GNU News (December-January)
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-01-21 10:28:00 UTC
- Modified: 2014-01-21 10:28:00 UTC
Summary: GNU, FSF, and Free software news from the past month or so
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Richard Stallman today met Mr Rahul Gandhi, Vice President of the Indian National Congress and shared his views on digital surveillance system, unique identification project, free software in education and governance in a meeting that went on for one hour. Mr Joseph Mathew, Secretary of SPACE also participated in the meeting. Mr Gandhi showed keen interest in Stallman's views on various issues relating to information technology.
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To commemorate the occasion of GNU completing 30 years and SPACE 10 years, the free software community in Thiruvananthapuram is also organising an exhibition on free software and free knowledge on Education Freedom Day, which falls on January 18 at the Museum. The exhibition will focus on free software and free hardware for education and privacy protection. Various free software projects like Fedora, WoMoz, and HackerSpace will be part of the exhibition.
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GnuCash is more than a simple checkbook register, although it can be used for that purpose. Its real power is in the features supporting small business use and managing multiple accounts. Its basic features are intuitive, but if you don't have a bookkeeping background, be prepared to spend some time with the user guide in order to fully appreciate its advanced capabilities.
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But the researchers, including Adi Shamir, a co-inventor of the widely-used RSA encryption algorithm, have shown how within one hour it was possible to extract a 4096-bit RSA private key used to decrypt email from a laptop running the OpenPGP-based mail encryption tool, GNU Privacy Guard.
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After earlier this month delivering LLVM Clang 3.3/3.4 benchmarks for the new compiler infrastructure out of Apple, today are results that directly compare the new LLVM Clang 3.4 performance against the stable GCC 4.8.2 compiler and GCC 4.9.0 development compiler under various C/C++ benchmarks.
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An Intel engineer has published a patch-set providing a new GCC compiler architecture target for Intel's upcoming Broadwell CPUs.
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Novena Project aims to create an entirely open source laptop, from the iron down to the bits, and a prototype already exists
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The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to Gluglug X60 laptops. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy. This is the first laptop to receive RYF certification from the FSF.
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FOSS is the last place to suspect “back doors” or traps.
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Computer scientists have devised an attack that reliably extracts secret cryptographic keys by capturing the high-pitched sounds coming from a computer while it displays an encrypted message.
The technique, outlined in a research paper published Wednesday, has already been shown to successfully recover a 4096-bit RSA key used to decrypt e-mails by GNU Privacy Guard, a popular open source implementation of the OpenPGP standard. Publication of the new attack was coordinated with the release of a GnuPG update rated as "important" that contains countermeasures for preventing the attack. But the scientists warned that a variety of other applications are also susceptible to the same acoustic cryptanalysis attack. In many cases, the sound leaking the keys can be captured by a standard smartphone positioned close to a targeted computer as it decrypts an e-mail known to the attackers.
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The Free Software Foundation today has come out for "the first time we've ever been able to encourage people to buy and use a laptop as-is." The Free Software Foundation now backs one laptop model as respecting the customer's freedoms, but are the hardware specs any good?
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GNU Binutils was updated this morning and some of the major changes for these binary tools updates include supporting several new processors.
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To read more about all of these and see the honorable mentions not listed here, make sure to head back to the full hive five feature.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- The Next Talk of Richard Stallman (Father of GN/Linux and the GPL) Advertised in the Media 3 Days in Advance
- He spoke in Italy earlier this year and also did some interviews
- The Microsofter Who Kept Sending Threatening Post and E-mail to My Wife Has Been Joking He'd Work on Code for "Sexual Favours"
- For one thing, for software professionals (like for landlords), this is outright illegal and you'd get arrested for it, and moreover it's no joking matter because there are many real victims of such sexual exploitation
- We Seem to Have Abandoned Science and Replaced Sound Policy With Private Patent Shareholders and College Dropouts Like Bill Epsteingate
- Because of what they did there are now many people out there who reject all vaccines
- Many IBM Layoffs, Centred Around Expert Labs US in Atlanta (Offer of "Relocation" Where No Such Option Exists)
- So Techrights was assessing comments/gossip online and it was right about the Thursday cull
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- Simpler is Better
- Gemini Protocol turns 6 in exactly 4 weeks
- Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli, Brittany Day, and Other Plagiarists Who Rip Off Real Writers and Target Themes Around "Linux"
- Fagioli also prompted chatbots for some words diarrhoea
- Growing Recognition Out There That Courts Must Abandon Microsoft or Have No Perception of Authority, Autonomy, Independence, Fairness, and More
- Imagine making a complaint about Microsoft to an agency that uses Microsoft
- Links 23/05/2025: Microsoft Openwashing at ZDNet, Signal Does It Wrong (DRM, Back Doors Still Intact)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 23/05/2025: Clutter in Modern Interfaces and Dealing With DRM-Free Music
- Links for the day
- Links 23/05/2025: Tax Audits of Hong Kong's Independent as ‘Intimidation Tactics,’ Why "Regulating X Isn’t Censorship"
- Links for the day
- TecAdmin Took a Break From Linux to Push SPAM
- This happened hours ago, and it seems to have been posted directly by the site's "Admin" (Rahul)
- Links 23/05/2025: Violent Attacks on the Press, VMware Price Hikes, Vista 11 Considered Unsuitable for Any Confidentiality
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 23/05/2025: Balkan Tourism, UK Polls, Reticulum and Meshtastic
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 22, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, May 22, 2025
- Back to Basics, Folks, "AI" (Plagiarism) is Symptom of a Dying Industry Looking for Whatever Prey It Can Devour
- lousy/sloppy imitations
- Liam Proven's Thoughts on "AI" Being a Scam No Different From Religions, Alternative Medicine, and More
- "Is there anywhere outside of retrocomputing that doesn't have AI in it?"
- Slopwatch: Slopfarms That 'Hallucinate' (Yield Falsehoods) Cited as Credible Sources and Microsoft Media Gaslighting Everybody
- Part of the problem is, Google News
- More Media Coverage and Photos From Richard Stallman's Presentation in Liberec (Czech Republic)
- Here are some photos
- The Microsofter Who Kept Sending Threatening Post and E-mail to My Wife Has Been Spooking Women for at Least Two Decades
- censorship was the ultimate goal
- Links 22/05/2025: Openwashing, Dumping Microsoft's Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub), and New Climate Disasters
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman's Next Public Talk is in Milan, Italy Next Week
- Happy hacking
- Gemini Links 22/05/2025: Crimson Pro Font and CGI in Bash
- Links for the day
- IBM Goes to India, Fires People in the United States (Under the Guise of "Relocation" or Similar), Accusation of Bribery in the Company
- LLM slop sites (some are pure slopfarms) from India say the IBM layoffs result in hiring "AI" (the "I" stands for India)
- Why We'll Continue Covering EPO Abuses (Other Patent Offices as Well, as the Need Arises) for Many Years to Come
- We're basically becoming Russia
- Links 22/05/2025: TikTok Laying Off Again, Microsoft-Backed Builder.ai Set for Bankruptcy, Scam Altman Uses 'Funny Money' to 'Buy' (Hire) Company
- Links for the day
- These Feet Are Made for Walking
- Humans are apparently so very clever that they decided to form a "progressive" consensus: feet no more
- The Evolution of Microsoft's War on GNU/Linux
- 13 sins
- OFTC Has Just Culled About a Third of Its Online Users
- It's not the first time they purge or force offline many people/bots
- My New Desk Arrangement (and More Breaks From the Keyboard)
- all in all yesterday I devoted 4-5 hours to redoing and shuffling stuff
- Central Staff Committee of the EPO Opposes Abuses Against EPO Staff, Challenging SuccessFactors Stunts
- Europe became institutionally colonised
- Gemini Links 22/05/2025: "Conspirituality" and Visiting One's Old University
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, May 21, 2025
- Bigots and Lunatics Who Attack Microsoft Critics, Projecting Their Own Bigotry by Accusing Others of Imaginary Things (Which They're Innocent Of)
- "In psychology, projection refers to assigning your negative traits or unwanted emotions to others without being aware you’re doing it."
- "The Appeals Committee [at the EPO] Unanimously Stated a Formal Flaw in the Consultation of the General Consultative Committee (GCC) on the Reform"
- It's a truly horrifying situation
- Microsoft Killed the Term "Open Source" (by Bribing/Taking Over OSI, 'Linux' Foundation Etc.) and Now It Needs to Kill the Brand Linux (Because Windows Just Won't Run!)
- Why else would Microsoft falsely describe Windows as "Linux" and "Open Source"?
- Slopwatch: Liars for Microsoft, Plagiarism, and IBM Red Hat Markets Slop as "AI"
- Today was a bad day news-wise
- Links 21/05/2025: Climate Problems and Ceasefires No Longer Foreseen
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 21/05/2025: "Shrimps of Doom" and "ASCII-graphs"
- Links for the day
- Links 21/05/2025: GitHub Becoming Slop, MElon as a Drug Addict Considered National Security Risk
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch: Slopfarms 'Think' Redis is "Linux" (RedisRaider)
- Today we'll keep it short and to the point again
- IBM Has Allegedly Just Sacked Mr. McKinsey (McK), Clay Cowan, Its Fourth CMO in a Few Years
- To insiders he represented the company that's killing IBM or advising IBM on how to self-destruct
- Gemini Links 21/05/2025: Trips, 4D Golf, and Writing Software
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 20, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, May 20, 2025