• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Audiocasts

• Episode 143: One Window and Round Prints

  This show covers the single window mode of GIMP 2.7.1 with a video (which sat some weeks here) from nachbarnebenan. I just installed the new version on my machine and I like it.
  Then I scratch an itch I had – Printing DVDs with GIMP.
  The sound in this episode in not as good as usual. Sorry.

  00:20 Berlin and you
  01:45 Single window mode demo
  06:00 Printing on CD/DVDs
  06:50 Defining the media size in Turbo Print
  08:20 Defining a new image template
  11:30 Starting a new image from the template
  12:20 A layer with guide lines
  16:15 New layer(s) for content
  16:50 Inserting a source image
  17:40 Scaling down of the new layer
  20:00 A gradient background
  21:00 Blending the layers with a mask
  24:20 Adding text
  25:50 Printing
  28:50 Recap and more background about units

• Full Circle Podcast #9: Playing a Unicycle and the Trombone

  The podcast is in MP3 and OGG formats. You can either play the podcast in-browser if you have Flash and/or Java, or you can download the podcast with the link underneath the player.

• Man interviews his sister about Ubuntu

  Patrick L Archibald of hacker public radio interviews his sister Wynn Godbold who recently starting using Ubuntu Linux. She is a kindergarten teacher in South Carolina.

Kernel Space

• Guest Blog: Rares Aioanei – Kernel Weekly Review with openSUSE Flavor

  -The first news for this week is Jan Kara’s pull request fot linux-fs (ext2 and ext3 in our case) aimed at -rc4, Frederic Weisbecker posting his pull request for the perf tree and Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo’s pull request for perf/core targetted at 2.6.36 .

• Graphics Stack

  • The Embedded Linux GPU Mess & How It Can Be Fixed

    Various users and developers have expressed their views on the matter within this discussion thread (along with the usual bickering between David and Luc) but as it stands right now there is no user-space Linux graphics driver for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon graphics core that is open-source. Nor is it likely we will see a complete open-source Qualcomm Linux driver in the immediate future.

Applications

• The Ultimate Organiser for the Console Junkie

  Calcurse can operate in three modes. The first is the non-interactive mode, where you have to pass arguments to the program and get the output on the terminal. The second interactive mode has the interface in ncurses and you have to use your keyboard to run a menu-driven application. The third is the background mode or the daemon mode.

  Non-interactive mode: In this mode, you have to pass arguments to the application from the shell and run it. This
  mode does not start the ncurses-based user interface but only dumps the output to STDOUT (in this case, the shell). You’ll find a list of all valid arguments along with their descriptions in the man page.

• Locate your stolen Linux laptop With Prey – free, opensource tracking app

  No-one goes out of their way to lose their laptop let alone have it stolen. Usually in these situations there is but a slim chance of finding, locating or recovering your laptop unless it has your address scrawled on the back like a label in 5th graders’ coat.

• Squeeze More Battery Life from Your Linux Netbook with Jupiter

  One of the major selling points of Eee PC netbooks is their impressive battery life which is achieved by utilizing the Asus Super Hybrid Engine (SHE) technology. While it’s designed to work under Windows, you can take advantage of this technology if you’re running a Linux distro on your Eee PC, courtesy of the Jupiter utility. Although this tool is designed primarily for Eee PC netbooks, it works well on pretty much any notebook. So if you want to squeeze as much battery life from your machine as you can, Jupiter is worth a try.

• Best Lightweight Applications for Linux

  This is the list of some of the best Lightweight applications available in Linux . I hope you like it . Please give your feedback in comments .

• Two possible, maybe, could-be kernel bugs

• 8 of the Best Free Linux Twitter Clients

  Twitter is a popular social networking utility which has gained enormous popularity as a micro-blogging tool, With millions using the service across the globe. Indeed, Twitter is pretty much constantly in the news. It enables friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

• Instructionals

  • Configuring an ultralight 2.6.34 kernel

  • Some Cool 3D effects in Ubuntu with Compiz

  • Enable AutoComplete for sudo command Karmic Koala | Ubuntu Blog in english

  • Boot up ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx faster (speed up boot)

  • Setting Firefox as your default browser

  • Repartition Linux Hard Drive Using “sfdisk” Command-line Utility

  • The One Stop Shop for Ubuntu Customization

  • Manage your tasks in Linux

  • Build Your Own Ubuntu-based Distro With Novo Builder

  • Quick Midori Review And How to Install Latest Midori 0.2.6 in Ubuntu 10.04 ‘Lucid Lynx’

  • Ubuntu Linux Set Iscsi Initiator

  • Luck and the Class Struct API

  • Font Management on Linux

  • Change your MAC address in Linux with MACchanger-GTK

  • Daily 5: 5 Wallpapers That Aren’t Flowers Or Things That Look Like Flowers When Turned Upside-Down

Desktop Environments

• Qt/K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)

  • Open Governance Mailing list

    Two weeks ago I announced here on Labs that we were committed to an Open Governance model for Qt and related projects. I have read all the comments posted on the blog and those sent to me by email. I even had the chance to meet Robin Burchell in person and we had a very nice chat about the process, and the issues we’re facing. He also had some constructive suggestions.

  • Review of Kubuntu Netbook – Maverick Alpha 2

    I downloaded the .iso of Kubuntu Netbook Alpha 2 and installed it in Sun’s, I mean Oracle’s VirtualBox. The virtual machine is running with 2 GB of RAM with 2 processors. Included are some screenshots taken from the VM and some comments along with it.

    [...]

    Looking forward to Maverick and more changes coming down.

• GNOME Desktop

  • GNOME Training confirmed!

    A few days ago, I took the risk of setting off alarm bells on the GNOME developer training sessions planned for GUADEC this year. It was a risk, and comments from the naysayers reminded me that it’s easier to do nothing than it is to take a risk. I’m happy to say that the risk paid off.

Distributions

• Red Hat Family

  • Open source could be a success story, too: Red Hat CEO

    Coming from an airline, the 42-year-old Mr Whitehurst is an unlikely CEO for a technology company, and more so, a company that makes profits from selling free software.

    When he left Delta, he was approached to do a lot of additional turnarounds, but Mr Whitehurst said rather than trying to fix something, he wanted to build something, where there was a buoyant canvas to be painted, and Red Hat fit that bill. Red Hat was also looking for someone from a non-tech background and Mr Whitehurst’s profile, with his interest in geeky stuff, matched it well.

• Canonical/Ubuntu

  • Ubuntu Satanic Edition 10.04 Features Stunning New Icon Theme And Wallpapers

    Ubuntu Satanic edition brings together the best of free software and free metal music. This is especially awesome if you are an avid dark theme fan boy. Moreover the latest Ubuntu Satanic edition brings in a brand new icon theme and some stunning wallpapers as well. There is a complete distro called Ubuntu Satanic Edition, but here we will concentrate on installing Ubuntu Satanic themes and other eyecandy in your native Ubuntu machine.

  • A system based on Debian

    The idea of a Linux Mint desktop based on top of Debian Testing is quite seducing. It’s much faster than Ubuntu and the current Linux Mint desktops, it uses less resources, and it opens the door for a rolling distribution, with a continuous flow of updates and no jumps from one release to another. It’s something we’ve always been tempted to do. Needless to say, whether it’s been because of our lack of communication on that topic or not, this has been a source of numerous rumors within the community.

Devices/Embedded

• Goodbye netbook, hello Hoverboard

  Remember when netbooks hit the market about three years or so ago? Some people considered them a fad, but I saw their potential. And, in a move that was very uncharacteristic of me, I bought a first-generation netbook. An Asus Eee PC 701. Seven inch screen, 4 GB solid-state hard drive, and 1 GB of memory (which I bumped up to 1.5).

Celebrate Independence Day By Thanking Your Open Source Developers

Not to get all patriotic on you, but I wanted to deliver a simple message as many of us head into this 4th of July holiday weekend. We are celebrating American independence (and our Canadian friends just celebrated Canadian independence). The idea of being free to make our own choices runs deep in our culture. In that spirit take a moment to reflect on what the FOSS (free and open source software) movement has meant to you and to the IT industry.

Events

• Malaysian Government Open Source Software Conference 2010

• Summer GLOW – June 28th

Databases

• Open source database firms look to plug security gap

  Open source database vendors acknowledge insufficient third-party security tools is a concern but point out that more support from security companies and the open source community are imminent.

• Oracle join SQLite Consortium

  Oracle has announced that it has joined the SQLite Consortium. The move came, according the BerkeleyDB’s Senior Product Manager Gregory Burd, “to show our commitment to the community which built SQLite and demonstrate our sincere desire to be a good citizen and partner”. Oracle acquired Sleepycat Software, the makers of the open source BerkeleyDB, in 2006.

Oracle/MySQL

• Creative Commons Open Office Plugin gets a new UI and supports for Public Domain tools

  For the past few weeks I have been working on changing the User Interface and adding public domain tools for the Open Office plugin. In my previous post I introduced a new UI for adding creative Commons License, which is more simple and less confusing. In the same way I tried to make the UI for public domain tools as simple as possible.

• Open source backer appeals EU approval of Oracle-Sun merger

  Monty Widenius, a leading open-source software proponent, lodged an appeal on Friday against the European Union’s antitrust authorities over their decision to green-light Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems at the beginning of this year.

  The appeal was filed to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. Widenius was one of the co-developers of MySQL, the open source database software owned by Sun, and now by Oracle.

  The merger was completed on Jan. 27, just six days after the European Commission, Europe’s top antitrust regulator, signed off on the deal. Widenius’ appeal is not likely to have any bearing on the takeover itself, but may put pressure on the Commission for more transparency in its decision-making process.

• Talking To Oracle About The MySQL Community

  Recently I was invited to go on the Oracle TechCast video show to talk about community within the context of MySQL.

  I was joined by Luke Kowalski, Oracle VP in the Corporate Architecture Group, and we discussed a range of topics. The primary message I took to the show was that (a) we should not pre-judge Oracle yet for their stewardship of the MySQL based on the fear of what could happen, but I also made it clear to Luke that (b) Oracle needs to make a firm commitment to acting within the culture and ethos of Open Source to have an effective, fulfilling relationship with the MySQL community.

• SkySQL joins ranks of MySQL support providers

  MySQL users now have another choice for support besides Oracle, which acquired the open-source database through its purchase of Sun Microsystems.

  SkySQL plans to offer “enterprise class support & services for the MySQL ecosystem,” according to its Web site. Its CEO is Ulf Sandberg, ex-senior vice president of global services at MySQL, and “all core members” of the company have also worked for MySQL.

‘Open’ Core/Business

• Open Core Debate: Avoiding the Law of Unintended Consequences

  In the interest of transparency, I work with over twenty open source companies, most of who were funded by venture capitalists and the vast majority of which use the “open core” model. These companies have provided significant value to end users through the software licensed under open source licenses. Simon states: “But to use the package effectively in production, a business probably won’t find the functions of the core package sufficient, even in the (usual) case of the core package being highly capable.” This statement is simply incorrect. I have sat through many Board meetings and, in fact, the conversion rate from “open source” to “commercial” licenses is generally less than 10% for these companies. Thus, more than nine out of ten end users find the functionality of the open source version satisfactory.

  Simon says that open core does not provide software freedom for “end users”. Yet, nothing prevents the end users of the open source version to modify it and distribute it or otherwise exercise the rights under the license. In fact, Compiere demonstrates the fallacy of this position because it created two different forks. Simon complains about the lack of access to the “commercial extensions” of open core programs.

• Open Source, free or not free?

  To be or not to be, free. That is the question. Well the answer is not 42. Or maybe it is. Forty two is the answer to life according to Arthur Dent yet he didn’t know the question. The question is probably too big for us to understand or even ask so I guess we will never know. Perhaps one day at the restaurant doing some pasta equations while watching the end of the universe we will know but until then…..

  [...]

  The meaning of the word free in the Open Source context is freedom (who doesn’t have Mel Gibson shouting that in their heads right now :). What freedom though? Freedom to devalue the hard work of companies and programmers trying to make a simple living? No! Open Source freedom is freedom of knowledge. Freedom to understand and freedom to learn. Advocates of Open Source are free to freely share their knowledge and freely learn from others.

• Afraid of open core lock-in? The alternative could be worse

• Open core is not a crime

  Simon Phipps has articulated why this strategy does not meet the approval of software freedom advocates, but in doing so, in my opinion, mischaracterises the relationship between open core vendors and open source.

Funding

• Omidyar Network

  Today I’m very happy to be able to tell our community that mySociety is to be the recipient of $575,000 of grants from the US based Omidyar Network.

  The grants cover two areas:

  * Building organizational capacity
  * The provision of expertise to develop open source websites for transparency-focused organizations in Africa

BSD

• OpenBSD: Free Issue to download

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• FOSS vs. open source as an American debate

  Soon after I took on this beat for ZDNet, I got a nasty gram from Richard Stallman (right).

  I wish he’d put it in the form of a paper letter. I probably should have framed it.

  In his note, as I recall it, Stallman made clear the difference between Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and open source as conceived by Eric Raymond and supporters in the business community.

  FOSS is not just “free as in free beer,” he told me. Under FOSS software is free, not just for the user. The software itself has liberties.

Government

• Open source software in Malaysia

  The Malaysian government has set an example for the Asia-Pacific region in its support for free and open source softwarei (FOSSi). In 2004 it launched a master plan for rolling out FOSS throughout the public sector. That plan is now in its second phase of “accelerated adoption”, which is intended to make the use of FOSS within government more pervasive. The overall aims of the programme are:

  * increasing freedom of choice in software usage;
  * increasing interoperability;
  * increasing growth of the local ICTi industry;
  * increasing growth of the OSS user and development community;
  * increasing growth of the knowledge-based society;
  * reducing the digital divide;
  * reducing total cost of ownership; and
  * reducing vendor lock-in.

Openness/Sharing

• Technology and the Rights of the Child

  It’s also worth considering children’s own intellectual property rights. Whilst some bemoan young people’s attitudes towards copyright, particularly through peer to peer file sharing of copyright material, I wonder how much attention schools and teachers generally pay to the copyright of their pupils’ own work. Perhaps many are happy to photocopy, scan and upload children’s work, always with the best intentions, without seeking permission or acknowledging authorship. By way of contrast, I heard some very positive stories via Twitter of, for example, schools and teachers that buy art work off their pupils to hang. We could also help educate about copyright by doing more to encourage the acknowledgement, sharing and collaboration that underlies Creative Commons licensing, as well as much Early Years practice.

  In short, part of citizenship, be it analogue or digital, has to be educating children about their rights and associated responsibilities. To avoid charges of hypocrisy, surely this means that we should take their rights, including those of free expression, of free access to information, of privacy and of intellectual property seriously, respecting these and defending these when others do not.

Programming

• 5 Python Pluses for the Enterprise

  You might not find quite as many experienced Python developers as .Net or Java folks, in part because Python is younger than Java and hasn’t had the corporate push of .Net. Still, Python’s doing well enough in developer adoption to make it a solid choice. Another advantage in Python’s court? It’s vendor neutral.

Thinking about better mousetraps and the Maker Generation

Do you ever read Make Magazine? If you don’t, you should. You’re missing out. Take this article for example, from the October 2007 issue. A simple, brief piece about using everyday household objects to build non-lethal mousetraps.

Low-power Pixel Qi Displays Sell out in a Day

The highly anticipated low-power 3Qi laptop displays from Pixel Qi were sold out on Thursday, just a day after the screens were officially announced and went on sale.

The 3Qi LCD (liquid crystal display) screens, which were under development for two years, can absorb ambient light to brighten screens and reduce power consumption to extend the battery life of laptops. The displays reduce the need for the backlight, which are used to light up conventional laptop screens.

Science

• DNA tests to reveal ancestral villages

  GENETIC tests may soon be able to help people pinpoint the villages their ancestors called home.

Security/Aggression

• All of Beijing to be covered in security cameras

• WikiLeaks, iPhone Incidents Show that U.S. Needs Shield Law

  The United States’ global reputation as a champion of free speech is at stake. This is partly because the legal framework has not kept pace with the evolution of free speech, and also because the Freedom of Information Act is not being applied correctly. Today, the U.S. is in danger of losing its place as the bastion of free speech because other countries are stepping up and creating new ways to protect freedom of expression.

• Is calling torture ‘torture’ political correctness?

  The New York Times is one of the many newspapers which, after calling torture “torture” for generations, switched to euphemisms (“enhanced interrogation techniques”) during the previous administration. The prevalence of such language is summed up in a paper by Harvard University students, who found that its use became ubiquitous after prisoner mistreatment at Abu Ghraib was exposed.

Environment

• The Pearce “Inquiry”

  Fred Pearce’s book on Climategate and the events leading up to it (The Climate Files) has just been published. (Pearce kindly sent me a copy.)
  Pearce has been involved in environmental reporting for the past 15 or so years and, like George Monbiot, is a strong supporter of climate policy.

• 3D TV images guzzle up to 50% more power than 2D

  When a 3D TV is switched from 2D mode to 3D mode, the power usage can swing dramatically depending on the manufacturer, according to a new report from Cnet.

• Hollow Men of Economics

  As state’s see their budgets collapse and start a new round of layoffs, we should consider the fact that house price inflation masked the lack of wage growth in the United States. And now that house prices continue their descent for a 5th year, American workers are more fully exposed to the decade-long march higher in energy costs. They can experience this individually through energy prices, or more generally through the overall energy cost to the economy. Hence, the chart above.

• Peru to expel British ‘Tarzan agitator’ Paul McAuley

  Missionary told to leave after helping Amazon tribes resist incursion of oil, gas and mining firms into the rainforest

• BBC’s Panorama falls into ‘balance as baloney’ trap in half hour climate show, “What’s up with the weather?”

  The BBC’s climate journalism has declined in recent months (see BBC asks CRU’s Phil Jones the climate version of “When did you stop beating your wife”). It just hit a new low in the half hour show, “What’s up with the Weather?”

  All you need to know about how distorted and sensationalistic the BBC’s worldview has become is to read how BBC’s News editors describe the show:

  To some, it’s a massive conspiracy to con the public. To others, it’s the greatest threat to the future of our world.

  Over recent years, opinions about global warming have become increasingly polarised.

  It came to a head late last year when hundreds of e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit were published.

  The so-called “Climategate” debate was born.

  Despite governments, scientists and campaigners telling us the world’s climate is changing, opinion polls suggest growing uncertainty about global warming….

Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

• Bill Introduced To Pressure Countries That Seek To Break The Internet

  Rep. Zoe Lofgren along with a list of other Congressional reps (from both parties) is introducing a new bill called the One Global Internet Act of 2010 (pdf), which is basically targeted at countries — like Afghanistan and Pakistan — that are seeking to block large parts of the internet from access, as well as countries like China, which for many years has tried to introduce its own, incompatible, standards for things like WiFi, DVDs, 3G cellular connections and more.

• Listening to Wikileaks Julian Assange at the European Parliament

  Rarely does a lobbyist listen to someone and feel utterly impressed, no strings or cautious thoughts attached…Or at least, not an “old rot” like me…But today, just for a few minutes, I felt like “not all was lost”…that some sense would come out of the ongoing debates on how to “handle the Internet” if someone with the eloquence, brains and proven delivery record of Julius Assange could be invited to speak in a place such as the European Parliament, in the context of the ALDE organised debate on (Self) Censorship and Freedom of Expression in Europe.

Intellectual Monopolies

• The Myth That Without Gov’t Monopolies Or Subsidies, Discoveries Will Be Hidden By Secrets

  Stephan Kinsella sends over a fascinating talk by Dr. Terence Kealey, a UK biochemist and professor, discussing why — contrary to what most people think, “science” is not a public good, and that government-funded science actually tends to do more damage than good for global economies…

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Desktop

• Why have you switched to GNU/Linux?

  Prior to this, I used Mac OS but I knew that both operating systems are proprietary and want to limit the end user. I got tired of being manipulated to use a particular application and having bloatware already pre-installed on my computer. After searching the Internet for alternatives to Mac OS and Windows I found this really cool concept that is called Linux. I didn’t know much about the OS but gave it a shot.

• What Linux means for the Consumer – Drivers, Open Source and Support

  When a consumer installs a Linux system, this has various consequences for him, which are sometimes hard to estimate at first. I’ve written a little summary touching the differences to Windows and Mac OS X in drivers, open source and support.

Google

• Hopefully Install & Remote Kill-s the Cloud OS

  After reading a few articles about Google and their REMOVE_ASSET and INSTALL_ASSET ability and how they have invoked it already under a few circumstances. Its very fearful foreshadowing of our possible computing future, at which we may be at the point of no return already. Imagine you install it today and tomorrow Google says you don’t want that and removes it to replace it with their stuff.

• How to Run Chrome OS the Easy Way

  A few of us here at MTE have a bit of a crush on Chrome OS. It’s not just the system itself, it’s the fact that someone is finally taking the concept of an operating system in a new direction. We wrote a brief synopsis of Chrome OS shortly after the first announcement that showed how things stood at the very beginning, then more recently did a manual build guide. Building Chrome OS from source code can take several hours, and can be a somewhat challenging process even for an experienced Linux user. To help solve that problem, some developers have begun releasing custom Chrome OS builds with included installers and software tweaks. This guide will show you where to find the images and how to get the latest Hexxeh release, Flow, on to your netbook or VM from a Linux host.

Ballnux

• Samsung’s Latest Android to Shine on 5 US Carriers

  Samsung is taking the shotgun approach with its latest Android smartphone, the Galaxy S: It will be made available on five U.S. wireless providers, though each version will use a different name and have a slightly different feature set. “This will either be one of the biggest home runs in wireless history, or it will be a confusing mess,” said telecom and wireless analyst Jeff Kagan.

Kernel Space

• Benchmarks

  • The Start Of Some KVM Virtualization Benchmarks

  • fun with benchmarks

• Graphics Stack

  • [ANNOUNCE] xorg-server 1.8.99.904

    Not a huge number of changes this week; a couple of bug fixes, some server log cleanups and some Xephyr changes.

Applications

• Decibel Audio Player – Simple and nice music player for the GNOME desktop

• Multimedia Previewer

  I love niche programs, especially in the area of multimedia. If you’re like me, you probably have a folder full of MP3s and Oggs collected from the last ten years that’s reached the point where you’ve forgotten half the files in there. This month, I stumbled upon the charming little command-line program, audiopreview.

• Proprietary

  • Wine 1.2-rc5 Released

• Instructionals

  • Manage hundreds of machines from a single interface the easy way with KontrolPack

  • How to install Murrine and Aurora GTK2 Engines in Ubuntu | PPA

  • Generating Web Site Statistics With AWStats & JAWStats On Debian Lenny

  • Apache And MySQL Monitoring With Bijk On Debian Lenny

  • Virtual Users And Domains With Postfix, Courier, MySQL And SquirrelMail (Fedora 13 x86_64)

  • 3 Handy Commandlinefu One Liners

  • Ubuntu Control Center 0.3 “UCC” On Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

  • Install or Upgrade to Firefox 3.6.6 in Ubuntu Using PPA

  • How To Integrate ClamAV Into PureFTPd For Virus Scanning On Mandriva 2010.0

  • Migrating from stock Froyo FRF85B to CyanogenMod 6 Alpha 1

  • Install Linux Without Burning An ISO To CD/DVD – Use The ISO Downloaded To Your Hard Drive

  • Quick Midori Review And How to Install Latest Midori 0.2.6 in Ubuntu 10.04 ‘Lucid Lynx’

GNOME Desktop

• Clutter 1.3/1.4 Continues To Advance

  The release announcement for Clutter 1.3.6 can be read on clutter-announce. Clutter 1.4.0, which will be the first stable release to incorporate all of these Clutter 1.3 changes, will be released in time for the GNOME 3.0 release in September. Clutter is used within the Mutter compositing window manager found in GNOME 3.0 and is also used by various GNOME Games and other projects.

• GNOME 2.31.4 Is Ready For Some Testing Love

  It should come as no surprise that there is now a new GNOME 3.0 test release seeing as in the past couple of days we have talked about new development releases of GNOME Shell and Mutter, GTK+ 3.0, and Clutter 1.3/1.4, along with a slew of other GNOME packages being checked-in.

Distributions

• New Releases

  • SME Server 7.5.1

  • Sabily 10.04 (Manarat) released

    The Sabily team is proud to announce the release of new version of Sabily 10.04, codename Manarat.

  • Berry 1.03

  • RIPLinuX 9.9

  • SystemRescueCd 1.5.7

  • Astaro 8.0

  • Imagineos 20100628

• Canonical/Ubuntu

  • Ubuntu Software Center Receives Major User Interface Update, More [Ubuntu 10.10]

    An update in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat today brings a changed look for the main Ubuntu Software Center pane.

  • Ubuntu Developer Week announced

    The Ubuntu development team have announced that the next Ubuntu Developer Week will take place from the July 12th to 16th. Several online workshops will take place during the week, run by a variety of Ubuntu contributors and community members.

  • Flavours and Variants

    • Ubuntu Satanic Edition 10.04 (Lucifer’s Legion)

      Summary: The distro for the damned has risen again and walks among us. It’s chock-full of amazing satanic grace and charm. Highly recommended for Linux users who are tired of being goody two-shoes and who want to take a walk on the dark side of Ubuntu Linux.

      Rating: 4/5

    • Linux Mint 9 KDE Release Candidate Available

      The KDE version of Linux Mint 9 (codename: Isadora), will instantly look and feel familiar to KDE users and comes packaged with new software such as Miro, which streams video from webistes in its own player, BleachBit, for hard drive cleaning, and Acetoniso, for converting video and images. Linux Mint 9 KDE features a new software manager that can handle more than 30,000 packages and remove and install applications asynchronously, making it possible to install separate applications at the same time and install applications in the background.

Devices/Embedded

• Multicore PowerPC networking SoCs gain Linux support

  Wind River announced a multi-year collaboration with LSI to co-market “tightly integrated” Linux-ready hardware and software for LSI’s PowerPC-based, multicore Axxia Communication Processors (ACP). Targeting telecommunications and networking infrastructure, the partners’ solutions will include Axxia-optimized board support packages (BSPs) for Wind River Linux, VxWorks, Wind River Workbench, and Workbench On-Chip Debugging, says the company.

• Seven-inch Cortex-A8 tablet dual boots Android 2.1 and Windows CE

  Merimobiles has begun selling a seven-inch tablet for $200 that dual boots Android 2.1 and Windows CE 6.0. The Witstech A81-E is based on an unnamed ARM Cortex-A8-based processor clocked to 600MHz, and is equipped with 256MB RAM, 2GB flash, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an optional GPS receiver, says the online retailer.

• Palm

  • Palm Waives App Submission Fee for Developers

    No more fees and new promotions both hope to stimulate the Linux-based webOS ecosystem.

    [...]

    In July, Palm has plans for a new PDK Hot Apps promotion, which will distribute another US$ 1 million to developers, with an emphasis on C/C++ apps that were ineligible for the previous Hot Apps promotion.

  • HP Completes Palm Acquisition; Netbook Running webOS Soon?

    Hewlett-Packard has completed the Palm acquisition. And if you read between the lines it sounds like HP will leverage Palm’s technology for more than smart phones and tablet computers. Indeed, HP seems poised to deploy webOS on netbooks.

• Nokia/MeeGo

  • MeeGo tablet unveiled in China

    Red Flag Software has demonstrated a 10.1-inch tablet running its new MeeGo Linux version of Midinux 3.0 on an Intel Moorestown Z6xx processor, says Tech.qq. Equipped with Wi-Fi and 3G, the NPad tablet will go on sale in the third quarter, says the report.

  • MeeGo Launches its Handset User Experience Project

    The MeeGo Project released the baseline source code for the handset version of the Linux-based mobile OS to the development community. This code is being developed as MeeGo 1.1, which is slated for an October release.

  • MeeGo project releases early handset code

• Android

  • Research: Android’s Big Lead Over Apple In Free Apps

    The latest numbers from mobile app store monitor Distimo show major differences in apps’ prices in Google’s Android Market and Apple’s App Store. While the majority of apps on the Android Market are free, only about a quarter on the App Store are. Advantage Android or advantage App Store? Debatable. Consumers might prefer free apps, but developers want a marketplace where it’s commonplace to charge.

    Some possible explanations for the discrepancy, according to Distimo: Currently, only developers in a fraction of the countries where Android is available can distribute paid apps on the platform. Only users from select countries can buy them. And users have to sign up for a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Checkout account to buy an Android app.

  • Here come the new Yahoo! Android apps

    According to recent reports the Android operating system has an impressive 19.9% share of the US mobile web market. That’s still some way behind Apple iOS on 58.8% but the iPhone has been around for a lot longer. It should come as no surprise, then, that Yahoo! wants to get a piece of that Android action. Which is why it has now announced the continuing expansion of its reach with the immediate availability of Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger apps plus a Yahoo! Search Widget for Android.

  • Nexus One First In Line at the Froyo Dessert Bar

    Google has begun dishing out Froyo, the latest version of the Android mobile operating system. The company has chosen to make its own Nexus One smartphone the first to receive the update, despite that handset’s relatively modest sales figures. Other advanced Android phones will likely get their own updates soon, once the new OS can be rejiggered to work with the customized interfaces various manufacturers have added.

  • Kindle for Android app ships, but Froyo roll-out hits snag

    Amazon released its Kindle app for Android, while announcing a multimedia version for the iPhone and dropping the price of the Kindle, says eWEEK. Meanwhile, Android 2.2 rolled out to Nexus One users, but Sprint suspended its own rollout to the Evo 4G, says eWEEK, and Samsung announced plans for a Froyo update to its Galaxy S.

  • Gingerbread will split Android into two, rumors say

    Android 3.0 “Gingerbread” will be a high-end format supporting 1280 × 760 resolution and requiring a 1GHz processor, essentially splitting the operating system into two platforms, says UnwiredView. Meanwhile, HTC and Sprint are readying an Android smartphone with a 2GHz processor and 1080p video recording, says OzcarGuide, while TmoNews says HTC is prepping an Android phone for T-Mobile with dual 800MHz processors.

  • Android 3.0 Rumored for Q4 2010

    Rumors are circulating about Google’s next version of Android, the open source, Linux-based mobile operating system. Version 3.0 (Codename: Gingerbread) will supposedly require a 1GHz CPU and at least 512MB of RAM onboard, making it a shoe-in for high-end smartphones. Gingerbread will also support a screen resolution as high as 1280×760.

• Tablets

  • Snapdragon-based Android 2.1 tablet goes on sale

    Expansys UK has begun selling a seven-inch WVGA Android 2.1 tablet from Huawei, making it one of the first available Android tablets. Priced at 300 Pounds (about $451) without a memory card or 370 Pounds ($557) with 32GB, the Huawei S7 offers a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 802.11n wireless networking, Bluetooth 2.1, and a two-megapixel camera.

• Cisco

  • Cisco Tablet: Google Android Meets Business Collaboration

    Cius signals the latest “anything but Microsoft” development in the emerging tablet market. Among the recent vendor moves:

    * Cisco embracing Google Android for the Cius.
    * Dell promoting Android on the Dell Streak tablet.
    * Hewlett-Packard apparently scrapping work on a Windows-centric tablet and acquiring Palm and WebOS.

  • Cisco Floats Business-Minded Android Tablet

    The Cisco Cius looks an awful lot like an Android version of Apple’s iPad, but the two are really very different animals, according to In-Stat’s Jim McGregor. “Cisco is not trying to compete with Apple,” he said. “The two companies are targeting completely different segments and usage models. And like Apple in the consumer segment, Cisco offers complete solutions for businesses.”

  • Home energy monitor runs Ubuntu on Atom

    Cisco announced an Intel Atom-based, tabletop Home Energy Controller (HEC) device based on OpenPeak’s Home Energy Manager (HEM) design. Running Ubuntu Linux on a 1.1GHz Intel Atom, the HEC offers a seven-inch screen, networks via cellular, 802.11n, ZigBee, and ERT wireless, and works with back-end services enabling consumers to monitor and control energy use.

  • Cisco To Have An Android Tablet Of Their Very Own

    According to Cisco, the Cius will also have access to the Android Market.

Web Browsers

• Awesome FIFA.com Google Chrome Extension For Football Maniacs!

• Mozilla

  • What is the most clicked Firefox button?

    The answer to that question and more has been addressed in a new Mozilla Firefox Main Window Usage Study. The study data was collected on an opt-in basis from nearly 10,000 users of the Mozilla Test Pilot addon which surveys Firefox usage.

  • Mozilla: 2 billion Firefox add-ons downloaded

    Although Firefox is falling behind the alternatives in some key areas like performance, the open source browser still delivers peerless flexibility with a rich add-on system and unrivaled support for extensibility. Mozilla’s curated extension archive has over 60,000 add-ons that have been contributed by third-party developers.

SaaS

• Beyond the Cloud: The Comprehensive Flexibility of FOSS May Bring Clearer Skies

  Fortunately this type of flexible software does exist. It is called Free and Open Source Softare (FOSS) and it is becoming ubiquitous. In fact, whether you know it or not, you are using FOSS software: Apache, the FOSS web server, runs this web site and indeed the majority of all web sites. WordPress, the blogging software we use here is also “everywhere” and you can purchase it from “cloud” utility providers or install, run, and modify it yourself. The list of important FOSS software goes on and on and this blog is dedicated to helping elucidate its importance as well as the issues involved in managing it.

Oracle

• OpenOffice goes GStreamer on Linux and Unix

  OpenOffice is released under version 3 of the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPLv3). The latest stable release of the OpenOffice open source office suite is version 3.2.1 from early June.

Openness/Sharing

• Life (or something like it) Update

  I believe that, by sharing this information with you, it might better illustrate (or, perhaps illuminate) why I’m building another network security tool and what fundamentally motivated me to do so.

Concrete Company Sues Woman For Posting Negative Review On Angie’s List

You really would think, at this point, that any lawyer worth his or her hourly rate would strongly recommend to clients that they don’t go ballistic in filing lawsuits any time someone says something bad about you. Hell, there have been multiple stories recently about just how badly a similar lawsuit from a towing company has backfired on the company. But, yet again, we have a story of a business suing over a negative review. This time, it’s a woman in Chicago who wrote a negative review of a local cement company on the site Angie’s List because it refused to even give her an estimate, saying it didn’t work in her area. She was upset because the company was only based 5 miles away, and on Angie’s List, said it did work where she lived. So she wrote about her experience and rated the company an “F.”

How to Make an American Job Before It’s Too Late: Andy Grove

Recently an acquaintance at the next table in a Palo Alto, California, restaurant introduced me to his companions: three young venture capitalists from China. They explained, with visible excitement, that they were touring promising companies in Silicon Valley. I’ve lived in the Valley a long time, and usually when I see how the region has become such a draw for global investments, I feel a little proud.

Environment

• Climategate’s death rattle

  Hear that choking sound? That’s the dying gasps of Climategate. The Pennsylvania State University’s investigation into allegations of misconduct by climate scientist Michael Mann found him innocent, specifically saying:

  … the Investigatory Committee determined that Dr. Michael E. Mann did not engage in, nor did he participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research, or other scholarly activities.

  Mann, as you may recall, was a key figure in the so-called Climategate fiasco, where leaked emails were purported to show scientists fixing data to make global warming evidence appear stronger. Since Day 1 of this I have been calling it a non-event, a manufactured controversy by global warming denialists trying to make enough noise to drown out any real talk on this topic. And time and time again I have been shown to be correct.

Finance

• Johann Hari: How Goldman gambled on starvation

  By now, you probably think your opinion of Goldman Sachs and its swarm of Wall Street allies has rock-bottomed at raw loathing. You’re wrong. There’s more. It turns out that the most destructive of all their recent acts has barely been discussed at all. Here’s the rest. This is the story of how some of the richest people in the world – Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more – have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world.

  It starts with an apparent mystery. At the end of 2006, food prices across the world started to rise, suddenly and stratospherically. Within a year, the price of wheat had shot up by 80 per cent, maize by 90 per cent, rice by 320 per cent. In a global jolt of hunger, 200 million people – mostly children – couldn’t afford to get food any more, and sank into malnutrition or starvation. There were riots in more than 30 countries, and at least one government was violently overthrown. Then, in spring 2008, prices just as mysteriously fell back to their previous level. Jean Ziegler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, calls it “a silent mass murder”, entirely due to “man-made actions.”

• How the Feds and Goldman Sachs Used AIG to Hose U.S. Taxpayers

  A critical question in the U.S. government’s 2008 rescue of AIG is whether the deal amounted to a “back-door” bailout of Goldman Sachs (GS). Increasingly, the answer appears to be a resounding “yes.”

• Goldman Sachs Executives Say Risk Management Drove AIG Dispute

  Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives repeated their position that disputes with American International Group Inc. over securities prices and collateral in 2007 and 2008 reflected the firm’s typical risk-management efforts.

• Goldman Sachs execs defend pursuit of payments from AIG

  Goldman’s push to recover all it was owed on credit default swaps cost taxpayers billions, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission members say. Executives say Goldman would have received what was due in any case.

• Goldman Sachs’s Role in Crisis at Stake in Question Over Marks

• Former NY Fed Chair and Goldman Sachs Director Friedman in the Hot Seat Again

• Goldman Sachs board mum on director’s conflicts

• Explaining Derivatives, And Goldman’s Dominance Thereof, In Four Simple Charts

• Ex-AIG executive testifies he didn’t ease standards to allow risky trades

  A former top executive of American International Group acknowledged yesterday that his division more than tripled the amount of risky investments it insured in the three years leading up to the 2008 financial meltdown.

• Forster ‘Surprised’ AIG Leaders Unaware of Swap Rules

  Steven Bensinger, AIG’s former chief financial officer, and Elias Habayeb, former CFO of the division including the derivatives unit, told the panel they didn’t know of the provision until the third quarter of 2007, according to an FCIC document released yesterday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. demanded $1.8 billion on July 27, 2007, saying the market value of the securities underlying credit-default swaps had declined.

• FCIC’s Angelides Says Goldman Sachs `Aggressive’ on AIG: Video

• In U.S. Bailout of A.I.G., Forgiveness for Big Banks

  Mr. Benmosche, steward of an insurer brought to its knees two years ago after making too many risky, outsize financial bets and paying billions of dollars in claims to Goldman and other banks, said he would continue evaluating his legal options. But, in reality, A.I.G. has precious few.

• Analysis: Crisis panel targets Goldman as AIG skates by

  But financial experts said the Commission made a mistake in giving AIG officials a pass, in contrast to the tough questions lobbed at Goldman executives.

  “AIG as a victim? This is a world of consenting adults,” said Lawrence White, a professor at the New York University Stern School of Business.

• Panel Chairman Presses Goldman Sachs on Its Mortgage Bets’ Market Effect

  Goldman was among the most aggressive players on Wall Street in marking down the value of mortgage bonds as the financial crisis brewed, and ultimately benefited in protecting itself from the housing downfall. A.I.G., on the other hand, had a large positive bet on housing through the billions of dollars of mortgage securities that it insured for Goldman and other banks.

• Goldman’s Cohn Discusses Risk Management, Sovereign Debt: Video

• Can a Goldman Sachs short position push securities down?

• Goldman Sachs Pressed By Born for Derivatives Data

  Goldman Sachs Group Inc. refused a request from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to reveal how much it makes trading derivatives, saying the bank doesn’t separate the figure from other businesses.

• Goldman CFO says firm lost money on risky deals

  The finance chief of Goldman Sachs said Thursday the firm made mistakes in the leadup to the financial crisis and was burned by losses on high-risk loans and mortgages.

• Goldman Board Faces Scrutiny on Silence Over Conflicts: Video

• Volcker Rule All About Goldman

  We’ve known for a while that the proposed new restrictions on hedge fund and private equity investing known as the “Volcker Rule,” would be tougher on Goldman Sachs(GS) than any other large bank, but have we really considered the extent to which this is true?

• The Financial Reform Law: A ‘Fig Leaf’

  The financial reform bill will change the way banks do business in everything from credit cards to credit default swaps. What it won’t do is fundamentally reshape Wall Street, and it doesn’t seem likely to prevent bad bets by bankers from causing another crisis. The legislation is “largely a fig leaf,” says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic & Policy Research in Washington. “Given where we were when this got started, I’d have to imagine the Wall Street firms are pretty happy.”

• U.S. Panel Seeks More Money to Investigate Financial Crisis

  The U.S. panel investigating the financial crisis is seeking funds beyond the $8 million Congress appropriated for its work.

• Financial Crisis Commission Turns Up Heat On Goldman Sachs: ‘Nobody Here Believes You’

• Complaint: State Of Texas V. Goldman Sachs Et Al

  Is America supposed to believe that the economic crisis emanating on Wall Street and costing our economy trillions of dollars was all on the up and up and was merely a ‘perfect storm’? Although many on Wall Street and in Washington would have us believe just that, a true measure of ’sense on cents’ dictates that we not be so naive.

Copyrights

• Pirates of the college campus

  Starting this month, colleges and universities that don’t do enough to combat the illegal swapping of “Avatar” or Lady Gaga over their computer networks put themselves at risk of losing federal funding.

• Copying is Stealing

  Before Disney and Sonny Bono, copyright law was reasonable. Rights holders were granted a limited monopoly of 7 years, plus 7 more if they chose to renew, and then their works passed into the public domain. This had many advantages: Creators had a chance at making a living from their works. It gave an escape hatch to creators who signed bad contracts. It prevented orphaned works. It enriched the common culture. Now we have this crazy complex retroactive system of virtually-forever copyrights, perpetrated by corporate interests to protect what they ripped off in the first place.

  I don’t see anything wrong with liberal personal use, like making multiple copies for different personal devices and in different formats, or making mashups for fun, or other non-commercial adaptations. One of the big problems with the current copyright enforcement insanity is it tramples personal use and invades our homes.

  Just like back in the days of sharing mix tapes, modern file-sharing can be an effective form of promotion. I think that any kind of sharing that leads to more income for artists is somewhat justifiable, though this is an over-used excuse for copying and never paying. You and I both know freeloaders who have gigabytes of music, movies, and books they never paid a cent for.

  [...]

  We’ve been spoiled by decades of advertiser-subsidized entertainment. We’re not really getting TV and radio for free, we pay every day in torrents of shlock crowding out works of genuine artistry, creativity, and value. The advertiser-supported model is by its nature corrupting, and it taints whatever it touches. Isn’t it crystal-clear by now that this is the path to destruction? We get what they want to serve, which is only tools to sell crud, and boy howdy what crud it is. 95% of it could vanish tomorrow, with two immediate consequences: fewer yard sales, and garages with enough room to park cars in.