware-infested piece of software... oh, but there's no such thing for Windows, is there? Such a shame, you know.


    • The GNU/Linux “Chicken Little” Syndrome
      I run Mandriva 2010 at the moment on my desktop system here at the ERACC Intergalactic Spaceport and Karaoke Bar, otherwise known as my home office. I have been running releases of Mandriva for several years now. At first I too wanted to always have the latest, cutting edge release of every package out there. After a while I came to understand that if Mandriva package maintainers saw that a patch was necessary for an application I run then they would patch the version in the distribution and release the patched version in the update repository. If there were a new version of a software application that had security implications for a desktop user, then after testing the new version it would be included as an update for the life of that desktop release, usually 12 to 18 months. Long term desktop releases would get these updates if needed for their lifetime as well, usually 3 years. Then the next time I install updates I get the patched or new version.


    • Buying a Linux Laptop ...
      I was really having fun! At one site, I found a laptop with Windows 7 installed, but also with a selection to have none and an instant price-reduction when the “No OS” choice was made. That felt good!

      I finally found a computer which met all my needs; weight, size, quality of hardware and Ubuntu installed (one of many choices) at LinuxCertified.

      I hope others will join me in buying your next computer this way. You will find competitive prices and the satisfaction of not paying the Windows tax.








  • Server

    • IBM's Panasonic win points the way for enterprise collaboration services
      Panasonic has signed a deal with IBM to migrate its global workforce from Microsoft Exchange to IBM's hosted LotusLive service. IBM will initially migrate 100,000 employees to LotusLive iNotes, increasing to 300,000 over time. This is one of the largest commitments to cloud services by a global enterprise to date, and is a feather in the cap for IBM in its struggle with Microsoft for email and collaboration seats. However, in our opinion this is as much about delivering commodity services from the cloud as it is about IBM's win over Microsoft.


    • Lotus wins client from Microsoft
      Even though it recently landed a giant software deal with Japanese electronics firm Panasonic Corp., IBM Corp.’s Lotus unit, based in Westford, is still playing catch-up against archival Microsoft Corp.


    • Panasonic Dumps Microsoft, Goes With IBM








  • Applications







  • K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)

    • Anatomy of a developer sprint
      Two weeks ago I was at the annual KDE PIM meeting at Osnabrück. It was the eighth time that this meeting took place, and it was a blast, once again. This is amazing, so I'm taking the opportunity to reflect a bit on what makes this meeting so successful, how it evolved over time, and what we all can learn for running great developer sprints.


    • KDE Gears Up to a Free Cloud
      Day 2 of Camp KDE kicked off with a bang when Frank Karlitschek announced the start of a significant new KDE project. The ownCloud initiative will complement the Social Desktop and Get Hot New Stuff efforts which are already dealing with social and collaborative data. Like those, the ownCloud initiative strives to combine the rich desktop interfaces made possible by the Qt and KDE libraries with the large amount of social information and data users are putting online.








  • Distributions

    • 10 scripts to create your own Linux distribution
      Those familiar with Linux will be able to tweak settings, add and remove apps and customise the menu, toolbars and other desktop elements.

      Incredibly, those are about all the skills you need to create your very own Linux distro.

      We're going to take a look at some scripts that'll help you customise different distros.


    • Slackware 13 Revisit
      In my Slackware 13 review mfillpot gave some suggestions to improve the Slackware experience and I thought I would give them a shot. First off, changing the init level to 4 to allow KDM to show up instead of this startx business. I was happy to note that Slackware had emacs. So many distros have vi and I never really learned how to use it well. So I changed the value to 4 and restarted.


    • Making the Switch to Arch Linux
      Overall, I am really happy with Arch, although to be fair, I haven’t been using it for more than a day yet. However, the documentation is great and the installation was relatively quick and painless, so I am pretty pleased at this point. I look forward to getting more comfortable with it and switching my other machines as well.




    • New Releases

      • 2009-09-08: CRUX 2.6 released
        CRUX 2.6 has been released. Please check out the ChangeLog, the Release Notes and the Handbook. For download links, head this way.


      • 18Jan2010 DigAnTel Version 2.0 has been released.
        DigAnTel-2 is a FREE Digital / Analog VOIP Telephone system utilizing CentOS Linux (RedHat), Asterisk 1.4.22, FreePBX 2.6.0 with VoicePulse module, Openfire, vtigerCRM with click to dial, PostFix, OpenVPN, and automated Polycom Phone suppot. DigAnTel is the glue to bind these technologies thus creating a unified telephony system for your home or small business. The installation is completely automated and doesn't require a working knowledge of Linux or Asterisk.


      • FreeNAS 0.7.1


      • Greenie Linux 6.1K








    • Debian Family

      • A Windows XP-ish Debian at 120Mhz
        The novelty in this is not in the desktop arrangement; I’ve been slowly tweaking and adjusting this setup for the better part of a year. In fact the fun part of this is that I’ve never been able to arrange it on this machine, even though I wanted to for quite a while.


      • Rounding out a terminal-based Debian system
        Test runs at 120Mhz suggest this is a clean and brisk way to browse without overburdening the machine to a point of unusability. Firefox with Flash it is not, but if you are an unbeliever and demand a graphical browser on a Pentium Pro, this will satisfy. Furthermore, adding fbi to your system brings along fbgs, which allows you to display images and pdf files, respectively. For the reverse, try fbgrab and share your desktops with the world.


      • Ubuntu's Latest Alpha: 15-Second Boot Time
        Now that Alpha 2 of Lucid Lynx is available (it was posted late last week) it's easy enough to install that code onto the same PC test bed and measure the results. This version of the Ubuntu 10.04 beta booted up in -- wait for it -- 15 seconds. If you were around during the days of Windows 3.1, the concept of a 15-second boot time would be almost unfathomable. Come to think of it, it would be tough to imagine during the days of Windows Vista.


      • Sidux 2009-4 success: A little help from Ubuntu Lucid Alpha 2 goes a long way
        I'll get to Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 LTS Alpha 2 later, but the "safe graphics mode" boot option in that very Ubuntu live DVD helped me figure out how to get Sidux 2009-04 to boot on my Intel 82830 CGC (aka Intel 830m) graphics-running Toshiba Satellite 1100-S101.

        Over the course of two computing sessions I experienced both the Alpha 2 of the upcoming Ubuntu LTS release as well as the Sidux take on Debian Sid, circa early last year, both of which I've wanted to do in order to "plan" this laptop's future when I decide to leave Debian Lenny behind.


      • Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 Alpha 2: First impressions on 'difficult' hardware
        Ubuntu Lucid isn't even in the beta stage, let alone a release-candidate or fully baked release, and on my hardware it's looking very, very good. I'm no fan of free-software hyperbole, but Ubuntu Lucid really does look like the best Ubuntu LTS release ever, and I'm anxious to see it at release time in April.


      • Announcing Ubuntu User Day - January 23, 2010
        The Ubuntu User Days Team would like to announce the first Ubuntu User Day, on January 23, 2010. This will be a very informative one day session geared towards beginner and intermediate Ubuntu users, as well as people who are interested in using Ubuntu. We have 14 classes covering topics ranging from installing Ubuntu, finding help, equivalent programs, using IRC, getting involved in the Ubuntu Community and more. We have enlisted the help of many talented people to lead these classes throughout the day.


      • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 177
        Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #177 for the week January 17th - January 23th, 2010. In this issue we cover: Developer Membership Board election results, Ubuntu User Days A Big Success, Bugs and hugs, Ubuntu Developer Week: January 25th – January 29th, 2010, Canonical Blog: ISV support for Ubuntu Server Edition widens, January 20th America's Membership Review Board Meeting, Ubuntu LoCo Re-Approval Process, LoCo Stories: the Ubuntu Honduras School Tour, Launchpad 10.1 roll-out 09.00-11.30 27th January 2010, Anonymous Access to the Launchpad Web Service API, Introducing Ubuntu Electronics Remix 9.10, and much, much more!


      • Interview With Ubuntu Manual Project Leader
        The Ubuntu Manual Project has stirred up veritable carnival of publicity over the last few months, signifying a huge appetite for such a document within the community.

        I decided to find out more on the project and its origins by interviewing the manual project leader (dare i say creator?) Benjamin Humphrey – also known as HumphreyBC.


      • Infinitely Virtual Offers Ubuntu 9.10 with All Virtual Dedicated Server Products
        Ubuntu 9.10 also offers its Server Edition, which provides the performance and security of Linux for the enterprise servers. Ubuntu Server Edition easily integrates with a user’s existing networks while providing a low total cost of ownership. The Server Edition goes further to offer multiple life cycle scenarios for users to choose from, and is supported by free life maintenance.



      • Infinitely Virtual Releases Ubuntu 9.10


      • GroundWork Monitor Enterprise 6.1 adds Ubuntu support
        Version 6.1 of the system and network monitoring suite GroundWork Monitor Enterprise is now available. For this release the development team focused on improving performance and have also added support for Ubuntu Server to the monitoring solution. GroundWork Monitor Enterprise supports both Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and the latest Ubuntu 9.10 release.


      • New flavours of Ubuntu being developed in Ireland
        Recently I popped down to the BT Young Scientist Exhibition here in Dublin. This is for secondary school students/ High school junior students in Ireland. It’s pretty amazing to see the enthusiasm they show for science and technology at an early age.

        The process starts months ago, students submit a one page proposal on a topic, if it’s accepted they research and come up with the results, prototype or something to show from it all. It also gives Industries who are based over here to come and show case their projects and encourage students into those areas. IBM, Google, Analog Devices to name a few all took part and all have offices here in Ireland.


      • ÃœberStudent - Ubuntu version for Students and Researchers
        ÃœberStudent is a free, Ubuntu-based operating system for higher education and emerging-generation high school students, those who wish to learn to excel at the tasks and habits of top students and researchers, and anyone who can benefit from easy-to-use yet powerful computing. Like Ubuntu, ÃœberStudent is a complete operating system with programs for everyday computing tasks, but comes with an additional core of expertly configured programs, and many user-friendly extras, designed to increase your academic success. It’s Software Explorer enables you to easily extend ÃœberStudent still further for specific academic disciplines, and it doesn’t stop there. Music and movie lovers, gamers, budding graphic designers, and those who insist on an ascetically eye-popping user interface will also be very pleased.


      • ÃœberStudent












  • Devices/Embedded

    • iStorage DiskGenie secure portable hard drive
      The drive comes pre-formatted with the NTFS file system but you can change that according to your Mac or Linux needs.




    • Phones

      • Sony's First Linux Phone!
        Linux is gaining popularity in the mobile phone industry, thanks to Android. Sony Ericsson has also joined the Gnu-Linux club and announced the launch of their first Android-powered phone -- The Xperia X10.

        The Xperia X10 phone, named SO-01B, will be launched in Japan in April 2010 with NTT DOCOMO. This Xperia phone creates a unique Sony Ericsson user experience by combining best-in-class entertainment features with signature applications.




      • Android

        • It's Android or Apple: who needs other handset vendors?
          The runaway success of Apple's iPhone and of Google's Android OS tells a story that handset vendors don't really want to hear.


        • Google Chrome OS to Have Media Player to Challenge Microsoft
          The lead engineer for Google's Chrome Operating System told Ars Technica the emerging product and its Chrome Web browser sidekick will have a complete media player that approximates the functionality of Windows Media Player. Chrome OS boots up a netbook in a fraction of the time it takes to start today's existing computers. With Google's Chrome Web browser, Chrome OS loads Web applications in just a few more seconds.


        • Latest AdMob Report Shows Android Drinking Microsoft’s Milkshake
          The latest AdMob metrics report is out today and it's nothing we haven't seen yet. To sum it up quickly, Android continues to grow both here in the US and abroad. In the span of one year Android traffic (in the AdMob network) has grown from 1% overall to 16% for North America and Western Europe.

          [...]

          This time last year year, Windows Mobile accounted for 12% whereas now it sits at 3% right next "other." Ouch.


        • Google Nexus One gets multi-touch thanks to hacker
          Google has just dropped Android software 2.1 (which the Nexus runs on) into the open source trough, making it rife for hacking and modding. This is the first, and is described as a simple job. Chris Paget of H4RDW4RE, describes the tweak as "very much low-level Linux kernel hacking as opposed to a full on ROM.”












    • Sub-notebooks

      • ARM processors to overtake Intel in mobile devices by 2013?
        I’ve seen many similar reports that talk of Linux overtaking Windows for UMDs in a broadly similar timeframe. One thing’s for sure smartbooks and the like are here to stay.


      • ARM Seen as a Threat to Intel on the Mobile Front
        Despite the current developments and the latest advancements in x86 chips power efficiency, analysts seem to think that, even though Intel currently controls the netbook market with its new Atom chips, this dominance may be short lived. ABI Research suggests that the ARM architecture may make a strong incursion into this segment, likely taking away most of the mobile market share from Intel's units.












Free Software/Open Source

  • Eucalyptus Downloads On The Rise
    Open source Eucalyptus Enterprise Server includes APIs that mimic the proprietary functionality of Amazon's EC2.


  • Valdes and Astronaut putting VA VistA in the cloud
    A company launched by the founder of Linux Medical News is making the VA VistA software available in the cloud for the first time.


  • Magic Lantern firmware makes Canon EOS 5D Mark II the camera Canon should have released
    More awesomely, at 08:11 in the video (and here on the Wiki) Trammell tells us that his software is "free-as-in-speech GPL".


  • Regional council adopts open source
    Horizons Regional Council will take open-source software for a spin on its desktop computers early this year under a push to bring free software to public sector PCs.

    New Zealand Open Source Society president Don Christie says NZ Post and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet will also trial the software as part of the Public Sector Remix project.

    Fourteen government agencies have signed up for the project, and as of Wednesday 32 firms had responded to a survey seeking to identify the number and capability of New Zealand companies providing and supporting open-source software.




  • Nouveau







  • GIMP

    • Multi-column dock windows and [GIMP] 2.8 schedule
      The code refactorings and clean ups that have been made to enable single-window mode to be implemented has also resulted in improvements to multi-window mode. The most significant is the support for multi-column dock windows, as you can see used in the screenshot above. People having dockables on one screen and an image in full screen on another will probably find this useful, for example. Before this, you could only have one column of dockables inside a dock window.


    • Single Window GIMP Coming 27th December 2010
      We've discussed the singlewindow GIMP before - even telling you how to install it! Now GIMP developer Martin Nordholt has revealed that the 'target' release date for version 2.8 (AKA 'Single Window GIMP) is December the 27th 2010.






  • FSF/FSFE/GNU

    • FSF goes global with anti-Windows campaign
      The campaign, called Windows 7 Sins, argues proprietary software, particularly Microsoft’s, erodes internet users’ freedom..

      The organisation said today it would issue press releases about the Windows 7 Sins campaign in eight languages, with several more on the way.






  • Releases

    • Parrot 2.0.0 Released!
      On behalf of the Parrot team, I'm proud to announce Parrot 2.0.0 "Inevitable." Parrot is a virtual machine aimed at running all dynamic languages.


    • GNU SIP Witch 0.6.0 released


    • icecat 3.6
      I have uploaded a pre-release version of IceCat 3.6, if there will not be major problems, at the beginning of next week I'll make an official release. Please report on this mailing list any problem you may encounter.








  • Licensing

    • Control versus community
      However, permissive licences don’t ensure the ongoing freedom advocated by Richard Stallman, which underpins the FOSS philosophy. Significantly, though, Stallman is himself beginning to accept that they are sometimes necessary, as evidenced in a recent article in which he admits to having mixed feelings on selling licence exceptions. Could this shift in Stallman’s thinking be evidence of a fundamental change in the broader licensing landscape?








  • Openness

    • Government posting wealth of data to Internet
      The Obama administration on Friday is posting to the Internet a wealth of government data from all Cabinet-level departments, on topics ranging from child car seats to Medicare services.

      The mountain of newly available information comes a year and a day after President Barack Obama promised on his first full day on the job an open, transparent government.








  • Programming

    • Writing great scripts with Python
      When you combine the two, you elevate the art of literal misinterpretation to a higher form of genius. In Dr. Pun's latest article, you will learn all about writing scripts using Python, just not the Python you may expect. The calembour or the equivoque is so potent here, that essentially a bad idea becomes fantastic. Follow me.


    • How to benchmark a C++ code








  • Standards/Consortia

    • HTML5 video and codecs
      Recently, Vimeo and YouTube announced that they were moving to support the HTML5 video tag, as DailyMotion did last summer. This is an important step in making video a first-class citizen of the modern web, and that is great news. Unlike DailyMotion, however, Vimeo and YouTube chose to rely on the patented H.264 video encoding, rather than an unencumbered encoding like Ogg Theora. This means that the <video> pages on those sites will not work with Firefox.


    • Better video quality with html 5
      The proprietary flash player has left alot to be desired for Linux and Apple users. Especially if you are running with accelerated 3d and with compiz fusion. Finally it is possible to watch youtube videos in html 5 format instead of the flash player. And I have found an easy way to take advantage of this new feature. This experience for me at least has been so much better. No more low quality jerky video, but instead with html 5 the video can be viewed in high definition and still be smooth.








Leftovers



  • Security







  • Finance

    • Switzerland court rules UBS may not disclose US taxpayer's financial information
      The Swiss Federal Administrative Court [official website, in French] ruled [judgment, PDF, in German; press release, PDF, in French] Thursday that an American taxpayer's financial information at Swiss bank UBS [corporate website] may not be disclosed to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) [official website] pursuant to an August 2009 agreement [text, PDF; JURIST report]. The court ruled in favor of an undisclosed American taxpayer, who appealed a November decision by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (AFC) [official website, in French] that would have allowed the disclosure.


    • Scandal: Albert Edwards Alleges Central Banks Were Complicit In Robbing The Middle Classes
      We present Albert Edwards' latest in its complete form as it must be read by all unabridged and without commentary. These are not the deranged ramblings of a fringe blogger - this is a chief strategist for a major international bank.








  • PR/AstroTurf

    • SCOTUS: No Means No
      As Peter Wallison argues in his great book on party finance, the real evil of American politics is that politicians must beg interest groups for the money to finance their campaigns. What we need is not “less money” and CERTAINLY not less speech – but more distance between donor and recipient. The mechanism for that is the political party. Reformers should be focusing on lifting limits on the flow of money from parties to candidates and restoring the role of the parties as the funders of campaigns. Instead of Candidate Smith asking Donor Gonzalez for money – and Donor Gonzalez asking for a favor in return – party chairman Robinson will ask thousands of donors for money on behalf of a slate of candidates, who will never know precisely whose gift was directed to them. That step will diminish corruption and the appearance of corruption.


    • Obama blasts Supreme Court on campaign finance
      President Barack Obama took a populist tone Saturday, denouncing the Supreme Court's decision to ease curbs on big business spending on election campaigns.

      Battered by a stunning Republican win this week in the liberal bastion of Massachusetts that robbed Democrats of their 60-seat supermajority, Obama defended his political agenda and vowed to continue fighting against "the special interests in Washington".

      "In my first year in office, we pushed back on that power by implementing historic reforms to get rid of the influence of those special interests," the president said in his weekly audio and video address.


    • Olbermann: U.S. Government For Sale
      In a Special Comment, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann envisions a future United States in which today's Supreme Court ruling permitting unbridled corporate campaign spending purchase all the power greed can afford.








  • Censorship/Civil Rights

    • Judge bans media from woman's trial in Henry County
      "I think the defendant's rights to a fair trial trump the First Amendment," he said.


    • Supreme Court says jury selection should be in public
      The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the constitutional right to a public trial in criminal cases means that jury selection, including questioning of prospective jurors, should not be done behind closed doors.


    • Google Welcomes Clinton’s Call for Uncensored Web (Update3)
      Google Inc., clashing with the Chinese government over Web censorship, praised U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for calling for an unrestricted Internet where people can operate without fear of repression.

      “At Google we are great believers in the value to society of unfettered access to information,” the company said in a statement today. Google said it will work with governments, human-rights organizations and bloggers to promote free expression and increased access to information.


    • Russian Whistleblower Cop Arrested
      Remember the Russian cop's YouTube narrative on police corruption? Reader Max_W writes with the news that Alexei Dymovsky, the cop whose videos started a movement, was arrested (Google translation; Russian original) on January 22, 2010. He is in prison in the south of Russia. Max_W adds: "It seems only a president is allowed to have a video blog in Russia."


    • PayPal Freezes the Assets of Wikileaks.org
      "Paypal has as of 23rd of January 2010 frozen WikiLeaks assets. This is the second time that this happens. The last time we struggled for more than half a year to resolve this issue. By working with the respected and recognized German foundation Wau Holland Stiftung we tried to avoid this from happening again — apparently without avail."


    • Another Privacy Concern
      Suffice to say that it, 'clixpy', records everything I do when online to the text portal, key strokes, mouse movements, selections made etc., as shown by a live demo on clixpy.com, if I use a web browser. So it appears to be very intrusive and I'm extremely concerned for my privacy.

      What is the reason for 'clixby's presence? Is it a consequence of new UK laws or EU regulations, or is it something else. WHATEVER, I *DON'T* LIKE IT! Makes me think of PHORM.


    • Russian journalist dies after beating in police custody
      Russia's police force was today at the centre of another national scandal after a journalist beaten in custody died in hospital from his injuries.

      Konstantin Popov, 47, was arrested two weeks ago in his home town of Tomsk, Siberia, after neighbours complained that he was drunk and playing his guitar too loudly.








  • Internet/Web Abuse/DRM

    • BBC given go-ahead for Freeview HD copy-protection
      The BBC has been granted provisional approval for the BBC to introduce copy protection for content on the Freeview HD platform.

      With Freeview HD closing in on a commercial launch, focus has continued on what level of copy protection should be put in.




  • Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

    • ACTA: The new era of transparency
      How is that possible? It cannot be found out because the mandate is not made public. Magic, it reminds me of the charlatans who say they live without food and water supply, and it is their personal secret what makes them survive.


    • Obama Supports $675K File Sharing Verdict
      The Obama administration is backing $675,000 in damages a Massachusetts student must pay the Recording Industry Association of America for file sharing 30 songs.








Clip of the Day



Monsanto's Toxic Milk - Banned in Europe



Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Windows is Technically at 0% in Some Countries
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It was 3.62% last month
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Let's see it the figures stay stable throughout the month
Figures of Note: Tesla's Debt Has More Than Doubled in Two Years and It's a Symptom of a Fake Economic Order
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Linux Foundation Let Linux.com Rot for Two Months and Now It Posts Ridiculous Spam
Mindless shopping site
today's howtos
some older leftovers
 
Months After Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Nigeria Windows "Market Share" Collapses (Now Measured at 5%)
Of course the winner is Android (new all-time high of 77.3%)
South America Has Made It (Android Majority Everywhere) and in North America New Records for GNU/Linux Usage
Windows monopoly rents cannot be salvaged
Windows Down to Only One in Six Internet- or Web-Connected Devices in Asia
it's not looking good for Microsoft
Microsoft Windows Market Share in the United Kingdom Has Fallen to About 20%
Microsoft knows the true numbers, but it would rather not tell
Links 02/12/2024: Journalists Arrested, Tesla Factories Destroying the Planet and Public Health
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/12/2024: Adventures With Bevy, Google Very Evil, Jumping Into Gemini
Links for the day
BetaNews is Still a Shrine of Microsoft, and Casually Also an LLM Slop Factory
Fake articles, anti-Linux FUD, and Microsoft propaganda make a sound "business model"?
[Meme] Cyber Monday is Not a Thing; There's No Such Thing (It's a Corporate SPAM Campaign Plaguing the Web)
Enough with these fake 'holidays' that billionaires (business oligarchs) keep inventing to make more money at other people's expense (debt)
Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and Linux Foundation: Same Mentality of Revisionism and Plunder
Lie about history and then 'cash in'
[Meme] Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Begs You for Donations
How does one even spend 20,000 dollars per month???
Why Software Freedom Conservancy Does Not Deserve Money (Karen Sandler is Already a Millionaire and Her Organisation Attacks Free Software Leaders)
These people speak for "Big Money" interests, not for freedom
On the internet [sic] (Lowercase), They Spread Misinformation About the Internet
Hugh Grant remembers what happened before he was born
Richard Stallman Was Getting Honorary Doctorates Almost Every Year Until 'Cancel Culture' Stepped in, Distracting From Jeffrey Epstein's Ties to Bill Gates
This finally ended... earlier this year (October)
Self-Deprecating Attacks on RMS
Drew DeVault seems to have deleted all of his social control media accounts
When Bills Are Rising, Whereas the Demand Isn't (OpenAI is Insolvent)
Latest month on record shows traffic fell about 3 times lower than earlier this year
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 01, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, December 01, 2024
Links 02/12/2024: Climate, Sportwashing, and Software Patents
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/12/2024: Words and Apologies, Being Rude, and Geminauts 0.1.0 Release
Links for the day
The Microsoft OSI: All the Latest Blog Posts Are Written by Microsoft Operative Salaried by Microsoft
OSI is truly occupied. Microsoft more or less 'bought' the OSI...
Links 01/12/2024: Russian Police Raiding Gay Bars, Zelensky Wants NATO Membership
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/12/2024: Recycling and Interest in Computers
Links for the day
Links 01/12/2024: 23andMe's DNA Bubble Imploded, Web Server Survey Shows Microsoft Nosediving
Links for the day
Vulture funds war-gaming Ireland loss of corporation tax revenue, Donald Trump
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gerry Hutch & Debian: suicide by Monk?
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch: criminals vs geeks, multinationals vs Ireland
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
"Microsoft suffered the next largest loss, down by 634,406 sites (-3.24%)"
Microsoft is now in only 2 of the 5 tables; over time Microsoft slips out of visibility in more categories
The Post Offices Have Turned Into Trash. They Swallow Packages and Only Spit Them Out If You Get Lucky.
Nom nom nom
Four Years of Videos (Self-Hosted, Not Social Control Multimedia)
Seeing how the "hey hi" (AI) hype spreads to GulagTube and ruins GulagTube, we're glad we need not worry about Google (Gulag) policing our "content" via supposedly 'free' (not really) platforms, such as GulagTube, the social control (multi)media "market leader"
[Meme] Hiding From Bullies Not the Solution
‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 30, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 30, 2024
If You Support Free - is in Freedom/Libre - Software, Then Support the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
2024 was the most productive year so far
CNN's Front Page is About 250 Times Heavier Than Techrights' (Also Far Slower)
Those who value performance and users' experience will give bloat the boot
[Meme] What 'Social Justice Warrior' Has Come to Mean by 2024
People who have long called themselves "SJW" aren't exactly any of those things
We Already Know What Makes Techrights So Attractive to Online Abuse and Cybercrimes
Techrights helps explain how to dismantle the 'cancel culture' against Free software (it also names the key perpetrators)
Microsoft Controlling Apache by Proxy/ies
This is a broader attack on what "Open Source" actually means
Two Years Later Sirius Open Source is Basically Dead (With a Zombie Web Site)
1 day from now it's exactly 2 years since Rianne and I resigned
[Meme] The Internet is More Fragile Than They Are Willing to Admit
If your site ready for a war on pipes and cables?
In Case Undersea Cables Are Cut...
The issue has been somewhat of a taboo - mostly overlooked or entirely ignored at times of peace
IBM is More Than 60 Billion Dollars in Debt (Which It Cannot Pay Back)
IBM debt is growing
IBM and Microsoft Fake Headcount in Exactly the Same Way (While Mass Layoffs Persist and Real Revenue Falls, Not Just Compared to Inflation Rates)
They convert profits into fake 'growth' instead of cashing in (so debt continues to soar), in effect gaming the system based on misleading metrics
Daniel Pocock Moved Up Two Spots in the Political Battles
He has made a statement about it
Links 30/11/2024: Cable Cuts Under Investigation, America’s Cemeteries Are Rewilding, Panda Protection Money Misused
Links for the day
Understanding Irish general election 2024 results Dublin Bay South
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 30/11/2024: Social Control Media Under Growing Scrutiny, Patent Propaganda Sites Still Promote a Fake Court (UPC)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/11/2024: SIGINT Foo and Hooking Up an Old Serial Terminal to a NetBSD Machine Over USB
Links for the day
Apache Software Foundation, Already Infiltrated by Microsoft for Well Over a Decade, Still Controlled by Proprietary Giants With Openwashing Agents
No wonder things get outsourced to Microsoft's proprietary prison (GitHub)
Tux Machines Turning Twenty a Half
Contact us if you want to join us and live not far from Manchester
Stable at Over 4% and 400+ Days' Uptime
Hopefully some time this weekend we'll find enough time to upload party photos (this site turning 18)
With a Month Left to Raise Money the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Already Raised 56,000 Dollars
December starts tomorrow
The Irish Have Voted, We'll Soon Know How Many Voted for a Debian Developer and Free Software Specialist
Dublin Bay South results
[Meme] The Word Security Has Been Redefined
"See what the media tells us?"
Proving Yet Again That Techrights Was Right About UEFI 'Secure Boot' All Along (Since 2012)
'Secure Boot' or 'secure' boot is about anything but security
[Meme] Growing Up and Becoming Sceptical
Social control media is a toxic weapon against what's true
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 29, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 29, 2024
Reporting Information and Facts at Times of War (and Information Wars), Dissent of Merit and Scepticism//Critical Skills Impermissible
The world is full of white-collar crime, so the more people report, the better
Links 30/11/2024: More Strongarming and Threats to Taiwan, Ananda Krishnan is Dead
Links for the day