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Links 19/8/2014: GNU/Linux Raves and Alternative to Proprietary Voice Chat





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Contents





GNU/Linux



  • European Space Agency are using SUSE Linux
    Actually SUSE Linux began deployment at ESA in 2012 and has been continuing until now, the distro is used by 450 teams in the European Space Operations Centre at ESA, this includes being used by Mission Control Systems who are responsible for simulation and control of aircraft and satellites outside the atmosphere and further still.


  • Younger generation driving Linux take-up, says Canadian vendor


    A Canadian technology company has started shipping notebooks and laptops loaded with Linux due to demand from the younger generation, the owner of the company says.

    Braden Taylor of Eurocom, a company based in Ontario, said he shipped systems all over the world, including to Australia.

    "We are finding that more and more of the younger generation are moving to Linux for a variety of reasons," he said, in response to queries.

    "We are getting more and more inquiries about Ubuntu and Mint from the younger generation all over the world. They like that it is a low-cost alternative."


  • Loving Linux: Ain't Nothin' Like the 1st Time
    "My first real exposure to Linux was at a friend's house," said Linux Rants blogger Mike Stone. "He was trying to make a Macintosh he owned into a useful computer, so he'd dual-booted it with a version of Linux called MkLinux. I was absolutely fascinated by it and the FOSS philosophy, and after using his computer for a week or so, I looked into getting Linux [on] my own."


  • Desktop



    • Need a Cheap Chromebook? Here’s How to Pick One


      Instead of running Windows, these lightweight, inexpensive notebooks are based entirely on Google’s Chrome web browser. So while you can’t install traditional programs such as Office and Photoshop, you can use web-based substitutes like the free Office Online and Pixlr. In exchange, you’ll get a computer that boots up quickly, is safe from viruses, doesn’t have any obnoxious bloatware and is optimized for browsing the web.




  • Server



    • Xen Virtualization Takes On Automotive
      On Aug. 18 at the Xen Project Developer Summit, the Xen Project unveiled an Embedded and Automotive initiative for its datacenter-focused Xen virtualization technology. The immediate goal is to help auto manufacturers "adopt open source virtualization" to "quickly and cost-effectively develop a flexible, robust, and customizable integrated cockpit -- one that keeps drivers safe, while meeting consumers' connected car expectations," according to the Xen Project, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project.


    • Xen hypervisor targets automotive virtualization role
      The Xen Project’s Embedded and Automotive initiative will bring its hypervisor to a GlobalLogic IVI stack combining a fast-boot Android with Linux or QNX.

      The Xen Project Collaborative Project has launched an Embedded and Automotive initiative to expand its virtualization technology beyond the datacenter and cloud realms. Initially, the subproject will center on a collaboration with GlobalLogic on the company’s Nautilus [PDF] in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and telematics platform. An embedded version of the open source Xen Project type 1 hypervisor is integrated in Nautilus to enable sandboxed implementations of Android (for IVI) and either QNX or Linux for telematics and other back-end automotive services. The QNX/Android combination appears to be the main focus, however.


    • IBM Techies Pit Docker, KVM Against Linux Bare Metal
      IBM has only recently caught the KVM bug, and has even gone so far as to create a variant of the KVM hypervisor that runs atop its Power8 systems when they run Linux. But if new performance statistics coming out of IBM Research are any guide, it looks like Big Blue will be porting the new Docker container technology to Power-based systems sometime soon.


    • Is KVM or Docker Faster for Server Virtualization?


    • A new report from IBM stacks up Linux container against KVM virtual machine performance.
      In the traditional hypervisor Virtual Machine (VM) approach that is used by VMware's ESX and open-source options like Xen and KVM, a host operating system runs the hypervisors, which then in turn requires an operating system of its own for VMs. The Docker model is a bit different in that only the host operating system is required and containerized apps then run on top of that OS.






  • Kernel Space



    • Systemd: Harbinger of the Linux apocalypse
      Now that Red Hat has released RHEL 7 with systemd in place of the erstwhile SysVinit, it appears that the end of the world is indeed approaching. A schism and war of egos is unfolding within the Linux community right now, and it is drawing blood on both sides. Ultimately, no matter who "wins," Linux looks to lose this one.


    • Linux 3.17-rc1 released
      Linus Torvalds has cut short the Linux 3.17 merge window by a day and released Linux 3.17-rc1 because of his travel plans.


    • Linux Kernel Version 3.17-rc1 has been Released!
      Linux kernel version 3.17-rc1 has been released today, with updates ranging from AMD’s Radeon R9 series improvements, increased audio driver support, and Nouveau updates that dominate this kernel release.


    • Linux kernel devs made to finger their dongles before contributing code
      Beginning on Monday, the security of the Linux kernel source code has become a little bit tighter with the addition of two-factor authentication for the kernel's Git code repositories.

      Contributing code changes to the Linux kernel sources at Kernel.org already required more than just a password, even before the change. Developers must use their own unique SSH public keys to login to the Git repositories. But not even this added security layer was truly failsafe – as the software's maintainers found out in 2011 when their servers were rooted.


    • Linux Foundation Pushes Two-Factor Authentication For Git
      In particular, the Linux Foundation is pushing for more kernel developers to adopt an additional authentication method beyond just their password / SSH key. The Linux Foundation and Yubico partnered up to offer Yubikeys for kernel developers this week at the Linux events in Chicago to encourage the use of more two-factor authentication for Git repositories.


    • Graphics Stack



      • Direct3D 9 Support Stands A Chance Of Being Added To Mesa
        For several months now there's been a Direct3D 9 state tracker under development for Mesa that's making some headway and working out for bettering the Wine performance with D3D9 titles rather than using Wine's translation layer to OpenGL. While no official request for pulling the code has been issued, it looks like it might stand a chance of hitting mainline Mesa.


      • Wayland 1.6 Is Under Planning For Release
        We haven't heard much talk lately about Wayland 1.6 but Pekka Paalanen is stepping up and is trying to begin organizing work towards the Wayland/Weston 1.6 release that's quickly due.


      • The road to Wayland/Weston 1.6 and 1.5.1


      • NIR: A New IR Developed For Mesa That's Better Than GLSL IR
        Connor Abbott, the open-source developer that began contributing to the Lima Linux graphics driver while a high school student, was interning at Intel this summer even before starting college. Over the summer the focus of his Intel Linux internship was focusing on developing a new intermediate representation for Mesa graphics drivers.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt



      • what is "the desktop": KDE and laptops


      • Convergence will not happen, says KDE dev Aaron Seigo


      • On Plasma5: present and future
        Finally, the artwork presented in 5.0 is only a preview of what is still to come from the Visual Design Group: more icons, more complete widget set, more and more applications will receive a makeover look-wise and most importantly usability-wise.


      • Google Summer of Code 2014: QML/Javascript language support for KDevelop 4 and 5
        Today is the end of the Google Summer of Code 2014 coding period. This year, I added support for the QML and Javascript languages in KDevelop. Both languages were added at the same time because QML is a superset of Javascript (one can embed JS snippets in QML files).


      • Choose your Look and Feel experience
        Plasma 5.1 will make way easier to fine-tune their workspace to their needs.While already very powerful, it was not always trivial, so now on one hand it will be possible choose between plasmoids that offer the same feature with a very simple UI. On the other hand, ever wanted to set themes, look and feel of your desktop, but was discouraged by how many places you had to change themes to make the experience as you wanted? being icon theme, widget style, plasma theme, cursors etc… Plasma 5.1 will support the concept of Look and Feel packages (or “mega themes” if you like) Basically an one stop place to set the look and feel of the whole desktop.






  • Distributions



  • Devices/Embedded



    • Raspbian explained
      That’s a little bit mind-boggling but I think I understand. So if Raspbian is a version of Debian, is there ‘pure’ Debian on Raspberry Pi?


    • Raspberry Pi was created to solve talent crisis at Cambridge: Eben Upton [Interview]
      Raspberry Pi needs no introduction. It is one of the most popular credit card sized single board computers which has become a revolution in its own right. The $25 (and $35 for B model) hardware is being used in so many fields that it’s hard to keep a tab on it.


    • Kids Are Learning to Code With a Slice of Raspberry Pi
      Raspberry Pi is a credit card-size computer that can function like a basic PC when plugged into a monitor and keyboard. It can record videos and power drones, but developer Eben Upton says his goal was to teach basic programming skills to students as young as 8.

      The small computer, sold by the nonprofit Raspberry Pi Foundation, is a small green board covered in metal ports. It’s light, delicate, and fits in the palm of your hand. Once it’s plugged into a keyboard and monitor, a user can write and tweak code as with any PC. The latest model, B+, has 10 operating systems to choose from, with varying learning curves.


    • Phones



      • Ballnux



        • Tizen Samsung NX30 awarded European Connected Camera 2014-2015
          The Samsung NX30 is a special bit of kit, with its excellent sharing smart camera features, quick focus of 0.3 seconds, but its now been confirmed again with the the Korean manufacturer being awarded European Connected Camera 2014-2015 by the European Imaging and Sound Association. See the Press Release Clip for further details.




      • Android



        • Is fragmentation a thing of the past for Android?
          I'm inclined to agree with the spirit of the article. Yes, fragmentation has been a significant problem in the past for Android. But there's no denying that Google is working hard to move the platform past the fragmentation issues that have plagued it over the years.

          So I see fragmentation as a problem that is slowly but surely sunsetting on the Android platform. No, it's not going to just vanish immediately but it will continue to decline as time goes by and more and more of Google's efforts bear fruit. Google Play Services and Android Silver should both help cut down on the problem of fragmentation in Android.


        • Sharp to launch thinnest and lowest-bezel smartphone ever
          Sharp (yes folks you heard right) have announced they are launching two new handsets in Japan and there is rumors circulating one of them will eventually hit stateside. Of the two handsets the Aquos Crystal is the handset that very well make it to the US market.






    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets







Free Software/Open Source



  • Look inside building an open source map app
    Imagine yourself walking down the middle of a crowded street in a complex city like Cairo. Suddenly a protest builds ahead. A mass of people, cutting off the road. You try to evade, but then violence breaks out in mere seconds. You need help. Someone else, a car to get you out. A phone call might suffice, but wouldn't it be easier to notify all your friends that this place is dangerous and that you need their assistance? This is where a map-based social network could come into play.


  • Mesosphere and Google Team Up on Containers and Clusters
    Recently, I covered the news that Google had released Kubernetes under an open-source license, which is essentially a version of Borg, used to harness computing power from data centers into a powerful virtual machine. It can make a difference for many cloud computing deployments, and optimizes usage of container technology. You can find the source code for Kubernetes on GitHub.



  • Coreboot Now Works On The Older MacBook 1,1 Too


  • Open Source Archive Manager PeaZip 5.4.1 Has New GUI Design
    Open source file and archive manager PeaZip 5.4.1, which can be used to extract, create, and convert multiple archives at once, has just been released.


  • ClusterHQ Flocker Aims to Simplify Data Migration for Docker Cloud
    The Docker open source containerized virtualization ecosystem has taken another important step forward with the introduction of Flocker from ClusterHQ, a platform that promises to make data as portable as applications by including databases and key-value stores inside Docker containers.


  • Events



  • SaaS/Big Data



    • Mesosphere Comes To The Google Cloud Platform, Integrates Google’s Open Source Kubernetes Project
      Google and Mesosphere today announced a partnership that brings support for Mesos clusters to Google’s Compute Engine platform. While the Mesos project and Mesosphere aren’t quite household names yet, they are quickly becoming important tools for companies that want to be able to easily scale their applications, no matter whether that’s in their own data centers, in a public cloud service, or as a hybrid deployment.


    • Rackspace Adds Redis Open Source Data Store Support to ObjectRocket
      In a move that should help further expand Rackspace's (RAX) appeal to next-generation app developers for the cloud, the company has integrated Redis, the open source in-memory key-value data server, into ObjectRocket, the DBaaS platform Rackspace acquired in 2013.




  • Databases



    • MongoDB tosses support lifeline to open source downloaders
      Open source NoSQL database vendor MongoDB has added a new support option for customers who want to run the Community Edition of its software in production environments.

      "Our Production Support offering is now available as a standalone service – separate from our MongoDB Enterprise software," MongoDB marketing director Meghan Gill wrote in a blog post on Monday. "This means that Community Edition users now have access to our world-class team of support engineers."


    • As DBMS wars continue, PostgreSQL shows most momentum
      It's hard to tell which database management systems (DBMB)s are the most popular. DB-Engines gives it a try every month. And, by its count, Oracle is still the top DBMS, followed closed by Oracle's open-source DBMS MySQL, which is just noses ahead of Microsoft SQL Server.




  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



    • The two sides of freedom


      Throughout history, the word “freedom” has been used to mean many different things. It has been the central word for revolutions, for declarations of independence, for human rights movements, for philosophers, for theologians, for the Free Software movement. It is used in marketing slogans for phone companies, for KDE, for both cigarettes and non-smoking initiatives. The word has also been used to justify military occupations, torture and mass surveillance.


    • on gnu and on hackers
      There are many reasons for this, of course. Some people like to focus on what's called the "pipeline problem" -- that there aren't as many women coming out of computer science programs as men. While true, the proportion of women CS graduates is much higher than the proportion of women at GHM events, so something must be happening in between. And indeed, the attrition rates of women in the tech industry are higher than that of men -- often because we men make it a needlessly unpleasant place for women to be. Sometimes it's even dangerous. The incidence of sexual harassment and assault in tech, especially at events, is something terrible. Scroll down in that linked page to June, July, and August 2014, and ask yourself whether that's OK. (Hint: hell no.)




  • Public Services/Government



    • India is a net taker from the open source movement – Professor DB Phatak, IIT Bombay
      Introducing Professor Deepak Phatak, IIT Bombay to Indian audience is akin to introducing Sachin Tendulkar to Indians, a sacrilege one would hazard at one’s own peril. Suffice it to remind that Professor Deepak Phatak, IIT Bombay is a recipient of the Padma Shri for his contribution to Science and Technology.

      In an interview with Prabhakar Deshpande, Professor DB Phatak shares his perspective on the role of open source and how technology can transform healthcare and education.


    • 18F publishes guidelines for open source contribution
      As the General Services Administration’s 18F continues to promote open source federal IT development, the organization last week published a contributor’s guide to help those reusing and sharing its code.

      Tracing the basics along with other key topics like how users can enhance code, 18F’s Dr. Robert Read explains in his post on 18F’s tumblr the best ways anyone — federal worker or not — can take part in the team’s development process and why they should. Read uses the FBOpen.com project as a real-time example of how contributors can leverage 18F code and even offer improvements, which he argues “improves the rapidity of our coding and the quality and security of the code.”




  • Openness/Sharing



    • Improve your online relationships with a dose of empathy
      Humans have always formed communities. They are necessary for support both physically and, according to psychologists, emotionally as well. Until recently, though, the development of communities was constrained by geography. If you wanted to raise a barn or have a quilting circle, for example, only the folks nearby could participate. The Internet, though, has allowed communities to grow in ways that are not bounded by geography.


    • Shifting a mindset, why OpenStack is written in Python, and more


    • Open Hardware



      • 3D-printed AirEnergy3D takes open source approach to wind turbines
        The AirEnergy3D is an open source, 3D-printed, portable wind turbine prototype whose creators claim will be able to generate up to 300 W of power. Designed to be easily assembled and disassembled without tools, the device is intended to be compact enough to be transported in a backpack, allowing it to be taken camping or anywhere else that there is a breeze and no access to the electricity grid.






  • Programming



    • PHP 5.3 Hits End-of-Life
      I first wrote about PHP 5.3 back in 2009 when it first debuted. Five years later PHP 5.3 is now at its End of Life, dead and abandoned as newer versions have replaced it.






Leftovers



  • Health/Nutrition



    • Row as horsemeat file shelved
      The official report into the causes of the horsemeat scandal has been shelved until at least the autumn, prompting criticism that the government is not doing enough on food safety.

      The inquiry by Chris Elliott, professor of food safety at Queen's University Belfast, was announced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 16 months ago and was to have been completed by the spring. It is expected to highlight the impact of spending cuts on frontline enforcement and inspection in the food industry.




  • Security



    • Monday's security updates


    • We still believe in Linus’ law after Heartbleed bug, says Elie Auvray of Jahia
      Jahia was incepted in 2002 in Switzerland – the name comes from the contraction of Java (our core language) and Bahia (which means “bay” in Brazil). To support the international growth of the project, Jahia Solutions Group was later formed (in 2005) with offices throughout Europe and Jahia Inc. (the US subsidiary) was created in 2008. Jahia has now offices in Geneva, Paris, Toronto, Chicago, Washington, DC, Dusseldorf and Klagenfurt – and outsourced support centers in Australia and Nicaragua.




  • Transparency Reporting



    • Assange to ‘soon’ leave Ecuadorian Embassy
      Julian Assange recently held a press conference at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He says he has plans to leave the Embassy soon where he has been trapped for the past two years, but gave no details on why he’d be released.

      According to Assange the UN human rights states that prisoners must have a minimum of one hours outside a day however Assange’s only access to the outside is the balcony from which he spoke from to supporters a few years ago.

      He said that he understood Wikileaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson had said “that he can confirm i am leaving the embassy soon” however Hrafnsson later responded saying Assange could leave the embassy when the UK government “calls of the siege”.






  • Finance



    • A third of people have nothing saved for retirement
      A third of people (36%) in the U.S. have nothing saved for retirement, a new survey shows.

      In fact, 14% of people ages 65 and older have no retirement savings; 26% of those 50 to 64; 33%, 30 to 49; and 69%,18 to 29, according to the survey of 1,003 adults, conducted for Bankrate.com, a personal finance website.


    • More Than One-Third of Americans Have No Savings
      More than one-third of Americans haven’t started putting away money for retirement, but those who do are making the move a bit earlier than past generations.




  • Privacy



    • Boston Police Used Facial Recognition Software To Grab Photos Of Every Person Attending Local Music Festivals
      Once again, the government is experimenting on the public with new surveillance technology and not bothering to inform them until forced to do so. Boston's police department apparently performed a dry run of its facial recognition software on attendees of a local music festival.


    • BOSTON TROLLING (PART I): YOU PARTIED HARD AT BOSTON CALLING AND THERE’S FACIAL RECOGNITION DATA TO PROVE IT
      Nobody at either day of last year’s debut Boston Calling partied with much expectation of privacy. With an army of media photographers, selfie takers, and videographers recording every angle of the massive concert on Government Center, it was inherently clear that music fans were in the middle of a massive photo opp.


    • How Various Law Enforcement Agencies Could Hack Your Computer Via YouTube Videos
      When we recently wrote about Google starting to make use of SSL for search rankings, one of our commenters noted that not every site really "needs" HTTPS. While I used to agree, I've been increasingly leaning in the other direction, and I may have been pushed over the edge entirely by a new research report from the Citizen Lab by Morgan Marquis-Boire (perhaps better known as Morgan Mayhem), entitled Schrodinger’s Cat Video and the Death of Clear-Text. He's also written about it at the Intercept (where he now works), explaining how watching a cat video on YouTube could get you hacked (though not any more).


    • Ron Wyden: It's Time To Kill The Third Party Doctrine And Go Back To Respecting Privacy
      For years, we've written about the third party doctrine and its troubling implications for the 4th Amendment and your privacy -- especially in the digital era. If you're unfamiliar with it, the third party doctrine is the concept used by law enforcement (and, tragically, the courts) to say that you have no expectation of privacy or 4th Amendment rights in information you've given to a third party. The origins of this argument are not completely crazy, because there is a legitimate claim to the idea that if I entrust you with some private information, and you decide to disclose it, that my 4th Amendment rights haven't been violated. But that assumes a very different world. In today's digital world -- especially with cloud computing -- we "entrust" all sorts of information to third parties even though we still think of and treat that information like it's our own personal effects. These aren't cases in which I'm handing over a collection of journals to my neighbor to hold onto. Online services are treated as our own content -- which we can access, update and modify at any time from any device.


    • From The Unsealed 'Jewel v. NSA' Transcript: The DOJ Has Nothing But Contempt For American Citizens


      Not that it ultimately mattered. The NSA just kept destroying relevant evidence, claiming the system was too complex to do anything with but allow to run its course. Evidence would be destroyed at the 5-year limit, no matter what preservation orders were issued. The NSA, of course, has a vested interest in destroying evidence that its 215 and 702 programs collect the data and communications of Americans. Thanks to Snowden's leaks, it can no longer pretend it doesn't. But despite this, the DOJ still claims Section 702 targets only foreigners and American suspects located outside of the US.

      The mock concern about compliance with court orders was a hustle. The DOJ wants as much evidence that might be useful to plaintiffs gone as swiftly as possible. Thanks to the unsealing of Jewel court documents, the EFF can now relate that the DOJ's efforts went much further than simply letting aged-off collections expire. It also actively tried to change the historical record of the Jewel case, as Mike covered here recently.
    • NativeWrap for Android turns websites into apps to improve your privacy
      If you want to access a website or service like Facebook, Twitter or Google on your mobile device you have two options. You can either open a mobile browser and point it to the service, or install an app that provides you with access.

      Both options have privacy and security implications. With apps, it is all about permissions that you grant the app to have. While the permissions are often justified, they are not all the time so that additional information can be retrieved even though that's not needed for the apps' functionality.




  • Civil Rights



    • Fox's Pinkerton Baselessly Speculates Michael Brown Could Have Been "High On Some Drug, Angel Dust Or PCP"


    • Lawmaker drafting bill to demilitarize local police
      A Democratic congressman from Georgia is drafting legislation to limit a Pentagon program that provides surplus military equipment to local law enforcement.

      Rep. Hank Johnson is pushing the legislation amid the situation in Ferguson, Mo., where an armed police presence has taken to the streets after mass protests over a police shooting.

      "Our main streets should be a place for business, families, and relaxation, not tanks and M16s," Johnson wrote in a Dear Colleague letter sent Thursday to other members of Congress.


    • Seven pieces of military equipment the Pentagon is giving to local police


    • Seattle police chief during WTO unrest appalled by Ferguson violence
      The first thing Norm Stamper thought when he saw images of the protests in Ferguson, Mo., following the police shooting of an unarmed black man was straight out of a folk song — “When will we ever learn?”

      “My reaction was, ‘Please learn from my mistakes, from what I did and did not do during the week of WTO,’ ” said the former Seattle police chief, who presided over a law enforcement response to widespread demonstrations in 1999 that was vilified around the globe for its heavy handedness.


    • Police In Ferguson Sign Court Agreement Promising Not To Interfere With Media... Then Go Threaten And Arrest Media
      Note that the agreement was signed by Hussein and parties representing St. Louis County, the City of Ferguson and the Missouri Highway Patrol... on Friday the 15th. The threat to Hussein came on Sunday... the 17th.


    • Ferguson Cops Once Beat an Innocent Man and Then Charged Him With BLEEDING ON THEIR UNIFORMS
      As Michael Daly reports at The Daily Beast, the address where the defendant was said to have so wantonly damaged these officers' uniforms is in fact the address of the Ferguson Police Department, which recently took over from the colon-searchers in Deming, New Mexico, as America's favorite. Did the above-named defendant go down there voluntarily and throw blood upon their uniforms? No he did not.

      The above-named defendant was 52-year-old Henry Davis, who was a Henry Davis but not the Henry Davis they were looking for. This Henry Davis had the bad luck to be caught in a driving rainstorm on the highway, reportedly missing the exit for St. Charles and ending up in Ferguson. Having pulled over to wait out the rain, he became the prey of an officer who ran his plate and found an outstanding warrant for "Henry Davis."


    • NYT Would Call It Torture--If It Covered Torture
      But what if the paper decides that well-documented evidence of US torture is not fit to print?

      On August 11, Amnesty International released a lengthy report about abuses in Afghanistan committed by US forces and others, including Afghan security. The report includes serious allegations about US Special Forces torturing Afghan civilians.


    • Action Alert: NYT Skips First Big Test of New Torture Policy
      FAIR's new Action Alert (8/18/14) calls out the New York Times for not covering a major Amnesty International report on US torture–shortly after the paper announced a new policy of calling torture by its right name.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality



    • Study: Many tribal libraries lack broadband
      At least two-fifths of Native American libraries don’t have broadband Internet access, according to a study released this month, though the actual number could be as high as 89 percent.

      Additionally, just 42 percent of libraries surveyed for the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums’ annual study provided technology training, compared to 90 percent of all public libraries. Just 34 percent of the tribal libraries had a website.




  • DRM



    • Kill switches might let the government brick your smartphone
      Smartphone kill switch laws have been touted in the media a lot lately as a way to protect your phone from theft. But are they actually a good idea? If Google or Apple can brick your smartphone then what is to stop the government from ordering them to do so when it wants to stop you from using your phone? Foss Force takes a look at some of the chilling and disturbing consequences of smartphone kill switches.





  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Copyrights



      • U.S. Court Grants Order to Wipe Pirate Sites from the Internet
        A U.S. federal court in Oregon has granted a broad injunction against several streaming sites that offer pirated content. Among other things, the copyright holder may order hosting companies to shut down the sites' servers, ask registrars to take away domain names, and have all search results removed from Google and other search engines.


      • Hollywood Desperate To Blame Bad Opening Box Office Of Expendables 3 On Piracy Rather Than The Fact That It Sucked
        It's been kind of crazy to watch movie studio Lionsgate go absolutely crazy over the fact that The Expendables 3 leaked online a few weeks ago. Within a few days, Lionsgate had filed a massive lawsuit, been granted a restraining order and followed it up with thousands of takedown notices, combined with targeting everyone from hosting providers to domain registrars, in a quixotic attempt to make the leaked files disappear.








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