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10.27.11

Links 27/10/2011: Chrome 15 is Out, Mozilla Sells Out to Microsoft

Posted in News Roundup at 9:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Frozen In One Place While Everything Moves Forward

    He was basically telling me that I, or people in my age group, had become old, and stuck in one place. Not an insult either, but a clear fact. If you remember back when you were younger you should remember when things changed all the time in your life and you easily accepted it. Not just accepted it, enjoyed it and looked towards tomorrow for more. Sure, this isn’t everyone, but the majority.

  • Desktop

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Some Attractive Wallpapers For Your Linux Desktop

      Here are a few great wallpapers available for download at GnomeLook.org. First and foremost is the debian chick, this gorgeous babe is the perfect addition to any desktop. Unfortunatelty those curves may cause you to miss a project deadline or two.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • KDE Password And User Account Settings
      • Calligra 2.4 Beta

        The Calligra team is proud and excited to release the third beta version of the Calligra Suite. Since the start of the Calligra effort, we have had a long and very productive development phase. In the mean time we have released four snapshot versions, also known as alphas, to give the users a chance to see what we are doing.

    • GNOME Desktop

  • Distributions

    • New Releases

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Is Red Hot Right Now

        Red Hat posted a surge of 28% in quarterly revenues over the past year, which drove net income up a whopping 69%. This staggering growth was mainly because of enormous demand for its open-source solutions everywhere, especially in the financial services sector and local, state, and federal governments. Moreover, Red Hat’s customers have been looking to modernize their data center infrastructure. This helped in growing revenues and highlighted customer loyalty. High demand for Red Hat’s services, low service charges, and excellent reliability drove revenue growth.

      • The Perfect Server – CentOS 5.7 x86_64 [ISPConfig 2]
      • Red Hat talks ahead of Linuxcon keynote

        Tim Burke is the VP of Linux technology development at Red Hat. He spoke to us about the power of free software, what he thinks is the best thing about Linux and what it might be used for in the future.

      • Fedora

        • Secondary Fedora is hiring

          Red Hat is hiring a Fedora release engineer with primary focus on the PowerPC platform, where he/she will prepare the testing and final releases, work on the build system infrastructure, work with architecture maintainers on package build failures and much more.

    • Debian Family

      • m23 rock 11.4 is ready!

        We’ve done it! m23 rock 11.4 is ready – and now Debian Squeeze is available as an additional client distribution and TDE (which can be seen as a continuation of KDE3) was added to the list of desktop interfaces to choose from.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu 11.10 Experience on Dell D610

            First off, I would like to congratulate Ubuntu team for releasing another milestone of a good Linux distribution. It is such a big project which requires great balance between schedule, functionality, level of polish and quality.

            On the polish, I really like the new theme, it fits well to my taste.

          • Planning Ubuntu 12.04

            I love planning a new Ubuntu release. It’s a great experience to take a few steps back and look at the biggest challenges and opportunities in your area of interest and try to identify the most promising.

          • Disunited

            If you want a shiny barely-customizable straitjacket as a desktop environment, go buy a Mac. Please stop wrecking Ubuntu.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 review

            At the end of the upgrade process, I had changed an existing installation of Ubuntu 11.04 with a core of Linux kernel 2.6.38 to one running Ubuntu 11.10 with a core of Linux kernel 3.0.0, with no loss of existing data. Very nice. Though I did not backup my data because there was no useful data on the system, it is always a good idea to keep a backup of your data before an upgrade. You just never know.

          • White Screen of Death

            Remember the good old days when Windows had problems with the “Blue Screen of Death.” Years later, XBox followed with its “Red Ring of Death.” Now, it’s Ubuntu turn, what others are coining as the “White Screen of Death.”

            Yesterday, I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Prior to the upgrade, I was using Ubuntu 11.04 and the Gnome desktop (not Unity). Somehow, for some reason, when I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10, it wiped out my Gnome default environment and switched me back to Unity. Argh!

          • United for Unity alternatives

            Having said this, allow me a Captain Obvious moment to say that folks have different tastes, likes and dislikes, which in the final analysis boils down to a subjective smorgasbord of opinion rather than any resemblance to objective fist-bearing, knuckle-bashing fact.

            I loathe Unity with a heat of a nova, but some people absolutely love it to the ends of the earth. And that’s great, but it’s not for everyone. What about those Ubuntu users who don’t like Unity because it’s a brain-numbing, unintuitive desktop environment that’s has a my-way-or-highway range of tweakability (or do I overstate it?), or what about an Ubuntu user who can’t use it because they’re using older hardware?

          • Canonical upping desktop support for its next Ubuntu LTS to 5 years

            Ever since Ubuntu shipped its first long-term-support release, the 6.06 Dapper Drake (one of my all-time favorites by the way), the distro’s LTS editions have enjoyed three years of support on the desktop and five years on the server.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Android

        • DROID RAZR Pre-Orders Start Tomorrow at 8AM, Will Ship “No Later” Than November 10

          Verizon pinged us this morning with a reminder that the pre-order period for the DROID RAZR starts tomorrow at 8AM, giving potential owners a chance to jump on the device early for $299 on contract. Up until now though, we had no idea when you would expect to see that order since Big Red and Motorola decided not to give us an actual release date last week at the RAZR event. According to this reminder email, it looks like November 10 is the latest you will see it.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

      • Chrome 15 released with… improved start page

        Google has rolled out version 15 of Chrome to its “stable” channel. The update brings some minor cosmetic changes, including a slightly cleaner new tab page, and Google has also redesigned the Chrome Web Store with a simpler layout.

      • Google Releases Chrome 15 Stable for Linux

        The Google Chrome developers at Google proudly announced last night, October 25th, the immediate availability for download of the stable
        and final release of the Google Chrome 15 web browser for Linux platforms.

    • Mozilla

  • Licensing

    • GPL or BSD License: Confusion Galore

      I started with the notion that GPL should always be used in open source software. I also thought that releasing software under BSD license was letting others take advantage of your hard work without giving anything in return; a highly unfair practice. My thoughts have changed a bit. You can read all about the regurgitated pros and cons all over the Internet. I’m looking to introduce a new perspective, if I can.

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • Security

  • Finance

    • Wall St. Giants Seek a Piece of Nigeria’s Sovereign Fund

      Nigeria, the West African nation that has gained notoriety for the illicit e-mail spammers aiming for Western bank accounts, is attracting attention for legitimate financial opportunities — investing its own savings.

      In an effort to preserve and increase its oil revenue, the country recently established a so-called sovereign wealth fund, following the path of many resource-rich countries. Now, Wall Street titans like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase are courting top government officials, aiming to grab a piece of a portfolio that could eventually be worth tens of billions of dollars.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Herman Cain’s New Internet Campaign Ad Promotes Smoking

      Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s new internet ad features a tight head shot of his campaign’s “chief of staff,” Mark Block, telling viewers how great Cain will be for the country and how much confidence he has in Cain.

10.25.11

Links 25/10/2011: Android Beats iOS in Apps, FreeBSD 9.0 RC

Posted in News Roundup at 3:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Community spotlight: Scott Nesbitt, contributor to FLOSS manuals

    Meet Scott Nesbitt. He’s a freelance writer and consultant in Toronto, Canada. He uses open source tools for more than 85 percent of the work he does. He’s idealistic about more getting more open data from our governments. Nesbitt also contributes to FLOSS Manuals (FLOSS stands for Free/Libre open source software) by helping to document open source projects. Documentation for the win!

  • Twitter, open source, DNA and bread making

    Consider, for example, software for processing DNA samples in some way. Such software is highly specialised. It is tempting to look for other people who are working in the same area and seek to share code with them.

  • Open source jobs: What’s hot, where to look, what to learn

    What does the future hold for eager, talented software developers, and people with related essential skill sets? The overriding trend, as in all industries, is you’re on your own, chum. But free/open source software (FOSS) offers considerably more richness of opportunity than anything else. Let’s peer into the crystal ball and see what the future holds.

  • Open software source centre undergoes revamp

    The International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (Icfoss) is being revamped with an amended vision document and functionalities.

    The decision was taken at the fourth meeting of the Icfoss governing body held here chaired by Mr P. K. Kunhalikkutty, Minister for Industries, IT and Urban Affairs.

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS

    • OpenStack Open Source Cloud Standard: Reality Check

      ’ve been watching OpenStack, the emerging open source cloud standard, for more than a year now. Without a doubt, open source cloud projects generate buzz on TalkinCloud. But where exactly do VARs and MSPs fit into the OpenStack conversastion?

      Since the OpenStack project’s mid-2010 launch, the community of open source developers and solution providers building on the platform has grown from just two — Rackspace and NASA — up to more than 110 today. And technology titans like Dell, Citrix, and HP have all signed on, with even traditionally hardware-focused Intel submitting code to the OpenStack community.

  • Databases

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Oracle’s Cloud Strategy Looks Just Like Its Open Source

      Oracle (ORCL) is using its strategy with open source as a template for its approach to cloud: First you dismiss it. Then you buy into it. Then you muddy it up. Wash, rinse, repeat.

      In open source, this meant that Oracle first charged it was theft; then bought the largest player, Sun Microsystems; then used its control of key projects to muddy the industry’s waters, while it monetized what it could.

      That process has now begun again with the purchase of RightNow. (RNOW). The price, $43/share, is not far a huge premium over Friday’s close of $36. But it’s still a nice pop for RightNow shareholders, and for those who got in exactly a year ago, it’s a near doubling of their money.

  • CMS

  • Business

    • Open source IT allows zero cost start-ups

      While open source as a concept and philosophy is not new, it’s not well publicised either. Peter Ward talks to Jan Wildeboer, open source evangelist at Red Hat about how open source can be used by small businesses and start ups to dramatically lower costs.

    • Semi-Open Source

      • Talend: Open Source Ecosystem Critical to Its Success

        What does it take to build a successful business in the open source channel? That’s a question with no easy answer, but it’s also one the staff at Talend, one of the open source world’s largest commercial organizations, knows something about. I recently spoke with them about the importance of open source to their work. Here’s what they had to say.

        First, a little background: Founded in 2005, Talend focuses on delivering data-integration solutions based on an “open core model,” in which the core technology is open source but value-added components, provided by both Talend and partners, may be proprietary.

        Talend isn’t the very biggest open source business in existence, but with 400 employees and offices in 13 countries, it represents a powerful force within the open source channel. It also counts 2,500 paying commercial customers for its data-integration products and about 750,000 users of its free tools, making it one of the most important software vendors in its niche.

  • Funding

    • Kickstarter for Open-Source Projects?

      The Web site http://www.kickstarter.com is an interesting place. Basically, it’s a site that allows people to invest in various projects, giving people real money to develop an idea. Those ideas vary from film-making to programming video games, but the concept is the same regardless of the project.

  • BSD

    • First release candidate for FreeBSD 9.0 arrives

      The FreeBSD project has announced the arrival of the first release candidate (RC1) for version 9.0 of its FreeBSD operating system. The developers say that 9.0 RC1 was delayed due to a bug that the team encountered during the initial testing of the images, as well as problems related to FreeBSD-Update.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • FOSS luminaries ignore Ritchie’s passing

      What is really sad about this lack of acknowledgement is that many people and writers who do recognise events that are newsworthy in the field of computing have turned a blind eye – or else issued something that’s similar to weak tea.

      Take Richard Stallman, the head of the Free Software Foundation, for example. Stallman has much to thank Ritchie for; were it not for the C programming language that Ritchie developed, Stallman would not have been able to create any of the GNU tools that he did, in his quest to create a free operating system.

      Stallman had time to comment on the passing of Steve Jobs. Yet, to date, neither him nor anyone else at the FSF or the GNU Foundation have said a word about Ritchie.

  • Project Releases

  • Openness/Sharing

  • Programming

  • Standards/Consortia

    • VideoJS – The Open Source HTML 5 Video Player

      If you are like me then you were very excited about HTML 5′s video tag. Simplistic, great functionality, and now it is even supported by all of the latest browsers. Video is just a source away, and easier than ever to portray high quality videos right on your website. HTML 5, like anything else, doesn’t have everything we want. For example the biggest problem is a “full screen command.” Even though you are able to specify the dimensions appropriately, you still want to be able to save space, and provide that option. Early on there were a number of options available to have a deluxe video player. There seems to be a frontrunner in this battle, and that is VideoJS.

Leftovers

  • Health/Nutrition

    • “Horror Hotel”: The New Frontier of Junk Food Marketing to Kids

      Today’s teenagers are probably the most savvy generation yet when it comes to filtering out advertising, but that is no worry for junk food and drink companies who steadily deploy stealthier and more sophisticated interactive promotions that specifically target teens and exploit their emotional and developmental vulnerabilities. The newest generation of internet-based junk food promotions uses cutting edge marketing techniques with names like “augmented reality,” “virtual environments” and “neuromarketing” — the use of scientifically-devised digital marketing techniques that trigger teens’ subconscious emotional arousal.

    • Don’t Buy Insurers’ Junk — Or Let Them Keep Selling It

      Members of Congress and the Obama administration have assured us that on January 1, 2014, junk health insurance plans — which offer only the illusion of adequate coverage to the millions of Americans enrolled in them — will become a thing of the past.

      Among those who clearly don’t believe those plans are headed for extinction are the insurance companies that market these highly profitable plans, and the employers that buy them — primarily restaurant chains and retailers with high employee turnover.

      If I were President Obama, I would send one of my aides to the Chicago suburbs later this week to see first-hand just how determined these companies are to continue selling these plans — which are euphemistically called “mini-med” and “limited-benefit policies” — long past 2014.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Days of Our Supply

      Brent oil price have remained stubbornly above $100 a barrel in 2011. Part of the reason why has been the decline in days supply of OECD Total Oil Stocks. Following the financial crisis of 2008, total oil inventories in the OECD climbed steadily, rising above 60 days supply. However, after the low in oil prices in 2009, inventories started a gentle decline which has now seen levels fall below 59 days supply. Over the years it has been my observation that while the level of days supply influences oil prices, changes in direction matter more.

  • Finance

    • How the Austerity Class Rules Washington

      In September the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a bipartisan deficit-hawk group based at the New America Foundation, held a high-profile symposium urging the Congressional “supercommittee” to “go big” and approve a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan over the next decade, which is well beyond its $1.2 trillion mandate. The hearing began with an alarming video of top policy-makers describing the national debt as “the most serious threat that this country has ever had” (Alan Simpson) and “a threat to the whole idea of self-government” (Mitch Daniels). If the debt continues to rise, predicted former New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, there would be “strikes, riots, who knows what?” A looming fiscal crisis was portrayed as being just around the corner.

      The event spotlighted a central paradox in American politics over the past two years: how, in the midst of a massive unemployment crisis — when it’s painfully obvious that not enough jobs are being created and the public overwhelmingly wants policy-makers to focus on creating them — did the deficit emerge as the most pressing issue in the country? And why, when the global evidence clearly indicates that austerity measures will raise unemployment and hinder, not accelerate, growth, do advocates of austerity retain such distinction today?

    • Goldman Sachs Sends Its Regrets to This Awkward Dinner Invitation

      Earlier this month, hundreds of New Yorkers received an unusual dinner invitation from the Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union.

      The Credit Union, a small lender serving New York’s poor, was holding a fund-raiser to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Among the chief sponsors listed on the invitation was Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

    • Goldman Sachs Sued By Allstate Insurance For Fraud

Links 25/10/2011: Linux 3.1, Linux Smartphones Domination in Asia

Posted in News Roundup at 4:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • All About Jobs and Hiring in Linux Land

    “Most developer jobs require current knowledge of non-open software,” said blogger Barbara Hudson, “but it’s a safe bet to say that most jobs are not ‘open’ jobs. … The most reliable way to get a job that uses open source exclusively is to create your own. The bad news is that, as in every previous recession, we’re seeing a lot of this ‘involuntary entrepreneurship.’ The good news is that this time the tools are freely available.”

  • Are Updates the Dirty Linux Secret?

    So, are updates the dirty little secret of running Linux?

  • Desktop

    • UEFI Headaches Begin For Linux Users

      The next morning I began looking into UEFI more since I had not done a lot of research but did know it was discovered around the time Windows 8 Developer was released. Anyways Ubuntu has a Community Documentation Article that discusses some workarounds for the UEFI problem and I have personally been considering how greatly the UEFI problem could affect Linux Users. I think there is some positive discussion going on and brainstorming occurring that will allow the Linux community to find reliable workarounds and solutions before UEFI becomes a standard.

      Apparently Dell has had UEFI laptops for a while so it is no surprise that a new HP laptop has UEFI by default although with HP doing quite a bit of stuff in the FOSS community I figured they might have provided better support for someone trying to install Linux. Hopefully some sort of legislation will pass that requires manufacturers to list that a certain device is only capable of running a certain OS out of the box and further the whole issue seems very anti-competitive.

    • Three years on the GNU/Linux road

      It’s been about three years, since I finally migrated all of my personal PCs for my immediate family from Windows XP to Fedora Linux. I had used it for many years previous to that, but I had held off on migrating all of my PCs permanently because of issues with getting apps to work in Wine, and problems finding apps to replace proprietary ones I had used up to that point.

      It’s been a pretty smooth ride on Fedora during the past 3 years though, for me and my family. I originally installed Fedora 9, and have upgraded the PCs to Fedora 14 during that time. I originally set up a Windows XP virtual machine in VirtualBox for those times where applications MUST run in a Windows environment, where there is no Linux alternative. But those cases are getting more rare now. I haven’t used my XP virtual machine in quite some time. I have realized one thing though, that staying on Fedora’s current release does take some extra time to upgrade from version to version. I have stated in other posts I became sick of maintaining Windows XP, and yet I’ve found that I still do need extra time to upgrade Fedora. But, I should mention that I don’t absolutely need to upgrade to the latest versions, but I do it mainly to upgrade all of the applications to their latest version, like Firefox, Thunderbird, and other software on the PCs. Overall, it’s a nice and easy way to “refresh” both the Linux kernel and all of the applications installed in one easy step.

    • ZaReason Invenire 1220 Reviewed

      A couple of weeks ago, ZaReason sent us a shiny new Invenire 1220 running Qimo 2.0 for a review. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Qimo running on a machine I hadn’t put it on, and the fact that it was like that out of the box was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had. Having Qimo available as a pre-install option is not only a great opportunity for Qimo, but an easy way for parents to get a working computer that’s safe and inviting for their kids.

    • Ideal Desktop for Me

      On this machine I have installed Linux Mint Debian Edition, 32-bit and I’m using XFCE as my desktop environment. LMDE provides the necessary proprietary codecs to make my life simpler. Also the fact that LMDE is a rolling distribution is great as I don’t need to worry about the upgrade treadmill anymore and I have to admit that I like the idea of always having all the most current apps installed.

    • To Install or Not?

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux 3.1 released with NFC support

      Released several weeks late due to malware attacks on kernel.org in August, the Linux 3.1 kernel is out now, with a variety of enhancements to performance, virtualization, and power management. It also includes support for near field communication (NFC), the OpenRISC open source CPU, Nintendo’s Wii controller, and 3D acceleration with Nvidia GEForce graphics processor units (GPUs).

    • Linux 3.1
    • What’s new in Linux 3.1

      Among the most prominent advancements of Linux 3.1 are the kernel’s 3D support for new NVIDIA graphics chips and virtualisation enhancements for KVM and Xen.

      About !!! weeks after the version jump to 3.0, Linus Torvalds has now released the second kernel in the 3.x series. Without the break-in at kernel.org, the new version would probably have been released three to four weeks earlier, as the temporary unavailability of the central server structure slightly hampered the kernel developers’ work. However, the scope of modifications compares quite well with that of the new kernel’s direct predecessors, as another round of advancements enhances the range of features and hardware support of Linux. Users are likely to benefit from these advancements in the near future, because distributions such as Fedora 16, which is due to be released in November, are already planning to use kernel version 3.1.

    • AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer On Ubuntu Linux

      Two weeks ago AMD introduced the Bulldozer FX-Series CPUs to much excitement, although many were letdown by the initial results, and it was months after showing the first Linux benchmarks of an AMD Dual-Interlagos pre-production system. In the days that followed I delivered some initial AMD FX-4100 Linux benchmarks when securing remote access to a low-end Bulldozer system running Ubuntu 11.04 (and there were also some Linux benchmarks from independent Phoronix readers), but then last week a Bulldozer kit arrived from AMD. The centerpiece of this kit is an eight-core AMD FX-8150 CPU, which is now being used to conduct a plethora of AMD Bulldozer benchmarks on Linux.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Nokia gives Qt open-source governance

        Qt, the Nokia-owned graphical toolkit used in popular products from Google and Adobe, is now being run as an open-source project, meaning independent developers can have more influence on the direction of the software.

      • Qt Project launches; Qt now under open governance

        There are many levels of openness that a project can espouse, from simply dumping open source code at regular intervals, to actually fostering a community and letting the community dictate the course of development the project should take. It can be endlessly debated as to what level of openness is better and for what project or under what conditions. Regardless Qt, the popular open source cross-platform framework used by KDE, is now a little more open with the launch of the Qt Project.

      • Konqueror in KDE4. It’s not so terrible, I guess.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • Things that I like in Gnome 3

        A title that is effectively social-suicide to post on PlanetKDE, but I’ll risk it anyway. I spent some time last week trying out Gnome 3.2, and it has a lot of really good ideas that we can steal take influence from.

        I think as desktop developers it’s always worth spending some time to see what our “competitors” are doing in both the open source and commercial world.

      • Using Gloobus Preview With Nautilus 3.2

        GNOME 3.2 got its own file previewer: GNOME Sushi, but what if you want to use Gloobus Preview instead (the main reason for this being that Gloobus Preview supports more file types)?

  • Distributions

    • Chakra 2011.09 review – Interesting and powerful

      Two distributions that I have been most asked to review are Arch Linux and Chakra. And the reason I have so far refused to do so is the relatively high level of knowledge required to operate them. Think of Slackware, turbo mode into Gentoo, then add some. Supposedly, Arch Linux is good and stable and light on the system, but it takes time working out and taming, or as we say in technical parlance, why bother. But Chakra, as it turns out, is unto Arch what Sabayon is unto Gentoo. All of the horrible geekiness is taken away and you have a simple and friendly desktop.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • PCLinuxOS Updated – Almost Overlooked

        For some added fun, go to the Panel Tool Box (the cashew at the right end of the bottom panel), choose “Add Widgets” then *Get New Widgets”, then “Download New Plasma Widgets”. In the search box enter “CpuFreqDisplay”, and install the widget that comes up. Then go back to the Add Widgets function, and add that widget to your panel. That gives you a nice colorful display of the CPU speed as it is adjusted on demand. Enjoy!

    • Gentoo Family

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu turns 7, Canonical gets to work on Precise Pangolin
          • Ubuntu Summit Plans To Polish The Precise Pangolin

            With Oneiric Ocelot just released, Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth wants to get next year’s release right

          • Canonical extends Ubuntu 12.04 LTS desktop support
          • Canonical announces five years of support for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS desktops
          • Canonical Develops Next Version of Ubuntu; Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
          • Vodafone Webbook With Ubuntu OS For $188 Released
          • Vodafone launches $188 Ubuntu Webbook for developing countries
          • The Latest from Ubuntu and Kubuntu

            At the end of the week my impression is Ubuntu 11.10 offers a good, newcomer-friendly distribution. It has a few issues, most of them minor, but it really feels like a distribution I could put in front of someone who considered themselves both a Linux and a computer “newbie” and they would probably do well with it. The Kubuntu edition feels to be targeting power users who want the convenience of Ubuntu, but who want to be able to configure their interface. It’s fast, easy to customize and, aside from a few issues with package management and the annoying Nepomuk pop-ups that appear at login, it’s been a solid experience. The two editions compliment each other well. Both install quickly, come with a good base of software (with over 30,000 additional packages in the Software Centre) and are easy to use. This is probably the best release Ubuntu has put out in the past two years and I think Kubuntu may become a permanent resident on my main machine.

          • Quality in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

            As is natural for an LTS cycle, lots of people are thinking and talking about work focused on quality rather than features. With Canonical extending LTS support to five years on the desktop for 12.04, much of this is quite rightly focused on the desktop. I’m really not a desktop hacker in any way, shape, or form, though. I spent my first few years in Ubuntu working mainly on the installer – I still do, although I do some other things now too – and I used to say only half-jokingly that my job was done once X started. Of course there are plenty of bugs I can fix, but I wanted to see if I could do something with a bit more structure, so I got to thinking about projects we could work on at the foundations level that would make a big difference.

          • How Well Did Your Ubuntu 11.10 Upgrade Go?
          • Magazines and ebooks come to the Ubuntu Software Centre

            Ubuntu sponsor Canonical has announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with the Pearson Technology Group and Linux New Media to provide ebooks and magazines to the Ubuntu Software Centre. Canonical says that several ebooks, including “The Official Ubuntu Book” and “Ubuntu Unleashed: 2011 Edition”, have already been added to the Software Centre; magazines such as Ubuntu User and Linux Magazine should be available soon from $6.99.

            The Software Centre is the Linux distribution’s recommended software management system for adding additional applications, tools or components; commercial software was first added to Ubuntu in April 2010 with the 11.04 “Natty Narwhal” release. “Through this innovative partnership we are adding eBooks and magazines to the wide range of applications currently available in the Ubuntu Software Center, creating a fantastic revenue opportunity for Ubuntu developers and content creators”, said Canonical VP Business Development Steve George.

          • Useful Ubuntu Unity Lenses For Ubuntu Oneiric

            One of the best feature of the Unity desktop in Ubuntu is the lens. Lens are the search feature in the Dash. Different lenses allow you to perform search functions, for example, the Music Lens allows you to search for music that you have recently listened to while the Applications Lens searches for all your applications in the system. In Ubuntu Oneiric, it comes with three default lenses, namely the Applications lens, Recent Files/Folders lens and the Music lens. Below are several useful lens that you can add on to your system.

          • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 238

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Getting Bodhi Linux up to speed

              Most of the time I am writing articles on getting users up to speed with specific tools, distributions, or desktops. This time, I am going to help you set up one of my new pet distributions so that you’ll spend less time figuring things out, and more time enjoying Bodhi Linux.

              You should already know that Bodhi Linux is proud to be one of the few distributions that is a minimal, yet very functional, desktop Linux. What that means is you are going to have to actually install some software. That task is always the first thing I do upon completion of installation. Naturally everyone has their own list of favorite software they install, my list looks something like this:

              * The Gimp
              * LibreOffice
              * Audacity
              * Banshee
              * Gnucash
              * Lucky Backup
              * Speedcrunch
              * Fotowall
              * Calibre
              * Chromium Browser
              * Dropbox

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • Microsoft, MC Hammer and mobiles – its old news and new news!

    It is reported that Microsoft’s rather unpopular Windows Phone 7 costs more to make than the iPhone 4s, disproving the theory that “You get what you pay for”. It’s no secret that Microsoft is allegedly making more money from Android “licenses” than it is from WP7 and it doesn’t seem like Mango has stirred any excitement – the one “fruit” product in the Tech world that’s truly gone rotten?

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Internet blocking – before/after EP
    • Broadband and science helping the developing world

      But broadband does not just benefit science for the developing world – it benefits science in the developing world too. In places like Chile, where low light pollution levels are conducive to astronomical observation, and where scientists make use of the regional RedClara network, itself largely funded by the EU. Even in a place like Somalia, the existence of a research and education network is not just remarkable – in a country with few functional national organisations – but positive, as an agent for change supporting healthcare, education services and the Fibre for Peace initiative.

10.24.11

Links 23/10/2011: Qt Liberty, Sabayon Linux 7 Reviewed

Posted in News Roundup at 5:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • 10 Things I Have Learned as a Linux Blogger
  • Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 170

    · Announced Distro: Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix 11.10
    · Announced Distro: Sabayon 7 CoreCDX, SpinBase, ServerBase and OpenVZ
    · Announced Distro: Kororaa 15.1

  • Server

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux 3.2 Kernel May Be Of A Worrying Size

      After going through ten release candidates, the Linux 3.1 kernel should be released by early next week. However, with the Linux 3.1 kernel release cycle having been dragged on by more RCs than normal and the Kernel.org hacking incident, the Linux 3.2 kernel may end up being abnormally large and its worrying Linus Torvalds.

    • Graphics Stack

      • NVIDIA Puts Out 290 Linux Driver Series Beta
      • NVIDIA’s OpenGL Shader Disk Cache For Linux

        One of the features that NVIDIA introduced in the 290.03 Beta Linux driver that was released on Friday is support for an OpenGL shader disk cache.

        NVIDIA’s OpenGL shader disk cache option for Linux allows compiled shaders to be cached to the system disk in a temporary area so that they don’t need to be re-compiled again later on, which can potentially save time by just pulling these binaries from the disk instead. This OpenGL shader disk cache feature is also supported by the proprietary Solaris and FreeBSD x86/x86_64 drivers, which were also released on Friday at version 290.03 Beta.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • The many faces of Linux

      Linux is fundamentally a command line Operating System. Anything and everything can be done through the command line – system configuration, connecting to WiFi access points, even accessing new hardware devices before the Linux Kernel gets a driver for it (like USB Flash Drives before Linux Kernel 2.4 – pre 2001)

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • KDE Applauds Qt’s Move to Open Governance

        Today Nokia announced the start of the open governance model for Qt, known as the Qt Project. The Qt Project allows both companies and individuals to contribute to the development of Qt. KDE supports this move and is excited about the possibilities it brings. We have been waiting for opportunities to take a more active role in Qt’s future for a long time and open governance will make this easier. KDE has been working closely with Qt during its 15 year lifetime and the Qt Project promises to bring this collaboration to a new level.

      • Qt spins off as open source project
      • The Qt Project goes live

    • GNOME Desktop

      • More on Gnome 3 and Unity

        Let’s hope that the folks behind Ubuntu can admit a mistake, and get back to making Ubuntu one of the most newbie-friendly Linux distributions.

  • Distributions

    • New laptop, new challenge: Which Linux distro is right?

      1. PCLinuxOS
      As I’m rather familiar with its installation process, I installed PCLinuxOS first. I was not very sure because I have some problems with effects on my desktop (nothing that prevents me from sleeping, actually), but PCLinuxOS went out like an energetic Texas longhorn and installed everything without a finch. I tried the Kwin effects and everything was perfect! Of course, I was lacking the Office suite but the process to get it is simple enough for a Linux non-technical user like me: you fire up Synaptic, search “lomanager”, select it for upgrade, close Synaptic and click on the Libre Office installer icon on the desktop. The only drawback, if any at all, is that this is a 32 bit OS… Again, nothing that matters much to me.

      2. Linux Mint 11 “Katya”
      I installed the 64 bit version of Linux Mint. I have always liked the elegance of this OS and the way it handles the installation process. I noticed something new: Mint said that it had detected PCLinuxOS and prompted me for an action. I selected “install next to it” for a dual boot. However, after the process was complete, PCLinuxOS was unbootable… In Linux-Linux dual boots that happens quite often, but my real problem was that I do not know how to repair it from the grub mechanism in Mint (Megatotoro taught me the ropes for GRUB legacy, but I simply do not know how to repair this thing). The only option was to start over…

    • Lightweight Linux Distributions 2011 Review: Introduction

      It’s again a while ago I wrote my review about lightweight Linux distribution. In my very first review of 2008 I took a look at the following distributions:

      * Arch 2007.08-2
      * Damn Small Linux 4.2.5
      * Puppy 4.0
      * TinyMe Test7-KD
      * Xubuntu 8.04
      * Zenwalk 5.0

    • Weekend Project: Rescue Failing Drives With SystemRescue

      The Gentoo-based SystemRescue CD/USB is one of the very best rescue distros, packing amazing functionality into a 350MB image. It can rescue Linux, Unix, Mac, and Windows systems, and recover data from almost any media. Today we will learn how to create a SystemRescue live USB stick, and recover data from failing drives.

    • New Releases

      • Finnix 103
      • ZevenOS-Neptune 2.0 Release

        The ZevenOS Team is pleased to announce ZevenOS-Neptune 2.0.
        This is the first version we ship in two editions: Minimal Edition (with LXDE) and Full Edition (with KDE SC)
        Both ship with an updated and optimized Kernel 3.0.4. Minimal Edition includes PCManFM 0.9.8, DeaDBeef 0.5.1, Gnome-Mplayer 1.0.4 (with Mplayer2), Abiword 2.8.6, Iceweasel 7 (alias Firefox w/o branding) & Iceweasel 5 (alias Thunderbird w/o branding).

    • Gentoo Family

      • Sabayon 7 review – the most complete out-of-the-box Linux?

        Verdict: 4/5

        Sabayon is a very polished, modern distribution, giving you all of the amenities that you expect from Linux. And being based on a rolling release system, you should only ever have to install once. The only issue was using the Live CD with an inadequate video card, ending up with artifacts and distortions, but advanced users should be able to deal with this issue in double-quick time.

      • Sabayon Linux 7: A Review (With Screenshots)

        Sabayon is an incredibly fast Linux distribution, probably due to its Gentoo roots. Even though I ran this in Live mode it was snappy and highly responsive.

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

      • Turn Plain Jane Debian Into A Sexy Goddess

        Debian is the mother of many popular distributions such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Debian has a cult following among its users. It is fast, smooth and free from the control of any company. If you are one of those users who want to run a ‘pure’ community driven OS, then Debian is the one. A caveat, Debian may require some extra work to make it work for you.

      • Arch for Debian users

        I’m a long-time Debian user, since the mid-90s or so. I like their technical decisions some but what I really like is their culture and goals. I still wear with pride my old Debian shirt from the time I helped staff a booth at a conference. Later I reluctantly switched to Ubuntu after I repeatedly couldn’t get my laptop wifi/sleep to work.

        I recently got a new desktop system and hesitated when considering what to put on it. I don’t much enjoy fighting with details and would prefer a system that just works, but I’m tired of fighting with CADT-developed GUIs; both Gnome3 and Unity are too heavy and fiddly for what I want — browsers and terminals.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu 11.10 Powered Webbook Sells at $190

            South African Vodafone affiliate, Vodacom, announced the immediate availability of a Webbook device powered by the newly released Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system.

          • Coming back to Humanity, or getting Ubuntu 11.10 installed again

            After some consideration and some positive results of Ubuntu 11.10 Live run, I decided to install this operating system onto my hard drive.
            Because my Live USB was broken, as you can see at the end of linked post, I had to use usual fall back option – CD-RW.

            [...]

            But despite these facts I think I’ll keep Ubuntu 11.10 on my hard drive for some time. Maybe I’ll get used to new Unity interface and its features.

          • Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to get extra-long desktop support cycle

            In a statement issued this morning on the company’s blog, Canonical revealed that Ubuntu 12.04 will be supported for five years on the desktop instead of the usual three years that a standard long-term support release gets. The company says that the longer duration of desktop support is intended to better serve corporate desktop rollouts.

          • Canonical Extends LTS Desktop Support, Shuffles Org Chart

            One of the strange things about Canonical’s Long Term Support (LTS) releases has always been the disparity between the length of support on the desktop vs. the server. LTS releases today provide 5 yrs of support on the server and 3 on the desktop, but that’s going to change with the 12.04 release.

          • 7 Best GNOME Shell Extensions, Install in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric via PPA

            Being able to install GNOME Shell in Ubuntu Oneiric is exciting. And as we experienced in our earlier review of GNOME Shell in Ubuntu 11.10, GNOME Shell has come a long since its first release and now is a very stable, fast and usable shell for GNOME. To further improve the functionality, GNOME Shell has extensions support. Though these are very early stages, there are quite a number of really good GNOME Shell extensions already.

          • Ubuntu: Through the Eyes of a Travel Blogger

            Based on our “on-the-move” lifestyle and dependency on our computer we expect performance without flaw. The Ubuntu OS certainly has impressed us and we would recommend it to anybody who wants to break the Microsoft chain.

          • Next Version of Ubuntu Coming–Shuttleworth Dreams of Clouds

            Quick, how old is Ubuntu? If you remembered it being about 10 years old, that was my initial recollection too. In fact, Ubuntu is seven years old this week. PC World has taken note of the original release language for “Warty Warthog:” “Ubuntu is a new Linux distribution that brings together the extraordinary breadth of Debian with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of security and technical support for every release.” Now, Mark Shuttleworth is discussing the next major version of Ubuntu, dubbed “Precise Pangolin.”

          • Desktop dreams: Ubuntu 11.10 reviewed

            Ubuntu 11.10, codenamed Oneiric Ocelot, prowled out of the development forest earlier this month. In our review of Ubuntu 11.04, released back in April, we took a close look at the strengths and weaknesses of the new Unity shell and compared it with GNOME 3.0. In this review, we’re going to revisit Unity to see how much progress it has made over the past six months. We will also take a close look at the updated Software Center user interface and the transition from Evolution to Thunderbird.

          • Ubuntu Linux will try for the business desktop

            I use the Linux desktop at work, but I’m in a tiny minority. Most people use Windows. Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company, plans on getting at least some Windows users to switch though with its next long term support (LTS) release.

            Canonical has announced that it would be extending the support and maintenance period for the April 2012 LTS Ubuntu Linux release for desktop users from three years to five years. The move comes in response to what the company claims is “increasing demand for Ubuntu desktops in corporate environments where longer maintenance periods are the norm. It brings the desktop product into line with Ubuntu Server which continues with five years of support for LTS releases.”

          • What should Canonical have named the Ubuntu 12.04 release?

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Review: Edubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot”

              Well, it’s that time of year again: it’s October, so another edition of Ubuntu has been released. This includes its official derivatives, like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and Edubuntu. Today I’ll be testing Edubuntu because I feel like it doesn’t get reviewed enough, yet it provides the same experience and support as standard Ubuntu, aside from having a whole bunch of educational applications included in the live session (hence the name).

            • A weekend with Kubuntu

              Everything either works out of the box (or, since there is no box, right off the .iso) or can be made to work with a little research and a few minutes of keyboard-pounding. The Broadcom wireless situation can’t really be called satisfactory, but neither can it be laid solely at the feet of Kubuntu.

              What you do get in Kubuntu is a vast selection of possible softwares, an active and dedicated development team and community, an exceptionally polished visual impression, and a lot of stuff that works just the way it’s supposed to. Unless you revile KDE and/or go around saying things like “Canonical is just like Micro$haft”, I’d say Kubuntu 11.10 is absolutely worth checking out.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • OpenELEC Is a Fast-Booting, Self-Updating Version of XBMC for Home Theater PCs

      OpenELEC aims to make home theater PCs as much like your DVD player as possible, using a lightweight, instant-on version of XBMC that updates itself for a maintenance-free media center.

      We talk a lot about XBMC around here, because it makes a great home theater PC—but it can often take a lot of work to set up. Even if you use XBMC Live—the easy-install distribution we used for our silent, standalone XBMC machine—you’re essentially installing Ubuntu Linux on your PC with XBMC on top of it, which brings in a lot of software you don’t necessarily need. Plus, it can take a bit of work to update the box and fiddle with its configuration. If all you want is a simple media center, OpenELEC makes XBMC’s installation and maintenance a snap so you can just get to the good stuff: watching your movies.

    • XBMC-based embedded Linux distro debuts on HTPC mini-PC
    • OpenELEC 1.0: fast-booting XBMC media centre OS

      More details about the first stable release can be found in the official release announcement. OpenELEC 1.0 is available to download from the project’s site and installation guides are provided. OpenELEC source code is hosted on GitHub and licensed under the GPL.

    • Phones

      • Android

        • Android Tablets Gained on IPad in Third Quarter, Researcher Says

          Sales of tablet computers running Google Inc.’s Android software rose last quarter at the expense of Apple Inc.’s iPad, after companies led by Samsung Electronics Co. introduced new models, according to a researcher.

          Android-powered tablet computers accounted for 27 percent of global sales during the three-month period, jumping from 2.3 percent a year earlier, Strategy Analytics said in a statement today. The iPad’s share fell to 67 percent from 96 percent.

        • Top Free Android SSH Tools
        • Meet Iris – A Siri alternative for Android

          Users of Apple’s iPhone 4s have touted the voice service Siri as a killer feature on the latest iteration of the phone. Though voice support on Android has been around for sometime, it has not quite enjoyed the kind of buzz that Siri is enjoying. That’s what prompted the guys over at Dexetra to develop Iris, a Siri alternative for Android.

        • Google reveals new Android ICS APIs

          Google has revealed two new APIs – Calendars and Text-To-Speech – which are now marked as public APIs in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). This means that developers will be able to rely upon them, that their functionality will be tested as part of Android’s Compatibility Test Suite and that Google “promise to try very hard not to change them and thus break your code”.

        • Ten great Android 4 features (screenshots)
        • First look: Android 4.0 SDK opens up face recognition APIs

          Google unveiled Android 4.0—codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS)—this week at an event in Hong Kong, alongside the new Galaxy Nexus smartphone. The much-anticipated new version of Google’s mobile operating system includes a unified interface for phones and tablets and a number of significant new technical features, such as face detection.

          Shortly after the launch event, Google made the ICS software development kit (SDK) available for the public to download from the Android developer website. The SDK makes it possible for third-party software developers to start building software that is designed for the new version of the operating system. The SDK and the updated developer reference documentation offers a first look at the new APIs introduced in ICS.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Android grabs quarter of tablet market

        World tablet sales hot up during Q3, it was revealed today. Shipments almost quadrupled year on year, from 4.4m units in Q3 2010 to 16.7m tablets in Q3 2011.

        So said market watcher Strategy Analytics, this morning.

        Neither SA nor anyone else would be surprised that Apple remained top dog, though with a much-reduced share of the market.

        In Q3 2010, it had a 95.5 per cent share. One year on, it only commanded 66.6 per cent of the table market, at least as far as units shipped go.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Prefer Open Source? Join the Crowd

    In the proprietary arena, patent wars have raged out of control, while the old “security through obscurity” theory has been proven wrong. Piracy has continued unabated around the globe, the mobile arena has become increasingly locked down, and the possibility of a new generation of Windows 8-only PCs looms on the horizon.

    Threats to software users’ freedom are coming fast and furious, in other words, making the open source alternatives–with all their myriad benefits for businesses and consumers–look better than ever.

  • Preaching the Libre Software Gospel

    Perhaps the Libre Software Community should take heed to the old joke about the two preachers who both preached from the subject, “You’re Going to Hell”. The same message draws different reactions. The difference lies in the tone of the preacher. Libre software advocates should pay attention to the tone of their message. It is true that many people simply buy various devices based on functionality and not based on what they may be free to do. But libre software advocates need to craft a solid message with a tone that inspires people to accomplish greater things.

  • Events

    • Italy is preparing for its eleventh Linux Day

      The 22 of October 2011 is the day of the eleventh Italian Linux Day .

      This wonderful event is now in its eleventh version, I have participated at various editions of this event in my local town and adjacent areas, depending on the programs offered, and I must say that I always come out very satisfied.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • ESR Defends RMS, Google the Musical & MS Plays Bad

      This week I ran across a blog by Eric Raymond that was posted on October 8, in which Raymond defends the now infamous remarks made by Richard Stallman on his blog shortly after the death of Steve Jobs. I found this to me more than a little interesting, because Raymond and Stallman don’t always see eye to eye on FOSS issues. Indeed, he even manages to take a swipe at RMS while speaking in his defense…

  • Programming

  • Standards/Consortia

Leftovers

  • Steve Jobs Exposed, Wanted To Destroy Android

  • Security

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Not a Myth: The Skyrocketing Cost of New Oil Supply

      The next time you hear someone asserting that oil extraction “was always difficult and expensive”—as a way to refute the very high cost now of the marginal barrel—you’ll know they’re spinning a folk tale. A helpful chart from the just released EIA Annual Energy Review shows that the capital required to add an additional barrel of oil to reserves experienced a step change starting last decade. The chart uses the COE unit (crude oil equivalent) which is a way to measure the cost of adding 5.8 million btu regardless of whether the resource is oil, natural gas, or natural gas liquids.

  • Finance

    • Quelle Surprise! GAO Finds the Fed is a Club of Backscratching, Well Connected, White Bankers

      The GAO released a report yesterday that provided some anodyne but nevertheless useful confirmation of many of the things most of us knew or strongly suspected about the Fed: it’s a club of largely white male corporate insiders who do a bit too many favors for each other. But the GAO seemed peculiarly to fail to understand some basic shortcomings of its investigation.

10.21.11

Links 21/10/2011: Mandriva 2011 Powerpack, Apache Cassandra 1.0

Posted in News Roundup at 7:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

  • Kernel Space

    • Jump-Starting Open Source Participation

      One of the great things about being The Linux Foundation is that we get to work with the foremost open source contributors in the world on a regular basis. What’s just as exciting, though, is watching companies evolve from traditional, closed source development organizations into full-fledged open source contributors. This is happening every day, and the pace is astounding.

      However, this transition doesn’t usually happen overnight. We’re often asked, “How can I be more effective at consuming open source and up-streaming our own code?” Most companies would love to be active participants but also recognize that it takes a number of years to get to where they want to get. The implied question is actually, “How can I accelerate this process so that I see the benefits sooner?”

      In a similar vein, we also get asked about starting new open source projects and releasing existing proprietary technology as open source. This trend is becoming increasingly common as companies discover their business partners have a vested interest in the success of their technology and are willing to share in the destiny of the code.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • How to Optimize KDE Desktop Effects
      • How I Learned to Love the KDE 4 Series

        For nine years, my default desktop was GNOME. About the third of the time, I’d use another desktop or a shell, either for the purposes of review or just for a change, but I’d always return to GNOME. It was a no-fuss interface in which I could do my common tasks without any problem. But a glitch on my system that left GNOME unstartable coincided with the release of KDE 4.2, and — not having the time to reinstall — I switched to KDE. I haven’t looked back since.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • GNOME 3.2.1 Has Been Released

        A day after Owen Taylor’s announcement for GNOME Shell 3.2.1, here comes the final and stable release of the GNOME 3.2.1 desktop environment.

        GNOME 3.2.1 is the first maintenance release of the wonderful open source GNOME 3.2 desktop environment for Linux-based operating system.

      • GNOME 3.2.1 Brings A Bunch Of Bug Fixes

        The first point release to the Oktoberfest-christened GNOME 3.2 was released today. Like usual, this GNOME update (v3.2.1) just brings translation updates and bug-fixes. There’s also some “tiny improvements” but nothing major.

  • Distributions

    • A Slackware Primer

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Red Hat Family

      • IcedTea 2.0 based on JDK7 – without CACAO

        Version 2.0 of the JDK build environment, IcedTea, has been published. The software harness enables compilation of the source code provided by the OpenJDK project using only free developer tools. This is the first version released that supports the new OpenJDK 7.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • What Makes the New Ubuntu 11.10 So Great?
          • Unity is the end of Ubuntu
          • As Ubuntu Linux Turns 7, ‘Precise Pangolin’ Planning Begins

            It was exactly seven years ago that the very first version of Ubuntu Linux–dubbed “Warty Warthog”–was released, kicking off a long line of increasingly popular versions of the free and open source operating system.

          • Seven Years Old

            Seven years ago Ubuntu 4.10, the Warty Warthog, was released. It was the very first Ubuntu release.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

            Released to schedule on October 13, Ubuntu 11.10 (codenamed Oneiric Ocelot) sees the end of official support for the GNOME desktop, the OS relying instead on Canonical’s own Unity desktop in either the default 3D or 2D mode. Oneiric is something of a consolidation release, with improvements mostly limited to completing the switch to Unity begun in 11.04, along with general polish in terms of look and feel. You can persue the official Ubuntu 11.10 release notes and take an online tour of Oneiric at the Ubuntu web site.

          • Precision Planning; Prepping for 12.04 LTS

            In just over a week, quite a large cross-section of the Ubuntu community and representatives from many free software projects and companies will gather in Orlando to map out the Precise Pangolin. Now’s the time to prepare for the event, with 11.10 out (well done everybody!) and the key infrastructure slotting into place.

            Figuring out the optimal balance of goals is the work of the summit, but we can lay out some over-arching themes that have been in progress during this meta-cycle and come to their full fruition in the LTS release. We can also remind ourselves of the ways in which an LTS is different, and the impact that will have on our choices in Orlando.

          • Introducing Ubuntu 11.10 Without Unity

            Now that Ubuntu 11.10 was released, we are proud to announce today, Octomber 18th, the immediate availability for download of a new Linux operating system based on the newly released Ubuntu 11.10 distribution.

            The new Ubuntu-based operating system introduced here is called Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix and it’s build on top of the Oneiric Ocelot release, but without the Unity shell.

          • Ubuntu’s Adoption Curve, Past and Present

            We’re about to embark on a new cycle and with that comes the hopes of many that the Perfect LTS can be a really good break through release. I was reading a comment by the ever ready Jeff Spaleta over on Mark Shuttleworth’s Blog. His assertion was that Ubuntu has been loosing people according to the Wikimedia web stats data, so I decided to put this to the test.

          • Ubuntu 12.04 Will Be Pixel-Perfect: Mark Shuttleworth

            Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, chose the day when Ubuntu turned 7 to laid the plan of the next version of Ubuntu, code named Precise Pangolin.

            Ubuntu 12.04 is a very important release for Ubuntu and users as it is an LTS release. LTS means Long Term Support. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, releases LTS versions every two years and supports it for 3 years. What’s more interesting about the LTS version is that it is supported for 5 years on servers, thus making it perfect for enterprises and governments.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 review

            This new edition, dubbed the Oneiric Ocelot (it means “dreamy”), is much less adventurous. It brings no new features to speak of, just a clutch of interface refinements, more like a service pack than a new version.

          • This week in design: Floating orchestras, Mark Shuttleworth talks Ubuntu
          • From Warty to Oneiric, Ubuntu Linux turns 7

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • “Nokia’s N9: A Damaging Love-Hate Relationship”

      • Android

        • Sprint debuts $100 Android phones from Motorola and HTC

          Sprint unveiled two $100 Android 2.3 smartphones with 1.2GHz processors. The rugged Motorola Admiral offers a 3.1-inch screen and exposed keyboard, and operates on Sprint’s Direct Connect push-to-talk network, and the HTC Evo Design 4G is a four-inch “worldphone” that supports Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network.

        • Samsung beats Apple in smartphone sales

          SAMSUNG Electronics shipped more than 20 million smartphones in the quarter ended September 30, a person familiar with the situation said, beating close competitor Apple, which sold 17.1 million units in its fiscal fourth quarter, ended September 24.

        • Android Ice Cream Sandwich versus iOS 5: Killer features

          Yet, this comparison must be done. For one thing, Google and Apple have both recently unveiled huge changes that respectively make their mobile operating systems far more powerful, and in some ways more similar to each other. For another thing, weighing the pros and cons of each platform against the other is a scenario that’s played out daily among many people who are deciding which phone to buy.

        • Samsung beats Apple in smartphone sales

          A lot has been written about the red hot battle between smartphone giants Samsung Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4S. Analysts and tech observers dissected specs and compared features, but there was no consensus. However, the battle of wits took a turn when two were dragged to a brutal, unforgiving drop test. And hold your breath, Samsung Galaxy S2 took the prize for being sturdy.

        • Sprint Announces $99 EVO Design 4G for October 23

          Sprint has added yet another member to their growing family of EVO products today, tapping the EVO Design 4G with an October 23rd release date. Bowing at a mere $99.99 ($50 mail-in rebate), the handset is the first in the product line to feature World Roaming capabilities. Hardware for this Android 2.3-powered phone include 1.2GHz processor, a 4-inch qHD display, and a pair (5-megapixel rear, 1.3-megapixel front-facing) of cameras.

        • Sprint announces $99 Motorola Admiral for October 23
        • Motorola RAZR Ice Cream Sandwich update coming early 2012

          Motorola has revealed that the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Motorola RAZR will be pushed out OTA at the beginning of 2012.

          The Motorola RAZR was announced on Tuesday at a New York event for the Verizon network in the US, before the European announcement was made on Wednesday in Berlin.

        • Google confirms Android 4.0 ICS is open source

          Google has confirmed that the source code for Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ will be made public, after it refused to release the code for its predecessor ‘Honeycomb.’

        • Anti makes wardriving child’s play with a rooted Android phone

          There’s a lot of focus on security these days. Web security, keeping your passwords intact, and maintaining a secure online presence. Viruses, malware, and anything that can come from the web, right over your net conenction and cause an untold amount of devastation to your world. A valid concern, for sure, but I have found that by adjusting your browsing behavior and looking before you click can often remove most of the threat.

        • Google says Android 4.0 source code to be available “soon”

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Kobo spins its first color Android e-reader

        Kobo announced a $200 Android 2.3 tablet with a seven-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel AFFS+ anti-glare display. The Kobo Vox eReader features an 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, and access to the Kobo eBook Store, says the company.

      • Asus names Eee Slider release date

        First demo’d way back in March 2011 – we tried it out back then – the Slider is a 10.1in, 1280 x 800 screen on the back of which Asus has built a slide-forward base unit, complete with Qwerty keyboard.

      • Asus’ Transformer Prime may launch with Ice Cream Sandwich

        As expected, Asus chairman Jonney Shih was on hand at All Things Digital AsiaD conference where he gave the world its first look at the next-generation Android tablet. According to Engadget this tablet will be known as the Transformer Prime when it debuts on November 9th. Specifications include a quad-core Tegra 3 Kal-El processor, and an 8.3mm thick body with USB and mini-HDMI ports.

      • Netflix now officially supports Android 3.1 tablets

        Netflix has released a new version of its video-streaming app for Android devices that officially adds support for Android 3.x (Honeycomb) tablets. The October 19 release of Netflix app v1.5.0 build 360 also extends Netflix’s Android support to Canada and Latin America for the first time.

Free Software/Open Source

  • “Open Source Leverages The Wisdom Of The Masses”

  • Events

  • SaaS

    • Cloud, open source, and new network models: Part 2
    • Services, Production and Clouds

      He views cloud computing as being primarily a story of production. For users, cloud computing can be viewed as an enhanced dynamic utility, making intensive computing much more accessible and thus diffusing the potential for innovation. For providers, cloud computing significantly improves their ability to deliver very high volume of services at significantly lower costs and higher quality. For both users and providers, cloud computing truly represents the industrialization of information-based service activities.

    • Cloudera and SGI Partner to Take High Performance Computing on Apache Hadoop to the Next Level
    • Nuxeo Takes Enterprise Content Management Platform into the Cloud
    • How Yahoo Spawned Hadoop, the Future of Big Data

      The email went to Eric14. His real name is Eric Baldeschwieler, but no one calls him that. At fourteen letters, Baldeschwieler is a mouthful, and he works in a world where a name takes a backseat to an online handle.

      The sender was Rob Bearden, a serial entrepreneur from Atlanta, Georgia, famous for actually making money from open source software. He e-mailed Baldeschwieler because he was looking to build a new company around what is widely regarded as The Next Big Thing in corporate computing. The irony is that Baldeschwieler worked for an outfit few would associate with enterprise technology. And if you listen to the pundits, it wasn’t a technology company at all. He worked for Yahoo.

  • Databases

  • CMS

    • New Features for Joomla 1.7

      Joomla 1.7 stable release was available on the 19th July 2011. The new features are primarily behind the scenes, and are not as “visible” as features have been for other Joomla upgrades. Yet the new features are very powerful and they include one click upgrades, and Joomla Platform is now split from the cms.

    • Top 10 Benefits of Drupal

      Drupal is an open-source rich with several resources that make it incrediblybest alternative amongst all available open source CMS (content management systems) applications. It makes the mission of web application development so unproblematic and picturesque that you can build Drupal based lovely website on your own. You even don’t need to be professionally solid for web designing or development.

    • Your Input: 2011 State of the Open Source CMS Market Survey is Out

  • Education

    • Moodlerooms Ensures Standards Compliance for Moodle 2 User Community
    • Cengage Will Partner with Moodlerooms, Unicon for Tighter Integration

      Cengage Learning has announced it will partner with Moodlerooms and with Unicon on open source learning projects. Both partnerships are designed to increase functionality for the respective learning platforms through Cengage’s new service, Mindlinks.

    • Hackers are vital to the university culture of openness and innovation

      Have you noticed anything missing from the ongoing phone hacking scandal involving the News of the World? There are no hackers involved. This is the latest example of hacking’s troubled history with the mainstream media, which confuses the “playful cleverness” of expert computer programmers with the malicious meddling of computer crackers and criminal journalists. With this confusion, the rich and fruitful history of the true hackers is diminished and a thriving intellectual culture focused on problem solving, self-directed learning and the free exchange of knowledge is undermined.

      Much has been written about hackers and hacking, but rarely is it contextualised as part of the scholarly tradition. Yet careful reading of the history of hacking reveals that it is very much a part of the work and values of universities and that the hacker ethic is shared, in part at least, by most academics working today.

      We can trace the history of hacking back to MIT University in the early 1960s and greater access to shared computers. At the core of hacking is the academic practice of peer review: the opportunity for academics to closely examine, modify and use other people’s work. Hackers extended this through the creation of legal licenses that allow the copyright holder of software to grant anyone the ability to use, modify and re-distribute their work providing the modified version is licensed under the same terms. The great MIT hacker Richard Stallman called this hack Copyleft and his general public license (GPL) has become the most popular open-source software licence in use today. In 2001, Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig founded Creative Commons, an organisation that borrowed much from these free software licences to create a similar set for other types of creative works. The activity of hackers has provided academics and their institutions with the legal basis upon which to overcome the traditional restrictions of copyright and permit the public use, modification and redistribution of research articles, research data and teaching materials.

  • Business

    • Email Firm Open-Xchange Names GM Americas, Announces Expansion Plans
    • Business gives open source thumbs-up

      Around 50% of surveyed companies claim that vendor-supported open source software provides either the same or better features and benefits than proprietary software.

      This is the key finding in this year’s ITWeb open source survey, administered in conjunction with Linux Warehouse, which attracted more business management respondents than last year’s survey.
      Click here

      The majority of respondents voted overwhelmingly that open source is either the same or better than proprietary in terms of features, speed performance, ease of use, tools and utilities, documentation, technical support, cost of ownership, scalability and ease of change.

    • Open-Xchange Adds SVP Sales and General Manager

    • Semi-Open Source

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Project Releases

  • Public Services/Government

    • Department of Immigration revises open source tender

      The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) is reviewing a planned web development and hosting tender that appeared to favour open source over proprietary technology.

      The department issued a pre-release notice on September 29 for a new business application and website for the Office of the Migration Agents’ Registration Authority (MARA), which sat under its remit.

      MARA needed to replace an existing Microsoft Access database with a secure, user-friendly and “innovative database solution … built upon proven open-source frameworks and technologies”.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Spies Want to Go Open-Source to Stop the Next WikiLeaks

      At their main trade show GEOINT this week, the intelligence community talked a lot about making progress in preventing the next Bradley Manning from leaking government secrets. Keeping a tight grip on sensitive information has proved to be a challenge for spies in a technological age that celebrates the free flow of data, but Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, thinks they’re making progress. “The trick is, can we allow robust sharing for analytical and operational purposes and protect the information at the same time?” Rogers told Eli Lake at The Daily Beast. “I argue yes, there are lots of ways to do it.”

    • The Open Source Geospatial Foundation and the International Cartographic Association (ICA) Memorandum of Understanding
    • Goepel increases engagement in open source initiative

      Goepel electronic has developed a new demonstration kit within the framework of the goJTAG initiative.

      In addition to the USB 2.0 controlled Boundary Scan controller, PicoTAP and respective software, it contains a specific demo board for practical exercises.

    • How to become a data journalist: open source tools for journos

      Data journalism: the new, wild frontier where the intrepid reporter is free to create any informative and investigative project their heart desires – providing that they have the tools to do so.

      But how do you get started? Where are these mysterious programmes that make data journalism accessible to the regional reporter and independent blogger?

      Never fear, launching an investigative project based on data needn’t be a huge financial expense. There are plenty of open source technologies out there to satisfy the aspiring data journalist.

    • How an extinct zebra could upend the networking market

      The growing popularity of software defined networking has resulted in a spurt in networking startups, and that is going to get a further boost in coming months thanks to Google and an open-source project shepherded by the Internet Systems Consortium, a non-profit entity. The ISC is supporting a project to stabilize and test Quagga, open-source networking software. The project, called the Open Source Routing Project, is exciting because it could help make a cheap, open-source router a reality.

    • Open source film awaits your remix

      A Melbourne-based director Ryan Alexander Lloyd has released the raw footage of his upcoming film onto the internet for free.

    • Open Data

      • Public data for all – opening up Europe’s public sector

        I’ve said before that I’m a big fan of open data. Opening up public data will get citizens involved in society and political life, increase the transparency of public administration, and improve public decision making. Those benefits cannot be overestimated. And public data can be used in many unexpected ways, too: as the father of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, put it: “if people put data onto the web… it will be used by other people to do wonderful things in ways that they never would have imagined”.

Leftovers

  • Finance

    • Fed Too Chummy With Goldman Sachs, GE: Report

      The Federal Reserve needs to take steps to control the conflict of interest involving Reserve Bank directors that also run some of the largest Wall Street banks and U.S. corporations, including Goldman Sachs(GS) and General Electric(GE), a government audit report on Wednesday said.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Flu with that Burger? ALEC Wants Sick People Serving You Food

      Last week, the city of Philadelphia mandated paid sick days for “workers whose employers have contracts with the city or apply for city subsidies.” Last month, Seattle also passed a paid sick leave ordinance. Connecticut passed a bill in June that will make it the first state in the nation to mandate paid sick leave for service workers. Food service workers are a special concern of such laws.

      Workers in these locations will no longer have to come to work with the flu or other infectious illness, endangering the health of their coworkers and customers and exacerbating their own health.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Connecting Europe: Commission offers broadband a boost of €50-100 billion

      It’s my dream to get Every European Digital. And that means everyone needs to be covered by fast broadband connections.

      The economic benefits are clear: increasing broadband penetration by just 10 percentage points can boost GDP by 0.9 – 1.5%. But we face problems in delivering new networks: insufficient investment, problems in accessing capital, and a weak business case for operators to roll out everywhere. And we also face difficulty in making online public services available across Europe.

    • Do Bell’s Throttling Practices Violate CRTC Net Neutrality Rules?: It Says P2P Congestion Declining

      Bell’s letter raises several interesting issues. First, it is an acknowledgment of what groups like CIPPIC, PIAC and others were saying as far back as 2009 in the net neutrality hearing. Peer-to-peer traffic is declining as an overall percentage of network traffic and the stresses on the system are far more likely to come from online video services such as Netflix.

  • Copyrights

    • Copyright Debate Hits the House of Commons: Opposition Won’t Support C-11 Due to Digital Locks

      Copyright dominated debate at the House of Commons on Tuesday as Bill C-11 was the primary subject of debate. Digital locks was one of the most discussed issues (new levies were the other), with the main opposition parties lining up to oppose the bill due to the digital lock provisions. For example, the NDP’s Charlie Angus stated:

    • Free Justin Bieber! (Why Streaming Shouldn’t be a Felony)

      U.S. authorities have demanded the extradition of Justin Bieber, the Canadian singer who turned blatant copyright infringements into a profitable career. The teen star is accused of streaming unauthorized songs to millions of people without compensating the copyright holders and now faces a 5 year prison sentence.

IRC Proceedings: October 20th, 2011

Posted in News Roundup at 3:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#boycottnovell-social log

#techbytes log

Enter the IRC channels now

10.20.11

Links 20/10/2011: Kororaa 15.1 is Out, Ubuntu 12.04 in Preparation

Posted in News Roundup at 5:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • GNU/Linux Inside stickers are back and better than ever!

    We are proud to reintroduce our popular GNU/Linux Inside stickers. The new sticker features the same artwork as the classic GNU/Linux Inside sticker but is now on a much more durable sticker backing, perfect for putting on your phone or laptop. The stickers are 1-inch in diameter, and made of heavy duty aluminum.

  • Applications

    • Instructionals/Technical

      • Install Mplayer and Multimedia Codecs (libdvdcss2,w32codecs,w64codecs) on ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric)
      • Use httperf for Server Benchmarking
      • Detecting Malicious Traffic in HTTP Headers
      • Unattended SSH with Smartcard

        I have several backup servers that run the excellent rsnapshot software, which uses Secure Shell (SSH) for remote access. The SSH private key of the backup server can be a weak link in the overall security. To see how it can be a problem, consider if someone breaks into your backup server and manages to copy your SSH private key, they will now have the ability to login to all machines that you take backups off (and that should be all of your machines, right?).

      • Building a powerful & affordable firewall with Linux

        It’s no doubt that one of the leaders for network equipment is Cisco Systems. Newer Cisco devices are starting to use what Cisco calls its “IOS-XE” operating system, which is a customized flavor of GNU/Linux. Yes, GNU/Linux, which should not come as any surprise as GNU/Linux is used on countless high level appliances and security devices. In fact, there are hardly any appliances or security devices that run Windows for the operating system. Why? Because GNU/Linux is highly scalable, powerful, reliable, and a better overall solution than Windows.

        I have always been a huge fan of using GNU/Linux for building my own firewall boxes. First, old machines like Pentium II or Pentium III boxes are perfect for this. These boxes will easily run even the latest version of GNU/Linux. The Linux kernel itself has many functions built in for network routing, traffic shaping, bridging, virtual IP addresses, and just about anything else that a firewall needs to support. And the fact that Cisco now leverages the Linux kernel for its appliances tells me that even Cisco agrees.

  • Distributions

    • New Releases

    • Gentoo Family

      • Sabayon 7 GNOME 3 review

        Sabayon is a Linux distribution described by its developers as “… a bleeding edge operating system that is both stable and reliable.” It is based on Gentoo, a source-based (Linux) distribution. The latest edition, Sabayon 7, was released just last week (October 10 2011 to be exact). Sabayon has support for all the known free desktop environments, but this release, as is customary, includes 32- and 64-bit installation images for GNOME 3, the K Desktop Environment, and Xfce only.

      • Sabayon 7 Core, SpinBase, ServerBase and OpenVZ Released

        Fabio Erculiani proudly announced last evening, October 18th, the immediate availability for download of the Sabayon Linux 7 CoreCDX, SpinBase, ServerBase and OpenVZ editions.

        Sabayon Linux 7 CoreCDX, ServerBase and SpinBase editions are designed for Linux experts and advanced users that want to set up a home server or create their very own operating system, based on Sabayon.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Fedora

        • Kororaa 15.1 (Squirt) released

          The second release of Kororaa 15 (codename “Squirt”) has been released. Version 15.1 is available for download, in 32 and 64 bit with KDE 4.6 and GNOME 3.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu Turns 7 Years Old, First Ubuntu Was Released Today

            Ubuntu has made some major wins this year as Indian Judiciary system switches to Ubuntu from RHEL. One of the reasons could be Ubuntu’s ease of use and focus on desktop users as compared to RHEL. Ubuntu also made a major win by being selected by Amazon and HP for their servers. 2011 may bring the much needed profitability to Canonical, the company which has been funding Ubuntu for all these years.

          • Ubuntu 12.04 – Precise Pangolin planning prepared

            The Ubuntu Developer Summit 2011 is approaching and, as is customary, Mark Shuttleworth has laid out his objectives and themes for the fourth Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) release, Ubuntu 12.04, recently named Precise Pangolin. The two foremost issues on Shuttleworth’s mind are the fact that 12.04 is an LTS release and Ubuntu’s presence in the cloud; he is also aware of what Ubuntu owes to the work of other developers.

          • Gnome 3 Can Be Hacked By Home Users On Ubuntu 11.10

            Let’s get one thing clear, Gnome 3 is here to stay no matter what Linus Torvalds thinks. Yes, it will continue to improve and add more features as the time passes by. Same will happen to Canonical’s Unity. It is the future. You can either hold onto the past and refuse to embrace newer technologies, or take the road to innovation. I never had issues with Unity or Gnome 3 shell, I had issues with bugs in Ubuntu 11.10, which stopped me from doing important work. I do trust the developers of Canonical (and they have some of the best developers in the world) to fix those bugs.

            When I look at Windows 8 or Apple Mac, I feel lucky. While Windows users will be stuck with Windows 8′ Metro UI, we have couple of options. If you don’t like Gnome 3 Shell, you can go to Unity or XFCE or LXDE or KDE.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 and the Oddly Oneiric ‘Countdown’

            “I just got to look at the countdown and….wow is that REALLY dumb!” said slashdot blogger hairyfeet. “Did they learn anything from those moronic house parties MSFT had? If you want to generate buzz that sure isn’t the way to do it. Is there ANY non Ubuntu user that would be impressed?”

          • Flavours and Variants

            • The Perfect Desktop – Kubuntu 11.10

              This tutorial shows how you can set up a Kubuntu 11.10 desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge. Kubuntu 11.10 is derived from Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) and uses the KDE desktop instead of the GNOME desktop.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Android

        • 3 Free Apps to get the most out of your NFC-enabled Android
        • Android 4.0 upgrades will soon be available

          According to Google’s Andy Rubin, you will now be able to upgrade your current Android OS to the latest Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0 by November.

        • Andy Rubin: Android 4.0 to be open sourced by year end

          Speaking at this week’s AsiaD conference in Hong Kong, Andy Rubin, Google Senior VP of Mobile and the man in charge of Android development, confirmed that the source code for the next major update to Android, version 4.0, will be available as open source “a couple of weeks” after the recently announced Galaxy Nexus smartphone ships next month.

          Code-named “Ice Cream Sandwich” (ICS), Android 4.0 was first revealed yesterday (19 October) alongside the new Nexus device, at a joint Google and Samsung event. The new version of the mobile operating system includes features from both the current phone version, 2.3.x “Gingerbread”, and the tablet version, 3.x “Honeycomb”. While it will reportedly work on both large- and small-screen devices, it was only demonstrated on the Galaxy Nexus smartphone.

        • Android 4.0 Source Code To Be Released Soon

          Google was criticized for holding back the source code of Honeycomb. There was a valid reason behind that move. Google wanted to bring an end to the fragmentation in the Android market. Releasing the Honeycomb code meant giving it to OEMs to put it on their devices, which would further increase the fragmentation.

          Google clearly stated that Honeycomb was a quick-fix for tablets and it was working on the next version of Android which will run on all Android devices – it was dubbed IceCream Sandwich. Google made it clear that it will release the source code of IceCream as soon as it is available.

        • The Android source is back online

          The Android source repository has been offline since the kernel.org compromise; it has now returned on a new site. Services like Gerritt will take a little longer still. “To reiterate, these servers contain only the ‘gingerbread’ and ‘master’ branches from the old AOSP servers. We plan to release the source for the recently-announced Ice Cream Sandwich soon, once it’s available on devices.”

        • Google Serves Up Ice Cream Sandwich With a Nexus on the Side

          Ice Cream Sandwich is a redesign of the Android OS. It has a highly visual interface, a facial-recognition feature and home-screen folders.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

Free Software/Open Source

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Unattended SSH with Smartcard

        I am in Toronto right now, spending a week with Mobile folks. It has been about 6 weeks since I started working on a mobile extension, and the list of dirty tricks we employing to get things done is growing. Some of these hacks are there because there is no alternative, and some are there because I just didn’t figure out the right way to do it.

  • SaaS

    • SGI to sell Cloudera software and services

      Linux server specialist SGI is moving further into the big-data market: it has signed a partnership agreement with Cloudera Inc., the provider of Apache Hadoop-based data management. Under the terms of the agreement, SGI will distribute Cloudera software pre-installed on SGI Hadoop Clusters.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Interview: Jesper Schmidt Hansen, author of GNU Octave Beginner’s Guide

      This week’s FLOSS4Science interview is with Jesper Schmidt Hansen, nanofluidics scientist and author of the GNU Octave Beginner’s Guide, one of the few books on GNU Octave besides the official GNU Octave manuals. Remember that you can leave comments or questions at the end of the post. Enjoy the interview!

      F4S: Hello Jesper. Please, give us a brief introduction about yourself.

      Jesper: I currently hold a position at Roskilde University, Denmark, where I investigate fundamental phenomena in nanofluidics. I have been a postdoctoral fellow at Swinburne University, Australia, and at Pierre et Marie Curie, France. Before my academic career I did a Ph.D. in soft condensed matter.

    • GNU/Linux Inside stickers are back and better than ever!
    • gnutls 3.0.4

  • Project Releases

    • Rapid7 announces Community Edition of Metasploit

      US security company Rapid7 has announced the launch of a Community Edition of the popular Metasploit exploit framework. According to Rapid7 Chief Security Officer and Metasploit Creator HD Moore, “The best way to tackle the increasing information security challenge is to share knowledge between practitioners, open source projects and commercial vendors.”

Leftovers

  • You Must Be Dumb To Use Windows Phones: Steve Ballmer

    HUMOR: Steve Ballmer, the chair-throwing CEO of Microsoft, yesterday said that you need to be a computer scientist to use Android. He said that Windows Mobile is the best selling mobile platform in the world and even the dumbest person on the planet can use the Windows Phone. “You don’t have to be smart to use Windows phones,” said Mr Ballmer.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Major Loophole Remains in Net Neutrality Resolution

      Negotiations on a weak Net neutrality resolution are coming to an end at the EU Parliament, with the vote taking place tomorrow. After much reluctance, the conservative (EPP) group has finally agreed to endorse a call for a timely assessment of further regulation on Net neutrality. However, the text still includes a major loophole allowing operators to implement Internet access restrictions on the pretext of managing congestion.

    • Net Neutrality Resolution Adopted in EU Parliament

      The “Industry” Committee of the EU Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution on Net neutrality. Through this vote asking the European Commission to promptly assess the need for further legislative action, the Parliament is taking a strong stance in favour of Net neutrality. Pressure now increases on EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes, who may soon be forced to break away with her failed “wait and see” approach and take action.

  • ACTA

    • Negotiator’s notes on ACTA
    • ACTA discussion heats up

      Meanwhile there is still some struggle about the delivery of the Europarl legal opinions, and it seems unclear to observers what DEVE would do. This week there was a dinner meeting of the Kangeroo Group. Velasco-Martins of the Commission claimed they could properly respond to any criticism and asked member states to be more specific. Given the track record of the Commission in the case, the legal loopholes and a missing criminal acquis their chuzpe is astonishing. The Commission largly builds its confidence that the Treaty is legally permissable on the TRIPS agreement which was concluded by Member States prior to all the relevant EU Treaties reforms, and with a competence reservation by the Union.

Links 20/10/2011: Linux 3.1 RC 10, Gnome Pie 0.2

Posted in News Roundup at 6:48 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Management of UEFI secure booting

    The FSF have released a statement on UEFI secure boot. It explains the fundamental issue here, which isn’t something as simple as “will OEMs let me install Linux”. It’s “Does the end user have the ability to manage their own keys”.

    Secure boot is a valuable feature. It does neatly deal with the growing threat of pre-OS malware. There is an incentive for it to be supported under Linux. I discussed the technical aspects of implementing support for it here – it’s not a huge deal of work, and it is being worked on. So let’s not worry about that side of things. The problem is with the keys.

    Secure boot is implemented in a straightforward way. Each section of a PE-COFF file is added together and a hash taken[1]. This hash is signed with the private half of a signing key and embedded into the binary. When you attempt to execute a file under UEFI, the firmware attempts to decrypt the embedded hash. This requires that the firmware have a either a copy of the public half of the signing key in its key database, or for there to be a chain of trust from the signing key to a key in its key database. Once it has the decrypted hash, it generates its own hash of the binary and compares them. If they match, the binary is executed.

    What happens if it doesn’t match? Per the UEFI specification, the firmware can then prompt the user and ask if they want to execute it anyway. If the user accepts then the hash of the binary is remembered[4] and can continue to be executed in future. This is similar to what you get when you visit a self-signed https site, or when you connect to an ssh server for the first time – the user must explicitly state that they trust the software that is being booted.

  • Operating system Linux deters computer viruses

    In our Facebook Story of the Day viewers wanted to know about a computer operating system called Linux. Linux is an alternative operating system such as the popular Windows system or the iOS for Macs.

  • Desktop

    • Vodafone brings ARM and Ubuntu together for South African Webbook

      If you don’t know what Ubuntu is by now, we’re not sure what tech blog you’re reading — ’cause it sure isn’t this one. Ok, so finding a computer with the world’s most popular Linux distro preloaded on it isn’t exactly easy (there aren’t any lurking in your local Best Buy, that’s for sure). But, tracking down a machine running the Ocelot in South Africa will be getting a bit simpler. The country’s Vodafone affiliate, Vodacom, launched the Webbook — a 10-inch laptop running Ubuntu 11.10 on a Cortex A8-based Freescale i.MX51 processor (likely 800MHz). Inside is also 512MB of RAM and 4GB of flash storage, enough for basic browsing.

    • Canonical, Vodafone bring ARM-based Ubuntu netbook to South Africa
    • Wyse Introduces Industry’s Fastest Desktop and Mobile Thin Clients

      The Z50 is Wyse’s premier Linux-based alternative to a high-end desktop PC that provides unparalleled flexibility, performance and user experience but with the security, maintenance and management benefits of a thin client. The Wyse Z50 delivers a richer HD multimedia user experience and greater support of all popular VDI protocols, including Citrix HDX, Microsoft RDP7 and VMware PCoIP. The Wyse Z50 has multiple connectivity and peripheral options, and is Energy Star 5.0 Compliant, consuming a fraction of the energy needed by a PC, at only 15 watts.

  • Server/Storage

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux 3.1-rc10
    • Shaping the Future of Linux: Clarissa Womack

      At the tender age of ten, she decided that she wanted to become a computer programmer and, indeed, she has never wavered from that path. While other kids were just playing computer games, Clarissa was reading computer magazines in an effort to learn everything she could about how computers work. In the computer magazines that she read, there weren’t many pages devoted to Linux, but everything that was written was positive—and this is what sparked her interest and kept it burning throughout her formative years. By the time she graduated from high school, Clarissa had already helped assemble home computers, had dabbled in multimedia and HTML, had programmed in Pascal/Delphi and was a member of the local LUG: the Home Unix Machine Brisbane User Group, otherwise known as HUMBUG.

    • Kernel comment: Untapped power saving potential

      Recent Linux kernels, and distributions based on them, don’t make use of some of the power-saving features offered by modern computers because they can cause problems on some systems. The distributions tend to just ignore such difficulties – but it is they who are best placed to remedy them.

    • Kernel Debugging At OSI Days November 2011

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • The Little Desktop That Could

      LXDE has been an option for some time now on most distros, but for new-to-intermediate users like me it is easiest to use if it is presented as the master desktop of an entire integral system. I got started in Linux with Ubuntu (9.04) and apart from general distro-hopping I’ve mostly stayed with it. I don’t claim it’s the best, it’s just what I’m most familiar with. My ticket to escape from the Unity desktop came when a reasonably stable release of Lubuntu tackled the 11.04 version of its parent Ubuntu. Here was a distro that even I could shape the way I liked it.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Happy 15th to the folk at the KDE project

        I first encountered KDE when it was in version 1.1 when a friend in India told me of a distribution which was the same as Red Hat – I was playing around with 5.2 at the time which was using the FVWM window manager – but had KDE instead. This distro was then known as Mandrake; today we know it as Mandriva.

        Instead of using Mandrake, I downloaded KDE 1.1 and installed it on Red Hat; it was very nice and light years ahead of all the other DEs with which I had been playing around. Applications like KMail were nicely designed; kppp was really useful because at that time everyone was on a 56k internet connection. Additionally, for a GNU/Linux beginner, kppp was much more user-friendly than tools like minicom.

        Over the years, KDE has added a huge number of applications; the one that stands out for me is k3b, the CD/DVD burning application that is quite simply the best of its kind even when one compares other platforms. I have never been able to find an application for this task as good as k3b, no matter whether it be on Windows, the Mac or GNU/Linux.

      • Easy Favorites in KDE!

        Having recently switched to KDE, I found one major annoyance. That is not to say that KDE is perfect save for this one thing, but it was pretty glaring to me none the less. Favorites.

        I started “pinning” applications to my “favorites” section in the KDE launcher and it didn’t take long to fill it up. In Windows 7, this is not a big deal because the launcher will just get longer to accommodate the content. Not the case with KDE. I set out to find a way to make the KDE launcher longer, to fit my most commonly used applications, but came up short and instead devised this clever way to launch apps without the aid of any 3rd party widgets.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • It’s Easy To Guess What Angers GNOME Users

        The 2011 GNOME User Survey, an end-user survey that was assembled by independent GNOME users and hosted on Phoronix, began less than 24 hours ago and we’re already approaching 2,000 submissions. There’s still one month to go, and from these submission so far when simply dumping the comments it amounts to about 148 pages. However, it’s not hard to guess what most of these comments are about when it comes to the GNOME desktop.

      • Gnome Pie 0.2 Released

  • Distributions

    • At Home With AV Linux

      My studio computer collection includes two custom-built desktop machines and a Hewlett-Packard G60 laptop. As described in my previous article, the primary desktop box has been running an old but rock-steady 64 Studio 2.1 that has recently been replaced by a shiny new 64-bit Arch system. The secondary desktop machine and the laptop are both running the 32-bit version of Ubuntu 10.04. However, while I like and enjoy using Ubuntu I hardly require two identical installations of the same Linux distribution, so I decided to replace one of them with AV Linux.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Mandriva 2011.0 – Supreme start, unhappy ending

        Mandriva 2011.0 test was one hell of a first date. But as we got to know each other, as brief as the affair was, issues rose, many and great. Even in a single day of fiddling with the distribution, I countered some 29 problems, including some pretty big showstoppers. Now, no matter how great the system is, no matter how beautiful, with problems like a broken package management and a crippled 3D experience, the end result is disappointing.

        It’s as if Mandriva 2011.0 has two personalities – one slick, modern, smooth, polished, and beautiful, the other ugly, buggy, uncoordinated. Really weird. Now, it’s exactly this type of small issues that separates champions from the rest. Personally, I found the lot of smaller bugs more annoying and troubling the lack of proper 3D acceleration, for example. If I were to power up this distro on a new machine with an Nvidia card, I have no doubt things would have worked out fine. But the rest of the issues would remain.

        I must admit that this year’s release is a big, big drop in quality from the previous edition, especially considering my extremely high expectations. From utterly good to just average is a huge drop. In the same breath, the Mandriva team exercised the most unique and intriguing visual transformation of the KDE desktop yet, so perhaps there’s hope, if they can sort out all the little things. We’ll see what gives next year. At the moment, Mandriva 2011.0, if you get the package manager to work, deserves something like six out of ten points. Dedoimedo out.

    • Gentoo Family

      • openSUSE Delayed, Ubuntu Birthday, Sabayon Releases

        Sabayon Core is the minimal foundation for the Sabayon desktop systems. Core is appropriate for servers, home theaters, customized desktops, and more. There are several “spins” to choose from depending upon your specific needs. For example, CoreCDX comes with Fluxbox while the Spin and Server -Bases do not have an X server included. But they all come with Linux 3.0, btrfs support, encrypted filesystem support, and, of course, Entropy.

        Customized Sabayon spin “Forensics” has ditched KDE and GNOME for Xfce. Sabayon Forensics “is geared for Law Enforcement to gain access to a suspects computer to scan and retrieve any and all information.” This is the first release with Xfce, but weekly updates will be released. See the announcement for more information on that.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Expands Cloud Ecosystem through Partnership with Virtustream

        Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, and Virtustream Inc., a leading provider of cloud software solutions and services, today announced that Virtustream has joined Red Hat’s cloud ecosystem as a Premier Certified Cloud Provider. With this, Virtustream has added support for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization to its xStream cloud platform and now offers Red Hat Enterprise Linux on-demand to customers. Virtustream can now offer its customers a more scalable and flexible cloud infrastructure through enhanced support within a unified private and multi-tenanted enterprise cloud, and Red Hat customers can also now easily deploy on xStream.

    • Debian Family

      • Debian Users Play Waiting Game, Gnome 3 Cometh

        If you are a Debian (stable) user, then you are undoubtedly used to one of the most rock-solid experiences available in the FOSS community. That of course comes at the expense of having the latest and greatest at your fingertips. Debian users can now rejoice between ice ages as Gnome 3 is finally coming to the unstable branch! That means you only have 400 years to go until it is available in stable. Let the waiting game commence.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Enough Ubuntu, YET?
          • Social Networking in Ubuntu 11.10

            Today I hosted an Ubuntu Open Week session on social networking in Ubuntu 11.10. I decided to convert my notes from the session into a blog post, enjoy!

            Ubuntu includes a social networking desktop service, Gwibber. Gwibber isn’t new to Ubuntu, it has been included for quite a while now. The intent isn’t just to provide a twitter or facebook client, but it is to provide a means for you to interact with your favorite social networks.

          • A Quick Peek Inside Ubuntu And The Ubuntu Unity Shell
          • What about creating The Ubuntu Administrator’s Handbook?
          • What is new in Ubuntu 11.10 compared to Ubuntu 11.04?

            Have you tried out Ubuntu 11.10 yet? Install it using our downloadable guide on How to install Ubuntu 11.10. Let us now compare the most prominent changes in appearance of the dash, launcher and various applications in Ubuntu 11.04 and Ubuntu 11.10.

          • Happy Birthday, Ubuntu!
          • Ubuntu 11.10 on ARM

            I have been using Ubuntu 11.10 on ARM now for a couple of days and I have to say: It Rocks! Ubuntu has had a long history of supporting ARM Systems on a Chip (SoC) since 2008, but Ubuntu 11.10 is a significant milestone.

          • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 237
          • Adventures in Ubuntu 11.10 Live

            The newest release of Ubuntu Operating System, Ubuntu 11.10, was released 5 days ago.
            Stir is settled down, and it is a time for me to try new flavour of African Humanity.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 review

            It’s October, and that can only mean one thing: the twice-yearly Ubuntu update is out! We’re now up to 11.10 (year and month, geddit?), which seems worlds away from 4.10 with it’s GNOME 2 desktop. Whilst I don’t use it as my primary OS any more, I have a soft spot for Ubuntu, as it got me (and, no doubt, countless others) into Linux. And even though it’s based on Debian, it provides the base for numerous other distros. So, like it or not, it’s a pretty big deal in the Linux world at the moment.

          • A Unity workaround

            Before I continue, allow me an aside. My philosophy about this whole desktop environment thing is simple. The desktop on my computer should resemble my desktop in real life. On my desk are a lot of things, some important and some not, and none of it is in any particular order. My desk is not limited to a certain number of items neatly tucked on one side; it has things all over it that are immediately accessible when I need them.

          • Introducing Ubuntu 11.10 on ARM
          • Ideas for Ubuntu Unity

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Which Ubuntu Variant is Right For You?

              With the release of Ubuntu 11.10, the Unity desktop is starting to mature. But what if Unity’s just not for you, but you still want the convenience of Ubuntu’s large community and Debian-based technology?

              You might start by exploring one of Ubuntu’s official variants.

              According to Distrowatch, Ubuntu is the basis for seventy-seven distributions. However, Ubuntu’s official variants are in a category of their own.

            • Linux Mint Will Soon Get a GNOME 3 Edition

              Now that Ubuntu Linux has chosen Unity as its default desktop environment, Linux Mint stands out as perhaps the most user-friendly distribution offering a non-Unity default alternative, as I’ve noted before.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Linux-Based Tizen Mobile OS Could Appeal Overseas

        Tizen project developers will need to build “an appealing user experience that seduces consumers to buy Tizen handsets instead of the popular iPhone or Android-enabled devices,” said analyst Francisco Jeronimo. Widespread industry support also would be required for Tizen to grab market share at the expense of the current mobile OS leaders.

      • Android

        • Android 4.0′s Five Best New Features for Users

          Silly name aside, Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), is perhaps the most important Android release to date. With this release, Google has brought its tablet Android fork, 3.x, back into sync with its smartphone trunk, 2.x. In addition, all of ICS will soon, as I understand it, be made open source.

          What that means for you is that independent software vendors (ISV)s can stop wasting time in developing two different versions of programs and focus their energies on making the best possible Android applications. Since, at the end of the day, the success of any operating system is all about its applications, this bodes well for Android.

        • Android 4.0 unveiled with new unified UI, face recognition

          Google announced Android 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”), a version of the mobile operating system that for the first time is optimized for both smartphones and tablets. Unveiled with a preliminary software development kit — and due to appear first on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus — it sports a revamped user interface, a faster browser, an improved camera interface, plus facial recognition and text-to-speech features.

        • Galaxy Nexus boasts Android 4.0, 1280 x 720 resolution
        • Google: Motorola buy won’t put us into hardware business

          When Google announced plans in August to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, some assumed the company would start actively involving itself in handset development.

        • New Google Nexus Promo, Better Than Live Event
        • Samsung’s Galaxy S/S II Android Juggernaut Rolls With 30 Million Sold
        • If Android “Feels Wrong” then I don’t want to be right

          Case in point, I brought my last device, the original 2009 Motorola Droid, from its final 2.2 “Froyo” update to the latest 2.3.5 Gingerbread courtesy of the CyanogenMOD community.

          This is an activity fully endorsed and encouraged by Google due to the OS’s Open Source nature — not once have I seen a rooted, custom-ROMed device denied access to the Android Market.

          Conversely, while a large “Jailbreaking” community exists for iOS for customizing and adding functionality in an underground manner, custom iOS builds just do not exist openly — they would be considered to be pirated software, like Hackintoshes.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Players cut 7-inch tablet PC prices to compete for market share

        Tablet PC players have recently started to drop their tablet PC prices to attract consumers, especially 7-inch models as the machines can easily attract first-time buyers with their smaller size and US$100-150 cheaper prices compared to 10-inch models, according to sources from tablet PC vendors.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Cassandra Reaches 1.0: What’s Next?

    This post is part of our ReadWriteCloud channel, which is dedicated to covering virtualization and cloud computing. The channel is sponsored by Intel and VMware. Read the case study about how Intel Xeon processors and VMware deliver unprecedented reliability in the face of RAM errors.

  • “Open Source Is Good For Both Experts And Beginners”

    Aseem Jakhar, open security researcher and OSI Days speaker, talks about his passion for open source solutions and his upcoming project Jugaad that would be a one-shop-stop to learn about *nix malwares function, in an interview with LFY.

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS

    • ownCloud 2: Your Personal Cloud Server

      ownCloud is a free software alternative to some proprietary web services and it currently includes file management (with built-in file sharing), music streaming, calendar, contacts and more – all running on your computer or server..

    • Exclusive Interview With The Creator Of ownCloud

      Cloud Computing seems to be starting to become a necessary evil. Even if leaders like Richard M. Stallman warns about the dangers of cloud computing, users are lured by offerings like iClouds. How can an Open Source user who wants complete control over her computing, which includes data as well, take advantage of the cloud yet not lose anything in the process? The answer is ownCloud — a private cloud computing solution. We interviewed Frank Karlitschek, project founder of ownCloud.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • LibreOffice expands users and reach

      LibreOffice, the project forked from OpenOffice.org, is moving into the modern era with developers working on versions that run in Web browsers and on iOS and Android devices.

      The Document Foundation announced the moves today at the LibreOffice Conference, but the work isn’t available yet for ordinary folks to try.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Creativity trumps money in open source politics

      Creativity trumps financial power. The best ads do play on our fears. What good does it do to have an enormous financial advantage if the best TV ad of the cycle cost nothing? When the work of some anonymous schmoe trumps the work of highly-paid campaign consultants, why depend on them?

    • Free Software Foundation urges OEMs to say no to mandatory Windows 8 UEFI cage

      If you buy Microsoft’s explanation for the company requiring a version of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) on PCs that can run Windows 8, it’s there to protect users from next-generation malware. If you think that’s the only reason for the UEFI to be in there, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. The UEFI requirement is also there to block Linux and other alternative operating systems from booting on Windows 8 PCs. In response to this open-source operating system threat, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has started a petition to urge original equipment manufacturers (OEM)s to give people a way to easily opt out of Microsoft’s Windows 8 UEFI cage.

  • Project Releases

  • Public Services/Government

    • Cape Verde’s Big Win

      Two years after that, I heard first-hand the reports of that and other projects based on open source software. The job is not easy, and there are definitely challenges, but Cape Verde has fully embraced the concept of democratic participation, and they have built a architecture of open government and open systems based on open source software. It is an exciting validation of Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus hypothesis, which is that when technology can lower the barriers to participation, more people become more positively engaged and more productive. Cape Verde has done this, not alone by any means, but with partners like Brazil, who are themselves true leaders in open source and open government.

  • Programming

    • Zend Debuts PHPcloud

      PHP was the core language of the 1.0 era of the web, bringing scripting to the emerging Internet. PHP vendor Zend now wants PHP to be the language for the cloud and today announced a new service to do just that.

    • The importance of Google Dart

Leftovers

  • ICANN takes control of Internet Time Keeping

    What happened was David Olson, the volunteer who had run the public domain Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Database was sued by–I’m not making this up–an astrology software company called AstroLab for, they claimed, using data from their ACS Atlas program.

  • Microsoft uses Google maps, Bing doesn’t cut it

  • Security

    • How Hackers Can Benefit IT Security
    • IcedTea 2.0 and security fixes
    • Free Metasploit Community Edition released

      Metasploit Community combines the open source Metasploit Framework with a basic version of the robust commercial user interface available in Metasploit Pro to provide an entry-level response to the evolving threat landscape.

    • Nice Try, Bozo

      I just got another one of those telephone calls. This time I was prepared for it. What follows in not an exact transcript, but a shortened version.

      “Hello sir, I’m calling to inform you that your computer has a virus. We can fix your computer.”
      “You’ve seen a virus? On my computer?”
      “Yes sir.”
      “Is that a Windows virus?”
      “Yes sir.”
      “And you’re seeing it right now on my computer?”
      “Yes sir. We’re from the Windows company.”
      “You’re from Microsoft?”
      “We provide Windows support sir.”

    • W32.Duqu: The Precursor to the Next Stuxnet

      On October 14, 2011, a research lab with strong international connections alerted us to a sample that appeared to be very similar to Stuxnet. They named the threat “Duqu” [dyü-kyü] because it creates files with the file name prefix “~DQ”. The research lab provided us with samples recovered from computer systems located in Europe, as well as a detailed report with their initial findings, including analysis comparing the threat to Stuxnet, which we were able to confirm. Parts of Duqu are nearly identical to Stuxnet, but with a completely different purpose.

  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • Bill to abolish long-gun registry could come this week

      The Harper government is poised to introduce contentious legislation as early as Thursday to abolish the long-gun registry.

      The legislation is bound to once again spark sharp political debate over whether the registry is a much-needed tool for police to keep Canadian communities safe, or whether it has become a costly intrusion into the lives of law-abiding gun-owners.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Failure to Grow: Global Oil Supply

      Using the latest data through June, from EIA Washington, global production of crude oil is currently averaging 73.856 mbpd in 2011. The loss of Libyan production has been offset this year by increased production from Saudi Arabia. (It remains unclear how sustainable Saudi production can be, currently at 9.840 mbpd. Saudi production has been highly variable this year, with month to month swings as much as 1 mbpd). Meanwhile, declining production from Mexico, the North Sea, continues to weigh.

  • Finance

    • William K. Black: “Enforce the Laws for the 99″
    • Goldman Sachs’s exceptionalism takes another knock

      The exceptionalism of Goldman Sachs took another knock this week. For a brief period on Wednesday, shares of the Wall Street firm traded at a bigger discount to book value — or assets minus liabilities — than those of megabank rival JPMorgan. This rarely happens and suggests that investors fear the bank’s franchise, both as a trader of securities and financial adviser to corporations and governments, is somehow damaged.

  • Privacy

  • Copyrights

    • Can’t look now: finding film online

      Last week YouTube announced the opening of its movie rental service. This could be great news for film lovers, offering easy access to the films they want to watch. Exactly how useful this is to consumers depends somewhat on how many films are available through the service.

      The availability of legal content online has featured heavily in discussions about the digital economy, most recently in the ongoing roundtables, hosted by the Minister Ed Vaizey MP, about new website blocking powers over sites involved in copyright infringement. The question is whether consumers’ demand for films, music and other goods is being satisfied.

      ORG, and others such as Consumer Focus, believe that more attention needs to be paid to how well the markets for films and music are serving consumers before we assume that certain kinds of enforcement measures are necessary and proportionate. We want to see thriving and innovative cultural markets that help creators and consumers get the best out of new technology.

      In this context, and against the backdrop of the recent injunction won by the film industry that requires BT to block the website Newzbin2, we decided to have a look at the availability of films online. We looked at how many of the recent best-sellers and catalogues of critically acclaimed films, including the top 50 British films, consumers can legally buy or rent online. We searched five content providers, and looked at rental and purchasing prices, and compared them with DVD availability and prices.

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