Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 11/9/2011: Xonotic 0.5, Plasma Active





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Applications



    • Instructionals/Technical



    • Games

      • Xonotic 0.5 Release
        Today we can bring you some great news, a brand new release of Xonotic! It has been quite a while since the 0.1 preview version, but we have made immense progress over the last few months. In this blog post we’ll be showing off the latest improvements and tell you about the changes we made from the feedback we had after the initial release.






  • Desktop Environments



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Plasma Active: Crunching towards One
        Plasma Active aims at creating a desirable user experience for a spectrum of devices, based on a fully Free software stack, developed in the open. The first release is planned for October. In the following article, you can read about the latest status and recent improvements made.


      • Back from the Desktop Summit 2011 in Berlin
        Perhaps I am the last one writing about the wonderful Desktop Summit in Berlin some days ago. Nevertheless I want to summarize my personal highlights.

        The Desktop Summit was awesome. I had the pleasure to meet people (old and new friends from all over the world), discuss complicated stuff face-to-face and of cause: have a lot of fun together.

        In a combined cross desktop marketing BoF we discussed some ideas how we (GNOME and KDE) could join forces to get bigger media coverage (e.g. TV, radio or big newspapers). One intresting first step is by paying attention on our messages. It occured that the message was: "... is THE Linux Desktop Environment" or "A is better than B".


      • Google Summer of Code & Season of KDE
        How awesome are the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) and Season of KDE (SoK) programs? According to Daniel Moctezuma, "All the work done by students in GSoC/SoK will have an impact in Free Software and the world." Daniel is one of the 2011 GSoC students. Lydia Pintscher is the main administrator of these programs for KDE. She made the following report.

        [...]

        It makes me proud that KDE as a community is able and willing to teach newcomers to Free Software on such a large scale, while delivering high-quality results in terms of code produced and students mentored.




    • GNOME Desktop

      • Intel SNA With Unity, Unity 2D & GNOME Shell
        After the benchmarks a few days back of Intel Sandy Bridge Acceleration On Non-SNB Hardware, Chris Wilson of Intel who has been responsible for much of the "Sandy Bridge New Acceleration" work requested more tests, but this time to see the effect that the compositing window manager has on this new acceleration architecture. As a result, here is some quick tests of Intel's Sandy Bridge graphics under the Unity, Unity 2D, and GNOME Shell desktops.






  • Distributions

    • Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 review - More goodness
      Praising an operating system over and over is a sure sign of fanboyism, which is punishable by flogging in some countries, or at the very least, leads to ostracization in the higher social circles. But it is truly difficult to find fault with the Puppy Linux, release after release. And while I tested Lucid Puppy not that long ago, I had an urge for more great stuff, so I redid my testing with the latest release, version 5.2.8.


    • New Releases





  • Devices/Embedded



    • Phones



      • Android

        • Android Update brings PAN/NAP to Motorola defy
          After my summer vacation, I finally did the official update on my defy, which brought the thing to Android 2.2.2.


        • It’s an Android future, with or without Google
          Making its public debut with the release of the HTC Dream/G1, Google’s Android mobile operating system has provided the search giant with a massively successful mobile ecosystem that, whilst doesn’t directly generate revenues through licensing, it provides smartphone manufacturers with a free, powerful and customisable software platform – generating millions of dollars in sales – and also helps possibly the world’s biggest advertising company dominate another advertising vertical.






    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Tablet Sales Jump Forecast
        Moskowitz did acknowledge the possibility that the Amazon tablet could be a major player, though cited concerns about the Android OS as a weak spot.








Free Software/Open Source



  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • LibreOffice API documentation available
      The new documentation covers the complete LibreOffice 3.4 API, has reference documentation for the Java UNO Runtime and C++ UNO runtime systems, and an overview of the UNO development tools.






Leftovers

  • Windows 7 driver signing conundrum
    Personally I think the whole driver model for Windows is a huge mess, especially when problems come up like this,


  • Security



  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • TSA Agent Threatens Woman With Defamation, Demands $500k For Calling Intrusive Search 'Rape'
      After investigating whether or not she could file sexual assault charges, and being told that this was probably a non-starter, she instead wrote about the experience, and named the TSA agent who she dealt with: Thedala Magee. Alkon felt that if people can't stop these kinds of searches, they should at least be able to name the TSA agents who are doing them.


    • Libya: 19 Suffocated in Gaddafi Detention
      The discovery on September 8, 2011, of 18 bodies buried in western Libya corroborates reports of the death by suffocation of detainees held by Gaddafi forces in June in the town of al-Khoms, Human Rights Watch said today. Another victim died a few days later, so was not buried with the other 18.


    • Mall of America visitors unknowingly end up in counterterrorism reports
      As he shopped for a children’s watch inside the sprawling Mall of America, two security guards approached and began questioning him. Although he was not accused of wrongdoing, the guards filed a confidential report about Kleinerman that was forwarded to local police.

      The reason: Guards thought he might pose a threat because they believed he had been looking at them in a suspicious way.





  • Cablegate

    • Reef safeguard cut back
      THE federal government has secretly wound back a critical environmental protection for the Great Barrier Reef against shipping accidents in order to avoid a diplomatic stoush with the US and Singapore.


    • Leaks reveal it's past time to speak for West Papua
      The leaked documents also reveal the penetration of Indonesian surveillance on Papuans: everyone from teachers to taxi drivers is on the Kopassus payroll. I have first-hand experience of it. In 2002 I worked with advocate John Rumbiak (now in exile in the US) at Elsham, a Papuan human rights organisation. As an Australian exchange student at an Indonesian university, I had entry where journalists were denied - but it did not spare me from surveillance or intimidation.


    • Tales from Mexico's drug wars, WikiLeaks style
      Mexico's offensive against the drug cartels that plague the nation has been fraught with controversy. Over the past four and a half years, tens of thousands have been killed, including many civilians, and the violence continues unabated.

      The drug war is made up of hundreds of incidents and decisions, both public and behind-the-scenes, that the media dutifully reports, unless, as in the case of some Mexican media, there is self-censorship out of fear.


    • Justice Department Reports Drug Seizures Do Little to Stop Cartels
      The government’s long-running war on drugs is having little impact, according to documents just released. The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) of the Justice Department reports demand for drugs is rising and the demand is being supplied by major transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) or cartels, which adapt to government “counterdrug efforts” modifying interrelationships, altering drug production levels and adjusting trafficking routes and methods.






  • Finance

    • Wall Street Banks: Too Big To Blame For Subprime?
      Goldman Sachs has historically been one of the more bullish investment houses on Wall Street, but the firm has recently taken a dark macro view. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sept. 1 that Goldman issued a 54-page report sent to their institutional clients on August 16th arguing that as much as $1 trillion in capital may be needed to shore up European banks; that small businesses in the U.S., a past driver of job production, are still languishing; and that China’s growth may not be sustainable.


    • Is Goldman Sachs Doomed?
      No Franchise lasts forever. In the 1990′s, the Chicago Bulls were considered the best basketball team ever. Today, the same sentiments do not exist. When the junk bond market was red hot in the 1980′s, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette was the premier investment bank on Wall Street. Before DLJ, the big dog was Drexel Burnham Lambert.

      [...]

      If history truly repeats itself, Goldman Sachs may one day be considered as a second-rate bank, or may even become defunct.


    • $4 Gas: Brought to You by Wall Street
      It was the summer of 2008, and the entire country was outraged over $4 gas. It seemed like everyone had bought into the idea that the solution to high gas prices was more drilling for oil: Sarah Palin and other prominent Republicans had taken up the "Drill, baby, drill" refrain. Democrats in Congress, so afraid of consumer backlash, let the 27-year-old moratorium on new drilling in the outer continental shelf quietly expire. But what most people didn't realize at the time was the role that big financial players like Goldman Sachs—not simple supply and demand—played in pushing gas prices sky-high.




  • Civil Rights

    • Is it Legal to Photograph or Videotape Police?
      The ACLU, photographers' groups, and others have been complaining about such incidents for years — and we have been consistently winning in court. Recently, an appeals court ruled, on behalf of an ACLU client, that Americans have a First Amendment right to videotape the police making an arrest in a public park.


    • Clothing brands agree to look into mass faintings in Cambodia
      Cambodia is home to some 300 factories where clothing for export is manufactured. They supply major global brands such as Gap, H&M, Wal-Mart and Puma.






Recent Techrights' Posts

All the Red Flags in New Linux Foundation Report
How telling...
[Meme] Shooting the Messenger
"you needn't refute the message, just take out the messengers"
Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Associate Sued Us for Publishing Perfectly Accurate Article About SFC; We Sued Them for Harassment
SFC and its associates aren't nice people
Fantastic Journalism by Brian Fagioli
A lot of today's Web, even "news" sites, is spam
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Raised More Than Three Times More Money Than the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), Which Mostly Gets Money From Corporations, Including Microsoft
Do not donate any money to copycat organisations. It's worse than money down the river because your money might get spent attacking and even defaming the originals.
 
[Meme] When You Go Against Corporate Front Groups and Shills of Moneyed Interests (EDRi is Microsoft-Compromised Now)
The "golden rule" is, follow the gold
The Register Exposed Many IBM Scandals, Lawsuits, and Secret Layoffs. Now IBM Pays The Register.
Hush money?
IBM Told the Media the Secret Mass Layoffs Would Carry on Till End of November, But They Still Happen This Month
"My team of 9 people had 4 regulars and 5 contractors. All contractors gone."
Links 06/12/2024: Promotion of Fake and Illegal Patent 'Court' (UPC), South Korean Strikes, and More Bailouts at Taxpayers' Expense
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/12/2024: Shrinkflation and Working at Google
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 05, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, December 05, 2024
Techrights Does Not Forget
Techrights has many anti-censorship mechanisms
Windows Has Fallen to All-Time Low in India
In India, only about 1 in 8 Web requests comes from Windows
Microsoft Criminals: Law Enforcement is the Real Problem
deflecting the issue and resorting to projection
[Meme] They Dropped the L (Libre and Law)
SFLC, could I borrow 75% of your letters?
Companies That the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Will Censor the Community for, Using Their Very Large CoC
also exploiting poor (and sexually abused) women from eastern Europe
Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Has Asked a Blogger to Delete This Page About the SFC, So We Reproduce It in Full Here
Censored article
Increasing Productivity With Less Hardware, Little Power, and Fewer CPU Cycles (and Far Less Digital Waste in General)
A lot of people who glance at our PCs (as they visit us) act a bit baffled, as much of what we're using is a bunch of terminals and some text editors
Gemini Protocol Keeps Getting Better (Less and Less Reliance on Centralised Certificate Authorities)
Reliable systems do not depend on third parties, only themselves
Why We Moved to Perl and Dumped PHP Last Year
Elongating the lifetime of the underlying stack
Links 05/12/2024: Explaining the South Korea Chaos and French PM Barnier's Government Already Disintegrating
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/12/2024: Domain Changes, Griping With Haskell
Links for the day
Links 05/12/2024: Mass Layoffs at Microsoft's PR (Bribery of Media) Agency, UnitedHealthcare CEO Shot Dead
Links for the day
GNU/Linux news for the past day
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 04, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 04, 2024
Links 05/12/2024: Formaldehyde and Cancer, US and China Boycotting One Another
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/12/2024: Hermeticism, Living in the Shell, and More
Links for the day
At the OSI, Microsoft Operative (Funded by Microsoft) Promotes Proprietary Software of Microsoft
The OSI is deeply corrupt. The good news is, it's barely hiding it anymore.
It's FOSS? No, It's SPAM.
Another sellout
Links 04/12/2024: Social Control Media Thoughts, Enrons of 2024, and More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/12/2024: Soviet Esotericism, Mikrotik is Awesome, and More
Links for the day
Techrights is Officially an Adult
this site's eighteenth anniversary
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part IX
By Dr. Andy Farnell
Many Geeks' Achilles Heel: They Don't Take Computer Breaks
Life can get longer if you stay healthy
[Meme] Silicon Valley's "Successful Businessmen"
Debt is not a currency
Visualising About 0.7 Trillion Dollars of Debt in Supposedly "Successful" Tech Companies
If they're doing so well, how come they borrow so much money (which some would struggle to pay back or never manage to pay back)?
Single-Digit Microsoft: Windows Finally Falls Below 10% in Angola
it's only a matter of time before Windows is down to 5%
Coming Up With Topics to Cover and Issues to Comment on
Socialising is a big part of it
In Asia, Microsoft's Bing Became Smaller Than Yandex and It Shrinks Every Month
How long before Microsoft pulls the plug on Bing?
[Meme] Far From What Was Originally Intended
Makes site about RMS; Deletes his own 'site'
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 03, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 03, 2024
Illuminating Microsoft's Dirty Tactics
Criticising illegal things that Microsoft does can be classified as "Microsoft bashing" or "hatred"
Proof That Drew DeVault Vanished From Mastodon After the RMS Attack Site Was Linked to Him (and People Pointed Out DeVault's Fascination With Animated CP, Drawings of Naked Kids)
We assume he just wanted to vanish from Mastodon
Maybe Bill Gates is Getting Demented Like His Late Father (He Says Things That Are True But He's Not Supposed to Say in Public)
It happened in a podcast with Reid Hoffman
We've Clearly Struck a Nerve
Microsofters and Microsoft proxies have meanwhile lost their temper