Arctic is now selling a small form-factor desktop computer with an Intel Atom processor, AMD Radeon HD graphics, and a Linux-based operating system designed to support the XBMC Media Center application.
Linux desktop projects often overlook formal usability testing. Attempts to introduce it are generally short-lived. After a few experiments, most developers fall back on a series of informal alternatives.
Yet as Linux becomes increasingly popular, the need for usability becomes more pressing. Implemented properly, it might have prevented or mitigated some of the upheavals of the last few years.
A set of patches that allow the Linux kernel image to be compressed with the LZ4 lossless compression algorithm have been published. The size of LZ4-compressed Linux kernel images are larger than using LZO compression, but there's promise that the boot times could be better.
The Reiser4 file-system has been ported to run on the Linux 3.7 kernel. Separately, TRIM/DISCARD support for Reiser4 on solid-state drives is being discussed amongst the remaining Reiser4 developers.
Edward Shishkin, the main developer left working on the Reiser4 file-system in his spare time, announced the port of Reiser4 for Linux 3.7 earlier this month. The actual porting to the 3.7 kernel was largely done by Ivan Shapovalov while Shishkin also made some other changes to be found in the latest version of the Reiser4 file-system patch. The new Reiser4 release was made on the reiserfs-devel mailing list and the patch to apply against the vanilla/mainline kernel can be found at SourceForge.
Another patch landed in mainline Mesa today that's capable of providing a small performance boost for some OpenGL workloads with Intel's open-source Linux graphics driver.
AMD isn't yet ready to welcome its upcoming Radeon HD 8000 Series graphics cards to the world, but the company is preparing for the impending launch, in part by publishing initial open source Linux drivers. Found in the Mesa graphics library, the open source drivers pertain to the Radeon HD 8870 and 8850 graphics cards.
The open-source Lima graphics driver that's a reverse-engineered user-space software driver for ARM's Mali graphics core, is now faster than the official ARM binary graphics driver in certain cases, such as when running Quake 3.
In continuation of the article noting Freedreno Gallium3D might be merged soon, here's the video showing off the progress of this open-source Gallium3D graphics driver that was made to support the Qualcomm Adreno hardware.
3D printers run on simple microcontrollers – many of them based on the open Arduino hacker platform -- and are controlled by desktop PCs like any other printer. Like almost all the open source contenders -- and almost none of the proprietary designs – MakerBot's Replicator 2 still supports Linux desktops, in addition to Windows and Mac.
I received an email from Piriform, makers of CCleaner, asking me to remove a feature from BleachBit that allows individual BleachBit users to use winapp2.ini files created by the community of users. I don't see how the terms of use apply, but I am checking into it.
If you ever find yourself in a situation in which your computer doesn’t start, and you’ve already tried the “Last Known Good Configuration” option and it doesn’t work, what else can you do?
SystemDiscs has a solution that might actually take you away from your frustrations with an automatic repair application called Easy Recovery Essentials (EasyRE, in short). This is a great software that allows you to repair your Windows and backup your files even if you can’t boot into Windows, and we have a giveaway too. Read on for more detail.
It seems thanks to the increasing market-share of Android devices and the rise of Linux on the desktop thanks to the many commercial Linux gaming initiatives that have been shared in recent months, Microsoft is being forced to take a serious look at Linux and a meaningful look at releasing their popular Office software for Linux in 2014.
This tweet has sparked posts over Reddit and other popular Linux related websites so it's time for my views.
I am as usual torn on the subject because I think Wine is important but bad at the same time. I will keep it short and just bear in mind as usual these are just my personal views and personal experiences using wine.
The folks over at http://www.iheartubuntu.com recently put up a challenge to the Linux community to get Netflix to work natively under our beloved OS. Thankfully, Erich Hoover stepped up to the challenge and patched the Wine Project in a way to allow Firefox/Silverlight to be installed and actually work with Netflix's DRM'd Silverlight!
Serious Sam 3 was one of the original games on Steam for Linux and is available to everyone since Valve's Steam Linux client went public. Serious Sam 3: BFE is developed by Croteam and the latest in the Serious Sam franchise. The game is powered by Serious Engine 3.5 and was first released for Windows in 2011.
Makslane Rodrigues has released Game Editor, a free, open source game creation application that lets you design and create exciting, interactive games for the Windows, Windows Mobile, iPad, iPhone, Mac OS X, Linux, Pocket PC, and Android markets. With no investment or royalty fees, Game Editor lets you create games for family and friends, as well as commercial games that you can sell. In addition, Game Editor is an easy way for businesses to participate in the gamification trend that lets you create and distribute games that build brand loyalty for your company.
Independent developer Makslane Rodrigues has released Game Editor, a free and open source cross platform game creation application.
What does cross platform mean to the true open source evangelist?
It's the Windows, Windows Mobile, iPad, iPhone, Mac OS X, Linux, Pocket PC and Android markets - each and every one of them.
Awesome Window Manager offers three simple themes for users that need a ch ange. Here you can get a brief look at the default themes, along with instructions to sample them for yourself. Although style choices may be limited, this is one of the most efficient window managers available.
The day and time for the next live video cast on Google Hangout has been set. There was a clear preference among those who responded to the survey. (Thanks to you all!) The live show will happen this Thursday, the 7th of February at 20:00 UTC.
A number of improvements to QtWayland have been merged this month, primarily around the Client Side Decorations support and other functionality needed for proper support of this likely X11 Server successor.
The KDE team has announced the 4.10 releases of KDE Plasma Workspaces, Applications and Development Platform. It brings many improvements, features and polishes the UI even further, which already is one of the most polished, stable and mature desktop environments.
Contemplating things that are in a state of balance evokes serenity. It can also provide wonder and enjoyment, such as when watching someone walk a tightrope high above the ground or execute a particularly tricky bit of gymnastics in a game of sport. There is also an inherent sense of tension within systems in balance: the sweet spot that is neither too far one way or the other; a counterpoint found for every force that pulls or pushes.
Not only are there hundreds of bug fixes and performance improvements all over the place, Krita 2.6 now incorporates support for the OpenColorIO colormanagement system which is a standard in the movie and VFX studio. This makes Krita a natural choice for 2D painting work in the movie and vfx pipeline. (Note: like OpenGL support, the Lut docker with OpenColorIO integration is only available on Linux.)
Gnome Panel (or more properly, gnome-panel) is the main dock that you would see in the Gnome 2 series desktop, and in the Gnome Fallback session (also called Gnome “Classic” in many distributions) in Gnome 3.
Some GNOME developers are planning to implement an app format that allows developers to provide their Linux programs in distribution-independent files that can be installed as easily as smartphone apps. A sandbox model is supposed to isolate the apps from each other, and from the rest of the system, in a way that goes further than the isolation in current Linux distributions. Various developers worked to conceptualise such "Linux apps" at the GNOME Developer Experience Hackfest, which was held in the run-up to FOSDEM 2013 in Brussels. At the hackfest, the GNOME developers also declared JavaScript as the de-facto standard for GNOME programming.
Kolab 3 has built-in ActiveSync support, using Syncroton. It’s integrated into Roundcube, all settings can be done using the Webmail client. Installing it is very easy on Debian Wheezy: apt-get install kolab-syncroton
One of the biggest ongoing challenges for Linux advocates has always been that there is such a paucity of data available to demonstrate the preferences of the people who are actually using the free and open source operating system.
Red Hat announced earlier this week that they would be extending support for Red Enterprise Linux versions five and six from seven to ten years. On top of the promised ten years of production support, there will be another three years of extended support. RHEL 5 was released in 2007, which puts it’s lifespan out to 2017, and RHEL 6 was released in 2010, which Red Hat promises now to support in production until 2020, and in extended support until 2023. That’s a long time for a single operating system.
The scenario is well known: it is difficult to trust your children on the family computer, between the parental controls that need to be set and the increased risk of virus contamination; the simple use of separate user accounts just isn’t enough. StormFly has the job of offering a solution to these risks.
Canonical are evaluating different options for improving the display server in Ubuntu as it seeks to span multiple devices, Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon has recently confirmed.
The news comes by way of response to questions raised on the status of Ubuntu’s adoption of alternative display server ‘Wayland’.
There's been talk already this morning in the forums, Twitter, and via email to Phoronix that Canonical is allegedly developing its own display server rather than using X.Org/X11 or Wayland.
For three years now Canonical has been expressing plans of moving from an X.Org Server to Wayland in a yet-to-be-determined future Ubuntu Linux release. Wayland may finally be ready for some level of use by year's end or H1'2014 while X.Org isn't moving anywhere anytime soon.
The Community Leadership Summit 2013 brings together community leaders, organizers and managers and the projects and organizations that are interested in growing and empowering a strong community. The event pulls together the leading minds in community management, relations and online collaboration to discuss, debate and continue to refine the art of building an effective and capable community.
The year 2013 will see the arrival of several new smartphone operating systems. This article is my first overview to the new arrivals, what do I think of Ubuntu Linux, Firefox, Sailfish or Tizen…
We have some hot news for all those happy Samsung Galaxy owners. Samsung is going to announce the Galaxy S IV on March 15th. The biggest Android smartphone unpacked event is still not confirmed by Samsung self, but our trusted insider confirmed it to SamMobile. That Samsung will announce the Galaxy S IV on March 15, but the place of Samsung’s unpacked event is still top-secret SamMobile earlier reported that the Galaxy S IV will go on sale from the second week of April now we can confirm that Samsung will release the Galaxy S IV from the beginning of April. We expect Samsung to send the invitations right after the Mobile World Congress which is in February.
I like big phones I cannot lie. Even so, every phone with a giant display I've tried has left me cold as they are hard to carry around as easily as the smaller (normal) phones. At least that's what I felt until buying the Galaxy Note 2. Its 5.5-inch display is big enough to yield a fantastic user experience and that additional utility makes it worthwhile to carry around every day.
At the rate that I change smartphones, about once or twice a year, I could probably bankrupt myself pretty quickly if I were to buy Vertu phones instead of the brands I usually do. Recently, there was a rumor that Vertu would be using Android in its next smartphone. According to Japanese gadget site Blog of Mobile!!, the rumors are true, and Android specs have turned up in its certification testing data.
If you bought Verizon's first 4G phone, start checking for updates now: the carrier has finally approved the Android 4.0 update (codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich) for the HTC Thunderbolt. The only problem? The Thunderbolt has been on the market since March of 2011, and Ice Cream Sandwich came out seven months later in October—not exactly a great turn-around time.
Google's latest Android release, "Jelly Bean" continues to gain market share and is now powering more than one out of every eight devices.
Open Source development is a Web Development methodology, which offers practical ownership and total accessibility to a product’s source code. It harnesses transparency of the process. The aphorism of open source development is yielding better quality and flexibility.
It is most certainly relevant today as we tend to term attractive websites as more popular. In order to craft such an ‘attractive’ website for your business, open source is the best stage to begin with. It is a platform where the source code of the program is accessible to the community which means it is open to change. You can add, update or alter the original code; which you cannot think of doing with proprietary software!
The forward "predictions for 2013" pre-Christmas honeymoon is now thankfully over. Time enough then... for a serious look at software futures.
It was a pleasure to read the excellent article drawing parallels between Mirza Ghalib’s legendary work and the mammoth achievements of the Free and Open Source Software community (Feb. 2). Computing is not just about driving a chip using a few lines of code. Unless a programmer understands the part he or she plays in the continuous and ever evolving drive for academic excellence, society cannot expect him or her to deliver a new and sophisticated tool to help humanity attain new heights. A FOSS programmer has a great sense of responsibility because of the overwhelming number of socially responsible computing geniuses involved in the community. Rahul De’ has rightly pointed out the peer review mechanism followed in the FOSS community, which results in programmers striving for logically correct and efficient programs.
It is a terrifying thought that many people under 30 will never see a "C:\>" prompt, let alone an "A:\>". But although as far as Microsoft is concerned DOS has been dead pretty much since Windows 95 went gold, it wasn't quite the end of the road for the operating system.
Six years after the launch of the IcedTea project, developer Andrew John Hughes feels that it's time to take stock. Questions were previously raised over the role of the project, which aims to make it possible to use OpenJDK using only free software build tools for GNU/Linux platforms, when OpenJDK 7 was released.
As mobile technology and social networking have become commonplace, so have concerns about privacy. In fact, nearly every day the media covers stories about identity theft, social networking "pranks" gone wrong, companies with shady privacy policies and repressive governments that censor and monitor online activities.
Open Source Meter, Inc., announces that it now offers its industry standard transformer directly to the end customer through Amazon. By selling through Amazon FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon), Open Source Meter can offer customers the lowest cost shipping and the fastest turnaround the industry has to offer, reducing product lead times from weeks to overnight. The transformers being offered are Magnelab brand Split-core transformer (SCT) series (http://amzn.to/XwrzP2). Open Source Meter offers a full suite of 38 different types of transformer options broken down into SCT-400, SCT-750, SCT-1250, SCT-2000 and SCT-3000 models.
In some markets, open source rules the roost. For example, Drupal, Joomla, my old company Alfresco and other open-source content management systems regularly duke it out for supremacy, depending on the workload. In application servers, JBoss and Tomcat spar. In cloud, Cloudstack, Eucalyptus, OpenStack, and others battle.
But web servers? That's a market that Apache won ages ago, with no open-source competition to speak of.
That is, until recently.
LinuxQuestions is out with results from its annual Members Choice Awards survey, which highlights favorite open source platforms and applications, ranging from favorite Linux distros to favorite new innovative hardware ideas in the open source realm. Probably, if asked to guess which Linux distro was rated the favorite, many readers would guess Linux Mint or Ubuntu, but that's not the favorite. Here is what the survey respondents had to say.
The City of Santa Cruz is the smallest community to ever partner with Code for America, but it had one of the largest problems to solve: how to make it easier to take an idea for a small business from conception to reality. From a concept to a permit.
They created an online permitting portal OpenCounter. The portal launched on Wednesday January 9, after an intense year of development, testing, and refinement. So how did they do it?
FOSDEM, held annually in Brussels, Belgium, is a free event for open source communities to meet, share ideas, and collaborate. It offers a mix of focused devrooms and themed main track talks, with no requirement for registration. It has a reputation of being highly developer-focused, this year brought together over 5,000 geeks from around the world.
Mozilla is excited to announce that we’ve achieved a major milestone in WebRTC development: WebRTC RTCPeerConnection interoperability between Firefox and Chrome. This effort was made possible because of the close collaboration between the open Web community and engineers from both Mozilla and Google. RTCPeerConnection (also known simply as PeerConnection or PC) interoperability means that developers can now create Firefox WebRTC applications that make direct audio/video calls to Chrome WebRTC applications without having to install a third-party plugin. Because the functionality is now baked into the browser, users can avoid problems with first-time installs and buggy plugins, and developers can deploy their apps much more easily and universally.
A simple truth that many open source platform users know well is that often initial releases still have (a few) bugs. Real world usage tends to shake things out better than any beta or dev process ever could.
With the open source OpenStack cloud platform, the most recent Folsom release debuted in September of 2012. It is now being updated to version 2012.2.3, fixing at least 51 known bugs and at least two serious security issues.
Big Data is a booming area that is receiving more widespread attention, especially since technology research company Gartner has projected that Big Data will drive $34 billion in IT spending in 2013. Abhishek Mehta, founder of Tresata, joined Kristin Feledy on the Morning NewsDesk Show to give his perspective on what’s happening in Big Data.
Over the course of the last two years, Oracle has been hard at work building and improving MySQL 5.6. Today at long last, that hard work has come to fruition with the general availability of the open source MySQL 5.6 database.
The first MySQL 5.6 preview debuted in July of 2011, while the last official main MySQL release was version 5.5 which was released at the end of 2010.
Zurmo will be added to the BitNami Application Library, where it will be packaged as an easy to install Open Source CRM BitNami stack
Open Source Software has been around for the last couple of decades and its presence is now being felt across many sectors. Despite early scepticism, particularly from some corporate technologists, today open systems are making significant inroads into enterprise and critical computing systems.
EDINBURGH SOFTWARE HOUSE Runrev has started a Kickstarter project to create an open source release of Livecode, which aims to reinvent Apple's Hypercard coding tool.
The Livecode project already has over 500 backers that have pledged over €£55,000 toward its goal of raising €£350,000 and will run at Kickstarter until 4:17am EST on 28 February.
If the project gets funded, Runrev promises to develop a version of its Hypercard programming language Livecode that's licensed under the free, open source software (FOSS) General Public Licence version 3 (GPLv3). Licensing under the GPL will mean that all users will be free to obtain and modify the source code of the Livecode implementation, contribute to it and extend the language over time.
GnuCash for Android updated to version 1.1.1 today. This latest release fixes numerous bugs and adds support for double-entry accounting. Double-entry accounting allows every transaction to be a transfer from one account to another. For example, every addition to your "Expenses" account can make your "Checking" account go down by the same amount.
With leadership from the White House, and success stories throughout the government spectrum, clearly open source solutions are gaining ground against proprietary software solutions in the public domain. Government Technology talked to Gunnar Hellekson, Chief Technology Strategist for Red Hat Public Sector, to get his perspective on the open source phenomenon. Hellekson covers the federal, state, local and education markets in the U.S. for Red Hat.
The government decision to purchase Microsoft software licenses and products to upgrade government agencies at a cost exceeding $43m has triggered anger among activists and specialists, who called the decision a waste of money and asked the government to use free open source software (FOSS), instead, last December.
Mohamed Hanafy, the spokesman of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, stated that the Microsoft deal will be the last and that the shift towards Open Source will be gradual. “We cannot shift to Open Source overnight”.
The ECHO Farm in Southwest Florida serves a special purpose. The non-profit helps aid workers in developing countries use the best sustainable farming tools and techniques in ways that would make MacGyver proud.
MIT Media Lab's 11-day health care hackathon pulled students and big companies together with a common goal: Healing a broken industry.
The MIT Media Lab’s eleven-day Health and Wellness Hackathon is not your average gadget exhibition. Bringing together eighty participants from around the world, the annual event, which was held in January, is designed to inspire new ways to fix an age old problem: how to use technology to prevent illnesses before they start. Focusing on the use of standardized, interoperable, open-source platforms, the six teams spent nearly two weeks thinking up apps and home medical devices that would tear down proprietary software barriers and help patients take charge of their healthcare.
Have you tried these, or other, EE tools? What EE tools do you prefer? Please comment below.
It’s been seven years since the Open Source Geospatial Software Foundation came on the scene. This week LocationTech stepped up alongside. Is LocationTech what the open source geospatial community needs to take it to the next level?
IT IS what conservators, archivists and researchers have feared. As French and Malian troops advanced on Timbuktu in northern Mali earlier this week, retreating Islamist fighters have tried to destroy valuable scientific texts dating back to medieval times.
The documents were housed at the city's Ahmed Baba Institute and in a warehouse, both of which were set alight. It is unclear how many of the institute's 30,000 or so manuscripts have been destroyed. The texts, which were being digitised, show that science was under way in Africa before European settlers arrived in the 16th century.
George Abungu, vice-president of the executive committee of the International Council of Museums, describes the burning as "an incredible loss to Africa's heritage, a backward move to the dark ages". He says there is no way the Islamists "can claim to be Africans when they destroy the very foundation of our contribution to world knowledge and academia".
I would like to thank Senator Cash for taking up the issue of female genital mutilation with such passion. I rise to make some remarks about some of the perverse consequences that can come into play when governments-and most notably our Australian government-react or overreact to cyber threats. It makes me edgy whenever this government adds the word 'cyber' to anything. You tend to have to watch your back when that is occurring. I do not want to downplay the very real threats of identity theft and misappropriation, phishing attempts on people's accounts and these sorts of things, cyber bullying and the other array of threats that people do face in the online environment. But I am also aware that we run the risk-and the Australian government is running this risk at the moment-of running these campaigns of hyperventilation and pumping up threat and fear as though this is where we are meant to transfer our fear of terrorists, that the internet is the new domain of terror and the best way to protect ourselves is to submit to perpetual ongoing, online surveillance by government policing and other agencies.
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)’s disproportionate penalties and lack of nuance played a role in Aaron Swartz’ prosecution and likely in his subsequent suicide. So three weeks ago, California Representative Zoe Lofgren introduced “Aaron’s Law” to update the CFAA.
Lofgren modified Aaron’s Law based on community feedback and released the updated version this past Friday. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has also proposed much-needed changes to CFAA’s penalty provisions. The law has yet to go before Congress, but these efforts matter.
Hacktivist group publishes 4,000 passwords as part of Operation Last Resort campaign seeking revenge for the treatment of Internet activist Aaron Swartz.
This is a lengthy project. Fortunately, ARM CPUs are getting fast enough, and Moore’s Law is slowing down, so that even if it took a year or so to complete, I won’t be left with a woefully useless design. Today’s state of the art ARM CPUs — quad-core with GHz+ performance levels — is good enough for most day-to-day code development, email checking, browsing etc. We started the design in June, and last week I got my first prototype motherboards, hot off the SMT line. It’s booting linux, and I’m currently grinding through the validation of all the sub-components. I thought I’d share the design progress with my readers.
Imagine you’re waiting in line, queuing to enter a major event. The ticket you have bought online is stored on your smart phone. As you swipe your phone over some designated area, an NFC connection is set up, your ticket is validated and the gates open to let you in. And the good thing is, that it all happened anonymously.
DARPA (the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has awarded $3 million to software provider Continuum Analytics to help fund the development of Python's data processing and visualization capabilities for big data jobs.
Since September 2011, Nicholas Clark has been working on improving the Perl 5 Core, funded by a $20,000 grant from the Perl Foundation. The term of the work is coming to an end and Clark is now seeking another $20,000 to continue the work of the original Improving Perl 5 grant. The Foundation is consulting with the community before making the final decision whether to go ahead with the extension which would see Clark devoting another 400 hours of dedicated work to the project.
Groovy is one of the most-interesting JVM languages, but its longtime performance issues kept it confined to narrow niches. However, a series of important upgrades look like they might push the language into the mainstream. There's the conundrum.
Those are some of the issues that I could think of. The list is far from being all-inclusive or comprehensive, but I think it sheds light on some of the aspects of what Linux is all about. Now, I do not say we should all make operating systems as if everyone was elderly and/or very set in their ways. After all, thirty years from now, young people of today will be the senior citizens of the future, with their own set of ideas and technologies.
But the development should be focused on making operating systems appeal to the widest cross-section of users. This also means designing products that scale well with time. If your desktop is peppered with online integration and social icons, the moment those networks go out of spotlight, your very model loses its own validity.
Ordinarily I don’t discuss legal issues relating to fictional settings that are dramatically different from the real world in terms of their legal system. Thus, Star Wars, Star Trek, Tolkien’s Middle Earth, etc. are usually off-limits because we can’t meaningfully apply real-world law to them. But the contract featured in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was just too good a topic to pass up, especially since you can buy a high-quality replica of it that is over 5 feet long unfolded.
The Reykjavik District Court has ruled that a 15-year-old Icelandic girl can legally use the first name "Blaer," reversing a contrary decision by government officials. Iceland has strict naming laws that require, among other things, that names fit standard grammar and pronunciation rules and be gender-appropriate. According to the report, the relevant committee refused to approve Blaer Bjarkardottir's first name because she is a girl and the panel viewed the name as "too masculine." To date, the government has referred to the girl only as "Girl."
[...]
Whatever we may think of the country's naming laws, Iceland gets some respect from me because their word for "email address" is the totally awesome netfang, which the rest of the world should start using immediately.
...deploy more troops, and keep the military industrial complex fat and happy.
US Senator Ron Wyden, a senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, made the following statement today regarding a Justice Department paper entitled “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Against a U.S. Citizen Who Is a Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qa’ida or An Associated Force” which was made public yesterday by NBC News:
In response to the release of a Justice Department white paper titled, “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa’ida or An Associated Force,” the Center for Constitutional Rights made the statements below. Also today, the Center for Constitutional Rights will be filing a brief with the ACLU arguing against current and former administration officials’ attempt to keep out of court a case challenging the targeted killing of three American citizens, one of whom is the subject of this white paper.
The ACLU's Jameel Jaffer joined Democracy Now's Amy Goodman to discuss the targeted killing White Paper that was leaked to NBC news in February 2013.
We have previously discussed the President’s “kill list” policy under which Obama claims the right to be able to kill any American based on his sole judgment and discretion. A confidential Justice Department memo now sheds more light on that policy and states a broader basis for such killings than previously suggested by the Administration. It is also not clear why this memo was kept secret by the Administration since it deals only with legal interpretations — not classified operational information.
Moreover, if propaganda videos are enough to get you on the drone target list, then the makers of Zero Dark Thirty would qualify, which demonstrates the lack of credibility of this criterion and the problem with assassinating American citizens without due process. Despite the Obama administration's constant reassurance of, "Just trust us, we are being careful," the facts speak otherwise.
At least five people were killed after six missiles hit a house in Tehsil Spain Wam of North Waziristan on Wednesday. The strikes by an unmanned US drone occurred after reports that militants were present in the house, official sources said. US drone strikes are infamous around the world, especially in Pakistan, for killing innocent people besides militants.
At the end of January 2013, the Bureau was able to identify by name 213 people killed by drones in Pakistan who were reported to be middle- or senior-ranking militants.
Do “informed, high-level officials” have the power to kill their own citizens?
I’ve been out addressing an imminent toner cartridge emergency and taping Al Jazeera English (it’ll be on tonight at 7:30). So I haven’t yet done my timeline of the varying authorizations to kill Anwar al-Awlaki.
[...]
Brennan (who presumably is the “informed, high-level official” described as judge and jury in this white paper) to kill Americans.
There’s certainly a lot to say about the DOJ white paper on targeted killings, much of which has been said already (and well) by others (see Raff’s “Headlines and Commentary” post for links).
[...]
This all leads me to what I’ve increasingly come to believe is the only real solution here: If folks are really concerned about this issue, especially on the Hill, then Congress should create a cause of action–with nominal damages–for individuals who have been the targets of such operations (or, more honestly, their heirs). The cause of action could be for $1 in damages; it could expressly abrogate the state secrets privilege and replace it with a procedure for the government to offer at least some of its evidence ex parte and in camera; and it could abrogate qualified immunity so that, in every case, the court makes law concerning how the government applies its criteria in a manner consistent with the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. This wouldn’t in any way resolve the legality of targeted killings, but it would clear the way for courts to do what courts do–ensure that, when the government really is depriving an individual of their liberty (if not their life), it does so in a manner that comports with the Constitution–as the courts, and not just the Executive Branch, interpret it. It’s not a perfect solution, to be sure, but if ever there was a field in which the perfect is the enemy of the good, this is it.
Why isn't there more outrage about the president's unilateral targeted assassination program on the left?
A major report on the CIA’s rendition, detention and interrogation (RDI) program was released today by the Open Society Justice Initiative. It is one of the most comprehensive examinations of the program to date.
From “credible public sources and information provided by reputable human rights organizations,” the organization was able to figure out that “as many as 54 foreign governments reportedly” hosted CIA prisons on their territories; detained, interrogated, tortured and abused individuals; assisted in the capture and transport of detainees; permitted the use of domestic airspace and airports for secret flights transporting detainees; provided intelligence leading to the secret detention and extraordinary rendition of individuals and interrogated individuals who were secretly being held in the custody of other governments.
Consider the notion of "imminence." Last year Eric Holder claimed that a lethal strike against an American citizen can only be made if to protect against "an imminent threat of violent attack." But the white paper states that imminence "does not require that the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons or interests will take place in the significant future." Effectively, the word "imminence" has no meaning beyond "we think you're a bad guy."
The memo, rather brilliantly, calls this definition a “broader concept of imminence.” Most people, however, would call this “not imminent.” Instead, it appears that the Justice Department’s version of “imminent” is whatever they say it is.
In September 2011, it killed US citizen Anwar Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen, along with US citizen Samir Khan, and then, in circumstances that are still unexplained, two weeks later killed Awlaki's 16-year-old American son Abdulrahman with a separate drone strike in Yemen.
Furthermore, the language used to describe this detention authorization is so broad that many argue that even American citizens are now susceptible to indefinite imprisonment.
Who would have surrendered such a sensitive document about the president’s “kill list” to NBC News?
Some were official U.S. adversaries, like Iran and Syria, brought together with the CIA by the shared interest of combating terrorism. “By engaging in torture and other abuses associated with secret detention and extraordinary rendition,” writes chief Open Society Foundation investigator Amrit Singh in a report released early Tuesday, “the U.S. government violated domestic and international law, thereby diminishing its moral standing and eroding support for its counterterrorism efforts worldwide as these abuses came to light.”
The Bush Administration referred to these methods as “enhanced interrogation techniques.” “Enhanced interrogation techniques” included “walling” (quickly pulling the detainee forward and then thrusting him against a flexible false wall), “water dousing,” “waterboarding,” “stress positions” (forcing the detainee to remain in body positions designed to induce physical discomfort), “wall standing” (forcing the detainee to remain standing with his arms outstretched in front of him so that his fingers touch a wall five four to five feet away and support his entire body weight), “cramped confinement” in a box, “insult slaps,” (slapping the detainee on the face with fingers spread), “facial hold” (holding a detainee’s head temporarily immobile during interrogation with palms on either side of the face), “attention grasp” (grasping the detainee with both hands, one hand on each side of the collar opening, and quickly drawing him toward the interrogator), forced nudity, sleep deprivation while being vertically shackled, and dietary manipulation.
Today, of course, we know that much of what Powell said on Feb. 5, 2003, was wrong. He himself has acknowledged that the speech was a “blot” on his record.
It's hard to imagine the week going any worse for the government. On the first day of proceedings, a previously unknown, outside entity reached into the courtroom like the hand of god and cut the audio/visual feed to the media – which is on a 40-second delay – apparently surprising even the judge. The judge and his assistant, a court security officer (CSO), have always had the authority to cut the feed, but they didn't hit the button. Neither had the CSO's assistants.
In a classified memo arguing that its so-called "targeted killing" campaign is legal, the US cites remarks made in 2004 by Lord Goldsmith, then Mr Blair's attorney-general, on why Britain's right to defend itself should include the ability to take pre-emptive military action.
All hail NBC's Michael Isikoff, who has gotten his hands on a previously undisclosed Obama Administration memo concluding that, under certain circumstances, the U.S. government can kill Americans with drones. The 16-page memo, which you can read at the bottom of this post, is going to be analyzed for days by legal experts, but I encourage you to read it so that you can understand how badly President Obama has behaved, regardless of how you feel about the legal arguments.
NBC News has obtained a confidential document from the Justice Department that reveals the justification for targeted assassinations of American citizens, even without any evidence to suggest that a suspect is a terrorist or planning violence, a report published on Monday reveals.
President Obama’s foreign policy team is undergoing a makeover, with the nominations of Senator John Kerry as Secretary of State, former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, and the Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan as CIA Director. All three gentlemen are expected to be confirmed; Kerry already has, Hagel will likely be confirmed (following an abysmal hearing) later this week, and Brennan faces his confirmation hearing this Thursday, which will essentially be the GOP’s final chance to hold Obama accountable for broken national security policies.
MSNBC’s The Cycle erupted into a heated verbal battle over the ethicality of drone warfare on Tuesday. Co-hosts S.E. Cupp and Steve Kornacki expressed serious reservations over a memo leaked to NBC News by the Justice Department detailing the legal framework that allows for the targeting and killing of an American citizen abroad by an unmanned drone. Touré, however, found his fellow hosts’ objections to be misguided, and repeatedly said he was “comfortable” with the White House’s guidelines governing drone warfare.
The location of the base was first disclosed by The New York Times online.
A drone flown from there to Yemen was used two years ago in the operation to kill Awlaki, a US-born cleric alleged to be the operations chief of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
A confidential Justice Department memo says the United States can kill Americans thought to be Al Qaeda chiefs.
The National Security Council yesterday firmly dismissed a report that Thailand was involved in the US Central Intelligence Agency's secret detention and torture of suspected terrorists during the post-September 11, 2001 period.
Released by the Interesting that #cia et al. (governments) #humanrights violations exposed by a billionaire George Soros-backed group, a George Soros organisation, the report identified 54 governments, including Thailand, as collaborators of the CIA.
A new report shows there is evidence that more than a quarter of the world’s countries secretly supported the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme. The New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative says that at least 54 countries – including many in Europe – cooperated with rendition, which saw people kidnapped off the streets, detained and tortured in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York in 2001.
In late August, a 40-year-old cleric named Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber stood up to deliver a speech denouncing al-Qaida in a village mosque in far eastern Yemen.
It was a brave gesture by a father of seven who commanded great respect in the community, and it did not go unnoticed. Two days later, three members of al-Qaida came to the mosque in the tiny village of Khashamir after 9 p.m., saying they merely wanted to talk. Jaber agreed to meet them, bringing his cousin Waleed Abdullah, a police officer, for protection.
Pakistani spy agency ISI's detention facilities in Karachi and elsewhere were used as an initial detention and interrogation point by the CIA during America's war on al-Qaeda which was supported by over 50 countries following 9/11 attacks, a new report has claimed. The report authored by Amrit Singh, daughter of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, says over 50 countries assisted the US in its war against al-Qaeda including by hosting CIA prisons on their territories and detaining, interrogating and torturing terror suspects. It said detention facilities in Pakistan in which detainees were held at the behest of the CIA include the ISI detention facility in Karachi, which was allegedly used as a detention and interrogation point.
In a strange twist of transparency, the CIA is allowing info-seekers to file online Freedom Of Information (FOIA) requests.
Previously, requests would have to be mailed or faxed. Now one only has to fill out a few fields with relevant information and boom, the request is filed.
Azerbaijan was an important stopover point for secret detainees of the Central Intelligence Agency in the US war on terror, claims a new report that offers the first comprehensive look into human rights abuses under the US practice of secret detentions and extraordinary renditions of terror suspects.
Reminiscent of a global spy conspiracy novel, the report, "Globalizing Torture," details how, post-9/11, the US relied on countries around the world to "kick the [expletive] out of" various terror suspects wanted by the CIA.
As John Brennan, President Obama's nominee to head the CIA, is expected to answer questions on U.S. drone strike policies during his confirmation hearing Thursday, an intelligence expert suggests what the nominee means for the war on terror.
A report published today by the Open Society Justice Initiative shows that some 54 countries helped to facilitate the CIA’s secret detention,rendition and interrogation programme in the years after 9/11, including Ireland.
A report by the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) claimed the practice was covertly offered support by about 25% of the world’s governments.
It claims 136 prisoners were secretly detained and interrogated by the CIA in prisons located outside the US, known as “black sites”, where they were subjected to torture and other abuse.
And while the report underlines the critical and well-documented role played by countries such as the United Kingdom, Egypt and Jordan, it also points the finger of blame at three countries in southern Africa that have largely escaped public attention – and criticism – until now. The three countries are Malawi, South Africa and – ironically given the ruling ZANU-PF party's anti-imperialist and anti-Western rhetoric – Zimbabwe.
The NGO report identifies Sweden, Finland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Jordan, Ireland, Iceland, Canada and Cyprus, among others, as collaborators.
Denmark assisted the CIA in its worldwide program to hold, interrogate and sometimes even torture suspected terrorists, a new report reveals.
For years, the U.S. debate around drones and targeted killing has gone something like this: Civil rights advocates and others warn that the program is ethically dubious or outright outrageous, not to mention strategically problematic and deeply unpopular with the same populations we’re trying to deter from extremism. Counterterrorism and foreign policy analysts, whether or not they share those concerns (and many of them do), sometimes counter that the program is still necessary to fight terrorism and has produced some real successes, despite the trade-offs and risks. That conversation is resurfacing this week as John Brennan, who runs the drone program out of the White House, readies for confirmation hearings to take over the CIA.
Charlottesville, Va., has taken action against the use of police spy drones, ordering a two-year moratorium on the citywide use of unmanned aircraft.
It is the first city in the nation to do so, supporters say, and its move may prompt other municipalities to act.
The Obama administration's use of drones to kill suspected al-Qaeda leaders will face scrutiny Thursday during confirmation hearings for John Brennan to head up the CIA.
Legislation that would ban the use of surveillance drones in Florida passed a second Senate committee Wednesday, despite strong opposition from law enforcement agencies.
The bill, SB 92 by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, originally banned all uses of surveillance drones. But it was amended to allow their use by law enforcement agencies – but only when the agency first obtains a search warrant or cites a hostage situation, a terrorist threat or other "exigent" circumstances.
Appearing on Fox’s Happening Now this morning, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton took to defending President Obama‘s program of targeted assassinations of Americans abroad, calling it what it is: an extension of Bush-era policies.
Today the Washington Post (2/6/13) reported some news that it's known for years, but had decided not tell us until now: The CIA has a drone base in Saudi Arabia. Their rationale for withholding this information was simple: The government didn't want them to. And from what the Post is telling us today, they weren't the only ones.
Freedom of the Press Foundation is launching its second fund-raising campaign in support of cutting-edge journalism focused on transparency and accountability, after its first six-week campaign ended on Sunday with over $196,000 in crowd-funded donations.
Bill Maher has been favorite of subscribers since his first special on the network in 1989, starring in nine solo specials, including the hour-long presentations “Bill Maher… But I’m Not Wrong,” “The Decider” and “I’m Swiss” (both nominated for an Emmy€® in the Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special category), “Victory Begins at Home,” “Be More Cynical,” “The Golden Goose Special” and “Stuff That Struck Me Funny,” and two half-hour stand-up specials, plus the specials “30 Seconds Over Washington” and “Comic Relief VIââ¢.” He was the creator and host of “Politically Incorrect,” which was produced by HBO Downtown Productions and debuted on Comedy Central in 1993.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be the top-of-the-show guest this week on “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
The program airs live at 10 p.m. Friday on HBO and repeats immediately at 11 p.m.
Assange is staying at Ecuador’s embassy in London while battling extradition to Sweden for questioning about sex assault allegations made by two women.
Two of the biggest names in the Internet freedom debate, The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks, are connected in the release of the infamous “Collateral Murder” video, it is now reported.
World War II is when the United States really became a global power. It had been the biggest economy in the world by far for long before the war, but it was a regional power in a way. It controlled the Western Hemisphere and had made some forays into the Pacific. But the British were the world power.
World War II changed that. The United States became the dominant world power. The U.S. had half the world's wealth. The other industrial societies were weakened or destroyed. The U.S. was in an incredible position of security. It controlled the hemisphere, and both the Atlantic and the Pacific, with a huge military force.
The White House is holding a meeting today with a number of business leaders to discuss the President’s economic agenda, including immigration. This is encouraging, as it will be important to get leaders on board with reforming immigration rules.
What’s less encouraging is that the President continues to treat Goldman Sach’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein like he’s royalty.
Dr. McKee treated Kenneth Laurion. Unhappy with those interactions, Kenneth's son Dennis critiqued Dr. McKee on various doctor review websites. Dr. McKee sued Dennis for defamation (and related claims) based on 11 different statements. The district court granted summary judgment to Dennis on all counts, but the appellate court revived the lawsuit on 6 statements.
The US on Wednesday sanctioned four Iranian entities, including one state sponsored broadcaster, for their alleged censorship activities.
The US Department of the Treasury, in consultation with the US Department of State, named the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting and its director Ezzatollah Zarghami as subject to sanctions.
The independent site for investigative journalism Bivol.bg which published formerly classified documents, revealing that Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, has been a person of interest for the anti-mafia police in the 90s, became subject of a "flooding" attack.
...supporting the 1st Amendment and journalism that focuses on transparency...
‘No hidden people allowed’: “If you don’t have any registered social-networking profiles or mobile subscriptions, and online references to you are unusually hard to find, you might be considered a candidate for such a registry.”
Petraeus was suspected of having an extramarital affair nearly two years earlier than previously known.
[...]
According to internal emails of the Austin-based private intelligence firm Stratfor, General David Petraeus was drawing attention to his private life much earlier than previously believed. Because it was his private life that resulted in his being forced out as CIA director, alterations in our understanding of the time frame are significant.
A federal appeals court has ruled the government can continue to keep secret its efforts to pursue the private information of Internet users without a warrant as part of its probe into the WikiLeaks. The case involved three people connected to the whistleblowing website whose Twitter records were sought by the government, including computer security researcher Jacob Appelbaum and Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jónsdóttir.
In December I attended the award ceremony for the 2012 Access Innovation Awards. Their finalists included three projects that Tor maintains or co-maintains: OONI (a framework for writing open network censorship measurement tests, and for making the results available in an open way; see its git repo), Flash Proxy (a creative way to let people run Tor bridges in their browser just by visiting a website; see its git repo), and HTTPS Everywhere (a Firefox extension to force https connections for websites that support https but don't use it by default; see its git repo). Of these, OONI and Flash Proxy ended up being winners in their respective categories.
Telstra is implementing deep packet inspection technology to throttle peer to peer sharing over the internet.
Another key weakness in Australia’s response to the digital economy is our habit of guarding data...
Mr. Kristinn Hrafnsson, Wikileaks spokesperson, said last week that representatives from the FBI came to Iceland in August 2011. The Icelandic Minister of the Interior confirmed this the same day and said that when he became aware of the FBI in Iceland he cancelled all cooperation with the FBI and told the representatives to leave.
In late summer 2011, FBI agents questioned an 18-year-old Icelandic boy on matters which, according to them, concerned national security. The boy was connected to WikiLeaks. The questioning took place against the wishes of Icelandic authorities.
On the evening of August 23, 2011, the boy, whose identity Icelandic national broadcaster RÃÅ¡V decided not to reveal, came forward to the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík with information he said concerned possible hacking into the Icelandic government offices’ computer system.
[...]
Kristinn Hrafnsson told RÃÅ¡V that the boy had worked on some projects for WikiLeaks as a volunteer for several months.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Ãâssur Skarphéðinsson also maintains that the FBI arrived in the country without permission and without the knowledge of the Icelandic government, visir.is reports. Ãâssur rejects the explanation of the Icelandic police that there was a connection between the visit of the FBI agents and a separate visit of FBI experts a month earlier to investigate an impending computer attack.
The counterterror list of individuals unable to fly to or from the U.S. is growing, but due process sorely lacks
A lawsuit challenging a law that gives the government the power to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens is back in federal court this week. On Wednesday, a group of academics, journalists and activists will present oral arguments in court against a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, authorizing the military to jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial. In a landmark ruling last September, Judge Katherine Forrest of the Southern District of New York struck down the indefinite detention provision, saying it likely violates the First and Fifth Amendments of U.S. citizens. We’re joined by Daniel Ellsberg, a plaintiff in the case and perhaps the country’s most famous whistleblower. Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, exposing the secret history of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
In late 2010 we witnessed the beginning of a series of events that would radically alter the political and social landscapes of the Middle East and Northern Africa. These events, which later became known as the “Arab Spring”, began with an unprecedented wave of pro-democracy protests against the various authoritarian regimes of the region. Beginning with demonstrations in Tunisia against the 23 year rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali that soon led to the dictator fleeing the country, the spirit of revolution quickly spread to the country’s neighbors as well. In Egypt large protests broke out in the now-famous Tahrir Square against the Mubarak regime, resulting in his eventual overthrow. Libya was next, which saw an armed rebellion against Muammer Gadaffi ending with the dictator’s death in October 2011. Yemen too witnessed protests and violence causing longtime president Abdullah Saleh’s eventual resignation. These monumental power shifts captured the world’s attention and indeed still continue to dominate headlines with the descent of Syria into civil war following the Assad regime’s brutal repression of similar protests and the controversial new Islamist-led government of Egypt.
A senior Republican lawmaker is looking into allegations that a former general counsel of the FBI bore greater responsibility for abuses of surveillance authorities than previously known.
Human rights organisations file formal complaints against surveillance software firms Gamma International and Trovicor with British and German governments.
The federal government wants to create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cellphone bill every month.
The creator of the World Wide Web warned not to hand over power of his invention to the government.
Speaking last night at a lecture hosted by Sydney’s University of Technology, Tim Berners-Lee said the Internet should remain independent in the same way as journalism.
“If you’re going to give the government the ability to spy on people and the ability to block” websites they don’t like, “you’ve got to have a lot of trust in that government,” Berners-Lee said.
With every coming round of negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a trade agreement that carries intellectual property provisions that could have hugely harmful consequences for the Internet and our digital rights—the Office of the US Trade Representative has continually whittled away at any remaining opportunity for the public to have input into the drafting process. The TPP has been under negotiation for three years and the opaqueness has only worsened.
A dizzying story that involves falsified medical research, plagiarism, and legal threats came to light via a DMCA takedown notice today. Retraction Watch, a site that followed (among many other issues) the implosion of a Duke cancer researcher's career, found all of its articles on the topic pulled by WordPress, its host. The reason? A small site based in India apparently copied all of the posts, claimed them as their own, and then filed a DMCA takedown notice to get the originals pulled from their source. As of now, the originals are still missing as their actual owners seek to have them restored.
Like many other geeklaw & policy folks, I was baffled from the get-go by the decisions of federal prosecutors to pursue massive criminal charges against Aaron Swartz for downloading papers from JSTOR. I could understand that his activities constituted problematic behavior, but not the blustering punitive response.
If Aaron's wrongful act was unauthorizedly copying articles, copyright law would seem to have been the appropriate venue for a response. JSTOR declined to bring a civil suit against Swartz. State officials had no intention of bringing criminal charges against him, either. But then the federal prosecutors stepped in, and charges blossomed all over the place. But -not copyright charges-.
As Techdirt reported last year, some copyright maximalists in the UK seem to be against the whole idea of basing policy on evidence. Last week saw the launch of CREATe: Creativity, Regulation, Enterprise and Technology, a new UK "research centre for copyright and new business models in the creative economy." One of the things it hopes to do is to bring some objectivity to the notoriously contentious field of copyright studies by looking at what the evidence really says; so it was perhaps inevitable that it too would meet some resistance from the extremist wing of the copyright world
The movie industry has no rights to the profits made by the owner of Usenet-indexing website Newzbin2 by infringing on copyrights, the England and Wales High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, has ruled.
As many know, copyright had its origins in censorship and control. But over the last few hundred years, that fact has been obscured by the rise of the powerful publishing industry and the great works it has helped bring to the public. More recently, though, laws and treaties like SOPA and ACTA have represented a return to the roots of copyright, posing very real threats to what can be said online. That's not because their intent was necessarily to crimp freedom of expression, but as a knock-on effect of turning risk-averse ISPs into the copyright industry's private police force.