This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2010/09/23/fcc-adopts-drupal/.

● 09.23.10

● Links 23/9/2010: Red Hat Inc. Climbs, FCC Adopts Drupal

Posted in News Roundup at 4:37 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Cisco Rolls Out New Linux Switches for Small Business Networks

• Over the course of the last two years, networking vendor Cisco has been upgrading and expanding its small business networking offerings. That effort continues this week with the launch of a new lineup of managed switches and updated VoIP phones specifically gears for small business networking environments.

=> ↺ Cutting through the Baloney of Linux Job Ads

=> ↺ Shlomif’s Technical Posts Community – Copying Ubuntu Bug No. 1

• Ubuntu can’t have all the fun only for itself”, open source distributors are saying as they rush to copy its Bug No. 1 titled “Microsoft has a majority market share”.

• Debian, Ubuntu’s parent distribution, has set up Debian Bug No. 1 which also reads “Microsoft has a majority market share”. Mandriva, another competing distribution has set up Mandriva Bug No. 1: “Microsoft has a majority market share and Ubuntu has a majority market share on the Linux desktop”. Fedora, Gentoo, Archlinux, Slackware and other distributions are expected to follow suit.

=> ↺ LPI Announces New Affiliate for Asia Pacific

Server

=> ↺ Server OS Landscape Rolls With the Punches

• At least if you are a Red Hat shop you can be secure in the knowledge that you are running the No. 1 open source server OS — the IBM of Linux, if you like — from a stable independent company. Heck, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is so respectable that the mighty Oracle uses it as the basis for its own Linux offering.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Going Linux #114 – Setup Remote Desktop

=> ↺ LB – Episode 62 – Listener Call In Show by Linux Basement

Ballnux

=> ↺ Galaxy Tab Loses Voice Capability

Applications

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Synchronize Your OpenOffice Documents With Google Docs, Zoho And WebDAV Servers Using Ooo2gd

=> ↺ Connecting to BSNL on linux

=> ↺ Upgrade to the Latest Versions of Your Favorite Ubuntu Software with PPAs

=> ↺ Ralink RT2860 RT2870 in Fedora 13 | Solved

=> ↺ Unix How-To: Making Better Use of Find

=> ↺ Linux Tip: What you need to know about software Installation (configure, make, make install)?

=> ↺ Using the Add-App-Repository Command in Earlier Versions of Ubuntu

=> ↺ Emerald: Move Minimize, Maximize And Close Buttons To The Left [Quick Tip]

=> ↺ Playing Music on CentOS using codec’s installed on Ubuntu: My little experiment

=> ↺ DebianInstaller Remotely with Multiple Network Interfaces

=> ↺ Periscope – Python module searching subtitles on the web

=> ↺ Linux Tip: What are the SUID, SGID and the Sticky Bits?

=> ↺ Configuring a Gameport Joystick in Linux

=> ↺ How to Limit The CPU Usage of Any Process in Linux

=> ↺ Drupal: Configuring Your Installation

=> ↺ OSC2010 Sneak Peaks – Bernhard Wiedemann: Automated Testing

=> ↺ How To Set Up WebDAV With Apache2 On Fedora 13

=> ↺ Caching Nameserver using dnsmasq

=> ↺ Installing Diaspora preview on Ubuntu 10.04

=> ↺ Setting Up An NFS Server And Client On OpenSUSE 11.3

=> ↺ Linux From Scratch 6.7 is released! A free book that teaches how to build a base Linux OS from scratch, from an existing Linux installation or from a live CD

=> ↺ Installing and Setting up JavaFX for NetBeans and Eclipse IDE

=> ↺ How to Install Dropbox in Ubuntu Lucid, Maverick

=> ↺ Syncing your BlackBerry on Ubuntu

=> ↺ WebDAV on linux

=> ↺ How to Make Incognito Mode Default in Google Chrome, Chromium in Linux

=> ↺ Software And Other Legacy Of The Baby Boomer Generation

=> ↺ Install Nginx On CentOS 5.5 With SSL, PCRE, GeoIP, Zlib, Gzip And DAV Support

• Nginx (pronounced “engine x”) is a free, open-source, high-performance HTTP server. Nginx is known for its stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption. This tutorial shows how you can compile and install Nginx on CentOS 5.5 server with SSL, PCRE, GeoIP, Zlib, Gzip and DAV support.

=> ↺ Xen Hypervisor upgrade up to 4.0.1 on Opensuse 11.3

• Procedure bellow fixes one hidden issue in recently developed xen-4.0.1_21326_01-1.1.src.rpm. It removes error “xen be core: xen be core: can’t open gnttab device” in corresponding /var/log/xen log file during attempt to run virt-install for PV Guest in VNC mode or attempt to run python installation profile referencing VFB for domains of same kind.

=> ↺ How To Automatically Add A Disclaimer To Outgoing Emails With alterMIME (Postfix On Debian Lenny)

=> ↺ Configuring a Gameport Joystick in Linux

• I picked up a PC Power Pad Pro at a garage sale, for something like US$0.50. A steal, for 2% of its original retail, right? Except I couldn’t get it to work with my sound card.

=> ↺ PiTiVi + video effects = utter magic

• Video effects in PiTiVi have edged one-step closer to release with the merging of developer Thibault Saunier’s Google Summer of Code effects work to PiTiVi’s ‘master’ branch.

• With the PiTiVi team keen to ensure solid ‘quality’ releases there will need to be some thorough testing and bug fixing before you find a stable release containing this landing in your laps.

=> ↺ PiTiVi video editor updated ready for Maverick freeze

• The PiTiVi developers have quietly released a 0.13.5 version of their GStreamer based open source video editor. The changes were made to address “some of the bigger issues before the Ubuntu Maverick development freeze”. This includes fixes for bugs with still PNG or JPEG images, various performance improvements, support for periodic backup of current projects, easier cross fading, better icons and better iconic representations of link and unlink. A new “add keyframe” button and shortcut has also been added and the “missing plug-ins” installer is now fixed in this release.

=> ↺ Granola, Power saving software

• Introducing Granola a software to help save some energy from your PC, and in the while help the nature.

=> ↺ Top 10 torrent clients for linux

=> ↺ Clementine 0.5 Released, Adds Support For iPod, MTB Music Players and Even Wii Remotes!

• Clementine is not just another music player for Linux, Clementine is the fork of mighty Amarok 1.4 which used to be my favorite music player once. Clementine is already one of those great triumphs of open source software and underlines the fact that an open source software never really dies.

=> ↺ Zim Desktop Brings Wiki Wizardry to Note Taking

• Usually the word “wiki” is associated with an online repository of information that can be edited by anyone. That’s not exactly the driving force behind Zim Desktop Wiki, though — instead, it’s a personal note-taking app that arranges your notes in a sort of personal wiki. Of course, if you do want to share notes with others, like coworkers, the app has an easy-to-use Web server utility as well.

=> ↺ Cuba’s Own Operating System Nova OS

• As many of you are now aware Cuba has come out with its own operating system based on a Linux variant called Gentoo. This Gentoo is more popular among the more technically skilled users. The operating system has been in development since 2007 and has recently been released to the public.

• First I would like to make the point that this is the new operating system for home PCs in Cuba, proof that the right wing claims of PC ownership in Cuba is illegal are untrue. It’s been a long standing lie the bourgeois propagandists have been spouting about Cuba. If the right wing was so sure those Cuban citizens were being deprived of PCs then they would stop blocking shipments of donated PCs to Cuba like they did in July of this year in Texas.

=> ↺ Ninite Brings No-Hassle Bulk Installations to Linux

=> ↺ Should the Command Line Be Deep-Sixed?

=> ↺ Wireshark for Network analysis

=> ↺ PuTTY in Your Hands: Open Source Software Mail Solutions

Wine

=> ↺ Ninite Brings No-Hassle Bulk Installations to Linux

• Quite a number of you pointed me to a post on Phoronix about how Gallium3D developers have managed to get Microsoft’s DirectX 10/11 onto Linux. Surely game support must follow …

=> ↺ A Windows App That Works Better in Wine Than Windows

• As Microsoft slowly breaks old compatibility, and Wine continues to improve Windows compatibility. it seems only a matter of time before some Windows programs run better in Wine than in Windows.

• [...]

• So I boot into Ubuntu 10.04, download the installer from www.bigbrainz.com, right click on the .exe file and choose to run it with Wine on the right click menu. The installer launches, I accept all the defaults, start the game, and the game plays perfectly.

Games

=> ↺ Two Free Linux Civilization-Like Games: Freeciv and FreeCol

• While most of the proprietary games get all the attention on Windows, on Linux it’s the other way around. Of course, this is because we’re stuck with only few choices for mainly any type of game, from arcade to shooters or strategies. But there are good, if not great, alternatives in Linux.

• Today I will overview two Linux games which are a very good alternative to the famous Civilization series from Windows, Freeciv and FreeCol. They are both open-source, free, and usually come included with every distribution.

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

=> ↺ Elementary Modification of the KDESC 4.4 Default Login (KDM & KSplash)

• KDE SC 4.4 is out in the wild for some time now. It comes with a new Kdm theme called Ethais (Author=Roman Shtylman) and a new Ksplash Screen (Authors = Nuno Pinheiro, Riccardo Iaconelli and Marco Martin).

GNOME Desktop

=> ↺ GNOME Theme Manager for Ubuntu Linux – Epidermis

• Epidermis changes the appearance of your GNOME desktop in all its aspects in one click. Epidermis ‘skins’ change the appearance of your desktop wallpaper, Metacity windows border theme, your GTK+ controls theme, your icon theme, your mouse cursor theme, your GRUB bootsplash screen and your GDM login screen theme. Each of these customizations are downloaded in ‘pigments’ which are available from an Epidermis ‘repository’.

Distributions

Diaspora/Security

=> ↺ Security Lessons Learned From The Diaspora Launch

=> ↺ Do Read: Diaspora Contributor Agreement

• We wrote last week about Diaspora, the open source social network designed to offer privacy to users who are fed up with Facebook’s regular policy changes and the threat of privacy violation. Last week, the site and its code went live for developers, but for those out there ready to dive into the social networking platform should take note: A few passage from the Contributor Agreement have members of the open source community concerned.

=> ↺ More OAuth Nonsense

• ComputerWorld is the latest to run a scary story about OAuth 2.0 and how insecure it is. Unfortunately, instead of doing their homework and paying attention to my post, they borrowed a bunch of my quotes (almost half the article), added some original nonsense, sprinkled a few errors, and gave it a sensational headline: “OAuth 2.0 security used by Facebook, others called weak”.

=> ↺ Security updates for Thursday

Reviews

=> ↺ GeeXboX: Lightweight Media System

• GeeXboX is a live distribution that can quickly turn a PC into a straight-forward media playback solution. It can be installed to a hard disk, but it works quite well when booted from a CDROM or other removable media. I’m going to examine the existing, stable 1.x series and also take a look at what the forthcoming (but already usable) 2.x series has lined up.

=> ↺ Zotac Zbox HD-ND22 review

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

=> ↺ Forking an open source project: regaining internal motivation

• For example, take Mandriva/Mageia. Part of the Mandriva community, including ex-employees of the company, is forking Mandriva and creating Mageia, a new Linux distribution.

• Their website doesn’t say exactly why they are forking but says they no longer trust the company’s motivations. The move seems to be prompted by layoffs:

• Certainly I can see how people who have been laid off would no longer trust the company.

• It does look like Mandriva is restructuring to give more power to their community. However, I doubt they will reverse their decision to move the desktop development to Brazil. In addition to having lots of great free software developers in Brazil, I bet development costs are much cheaper in Brazil.

=> ↺ Developers Fork Mandriva Linux, Creating Mageia

=> ↺ Mandriva forks to Mageia Linux

• After major layoffs at Paris-based Mandriva, which is refocusing on the server edition and emerging-nation market, former employees have launched a new distribution called Mageia. The Mandriva Linux fork is being developed by a new community-based Mageia project, and will maintain both KDE and GNOME versions.

• The Mageia fork announcement arrives after Mandriva’s Edge-IT development subsidiary was liquidated, and most of the developers working on Mandriva Linux were laid off, says the new Mageia.org. This was preceded by numerous resignations over the company’s strategy and future, says an OSNews story yesterday on Mageia. Mandriva has continued to struggle despite a fresh infusion of investments in June, says the story.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat, Bed Bath shares higher after results

• Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and Red Hat Inc. each climbed about 5% late Wednesday after the retailer and the software provider posted quarterly results that surpassed Wall Street’s projections.

=> ↺ Red Hat 2Q Net Falls 18%, Still Top Views; Billings Strong

=> ↺ US STOCKS-Wall St ends lower on tech; Red Hat, Bed Bath up late

Debian Family

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Celebrate the Vernal Equinox with these Autumnal wallpapers

=> ↺ Lap up the lavish scent of Spring with these gorgeous wallpapers

=> ↺ Canonical to Host Ubuntu Hardware Summit

• In a few days, hardware designers will gather in Taiwan for the second annual Ubuntu Hardware Summit, hosted by Canonical. Here’s a look at some of the highlights of the conference, and what they suggest about Canonical’s longterm plans for the world’s most popular Linux distribution.

=> ↺ Handsfree Ubuntu

• Ubuntu developer Canonical is experimenting with new hardware sensors as it looks at computing beyond the keyboard and mouse.

• All computer users are used to controlling their desktop with a mouse and keyboard. But how about controlling your PC without using your hands at all and just using your body?

• It’s something that Canonical, the maker of Ubuntu Linux, is starting to work on.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Enea, NetLogic ship Linux development platform for MIPS

• Enea announced the release of a Linux configuration and build environment integrated with NetLogic Microsystems’ Linux software development kit (SDK). Billed as “an intuitive and extensible Linux jump start kit,” and free to customers using NetLogic’s MIPS-based XLP, XLR, and XLS processors, Enea’s offering is said to incorporate graphical configuration, build, and debug tools.

Phones

=> ↺ Toronto, Another Town in the Mobile Game?

=> ↺ Five ways to maximise Android device compatibility

• Android market share has been growing rapidly. With almost two dozen manufacturers developing Android devices, we’ve seen an explosion of different models – each with its own market differentiators and unique characteristics. Users now have choices, but these choices come at a cost. This proliferation of devices has led to what some developers call fragmentation and others call compatibility issues.

Sub-notebooks

=> ↺ OLPC Madagasgar Photo of the Week: Lova Soa School

• These are happy children at Sekoly Lova Soa (Lova Soa School) in Ambatoharanana, Madagascar. They’re using use the Speak activity thanks to OLPCorps Ampitso: American college students Mary Yanik (University of Maryland), Kate Doyle (George Washington University), Michael Buckwald (GWU), and Sean Robinson (GWU).

Tablets

=> ↺ Dell’s open source streak

• Dell, responding to complaints from users and open source advocates, has released the modified Android code used on its Streak tablet PC.

• When Dell first released the Streak it used a customised version of Google’s Android operating system. But, because Android contains numerous open source-licensed components, Dell came in for a lot of criticism for not releasing the changes it had made.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Apache hits millionth commit milestone

• A change to Apache Software Foundation’s SOLR, a sub-project of Apache Lucene, which added “full parameter substitution for function queries” became the millionth commit made to the Apache Software Foundation’s repository.

=> ↺ A Brief History: 35 Years of Open Source Software

• In this resources series I will focus on some great resources I have found doing research for my new startup StackFu.

=> ↺ 5 Tips for Aspiring Web App Developers

• So, you’re not content with just using the social web; you want to be part of building it, too.

• As a budding or beginning web app developer, you’ve got a difficult but rewarding path ahead of you. You have to master (or at least attempt to master) the intricacies of OOP and scripting languages, learn to build web apps the hard way (practice, practice, practice), and network your way into a few job opportunities. You must also decide whether you’d like to work as a solo/consultant/freelancer, a startup employee or founder, or a rank-and-file developer at an established company.

• [...]

• By far the most oft-repeated words of advice we heard from masters of the web dev trade were these: Put in some time on open-source projects. The hands-on experience will challenge you, educate you and help you build your body of work.

• Aside from code for code’s sake, open source projects are a good way to meet other devs and do some networking. You’ll have the opportunity to work with people who are much more skilled and experienced than you are yet; take full advantage of this situation and be a sponge.

• SourceForge and GitHub and good places to start looking for open source projects that appeal to you; also, as you follow various blogs around the web and see what projects might need a few extra hands. Sites like Code for America and organizations such as the Mozilla Foundation are always looking for good developers with free time.

• Finally, when working on open source apps, not only will you get great practice and be able to learn from some really excellent engineers; you’ll also be giving back to the community. As some would say, creating and sharing free and open-source software is one of the best things you can do to help your neighbors as a developer.

Events

=> ↺ Patrick McHardy explains his Linux DECT stack at Linux Kongress 2010

• At , Patrick McHardy has just started to give his presentation on the Linux DECT stack he has been working on in the last 1.5 years.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Hardware Summit to Host Leading Original Design Manufacturers(ODM’s)

• Engineers and product managers from device and computer manufacturers and designers will meet in Taipei, Taiwan for a free day-long session hosted by Canonical Ltd. on Sept 24, 2010.

=> ↺ Turn Ubuntu into a Karaoke Player

• If you are looking for nice application that displays the lyrics as the song plays and if you love to sing along then there is a really nice application that can turn your system into a karaoke machine.

• OSD lyrics displays lyrics of any song that you play through your music player. It automatically downloads the required lyrics from different sources. Just turn it on and you are ready to go.

Oracle

=> ↺ New: OOo-DEV 3.x Developer Snapshot (build DEV300m88) available

• Developer Snapshot OOo-Dev DEV300m88 is available for download.

CMS

=> ↺ Modernizing FCC.gov from the Ground Up

• Today, I’m happy to announce that this agency will be rebuilding FCC.gov using Drupal. This decision is a significant step towards modernizing our own underlying online infrastructure — a key stage in redesigning and rebuilding FCC.gov.

=> ↺ Do Read: Diaspora Contributor Agreement

Healthcare

=> ↺ Why exercise won’t make you thin

• Got a few pounds to lose? Cancel the gym membership. An increasing body of research reveals that exercise does next to nothing for you when it comes to losing weight. A result for couch potatoes, yes, but also one that could have serious implications for the government’s long-term health strategy

Business

=> ↺ StatusNet Launches Cloud Service Premium Plans

• StatusNet Inc. today released premium features for its StatusNet Cloud service. The 30,000 networks currently running on the company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform may upgrade today to get additional features and further control.

Project Releases

=> ↺ SOGo 1.3.2 Final released

• The Inverse Team [External] is pleased to announce the immediate availability of SOGo 1.3.2. This is a minor release of SOGo which focuses on small new features and improved stability over previous versions.

Government

=> ↺ Secure WebOS Application Delivery Environment

• webinos is an EU-funded project aiming to deliver a platform for web applications across mobile, PC, home media (TV) and in-car devices.

=> ↺ IT: Italian regional administrations republishing proprietary software as open source

• The administration of the region of Basilicata in southern Italy, on behalf of all the Italian Regions, will republish as open source ‘Piattaforma Experience’ (Experience Platform), software to help monitor hydraulic and geohydrological risks. The software will most likely be published using the European Union’s open source licence (European Union Public Licence, EUPL).

=> ↺ Government pleas for open source business cases

• Open Source has the full support of one member of the Government’s IT management, but he has asked for more business cases to show how it can save the Coalition cash.

• Bill McCluggage, deputy chief information officer (CIO) for the Government, used his keynote at today’s 360 IT event at Earls Court to outline future plans for Government IT, and one of his first ports of call was open source.

• “We do operate in an environment where open source is used but it is only a minority,” he claimed, admitting our European counterparts were more advanced when it comes to adoption.

• “Our view there is… we can go heavily into specifying open standards… opening the way for open source to get in.”

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ A Buzz between Rural Cooperation and the Online Swarm

• This article introduces and explores connections between rural traditions and contemporary projects of voluntary cooperation within emergent online network practices. The key examples are mainly from Finland, the Baltic Sea region, and USA. Reflections are made on the emergence of such connections during a trans-disciplinary seminar organised by the author. The main body of the essay mixes social and network culture history, including rural village community support, known as “talkoot” in the Finnish language, its establishment within cooperative development during the 20th century, and the information communications and technology society of contemporary Finland. Discussions of collaborative web platforms such as wikis, the BitTorrent protocol, and “crowd-sourcing” open up questions considering their relation to older cultural traditions. The paper concludes with contemporary examples of where traditions of rural cooperation have conceptually assisted several Finnish entrepreneurial and activist projects. Throughout the paper “the swarm” is identified as a concept worth exploring further to illustrate where the expansive potential of network culture meets concentrated local action.

=> ↺ GROUND LAB Part 2: Open source and the manufacturing shift

• The second major contextual situation that has influenced our company is the shift of manufacturing out of the US. With this shift, the US market is starting to lack the influence of American middle class spending habits. The general consuming structures of Fordism will apply less and less to the US market and therefore the R&D, design, and arts industries will also either move their nexuses to China or drastically change shape. This is because what the “creative class” is making product for is the language of the US consumer, and the current product language will be less and less profitable as the buying power of the people who speak the language decreases as the world’s consumer market shifts.

Open Data

=> ↺ Making OpenCharities even better… more features, more data, more charities

• We’ll also add some simple functionality to show payments from local councils that’s being published in the local council spending data. The information’s already in the database (and is actually shown on the OpenlyLocal page for the charity); I just haven’t got around to displaying it on OpenCharities yet. Expect that to appear in the next day or so.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Friended for $100 Million

• Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook Inc., plans to announce a donation of up to $100 million to the Newark schools this week, in a bold bid to improve one of the country’s worst performing public school systems.

=> ↺ A Digital Media Primer for Geeks

• This first video from Xiph.Org presents the technical foundations of modern digital media via a half-hour firehose of information. One community member called it “a Uni lecture I never got but really wanted.”

• The program offers a brief history of digital media, a quick summary of the sampling theorem, and myriad details of low level audio and video characterization and formatting. It’s intended for budding geeks looking to get into video coding, as well as the technically curious who want to know more about the media they wrangle for work or play.

=> ↺ Cognitive Slaves

• The companies that have created the most new value in the last decade, are Internet companies like Facebook, Google, etc. They’ve created hundreds of billions in value. Good for them, but bad for us.

• Why? IF these companies represent the most valuable new industry of the early 21st Century, where are the jobs that will provide prosperity for millions today, and potentially tens of millions in the future? They don’t exist. These companies create few real jobs.

=> ↺ China rethinks its controversial one-child policy

• China’s one-child policy, probably the most audacious exercise in social engineering the world has ever seen, could be up for review, as Beijing policymakers worry about the effects of a population ageing fast, with insufficient numbers of youngsters to support them.

• There is speculation that a gradual rollback of the policy – first imposed 31 years ago – will start next year with pilot schemes in the five provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

Science

=> ↺ My bright idea: humans found a nicer way to evolve

• Most popular accounts of evolution stress the innate selfishness of the process. Species change because individuals are driven by a blind urge to thrive at the expense of others, it is claimed. Frans de Waal begs to differ.

Defence/Police/Aggression

=> ↺ “New Order, Same Abuses”: Amnesty Condemns Iraq for Holding 30,000 Prisoners Without Trial

• Amnesty International is condemning Iraq for holding an estimated 30,000 prisoners without trial, including 10,000 prisoners who were recently transferred from US custody.

=> ↺ A Tea Party Foreign Policy

• As one who is opposed to centralization, I am wary of attempts to turn a grassroots movement against big government like the Tea Party into an adjunct of the Republican Party. I find it even more worrisome when I see those who willingly participated in the most egregious excesses of the most recent Republican Congress push their way into leadership roles of this movement without batting an eye — or changing their policies!

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ Where there’s bugs, there’s brass: UK firm lands $500m biofuel contract

• A British company that uses a genetically modified compost-heap bug to produce biofuel from rubbish has signed a $500m (£319m) contract with a US firm.

• TMO Renewables developed a strain of “turbo-charged” bacteria that can turn tea bags, cardboard, wood and other household waste into fuel for cars and trucks. The Guildford-based company signed a 20-year, $25m-a-year deal with US firm Fiberight.

=> ↺ Toxic Coal Ash is China’s Single Largest Source of Solid Waste

=> ↺ Greenpeace activists tie themselves to anchor of Shetland oil-drilling ship

• Environmental campaigners suspended themselves from the anchor of an oil drilling ship today in an attempt to stop it drilling a well in the North Sea.

• Greenpeace activists used boats to reach the 228m-long Stena Carron drill ship, anchored a mile off Shetland, and then climbed up the giant rungs of the chain.

• Victor Rask, 38, and Anais Schneider, 29, then settled into a tent suspended by ropes from one of the metre-long rungs with supplies for a few days.

• Greenpeace said the ship, operated by US energy giant Chevron, was about to sail for a site in the Lagavulin oil field before drilling an exploratory well in 500 metres of water.

=> ↺ Ivory trade could make Vietnam’s elephants extinct within a decade

• Huong’s dank shop provides some brief respite from the waves of horn-blaring luxury SUVs bullying pedestrians on the pavements of Hanoi. But more crucially, it offers a final resting place, of sorts, for some of Vietnam’s wild elephants.

=> ↺ Shell Research: as delicious as rocks slathered in crude

Finance

=> ↺ Why the single currency’s fallen off the Lib Dems’ agenda

• In the days before they were gung ho about the need for spending cuts, the Liberal Democrats used to be equally gung ho about the need for Britain to join the single currency. Indeed, Danny Alexander, the Treasury minister wielding the spending axe, was the spin doctor for Britain in Europe, the pressure group dedicated to seeing that the pound was scrapped.

• To be fair, Alexander was not alone. All the other Lib Dem big guns – Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne, Vince Cable – were as insistent then that failure to join monetary union would be an error of historic proportions, as they are insistent now that there is no alternative to austerity.

=> ↺ IMF poised to send permanent officials to Greece

• The International Monetary Fund is to dispatch permanent officials to Athens, amid mounting speculation that the emergency aid programme currently propping up debt-stricken Greece will have to be prolonged.

• Although widely praised for implementing the toughest austerity measures in post-war history, the Greek government also faces growing criticism over the pace of reforms agreed in return for a €110bn (£90bn) EU and IMF-sponsored rescue package in May.

=> ↺ UN: Number of hungry people declines

• FAO director-general Jacques Diouf attends a press conference in Rome, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010. The estimated number of chronically hungry people in the world dipped considerably below the 1 billion mark, thanks in part to a drop in food prices from the spikes that sparked rioting just a few years ago, U.N. agencies said Tuesday. They cautioned that the estimate, the first drop in 15 years, is no cause for celebration since there are still an estimated 925 million undernourished people on the planet. A report by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that there are 98 million fewer than in 2009, when the estimate just topped the 1 billion figure.

=> ↺ OECD predicts America will escape double-dip recession

• The United States will experience a slow, jobless recovery from its deepest and longest downturn since the 1930s but will avoid a double-dip recession, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said today.

• In its annual health check of the world’s biggest economy, the Paris-based OECD said that it expected activity to expand by 2.6% in both 2010 and 2011 without having a marked impact on the country’s near double-digit jobless rate.

=> ↺ Lauderdale man’s home sold out from under him in foreclosure mistake

• fl-wrongful-foreclosure-0922-20100921

• When Jason Grodensky bought his modest Fort Lauderdale home in December, he paid cash. But seven months later, he was surprised to learn that Bank of America had foreclosed on the house, even though Grodensky did not have a mortgage.

• Grodensky knew nothing about the foreclosure until July, when he learned that the title to his home had been transferred to a government-backed lender. “I feel like I’m hanging in the wind and I’m scared to death,” said Grodensky. “How did some attorney put through a foreclosure illegally?”

Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

=> ↺ Iraq: Stop Blocking Demonstrations

• Iraqi authorities should stop blocking peaceful demonstrations and arresting and intimidating organizers, Human Rights Watch said today. Iraqi security forces should also respect the right of free assembly and use only the minimum necessary force when violence occurs at a protest.

Intellectual Monopolies

=> ↺ Gallo report: European Parliament U-turns on users rights

• The European Parliament has reneged on its previous position to protect users rights against 3-strikes/graduated response for copyright enforcement with a vote endorsing the Gallo report.

• To make matters worse, the French media has exposed how the European Parliament was informed by rights-holder lobbying which included the name of at least one dead person.

=> ↺ Stallman calls for end to ‘war on sharing’

• Stallman called digital rights management (DRM) technologies “malware” that could monitor usage and said they were “explicitly designed to do things to the detriment of users”.

• Using software-as-a-service (SaaS) was the same as using non-free software, he said, because users did not have access to the source code or executable file.

• “SaaS means that instead of doing your computing in your own computer, you do it by sending the relevant data to someone else’s computer,” he said.

=> ↺ Stallman calls for an end to file sharing war

• Open sauce guru Richard Stallman has called for everyone to get off file sharing’s case and has come up with some weirdie beardie advice as to how the entertainment industry can make money without charging anyone.

• According to IT News, Stallman claimed that artists and musicians were “not entitled to” compensation from listeners, but governments could introduce a tax to support their work.

• Stallman seems to think that Governments have piles of dosh to give away to rock stars. Arts are usually the first to get the chop in government restructuring as “more important things” such as education, health and science usually get the dough.

=> ↺ Stallman: End The File Sharing War

• Richard Stallman, an American freedom activist who founded the Free Software Foundation and pioneered the concept of copyleft has thrashed anti piracy outfits and said it’s time to give file sharers a break and put the problem to bed.

• Stallman, who has long been involved with openness and is the main author of the most widely, used software license (GNU General Public License), hit out at anti piracy outfits and called for an end to the file sharing war. He even came up with some advice on how he thinks the problem could be solved for all involved.

Copyrights

=> ↺ A Big Win for the Internet

• Today a federal court in Madrid dismissed charges of copyright infringement against YouTube. This decision is a clear victory for the Internet and the rules that govern it. Spanish broadcaster Telecinco had claimed that YouTube should be liable when users upload copyright-infringing material.

• The court rejected Telecinco’s claim, noting that YouTube offers content owners tools to remove copyright infringing content and this means that it is the responsibility of the copyright owner – not YouTube – to identify and tell YouTube when infringing content is on its website. This decision reaffirms European law which recognizes that content owners (not service providers like YouTube) are in the best position to know whether a specific work is authorised to be on an Internet hosting service and states that websites like YouTube have a responsibility to take down unauthorised material only when they are notified by the owner.

=> ↺ Brighton tries to use copyright to censor Councillor

• A friend of mine, Councillor Jason Kitcat, who is also involved in ORG, is being disciplined for posting clips of Brighton & Hove Council meetings to Youtube.

• The clips are said to be a “political” use of “Council resources”.

• Their documents say Jason attempted to “hold the administration politically to account” by trying “to highlight what the he believed were the administration’s deficiencies”, while using “the council’s intellectual property” and website. Rather than concluding he was doing his job, they say Jason should face being suspended from his post.

• [...]

• Unfortunately, in this case Brighton & Hove are simply asserting that the copyright ‘belongs’ to them and therefore falls under their right to regulate Councillor’s use of council property: and in doing so are attempting to create a dangerous precedent.

• If Jason is held to have abused council “property”, Councillors will be intimidated from using information to tell residents what is going on. The same information, in words, is reported in minutes and placed in “political” leaflets. Will Brighton Councillors stop such reporting, as the same copyright subsists in Council minutes?

• Brighton is full of tech-savvy voters, and many people who are strong believers in human rights and dignity. Will they stand up for freedom of speech and protest against their Council’s attempt to place limits on the rights of their elected representatives? I certainly hope so.

=> ↺ Canadian Recording Industry Demands 45% Of Revenue; Then Blames ‘Pirates’ For No Streaming Music Services

• Ah, the recording industry. We’ve already discussed how ridiculously complex it is for a music startup to obtain the licenses it needs. Combine that with the ridiculously high rates demanded by the record labels and the fact that they demand licensing for things that shouldn’t need additional licenses, and you understand why it’s so difficult for music startups to survive, and why the market is so fragmented.

• You hear it all the time. Spotify isn’t available in the US. Pandora isn’t available outside the US. And so on. Name the startup and there are serious restrictions on it. Things in Canada are pretty bad, where they basically don’t have any of these music services, and it’s because the Canadian recording industry is apparently demanding absolutely, positively insane fees — such as 45% of gross revenue. Yes, gross revenues. If you know anything about the finances of these kinds of businesses, that’s laughable. As Pandora’s Tim Westergren notes, Canadian radio stations pay approximately 2.1% of gross revenue to the recording industry.

ACTA

=> ↺ ACTA and democracy

• The ZeroPaid article ACTA Still Hasn’t Been Seen by Any UK MPs makes the excellent point that ACTA negotiations are ongoing, continuing on their fast track with the intent of being concluded by the end of October prior to the American US election.

• [...]

• The main European ACTA site, La Quadrature du Net, along with the openACTA: Stop ACTA Now site from Mexico have been working tirelessly to keep citizens informed. We have been fortunate that in spite of powerful disincentives, there has been a steady stream of leaks from within the ACTA negotiations, so the secret treaty is not as secret as they would have liked.

=> ↺ Answer to mail from MEP SKa Keller:

• Dear Sirs

• Thank you for your message.

• We understand the Greens/EFA Group’s interest in the transparency very well.

• The Government of Japan also recognizes the importance of the transparency in ACTA negotiations and decided to arrange a lunch meeting with the public on September 24 as you know.

• However, it is with regret that we cannot arrange the meeting during the week of September 27 due to purely practical organizational reasons.

• We regret that we could not inform you earlier of lunch meeting as you pointed out. As we just settled the program of ACTA negotiations in Tokyo this week with the negotiating parties, we cannot inform our lunch meeting to public beforehand. Please kindly understand our situation.

• ACTA negotiating parties share the intention to promote transparency and we are to discuss any ways to promote the transparency of ACTA negotiations.

• Best regards

• 武田修寛

• 外務省経済局知的財産室

• Yoshihiro Takeda

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• Intellectual Property Affairs Division

Clip of the DaySplit videos into parts using FFmpegCredit: TinyOgg Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

=> Techrights

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.