Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 28/7/2010: OpenBTS Debuts



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Desktop

    • Review: Running Linux on the HP Envy 14
      After two weeks I am still very happy with my purchase. All in all is the HP Envy 14 a good choice for Linux users. Compared to my DELL XPS M2010, the important components all work out of the box or with moderate work. I really can recommend the machine to everyone, even non-Linux users. HP managed to give PC enthusiasts a real Mac alternative.








  • Server

    • Windows Server 2003, Bye-Bye
      Windows Server 2003 is the server realm equivalent of Windows XP. As is the case with XP, it's hard to let go. But, what will you choose to replace it? Windows Server 2008 has promise. What about Linux? And, if you choose Linux, which distribution will work best for you? Have you considered a commercial Unix to cure what ails your data center? Whichever one you choose, you'd better hurry. Windows Server 2003, as much as you love it, is beyond Microsoft's end of life for mainstream support. That date passed you by on July 13, 2010. (Extended support, however, will be available through March 2015.)








  • Devices/Embedded





    • Phones

      • Open-source, software-based GSM cellphone network
        It's called the OpenBTS Project, and pundits are claiming it could reduce user costs to $2/month in the developing world.
        OpenBTS is an open-source Unix application that uses the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) to present a GSM air interface ("Um") to standard GSM handset and uses the Asterisk€® software PBX to connect calls.












Free Software/Open Source



  • Events

    • OpenSQL Camp Europe: Time to cast your votes!
      During my absence, Giuseppe and Felix kicked off the Call for Papers for this year's European OpenSQL Camp, which will again take place in parallel to FrOSCon in St. Augustin (Germany) on August 21st/22nd. We've received a number of great submissions, now we would like to ask our community about your favourites!








Leftovers

  • Anti-Corruption Law in Effect This Year
    Law 9840 prevents candidates who have been convicted of any one of a range of crimes, including electoral fraud, from running for public office. The law passed unanimously through the senate on May 19th, and was ratified by President Luis Inacio da Silva. Last week the law passed a final hurdle when by a vote of six to one the Federal Election Board, which is actually a court composed of judges that has enforceable power, upheld the applicability of the law to October’s elections. Had the law failed to make it past this panel, the act could have been significantly derailed, opening the door to further challenges from opposing parties.

    Electoral fraud has persistently dogged Brazilian politics over the years, and public office has become something of a haven for those with criminal records (of which there are many), largely because the Brazilian constitution makes it extremely difficult to prosecute accused officials. Though there are frequent Parliamentary Investigation Commissions convened to look into infractions by officials, Brazilians remain cynical as to their efficacy, since prosecution, or even removal from office, rarely results.




  • Security/Aggression







  • Environment





  • Finance

    • Wall Street Wanders After Durable Goods Report
      Shares on Wall Street wandered early Wednesday after another disappointing economic report.

      The Commerce Department’s durable goods orders report for June indicates manufacturing growth is slowing. Orders for goods expected to last at least three years fell 1 percent last month. That was well short of the 1 percent gain that economists had forecast.

      Economic reports have generally shown that the recovery is slowing and growth will remain weak.


    • Why Congress should let the Bush tax cuts expire
      You know what happened next. The refund came. The supposed surplus evaporated. The Social Security surplus was spent. Instead of being paid down, the $3.3 trillion national debt ballooned to $9 trillion.


    • On tax fight, Obama can't afford to lose
      If Obama fails to alter the political dynamic and finally slay the anti-tax dragon, it's game over for his economic agenda.


    • In Study, 2 Economists Say Intervention Helped Avert a 2nd Depression
      The paper, by Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton professor and former vice chairman of the Fed, and Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, represents a first stab at comprehensively estimating the effects of the economic policy responses of the last few years.

      [...]

      Told about the findings, another leading economist was unconvinced.

      “I’m very surprised that they find these big impacts,” said John B. Taylor, a Stanford professor and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. “It doesn’t correspond at all to my empirical work.”








  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights







  • Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

    • Telstra cops $18m fine for exchange block
      Telstra has been ordered to pay $18.55 million to the Commonwealth for breaching the Trade Practices Act and its carrier licence conditions by locking broadband competitors out of its telephone exchanges.

      In the Federal Court in Melbourne this morning Justice John Middleton found against the telecommunications giant, saying it contravened the act and its licence on 27 occasions between July 2006 and April 2008.








  • Intellectual Monopolies





    • Copyrights

      • Pirate Party Offers Servers and Hosting To Wikileaks


        This week Wikileaks released more than 90,000 government documents related to the war in Afghanistan. When added to the perceived damage caused by its earlier leaking of the ‘Collateral Murder’ video, Wikileaks is now undoubtedly a serious target for U.S. authorities. After becoming The Pirate Bay’s ISP, The Pirate Party now says that if needed, they will supply servers and hosting to Wikileaks.


      • Music Publishers Demanding 360 Rights From Artists
        Music publishers were once thought of as safe havens for artists. They nurtured songwriters, introduced them to the industry and sought ways to broaden their income with covers and placements. Now, it appears that they want more - a lot more - than a piece of the act's publishing in exchange for their efforts.












Clip of the Day



Trisquel GNU/Linux 2.1(Pro) - Instalar Galego



[an error occurred while processing this directive]



Recent Techrights' Posts

Finland Needs to Dump Microsoft (Microslop) for National Security Reasons and the Same is True for Hundreds of Countries
"I don't see why Ryssäs would want Finns to use microslop products..."
Fight Til the End
This comes to show that persistence pays off
SLAPP Censorship - Part 79 Out of 200: They Will Soon Reach the 100 KG (Kilograms) Milestone; Wheelbarrows, Not Justice (Quantity of Legal Papers Sent to Us)
It's about the quality, not quantity (unless your sole aim is to drown out or "flood the zone")
 
"The Society of Media Lawyers" (UK) is a Truly Malicious Anti-Media Lobby Which Helps Rich/Abusive Americans and Hostile Countries Attack Actual Media Workers in the UK
They typically source their money from aboard to besiege domestic actors (like honest journalists or independent outlets that document suppressed beats/topics)
Slop Still Waning, Its Momentum is Driven by Companies That Stand to Lose a Lot (or Everything) When the Bubble Pops
When it comes to LLM slop disguised as news, it's just not working out
Gemini Links 17/05/2026: arXiv Brings Down the Hammer, UnderPOWERed, and Slopping With Tcl/Tk
Links for the day
Links 17/05/2026: Amazon Employees Herded Into Slop, Taiwan Sold Down the River by Cheeto
Links for the day
Links 17/05/2026: Society of Media Lawyers (Brett Wilson LLP et al) Lobby for More SLAPPs in the UK, “Courage in Journalism Award” Given in Oppressive Country
Links for the day
Cyber Show UK is Already Available Over Gemini Protocol
This past week the total number of active Gemini capsules hit all-time records several times
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXV - Not Bringing Intelligence to the EPO, Not 'Artificial Intelligence' Either (But Intelligence-Eroding Drugs)
The EPO was meant to be about science and law. In practice, however, it's about breaking the law and being stoned.
The Cyber Show on Why Coding is Important and Slop Cannot Change or Replace That
Hand-crafting one's site has plenty of advantages
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 16, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, May 16, 2026
Gemini Links 17/05/2026: Music Theory, Reticulum Git Repos, and Releasing Kiln
Links for the day
Links 16/05/2026: Cuba Plunges Into Darkness (Energy Wasted by Nonsense), Googlebooks as Slop Nonsense (Energy Waste and Time Wasted)
Links for the day
Links 16/05/2026: Climate Issues, Free Speech, and Monopolies/Monopsonies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/05/2026: Retreat and Devuan Manuals
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 78 Out of 200: Slandering Me for Saying the Truth About Graveley and Garrett's Abuse of Processes, Stacking Dockets
These are the sorts of things British taxpayers ought to talk about
"AI" Became a New Name or Placeholder for Debt
Because they will only ever lose money for this thing with "tokens" or "potential"
"Microsoft Goodwill and Intangible Assets" Down Two Years in a Row, According to Microsoft
Microsoft cannot sell these, so what is their real relevance?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 15, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 15, 2026
IBM: Shares Down 30%, Mass Layoffs, IBM Says "Goodwill" Grew by 10% to Over a Third of the Company's Total "Worth"
According to IBM
Microsoft LinkedIn Layoffs "Very Likely Higher" Than 1,000 People
Microsoft is bleeding
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXIV - Luis Berenguer Giménez at the EPO (European Patent Office) Became the Punchline of EPO Staff
"the fact that Luis was caught with cocaine causes laughter. The use of cocaine in itself is not the real shocking bit."
IBM Keeps Culling Essential Linux, Fedora, GNOME, and GTK Staff
Over a month ago IBM laid off over 400 Red Hat engineers
Cisco Cuts Nearly 4,000 Jobs Because of Debt, Nothing to Do With Slop
The media keeps talking about revenue, not profits
Gemini Links 15/05/2026: UDP Game Forwarding Over SSH, Avoiding LLMs, and Alhena 5.5.9
Links for the day
Links 15/05/2026: Electric Company Shuns Entire Town to Prioritise Only Data Centres, Saudi Arabia and U.A.E. Carried Out Secret Attacks in Iran
Links for the day
LLM Slop is Not Reliable, Constitutes No Process of 'Thinking'; There's No Thought Process at All, No Grasp or Understanding, Let Alone Context
Lies have become the "business model" [...] More people ought to talk about it and explain to other people what LLMs really are
Not a Security Expert If You Cannot Manage to Keep Online a Simple Two-User Mastodon Instance Somebody Else Built
From uptime of ~99% to maybe 80%
Microsoft Has All the Symptoms of a Dying Company (Mass Layoffs of the People Who Built the Company)
the company's debt is going through the ceiling
Focus is Important, Focus is Everything
We are still running 6 multi-part series in tandem
For Effective 'Finlandisation' (Not Digital Sovereignty) to Be Replaced by Autonomy Finland Needs to Think Like GNU (Software Freedom), Not Linux (Openwashing Source, Plus LLM Slop and Killswitches)
What is 'Finlandisation'?
Guest Post on False Marketing and PR Blitzes by Anthropic
A lot of people my age are just tired of the nonsense
Links 15/05/2026: UK antitrust regulator is officially investigating Microsoft Office, Anthropic’s Fraudulent Lies About Mythoslop Don't Withstand Scrutiny
Links for the day
IBM's Kyndryl in Trouble: Mass Layoffs, Payroll Problems, Buybacks (in Company Whose Debt is Almost Twice Its Total Value), and Soon $9 Per Share (Down Over 80%)
Kyndryl is done. Stick a fork in it.
ICYMI: GNU/Linux Did Not Start in Finland
If we're honest/true to ourselves, we need to recognise history for what it is, not what some corporations (like GAFAM) want it to be
IBM is Googlebombing the Media With Fake Numbers to Promote Fake Technology
a classic example of why much of today's media cannot be trusted (anymore)
Up to 10,000 Microsoft Layoffs in a Couple of Months
Many ways to skin a cat
Truth Hurts. People Hurt by Truth Aren't Entitled to Compensation.
Family members aren't exempt
SLAPP Censorship - Part 77 Out of 200: They Never Knew How to Handle Women (Except to Attack Them)
The case against us was really quite simple
Update on Sirius Open Source in 2026 (When Your Former Employer Commits Crimes and Nobody is Held Accountable)
I did not envision myself spending several years (even 4 years after leaving that company) challenging the system for tolerating and even covering up corruption
Codecs and Software Patents - Part VII - Entering Phase II, the Battle Against Companies That Normalise Taxed (by Patents on Mathematics) Codecs
In the next few part we'll deal with the impact on Free software, including the GNU Project
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXIII - Cocaine Use at the EPO's Top-Level Management "Adds Up" and Worsens Things "Over Time"
"cocaine use knocks the IQ down permanently a tiny bit with each use. Over time that adds up."
Gemini Links 15/05/2026: Slop Fatigue and Banning LLM Use
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 14, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, May 14, 2026