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05.23.13

Microsoft Violates Google Licences

Posted in Google, Microsoft at 4:04 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Warning sign

Summary: The champion of ‘IP’ and licensing (extortion) is not much of a champion after all, based on new reports, not just a lot of old ones

Earlier this week we found this interesting report about the company which extorts Android using patents and tries to block Android imports. The report says “Wired has obtained a copy of a cease and desist letter sent by Google to Microsoft today, demanding Microsoft immediately remove the YouTube app from its Windows Phone Store and disable existing copies on consumers’ devices by May 22.”

And from the letter: “These features directly harm our content creators and clearly violate our Terms of Service. We request that you immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013.”

“Don’t let Microsoft use the letter above to chastise Google.”Well done, Microsoft? Champion of copyright? Not so much…

I was never a fan of Google myself (not even in the early days when I was suspicious of Google’s motives and business model), but Google is far less malignant than Microsoft in every single way, including privacy. Moreover, Google has helped promote Free/Open Source software and GNU/Linux, especially in its later years. Google’s recruiters approached me thrice over the years, but I can’t see myself ever working there (the company I work for is dedicated solely to Free/Open Source software). Remember that just because YouTube censors more than it should and spies on all users (more and more over time) is not enough to chastise Google over; in fact, the player itself is growingly liberal, with WebM being used by default in many cases (there is an issue with it still, as will be covered in the next post). Don’t let Microsoft use the letter above to chastise Google. Microsoft is the bad guy here, not Google, although a bit of spinmeistering can help warp the logical conclusion. █

Skype Teaches Us That All Microsoft Software Should be Assumed Spyware Unless Proven Otherwise

Posted in Microsoft at 3:50 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

If Skype flagrantly disregards your rights, why not other Microsoft software?

Fake forest

Summary: The broader implications of Microsoft adding spying ‘features’ to Skype

An interesting observation regarding the latest Skype hoopla [1, 2] makes these valid points: “I think the spooks have been watching “Person of Interest” too much to think such things are cricket. How far does this go? Do people need to worry about microsoft IIS web servers with SSL, exchange servers?

“Windows too spies on the users.”“You do have to wonder if apple backdoored their IM client, below the OTR, or silent circle, or the OS – I mean how far does this go? Jon Callas said not apple, that wouldnt be cool, and apple aims for coolness for users; maybe he should dig a little more. It seems to be getting to you cant trust anything without compiling it from source, and having a good PGP WoT network with developers. A distro binary possibly isnt enough in such an environment.”

Free software, except Ubuntu, protects your privacy. Microsoft software protects Microsoft’s interests. Do not rely on Microsoft anything unless you accept the assumption that you are being spied on. Yes. Windows too spies on the users. █

Links 23/5/2013: Threat to Civil Rights in UK, KDE 4.11 LTS

Posted in News Roundup at 12:34 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • $99 Linux stick turns any HDMI display into a virtual desktop

    Hard on the heels of the news that Dell’s “Project Ophelia” thumb PC is expected to ship this summer, thin client vendor Devon IT on Tuesday rolled out a similar contender of its own called the Ceptor.

  • Samsung Talks About Its Aggressive Linux Talent Recruitment Strategy
  • From subversive to mainstream: Looking back on 18 years with Linux
  • CCE Addresses Growing Demand in CAE Space by Extending Support to Linux Platforms

    CCE, a leader in advanced interoperabilitytechnology, announced that in response to a growing demand from customers in the CAEspace, it has successfully completed porting of its 3D CAD interoperability technology toLinux platforms.

  • GNU/Linux chosen as operating system of the International Space Station

    This is a wise choice for the space station, and a high-profile victory for software freedom. It brings good publicity for free software, demonstrating its respected position in the world of science and technology.

  • It’s Easier Than Ever to Slap Your Favorite Linux Distro Onto a Chromebook

    If you’ve been in the market for a portable computer, you may very well have considered buying a Chromebook. And, if you favor a particular Linux distro, perhaps Ubuntu or Mint, you may be interested in buying a $200 or $250 Chromebook only to put your favorite flavor of Linux on your new system. (The Acer system shown here sells for $199.) As we’ve reported, many OStatic readers have expressed interest in buying a Chromebook to run Linux. Now, there are very simple instructions for doing so online and a growing body of evidence that people are having good experiences with their Linux Chromebooks.

  • Designing Electronics with Linux

    In many scientific disciplines, the research you may be doing is completely new. It may be so new that there isn’t even any instrumentation available to make your experimental measurements. In those cases, you have no choice but to design and build your own measuring devices. Although you could build them using trial and error, having a way to model them first to see how they will behave is a much better choice—in steps oregano. With oregano, you can design your circuitry ahead of time and run simulations on it to iron out any problems you may encounter.

  • LinuxTag: LiMux firmly established in Munich

    Peter Hofmann, the leader of Munich’s Linux migration project, has denied rumours that the LiMux clientGerman language link will be “decommissioned” when the initiative runs out at the end of the year. “The City of Munich has no intention to switch”, he said at the LinuxTag conference in Berlin on Wednesday. The basic instruction given by Munich’s City Council in 2003 was to create more independence and autonomy for Munich’s IT, said Hofmann. This task won’t be completed when the project runs out in October, he explained, adding that further adjustments will be needed in the specialised application and server areas.

  • Linux Ranks Among Top Skills for Big Data Jobs
  • Linux Format 172 On Sale Today – Has Ubuntu lost it?

    With its Distrowatch ranking falling faster than Man Utd now that Sir Alex Ferguson has departed, Ubuntu is no longer the all-conquering force that it was. So what’s happened? Has it, in fact, lost it, or is there a more subtle game afoot? We answer this conundrum (sort of) in the latest Linux Format.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Qt 5.1 Launches on Tizen with Standard Look and Feel
      • Finnish mobile maker Jolla announces first MeeGo phone

        Another thing to notice is that a compatibility layer on the device allows the user to even run Android apps on the phone.

      • May Updates to KDE Plasma and Applications
      • Plasma Workspaces 4.11: A long term release

        One of the most exciting things about this direction is that our distribution and packaging partners will be able to have a version that will see releases which focus exclusively on stabilization for at least two years. There will be no new features added after 4.11.0 to Plasma Desktop and Netbook, though the code will be adjusted as needed to maintain and improve existing functionality. This should make Plasma Desktop 4.11 an excellent candidate for inclusion in distributions that have a longer shelf-life.

      • KDE 4.11 to be Long Term Release

        It was just last week we looked at some of the proposed features for upcoming KDE 4.11 as it neared soft feature freeze. Well, today some new information about KDE 4.11 came to light. Aaron Seigo said today that 4.11 would be a “long term release.”

        A long term release means a particular version will be kept up to date with stabilization and security updates for an extended period of time; in this case, two years. This will give distributions that skate safely in the well-worn groove of stability a chance to have a longer term plan and more stable offerings. Seigo said, “no new features [will be] added after 4.11.0 to Plasma Desktop and Netbook, though the code will be adjusted as needed to maintain and improve existing functionality.” He believes this will help developers and distribution developers a chance to focus on polishing.

      • Digia previews “Boot to Qt” platform
      • Digia launches Boot to Qt technology preview

        Digia launched a technology preview of Boot to Qt, a commercial offering that provides “a fully-integrated solution for the creation of slick user interfaces on embedded devices.” The current version of Boot to Qt is built on top of an Android kernel base layer, and includes support for the Nexus 7, BeagleBoard-xM, SABRE Lite, and x86 hardware.

      • ReKonq Gaining Chrome Extension Support, Still Sponsored By Blue Systems

        It’s been just a little over a year since the mystical Blue Systems started sponsoring development of ReKonq. Blue Systems is second only to the KDE e.V. in platform investment, sponsoring not only numerous core applications, but multiple distributions as well. ReKonq has come a long way since 0.9.2 (May 2012) and with the help of Blue Systems developer Adjam, it is taking baby-steps towards Chrome Extension support.

      • Quo vadis, Dolphin? First results from the user study.

        We conducted a large study about strength and weakness of file managers in may 2013. In this article we present first results, discuss issues and questions that occur during the study, and present the schedule for the statistical analysis.

      • Homerun 1.0.0!

        Today, I am happy to announce the release of Homerun 1.0.0. This new version comes with a few new features.

  • Distributions

    • Another Day, Another Distro: Antergos Linux Is Born

      “A distribution I never heard of has changed its default desktop, stopped supporting Cinnamon — though it is still included — and changed its name,” said Mobile Raptor blogger Robin Lim. “To me, it really is of little significance. No offense meant to the development team — I am sure it is a fine distribution — it is just that it is floating in a sea of fine distributions.”

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Rating Lowered to Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets (RHT)

      • Fedora

        • Raspberry Pi’s Fedora becomes Pidora

          Fedora and the Seneca Centre for Development of Open Technology released an optimized Fedora 18 Remix for the Raspberry Pi, and unveiled a new name for the remix. “Pidora 18,” based on a new build of Fedora optimized for ARMv6, features speedier performance and includes packages from the Fedora 18 package set, says the Pidora project team.

        • Free and open source support for RAR archives in Fedora

          RAR is somewhat of a legacy format in terms of compression ability but RAR remains popular in many places especially for its split archive feature. Current Fedora users are used to installing unrar command line utility from RPM Fusion to get the ability to extract RAR files and unrar is supported by the GNOME (File Roller) and Ark (KDE) archive managers however it is a proprietary utility and unavailable for other architectures like ARM which are getting popular in Fedora as well.

        • Another week of rawhide (2013-05-21 edition)
        • When Xubuntu and Debian fail, Fedora it is for HP Pavilion g6-2210us laptop

          I’ve spent just about a month with this new HP Pavilion g6-2210us laptop that shipped with Windows 8. That means UEFI and Secure Boot.

          And new hardware. We all know how difficult Linux can be with new hardware.

        • Fedora 18 Comes To ARMv6, Raspberry Pi

          While Fedora 18 has been out for months and so has Fedora 18 for ARM, an ARMv6 spin of Fedora 18 targeting the popular Raspberry Pi development platform has finally been released.

          Fedora 19 isn’t too far out now, but Fedora 18 for ARMv6 to cater towards the very low-end Raspberry Pi hardware has been spun. This release is being falled “Pidora 18″ and was announced on Wednesday,

    • Debian Family

      • Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 rounded up

        The GNU/Hurd development team at the Debian project has released a version of the Distribution based on Debian 7 “Wheezy” and the GNU Hurd kernel. Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 is the first major release of the distribution after years of development work, even though it is not an official Debian release. The Hurd kernel is a Unix-like microkernel design based on the Mach kernel and has itself been under development since 1990.

      • CrunchBang 11 Waldorf

        CrunchBang 11 has been released so it’s time for a review. I last looked at CrunchBang back in 2009. Wow! Has it been that long? I’m pleased to report that CrunchBang 11 didn’t disappoint in any way.

      • Derivatives

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Linux-friendly SBC suits display apps on trains, planes, buses

      MEN Mikro announced a compact, rugged single-board computer based on Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom E600-series embedded processors. The Linux-friendly SC27 SBC is aimed at driver displays and in-seat infotainment systems in trains, buses, and airplanes, where wide-temperature operation and resistance to shock, vibration, and dust are critical.

    • Raspberry Pi Gets New Wayland Weston Renderer

      After working on the Raspberry Pi support for Wayland/Weston, Pekka Paalanen has announced a new “rpi-renderer” for the low-cost ARM development board.

      The rpi-renderer is better than the current gl-renderer and should be better for the hardware although it’s not as flexible.

    • Phones

Free Software/Open Source

  • Driving innovation with Open Source

    Yesterday, eighteen technology decision-makers from the Singapore Government gathered at the FutureGov lunch briefing — conducted in partnership with Red Hat — to discuss how Open Source technology can drive openness and innovation in the public sector.

  • Why The “Star Trek Computer” will be Open Source and Released Under Apache License v2

    If you remember the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, then you know exactly what someone means when they use the expression “the Star Trek Computer”. On TNG, “the computer” had abilities which were so far ahead of real-world tech of the time, that it took on an almost mythological status. And even to this day, people reference “The Star Trek Computer” as a sort of short-hand for the goal of advances in computing technology. We are mesmerized by the idea of a computer which can communicate with us in natural, spoken language, answering questions, locating data and calculating probabilities in a conversational manner, and – seemingly – with access to all of the data in the known Universe.

  • Concurrent is building a Hadoop assembly line in open source

    Cascading creator Concurrent has developed a new open source tool called Pattern for running machine learning models on Hadoop clusters. When combined with its SQL tool called Lingual, users can move data from one stage to another easily.

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS/Big Data

    • OpenStack Public Cloud Setbacks: Real or Imagined?

      Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) has killed its OpenStack public cloud plan. Rackspace (NYSE:RAX) is not growing as quickly as planned, despite betting the company on OpenStack. Some pundits now wonder if a giant like IBM can save OpenStack. Should cloud integrators be concerned about the open source platform? Absolutely not. Here’s why.

  • Databases

    • A Look Inside Tumblr’s Architecture

      tumblrYahoo recently purchased Tumblr for a cool $1.1 billion. Tumblr pushes some surprisingly high numbers through their service, so aninside look at the architecture that Yahoo bought is well worth the read. The portion I found most interesting are the details on the MySQL database setup, and how Tumblr uses MySQL to scale massively, and keep the service available.

    • SQLite gets memory-mapped I/O

      SQLite, the ubiquitous, lightweight, C-based SQL engine, which is embedded in many applications, has been updated to SQLite version 3.7.17 with support for memory-mapped I/O which could potentially double performance and use less RAM. The new functionality adds xFetch() and xUnfetch() methods which are automatically called if memory-mapped I/O is activated, to map the data into memory. The developers point out that there are disadvantages to the technique that require coders using the functions be more robust in how they handle pointers and errors and that it is possible to not see performance boosted in certain test cases. Therefore, by default, memory-mapped I/O is turned off. Programmers wishing to exploit the functionality should consult the documentation.

  • CMS

  • Business

  • Public Services/Government

    • Impact of open by default on local government

      For those of you that may not have read the memorandum in its entirety it directs federal agencies to make all data open and machine readable by default. Obviously there are caveats to that. Agencies can redact data that does not meet disclosure standards regarding security and privacy. The excitement centers around the language of open by default.

  • Licensing

    • Unlicensed code: Movement or Madness?

      One of the hot topics of commentary on open source development at the moment is the licensing situation on GitHub. When code is committed to GitHub, the copyright owner (usually the author or their employer) retains all rights to the code, and anyone wishing to re-use the code (by downloading it, or by “forking” and modifying it) is bound by the terms of the license the code is published under. The point of discussion in this case, is that many (indeed, the majority) of repositories on GitHub contain no license file at all.

    • Jante’s Shield

      It’s difficult to be critical of open source software. Often, it’s created by volunteers who are motivated purely by the challenge and the desire to do something good. This attitude is why we’ve got such a thriving ecosystem of distributions and software, and why the GPL has become such a disruptive idea. It has also enabled many companies to build a viable business model supporting, extending and distributing this software in ways that would never occur if they were shipping their own proprietary software. This is what causes the occasional friction in the community, and it’s completely understandable. On the one hand you have communities working together in a way that I think is similar to the Swedish ‘Law of Jante’ – the idea that individual success is downplayed in favour of the achievements made by the groups. On the other hand you have traditional company values, bigging up its individual success and vitality in order to compete with other (non-open source) businesses doing the same.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Science finds a better foundation for research in the open

      The flipside of having to resolve such issues, though, is the incredible power of transparency in the research process which openness offers. Any researcher that has hammered away at a piece of published research for months in a futile attempt to recreate its findings will understand the feeling of extreme frustration when the scientific literature falls short of reproducibility. If so much of our research isn’t repeatable, aren’t we building houses upon rather sandy foundations?

    • Open Hardware

  • Programming

    • Linux System Programming, 2ed
    • Google Code disables direct file downloads

      Google has announced that it will in future not allow direct file downloads from its Google Code hosting service. The company says that “increasing misuse” of the service has forced it to take the step in the interest of keeping the platform’s community “safe and secure”.

  • Standards/Consortia

    • Open Source, Open Standards 2013 Conference, 18/04/2013, America Square Conference Centre

      A member of the Geospatial Engineering team at Newcastle, David Alderson, recently attended a GovNet series conference in London, entitled “Open Source, Open Standards”. This was held at the America Square Conference Centre, and more information about the conference can be found here.

      The conference delegates were largely comprised of various government agencies including the Department for Transport, Office of National Statistics, representation from emergency services, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as well as representation from many local councils from around the UK. From within these various organisations the delegates were largely found to be based within some part of their specific IT operations.

Leftovers

  • Driver who tweeted about knocking cyclist over is under investigation

    A motorist is being investigated by police after she boasted on Twitter that she had knocked a cyclist off his bike.

  • Apple Mobile Devices Cleared for Use on U.S. Military Networks

    The Pentagon cleared Apple Inc. (AAPL) devices for use on its networks, setting the stage for the maker of iPhones and iPads to compete with Samsung Electronics Co. and BlackBerry for military sales.

    The Defense Department said in a statement today that it has approved the use of Cupertino, California-based Apple’s products running a version of the iOS 6 mobile platform.

  • A shield law for reporters? Thanks, but no thanks!

    A lot of journalists have embraced the idea. But I believe that journalists should say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

    Tempting as it might be, a federal shield law is a bad idea for journalists. We do not need it, and we may ultimately regret it. The relevant part of the First Amendment to the Constitution says: Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press. That powerful simple phrase “no law” means just that – no law, period. It means Congress simply cannot legislate in this area.

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Raw Milk Supporters Rally in Baraboo, Wisconsin for Farmer Vernon Hershberger’s Criminal Trial

      Farmer Vernon Hershberger’s trial started May 20 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and will most likely continue until May 24 at the earliest. Hershberger is a raw milk producer. As the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has reported, he is charged with four misdemeanor offenses: operating a retail food establishment without a license, operating a dairy farm as a milk producer without a license, operating as a dairy plant without a license, and violating a holding order. If convicted, the Amish father of ten children faces up to 30 months in county jail and fines of over $10,000.

      Supporters suspect that he is being singled out to make a cautionary example threatening other raw milk producers in Wisconsin (Wisconsin’s law allows “incidental sales” of raw milk on the farm, but its interpretation has been increasingly strict in the last few years).

  • Security

    • Report: DDoS service as a legitimate, FBI-approved business

      US security blogger Brian Krebs writes about a service that is relatively new, at least to the general public: DDoS attacks. Apparently, one enterprising “stress tester” discovered by Krebs even told the blogger that he was working for the FBI.

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust

      Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every minute.

  • Finance

  • Censorship


    • RIAA: 20 Million Piracy Takedowns Sent to Google, Still No End in Sight

      To mark the occasion of 20 million URL takedown notices sent to Google by RIAA member companies, the organization has complained that search engines still aren’t doing enough to reduce the piracy problem. The RIAA says it is using a bucket to deal with “an ocean of illegal downloading”, one in which content is replaced and re-indexed in a never-ending loop. Notice and takedown procedures aren’t fit for today’s reality and must be revised, the music group argues.

  • Privacy

    • Privacy Alert #1: Explicit Consent, the Cornerstone

      When you are browsing the web, can you say who collects information about you, what is the nature of that information and who may access it? Can you control who may know what about you? The European Commission intended to give you the power to do so, but European Parliament may vote otherwise, under pressure by corporate lobbies.

  • Civil Rights

    • Jailed Pussy Riot member declares hunger strike

      A jailed member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot told a court she is on a hunger strike after being barred from attending a parole appeal hearing in person, Russian state news agency Ria Novosti reported Wednesday.

      Maria Alyokhina was sentenced in August to two years in prison for performing a song critical of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a prominent Orthodox cathedral last year.

    • Feds Tracked Reporter’s Movements, Personal E-Mail in Criminal Conspiracy Investigation

      In an effort to unmask a leaker who fed a reporter classified information about North Korea, FBI investigators tracked the journalist’s movements in and out of a government building, obtained copies of e-mails from his personal account and also took the unprecedented step of alleging that the reporter engaged in a criminal conspiracy simply for doing his job.

    • US Suspends Constitution in Permanent World War on Terror
    • Capitalising on tragedy

      Yesterday’s events in Woolwich were appalling, but Lord Carlile and John Reid wasted no time in attempting to use this atrocity in justifying a return to reductions in personal privacy and other human rights.

    • Now is not the time for politics, Lord Reid

      Today, the country begins the process of coming to terms with the horrific attack in Woolwich yesterday.

      We know little about those who have committed this brutal terror attack. Videos and photographs have brought the chilling savagery of the perpetrators into our homes.

      As the Prime Minister said:

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Newegg nukes “corporate troll” Alcatel in third patent appeal win this year

      In 2011, Alcatel-Lucent had American e-commerce on the ropes. The French telecom had sued eight big retailers and Intuit saying that their e-commerce operations infringed Alcatel patents; one by one they were folding. Kmart, QVC, Lands’ End, and Intuit paid up at various stages of the litigation. Just before trial began Zappos, Sears, and Amazon also settled. That left two companies holding the bag: Overstock.com and Newegg, a company whose top lawyer had vowed not to ever settle with patent trolls.

    • European Parliament aims for fake openness in TTIP / TAFTA

      The draft European Parliament resolution on EU trade and investment negotiations with the United States of America aims for fake openness. Paragraph 21 of the draft resolution recalls the need for continuous and transparent engagement by the Commission with a wide range of stakeholders. I have visited some Civil Society Dialogues organised by the Commission. The Commission just states there are no problems and, sorry, as trade negotiations are secret, they can give no details. A masochist may find such meetings rewarding.

      Civil society organisations want access to draft negotiation texts, at least for regulatory aspects. Companies have access, the Commission discriminates against citizens, while access is a human right. See the FFII letter to European Parliament Trade committee; see also KEI comments.

    • How Cheap Genetic Testing Complicates Cancer Screening For Us All

      Sometimes, more medical information is a bad thing. The influential United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends against most women getting genetic screenings for their susceptibility to breast cancer. Why? Because the tests are imperfect: for every woman who gets tested for genes associated with onset breast cancer, even more will falsely test positive, leading spooked patients into needless surgery or psychological trauma. Super cheap genetic testing from enterprising health startups, such as 23andMe, have complicated cancer detection for us all by increasing the accessibility of imperfect medical information.

      After discovering a mutated BRCA1 gene, known to increase the likelihood of breast cancer 60 to 80 percent, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a radical preventive double mastectomy. Her brave confession in the New York Times brought much needed attention to breast cancer awareness, but it’s dangerous in the hands of a statistically illiterate population.

    • Copyrights

      • Kim Dotcom to Google, Twitter, Facebook: I Own Security Patent, Work With Me

        Kim Dotcom has announced that he is the inventor of the so-called two-step authentication system and has a patent to prove it. The Megaupload founder says the security mechanism, which has just been introduced by Twitter, is being used by U.S. companies more than a billion times every week without permission. Dotcom says he doesn’t want to sue, but might if the likes of Google and Facebook don’t help fund his legal battle with the U.S. Government.

      • Is a broadcast to everyone private under the Copyright Act?

        For the final post in my copyright series, I want to focus on another example in my series of discussions about formalism vs. policy in copyright. Today’s case is WNET v. Aereo, which allowed continued operation of a creative television streaming service. As I’ll discuss below, the case pretty clearly complies with the statutory scheme, much to the relief of those who believe content is overprotected and that new digital distribution methods should be allowed. This time, the policy opposition is best demonstrated by Judge Chin’s dissent in the case.

      • TAFTA: First Step Towards a Super-ACTA

        In a plenary vote, the European Parliament just adopted a mandate to the European Commission explicitly allowing it to “include strong protection of intellectual property rights (IPR)” in the proposed EU-US trade agreement negociations, the “Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement” (TAFTA), also know as “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” (TTIP).

05.22.13

Links 22/5/2013: Debian GNU/Hurd, New Go Language Release

Posted in News Roundup at 11:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Devon Ceptor: $99 Linux-based HDMI stick for enterprise

    Devon IT plans to launch a tiny device called the Ceptor in July which you can plug into any TV or monitor to turn it into a thin client machine. Basically the Ceptor is a $99 device that’s small enough to fit in your pocket. It has an ARM-based processor and runs a Linux-based operating system, but it’s really designed to let you login to remote server running virtual desktop software.

  • Steven Ovadia: I wiped Windows and never looked back

    I run My Linux Rig

  • Linux is an Art – Driving Force Behind Linux

    We comes across Linux (Foss) in our day-to-day life. In fact we are surrounded by Foss technologies. The first thing that might come to the mind of ours is that why is Linux appraised so much even in Windows and Mac user Community.

  • Server

  • Kernel Space

    • Is the Instrument Panel the Next Target for Open Source Software in Cars?

      The In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) System has received much of the focus from open source software initiatives in the automotive industry so far with the Automotive Grade Linux working group and the GENIVI alliance. But the instrument panel, which shares many technologies with IVI, is also ripe for development with Linux.

      The instrument cluster will probably be the next focus of open source software development in the automotive industry, said Rudolf Streif, Director of Embedded Solutions at the Linux Foundation. Traditionally the instrument panel was a set of mechanical guages that monitored speed, engine temperature, fuel levels and more. Most dashboards are electronic now and will eventually be replaced by another screen and integrated with the IVI system, he said.

    • Linux Kernel 3.9.3 Is Now Available for Download

      A few minutes ago, Greg Kroah-Hartman proudly announced that the third maintenance release for the stable Linux 3.9 kernel series is now available for download.

    • Linux 3.10-rc2 Kernel Takes In A Few Extra Pulls

      The second release candidate for the LinuThe second release candidate for the Linux 3.10 kernel is now out there. Torvalds released 3.10-rc2 on Monday with a few extra pulls that he wouldn’t have accepted later on in the release cycle. x 3.10 kernel is now out there. Torvalds released 3.10-rc2 on Monday with a few extra pulls that he wouldn’t have accepted later on in the release cycle.

    • Hot Relocation HDD To SSD Support For Btrfs

      In working to enhance the performance of the Btrfs file-system in cases where certain data/files are frequently used, a set of patches for providing hot relocation support has been posted.

      The Btrfs hot relocation support comes down to when storing data on a traditional (rotating) hard disk drive, when data gets “hot” (a.k.a. being frequently used), these patches would allow the data to be automatically migrated to a non-rotating disk (i.e. solid-state drive). By moving the frequently used data over to an SSD, the performance would obviously be much more optimal than keeping it on an SSD but making it so not all of your data would need to be stored on a costly SSD.

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments/WMs

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • KTp 0.6.2 Released

        We have just released version 0.6.2 of KDE Telepathy, KDE’s instant messaging client.

      • rekonq, working on extension support
      • Calligra Author Gets a Distraction Free Mode

        wanted to throw a little light on a feature that just landed in the Calligra repositories: A distraction-free writing mode for Calligra Author and Calligra Words.

        The distraction-free mode means that we disable most UI elements and lets the user focus totally on the contents. This was one of the most asked-for features when I did a little survey half a year ago and asked which features that our potential users wanted. I say ‘potential’ because this was before the first release of Calligra Author and we didn’t have any users at all by then.

      • Okular welcomes configurable review tools

        This way you can decide that by default you want your highlighter to be green instead of yellow. Or even have two highlighters in the review bar.

      • Qt For Tizen Launches, Based On Qt 5.1

        Just two weeks after talking about a Qt 5 tool-kit port for the Tizen platform being worked on, the first release is now available.

      • Grid + Assistant = Awesome Perspective Assistant

        Been quiet some time since my last blog about Krita, well, I had been a bit busy with college work. Nonetheless, with whatever time I had, and all the help from Boud, I have been able to import a particular feature from the Perspective Grid to the Perspective Assistant.

  • Distributions

    • Emmabuntus 2 – The French Revolution

      One of my favourite things about writing about Linux is when I decide to review one of the smaller distributions.

    • New Releases

      • Neptune 3.1 is ready

        We worked hard and spend a lot of effort in creating this service release for Neptune 3.0. So if you like it please consider donating to us a small amount of money so we can further develop and strenghtens our efforts.

      • Puppy 5.6 (Precise)

    • Screenshots

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Mageia Linux 3 brings a raft of key updates

        Mageia has long been what you might call a “best-kept secret” of the Linux world, consistently residing among the top five distributions in DistroWatch’s page-hit rankings despite minimal marketing and hoopla.

        The distro has only been around since it was forked from Mandriva Linux back in 2010, of course, but after several weeks’ delay the Mageia project on Sunday finally launched the third major version of the free and open source operating system.

      • Mageia 3, the WONT FIX scim bug, and iBus
      • OpenMandriva Picks Name, Releases Alpha

        While the rest of Linuxdom was reading of the Debian 7.0 and Mageia 3 releases, the OpenMandriva gang have been hard at it trying to get their new distribution some attention. The OpenMandriva name was made official and an alpha was released into the wild.

      • More good news: We have an iso that installs
      • Mageia 3 KDE Review: Simple, refined, elegant and fantastic!

        To be honest, I have used quite a few KDE distros in last couple of years but never saw a resource efficient distro like Mageia 2. Under similar conditions, Mageia performed better than almost all the KDE distros I have used. Plus, with Mandriva Linux going commercial and PCLinuxOS becoming independent of Mandriva, Mageia and ROSA are perhaps the limited ways to know what’s brewing in the Mandriva camp. Incidentally both the Mandriva derivatives present really beautiful KDE distros!

      • Mageia 3 out, no more delays

    • Debian Family

      • 2013-05-debian gnu hurd 2013

        It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian “sid” at the time of the Debian “wheezy” release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release.

      • News about Debian GNU/Hurd
      • Removing unwanted applications in Debian

        One of the biggest pitfalls for a new Debian (or Linux) user is attempting to remove an unwanted application than came installed with the Desktop installed. This can result in the Debian package manager informing the user that there are various packages which can be autoremoved. Allowing the package manager to autoremove these packages then removes packages essential to the Desktop environment, destroying the installation. Why?

      • Derivatives

        • Tails 0.18 Screenshots
        • Tails 0.18 can install packages on the fly

          Version 0.18 of Tails, The Amnesiac Incognito Live System designed for users who need to protect their privacy and be as anonymous as possible, has been released with a preview of a new feature which allows a custom list of packages to be installed and automatically updated each time a network connection is made. The new feature makes use of the persistent volume support in the distribution but users should be aware of the ramifications of using the persistence when attempting to leave no traces.

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu: Restoring the Community Link

            The story of Ubuntu and the Missing Community Link has progressed in the last week. A conflict that initially seemed symbolic of the division between Canonical employees and Ubuntu volunteers has since transformed into an illustration of Ubuntu’s skill at handling community conflict.

            For now, at least, the issue appears to have been resolved, although concerns linger about how to avoid similar divisions in the future.

            The conflict arose when Canonical’s design team removed the link to the community site from the main menu on the Ubuntu home page to a sub-menu at the bottom of the page. The change resulted in one-third fewer click-throughs to the community site, but more importantly, the change seemed to confirm fears of a continuing de-emphasis of the Ubuntu community.

            As a result, Benjamin Kerensa and Mark Terranova, two prominent Ubuntu members, began a campaign to restore the position of the link. Much of the campaign was kept within conventional channels, but events reached a low point when Kerensa’s private video that compared Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth to Adolf Hitler was briefly made public by Mark Terranova.

          • May 2013 Ubuntu Developer Summit Summary
          • Respect in Community Discussion and Debate

            Recently there was yet another storm in a teacup that distracted us from creating and sharing Ubuntu and our flavors with others. I am not going to dive into the details of this particular incident…it has been exhaustively documented elsewhere…but at the heart of this case was a concern around the conduct in which some folks engaged around something they disagreed with. This is not the first time we have seen disappointing conduct in a debate, and I wanted to share some thoughts on this too.

          • The key to the success of Ubuntu

            To finish this aloud thinking, I really think that Ubuntu is doing something right. And that is, taking the important decisions fast, and sticking to a plan. I do not know if the path they are following will give them the final success, but I am sure that if the start listening everyone who disagree with that said path, they are never going to succeed.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Kubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail review – Cushty

              It is time to test the third sibling in the Ubuntu family, the one named Kubuntu. So far, we’ve had Ubuntu, which was somewhat bland. Then we also had Xubuntu, which worked like a charm, except for a kernel oops thingie affecting the entire range, a silly thing to coincide with the official release. The KDE version is next.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • New 32-way Raspberry Pi cluster built by US PhD candidate

      Joshua Kiepert, a PhD candidate from Boise University, has built an awesome 32-way cluster from Raspberry Pis. Although clusters from Pi’s have been made before, and even much larger, this is still a seriously cool project.

    • Raspberry Pis Chained Together Provide Massive Computing Muscle

      As we’ve covered before, when it comes to the top open source stories of the last 12 months, it’s clear that one of the biggest is the proliferation of tiny, inexpensive Linux-based computers at some of the smallest form factors ever seen. The Linux-based Raspberry Pi, priced at $25 and $35, leads the pack among these devices.

      But in a new twist on what Raspberry Pi devices are capable of, they’re being chained together to form supercomputers and powerful clusters. If it sounds like a joke, you may be surprised at the enormous computing power these lash-ups are capable of. They may even have the power to democratize supercomputing-level data crunching at very low price points.

    • HOT Raspberry Pi DIY Mini Desktop PC Build

      We recently set out to design a mini desktop computer with the wildly popular Raspberry Pi single board computer. The Raspberry Pi is a Linux-driven, ARM processor-based micro computer that is known for its low cost and small size. People use the device for a variety of projects, from micro-servers to low cost media players. Basically, our goal was to turn what is currently one of the cheapest bare-bones computer boards into a fully enclosed mini desktop computer that could be taken anywhere without the need for cabling or setup. One of the high level goals of this project was also to learn about programming with Linux and get a good feel for it with the Debian distribution.

    • TI OMAP5432 dev kit boasts Linux and Android support

      Texas Instruments (TI) introduced a development kit for designs based on the TI OMAP5432 SOC (system-on-chip), which integrates dual 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore CPUs. The OMAP5432 EVM (evaluation module) targets high performance, graphically oriented, low power embedded applications such as human-machine interfaces, portable data terminals, digital signage, and medical monitoring devices.

    • Arduino launches Wi-Fi board and ready-to-roll robotics platform

      Arduino has launched a new family of development boards and its first full robotics platform at Maker Faire Bay Area over the weekend. The Arduino Yún is the first release in a new line of Wi-Fi enabled boards and is based on the Arduino Leonardo coupled with an embedded Wi-Fi board running a MIPS variant of Linux. The Arduino Robot is the company’s first robotics platform that is fully functional out of the box and consists of two boards connected by a ribbon cable which are equipped with motors, wheels and sensors in a circular design that is reminiscent of the Roomba. The design also features a color LCD screen, microSD card slot, a compass, LEDs and control elements.

    • BeagleBone Camera Cape gains Android 4.1.2 support

      QuickLogic has released Android 4.1.2 support for its custom Parallel Camera Interface (CAM I/F) chip for TI’s Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 SOC (system-on-chip). The new support, which comes in addition to earlier Linux support, adds Android compatibility to the BeagleBone’s 3.1-megapixel Camera Cape.

    • Accessing the Raspberry Pi’s 1MHz timer

      A fixed-rate timer is not part of the ARM specification, but most ARM-based SoC’s have such a timer. The Raspberry Pi is no exception. However, reading its timer in Linux takes a Unix hacker’s understanding.

    • Phones

      • Jolla Smartphone Announced

        At an online presentation today, Jolla Ltd. released further details around the Jolla phone and its Sailfish operating system, an open source OS based on the Linux Meego project. The world’s first Jolla device was shown to an enthusiasic group of developers.

        [...]

        With Jolla, your other half, you have the ultimate freedom to let loose, innovate and individualize your own mobile world.

      • Jolla seeks Sailfish smartphone pre-orders

        Jolla Ltd. opened pre-order voucher sales for the first smartphone to run its Sailfish OS, an open source distribution based on the Linux MeeGo project. The dual-core, 4.5-inch Jolla phone features a gesture UI, Android app compatibility, and interchangeable “Other Half” back covers that switch user profiles.

      • Ballnux

      • Android

        • Sony releases its Android drivers for AOSP

          As part of its AOSP for Xperia project, Sony has released proprietary Wi-Fi drivers and OpenGL graphics libraries of its Xperia S smartphone, Xperia Z smartphone and Xperia Tablet Z. The company has opened GitHub repositories for all three devices that include Android source code from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), the proprietary drivers and instructions to build AOSP images with the drivers and libraries and then install them on the company’s devices.

        • Google I/O: How to build battery-efficient apps
        • Tough Cat B15 Android Phone Marks U.S. Debut

          The makers of tractors and other construction equipment are trying to drum up partners to sell its rough ‘n’ tumble Android smartphone.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Why we do this crazy thing we do

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS/Big Data

  • Databases

    • HeidiSQL 8.0 arrives with polished user interface

      Ansgar Becker has announced the release of HeidiSQL 8.0, the latest version of the open source SQL client for Windows. The new version brings a query history function, supports search and replace in results and introduces folders for tables, views, routines and sessions that allow users to better organise the user interface. HeidiSQL supports MySQL, MariaDB, Percona Server and Microsoft SQL databases and enables database administrators to browse and edit data as well as import and export data from SQL files.

    • SQLite Now Faster With Memory Mapped I/O

      SQLite 3.7.17 was released yesterday. What makes this new release of the popular lightweight SQL database software noteworthy is that it introduces support for memory-mapped I/O.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Seven great features of OpenOffice and Libre Office that you probably ignore

      For many people Apache OpenOffice and Libre Office, which I’ll call collectively FOs (Free Offices suites) for short, are nothing but “free, as in free beer” substitutes of Microsoft Office for basic to intermediate needs. Many users in this category may run the FOs for years without ever discovering some of their features, that is, without realizing the full power and flexibility of these tools.

  • CMS

    • Pantheon’s Drupal Open Source CMS Partner Program

      The demand for expertise in open-source programming has come up fairly frequenly in recent months (here’s an example). And the channel seems to be taking notice, as an announcement Tuesday by Pantheon of a partner program for connecting developers with expertise in Drupal, the open-source content management system (CMS), with organizations building enterprise-quality websites.

      Drupal, which is now more than a decade old, is a key open-source technology behind the modern Web. Alongside alternative open-source CMS engines, like WordPress, Drupal makes it easier to build complex websites. It’s the system behind some of the most popular sites out there, from McDonald’s to the Linux Foundation to — last but not least — Britney Spears’s homepage.

  • Funding

  • BSD

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Project Releases

    • ktap 0.1 released

      I’m pleased to announce that ktap release v0.1, this is the first official
      release of ktap project, it is expected that this release is not fully
      functional or very stable and we welcome bug reports and fixes for the issues.

    • [ANNOUNCE] ktap 0.1 released
    • KTAP Released For Linux Kernel Dynamic Tracing
    • Jira 6 adds mobile interface, revamps web interface

      Jira, Atlassian’s issue tracker and management software, has received a user interface revamp and got a new mobile interface. Jira began life as a software development tool, but according to Atlassian, a recent survey found two thirds of the user base also used it for tasks other than software development. With this in mind, Atlassian set out to make Jira more modern and quicker to use.

  • Public Services/Government

    • Top 5 misconceptions about open source in government programs

      On March 15, 2013, ComputerWeekly.com, the “leading provider of news, analysis, opinion, information and services for the UK IT community” published an article by Bryan Glick entitled: Government mandates ‘preference’ for open source. The article focuses on the release of the UK’s new Government Service Design Manual, which, from April 2013, will provide governing standards for the online services developed by the UK’s government for public consumption.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Rapid development of citizen cyberscience projects on Crowdcrafting.org

      At a workshop on Citizen Cyberscience held this week at University of Geneva, a novel open source software platform called Crowdcrafting was officially launched. This platform, which already has attracted thousands of participants during several months of testing, enables the rapid development of online citizen science applications, by both amateur and professional scientists.

    • Open Access/Content

      • Review of the new Digital Public Library of America

        (The official launch had been planned to occur at the Boston Public Library but the temporary closing of the library due to the Boston Marathon tragedy prompted that event to be postponed until the fall.)

  • Programming

    • Google Updates Go Open-Source Language
    • Zend Framework 2.2 focuses on consistency

      Most of these services now include “abstract factories” that are either registered by default or can be added to an application’s configuration. The service manager uses abstract factories to handle multiple services that follow the same instantiation pattern, but which have different names. The developers have also implemented new plugin manager instances, Zend\Stdlib\Hydrator\HydratorPluginManager and Zend\InputFilter\InputFilterPluginManager. The first can be used for retrieving hydrator instances and, for example, allows custom hydrators to be used across all form instances, while the second makes it possible to retrieve input filters. This allows input filters to be reused and ensures that all input instances are provided with custom validators and/or filters. The developers have also added the new translators and sessions factories.

Leftovers

  • Does a ‘fiscal cliff’ await software vendors switching to cloud?

    The move to cloud is seen as the ultimate form of product cannibalization for software vendors, since customers will be switching from high-end purchases to relatively low monthly payments.

  • Hardware

  • Finance

    • The Search for Change

      Of course UKIP are not a real alternative. I said “do not despise UKIP supporters”, not “do not despise UKIP”. UKIP are a false “alternative” dangled by the mainstream media and the bankers. But the support for them is evidence that the public do very much want some alternative. I shall append this to the article as it must be more ambiguous than I thought.

    • Sen. Warren Asks AG Holder Why No Wall Street Prosecutions
    • Sen. Warren demands to know why criminal bankers aren’t being locked up

      There’s been a rash of mega-settlements between the government and the nation’s largest banks in recent years over allegations of foreclosing on people without just cause, knowingly making bad loans and reselling the debt, making false statements to rob from retired pensioners, laundering money for drug cartels, repressive regimes and terrorists, and agreeing to settlements and then ignoring them, to name a few.

    • “True the Vote,” the Victim? Voter Vigilante Group Says IRS Targeted Its “Verify the Recall” Effort in Wisconsin

      The Texas-based Tea Party group True the Vote is claiming they were one of the groups inappropriately “targeted” by the IRS since their application for charitable status has been delayed for years. Although many Tea Party groups were singled-out by the IRS for improper reasons, there may be good reasons for the agency to take a close look at True the Vote’s application for charitable status, particularly given the group’s involvement with the Wisconsin “Verify the Recall” effort.

    • How the Government Targeted Occupy

      Freedom of conscience is one of the most fundamental human freedoms. This freedom is not merely about one’s ability to choose to believe or not believe in religion or a particular philosophy. In a democracy, freedom of conscience is about the ability to be critical of government and corporations, and to be free from the chilling fear that being critical will subject you to government surveillance.

      Freedom of conscience is not fully realized in isolation. Without the ability to share one’s thoughts, to speak out about injustice, or to join with others in peaceably assembling to petition for redress of grievances, this core freedom is not truly free. Americans should be able to exercise these most sacred rights in free society without worry of being monitored by the government.

    • Rise Up or Die

      Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information.

    • Yahoo: $1.1 Billion Tumblr Buyout Blunder?

      So Yahoo is buying its way into a crowded market to acquire a business that has no profits. Sounds like a disaster.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Censorship

  • Privacy

    • A Quick Look at some Mobile Providers’ Customer Data Policies

      There’s been concern recently about what mobile providers are doing with customers’ data after a Sunday Times article on EE selling information about them. We’ve had a brief look at some of their customer data policies to try to work out what’s going on.

  • Civil Rights

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • 3D Printing

      If you read this blog you must have an internet connection, so presumably have heard of 3D printing. It is a very disruptive technology with potential to change manufacturing in a variety of ways – and indeed even things such as medicine. I recently had some correspondence with Joshua Pearce whose engineering group is working on materials for use in 3D printing. He is concerned about a patent arms race in this area being drag on innovation. He is looking at creative ways to preempt some of the patent nonsense.

    • Trademarks

      • A monopoly over numbers?

        Are you familiar with the ISBN? A unique identifier issued by the U.S. Government to identify books? Did you know that the U.S. Government has granted a private company Bowker a monopoly over issuing them? They are very proud of it…as if it is a good thing!

    • Copyrights

      • Do we need a law?

        In the dimension of copyright, the issue of plagiarism often comes up. There is a common misunderstanding that there is a connection between copyright or plagiarism. Plagiarism is not generally a violation of copyright law – although in some cases where extensive copying takes place it may be. Rather it is a failure of attribution. Basically plagiarism is not illegal – but it is heavily punished through contract law. It is a good example of “why we don’t need a law for that” contrary the oft expressed opinion if something is bad we need a law against it.

The FRAND Apple-Microsoft Conspiracy Attempts to Destroy Android/Linux, Ban Imports

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Patents, RAND at 4:12 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Judge Posner

Summary: How Microsoft and Apple are using patents in bulk (sometimes acquired in unison, e.g. from Novell and Nortel) to artificially lower market saturation of the Android operating system or drive costs up

IN THE LAND of the USPTO patents are not about inventions but about manipulations. They help manipulate competition. Recently, as Groklaw explains, FRAND battles were stopped by Judge Richard Posner (pictured above). Pamela Jones wrote: “The beat goes on in the Apple v. Motorola appeal of Judge Richard Posner’s ruling dismissing both parties’ claims with prejudice, saying neither was entitled to damages or an injunction. Both are appealing, but for different reasons. Motorola has now filed its redacted reply brief [PDF] in response to Apple’s response and reply brief [PDF]. And as soon as Judge James Robart issued his Microsoft-friendly ruling in Microsoft v. Motorola in the Seattle litigation, Apple sent a letter to this appeals court, bringing it to the court’s attention, because it supports Apple’s position and calls Motorola’s patents a trivial contribution to the standard.”

Posner a mixed bag

The seemingly progressive Posner, a judge who sternly opposes software patents [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], deserves no credit for other stances which defy human dignity and rights. Based on this report, Posner does not care about privacy. To quote: “For the most part, the op-ed makes it appear that Posner is only talking about video cameras on every street corner, every building, constantly watching our every public move. The argument in favor of such surveillance is much like the argument for videotaping police in the performance of their duty. They’re in public, where we are lawfully entitled to watch them, so no harm done.”

“The seemingly progressive Posner, a judge who sternly opposes software patents, deserves no credit for other stances which defy human dignity and rights.”Posner, however, gets it right on patents. When it comes to Blackberry appealing for Injunctions, he is shown to be in favour of free innovations, not sanctions. This is about FRAND, a growing threat to FOSS which a new paper calls broken. The title of the paper is “Fixing FRAND: A Pseudo-Pool Approach to Standards-Based Patent Licensing” and it deals not with the legitimacy of the patents themselves but with the way they are used. The growing debate over FRAND has manifested entire blogs dedicated to the subject (see the patent lawyers in Essential Patent, notably posts such as [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]). Worth pointing out is this post which shows Microsoft and Apple working together to harm Android using FRAND. It says: “As many commentators have noted, Judge Robart’s Microsoft-Motorola decision may provide a roadmap to courts and parties in other FRAND disputes. Not surprisingly, Apple recently brought the decision to the attention of both the Federal Circuit (in the appeal of Judge Posner’s decision to dismiss Motorola’s SEP-related claim for damages and injunctive relief) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (in Samsung’s case against Apple, in which the Commission is set to issue its Final Determination by May 31).”

“But Apple and Microsoft aren’t working together in this patent plot against Android,” Pamela Jones wrote very sarcastically. Here comes the Microsoft booster (the one who focuses on chastising Google over privacy but never Microsoft). The clever spin from the Murdoch press is cited Mike Masnick, alleging that Motorola — not Microsoft and Apple — is the bully. We saw this type of spin-doctoring from a Microsoft guy who now works for ZDNet. That was just several days ago.

Android finds support

In other news about patent attacks on Android, Jones gives this update about Linux backers helping Samsung against Apple and here is an update about Microsoft’s anti-Linux patent litigation. See this coverage from Murdoch’s Google-hostile press. As Jones put it in her response to it, “Apple was given an opportunity to license the patents and said it wouldn’t accept a rate set by a judge. So, if you are a patent holder, what do you do? When is the EU going to do something about the real problem, which is the grouping of proprietary companies against Android, using patents as the weapon? ”

“The corporate media might not call it extortion, but that’s just what it is.”In the US, Apple has been using the International Trade Commission to block Android devices along with Microsoft. As one recent article put it: “Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in particular has been taking swipes at Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) through targeting handset makers that use Android – it’s built on the Linux Kernel, which supposedly infringes multiple patents owned by Microsoft. As such, companies such as HTC – which uses Android on many of its handsets – must pay Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) for each handset it sells with that operating system installed.”

This is extortion. The corporate media might not call it extortion, but that’s just what it is. Call a spade by its name.

Spin-doctoring

Frank X. Shaw, the Microsoft Chief Liar from Waggener Edstrom, recently complained about anti-Microsoft bias in the media. Well, who is biased really? As Jones put it: “The company leading a smear campaign against Google would like us to say less negative things about Microsoft.”

Watch Microsoft's pal Harry McCracken spreading disinformation about Google. About that on example, Jones wrote: “That’s incorrect. The Pixel does have apps, as well as the browser.”

Microsoft has been using another liar, Mr. Sullivan, to spread lies with the goal of causing Google antitrust problems. From a response to that: “Like Sullivan I believe that Microsoft’s presence in the FairSearch coalition robs it of its credibility and legitimacy. Aside from the breath-taking hypocrisy of one of the world’s worst monopolists whining about anti-competitive behaviour, Microsoft has far too much invested in its own search business to be at all objective on the subject. Antitrust cases are about stopping monopolies from abusing their power – they are not about undercutting your direct competitor because your own product is second rate.

“The only antitrust abusers here are Apple and Microsoft. They distort the system to impede growth of a competitor.”“It is also worth remembering the original point of antitrust legislation: to shield consumers and businesses from being harmed by the actions of monopolies who controlled access to vital commodities like oil, steel and grain.”

The only antitrust abusers here are Apple and Microsoft. They distort the system to impede growth of a competitor. █

Gates Foundation: Buying Influence for Bill’s Ego and Bill’s Profit

Posted in Bill Gates, Patents at 3:26 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Money talks and everybody listens

Investments

Summary: New examples of power being acquired and investments (i.e. for profit) being funnelled into the beneficiaries

The stocks/finance-oriented Web sites love to talk about the Gates Foundation not because of charity but because of investment. The ‘charity’ is often a convenient disguise for lobbying for one’s own investments and vested interests. Last month Gates invested in a company that uses patents, painting it also as a grant and investment (i.e. for-profit stake). “Meanwhile,” says one report, “Anacor Pharmaceuticals ANAC shares jumped more than 8% to $6.51 in recent action after the company announced it was receiving a $17.7 milllion grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to study two filarial worm diseases as well as tuberculosis. The foundation also will invest $5 million in Anacor common shares.”

“The goal here is to derive profit from influence and turn money into influence.”Gates is lobbying and buying influence by putting a stake there. Afterwards he gets given platforms for political and scientific lobbying. “Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will deliver a keynote,” says this story about vaccination. Gates is a vaccination expert? I didn’t know. Did he graduate from college at all? No, but he is rich, so that must mean he is smartest on matters of vaccination. He is also lobbying in colleges by making keynote talks there and receiving PR from the media over minor talking points [1, 2]. It’s inexcusable whitewash of a notoriously ruthless, corrupt businessman. These puff pieces characterise him as a gentleman (contradicting what his own employees said).

Going back to the investment in Anacor (covered in financial press for the most part, less so in medical press), it is an example of power grab, just like the education ‘reform’ initiatives backed by Gates, Murdoch, and Zuckerberg. Here is Murdoch’s press pushing the agenda, piggybacking Facebook and characterising it as some kind of charity when all it’s geared up towards is privatisation of education.

“In “‘creation myth’ of capitalist patriarchy”, rich & powerful men like Bill Gates own life through patents & IP.”
      –Jose R RodriguezIncidentally, last month we saw this other lobbying/entryism, accompanying a campaign of bribing more schools to align Gates’ way and take orders. Here is one of the latest examples, peppered and server using some PR with a personal story attached to it in corporate media like Murdoch’s Fox ‘news’ (among other corporate channels [1, 2, 3]).

The goal here is to derive profit from influence and turn money into influence. Recently, Vandana Shiva said that “[o]ne rich man named Bill Gates is financing one Australian scientist James Dale who knows one crop, the banana, to impose inefficient and hazardous GM bananas on millions of people in India and Uganda.” This is GMO promotion from Gates — an issue we wrote about many times before. “In “‘creation myth’ of capitalist patriarchy”,” quotes this activist, “rich & powerful men like Bill Gates own life through patents & IP.” █

Bill Gates Enters Financial Centres With His Goons Becoming US Budget Chief, Top Bankers

Posted in Bill Gates, Finance, Microsoft at 2:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Bank

Summary: How Bill Gates’ staff is entering positions of financial power, indirectly giving Gates power over US (national and international) finance

Why would Bill Gates run for president when he can get his cronies put in positions of power and actually lobby presidents all around the world without having to be elected and re-elected? It is a life-long career for him and he has more political power than every president in isolation because presidents can rarely keep their position for longer than several years.

“Bill Gates may soon become US budget chief by proxy (his crony in charge).”The Gates Foundation, like an octopus with tentacles, has already put many members of staff in positions of power, e.g. in education, agriculture, and energy. Why would anyone entrust a looting giant for education of children or put his goons in charge of the national budget? Maybe because the system has already been rotten from the inside. Remember that Gates’ budget know-how is based mostly on dirty tricks; both he and Microsoft are not paying tax owing to political entryism. If one lets this sociopath send his goons around to control panels on various walks of life, the no wonder policy becomes people-hostile and corporations-leaning. The government is lobbied by corporations and Gates together (yes, side by side) and it shows. The government has its separation from commerce blurred, so it is akin to fascism.

In what’s not exactly news anymore, Bill Gates may soon become US budget chief by proxy (his crony in charge). To quote: “A former leader at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is close to confirmation as the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

“President Obama nominated Silvia Mathews Burwell to the position in March. On Wednesday she met with the Senate Budget Committee in Washington D.C. ”

“Microsoft itself seems to be another Enron waiting to implode”Also noteworthy is this: “The $4.2 billion-asset company said Thursday that Connie Collingsworth, general counsel of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been elected a director. Collingsworth, who once was a partner at Preston Gates & Ellis, manages the Seattle foundation’s legal needs and serves on its management committee.”

See more here. Banks get leadership from Gates.

Meanwhile, quite revealingly, Gates continues dumping Microsoft shares. Yes, “Bill Gates sold 12,605,492 shares of Microsoft ( MSFT ) for $390,360,320″ despite gaining 7 billion dollars in wealth last year. He just doesn’t bank on Microsoft growth. That’s why he left, to expand in other areas. Microsoft itself seems to be another Enron waiting to implode. Maybe it will need public subsidies (a bailout) that the US Budget Chief can facilitate. █

IBM Ignores Small Companies’ Interests, Denies Patent Scope is a Problem, Focusing on Its Own Problems (Trolls) Instead

Posted in IBM, Patents at 2:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Big Blue versus small trolls

Semi trailer

Summary: How David Kappos and IBM (his longtime employer) continue to ignore the obvious problem which kills small businesses and everyone is complaining about

There is a recent study showing that quality of patents declined considerably, helping to prove why the USPTO gets the fire it’s under and very much deserves it. Greed took over and David Kappos recently denied yet again that there was a problem, based on some tweets. Kappos is from a patent giant, IBM, so he can be excused for being ignorant of the facts. Current IBM executives similarly groom the USPTO, as we demonstrated several times earlier this month.

Here is a recent report about patents killing an innovative startup and here is another. Earlier this week we saw this filing from the SIIA on what patents do to the industry. To quote some commentary about it: “You may enjoy going through them, but I thought you might like to see one of the more thoughtful of the public comments, the one from Ken Wasch [PDF], President of the Software & Information Industry Association, or SIIA, a trade association for the software industry with 700 plus members, because it provides details on how the patent trolls attack and what the results have been. I don’t see members listed on the site, but the Software Board lists a number of companies, including Red Hat and IBM, and a number of smaller companies. And the comment states that trolls are hindering innovation, being “masters at abusing and manipulating the patent system.” The footnotes alone are worth noting, but the really interesting part is how the comment explains how trolls do what they do. I learned something I’ve long wondered about, why trolls hide who they are in litigation.”

“IBM is not merely not part of the solution; IBM is part of the problem.”The problem is not just trolls (small patent aggressors) but software patents or scope of patents. Don’t expect an IBM-backed front group to say so though, they would rather alter the debate, replacing grassroots with corporate lobby which calls for elimination of only small aggressors.

When will IBM finally take a brave stance on patents and stop promoting software patents around the whole world, even in countries other than its home country? IBM is not merely not part of the solution; IBM is part of the problem. OIN has done nothing against trolls. SIIA itself, like the BSA which IBM had supported until not so long ago, is anti-FOSS [1, 2, 3], █

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