01 Communique Uses Software Patents Against Dell, LogMeIn; IBM Still a Mockery of the USPTO Its Employee Runs
Summary: The headache which is software patents continues to ruin US-based businesses; the FSF has another opportunity to ask IBM to end software patents rather than promote them
ANOTHER day, another attack on innovation. Rather than hear about a new (“innovative”) product we learn about legal action against Dell and LogMeIn, which achieves the very opposite of innovation. The press release from Toronto may remind outside observers of the i4i case because, just like i4i, 01 Communique uses a US patent to attack American commerce from Canada. This helps show how software patents put the United States in a position of disadvantage, just as Richard Stallman warned more than half a decade ago.
Here is some more coverage about this new case [1, 2, 3].
Already a headache for Citrix Systems Inc. (CTXS), 01 Communique Laboratory Inc. (OCQLF, ONE.T) could soon be a full-blown migraine for numerous other companies that provide remote access to personal computers.
[...]
While no royalty has been set, average royalty rates for software patents are among the highest in the technology industry at about 11.5%, according to data compiled by AUS Consulting Inc., a financial consulting firm based in Mount Laurel, N.J.
That latter part helps explains the harms of software patents in particular.
The USPTO, now run by a former IBM employee (IBM is in favour of software patents), continues to look like more of a joke thanks to IBM’s patent/monopoly obsession. “IBM Patents Guessing How Many Kids Are On A School Bus,” says this headlines from TechDirt which explains the details in simple term:
theodp writes “Self-described patent reformer IBM was awarded a patent Tuesday for Utilizing Gross Vehicle Weight to Determine Passenger Numbers. And yes, the ‘invention’ of five IBMers is what you think it is – from the Abstract: ‘A total weight of passengers on the vehicle is divided by an estimated weight of each of the passengers to estimate how many passengers are on the vehicle.’ First-graders everywhere will no doubt rejoice to learn that the elusive how-many-kids-are-on-the-school-bus problem has finally been solved!”
What is IBM thinking? It previously withdrew an outrageous patent, but only after it had received a lot of public backlash in Slashdot and elsewhere. Right now it’s Oracle that gets a lot of backlash, fueled by a new statement from the FSF. Many other sources are backing that official statement of the FSF or parsing it a little further [1, 2, 3, 4]. Oracle and IBM are the two major funding sources of the FSF and maybe it’s time for the FSF to also denounce IBM for its lobbying for software patents. Oracle actually has a history of opposing software patents. Neither IBM not Oracle is exactly helpful to the FSF when it comes to patent policy. █
Microsoft is Open Like a Bear Trap, Partners Worry
Original MBR cartoon from Penguin Pete’s highly recommended series
Summary: Windows continues to show that Microsoft is far from “open” and actually very hostile towards anything that’s near Windows
JUST OVER A WEEK AGO we wrote about Windows applications harmfully messing about with GNU/Linux partitions, just like Windows does (Microsoft does nothing to resolve this). Very recently we also heard some new lies from Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and the cartoon above captures it perfectly by poking fun at Microsoft’s lies about having changed its attitude. “Slowly the Rift Between Microsoft and “Partners” Widens,” claims Pogson right now. They too have grown tired of relying on Windows. “[Acer's] Shih clearly sees the value of openness and M$ and its OS is the least open part of the IT landscape,” the short post explains. █
“Steve [Ballmer], I’m sure you’re aware of this. Our call lines are being overrun. [by Windows Vista complaints]“
–Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd
GNU/Linux Desktop Market Share in the United States Not the Global Share
According to this leaked Microsoft chart, in 2003 “Linux % of PC installed base” in “Enterprise” was 0.27% in the US, 3.20% in Germany, 3.30% in France, and 4.20% in Russia (read more)
Summary: A quick response to operating system surveys which are predominantly US-oriented
SO FAR this week we’ve abstained from becoming part of the “market share” debate, which was reignited quite characteristically by US-oriented surveys from private firms like the Apple- and Microsoft-sponsored Net Applications. The discussion really started to spread when Miss Martin wrote a good rebuttal. We addressed this issue many times in the past, so there is no point doing it again, not in a detailed fashion anyway. We posted new links about this almost every day this week.
IDG’s pseudo-open source blog [1, 2, 3]* touches this subject at the moment. Novell’s former employee says: “I’d love to endorse Martin’s conclusion of 10%, but it doesn’t seem realistic at all to say that Linux has 10% of the desktop market. I take many stats with a huge grain of salt, but the Wikimedia stats that sample traffic hitting Wikipedia in June of this year show Linux with less than 2%. I trust that Wikipedia has no reason to game the numbers. Wikipedia and its sister sites are pretty popular across a broad demographic, so I don’t really think that the site is hugely out of whack with the rest of the population.”
“Remember this: the market share of Microsoft in search in the United States is estimated to be triple (or quadruple) that of its global market share in search.”Wikipedia numbers are not accurate as a global indicator and there are other shortcomings to these numbers. I have just had conversations about it with David Gerard (famous Wikipedia person), who may write an article for us about the subject of GNU/Linux market share.
Wikipedia figures — just like many others that are readily available in the West — are mentioning/including just English-speaking sites and rarely German or Brazilian sites, for instance (where GNU/Linux traffic is known to be rather amazing, not just sales of GNU/Linux, even in preinstalled form). Unless Wikipedia is used equally by all nations (distributed equally to account for bandwidth and normalise for population size), it too is tilted in favour English-speaking nations. There is no assurance that regional subsites/other languages represent and embody the correct international demography at hand as Wikipedia is far more extensive in the English language (while more people/nations speak Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic). Hints can be given about statistical bias when one investigates the market share of Apple operating systems. Apple is just a niche product in some of the world’s richest nations. Within a global context or scope, Mac/hypeOS share should be minute.
Remember this: the market share of Microsoft in search in the United States is estimated to be triple (or quadruple) that of its global market share in search. It’s not a coincidence; it’s population bias and citizens of the United States are only about 5% of the world (yet they dominate the English-speaking world, impacting information flow). █
_____
* Speaking of this blog, don’t miss Black Duck‘s new post there where its executive uses the blog to spread fear and sell its products. They are selling advice through means of uncertainty (the headline, for example, says that “recent court ruling makes it more important than ever to understand the GPL”).
“What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?” –George Eliot
Apple is Still Attacking GNU Linux and the GPL
Summary: Apple is said to be “blocking contributions to GCC” (which is GPL-licensed unlike LLVM and Clang); antitrust pressure on Apple causes change
GIVEN THAT Apple is suing Linux (via HTC) and merely exploiting Free software, no wonder people in the Free software world — developers in particular — dislike Apple. This company’s mistreatment of developers and other groups has already given Apple some antitrust issues. Very recently we learned that Apple was retaliating against partners for developing with Linux and also quite recently concerns were expressed about X Server stewardship from Apple.
Phoronix now alleges that “Apple [May Be] Blocking Contributions To GCC”:
Yesterday on the mailing list for GCC is was brought up if Apple’s Objective-C 2.0 patches for the GNU Compiler Collection could be merged back into the upstream GCC code-base as maintained by the Free Software Foundation. Even though Apple’s modified GCC sources still reflect the FSF as the copyright holder and are licensed under the GNU GPLv2+, it doesn’t look like Apple wants their compiler work going back upstream any longer.
Chris Lattner, who is Apple’s chief architect of their compiler group and also the lead developer of LLVM and Clang, came out to say that whatever Apple pushes to their GCC branch on the Free Software Foundation’s servers they should be able to pull upstream, but not code that’s found within the open-source GCC hosted by Apple on OpenDarwin or anywhere else. Or GCC code that’s found within LLVM-GCC.
Apple is not much of a development company and it is allergic to the GPL [1, 2], too (Apple is used to just taking code). That’s why Steve Jobs reportedly rejected his engineers’ advice that the company should use Linux to build the hypePhone (which later introduced hypeOS for the bigger phone, hypePad). The following new report says that Jobs “dodges antitrust action” when deciding to actually relax some restrictions in hypeOS; it’s about antitrust, not about being rational or kind.
But from our point of view, Apple’s hand was forced. By lifting its code ban, Apple removes the spectre of an antitrust inquiry by the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice. By removing the AdMob barriers, Apple does much the same with the possibility of FTC or DoJ action on that allegedly anti-competitive front.
And so Apple’s one-two punch both loosens and tightens restrictions on developers. Its lifting of the code ban and advertising strictures, although likely prompted by fear of legal action, allows a broader range of developer tools and — as Hamoui puts it — “provide[s] immediate clarification about the status of mobile advertising on the iPhone [that] will benefit users, developers, and advertisers.”
On the other hand, by tightening content restrictions on developers with its “my way or the highway” App Store Review Guidelines — or, at minium, by explicitly spelling out what was implicit in its seemingly arbitrary App Store police’s actions — Jobs & Co have shored up the fortifications of the walled garden that is the iOS ecosystem.
Apple does deserve a lot of scrutiny, even though there are those who excuse Apple too much [1, 2]. █
“FSF did some anti-Apple campaigns too. Personally I worry more about Apple because they have user loyalty; Microsoft doesn’t.”
–Bradley M. Kuhn (SFLC)
Quote of the Day: “Microsoft-sponsored Lobbyists and Lawyers Forming Groups to Initiate a Variety of Cases Against Google”
Summary: Words of value from someone who was relatively close to regulators and a word about SCO against Linux
Simon Phipps, formerly an executive of Sun Microsystems, has this to say about the seemingly Microsoft-funded legal attacks on Google [1, 2, 3, 4]:
The conspiracy theories Pamela espouses are well-based. At the start of last year as I was working on other technology policy issues with colleagues in Brussels, there were constant stories of indirectly-but-identifiably Microsoft-sponsored lobbyists and lawyers forming groups to initiate a variety of cases against Google over there, on the premise that “anti-trust has changed us and now Google are the new monopoly”. I heard the same from colleagues in DC too. So, as Pamela says: “Is this perhaps more abuse of the legal and administrative systems for anticompetitive purposes? If so, could somebody investigate *that*?”
Microsoft has already admitted being behind legal complaints against Google in Europe.
In other news from Groklaw, the Microsoft-funded lawsuit against Linux still refuses to die.
A new trial. Of course. There can never be too many trials for SCO, as it would like to actually win one and would prefer to keep trying until it does so. Apparently money is no object to a company that is in bankruptcy, has paid none of its creditors, and is now trying to sell off essentially all its assets but the litigation on which it long ago set all its hopes and dreams. And you can’t say it’s impossible to get an empathetic hearing from this court of appeals. It bent over backwards for SCO last time, granting it this 2nd trial that SCO then lost. So who knows? My grandchildren may someday be writing about the next SCO v. Novell retrial, as this crazed monomania seems to have no closing chapter.
Where/who does SCO continue to get money from? █
“…Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux.”
–Larry Goldfarb, BayStar, key investor in SCO approached by Microsoft
Links 10/9/2010: APLcomp Joins The Linux Foundation, Invitation-only Linux Summit Planned
Contents
GNU/Linux
-
What’s It Like To Be A Linux Journal Blogger?
Well, first of all, it’s fun, or I wouldn’t be doing it. I work with some intelligent, talented people, like Carlie Fairchild, publisher at LJ, and Katherine Druckman, our Webmistress. My job description as one of the LJ bloggers is to “write about whatever you want, as long as it is Linux related”. That’s pretty much the ideal job description for somebody like me who has been doing Linux full-time since shortly after Slackware first came out in 1993. I feel lucky to be writing for Linux Journal, which is currently celebrating its 16th year of publication, and is the original magazine of the global Linux community.
-
Why the Linux Myths Continue
Smart marketing could make a difference too. Just consider the huge impact that one television ad–the one in 1984 from Apple where the female athlete threw the sledgehammer toward a Borg-like figure resembling Big Blue–had for Apple. For Linux, the myths propogate and continue because there is no unified message designed to challenge the myths, no coordinated spending on such messaging. The myths don’t propogate because of shortcomings in Linux itself.
-
Server
-
TurnKey Linux brings speedy, small-scale migration to the cloud
TurnKey Linux has unveiled a system-level backup and restore system called TurnKey Linux Backup and Migration (TKLBAM) that aims to add a level of flexibility to cloud computing. Powered by the Amazon S3 storage cloud, the system brings speed, smarts, and automation to backups, restores, and migration in the cloud — at least on a limited scale.
-
-
Kernel Space
-
Broadcom makes its Wi-Fi chipsets more Linux friendly
According to Henry Ptasinski, a principal scientist in the wireless connectivity group at Broadcom, Broadcom has released the source code for the “initial release of a fully-open Linux driver for it’s latest generation of 11n chipsets. The driver, while still a work in progress, is released as full source and uses the native mac80211 stack. It supports multiple current chips (BCM4313, BCM43224, BCM43225) as well as providing a framework for supporting additional chips in the future, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
-
New Linux Benchmarks Of SilverStone’s HDDBOOST
The purpose of the HDDBOOST is to increase the disk performance by enabling SSD speeds on the host hard drive while reducing write times to the SSD. From our Linux tests in that article we had a hard time getting this small device to provide any measurable performance gains, but in fact it caused some performance losses.
-
The Linux Foundation Announces Program for 2010 End User Summit
The Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced the speaker lineup and details for The Linux Foundation End User Summit. The Summit is a unique opportunity for the most advanced enterprise users to collaborate with leaders from within the Linux community, including the highest-level maintainers and developers.
-
Invitation-only Linux summit announces speakers
-
Linux Foundation’s Jim Zemlin Offers Sneak Peek at 2010 End User Summit
-
Linux Foundation details 2010 End User Summit programme
Confirmed keynote speakers include British Telecom’s Chief Scientist JP Rangaswami, who will be giving a talk entitled “Purple Haze to Purple Rain: Why the Cloud Rocks”, and Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin, who will be discussing the next-generation enterprise computing. NASDAQ OMX Vice President Bob Evans will detail what he feels is working today with Linux and what he believes would work in his environment. Other various panels and sessions will cover topics ranging from “What’s next in Linux file systems & Storage”, to virtualisation and tracing.
-
APLcomp Joins The Linux Foundation
APLcomp is an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software vendor that primarily serves the financial services industry. An increasing number of its customers are deploying applications in the cloud and are recognizing the advantages of using an open operating system to support this infrastructure.
-
The Last Barrier to Wireless in Linux Falls
This advance could be in Ubuntu as early as 10.10 but most others will see it in 2011 as the FLOSS code for the drivers will be merged with Linux 2.6.37. Debian GNU/Linux Squeeze is now up to 2.6.32. We Debianistas may have to build from source for a while yet.
-
Graphics Stack
-
ATI Evergreen 3D Code May Soon Go Into Gallium3D
AMD finally pushed out open-source 2D/3D acceleration code for Evergreen (a.k.a. the ATI Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards) last month, but since then these drivers haven’t received too much attention. AMD’s few open-source developers are beginning to turn their attention to supporting the Radeon HD 6000 series more promptly in the open-source world while the community developers seem to still have their attention on the Gallium3D driver for the ATI Radeon HD 2000/3000/4000 (R600/R700) hardware.
-
-
-
Applications
-
Proprietary
-
JetBox 8150 Industrial Communication PC w/ built-in Media Processor for Enhanced Multimedia Display!
To provide even more advanced functionality, the Linux OS of JetBox 8150 also includes openVPN and openSWAN to enable the VPN function working in Linux as well as cross windows system.
-
Echelon rolls Linux-based smart grid products
Echelon Corp. rolled out Wednesday (Sept. 8) a Linux-based software environment for smart grid applications and new hardware to run the code. Duke Energy signed a $14.5 million deal to use the new products it expects to start field testing before the end of the year.
-
-
Instructionals/Technical
-
Games
-
-
Desktop Environments
-
K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
-
PyQt comes to OpenSolaris
For the past month I’ve been honing my PyQt skills and greatly enjoyed it. I’ve been saying to people at conferences — for years already — that Python (or some other scripting language) is the Right Approach ™ to a great many end-user applications for its speed on development and ease of prototyping. Now I finally spent a month testing the truth of that statement.
-
-
GNOME Desktop
-
Interviews from GUADEC, Part 4
Stormy Peters is the Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation, and when Jeremy Allison from the Google Open Source Programs Office ran into her at GUADEC, he was eager to talk to her about the direction that GNOME is heading. In the video above, Stormy and Jeremy discuss release schedules, GNOME 3, and hackfests. Enjoy!
-
-
-
Distributions
-
Friday’s security updates
-
Red Hat Family
-
Debian Family
-
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD Becomes More Interesting
Since last year we have been talking about Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, one of the official ports for Debian 6.0 “Squeeze” that will bring a 32-bit and 64-bit FreeBSD kernel as an option to using the Linux kernel. Debain GNU/kFreeBSD still has the Debian user-land complete with its massive package repository and apt-get support, but the FreeBSD kernel is running underneath instead of Linux. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD has matured a lot over the past year and most recently it has switched to using the FreeBSD 8.1 kernel by default and also now supports ZFS file-systems.
In January of this year was our first time benchmarking Debian GNU/kFreeBSD when it was using the FreeBSD 7.2 kernel. With that initial testing, in 18 of our 27 benchmarks Debian GNU/Linux was still faster than Debian GNU/kFreeBSD. We delivered a much larger comparison a week later when comparing the Debian variant to Fedora, FreeBSD 7.2/8.0, OpenBSD, and OpenSolaris. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD performed about average.
-
Canonical/Ubuntu
-
This week in design – 10 September 2010
-
Flavours and Variants
-
Linux Mint Releases Debian Edition
-
Edubuntu gets a new installer
One of our goals for the Maverick development was to enhance our installation process.
Previously in 10.04 we introduced a way to test LTSP straight from the Live DVD and then install it or the Netbook-Edition interface at the end of the install.
It worked great but we then received reports from users telling us they didn’t see a way to install either LTSP or the Netbook interface during the install.
-
-
-
-
-
Devices/Embedded
-
Apparent Networks Simplifies VoIP Testing
Apparent Networks, a provider of network monitoring services delivered via the cloud, has unveiled a new service that makes used of a Linux-based appliance to determine whether an enterprise network can stand up to the rigors of delivering voice over IP (VoIP) services.
-
OK Labs Forging the Mobile Virtualization Movement
-
New E-Readers and Tablets: PocketBook 603, 903, IQ at IFA Berlin
The 6-inch PocketBook Pro 603 and 9.7-inch 903 are similar models, both running Linux and built around 533MHz processors and 256MB of RAM. Both models have screens with a 4-to-3 aspect ratio and resolutions proportional to their size.
-
Eurotech and Wind River Announce Collaboration to Speed Embedded Application Development
-
Tanner EDA Releases Linux Version of Full-flow Analog IC Design Suite
Tanner EDA, the driver for innovation in the design, layout and verification of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs), has released a Linux version of the company’s HiPer Silicon full-flow design suite, giving designers a complete analog design flow from schematic capture, circuit simulation, and waveform probing to physical layout and verification.
-
Parrot AR.Drone iPhone-controlled quadrocopter ships September 9th
The AR Drone boasts sophisticated software, running on an embedded Linux OS on a 468mhz ARM processor, to process and react to in-flight information coming from the 3-axis accelerometer, multiple gyrometers, ultrasound altimeter and the vertical ground-facing camera. The marketing guys at Parrot claim that all this guidance technology means that even a child can fly the AR Drone.
-
Windriver teams with board firms for Linux design platform
Wind River has teamed up with a group of embedded board suppliers to provide complete development platforms running it VxWorks real-time operating system and/or Wind River Linux.
-
Phones
-
Leaked WebOS 2.0 Shots Show a Bevy of New Features
-
WebOS 2.0 Beta 1 Screenshots emerge, show several new features
WebOS 2.0 Beta is a new version of Palm webOS which will be released later this year. Palm webOS is Palm’s proprietary mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel. The features of the WebOS 2.0 Beta are given below.
-
Nokia/MeeGo
-
Android
-
MIT app turns your Android phone into a supercomputer… of sorts
Oh, sure — a few people have called Google’s Nexus One a “superphone,” but suddenly, that nickname has taken on a whole new level of meaning. A team of talent from MIT has put its head down in order to concoct a new Android application that can come darn close to solving complex computational problems in just a fraction of the time that it’d take a bona fide supercomputer.
-
Google TV Developer Platform: What to Expect
-
Google TV to launch in autumn in US and 2011 worldwide
Schmidt also used the keynote to clarify the situation regarding the company’s upcoming Chrome operating system, scotching rumours that a Google-branded tablet was planned that would be running the new Linux-based Internet focused operating system. Schmidt clarified that Chrome was aimed at the netbook category.
-
Android Notifier sends notifications to your desktop
If you’ve ever used Android for any period of time, you know that the notification system can be both a blessing and a curse — it’s one of the most powerful, useful, and flexible approaches out there, but if you don’t keep up, your menu bar can stack up into a mess of cryptic numbered icons. So we were really hoping Android Notifier could help us with that — it pipes notifications to your OS X desktop over WiFi or Bluetooth.
-
Get an Early Gmail Update on Your Android Phone
-
Android Notifier Sends Notifications from Your Phone to Your Desktop
-
Android Notifier bringing incoming calls and alerts to your desktop
-
-
-
Tablets
-
Dual-Screen Kno Tablet To Be Available by Year’s End
Does the lure of playing with “the most powerful tablet anyone has ever made” tempt you? How about those dual 14.1-inch touchscreens? (That’s a combined might of 28.2-inches!) Kno has received $46m investment, with an end-of-year launch already penciled-in.
After being shown off at the D8 event in June, we were bowled over by the idea of having two capacitive IPS screens, measuring 14.1-inches each. That’s a seriously large tablet, but could be the closest thing we see to Microsoft’s Courier, which has now been binned.
-
Google Says “Froyo is Not Optimized for Use on Tablets”
Speaking to TechRadar, Google’s director of products for mobile Hugo Barra explained that it all comes down to apps, and the way they work on tablets—or don’t work. “The way Android Market works is it’s not going to be available on tablets that don’t allow devices and applications to run correctly.”
-
-
Free Software/Open Source
-
Open-Xchange 6.18 integrates data from social networks
Nuremberg-based collaboration software specialist Open-Xchange has released an update, version 6.18, to its email and groupware solution. The company says that the most important of the 100 improvements in the release concern the integration of data from social networks and the option of managing, within Open-Xchange, email from external providers.
-
Web Browsers
-
Mozilla
-
Firefox 3.6 gains anti-clickjacking support, Thunderbird & SeaMonkey updated
Firefox 3.6.9 now supports the X-FRAME-OPTIONS header, which enables web servers to forbid clients from opening downloaded pages in iframes. Clickjacking involves an attacker website inserting a transparent iframe containing, for example, Facebook content under the cursor. Users think they are clicking on the visible web page, but are in fact clicking on elements in the transparent Facebook iframe.
-
Mozilla Releases Firefox 4 Beta 5
-
-
-
Databases
-
Version 2.0 of NoSQL database Redis released
Version 2.0 of the NoSQL database Redis database has been released with new features including virtual memory support, a hash datatype and publish/subscribe messaing. Development of Redis is assisted by VMware who sponsor Salvatore Sanfillippo and Pieter Noordhuis, lead developers of the project. Sanfillipo was hired by VMware in March.
Redis is a BSD licensed, key/value store which is written in ANSI C and runs on POSIX systems like Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, Solaris and others. Libraries to access the store are available for Ruby, Python, PHP, Erlang, Java, Scala, C#, C, Clojure and JavaScript.
-
-
Project Releases
-
Cairo 1.10.0 available
-
Django 1.2.2 released to close XSS enabling hole
The Django Project developers have released Django 1.2.2 to close a vulnerability in the Python based web framework which allowed attackers to launch cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. The exploit is, ironically, in the Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection code which was added in version 1.2.
-
IcedTea6 1.9 and VisualVM 1.0
-
-
Openness/Sharing
-
Open Data
-
USA Today Latest Media Co. to Realize Open is Better
USA Today is the latest media company to open up its data via an API, the software interface that makes it easy for outside developers to use another company’s data in their applications. The newspaper — which said that it will launch its open API project later this month — joins a small but growing group that includes The Guardian, the New York Times and National Public Radio. The newspaper says it plans to start releasing APIs for specific sections first, including a sports API that provides access to the paper’s database of salaries for players in Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL and other sports franchises.
-
-
Open Access/Content
-
Connexions is going mobile!
Just think about the possibilities! No longer are you tied to your computer, reading modules online or in PDF format. No longer are you forced to carry around printouts of your materials. Instead you can access Connexions materials at any time, any place.
-
-
-
Programming
-
InfoWorld review: Nine fine Python development tools
Object-oriented and dynamic, Python encourages rapid, iterative, and almost exploratory development. But good Python development starts with a good Python IDE. In this roundup, I examine nine Python development environments, many open source, but some commercial. They are Boa Constructor, Eric, ActiveState’s Komodo, Oracle’s NetBeans, Aptana’s Pydev, PyScripter, SPE, Spyder, and WingWare’s Wing IDE.
-
Leftovers
-
ARM reveals Eagle core as Cortex-A15, capable of quad-core computing at up to 2.5GHz
-
The End of Bloglines is Nigh – Will Close October 1
-
Intellectual Monopolies
-
Copyrights
-
The Revamped CC Case Studies Project
Last year, we kicked off our global case studies effort, inviting you to share your stories—individuals, projects, and companies who use Creative Commons for different reasons and to solve different problems. Through the CC wiki, we attempted to capture the diversity of CC creators and content by building a resource that inspires new works and informs free culture.
-
Summary of OER-related comments on U.S. Department of Education Notice of Proposed Priorities
-
-
Clip of the Day
Fully replace traditional “gnome-panel” with much more revolutionize “Avant-Window-Navigator” dock
Credit: TinyOgg
Links 10/9/2010: Linux 2.6.36, Google Caffeine Moves System Further Onto BigTable
Contents
GNU/Linux
-
KDE 3 appears in ‘The Social Network’ movie?
Below is a still image from the film’s official trailer, in it you can see what appears to be an old version of the KDE Desktop Environment. This particular still image is from a scene in the movie taking place in 2003, so KDE 3 would be an accurate version for the year.
-
From Vista and 7, to Ubuntu and Jolicloud without a Mac deviation
Oh-My-God! Not just an OMG, this needed spelling out. The OS was free, and installable (and uninstallable) directly from Windows. It gave the previously snail-speed netbook a new spark, and came with a catalogue of software that you could click and download. Google applications, OpenOffice, Gimp, and what I guess was around 100 open-source applications with which most professionals and private persons could do whatever they want.
-
Server
-
Turnkey Linux Intros Amazon S3 Powered Backup
TurnKey Linux Wednesday released a smart, fully automated open source-based backup and restore facility powered by the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) cloud.
TurnKey Linux Backup and Migration (TKLBAM) is based on Ubuntu 8.04.3, was designed to add flexibility to cloud computing, and requires no configuration, according to the Tel Aviv-based developer. The solution delivers speed, intelligence, and automation to migration in the cloud, as well as backup and restore functions, said Liraz Siri, company co-founder.
-
-
Google
-
Google Chrome OS is for Netbooks, Android for Smartphones & Tablets
We all know that Google is in the operating system business these days. What hasn’t been clear is exactly what Google has planned for its Chrome operating system. We all know that Android is Google’s Android Linux smartphone and tablet answer. But where does Chrome, a Linux and Web browser-based operating system fit in?
It hasn’t been an easy question to answer. After all, you can use Android as a desktop operating system and you can use Chrome as a tablet operating system. So, what’s what here? Now, we’re beginning to get come clear answers.
In a TechRadar interview with Google Chrome senior product manager Anders Sandholm, Sandholm said, “What we are focusing on [in Chrome] is netbooks in terms of form-factor and providing a really good experience for that.”
-
Google: ‘Android not optimised for tablets’
Google has stated that it currently isn’t using Android on any tablets, hinting that it will have a tablet-centric OS soon.
Although Gingerbread and Honeycomb have been strongly tipped to be tablet-friendly versions of Android, this is the first time Google has confirmed Froyo isn’t a platform for iPad rivals.
-
-
ARM
-
Understanding Smartphone processors
The next generation of smartphones are set to get dual-core processors with improved graphics. We take a look at just what makes a smartphone processor
-
Stronger ARM on the Horizon
This is an example of the problem ARM has which turns out to be a solution too. The ARM cores are going to be so small it is hard to connect them to the real world. They can connect with other ARM cores properly, however. That makes multiple-core ARM CPUs scale much better than x86. x86 cores are huge. Even Moore’s Law cannot make 16 fit in a tiny cool package. The vast majority of desktop PCs will have everything they need in such a chip and nothing they don’t: fans, PSU, case size and mass. It will be a better way to do IT and it runs GNU/Linux.
-
ARM Unveils Cortex-A15 MPCore Processor
ARM has pulled the wraps off a new mobile processor called the Coretex-A15. This processor can be had with four cores and is aimed at mobile devices and high-end digital home gear.
-
-
Kernel Space
-
Matthew Garrett files case with US Customs against Fusion Garage
Kernel hacker Matthew Garrett has been looking into GPL compliance on various consumer devices, and has evidently gotten fed up with responses from the Joojoo tablet maker. In the comments on the blog posting, someone purportedly from Fusion Garage asked Garrett to contact them, so maybe it will all get resolved soon.
-
Graphics Stack
-
Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.36 (Part 1) – Graphics
The Kernel Log thus can now already offer a comprehensive overview of the major changes in the new kernel version scheduled for release in late October. To keep the material palatable, Kernel Log will, as ever, divide this information up into a series of articles which will look at different areas of the kernel. The ‘Coming in 2.6.36′ series kicks off below with a description of changes in the area of graphics hardware support. Articles on network support, storage hardware, file systems, architecture code, drivers and other areas will be published over the next few weeks.
-
-
-
Applications
-
Instructionals/Technical
-
-
Distributions
-
Lubuntu 10.10 Beta Available for Download
Julian Lavergne announced a few days ago, the immediate availability for download of the first Beta release of the upcoming Lubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) operating system.
-
Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 113
· Announced Distro: openSUSE 11.4 Milestone 1
· Announced Distro: Ubuntu 10.10 Beta[...]
-
New Final Releases
-
UHU-Linux 2.2 (Nerd)
-
MoLinux 6.0 (Netbook)
-
Untangle 7.4.1
-
Super OS 10.04
-
Super OS 10.04 Is Now Available for Download
Super OS 10.04 has been released. The Ubuntu derivative sticks pretty close to the original, but aims to make it a bit more user friendly, mostly by including more multimedia codecs and more default packages.
-
Salix LXDE edition 13.1.1 is ready!
Here’s an update to our LXDE edition! The main selection of software has stayed the same as in the previous LXDE release: Midori is used as the default web browser, claws-mail is the default email client, abiword, gnumeric and epdfview are there for your office needs and exaile, brasero and whaaw! media player are included in the multimedia application section, all running in the same lightweight LXDE desktop. Following the changes in the standard XFCE release, several things have been updated though.
-
Parsix GNU/Linux 3.6 Released
Earlier today, September 7th, Alan Baghumian proudly announced the immediate availability for download of the Parsix GNU/Linux 3.6 operating system. Dubbed “Vinnie,” the new version brings lots of updated applications, new artwork, new features and many bugs fixed.
-
-
Red Hat Family
-
A 52 Week High for Red Hat, will it Hold?
New York, September 9th (TradersHuddle.com) – Shares of Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) booked a new 52 week high today by trading above $37.53, traders are definitely monitoring Red Hat’s price action to see if this move attracts further buying into the stock.
-
-
Debian Family
-
Paradigm Shift
I had my first day of classes for this school year. The grade nine class made my day. There were a lot of students and I introduced the course with a bit of the history of the PC, nomenclature, care and feeding, and installing an OS. We started installing Debian GNU/Linux over XP at 13:50 and were mostly done by 14:08. It was a network installation and some files were not in the cache so things dragged a bit. The only thing left after class was agreeing to installation of the bootloader.
-
Debian alert DSA-2098-2 (typo3-src)
The update for TYPO3 in DSA 2098 introduced a regression which could make the backend functionality unusable. This update corrects the problem. For reference the original advisory below.
-
Canonical/Ubuntu
-
Booting Ubuntu 10.10 In 8.6 Seconds [Video]
Ubuntu 10.10 has only entered the Beta. However, it looks like it is doing extremely well in cutting down the boot time.
James Ward posted a video showing Ubuntu 10.10 in a mere 8.6 seconds. That is the total time it takes from GRUB to get to a usable desktop. According to Ward, he did not do anything special, like disable the drivers etc., to reduce the boot time. But of course, he uses a SSD.
-
Top reasons to install Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Linux)
Ever since its release back in October of 2004, Ubuntu has quickly become one of the most used Linux distributions available. Focusing on user-friendliness and usability, Ubuntu is highly stable and easy to install for those those just want a great operating system without being chained down by Microsoft.
-
The Commodore 64 Lives Again – as a Modern PC Running Ubuntu
Some of you may remember the now-infamous Carpet Cleaner Computer that’s Personal (CCCP), an old Bissell carpet washer that I converted to a PC because, well, just because. The fun continues with another entertaining waste of time and money, converting a Commodore 64 to a genuine contemporary PC. Yes, it can be done, again with a little custom engineering and an unusual circuit board.
-
Third update to the Ubuntu Light Themes
-
-
-
Free Software/Open Source
-
Yiy, a song with music video done in Blender
Phetogo Tshepo Mahasha writes us he made “this music video “ for a prominent indie musician “Muhsinah” with Blender, GIMP and Photoshop.
-
Web Browsers
-
Mozilla
-
First Look: Firefox 4 JaegerMonkey
Mozilla has published the first Firefox build that integrates a new JavaScript engine that aims to match the performance in IE9 and reduces the gap to Safari, Opera and Chrome.
-
-
-
Databases
-
NoSQL takes a seat on Android with new mobile version of CouchDB
A new mobile version of the CouchDB database system, called CouchOne Mobile, is available for Google’s Android operating system. The mobile version is still at a relatively early stage of development, but it will allow developers to take advantage of CouchDB’s sophisticated replication functionality to synchronize data between desktop and mobile applications.
CouchDB is a schema-less document-based database that uses JSON as a storage format and JavaScript as a query language. It is popular in the so-called NoSQL community and is increasingly seeing deployment in high-profile business and scientific computing environments.
-
-
Oracle
-
Oracle VM VirtualBox
Virtualization is a big word that means, more or less, running one computer system inside another system. You could, for example, have a complete virtual Linux system running in a window inside your Windows 7 computer, or you might have a complete Windows XP system running in a window inside a Linux or OS X or Windows 7 system.
-
-
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
-
RMS to speak in Melbourne
Free Software Foundation founder Richard M. Stallman will be visiting Melbourne next week and is scheduled to give two talks at educational institutions.
-
-
Standards/Consortia
-
Open Sesame
What happens in open standards?
All technology/software used for e-governance becomes inter-operable. In other words, any technology platform or software should be able to read government documents, maps, images and datasheets.Who gains?
* Government: Will not have to spend crores on a proprietary standard. Various offices would be able to access data without having same technology/software.
* Consumers: Will not have to buy proprietary software to access government documentsWho loses?
Big proprietary software companies and licensed technology platformsE-governance market in India
* Size: $10 billion
* Proprietary tech/software 95%
* Open Source 5%
-
Leftovers
-
eBay stake in Craigslist restored but no board seat
A judge on Thursday reinstated eBay Inc’s 28.4 percent stake in Craigslist, but allowed the classifieds site to keep eBay off its board.
-
Welcome to the Nerd Blog
Today we are introducing our Nerd Blog, a place to talk about what programmer-journalists at ProPublica are working on, announce newly-launched news applications, and to hear from technically-minded readers, as well as our fellow nerdy journalists. We’re going to be writing about each of our projects as we release them, and flagging open source tools we’ve found useful.
-
Google search index splits with MapReduce
Google Caffeine — the remodeled search infrastructure rolled out across Google’s worldwide data center network earlier this year — is not based on MapReduce, the distributed number-crunching platform that famously underpins the company’s previous indexing system. As the likes of Yahoo!, Facebook, and Microsoft work to duplicate MapReduce through the open source Hadoop project, Google is moving on.
According to Eisar Lipkovitz, a senior director of engineering at Google, Caffeine moves Google’s back-end indexing system away from MapReduce and onto BigTable, the company’s distributed database platform.
-
Security/Aggression
-
TSA Poster Reminds That Photography Is For Creepy Terrorists Only
Enjoy standing safely outside a fence taking innocuous photos of airplanes in plain sight? According to this new TSA poster, you are a filthy terrorist.
-
Cybercriminals Creating 57,000 Fake Web Sites Every Week
In a recent investigation, it was discovered that cybercriminals are creating 57,000 new “fake” websites each week looking to imitate and exploit approximately 375 high-profile brands. eBay and Western Union were the most targeted brands, making up 44 percent of exploited brands discovered. Visa, Amazon, Bank of America and PayPal also heavily targeted by cybercriminals.
-
Creepy Biometric IDs to Be Forced Onto India’s 1.2 Billion Inhabitants
Fears about loss of privacy are being voiced as India gears up to launch an ambitious scheme to biometrically identify and number each of its 1.2 billion inhabitants.
-
Up to 40,000 front-line police jobs ‘at risk’
As many as 40,000 front-line police jobs will be at risk across England and Wales if expected 25% budget cuts go ahead, the Police Federation has said.
-
-
Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM
-
PSJailbreak: how the Playstation 3 was hacked
-
Business lobbies slam net neutrality
Leaders of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the US Chamber of Commerce gathered at a press conference yesterday to whinge about the impending horrors of Internet regulation.
The business groups wanted to hear from FCC chairman Julius Genachowski about how proposed net neutrality regulation won’t choke off innovation. Their concern is that they are uncertain about what net neutrality regulations will bring. The TIA and NAM also argued that it could also impede the roll out of broadband in rural areas, a seemingly not so veiled threat to stall and obstruct that unless they get their way and are able to block or subvert net neutrality through lobbying.
-
-
Intellectual Monopolies
-
Copyrights
-
Swiss supreme court orders company to stop snooping on illegal file-sharing suspects
The Swiss supreme court has ordered a company to stop snooping on suspected illegal file sharers, saying the practice breaches their right to privacy.
The Lausanne-based Federal Tribunal says Logistep AG collected personal information on users of file-sharing networks and sold it to film and music companies seeking to protect their intellectual property.
-
Are Swedish Police Violating Copyright Law In Creating Shoe Database?
The police claim that the law lets them ignore copyright in solving crimes, but an intellectual property professor quoted in the article notes that such an exemption only applies in the direct police investigation of a specific crime — not for the sake of building up a general database. The professor suggests that this appears to be a clear violation of Swedish copyright laws.
-
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra coming to AMERICA!! (kinda)
Technically, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra ARE coming to America, but it’s not exactly like you think. To celebrate the 21 years or so of Tokyo Ska, TSPO have set up a little fan event thing in Hawaii for the week of October 1st. Fans will get to tour Hawaii with TSPO, meet and speak with the band members, and enjoy a special acoustic session on an evening cruise on the beautiful island of O’ahu, Hawaii! All for 194,000¥ (roughly $2,200).
-
USTR’s February 10, 2009 memo on Transparency Soup
On September 3, 2010, we received a letter dated August 30, 2010, with a very incomplete response to that FOIA request. The most interesting document included in the preliminary response was an email with 3 pages of attachments sent by Stan McCoy, the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Intellectual Property and Innovation, on February 10, 2010. (McCoy joined USTR under the Bush Administration).
-
Copyright Debates Fire Up Popkomm
“The truth is digital technology has driven a panzer division through copyright law,” Smith said, with perhaps not the most sensitive choice of metaphor given the location. “If 70% of the population are ignoring a law, it’s no longer a law – we have to figure out a new way of working with copyright.”
-
ACTA
-
The 19 uses of “at least” in the ACTA text
In looking at the scope issues, it might be helpful to examine the 19 places where the ACTA text uses the term, “at least.”
-
-
-
Clip of the Day
Spot Soluzioni Business con Linux – IBM – 2002
Credit: TinyOgg