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Links 6/9/2011: Android 3.2 Previews, wdiff 1.0.0 Released



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



  • Understanding open source technologies, the ethical way
    The recent times have seen many big companies and even US government face brunt of invasions by hackers from other countries, creating a huge impact on world politics.

    With this trend several hackers offer help in repairing vulnerabilities in such systems. They in turn demand payments for the same, which is not ethical, because their work does not comply with pure assurance that an ethical hacker always guarantees.

    Thus for us ethical hackers, this unethical wayposes a threat to our image, which is yet to be repaired in the minds of governments and people in general.


  • Web Browsers



  • SaaS



  • Databases

    • NSA proposes Accumulo NoSQL database to Apache
      Built on top of Apache's Hadoop, Zookeeper and Thrift projects, Accumulo is a distributed key/value store based on the design of Google's BigTable. Developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA), the Accumulo project has now been proposed to the Apache Software Foundation for consideration and incubation as a new Apache project. Accumulo's big difference is that it has fine-grained label-based access control, which could allow different users to access a record but only see the fields they are allowed to see; the NSA developers believe such a database could work in "government, health care, and other industries where privacy is a concern".




  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Another Crack in Oracle’s Case Against Google


    • Oracle v. Google - Google Knocks Another (Minor) Chip Out of Oracle
      Two weeks ago Google won the right to file a motion for summary judgment on Oracle's affirmative defense of assignor estoppel. As we explained at that time, Oracle was arguing that, since Google now employs some of the named inventors in the patents Oracle is asserting against Google, Google should be precluded from challenging the validity of those patents.

      Oracle has now decided to throw in the towel on that defense by agreeing to stipulate to its dismissal with prejudice, i.e., they cannot reassert this defense again in this case. 387 [PDF] This is not that big a deal. There was almost no chance that Oracle was going to be successful with the assignor estoppel defense (their attempt to apply it in this case went far beyond anything any court has allowed). Nevertheless, it knocks one more issue off the table. Note that the dismissal with prejudice on this defense is not final until the judge enters the order, but given the parties have agreed to the stipulation, that is a mere formality.




  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



  • Project Releases

    • wdiff 1.0.0 released
      So what has changed? As user noticeable changes we have updated translations for Updated Dutch, French, Danish and Slovenian as well as a completely new translation file for Ukrainian thanks to Yuri Chornoivan. The code will now give more useful results in case the diff program either cannot be executed or fails for some reason.




  • Public Services/Government

    • Can Whitehall open up to open source?
      What's Whitehall's attitude to software procurement? A cynic might sum it up as "nobody ever got sacked for buying Microsoft".

      The current government has vowed to change the civil service mindset that has always preferred to spend money with the biggest firms and has been conservative about open source software.

      The Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has vowed to create a level playing field for open source as part of a drive to cut costs.

      Now a BBC Freedom of Information (FOI) request has given us a glimpse of how big the challenge will be.


    • Government a closed shop for open source
      Amid promises from the current Government to give greater opportunities to open-source providers, the BBC made a flurry of Freedom of Information Act requests aimed at discovering the use of non-proprietary software in Whitehall.

      The figures from each department are hardly conclusive and vary in detail, but point to a situation in which conservatism rules the day, with civil-service buyers reluctant to look past low-risk, high-cost packages from big-name suppliers.


    • Indian Government Takes the Open Source Route
      The draft ‘Policy On Device Drivers For Procurement Of Hardware For e-Governance’ states that the, “Government of India (GOI) endeavours to provide e-governance services, which are technology-neutral, cost-effective, interoperable and vendor-neutral. The GOI Policy on open standards is a step towards meeting this objective in the development of e-governance applications.” The policy will be applicable in all new e-governance projects, as well as in existing ones.


    • Department for Transport Embraces Open Source Platform and Cloud-Based Hosting in Latest Kainos Project
      The Department for Transport (www.dft.gov.uk/) has become the latest central Government organisation to extend its relationship with Causeway, the application management services arm of Kainos, with a new contract to support the Department’s web activities and migration to a cloud-based open source platform.






Leftovers

  • Armageddon of IT
    The “innocent” third parties for this change could either ship their products in virtual machines paying the “tax” or they could port their software to GNU/Linux. Either way would cost ISVs some money but all the software makers owe the manufacturers of all that lovely hardware a lot, I figure. They should be glad to contribute to software freedom. End users might need some retraining but the OEMs could easily host training sites to prepare users. There could be lots of opportunity for smaller ISVs to compete against the big guys if they can get software working on GNU/Linux sooner than the big guys.


  • Health/Nutrition

    • Nurses to Obama: Heal America, Tax Wall Street!
      As President Obama gets ready for his big jobs speech Thursday, America’s nurses have a message for him. "Heal America, Tax Wall Street!" the signs read as nurses rallied in front of 61 Congressional offices this week. The nurses are proposing a bold alternative to the “cut, cut, cut” rhetoric emanating from Washington, D.C.




  • Cablegate





  • Finance

    • Pray for Goldman Sachs
      Because no amount of money ultimately protects you against the collapse of a nation, against raging compatriots in the streets too desperate to care anymore. Look at Rome, Greece, Rwanda, Russia (twice recently -- the Czars, then the Commies). Take a look at Gaddafi, Hussein and all the other leaders in the Middle East who have been feasting off their people.


    • WHo Do You THiNK BuiLT AMeRiCa?
      Watch the news this Labor Day. You will have the unique opportunity to hear and see politicians, robbers, thieves and human strip miners tell you about how they have the best interests of "working" American men and women at heart.




  • Civil Rights



    • Facebook Complains About German Sites Changing Functionality Of 'Like' Button To Comply With Law
      Who's more powerful when it comes to determining how social voting functionality works in Germany? The government or Facebook? You may recall a few weeks ago there were reports of a German official effectively banning the Facebook "like" button on third party sites as a privacy violation. While it doesn't say it's officially in response to this, the German news site Heise implemented a neat little workaround, in which you have to first click on the icon to "activate" it, and then you can click the "like" (Google translation of the original German). Under this system, the "like" button isn't loaded until a user clicks on it, thus there's no issue of Facebook automatically tracking folks via the button.






Recent Techrights' Posts

Expecting Failure
Some things would not happen to technology (tech) experts because they know how things work and what to expect (or watch out for)
unixcop.com is the Latest "Linux" Site to Have Become a Slopfarm After 2 Years of Death (Inactivity)
Not a way to stage a comeback
 
The Only Still-Supported Version of Windows Breaks Itself (Again), the Microsoft Layoffs Will Carry on in Secret
In the US they marked about 7% for removal just this past summer
Wikileaks Turns 20 Just 18 Days From Now
it's fair to say they've endured online, but aren't lively/active
The Cyber Show Debunks the Alleged Intelligence in Slop
It's shorter than usual
Links 16/09/2026: US Running Low/Out of Some Ammo Due to Wars, Slop Bots "Are Using an Outrageous Amount of Electricity"
Links for the day
"AI Slowdown" is Code Word for Bubble Imploding (Trying to Make This Slowdown Seem Wilful, an Act of Safety and Responsibility)
They help one another by inflating the bubble and making false excuses when expansion stalls
SLAPP Censorship - Part 185 Out of 200: What Reputation?
Helping monopolies and working for monopolies never made anybody popular
Gemini Links 16/09/2026: Slovenia, Catastrophe Ethics, and ROOPHLOCH 2026
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 15, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Microsoft Layoffs in September 2026 Are Silent, Hidden
Expect the same next month ahead of the fake results
Links 15/09/2026: 'Smartphone', Android TV Box, Stockholm Syndrome of [Slop Plagiarism] Acceptance
Links for the day
Carmen-Lisandrette Maris Prepares Audiobook to Explain Software Freedom/Digital Rights to Adolescents, Needs Help From Volunteers
needs help with narrating
Links 15/09/2026: Putin-Connected Money for The Insurrectionist Jr. and Turkey's Crackdown on Activists
Links for the day
publicdomainpictures.net Seems to Have Become Fed Up With Slop Contaminating Its Database (Wasting Storage, Bandwidth), Now It's Suitably Flagged, Should Be Demoted/Delisted
The site was redone, suffered some hours of downtime, then 'relaunched' with a new interface this week
Gemini Links 15/09/2026: Hiking in Munții Făgăraș, Scams, and Slop Plagiarism Considered Unethical
Links for the day
Linux Kernel Becoming a Slopfest - Part 1 - At the Beginning (Torvalds Knew It Was Trouble)
We still wonder if we should make and actively maintain a shame list (developer/employer) for the people who contaminate Linux the most with slop plagiarism
EPO Staff is Preparing to Take Up a Notch the Strikes and Other Industrial Actions Ahead of October's Meeting (It Can Help Oust the Corrupt Leadership)
mobilising perhaps thousands of workers at a critical time in the history of the Office
Allegedly Many PIP Layoffs in Nepal, IBM Does This Before a Known Death Toll in Avalanche (Caused by China-, Europe-, and US-Induced Global Warming)
Fresh wounds, before the bodies are even recovered (thousands still missing)
"Wail" by Alexandre Oliva
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) 4.0 International
This Morning The Register MS Published a Page With "AI" 83 Times in it. The Register MS Got Paid to Do This.
The Register MS is not a serious publisher and a lot of the stuff about "AI" on the Web isn't journalism but paid-for SPAM
While GAFAM/Microsoft Disguise Financial Crisis as "Investment in AI" the Slop Giants Make Up a Narrative of Wilful Slowdown
A BS artist is good at the art of BS when the artist's failures or weaknesses get twisted as moral or professional leadership
SLAPP Censorship - Part 184 Out of 200: A Tiny Law Firm That Knows Nothing But Microsoft (But Merely Pretends to Understand "IT")
They've managed to trick some mainstream media into thinking they're "Tech" experts or "Social [Control] Media" gurus; nothing could be further from the truth
Links 15/09/2026: Sweden’s Far Right Perishing and "Iceland Just Got Played"
Links for the day
It's Not About How Developers Vote
This isn't about politics, it's about users being in control of their own computers and computing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 14, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, September 14, 2026
Gemini Links 15/09/2026: Poetry, Enshittification of Ebay, and Mecha System
Links for the day
LG Lies to Cover Up Lies About Its Spying TVs (It Records and Transmits Conversations in Rooms)
This is what a lot of "modern" technology is like
Oracle's Debt Continues to Soar (Increase of 60 Billion Dollars in 15 Months, Not Counting the Secret Debt, With Off-balance-sheet Debt Having "Grown Roughly Thirtyfold in Four Years")
Oracle debt continues to grow
It Has Cost $215,000 in Legal Costs to Sue IBM for Wrongful Termination
IBM typically settles out of court and demands secrecy (to avoid anyone else benefiting from the very expensive outcome)
Apple's iOS and macOS Measured as Bigger Than Windows in the US, Linux-Based OSes at Almost 30%
Expect the silent layoffs at Microsoft to continue at a rapid pace
Oracle, Like Microsoft, Drowns in Debt and Discards Tens of Thousands of Staff (Microsoft Does the Same More Discreetly)
The main difference between Microsoft and Oracle is that the latter is honest about what's going on
Gemini Links 14/09/2026: First Android Phone, Leaving Sony, and Rant About Gemini-to-HTTP Proxy Providers
Links for the day
Links 14/09/2026: "Scam Altman Now Trying to Gain Control of Electric Grid" and Sweden Moving to the Right
Links for the day
Vista 11 Flunked
Microsoft cannot start a "Vista 12" campaign as it would only make matters worse
Microsoft Urgently Needs Distraction: There's No "Next XBox", But There's a New Boot Screen (Like 'Dark Mode', a Feature That Can be Implemented in Mere Minutes/Hours)
Anything to distract from XBox fiasco
The PIPs or 'Voluntary Termination Offers' Help IBM Fake Its Situation
"IBM is not a tech company"
IBM Flying Away to Sweatshops (So Will Red Hat)
Even on Sunday people post about 'leaving' IBM
RFID Ambitions Already Established by Widespread Skinnerbox Adoption
A society that cannot maintain privacy for those who deserve it will not manage to assure dignity of citizens
SLAPP Censorship - Part 183 Out of 200: What Actually Happened Two Months Ago (Based on People Who Attended)
It's dangerous to assert what happened in a hearing you did not attend (there was no video stream or recording, either)
Phil Harvey, an Editor-in-Chief in a B2B Site, Explains Why ChannelFutures (Connected to TechTarget) and Other Sites That Used to Cover Linux Deleted Many Articles
Every old article in channelfutures is gone!
Software Freedom Day 2026 is 5 Days From Now, Fresh Reminder to Boycott Proprietary Software
Let this be a timely reminder of why people should avoid proprietary software
Links 14/09/2026: Slop Hardly Used for Actual Work (Chatbots Are for Lonely People), Slop Bots (Scrapers, Plagiarism) "Are Thirsty for Power"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/09/2026: Trip, Hiding, and OCR
Links for the day
IBM PIPs Are Layoffs (RAs Come Later Even If You Satisfy the "Performance" and "Plan")
Notice how "the media" almost never mentions silent layoffs, as if just because they're silent, there's nothing to investigate, nothing to see there
Slop Companies Engage in Plagiarising the Web, Now They Pay People to Contaminate the Web With Their Lies
Remember that the lawfare against us is funded by slop salaries!
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 13, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, September 13, 2026